The roots of Satersdal Lutheran Church run as deep as Excel Township itself. Today the church at the east edge of the township is perhaps the oldest township landmark; and though the steeple-less structure appears rather bland and colorless, its history is not.
In the mid 1870s, several families from the Setersdal Valley in Norway began immigrating to Bygland, Minnesota, a settlement that once lay between the town of Fisher and the Red River just south of East Grand Forks. At the time Excel Township was organized in 1884, families with such names as Skomedal, Froisness, Bergland, Svenkeson, Ose, Olson, and Johnson were leaving Bygland and resettling along the north and west side of the Thief River that runs through the southeast portion of the township. Since Norway's national religion was Lutheran, it is understandable that itinerant pastors of the Lutheran faith, would be passing through the region and holding services two or three times a year in the homes of these families. The earliest of these was Rev.Christian Saugstad of Crookston some forty miles away. In the summer of 1885, however, he was fortunate enough to have a seminarian to help out in this region, and so begins the history of Satersdal Lutheran Church.
Elias Aas, a second year seminary student from Augsburg Seminary in Minneapolis, was sent as a summer intern to northwest Minnesota. Tie was to work among the Norwegian immigrants, not only in Excel Township, but a huge territory that included parts of Pennington and Marshall Counties running from St. Hilaire to just south of Middle River and west almost to Argyle. Near the end of his life, he wrote an autobiography called The Pioneer Pastor where he recalls what it was like to work in this area in the 1880s. His autobiography records his life among the early settlers in Excel Township.
During the summer of 1885, he lived in St. Hilaire since the town of Thief River Falls did not exist. He did not own a horse. Oxen, be felt, were too slow and cumbersome, so he walked throughout the territory. His duty was to preach, “read” with the confirmands, and hold women's society meetings over the 70-80 mile territory. The land, he says, was so flat and marshy that much of it was under water except for a few sand ridges. His description of St. Hilaire is interesting as well ... DOWNLOAD // EXCEL - MARSHELL COUNTY
John Joppru, standing by a building believed to have been on the Joppru land in Excel Township. c. 1905. He later moved to Canada. arriving in this country. Theodore (1888-1940), a confirmed “Happy Wanderer” throughout his happy life, never married. Mary (1889-1954) married Theodore Rykken in 1908 and lived the rest of her life in Grand Forks, ND.
Henry, Targei and Anna's last child, was born in 1893. At the age of twenty-two (1915), he moved to Canada to work on his older brother John's farm until 1917 when he enlisted in the Canadian Army. He was wounded during World War I and also suffered the effects of mustard gas for the rest of his life. He married Gertie Wetterstrand in 1921 and died in 1942.
Targei passed away in January of 1905 and Anna on Christmas Day of 1914. Both are buried in the Satersdal Cemetery.
An interesting side note should be added. Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Loftness had settled in Excel Township in the fall of 1904 on land that had just come out of the Red Lake Indian Reservation on the east side of the Thief River. Mrs. Loftness kept a journal and from that her daughter adds: “Mother related that that fall she and Andrew attended a funeral for a Mr. Joppru in a school 2 miles north by the river conducted by a Rev. Bredeson. He was buried in a cemetery two miles to the east a wagon caravan followed.” (Excel Township: 1884-1994, p. 49) Targie's funeral must have been held at the newly built Riverside School just across the road from the Joppru land, and the caravan of horse drawn buggies proceeded to Satersdal Cemetery.
Though we celebrate the hundredth anniversary of Satersdal from its organizational date of January 29, 1891, there was spiritual activity in the township several years earlier. Excel Township was organized in late 1883. (Settlers had been moving in since 1881.) Along the Thief River on the eastern edge of the township, several families from Setesdal, Norway, settled. Skomedal, Bergland, Froisnes, Svenkesen, Ose, Olson, Johnson, and Rydberg were some of the early names. Many were known for their hard drinking, and were often scorned for this weakness. Since Thief River was not yet a city, this area was served from Crookston first and then St. Hilaire. The train was running to St. Hilaire in 1883 and itinerant Lutheran Pastors were moving through the area from what was the last “outpost of civilization.”
The pastoral record book for the Emmanuel Lutheran Church of Holt, shows baptisms recorded in 1884. All three baptisms for the year took place on December 10 and two of them were children from Excel Township: John, son of Tarkel Tallakson (Ose) and wife Anna, and Martin, son of Gunstein Svenkeson and his wife Birgit. The godparents for the Svenkeson child include Gunnuf Tarkelson (Froisnes) also of Excel. Though no name is on the records, it would seem that the pastor performing these early ministerial acts was Christian Saugestad, who was active in the area prior to the arrival of Pastor Aas in 1886. Pastor Saugestad, who lived in Neby (Polk County), was organizing parishes in northwestern Minnesota from 1880 to 1886. The Emmanuel records from 1885 show that Jorgen Svenkesen and his wife took Communion on December 2.
In July of 1886, Pastor Elias Aas became the itinerant Lutheran Pastor for the area. Working out of St. Hilaire, he served eleven congregations in a seventy-five mile area. Several years later he recorded his experiences in his autobiography called The Pioneer Pastor. What follows is a selection from this book in which Pastor Aas writes about a Christmas Service in 1886 with the Satersdolene. The home he is trying to find is Gunstein Svenkesen's, a man who we think lived near his brothers Jorgen and Knut in Section 22 of Excel Township:
“In an area where I had been the previous summer and in which I had clashed with Prof. J.T.Ylvisaker, there lived a number of people from Saetersdalen, Norway. There was much drinking among them but they were very obliging and hospitable and happy with their new pastor ... DOWNLOAD // A SPIRITUAL HERITAGE