“Henrick J. Bomsta(d) who was married to Lester’s father’s cousin, marched through the Kandiyohi lake territory in its movements to protect the white settlers. Henrick liked the vicinity and later told his father, Reverend J A J Bomsta(d) of St Peter that he thought the northeast shore of Lake Lillian would be ideal for a home. Reverend Bomsta(d) was born in Balsfjord in the vicinity where Lester’s mother and other relatives were born in 1821. He was active in organizing with Rev Lammers the Apostolic Free church. He came to the US in 1862 stopping in St. Peter. In May 1864, impelled by his son’s report he rode to Lake Lillian on horseback…. The vicinity pleased him… where he built the Norwegian Danish Methodist church in which Lester was the first child baptized. In that same summer of 1864, Elias Anderson, husband of Beatta, Lester’s aunt, and friend of Rev Bomsta, moved his family from St. Peter to Lake Lillian.” So there we have it; there is a connection to this group! I love how our family history coincides with the history of Norway. What a great tool the internet is. I’m sure that Lester would love it!
Also in Lester's book I found this regarding Paulina's father, Hans Hansen and this Apostolic Free church. " Hans Hanson was an adherent of this church group and sometimes acted as a lay preacher."
According to the book Tromsø City History (Norwegian: Tromsø by Histori) written by Nils Andreas Ytreberg (1896–1987) (published in Norwegian), during the mid-19th century, Balsfjord became the religious home of a group of "mindekirken"or "freechurch dissenters" who split from the state church parish in Tromsø. The mindekirken movement in the Troms region was led by the seminary student, Johannes Andreas Johannessen Bomstad (born at Balsfjord on 23 August 1821), who split from the state church at the age of 28, under the leadership of the first Norwegian mindekirken movement leader, Rev. Lammers from Oslo. In 1856, Bomstad and his original followers established their own church which they called the "Free Apostolic Christian Church" in Balsfjord.
"Rev. Bomstad" and his followers were said to have struggled and protested against the Tromsø state church minister and the Troms Bishop's religious rulings, eventually leading to a riot in the town of Tromsø, when state-church members yelled at Bomstad and his fellow dissenters to "go back to Kautokeino (A small village in the most northern districts of Norway)". In 1862, Bomstad led a group of "mindekirken colonists" to America, traveling first to Bergen, where they sailed in mid-May 1862 aboard the Sleipner, arriving at the inland port of Chicago, Illinois on 2 August 1862. Their voyage was also noteworthy as the first transatlantic voyage sailing directly from Europe to the port of Chicago (other previous transoceanic ships disembarked first at Quebec, Canada.) After arriving in Chicago, the mindekirken colonists traveled overland to the area of St. Peter, Minnesota, where they remained during the "Dakota War of 1862".
Rev. Bomstad left St. Peter traveling by mule to Kandiyohi County, Minnesota, where near the east bank of a lake (previously called "Lake Lillian"), he became the founding father of Lake Lillian, Minnesota in May 1864 (one hour ahead of the town's next settler, Mr. O.E. Hart, previously of New York). After staking his original claim, a month later on 3 June 1864, Rev. Bomstad led the rest of the colonists from St. Peter to their new settlement at Lake Lillian, where they built dugout shelters to live in that first year (on the site later occupied by the First M.E. Methodist Church of Lake Lillian.) A few months later he and his family finished building and moved into their log cabin home.