Part IV

Bjorn Gislason gave the land for the cemetery unofficially, but there was actually no deed executed until after World War II, when it was signed by J.B. Gislason. That is when we formally organized the cemetery association. Up to then there had been very little money for care, and I felt this was no way to run a railroad and we should provide a permanent cemetery fund. I wrote the people who had gone away and gave them the opportunity to pay for perpetual care. They were all glad to pay. After I collected from them I went around to the members here, and almost everybody paid.

Sigmundur Jonatanson gave the land for the church. Perhaps there was no deed. Quite often, as in the case of schools, when someone gave land for school purposes the deed proved that if it ceased to be used for the intended purpose the property reverts to the original owner. I know that Carl Swanson got the land back after the Westerheim Church was removed. It wasn’t worth too much as a building site because there was no well and there were only a few box elder trees and, besides, the desire for the rural building sites had not developed at that time.

In the Westerheim Church there was no running water and only a chemical toilet. The water was hauled as needed. I imagine the church barn, on the west side of the church, was there before the first church had burned, and so the second church was built on the same spot the first church had stood on.

The barn was pretty good-sized with room for 10 or 12 teams. The partitions between the stalls were nearly solid and 6 to 7 feet high. This was necessary because strange horses had to be well separated to keep them from fighting. When the horse and buggy era ended, J.B. Gislason bought the barn, intending to use it for a cattle shed.

The Westerheim Church was not easy to heat, especially on windy days, as the ceiling was high, the windows were large with only single panes and I suppose the walls and ceiling were not insulated. When the children’s Christmas program was to be held in the evening, we would stoke the furnace with coal all day in preparation.

We always had Sunday School after the church services; so the people who had children in Sunday School naturally waited for their children. I never had children in Sunday School but I never went home until Sunday School was over because we men were too busy talking about farming, economics and politics.

In 1947 I moved to Minneota and, although I maintained my membership in Westerheim Church, I got involved in singing in the choir at St. Paul’s; so I attended regularly.

Occasionally I would take Pastor Guttormsson out to services at Westerheim. He had a very keen mind and varied interests. He took a great interest in current events. At that time the Marshall Plan was in full operation rebuilding the war-torn world. The cold war was on. Trouble was brewing in Korea. All of these matters were of great concern to us as citizens, and Rev. Guttormsson was discussing them in his usual learned fashion. When we reached Westerheim church, we walked in, he to conduct the service and I to join the choir in the choir box. When the service was over, we got in the car and he immediately continued the discussion of world events exactly where we had left off before church.”

(Continued next week)

Sources: “Ninety Years at St. Paul’s,” Committee Members, J.A. Josefson, Cecil Hofteig and Haldur G. (Jimmie) Johnson of Icelander Lutheran Church, Minneota, MN., October 1977.