November 1, 1878 -- The new Danish folk school was dedicated by the community, president Olaf L. Kirkeberg, teachers Kristian Ostergaard and Mr. Crouse, and nine students.

Danish farmers gathered at the school under flags of the United States, Denmark and Norway (the pastor was a Norwegian). The Danish flag floated from the pole atop the building and the U. S. flag was hung over the lecture hall entrance.

"We will reclaim--literally clothe--the barren mountain," Pastor Kirkeberg told the gathering, taking his dedication text from the Norwegian poet-author Bjornstjorne Bjornson. It was both a festive and serious day for the Danes, anxious to do pioneer work in the church, school and community.

Pastor Kirkeberg introduced the teachers. Ostergaard came to Elk Horn from Denmark and was assigned to Danish instruction in reading, geography and grammar, and lectures on Danish literature. Crouse (an American and the highest paid at $35 per month and board and lodging) was assigned to elementary English, arithmetic, U. S. history and geography.

Pastor Kirkeberg took charge of lectures ranging from general history and Scandinavian history, through Scandinavian mythology, to history of the Christian church.

Students were accepted at $14 per month for board, room and tuition. Teachers and students took meals in the nearby parsonage and had sleeping quarters in the school building.

Pastor Kirkeberg told the Danes the upper story lecture hall, reached by an outside stairway as well as from inside, was open to community meetings and church services.

The five-room ground floor included a classroom, a sleeping room for students, the president's office, an office for the teacher-assistants and an entryway.

At the front of the building atop a porch-type roof, was a small alcove tower topped by the flag pole.

Pastor Kirkeberg, true to his Norwegian heritage, had cut into a large glass window over the entrance: "Leif Erickson's Minde" (memorial). He justified his action by saying it was fitting that the first such school in America honor the first Northman to reach its shores. It proved an irritant to many of the Danes.

The men who organized the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America largely were products of Denmark's Christian folk high school system. Articles urging such a school for immigrants were published in "Kirkelig Samler" and "Den Danske Pioneer." The strength of the Elk Horn Danes was affirmed in their ability to advance the idea to reality.

The congregation voted to give Pastor Kirkeberg title to about three acres: "that piece of land south of the cemetery, to the trees north of the parsonage." The pastor thus was the school's nominal owner.

Cost of the building was expected to total about $2,000. The congregation started the project with $100. Other contributions came from U. S. Danes and from Denmark.

Pastor Kirkeberg was short of the $2,000 when he ordered construction in the summer of 1878. Danish farmers donated time, wagons and teams to haul building materials in from Audubon, 18 miles away along the ridge road.

The school was dedicated as a prep school for otential theology students as well as a folk school with a general study curriculum with additional public lectures on biblical, historical, literary, scientific and social topics. A practical offering was English instruction for immigrants.

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Transcribed byCheryl Siebrass, July, 2022, from Elk Horn 1868-1918, page 5.