This congregation also was organized by Rev. Hasselquist in the year 1853. The founder was its pastor up to 1863, simultaneously with his pastorate in Galesburg, the church afterward receiving it own minister.

A small frame church was built in 1854 and dedicated Dec. 2nd, the following year, while still unfinished. The Americans in Knoxville had lent some aid toward its erection, but the bulk of the expense fell oh the impecunious members themselves, who scraped together the needed funds in various ways, ending by a voluntary assessment of one dollar for each hundred dollars worth of property, the valuation to be made by the owner. The little church, which they considered light and lofty, cost about $1,700, of which sum $800 had been paid.

The church in 1860 numbered one hundred and seventy-three communicants and its current annual expenses amounted to $250. In after years the congregation has had but a modest growth, the Swedes in this locality not being very numerous. At the beginning of 1907, the membership had reached 235, of whom 183 were communicants. Its church property, including church building, parsonage, and the lots appertaining, was valued at $3,000.

There lived in Knoxville from 1852 to 1855 a blacksmith by the name of Hakan Olson who, in view of the lack of clergymen, was induced by Rev. Hasselquist to study for the ministry. He was ordained in June 1860, when the Augustana Synod was organized, and labored in the ministry for more than forty years, including ten years in Illinois. Rev. Hakan Olson died in Port Wing, Wis., June 1, 1904.

Another of the laymen of the Knoxville church during the fifties who entered the ministry at the instance of Rev. Hasselquist was a farmer named Johannes Jongson, afterwards known as John Johnson, who became minister of the churches in Moline and in Princeton. (Swedes in Illinois-1906)

 

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