Bethania Lutheran Church

The Independent Evangelical Lutheran Bethania Congregation was organized in 1878 by Pastor John Z. Torgerson, former pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, the Eielsen Synod congregation, which was located at West Grand (now Indiana) and Peoria (387 W. Grand). Torgerson withdrew from the Eielsen Synod in 1876 as it was being split into two bodies, one favoring a new constitution and calling itself Hauge's Synod and one favoring the old constitution and retaining the name Eielsen's Synod. The Eielsen Synod Seminary at Trinity Lutheran, of which Torgerson had been the head, closed at the time of the split.

Torgerson located his new congregation, Bethania, two blocks away from Trinity at Grand and Carpenter. Although catering to the Norwegian immigrant community located along Milwaukee Ave, the congregation also used English. In particular, Torgerson reached out to the immigrant community and to non-members through weddings and baptisms, according to his biography he "visited 15,000 homes, married 15,000 couples."

The congregation dissolved in 1906 shortly after Pastor Torgerson's death in the fall of 1905.

Records
The ELCA Archives has microfilm of Bethania's baptismal records from 1878 to 1891 on film #401 and baptismal records from 1893-1906 and wedding records from 1878-1906 on film #641.

Sources
Lovoll, Odd S., A Century of Urban Life: The Norwegians in Chicago before 1930. Northfield, Minn.: The Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1988.

Strand, A.E., ed. A History of the Norwegians of Illinois. Chicago: John Anderson Publishing Company, 1905.

Who's Who Among Pastors in All the Norwegian Synods of America, 1843-1927. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1928.