IL-CHICAGO-NORWEGIANS-L Archives
Archiver > IL-CHICAGO-NORWEGIANS > 2004-11 > 1099707089
From: R D <>
Subject: Chicagos Norwegian Neighborhoods - and their churches
Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2004 18:11:29 -0800 (PST)
(I apologize if this is a double posting. I sent this
message originally accidentally to
.)
---
The following information is extracted from maps found
in the book A Century of Urban Life, The Norwegians
in Chicago before 1930 by Odd S Lovell. I
photocopied these maps from a copy owned by the ELCA
archives. Most Norwegian genealogy societies, and
possibly the Chicago Public Library, would have copies
as well - as may the libraries at Lutheran or state
universities with Scandinavian Studies programs.
Before 1860 when the first Norwegians came into
Chicago, the Norwegian community was clustered along
Lake Michigan, south of Halsted and probably east of
Division -- where the city's industrial jobs were too.
Then the Great Chicago Fire occurred in
1871, and the city had to rebuild. (Pre-October 1871
vital records do NOT exist because they were all
destroyed by the Fire consuming the courthouse, though
some people re-registered property claims from
personal deeds as soon as the courthouse was rebuilt.
Church records MAY exist, however, if the churches
themselves were not consumed by the Fire.)
In the early 1880s, when my great-grandparents arrived
separately from Kristiansund, found each other and
married, Norwegian life centered around a neighborhood
now called Wicker Park primarily Division avenue on
the North; Damen Ave (formerly Robey St) on the west;
Grand Avenue (formerly Indiana) on the south; Halsted
Street on the east. In this area were several churches
not all Lutheran, and not all standing today, that
your ancestors could have attended or at least in
which they could have been married and their children
baptized.
* Among the Lutheran churches were Trinity, Our
Saviours, Bethlehem, Lutheran Bethania Free Church
(where my great-grandparents married and their eldest
daughters were baptized, and several other relatives
were married as well), Wicker Park, St Pauls, Christ
English and Covenant. (ELCA archives contains
microfilmed copies of many of these churchs records,
including Bethania. Inspection of Bethania's marriage
and baptism records, which are very legible and
photocopy clearly, shows that not only were Norwegians
married there but also Danes and others as well.)
* Among the Methodist churches were First
Norwegian-Danish Methodist and Immanuel. (Norwegians
and Danes often shared churches since their language
was similar.)
* And Scandinavian Pilgrim Baptist.
In this same general area were Norwegian meeting
places (probably social clubs or halls) and small
factories (a chair factory, a cabinet shop, a cigar
factory, a rug factory, and probably several
cooperage shop where my great-grandfather and his
cousin practiced their barrel-making skills (bodker
in Norwegian means "cooper"). Goose Island, a wide
industrial island in the north branch of the Chicago
river that is bisected by Division and where some
early iron and steel mills as well as other
manufacturing was located, provided additional
employment.
By 1910, the center of the Norwegian community had
shifted to west of Damen (Robey) as new residential
areas were built in Humboldt Park and north into Logan
Square. (See this web site more information about
Logan Square area.)
http://www.logansquarepreservation.org/index.htm
http://www.logansquarepreservation.org/history.htm
http://www.logansquarepreservation.org/1881map.htm - a
detailed map of Logan Square
The new community had more churches (not all
Lutheran), and was roughly bounded on the east by
Damen (Robey), on the north by Diversey, on the west
by Pulaski Road (formerly Crawford), and on the south
by Chicago.
* Among the Lutheran churches were: Humboldt Park
Mission, St Johns, St Pauls, First Evangelical,
Bethel, Bethlehem, Christ, Zion, Hauge, St Pauls
English, Trinity.
* Among the Methodist churches were: Logan Square,
Kedzie Avenue, and Maplewood.
* Other churches included: Humboldt Park Norwegian
Adventist; Humboldt Park Norwegian and Logan Square
Norwegian Baptist ; Salem Norwegian Free Church (later
Salem Evangelical Free Church) where my grandmother
and her sisters were married and maybe some of their
children baptized; and the Humboldt Park Salvation
Army Corp.
Several meeting houses and societies had halls in the
area. Among them were several Norwegian singing
societies (that still exist today!), athletic clubs
including a YMCA, and Logan Square Masonic Lodge.
Some of these churches still exist today, though as
mission churches to the predominantly Hispanic
community that now live in the Humboldt Park and Logan
Square communities. Some churches still have old
Norwegian records collecting dust on the shelves.
(Salem Evangelical still had their Norwegian records
gathering dust in 1995, and one of the pastors was
nice enough (for a substantial donation) to search
through those dusty records (in Norwegian or English)
and send me transcriptions for the marriages of my
grandmother and her sisters as well as the baptisms of
several of her nieces and nephews. Unfortunately all
this information was lost when I moved.)
Check the ELCA web site pages posted earlier to see if
any of the aforementioned Lutheran churches are
mentioned.
One Norwegian church built in 1912 as Christ Church.
and renamed in 1932 Minnekirken ("Memorial Church" in
Norwegian) or "The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church
of Chicago, Illinois", still exists today in Logan
Square neighborhood at 2614 N. Kedzie Boulevard. It
is the last remaining Norwegian language church in
Chicago. (Walk through their site for fascinating
photos, church history, contact info, etc.)
http://homepage.interaccess.com/~walwes/minne/welcome.html
Happy hunting through Chicago church records.
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