CHISAGO LAKE LUTHERAN CHURCH (CENTER CITY, MINN.):

A group of Swedish settlers began meeting informally without a pastor in the Chisago Lakes area in 1851. Chisago Lake Lutheran Church was organized May 12, 1854 by Rev. Erland Carlsson as the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Congregation in Chisago Lake. Carlsson moved on shortly after the congregation was organized. Eric Norelius, then a 20-year-old student who later became a famous name in Swedish-American Lutheranism, arrived a week after Carlsson left and remained through the summer of 1854. Norelius first preached at Chisago Lake on May 25, 1854, and on June 12 he began to teach school there as well. Pehr Anderson Cederstam was the congregation's first resident pastor, first preaching there on May 27, 1855.

A meeting house was constructed in the summer of 1854. Planned and equipped to serve not as a church but as a school, this structure was also used for services. The congregation constructed its first church building in 1856. That structure served the congregation until a large brick church building was built in 1882-1883. The brick church building was struck by lightning and burned in 1888, and was promptly rebuilt on the same site. That structure was still in use by the congregation in 2006.

English gradually replaced Swedish in worship services in the years following World War I. Sunday morning services in the Swedish language were discontinued altogether in 1944.

Chisago Lake Lutheran Church was the "mother church" to several other congregations in the area: First Evangelical Lutheran Church, Taylor's Falls (1860); Zion Lutheran Church, Chisago City (1874); Immanuel Lutheran Church, Almelund (1887); and Trinity Lutheran Church, North Branch (1887).

The congregation was initially a member of the Minnesota Conference of the Synod of Northern Illinois, which was organized at a meeting it hosted on October 8, 1858. In 1860 thirty-five Swedish Lutheran congregations seceded from that group and organized the Augustana Synod (Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church). Chisago Lakes was affiliated with the Augustana Synod until it (the synod) became a part of the Lutheran Church in America (LCA) in a 1962 merger. The LCA in turn merged with two other Lutheran church bodies in 1988 to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Chisago Lakes was an ELCA member congregation in 2006.

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Microfilmed parish record books on three rolls of 35mm microfilm. Includes record books containing minutes of church council and committee meetings; reports of committees, the Young People's Society, the choir, and other groups; trustees' reports; treasurers' reports; membership rosters; and some financial data. There are also baptism, wedding, and death registers, an account book, and a one-page inventory of the congregation's property (1857). Included as well are transcriptions of the congregation's Certificate of Incorporation as the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church of Chisago lake (1855) and of its constitition [ca.1876?].

Ministerial record books list births, baptisms, confirmations, and deaths within the congregation, the dates members arrived in the United States, and the dates they arrived in the Chisago Lakes area; the dates individuals were received into membership; and information on when members were removed or dismissed from membership and where they went if they transferred to another congregation.

These are rolls 2, 3 and 4 of a project undertaken by unknown parties called "Records of Swedish American Churches." The nineteen record books were filmed on April 23, 1968 by Dakota Microfilm Service at a reduction ratio of 14X. The microfilm was copied by the Minnesota Historical Society in 2002 from microfilm owned by the congregation and loaned to MHS for that purpose by the Center City Historical Society. The original volumes are believed to be in the possession of the congregation.

The volumes appear to have been filmed in no particular order. The Swedish-language titles are listed below as they appear on the film; there are some inconsistencies in the Swedish-language spellings.

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Chisago Lake Lutheran Chruch Parish Record Books. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 15,920.

Processing Information:

Processed by: David B. Peterson, November 2006.

Catalog ID number: 006268994

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Immgrants -- Minnesota.

Lutherans -- Minnesota -- Chisago County.

Swedish Americans -- Minnesota.

Places:

Center City (Minn.).

Chisago County (Minn.).

Persons:

Carlsson, Erland, 1822-1893.

Cederstam, Peter Anderson, 1830-1902.

Types of Documents:

Baptismal registers.

Church records.

Death registers.

Microforms.

Minute books.

Marriage registers.

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