News

Lesje Church to close doors after 115 years of serving God in the county

By Scott Wagar

07/15/2014

Editor’s Note: With Lesje Church in Souris/Landa preparing for its closing ceremony on July 20, the Bottineau Courant has decided to write a historical series on the church ending with its last service this upcoming Sunday. This week, the Courant writes about the interior of the church along with the church’s history.  

In 1918, the original members of Lesje Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church were seeing growth in its congregation and a new church being built before their eyes.

In 1905, the parishioners constructed their first church, but as more homesteaders migrated to Bottineau County, the church saw more individuals enter into their church’s doors. It was also the golden age of agriculture where local crop producers saw their average gross income more than double from 1900 to 1920.

With an increase in members and family incomes on the rise, the parishioners made the decision to construct a new church in a late Gothic revival style. In the early part of 1918, the church laid the cornerstone for the church with its dedication service taking place just a few months later in July of that year.

Rev. Nels Ylvisaker, president of the synod, led the dedication service. During his sermon, Ylvisaker bestowed II Chronicles 7:1 to the church’s commitment and holy service, “And the glory of the Lord filled the house.”

The glory of God could be seen in its people, its dedications to God’s service and throughout the church’s sanctuary in its architectural style. The walls of the sanctuary were painted a sky blue color.

The sanctuary room also held oak trim, wainscoting and doors with a medium dark stain. The pews, also created from oak but with a lighter color stained, provided a distinctive color base difference between the trim and doors and the church’s pews.

The right side of the sanctuary provided a section of oak accordion doors with a dark stained color, which was utilized as a folding wall to an overflow room which could seat an additional 50 people in the sanctuary.  

The church’s pulpit, baptismal font and communion set were originally purchased in 1908 for the church parishioners constructed in 1905. The pulpit, also made of oak with a light colored stain, consisted of five sections with each section holding a carved Christian symbol. The pulpit, which holds the pastor’s Bible on the lectern, was purposively elevated above the pews to symbolize the Word of God being over the people of church.

The altar piece was purchased in 1919 through a fundraiser. The piece, which is ring style altar, is white and highlighted in gold pin stripes, holds eight spires (four on each side) with a white cross at the pinnacle of the altar piece. In the center of the altar, is a dome which holds a statue of Christ.

The main entrance of the 1918 church had steps that led up to double doors that faced south with an additional set of doors that faced east. Each door set had a pointed arch, fanlight stained glass windows. In 1968, it was decided by the congregation to renovate the entrance, which resulted in a square entrance with a double door made of glass placed at the ground level. The stained glass window on the south side was covered over by siding but the east side window remained intact and can still be seen today.

(The south side stained glass window can also still be seen, but only from inside the church entrance.)

With a new church, and the congregation filled with the Holy Spirit, the parishioners of Lesje enjoyed their new church and their service to God. However, just three months after moving into the congregation’s new church, the doors were closed and parishioners were told to stay away.

In 1918, the most violent flu known to mankind appeared throughout the world and caused illness and death in its wake. The pandemic, called the 1918 Spanish Flu, infected 500 million people and killed an estimated 50 to 100 million people worldwide.

The virus which caused the pandemic was so lethal that when it entered into a community, a city’s leadership would shut down the entire town and force residents to stay in their homes in hopes of saving lives.

Bottineau County was no different. When the flu made its way into the county, city leadership immediately closed down their communities and local areas. However, even with closing down communities, the flu was able to find their victims and a number of local residents in the county lost their lives to this dangerous virus. When the Spanish Flu entered into the Souris and Landa area, all churches in these locations were told to close. Lesje was left with no choice but to shut their new church down and stay away from the structure.

For about two weeks, the church doors stayed closed. However, as quickly as the flu came, it disappeared, and Lesje’s church doors opened once again and the congregation continued with its spiritual work. However, tragedy would find Lesje once again.   

In 1921, T.T. Carlson accepted the position as Lesje’s pastor. Prior to Carlson coming to the church, most services were conducted in Norwegian. During his time at Lesje Carlson made the transitions from the Norwegian language to English.

On Sunday, Feb. 28, 1932, Carlson was traveling to Lesje for the Sunday morning service when he became stuck in a snowdrift and was overcome by carbon monoxide. He was discovered alive by a local resident in the area and Carlson was transported to St. Andrew’s Hospital in Bottineau. On Monday evening, Feb. 29, he passed away due to the incident.

The tragedy was a horrible experience for the parishioners, but the church members keep their faith and moved forward with their mission work in the local area and throughout the world with assistance from such groups as the Lesje WELCA, Lesje Women’s Organization and Lesje Luther League.

For over a century Lesje Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church has served God with the glory of the Lord filling its house with great love and care for the world.

Within the church the past 115 years, Lesje has had 130 baptisms, 158 confirmed, 77 marriages and 226 funerals.

Pastors serving during this time include: K.O. Raftshol 1896-1905, O.T. Nelson 1905-1911, O.P. Svingen 1911-1913, J.L. Redal 1913-1921, T.T. Carlson 1921-1932, P.N. Oklevik 1932-1935, A.H. Bergford 1935-1938, V.G. Gilbertson 1938-1945, Harold Nelson 1945-1950, Roy Malde 1951-1951, Ray Melheim 1952-1956, Anton Gerlach 1957-1963, William Planz (Interim) 1963-1964, Alton Johnson 1964-1968, William Planz (Interim) 1968-1968, John Planz 1969-1977, Carl Bengtson 1978-1982, Stanley Caine (Interim) 1982-1983, Robert Solberg 1983-1986, Stanley Caine (Interim) 1986-1987, James Eden 1987-1990, Timothy Eichler 1990-1992, Kathy Graham 1992-1993, Scott Bauman 1993-1999, Annette Crickenberger 2001-2003, Carl Glamm 2002-2007 and Barb Haugerud 2005-2013.

Lesje is closing because they can no longer obtain a pastor and the parish has only eight to 10 members.  

The closing service on Sunday will start at 1 p.m. followed by a lunch and fellowship. The public is welcome to attend.