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Ulrik Vilhelm Koren: Patriarch of Norwegian-American Lutherans

© John L. Hoh, Jr.

Ulrik Vilhelm Koren was born December 22, 1826 in Bergen, Norway. As a pioneer minister in American, he played a significant role in the development of the spiritual and intellectual development of Norwegians in America.

Ulrik Vilhelm Koren, one of the founders of Luther College, and an important force in the founding of Luther Seminary in St. Paul, served the Washington Prairie Congregation in Iowa. Koren's confidence and leadership abilities became well known in the Norwegian Synod which he headed after the death of Herman Amberg Preus. Koren's work compiling and editing the Synod's Hymnal (Synodens Salmebog) which was published in 1874 is most impressive when one considers his heavy obligations to his widespread congregation and synod. The hymnal was the first to be prepared by Scandinavian immigrants in this country. Koren's hymn, "Ye Lands to the Lord," is a paraphrase of Psalm 100 and is thought to have been used at the dedication of the first wing of the Luther College building in Decorah in 1865.

An 1852 theology graduate from the University of Christiania, he married Else Elisabeth Hysing the next year and was called to the Little Iowa Congregation in America. The first Norwegian minister to settle west of the Mississippi, Koren's pastorate included large parts of Northeastern Iowa and Southern Minnesota.

The Reverend Claus L. Clausen visited the settlements in northeastern Iowa in the summer of 1851, and the Reverend Nils O. Brandt visited them in the autumn of the same year.

Pastor Brandt returned to the settlements in 1852 and again in 1853. In 1852 he organized congregations -- the first among Norwegian Lutherans in Iowa -- at Paint Creek, Turkey River, and Little Iowa (Washington Prairie). That year a letter of call, formulated by Pastor Brandt, was drawn up and signed by 105 members of the three congregations. It was in response to this call that the Reverend Ulrik Vilhelm Koren decided in 1853 to come to America.

"He had completed his theological studies for the Lutheran ministry. He received the letter of call from the Iowa settlements on June 13, 1853, and was ordained on July 21, 1853, by Bishop J. L. Arup in Christiana. On August 18, 1853, he was married to Else Elisabeth Hysing of Larvik and together they left Norway, September 5, 1853, for America." (The Diary of Elisabeth Koren, 1853-1855, p. vii-ix)

He played an active part in the Norwegian Synod, holding various positions from secretary in 1855 to president of the synod in 1894 until his death in 1910. U.V. Koren was also instrumental in purchasing the land and locating Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. He was been described in the Luther College Semicentennial book as a man of "wide interests, excellent scholarship, and quiet dignity" and was rewarded in 1903 for these characteristics and other achievements with a doctorate of divinity from Concordia Theological Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri, and made a Commander of the Order of St. Olaf by the King of Norway. His prominent career ended with his death on December 19, 1910, three days short of his 84th birthday.