St. Petri Lutheran Church

The congregation formed by the 1919 merger cast here took a name no denomination yet held. When St. Petri, begun at Lake Thompson in 1882, joined the town's St. Paul in December 1919, the two called themselves the American Lutheran Church. Eleven years later, in 1930, three German-American synods, Ohio, Iowa and Buffalo, merged nationally under the same name, with headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, and in 1960 that body joined Norwegian and Danish churches in a new American Lutheran Church. One plaque beside this one names the same founding pastor, O. I. Satre.

What the plaque says

St. Petri Lutheran Church Originally Lake Thompson Ev. Lutheran Organized March 30, 1882 6 1/2 miles S.E. of DeSmet O. I. Satre, Founding Pastor Charter Members John Ekse · Knudt Simonson Ove Johnson · Ole Berqvan O. S. Sorsdal · Iver Amundson Iver Otterness · Martin Amundson Sivert Amble · Adolph Fargerlund F. O. Forsburg · Nils Kopperud Hans Kopaugen Merged with St. Paul's December 16, 1919 to form American Lutheran Church.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ingalls Homestead and the De Smet Historic Homes — 1.4 mi
  The quarter section a mile from De Smet that Charles Ingalls filed on in 1880 and proved up in 1886, the house in town he built, and the cottonwoods he planted.

More markers nearby

• Father Pierre Jean De Smet — steps away
• Site of the Ingalls Homestead 1880 — 1.1 mi
• Charles and Caroline Ingalls Homestead — 1.3 mi
• De Smet Forest / De Smet — 1.4 mi