Fifty years in America, Pioneering the Upper Midwest 1820 - 1910

Nils Nilsen Rønning (1870-1962) emigrated from Norway to Minnesota in 1887 to settle with his brother, who had emigrated previously. Fifty Years in America narrates Rønning's cultural adjustment and education at Red Wing Seminary and the University of Minnesota, his spiritual development, and his involvement with the Lutheran Church in Minnesota. In discussing the latter, he focuses on different schools of thought in the Lutheran Church, especially among Minnesota's evangelical Lutherans, and provides information on how these differences had their root in the political and religious life of Norway. Rønning was a writer, an editor, and a publisher. Proud of the rich, folkloric traditions of his birthplace, Telemark, he recounts the literary paths by which he immersed himself in the English language. For several years he worked part-time for the Augsburg Publishing House of the Norwegian Lutheran Church and later took on a number of independent projects, publishing Christian literature for Lutherans and other titles designed for Scandinavian- American audiences.
Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress Web site.