Lutheran Church leader.[1] He was the first Norwegian Lutheran minister in the United States.[2]
Background
Eielsen was born and raised on the farm of Sundve (Sundve på Vossestrand) in
Bergen, where he apprenticed as a carpenter and blacksmith and also enlisted in the army. He acted as a spiritual leader among his fellow soldiers, and in 1832, he accepted his first mission as a lay preacher. He traveled for several years extensively throughout Norway and also preached in Denmark
where he was arrested and briefly imprisoned.
[3][4]
Immigration
Eielsen immigrated to the United States in 1839. In 1843, he was formally ordained as a Lutheran minister by
pietistic Lutheran church reform movement which encouraged evangelism and vigorous lay leadership. His piety and reliance on lay leadership long remained a dominating influence for much of upper-Midwest Lutheranism.[9]
