100 years ago the dedication of the two Coon Prairie Lutheran Churches that still stand, was held. On June 26 and 27 of this year, the churches will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the building of those two churches.
It may seem unusual for a congregation to have two churches, but then Coon Prairie is quite unique in the history of the Lutheran Church in Wisconsin. The Coon Prairie church was the first church in Vernon County and the first Lutheran church in western Wisconsin. The area it served ranged from Cashton in the north to Viroqua and beyond to the south, a huge area that eventually spawned 22 other Lutheran congregations.
During my years growing up in Westby, it never occurred to me to ask why we had two Lutheran churches, one in town, and another one in the country, a mile and a half south of town. Our family had always belonged to Coon Prairie. There’s also another Lutheran church in town, Our Savior’s, one block to the north of the Westby Coon Prairie Church. Some people also referred to Coon Prairie as the “vanilla church” and Our Savior’s as the “chocolate church” because of the color of their respective bricks. Needless to say, Westby was, and still is, a predominantly Lutheran area.
The history of Coon Prairie goes back to 1848 when Even O. Gullord arrived from Norway and was the first person to settle on what would be called Coon Prairie in Vernon County, Wisconsin. The years that followed brought many more settlers to Coon Prairie, almost all of them Norwegian and Lutheran.
During the first years of the settlement there was no religious work of any kind going on because there were over 20,000 Norwegian immigrants in America and only seven pastors to serve them. Many Norwegian settlements were hundreds of miles apart. Things were not like we have today. It could take days, and even weeks, to travel from one settlement to another under very harsh conditions. There were no roads and no bridges to cross over the rivers and streams.
In 1851 the first religious services were conducted on Coon Prairie. A visit to the settlement was made by Rev. C. L. Clausen in June, and Rev. Nils Brandt, a missionary pastor, officiated in the fall. Those first meetings were held at the home of Even Gullord, half a mile north of the present Country Coon Prairie church.
The first congregation on Coon Prairie was founded sometime between November 1, 1851 and July 29, 1853. It’s commonly recognized that the congregation was founded in July 1852. Eighty acres of land, with a small house on the premises, were acquired by the congregation in 1853 for $500. In 1854 the organized congregation was legally incorporated as the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bad Ax (Vernon) County, Wisconsin.
Several of my ancestors were members of that first congregation. My great, great grandparents, Lars and Bertha Tomtengen, Anne Larsdatter Korsveien, Anders Pederson Fremstad, and Hans Olson Rustad were among them. One of the Tomtengen daughters, Lisa, married Hans Hanson Sherpe in 1869, in the original wood Coon Prairie church.
The early pastors had to come from Norway because there were no seminaries in the American wilderness. During those early years of the Coon Prairie settlement, worship services were conducted in homes and were led by one of the pioneers or by a lay preacher. All baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and official blessings of those who had died had to wait until an ordained pastor came to visit the Coon Prairie settlement.
The first pastor of the newly organized congregation was Reverend H.A. Stub, who assumed the duties of the parish on July 1, 1855.
During the first years of his pastorate the church meetings were held in Even Gullord’s barn, which was located just north of the present day country church. The congregation comprised almost the entire western half of Vernon County and part of Monroe County.
In 1855 the decision was made to build a frame church 54 ft. long, 34 ft. wide, and 20 ft. high. The first church was built in 1856-57 where the present Country Coon Prairie Church now stands, next to the cemetery. This was the first church built by Norwegians in western Wisconsin and the first church of any kind built in Vernon County. The church was completed at a cost of $4,200 and dedicated in 1858.
In 1861 Reverend Stub resigned because of ill health and returned to Norway. For the next two years the congregation was served by visiting pastors.
In 1864 the rest of the Skjerpe family left Moi, Norway and also settled at Coon Prairie, where their son, Hans, had settled. They joined Coon Prairie Church in 1865.
In 1862, Reverend A.C. Preus became the temporary pastor, and in 1863 was installed as the permanent pastor. He was a large, powerful man who found his greatest satisfaction traveling among his widely scattered congregation. In 1870 he came down with rheumatic fever, which left him so weak he was barely able to walk. In 1872 Reverend Preus resigned because of his ill health and returned to Norway.
In a letter of call to sent to Norway for a new pastor, Rev. Preus described the situation at Coon Prairie for his successor: “The parsonage is comfortably situated. The land is lightly used. Two horses are needed for work and one horse for the pastor’s use. He can feed ten to twelve cattle and harvest all the produce for the use of the house and still sell about $150 a year. The congregation includes many worthy, enlightened, and Christian men upon whose aid the pastor in his work can depend on for every lawful undertaking. I will also say that there are some quarrelsome people, but they have never in my time been able to harm the church. There are five school teachers, all worthy and reliable folks.”
At that time there were eleven congregations to be served. The pastor would make the circuit of the churches, preaching at a different one on each successive day. At Christmas the circuit would take a whole week, with two services on some days. Preus was pleased with the hospitality he received on the circuit and sometimes his family would accompany him.
In 1872 Reverend Halvor Halvorsen of Stavanger, a graduate of Christiana University in Norway, accepted the call to serve the Coon Prairie congregation. Pastor Halvorsen was twenty-six years old and would serve the congregation for the next forty-nine years.
By 1873 the sprawling Coon Prairie congregation had outgrown the pioneer church and a new building was needed. In 1875, on the same site as the first church, construction began on a Gothic revival edifice, 110 feet by 60 feet by 30 feet, built of native limestone for $25,000. A towering, 175-foot spire, added in 1891, was especially unusual because of its huge clocks, which faced the four points of the compass. The new church, the largest north of Chicago, could seat 600 people in the pews and the curved balcony could hold 250 people.
The cornerstone for the new church was laid in 1875 and three years later the church was put into use. The building cost $25,600.
On Easter Sunday at 9:00 pm, that stately church that rose high on the prairie, was struck by lightning and burned down. The only item that was saved was the alter painting by Herbjorn Gausta. Rev. Halvorsen and Nordahl Buraas rushed into the burning church and cut it free of its frame using a pocket knife.
The older members of the congregation wanted to rebuild the church on the same site. They considered it a holy area with 60 years of history, the cemetery was also located there and was the final resting place of many pioneers who had begun the church. Rev. Halorsen was among those who thought the church should be rebuilt on the site. But many of the members now lived a mile and a half north of the church in the growing city of Westby. Many people wanted the new church built in the city. Members on both sides, being stubborn Norwegians, dug in their heels and neither side would budge. They finally decided to build two churches, one in the city of Westby and one in the country on the same site as the church that had burned. Each church cost $22,000 to build and both were completed and dedicated in 1910.
Two churches were a financial burden on the congregation, but they persevered and today both churches still stand as testament to the stubbornness and resiliency of our Norwegian immigrant ancestors. The Country Coon Prairie Lutheran Church is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Services are held there on Saturday evenings during the summer. Services are held year-round at the Westby Coon Prairie Lutheran Church.
This summer, both churches will celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the dedication of those two churches. A celebration will be held at the country church on Saturday, June 26, and at the Westby church on Sunday, June 27.
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