| A History of STRUM and the TOWN OF UNITY by Roy Matson |
| THIS IS PAGE 39 | TABLE OF CONTENTS | PAGE BACK | PAGE FORWARD |
| whole carload of the sweet stuff from strum to an eastern buyer one time. He was a mechanically inclined fellow and built a small dam on the creek that came through his property and constructed a small flume with a proper sized waterwheel that powered his honey extractor. Present day operators would likely have an electric line built, expensive motors running, a power bill due every month. Not Mr. Klick. A flick of a wooden handle turned water from the spillway into the flume, the water wheel began turning and in a minute he had power for the extractor. The Lutheran Church It seems that every pioneer settlement had a church organization within a very short time. As the first people here were New Englanders we could expect a Methodist adherance and old records of that group at Mondovi show that a circuit riding pastor of that faith included Hamlin in his travels. The year was 1859 and it can be safely assumed the newly constructed school building on Isaac Webster’s land served as meeting place. The influx of Norwegian settlers during the late 60’s and early 70’s resulted in formation of a Lutheran congregation on January 7, 1873. Members of this group had barely secured roofs over their heads by that date although at least two pastors had conducted worship at the Esten Johnson Dahl residence. Many settlers had walked over the ridges east into northern Elk Creek where a congregation was already established. A Norwegian pastor, Lars Sherven, served that area and moved here in the spring of 1873. Norwegians, once they had immigrated, had a great number of divisions in their faith. The old country’s state Lutheran Church had been dictatorial in many respects and nearly all their pastors had opposed any thought of emigration. Once here and beyond reach of the numerous demands of the old church many settlers were attracted to a more liberal atmos- |
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