Andersen, R. (Rasmus), 1848-1930

Born July 23, 1847 in Vedelshave, Fyn County, Denmark, the Rev. Rasmus Andersen, son of Anders Ramussen, attended the Ryslinge folk school from 1869-1871. While a student in 1871, he was sent to America by the "Commission for the Furtherance of the Proclamation of the Gospel Among Danes in America," established in 1869 to develop mission work among Danes that immigrated to the United States. The young Andersen wished to be a foreign missionary in part because of the influence of the teachings of Pastor Johannes Clausen, a teacher at the Ryslinge folk school he attended. But the commission decided he should teach Danish immigrant children. Andersen, along with two pastors sent by the commission, arrived in New York on June 12, 1871.

Andersen experienced some difficulty in finding a placement with a congregation. the Rev. A.C.L. Grove-Rasmussen, fellow commission representative told him not to be discouraged and gave him the advice to work hard to learn English. He enrolled at the Norwegian-Danish Conference seminary in Marshall, Wisconsin, and while on a Christmas vacation visit to Waupaca, Wisconsin, found a Danish congregation to whom he could minister. He was ordained June 26, 1872, and began his work as a pastor. He stayed in the Waupaca area ministering to several congregations in addition to Waupaca for six years. His next congregation, at which he remained for three years, was in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. He was the pastor at his last congregation, Our Saviour's Danish Church, in Brooklyn, New York, for approximately forty years.

In addition to his pastoral work, Pastor Andersen also was a founder of the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In the fall of 1872, Pastor Andersen, with the Rev. A.S. Nielsen, the Rev. Niels Thomsen, and the Rev. Adam Dan, created the Kirkelig Missionsforening, or "Church Mission Society." This society was the result of a need perceived by Pastors Andersen and Dan for a unified Danish mission society. While the society's aim would be similar to that of a church, calling pastors to minister to Danes in America, it was called a society as recognition of its strong ties to the church in Denmark, of which it still considered itself a part. But this name would change in 1874 when a notice published in the society's publication Kirkelig Samler, stated that the pastors and congregations of the society declared themselves to be part of the Danish Folk Church, the society would become a mission committee of the church, and the name of the church would be "Danish Church in America." At the 1878 convention of the church, it declared itself to be the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It created a constitution and settled matters related to home mission work, the founding of a folk school, and the publishing of a children's paper.

In his last congregation, Pastor Andersen also took the work of ministering to sailors and newly-arrived immigrants. He continued this work well after his retirement from the Brooklyn congregation in 1903. He was also the author of many books and pamphlets on such varied topics as the history of early Scandinavian voyages to America, advice to immigrants, travel memoirs, and biographies of pastors. He was also considered to be one of the church's first historians. He married Dorothea Elizabeth Thomsen in 1874. And after her death in 1890, five years later he married Marie Antoinette Wanting. She preceded her husband in death in 1909. Pastor Andersen died in Brooklyn, New York, on August 15, 1930 at the age of 83.

From the description of Rasmus Andersen Papers 1865-1930; 1870-1915 (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Library). WorldCat record id: 257706668