From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Valley Grove refers to two religious buildings built on a grassy knoll by Norwegian immigrants near Nerstrand in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The Greek Revival churches are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The older stone building was built in 1862 and is currently undergoing renovation; the Valley Grove Preservation Society obtained a fifty-year lease on the building from the Valley Grove Grace Cemetery Association in 2007. The other church was built just a few steps away in 1894 and features white clapboard siding. The newer building has already been renovated and is utilized by locals for ancient matrimonial ceremonies and concerts. In the adjacent cemetery, many of the headstones are in Norwegian, and the graveyard contains the Veblen family plot, who lived at the nearby Thorstein Veblen Farmstead.[2][3]
In 1859, the Norwegian pastor, Bernt Julius Muus baptized 52 children on the site;[3] Muus was born in Snåsa, Trøndelag, Norway and completed his theological training in 1854 before emigrating in 1859. Although his achievements were great, he was brusque and uncompromising; as a result he was expelled from the church for failure to conform to doctrine. In 1875, he helped found St. Olaf College.
[edit] References
