Pastor Ole Paulson;. Chapter Twenty-one. I have been called the grandfather of Augsburg. I have probably been given this addition to my otherwise fairly good name because I was, in a way, the means by which Augsburg Seminary came to Minneapolis. We became well acquainted and good friends right after I arrived in the city. He said:. My opinion is that Minneapolis ought to be made into the headquarters for the Scandinavians in the Northwest.
There is nothing that helps a city advance as much as good schools do. We ought to get a Scandinavian institution of higher education in the city. This conversation was had as early as Without any synod decision about it, the professor had dismantled his household in Paxton and was moving westward when we arrived at the synod meeting in Moline in June , not knowing with any certainty where he would land with his school. There had been some provisional discussions about moving from Paxton, but nothing had been decided yet about where we should actually go with our school.
Now it was hard to know what to do. Marshall was no place for us, but one had to grasp at something in a time of need. Professor Weenaas now moved to Marshall and opened the school there at the beginning of the school year in the fall of The school at that time consisted of one professor, August Weenaas, one teacher, and 19 students.
In the summer of , the Scandinavian Augustana Synod held its annual meeting in Andover, Illinois. The Norwegian department had already discussed, at a meeting the previous fall in Racine, Wisconsin, separating from the Swedish brothers. So we came to the meeting in Andover prepared to take this important step. It was resolved that the divorce would take place, although not unanimously, as there were two pastors, Ole Andrewson. It was also decided there to defer a permanent organization until people had met with Pastors Clausen.
It was also decided that if agreement could not be reached, the permanent organization would be carried out, either there, where the meeting to unite was held, St. Ansgar, Iowa, or at some other place in the vicinity. But afterward, in our own meeting at the same location, it was decided as recounted by me above. The Norwegian Augustana Synod was not permanently organized in Andover. Those who say the opposite are wrong.
