Tunbridge Lutheran Church
6445 24th Ave. NE
Rugby, Pierce County, North Dakota 58368
6445 24th Ave. NE
Rugby, Pierce County, North Dakota 58368
The Tunbridge Lutheran Free Church, located just west of Rugby, North Dakota, has a rich history that spans over a century. Let me share some fascinating details about this church:
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- Origins and Construction:
- In 1906, Afin Jelsing, the great-grandfather of Terry Jelsing, donated three acres of land to the Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tunbridge for the purpose of building a church and cemetery.
- The original church was struck by lightning in 1911 and tragically burned to the ground.
- The current structure, known as the Tunbridge Lutheran Free Church, was erected in 19141.
- Silent Years and Neglect:
- For more than three decades, this church has stood silent and vacant on the prairie.
- Its proud gray steeple belies the toll that weather and neglect have taken on the clapboard siding and checkered roof.
- Once upon a time, this church was a vibrant hub for Norwegian American pioneers and their descendants, who gathered there each Sunday for worship and fellowship.
- However, since 1988, when Tunbridge held its final service and permanently closed its doors, disuse has led to disrepair.
- The church has become little more than a bucolic image on an otherwise featureless landscape for travelers on US Highway 2.
- Even for many Pierce County residents, the church serves as a landmark and a nostalgic reminder of days past2.
- Restoration Efforts:
- Thanks to a concerned group of area residents, the old Tunbridge Lutheran Free Church is now destined for restoration and ongoing preservation.
- Terry Jelsing, a board member of the North Dakota Council on the Arts, has spearheaded the Tunbridge project.
- The restoration plan involves three phases:
- Phase I: Immediate repairs to the roof and siding to maintain structural integrity and protect priceless interior elements such as the hand-carved altar, communion rail, altar painting, wooden pews, and the old piano.
- Phase II: Obtaining 501c3 nonprofit status to ensure compliance with state and federal law for grant funding and donations.
- Phase III: Encouraging active preservation of Norwegian heritage and tradition in the local community through partnerships with state and national organizations. This includes reviving interest in Scandinavian culture, food traditions, music, dance, holiday customs, and seasonal practices2.
- New Lease on Life:
- Recently, a group of volunteers completed Phase I repairs to the building.
- On May 28, the Tunbridge Lutheran Church Preservation Society will host an open house to celebrate this achievement.
- The church, once silent and weather-beaten, now stands with renewed hope and purpose, preserving its historical significance and connecting generations to their heritage13.
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Information – Pierce County The Tribune By Sue Sitter - | May 20, 2022
The Tunbridge Lutheran Church Preservation Society will celebrate a milestone in a project to bring the 100-plus-year old building back to life on Saturday, May 28.
The activities at the church will begin with a Lutheran service at 10 a.m.
“It’s a Saturday, but there will be a church service,” said Marilyn Niewoehner, who, with her husband Dale, made arrangements to have Craig Schweitzer, Bishop of the Western North Dakota Synod, serve communion at the service. “The officiant is Gary Wendel for the service. He’s not a minister, so he’s Mr. Wendel.”
Niewoehner said the service would not be held through the Western North Dakota Synod, since the Tunbridge Lutheran Church congregation no longer exists.
“Anyone can come to the service,” she said, adding attendees did not have to be members of the Lutheran Church.
A ceremony to donate the Dwight Jelsing Memorial Bell, which stands outside of the church, will follow the service.
Bernard Arcand will provide music during the service and the opening ceremony, which will take place at 1 p.m. A lunch of hamburgers, hot dogs, and beverages, including beer, will be served for a free-will offering at 11 a.m.
Other special guests for the day include Shane Engeland, president of the Geographical Center Historical Society and executive director of the Prairie Village Museum.
Although the weatherworn church had stood alone and forlorn on the prairie six miles west of Rugby for decades, it occupied a special place in the hearts of many who grew up in the area. Some attended the church as youngsters before the former congregation there held their last service in 1988.
Two people with connections to the church spearheaded an effort to bring the building back to life.
Terry Jelsing, a descendant of Anfin Jelsing, a Norwegian immigrant farmer who donated land for the church more than 100 years ago, spearheaded the effort to revive the building, along with his cousin, Jason Bednarz.
After Anfin Jelsing’s land donation, the first Lutheran church built on that spot burned down in 1911. The present building replaced the first church when it was completed in 1914.
Jelsing said Bednarz made a large financial contribution to turn their idea to preserve the aging building into reality.
Jelsing, who now serves as the president of the Tunbridge Lutheran Church Preservation Society, said the building’s new incarnation as a community center would allow religious events to take place.
“But the focus is on the entire community,” he said. “So, by keeping that open, we’re also opening the doors to the possibility of family reunions; special services that families would want for their reunions, maybe. It’s an intimate space and it’s really about sharing it with people.”
Jelsing said the society intended to keep the building open to many possibilities. However, he added, even though the church would no longer be used by a congregation for religious services, the building’s identity as a church would remain.
“One thing about the way we think about restoring this is preservation-minded,” he noted. “We don’t want to turn it into something of our thinking so much; it’s about preserving the thoughts that were there because the charm of the place is this historical context.
“It’s like a time capsule, walking into a place out of time and appreciating it for those values and honoring our ancestors and our relatives and the people who used the place,” he added. “It’s also about honoring the land. It’s honoring a much bigger cultural concept of who we are. It brings us identity, and it’s not really our place to change that.”
Jelsing said he remembered attending sunrise services at the church as a young child with his grandparents. “There was no central heating,” he said, so the chilly nave and the smell of pancakes and coffee wafting up from the basement endeared him to the church. During the services, the pastor and congregants spoke Norwegian, “which I don’t understand.”
Years later, he occupies a position as a “custodian of the church and cemetery,” along with other members of the society.
The church boasts new siding, a new roof and a rebuilt steeple. The building’s interior needs what Jelsing said are “minor repairs.”
The exterior repairs were the first phase of the project to restore the building, he said. The interior work and community involvement as a 501(c) 3 nonprofit, will continue in two more phases. Interior repairs will include installing railings and protecting its stained-glass windows.
Jelsing said the front part of the building would house interpretive materials.
“We’ll have a donor recognition area in that part, and then eventually, we’ll have a photo essay of old pictures and brief history, so when a visitor does come in, they’ll have an interpretive panel to get the gist of what the place was about and who was involved in it,” he noted.
Jelsing said the preservation society planned to establish an endowment fund to provide for the building’s upkeep and other needs, including maintaining the cemetery on the church grounds.
“You do have choices that would go into that,” he said of donation options for people interested in helping the society. “Some may be interested in the cultural heritage of the structure itself and want to see that concern. Some donors might have family that is interred in the grounds and might want to help preserve that.
“And the idea is that once you build up a fund like that, it takes care of itself in perpetuity. That way, the burden doesn’t come down on just a few individuals as time goes on,” he said of the fund.
“I’m surprised (at the outcome),” he said of the society’s work to preserve the church. “Once we finished it, we were pretty happy that we saved the building. I’m thrilled about all that.”
More information and photos of the church are available on the Tunbridge Lutheran Church Society page on Facebook.
The Tunbridge Lutheran Church Preservation Society will celebrate a milestone in a project to bring the 100-plus-year old building back to life on Saturday, May 28.
The activities at the church will begin with a Lutheran service at 10 a.m.
“It’s a Saturday, but there will be a church service,” said Marilyn Niewoehner, who, with her husband Dale, made arrangements to have Craig Schweitzer, Bishop of the Western North Dakota Synod, serve communion at the service. “The officiant is Gary Wendel for the service. He’s not a minister, so he’s Mr. Wendel.”
Niewoehner said the service would not be held through the Western North Dakota Synod, since the Tunbridge Lutheran Church congregation no longer exists.
“Anyone can come to the service,” she said, adding attendees did not have to be members of the Lutheran Church.
A ceremony to donate the Dwight Jelsing Memorial Bell, which stands outside of the church, will follow the service.
Bernard Arcand will provide music during the service and the opening ceremony, which will take place at 1 p.m. A lunch of hamburgers, hot dogs, and beverages, including beer, will be served for a free-will offering at 11 a.m.
Other special guests for the day include Shane Engeland, president of the Geographical Center Historical Society and executive director of the Prairie Village Museum.
Although the weatherworn church had stood alone and forlorn on the prairie six miles west of Rugby for decades, it occupied a special place in the hearts of many who grew up in the area. Some attended the church as youngsters before the former congregation there held their last service in 1988.
Two people with connections to the church spearheaded an effort to bring the building back to life.
Terry Jelsing, a descendant of Anfin Jelsing, a Norwegian immigrant farmer who donated land for the church more than 100 years ago, spearheaded the effort to revive the building, along with his cousin, Jason Bednarz.
After Anfin Jelsing’s land donation, the first Lutheran church built on that spot burned down in 1911. The present building replaced the first church when it was completed in 1914.
Jelsing said Bednarz made a large financial contribution to turn their idea to preserve the aging building into reality.
Jelsing, who now serves as the president of the Tunbridge Lutheran Church Preservation Society, said the building’s new incarnation as a community center would allow religious events to take place.
“But the focus is on the entire community,” he said. “So, by keeping that open, we’re also opening the doors to the possibility of family reunions; special services that families would want for their reunions, maybe. It’s an intimate space and it’s really about sharing it with people.”
Jelsing said the society intended to keep the building open to many possibilities. However, he added, even though the church would no longer be used by a congregation for religious services, the building’s identity as a church would remain.
“One thing about the way we think about restoring this is preservation-minded,” he noted. “We don’t want to turn it into something of our thinking so much; it’s about preserving the thoughts that were there because the charm of the place is this historical context.
“It’s like a time capsule, walking into a place out of time and appreciating it for those values and honoring our ancestors and our relatives and the people who used the place,” he added. “It’s also about honoring the land. It’s honoring a much bigger cultural concept of who we are. It brings us identity, and it’s not really our place to change that.”
Jelsing said he remembered attending sunrise services at the church as a young child with his grandparents. “There was no central heating,” he said, so the chilly nave and the smell of pancakes and coffee wafting up from the basement endeared him to the church. During the services, the pastor and congregants spoke Norwegian, “which I don’t understand.”
Years later, he occupies a position as a “custodian of the church and cemetery,” along with other members of the society.
The church boasts new siding, a new roof and a rebuilt steeple. The building’s interior needs what Jelsing said are “minor repairs.”
The exterior repairs were the first phase of the project to restore the building, he said. The interior work and community involvement as a 501(c) 3 nonprofit, will continue in two more phases. Interior repairs will include installing railings and protecting its stained-glass windows.
Jelsing said the front part of the building would house interpretive materials.
“We’ll have a donor recognition area in that part, and then eventually, we’ll have a photo essay of old pictures and brief history, so when a visitor does come in, they’ll have an interpretive panel to get the gist of what the place was about and who was involved in it,” he noted.
Jelsing said the preservation society planned to establish an endowment fund to provide for the building’s upkeep and other needs, including maintaining the cemetery on the church grounds.
“You do have choices that would go into that,” he said of donation options for people interested in helping the society. “Some may be interested in the cultural heritage of the structure itself and want to see that concern. Some donors might have family that is interred in the grounds and might want to help preserve that.
“And the idea is that once you build up a fund like that, it takes care of itself in perpetuity. That way, the burden doesn’t come down on just a few individuals as time goes on,” he said of the fund.
“I’m surprised (at the outcome),” he said of the society’s work to preserve the church. “Once we finished it, we were pretty happy that we saved the building. I’m thrilled about all that.”
More information and photos of the church are available on the Tunbridge Lutheran Church Society page on Facebook.