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12 2002

St. Olaf’s of Rubicon

Rubicon, crossroads of Highway 0 and Roosevelt Road

One of the oldest Norwegian churches in the United States

The Norwegian pioneers in the Ashippun River area organized St. Olaf’s congregation in 1844, and met in their homes or outdoors on Sundays to read from the Bible and sing familiar hymns until the first church was built in 1848.

The first families that began St. Olaf’s congregation were farmers, according to the St. Olaf's Lutheran Church 150th Anniversary book. They immigrated to America because of worsening economic conditions, after a succession of crop failures during the early 1800s. Many of them chose to settle in the Territory of Wisconsin, because of advertisements from private logging and railroad building companies boasting of the opportunities for those willing to work.

The congregation's first meeting to discuss building a church was held on Nov. 22, 1847, and it was established the building should be 24-feet by 36-feet and 12-feet high, with a completion date set for June 24, 1848. The church building committee was made up of Kjel and Ole Andersen, Simon Aslaksen, Peder Danielsen, Erik Helgesen, Christian Moen and Peder Ness.

On Dec. 13, 1847, Kjel Andersen and Peder Danielsen were contracted to build the church, and "each man in the congregation was obliged to work with them, or get someone else to work in his place, or pay toward the cost," according to the history book.

That building served the congregation for over 20 years, until a decision was made in April, 1871, to build a new, larger church. This church, still in use today, is 34-feet by 60-feet with a belfry and steeple over the entrance. The interior work began in 1874, and the pulpit and altar that still graces the church's sanctuary today, were brought in by wagon from Milwaukee.

Since the completion of the second church, the building has undergone some changes, including a basement built in 1919, stained glass windows were installed in 1923, electric lights were installed in 1928, a parking lot was added in 1942, and the major additions of a parish hall and expanded basement were initiated in 1967.