The ELS of 1918

We continue with a series of biographies of the pastors who attended the reorganization convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod in 1918. There is evidence for the presence of at least thirteen pastors along with two hundred guests at this convention.
In 1918, Bjug Harstad was elected as the first president of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod. At the age of sixty-nine years, he was the oldest of the thirteen pastors whose attendance is recorded at Lime Creek and the only one born in Norway where a granite monument stands in his memory. In 1918, he was the pastor of Parkland Lutheran Church in Tacoma, Washington, where he established Pacific Lutheran Academy (today, Pacific Lutheran University). Prior to this he had served a mission field near Mayville, North Dakota, where he was instrumental in founding nineteen congregations and three schools in the Red River Valley. He was an essayist at the 1918 ELS convention and served as the synod’s president until 1922. He married Guro Omlid. He died in 1933.
In 1918, Emil Hansen was living a few miles from Lime Creek Lutheran Church, and he was the pastor of the Scarville and Center congregations at Scarville, Iowa, along with Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Albert Lea, Minnesota. These congregations were being organized at that time. He later served at Mayville, North Dakota; Bygland, Minnesota; and Volga, South Dakota. For many years he served on the synod’s Home Mission Board. It appears that he delivered the final Norwegian language essay to the 1938 convention. He married Annette Anderson. He died in 1956.
In 1918, Henry Ingebritson hosted the first ELS convention at Lime Creek Lutheran Church near Lake Mills, Iowa, where he served as pastor for forty-four years along with the congregation in Lake Mills. Because the congregations had lost the parsonage due to the merger of 1917, the host pastor lived in the newly constructed barn, and it was there that he entertained guests during the 1918 convention. He is remembered for his outstanding musical ability and directed the choral union choir in 1918. He is also remembered for his staunch support of Christian education. He served as the synod’s president, 1936–41. He married Ella Thompson and, following her death, Inger Honsey. He died in 1959.