Early Times
Early in 1849, M. Olsen, a leader of the group in Milwaukee, sent a request to Norway for a minister. Andrew Michael Iverson, a student at the Mission Institution of Stavanger, accepted the call and left for America with his new wife, Laura. After arriving in Milwaukee on June 29, 1849, Iverson began ministering to the small group and petitioned the Moravian Helpers' Conference in Bethlehem, Pensylvania, to allow them to be organized as a Moravian congregation and to ordain him to the Moravian ministry.
The newly organized Home Mission Society sent Pastor J.F. Fett to investigate the situation and on his recommendation the group was organized into the first Scandinavian Moravian congregation in America on October 22, 1849. Brother Fett also recommended the establishment of a Moravian settlement on the upper Fox River which coincided with Brother Iverson's and his congregations's desire to move out of the Milwaukee area.
