History:

Stewart's Hall, formerly at the corner of Second Street and Morrison Avenue, was the sit for the first meeting of the Chetek Lutheran Congregation, on January 24, 1883. Meeting there were people with names like Olsen, Johnsen, Otterholt, Fossum, Joelson, and Jensen, Norwegians and Danes whose families had come to this country for a new start in a still new land. In the January 26, 1883 number, The Chetek Alert reported, "The Lutheran Norwegians met at Stewart's Hall on Wednesday January 24, for the purpose of organizing a church, which they did, and purchased an acre of ground of Robert Stewart in North Chetek on which they will commence erection of their church early in the spring." The new church numbered 154 souls.

Before this time, most of these Scandinavians had worshiped in either the Lolland congregation, in the neighborhood northeast of town, or the Zion congregation, to the west of Chetek. Lolland Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Congregation ("Lolland" was the name of an island in Denmark, from which some of the members of the congregation had come) was organized July 7, 1872, with a membership of fifty-eight souls. Zion-Otterholt Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Congregation date from January 26, 1875. It was about the same size as Lolland. Both of these congregation met in members' homes such as the log house pictured above. Seated in front of the house are David and Stafina Joelson, charter members of the congregation.

By 1883, though, Chetek had become the logical place to establish a more permanent congregation and build a church. In 1872, the town was little more than a logging camp, but by 1875 a plat had been drawn up, and in 1882 the old Omaha Railway had come through, putting Chetek once and for all on the map. An excerpt from a letter dated January 5, 1883, that Lars Otterholt (a member of Zion) wrote to his father gives some insight into that decision: