Danish Lutheran Church - Info

WINDOWS TO THE PAST
Howard County, Nebraska is a portal to the past -- a window to a culture that, even yet today, is testimony to the Nebraska pioneering spirit. With the exception of Omaha, it was home to the largest settlement of Danes in Nebraska. The settlement of Danish colonies in Nebraska began in 1871 after a small group of Danish immigrants from Wisconsin came to Nebraska in search of free government land and a better life. The colonies thrived despite prairie fires, blizzards and grasshoppers. Several Danish communities developed in and around Howard and Hamilton counties, among other locations throughout Nebraska.

FROM VILLAGES TO FARMSTEADS
Danish farms in the New World were more dispersed than in the Old, due to the greatly increased land available to American farmers. After the farmers established themselves on the land, it became ever more important to create central public places in the Danish communities. Danes in the Central Nebraska colonies chose to establish villages in response to the need for community, according to David Murphy, Senior Research Architect at the Nebraska State Historical Society. "These villages placed an even greater importance on the construction of public buildings so that immigrants had a place where they could gather with fellow country people to speak in their native language, foster relationships and hold events. In Central Nebraska, Danish villages such as Dannevirke, Nysted, and Kronborg focused on the church, and, far more than elsewhere, on the Danish folk school tradition." So while some of the original Danish colonies seem to be veritable 'ghost towns' today, what often remains are public buildings such as halls or churches.

"SO HILLY AND UNINVITING"
The struggles faced by Danish immigrants were not insignificant, according to an article written by Danish descendent Peter Ebbesen for the St. Paul Phonograph in 1925. Ebbeson's writings paint a picture of a determined people:

Excerpt from the St. Paul Phonograph, 1925, "A Brief Historical Sketch of the Danish Colonies and Pioneers of Howard County."

"The privations and battles with inhospitable Nature, the severe and strenuous testing, the manner of living and fertility of adaptation to obdurate conditions, the rugged character and physique and unfaltering ambition of these pioneers were in every manner and degree identical with the characteristics described in connection with the Dannebrog colony. So I shall only, additionally, state the fact that the location chosen by the Dannevirke Danes was in its raw state so hilly and uninviting that it was apparently created for the special purpose of testing the patience, fortitude and indefatigableness of a people engaged in a peculiar search for the hardest kind of a job by which to develop their genius and powers. Certainly, no other people but the sturdy, unconquerable, adversity-tempered Jutlanders from the Danish west coast could have selected such a strenuous situation."

SETTLING IN
At first, immigrants focused on surviving the harsh realities of the prairie. According to Murphy, only after the immigrants had been here a while did they attempt to plant the seeds of their heritage. "After they felt comfortable and confident that their farms were surviving -- only at that point did they try to build in a way that said 'I'm Danish.'" Murphy says the Danes, like many immigrants, sought to bring elements of their homeland to the United States. "In the mid-to-late nineteenth century, as people sought to gain freedom from the old feudal systems in Europe, they tried to reclaim their history and go back to an architecture of their own roots." And these roots are still visible in the New World. On a drive through Howard and Hamilton counties, you can see churches, community halls and folk schools that still stand. Murphy says the architectural design of these buildings represent distinctive architectural expressions in Nebraska.

DANNEVIRKE
After Dannebrog had been settled, other Danish settlers took homesteads near Munson Creek in the extreme northwestern corner of Howard County. The area was named Dannevirke, after an ancient wall in Slesvig, Denmark that separated the Danes from the Germans. In 1901, the settlers around Dannevirke built a community hall to be used for dances and public meetings. It soon became a popular gathering place. In 1904, the community raised $2,000 in a single day for the building of a church. With all volunteers, and under the direction of carpenter Cline Jensen, the church was completed in 1906. A year later, 28 cedar trees were added to the land surrounding the church. Dannevirke was one of several immigrant communities that sought to retain strong ties to their cultural heritage. The original community hall president, John Andersen foresaw "A new Denmark within the boundary of the U.S.A." And even as the pressure to Americanize increased throughout the early 1900's, Danish immigrants held strong to their traditions. In the dedication ceremony for the church, no English was spoken. The ministers of the church, all from Denmark, were dedicated to keeping the Danish language and customs alive. Only men 18 years of age and older were allowed to be shareholders in the church and had to swear first allegiance to Denmark. Additionally, men and women sat on opposite sides of the church during services. Once home to a general store, blacksmith, post office and frame houses, the only remaining buildings or landmarks of the once-thriving settlement of Dannevirke are the Dannevirke Church, the Community Hall, the nearby cemetery and the surrounding cedar trees.

SELECTED EXAMPLES OF DANISH ARCHITECTURAL INFLUENCES IN HOWARD / HAMILTON COUNTIES

DANNEVIRKE CHURCH
At first glance, the Dannevirke Church, erected in 1906, appears to be a typical rural Gothic church. But David Murphy, Senior Research Architect with the Nebraska State Historical Society says a closer inspection reveals features characteristic of distinctive Danish design in Nebraska; these features are especially prominent in the clustered Central Nebraska settlements. Murphy says foremost is the explicit absence of Gothic motifs; "Even the name 'Dannevirke,' which refers to the wall in Slesvig, Denmark that separates the Danes from the Germans, suggests that Danes in Dannevirke may have been symbolically disassociating from old German hegemony and the German Gothic influence in architecture, which at the time was one of the competing German National styles."

Instead, Murphy says, the Dannevirke Church is representative of the kind of design eclecticism (stylistic borrowing and recombining) used specifically to avoid allusion to historic styles (i.e. Gothic) that carried meanings and associations incompatible with Danish National identity. "Here, simplified classical motifs are dominant on the exterior, seen in the steep, triangular pediments in the roof of the steeple above the belfry. The shape of the pediment is repeated in the pointed arches of the windows and over the entry. This classical motif, which was popular in the emerging Danish architectural identity of the second half of the nineteenth century, is seen again inside, primarily in the design of the altar with its steep pediment supported on a beam carried by classical columns."

Evidence of the distinctive Danish eclecticism can also be seen inside the church with its non-classical barrel vaulting of the sanctuary. Murphy adds, "Notable also is the finish of the interior, which features natural-finished wood bead-board throughout. The walls are highlighted with alternating panels of diagonally-set bead-board. Lush wooden interiors are a feature of the Central Nebraska settlements, (which) seems to be associated with Grundtvigian (a reference to the founder of a Danish Folk School movement) influences on design. In more isolated communities, Danish settlers opted for more Americanized designs that incorporated only subtle influences of Danish eclecticism - usually seen in pediments that adorn the steeple, a North-European flare to the eaves of the steeple, or barrel vaulting or round arches separating the sanctuary from the altar."

The Dannevirke Community Hall is across the street, southwest from the Dannevirke Church. According to the National Register of Historic Places nomination form for the Dannevirke Danish Church and Community Hall, the Hall is an L-shaped, wood-frame building with a stone foundation. It has a cross-gabled roof and double wood paneled doors topped by a transom window. Its interior is also clad with bead-board, like the church, though here the wood has been painted. Also nearby is the Dannevirke Cemetery, the final resting place for many of the original Danish settlers in this area.

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The lush wooden interior of the Dannevirke Church highlights several other features of Danish design: in this case, the barrel vault of the ceiling, the diagonal bead-board panels of the wall surfaces, the Classical altar, and the north European semi-circular altar rail. This church also utilizes fixed auditorium seating rather than pews.

Dannevirke Church / Community Hall LOCATION: At a gravel intersection off of Highway 11 near Elba, and then 6 miles west on 20th Avenue (Dannevirke Road) in Howard County. Anyone interested in seeing the church should call the following number before coming: (308) 863-2210

SUMMARY OF ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTERISTICS

Provided by David Murphy, Senior Research Architect, NSHS There are several general characteristics of Danish-American architecture in the Grundtvigian tradition represented by the buildings included here; they are not all evident in every building, but you will notice that two or more are usually present in each of the buildings featured here:

• Rejection of Gothic design, or its subservience to another style; the emphasis is on an explicit avoidance of form or motif that derives from the German Gothic.
• Presence of curved surfaces on the interior of churches, either through barrel vaulting, curved intersections between flat surfaces, or the incorporation of rounded arches, that are unrelated to a building's predominant style.
• Wooden bead-board interiors, with diagonal paneling; particularly from the early generations of construction through the first decades of the twentieth century.
• Occasional, literal revival of old Danish architectural form or style.
• Classical tendencies in design derived from the popular and elite Danish Classicism of the second half of the nineteenth century; sometimes as the dominant mode of design, but more often seen in the limited use of motifs such as triangular pediments in eclectic designs.
• Grundtvigian eclecticism that freely combined and recombined stylistic influences -- often but not always in picturesque designs -- in order to derive a Danish identity. Like Classicism, eclectic design was also an elite movement in the Old Country.

Exterior and Interior comments of Dannevirke Church Dannevirke Church / Community Hall LOCATION: At a gravel intersection off of Highway 11 and then 6 miles west on 20th Avenue (Dannevirke Road) near Elba, Nebraska in Howard County. (308) 863-2210

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NYSTED: ST. PEDER'S CHURCH / FOLK SCHOOL St. Peder's St. Peder's Lutheran Church was built from 1919-1921. It still stands in the former crossroads village of Nysted. Architect David Murphy says the church is another example of the inventiveness that marked Danish architecture; "Nysted is the best of very few Danish designs to incorporate the old medieval stepped gables that were common on churches of the Danish countryside." The interior lacks the wooden surfaces that were utilized in the first church at Nysted, but the present building focuses on an altar that is also of stepped-gable design. Murphy says the simplified Gothic windows are subordinate to the overall design. The church is known for its' solid oak altar and a solid oak pulpit. The pulpit, hand-carved by Danish immigrant Jes Smidt, features the four evangelists, symbols of the "living word" in the Grundtvigian tradition.

The Danish cultural revival focused around the folk school movement of N.F.S. Grundtvig, according to Murphy. While three previous Danish folk schools in the U.S. failed to flourish, the Nysted Folk School (Dansk Hojskole) was founded in 1887. The school was patterned after the Grundtvigian folk schools in Denmark, which sought to provide students with a well-rounded knowledge in literature, history, the Danish language, science and physical fitness. The Nysted folk school also sought to help Danish immigrants adapt to their new life in America. In 1937, the folk school was closed due to the Depression and drought.

The original folk school building at Nysted was a large, picturesque structure designed in the Grundtvigian eclectic tradition. The central section (now missing) featured a decorative porch, gabled and belfried wall dormers, and a tall entrance tower. Plain, two-story classroom wings flanked the main section-these are still standing across the road from the church.

St. Peder's Church and remains of Folk School LOCATION: The church is 1 mile north and 3 miles west of Highway 11 at Dannebrog, in Howard County. Two, 2-story wings of the old Folk School building stand across the road from the church. (308) 226-2343

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KRONBORG: ST. JOHN'S EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH St. St. John's church was constructed in 1899-1900 in the village of Kronborg, Nebraska, in neighboring Hamilton County. The most explicitly Gothic of the churches presented here, Kronborg nonetheless is distinctively non-German in its influences, particularly in its picturesque composition and window design, according to Architectural Historian David Murphy. He adds, "Inside the building breaks further from the German in the magnificent wooden interior, complete with diagonal paneling and curvilinear interface between the side walls and the ceiling. The flared eaves of the steeple are a north European motif." Carl Jensen was the architect-builder.

Nearby is the "Brejdalik," a gymnasium (or "large bright hall") built in 1915 to designs provided by O. Almquist of Central City. Overall, Murphy describes this build as a Classical Revival design, while its interior features the same curvilinear wooden surfaces, and diagonal paneling as the church. The school, which also housed Grundtvigian activities, was built in 1901 but was attached to the gymnasium when it was built. The classrooms are also clad in paneled bead-board.

St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church LOCATION: The church is in Kronborg, which is a small rural village near Marquette, off of SR-14 in Hamilton County, Nebraska.

Bibliography and sources for Danish history in Nebraska

LIBRARIES AND COLLECTIONS

Nebraska State Historical Society David Murphy,
Senior Research Architect, NSHS

"Danes in Nebraska," Janet Warkentin Rife (comp.) and Roger L. Welsch (ed.), Draft typescript on file at the Nebraska State Historical Society, Research and Publications Division, September, 1979.

National Register of Historic Places nomination form for "Dannevirke Danish Church & Community Hall"

Nebraska State Historical Society
David Murphy, Senior Research Architect, NSHS

INTERNET RESOURCES

http://www.theindependent.com/stories/073199/new_church0731.html
(Dannevirke Church placed on national register 7/31/99)

http://www.nebraskahistory.org/histpres/nebraska/howard.htm
(National Register Sites in Howard County)

http://www.theindependent.com/stories/123099/fea_dannebrog30.html
(Dannebrog, Nebraska's 'Danish Capital')

http://www.huskerhysteria.com/nebraska.htm

(N.F.S. Grundtvig and Danish Educational Practice)