In his own words – Rev. L. C. Foss

“In January 1891, I received a call from the Church Council of the Norwegian Synod to my first parish as mission pastor in the states of Washington and Oregon. Accepting the call, I entered upon my ministry March 1st of the same year.

“I started my work in the northwestern part of Washington, where a number of small villages and towns were spread along the shoreline of Puget Sound. Here, it was comparatively easy to get the work started, although the country seemed almost forbidding. Giant firs and cedars all but shut out the sun, and the forests were very difficult to penetrate. Nevertheless, quite a number of Lutheran families had taken homestead and settled in these forests.

“The first to settle in the Nooksack Valley, east and north of Bellingham, was a Norwegian by the name Larsen. He lived in a cedar tree for a number of years. He had burned out the core of the tree and had no less accommodations than a kitchen downstairs and a bedroom upstairs. Farther up the river, two Norwegian brothers lived in a cedar stump. All of their worldly possessions were on the first floor.

“The trees in general were of immense dimensions. I saw once, in the Sehome mill, a fir square timber cut four feet square, one hundred feet long and not a single knot in it. To clear the land of these giant trees so that the rich soil could be cultivated was a task indeed. Nevertheless, it has been done.

“April 20, 1941, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the founding of our church at Lawrence, Washington, in the Nooksack Valley. The forests have now largely disappeared and rich farms now dot the valley.

“Lack of roads and bridges made communication difficult in the pioneer days. The pastor had to crowd into the day of his visit as much as possible, if he was to cover the field to any extent at all and to get results. My day was divided in this way: 9–11, school; 11–12:30, services; 2:30–4:00, Ladies Aid; 7:30–9, choir, where possible. This was repeated daily as I moved about.

“In those days, I always had well-prepared confirmands. The parents did their best to help. [On] August 7, 1892, we had our first confirmation. I had gathered confirmands from the whole field of Whatcom, now Bellingham, in a little German Lutheran church. They had learned their books in the language in which their mothers could best help them. Therefore, the answers to my questions were given in Norwegian, German, Swedish, or English. They all acquitted themselves very well, and we had a blessed day.

“When the service was over and the people had left the church, I packed my satchel and started for the door. But over in the corner, I noticed a mother sitting alone and asked her why she lingered. She answered, ‘I cannot leave the church as long as some of the people remain outside. I cannot show myself in public.’

“See here! She rose to her feet and I saw that her dress was torn to shreds. To my question, ‘How did this happen?’ she replied, ‘You remember the turn in the road? A bear was sitting there, and I tried to scare him away. He only showed his teeth, so I tried to walk around him by going into the woods, but you know it is impossible to get through the underbrush in woman’s attire. I picked up the tip of a fallen tree and went for the bear, and in the scuffle, either his claws or the tree-tip have ruined my dress. When I saw that he had done to my dress, I got real angry and went for him, and he finally thought it best to leave the road to me.’

“I told her, ‘There has been a third party in this fight. Let us thank God.’ And we did. I offered to get her some clothes, but she said, ‘There is only a few rods to the timber. I am alright.’ And she had walked ten miles to church and now had ten miles to return home. I have often thought of this, when I see how little it takes now to keep some people from the House of God.

“The Ladies Aids were in those days—as they are now—of great importance in our churches, but they had difficulties to overcome which hardly exist now. Here is one example: The Aid was to meet with a family located on an island in the delta of the Skagit River. A boat was [to be] left for us who came from the east side of the river. Twelve women came to this landing by the east side of the river, but the boat was gone. As we stood perplexed, a big log came floating down the river near enough to shore so that I could reach it with a long fence-board. I finally got it into shore and placed six women on one end of the log, and I stood as skipper at the other end. I paddled them across, went back again and fetched the remaining six. Yes, we got there all right, even if we did not have automobiles and paved roads.

“God has greatly blessed our small beginnings in this rich and beautiful land. We have turned modern now in our ways of transportation, but we are trying to heed the Lord’s exhortation, ‘Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein; and ye shall find rest for your souls.’ Jer. 6: 16.”

(Written in 1941 on the occasion of the congregation’s 50th anniversary)