Ole Peter Petersen

Rev. O. P. Petersen gravesite in Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Ole Peter Petersen (April 28, 1822 – 1901) is credited as the founder of Methodism in Norway and co-founder of Norwegian and Danish Methodism in the United States.

Ole Peter Petersen was born in Fredrikstad, Norway the son of Peter Hansen, a ship’s carpenter and his wife, Catherine. Peter Hansen deserted his family in 1825, and a year later Catherine died. Petersen had thoughts of becoming a clergyman, but his low social status and lack of opportunity for higher education combined to discourage such a notion. He opted for the sea instead, leaving Fredrikstad in 1836. In 1845, during a stop in Charleston, South Carolina, Petersen heard a series of sermons that brought him to a consciousness awareness of Methodism.^[1]

Washington Prairie Norwegian Methodist Church located outside Decorah, Iowa is considered the mother church of Norwegian-American Methodism. Ole Peter Petersen first established this church and later returned to his native Norway where he established the first Methodist congregation in that country.^[2]

References

1. ^ Methodism from America to Norway(by Arne Hassing. Norwegian-American Historic Association. Volume 28: Page 192)http://www.naha.stolaf.edu/pubs/nas/volume28/vol28_08.htm
2. ^ Some Winneshiek County Historic and Interesting Sites

Additional sources

• Meistad, Tore Methodism as a Carrier of the Holiness Tradition in Norway (Alta: ALH-forskning, 1994)
• Hassing, Arne Methodism and Society in Norway, 1853-1918 (Northwestern University, 1974)