"My 3x-great grandfather, Rev. Johannes Andreas Johannessen Bomstad, was the mindekirken (dissenter) leader in Troms during the 1850-60's, who led the colony of Troms dissenters from Balsfjord area in 1862, sailing from Bergen to the Chicago, IL aboard the "Sleipner." Their voyage was noteworthy not only because he was leading a colony of Norwegians, Kvaen and Sami folk (who broke with the State Church) to the U.S. seeking religious freedom, but also because their voyage was the first trans-Atlantic voyage to an inland port (Chicago), without first landing somewhere along the St. Lawrence Seaway. There is a plaque on a bridge in Chicago noting their landing, however the actual records of the landing were destroyed in the great fire of Chicago (Mrs. O'Leary's cow did it!) There is a booklet in the Decorah library which mentions their voyage and landing, which has a photo of the port area, circa 1862.

After landing in Chicago, the group traveled overland to the St. Peter, MN area, arriving just in time for the onset of the 1862 Dakota Uprising (war) against the reservation superintendent (which eventually spread to a war between the settlers in south central Minnesota. The colony remained in St. Peter for two years because the military forbid any travel or settlement outside that area during the Uprising. In 1864, after learning of the Lake Lillian area from his son (who enlisted in the Civil war but was deployed in the Indian Uprising.) In May 1864 Rev. Bomstad rode a donkey from St. Peter to Lake Lillian, where he staked a claim on land along the east shore of Lake Lillian. He was the founder of the town of Lake Lillian (originally the East Lake Lillian township), arriving one hour before another settler. After staking the claim, he returned to lead the rest of the colony to Lake Lillian, were dozens of additional claims were staked by his sons and cousins and brothers, and by the other mindekirken colonists.

A booklet celebrating the Centennial of Lake Lillian's founding was published by the (then) Lake Lillian Crier Newspaper in May 1964. A copy of the booklet is on file at the MN History Center.

Rev. Bomstad's ancestor Johannes Josefsson Örn, who was born in Muonio, Finland, migrated from the Tornedalen area to Lyngen in the late 1760's, and later migrated to Balsfjord, Troms, where he settled on a farmplace called Bomstad. (The farmplace has a waterfall on the property.) He and his wife were Kvaen, but several of the descendant family members were married to Sami folk, Swedish migrants and Troms Norwegians. Anne Varberg, Anne Beckett and myself are descended from this family.

Rev. Bomstad's daughter Sina (Johannesdatter) Bomstad was married as a teenaged girl (in an arranged marriage) to Rev. Bomstad's friend, Dr. Andreas Nielson (Andreas Nilssen), whom he met sometime during his stay in the Oslo area. Dr. Nielson (who was born in Holonda, Melhus parish, Sor-Trondelag) was attending medical school there. One of Sina and Dr. Nielson's sons, Joseph Borneman Nielson, married my Sami greatgrandmother, Bertha Kristina Susanna Larsdatter in Lake Lillian, MN (a few years after her emigration to the U.S. in about 1905.)

I just uploaded a batch of photos I took a few years ago at the Minnesota History Center (St. Paul, MN), of a handful of books Rev. Bomstad wrote (some in Norwegian, one in English.) They can be viewed at the History center in the Genealogy reference library. The call numbers of the folio containing the books are visible in the photos. Feel free to browse them...

As a matter of note, "Reverend" Bomstad was never really ordained, having met Jacob Lammers while in the seminary school near Oslo, Norway during the 1850's. Rev. Lammers was the mindekirken leader in southern Norway, and influenced Rev.Bomstad to break with the State Church of Norway (because of the onerous (sic?) treatment and taxation of commoners by the clergy and the Norwegian government.) The mindekirker's believed that one did not need a member of the clergy to pray, and definitely not a cleric who was really a political appointee rather than a religious representative of the community. Prior to the colony's departure from Troms, there were riots in the streets of Tromso, between the mindekirkers and the Bishop of Tromso's followers."