Churches and Schools. 
15 
When the Norwegian ministers have gotten into a theological 
dispute, of which they have had many, their parishioners have 
invariably taken up the quarrel; and that they were in earnest 
about it is shown from the fact that they were, as a rule, willing 
to split up their congregations and go to the expense of building 
a separate church and of employing a separate minister. But 
among the Danes there is only one case on record of this kind, 
and in that case one of the factions was under the leadership of 
a Norwegian minister. 1 
The Norwegians have as a rule had more than twice as many 
parochial school teachers as they have had ministers and in the 
majority of their congregations parochial school has been held 
during some part of the year. In this line the Danes have done 
practically nothing. 
But it is in the matter of contributions for educational pur¬ 
poses that the difference between the Norwegians and Danes is 
apparent. During the five years, 1860-65, the Norwegians 
contributed for the erection of the Decorah college as much 
as three dollars per communicant. Several times since then they 
have equaled or exceeded this contribution ; and at present there 
are in connection with the Norwegian church sixteen colleges 
and academies, one of which, that at Decorah, Iowa, ranks with 
any of the American colleges in the West for the thoroughness 
of its course and the scholarship of its graduates. In 1892, these 
schools were attended by 2,160 students, nearly all of Norwegian 
parentage; and in all the schools great stress was laid on the 
teaching of the English language and other English branches. 
1 This congregation is located in Montcalm county, Michigan. It might 
be argued that the Danish congregations do not split up because they are 
too small to maintain two separate churches. This is undoubtedly true in 
some cases, but the Montcalm congregation separated during the ’70’s, when 
it was no larger in its entirety than some of the factions created by 
the split of 1893 between the Grundtvigians and Inner Mission people. 
During the summer of 1894 while visiting the Danish settlements in Polk 
county, Wisconsin, and Montcalm county, Michigan, I took special pains to 
find out the sentiment of the laymen on this quarrel, and the majority ex¬ 
pressed themselves in favor of peace. In fact, none of them were clear as to 
what the quarrel was about. Several times my inquiries were answered in 
this manner: “ We are ashamed of our ministers for quarreling, as they 
ought to know better.” 
