Bernt J. Muus papers, 1855-1990

Biography/History:

Bernt Julius Muus was a Norwegian-American Lutheran minister and church leader. He helped found St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota. Born in Snåsa, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway on March 15, 1932. He was the grandson of the priest Jens Rynning and the nephew of the emigrant author Ole Rynning. After graduating from the Latin school of Trondheim in 1849, he entered the University of Christiania to study theology and completed his theological training in 1854. In 159, Muus immigrated to the United States.

Muus was the first pastor of Holden Lutheran Church in Kenyon, Minnesota. Muus also founded St. John's Lutheran Church in Northfield, Minnesota, Fox Lake Lutheran Church in Rice County, Minnesota and many other churches in southern Minnesota. Muus was also the bishop of the Minnesota District of the Norwegian Synod, took part in theological disputes, and urged the church to do more in the field of education. In 1874, Muus, along with a group of Norwegian-American immigrant pastors and farmers, founded St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. In 1898, due to Muus’ uncompromising nature and stubbornness, he was expelled from the church for failure to conform to doctrine.

Muus married Oline Pind in 1859. They had three children, Nils, Jens Ingebrigt Rynning, and Paul Johan Elster. After a lengthy and highly publicised legal battle, Pind was granted a limited divorce on January 20, 1883. Divorce in the Norwegian-Lutheran community was rare at this time. 

Scope and Content:

Articles, clippings, correspondence, lectures, sermons, court documents, family histories, and notes of a Norwegian-born clergyman and the founder of St. Olaf College. The file includes some Oline Muus letters and papers and the papers of Ole Willem Kluver, a great-grandson of B. J. Muus.

• Formal portrait of Harold Thoreson, Northfield businessman, and wife, 1880
• Formal portrait of Birgitte Muus, 1871
• Formal family portrait of B.J. Muus, daughter Bergitte and family, 1894
• Lithograph image collage of B.J. Muus, H.A. Preus, Johs. B. Frich, and V. Koren, undated