Norwegian-American Lutheranism

It is widely considered that many of them had Quaker sympathies, but it is also clear that many were Haugeans, adherents of the lay preacher Hans Nielsen Hauge, who was a devout Lutheran but at odds with the established Norwegian State Church.

Many of these emigrants subsequently relocated to the Fox River Settlement in LaSalle County, Illinois.

By most accounts, the first minister at Fox River was a layman by the name of Ole Olsen Hetletvedt (1797–1854), a Haugean in leaning.

He made it his mission to return the growing Fox River Norwegian colony to the Lutheran fold.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, known as the Eielsen Synod, founded in 1846 at the Jefferson Prairie Settlement, was named in his honor.

[3] In February 1853, several Lutheran ministers including Claus Lauritz Clausen, Hans Andreas Stub, A. C. Preus, Herman Amberg Preus, G. F. Dietrichson, Jacob Aall Ottesen, and R. D. Brandt organized the Synod of the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, commonly known as the Norwegian Synod.

It Jacob Aall Ottesen was organized at Koshkonong and Luther Valley near the Jefferson Prairie Settlement.