Honoring Oliver Berg, U.S. Navy, Deceased in 1918: A Funeral Sermon by Rev. Karl Xavier

***Please note: Article published, but is IN DRAFT FORM  August 1, 2013**

Honoring Oliver Berg, U.S. Navy, Deceased in 1918: A Funeral Sermon by Rev. Karl Xavier

(Copyright 2012-2013, John Edward Xavier. All Rights Reserved)


  Dedicated to The Memory of Oliver Berg and His Extended Family


Preface: The Funeral Sermon Manuscript As An Example of Historic Preservation

     The rare World War I sermon manuscript for the funeral of Oliver Berg has survived along with other Xavier family papers due to various family preservation efforts covering nearly ninety years. These efffort were led initially by daughter Valborg (Xavier) Houghtelin, who held the funeral manuscript for nearly sixty years following her father's death.

     Later, her efforts were taken up by two sons and their wives, Rev. Karl Astrup and Edith (Bethke) Xavier; and Valdemar Ulrik and Elna (Johnson) Xavier. They became the initial preservers of the papers in 1980, when Valborg had to begin residence in a nursing home. Later, for the poetry manuscripts, those papers would go to eldest half-sister, Magdalene X Visovatti, as translator and co-custodian with her husband, Toffil. Karl Astrup (my father) and Valdemar would retain pepers including sermons, essays, and speeches. Valdemar, organizer extraordinaire, would coordinate the publication of the poetry once Magdalene had translated the Norwegian poems to the English, as she did by 1982. Valdemar arranged their publication in book form, under the title Norwegian Poems. 

     Around 2004 or so, I suggested that the Oliver Berg funeral manuscript could give rise to a valuable history project, which has now evolved into a full-scale historical essay. My mother, Edith (Bethke) Xavier, generously agreed with my suggestion and graced me with the possession of the Oliver Berg funeral manuscript which is the very core of this essay.

     We who are descendants of Rev. Karl, Henrietta (Larsen) and Bina (Kamrud) Xavier hail these forebears who have given us, in this funeral sermon, a gift of a direct link both with history, and as well with the brief life of Oliver Berg.

     To allow early publication, the preface and introduction will brief, followed by a transcription of the manuscript of the funeral sermon as authored and delivered by Rev. Xavier. Additional background material will be added over time, and will be documented along with early material.

      To facilitate reading, author names in footnotes will be in bold print; footnotes will appear at the bottom of each section of the essay of the funeral sermon manuscript. Any editing changes or remarks in the sermon manuscript will be shown by brackets and/or footnotes. Footnotes with multiple sources will be assigned letters to go with the main footnote number, e.g., [1a], [1b], etc. Naturally this essay will ultimately be refined to the standards of professional historical work, but to avoid delay, early drafts will be posted and modified, especially if we receive new information from sources in Nebraska.

 Acknowledgements

     For their many contributions to this long-aborning project, I thank many people  First of all, thanks go out  to several family members for preserving the manuscript "Funeral Sermon (Oliver Berg)"--without which the project would not be possible: Valborg (Xavier) Houghtelin, Karl Astrup Xavier and Edith (Bethke) Xavier; Valdemar Ulrik. and Elna (Johnson) Xavier. Similar gratitude is expressed to Magdalene X. Visovatti and her husband, Toffil Visovatti, for work of custodial, curating and translation nature.

      For furnishing other materials, critical reading, and encouragement, in alphabetical order: Evelyn Ashford, Rev. Richard and Solveig Beckmen, Prof. Odell Bjerkness, Eric Decker, M.S.; Lynn Gleason; Prof. Charles Grubb, Jennifer Harkenon; Immanuel-Zion Lutheran Church, Albion Nebraska; Ellen Marie Jensen and Arden Johnson: Alf Isak Keskitalo; Mary X. and husband Steve LaBelle; Martha X. and husband Harry Mueller; Prof. David Olshin; Chris Pesklo; Bert T. Rude III, M.A., journalist and living history specialist; Jennifer Wandrsee; and the Rev. Dr. Joel V. Xavier, fellow cousin-grandson of Rev. Karl Xavier and Bina (Kamrud) Xavier;

     Finally, I thank the staff of the Hosmer and Central Locations of the Hennepin County Librairies, and Prof. Boyd Koehler of Augsburg College in Minneapolis. For the support of these as well as of others I may have omitted, I offer gratitude, with apologies for any omissions.

Introduction: The Communities of Oliver Berg  in 1918

     This essay is to honor the memory of Oliver Berg, a young Nebraskan who died in October of 1918 while in the United States Navy. Oliver Berg died in training for military service during the waning but still-furious days of World War I (then usually referred to as The Great War). He had been stationed only about two months at the U.S. Navy's Great Lakes Naval Training Facility, Chicago, Illinois.
     This was when the United States and, indeed, the world, were caught in the full force of the great Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1919. Also known as the Spanish Flu (or simply the Influenza), the epidemic cost lives by the millions, both civilian and military, in numbers greater than the Great War itself. As the Influenza struck the Great Lakes Training Facility, young Oliver Berg died after becoming one of its many  victims in military service. [1]
     Oliver Berg's communities approached his life and death with sorrow and dignity. Among his communities was counted the prominent Immanuel (Norwegian) Lutheran Church, in northeastern Nebraska. Oliver and his extended families had been highly involved not only in that church since its founding in the 1870s. The Bergs were active in other Norwegian Lutheran organizations, and in the larger communities, in the agricultural area of Boone and Madison counties, near Albion and Norfolk. The Berg families were large and had sunk deep roots into northeastern Nebraska communities.
     The extended families of Oliver Berg were known in a three-state area (Nebraska, Minnesota and South Dakota), including in the Sioux Falls, South Dakota institution of higher learning, The Lutheran Normal School. "The Normal," or "LNS," was a Norwegian Lutheran teacher's college for primary and secondary school teachers for both public or church-oriented (parochial) schools. It is noteworthy that the officiating pastor at Oliver's funeral, Rev. Karl Xavier, had already for some thirteen or fourteen years known several of Oliver's relatives. Among them were several of Oliver's cousins, mostly daughters of his uncle Iver I. Berg and his successive wives, Elie (Fodness) and Marit (Strand).
     To illustrate the deep involvement of the Berg families, those cousins of Oliver Berg had been Rev. Xavier's colleagues or students during his years at The Normal from 1903-1910. At The Normal, Rev, Xavuer was Professor of Norwegian and Religion and editor of the teachers' newsletter Skoleblad [School News]. Ida Marie Berg, an LNS grad, was a colleague of his, as a Normal instructor of several subjects including writing and arithmetic from 1903-1908. Two more cousins, students of Rev. Xavier, graduated from the Normal: Rina Mathilde Berg (1904) and Marie J. Berg (1911). Other cousins of Oliver who attended the normal without graduating included Albert E. Berg, Martha I. Berg, and Sigrid K. Berg.
     Rev. Xavier was Immanuel's pastor in 1918, at the time of Oliver Berg's funeral; he had been there since leaving The Normal in 1910, and would ultimately serve another year, until late 1919. His pastorate at Immanuel covered the salad days of rural America (the "parity years"), and was also notable for the transition from Norwegian to English in church services.
     Rev.Karl Xavier and his talented wife Bina (Kamrud) and their Immanuel parish were quite renowned in the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Synod (often referred to as The Synod until 1917). Karl and Bina were active leaders in regional and national church organizations. Their creative work, often conducted jointly, included roles in church organization, music, publishing and translation. They continued their high-profile work after 1917 in the newly formed national merger of several Norwegian Lutheran groups, known post-merger as the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America (NLCA). Rev. Karl Xavier, took his pastoral work seriously, as did his wife, Bina, in the tradition of an educated leadership class trained to the calling of the clergy. [2]
     The life and death of Oliver Berg represent the junction of a number of large forces at work in America and the world during the end-years of the Great War. In that context, we can justify a concentrated look at Oliver Berg's funeral as a "microhistory"  This nearly hundred-year-old event, so important to a specific rural community in 1918, has much to teach us about what I choose to call the "long reach" of even a very focused microhistory. We honor Oliver Berg as we gain in understanding of his America and of his home area of eastern Nebraska in 1918, so beset by war and pestilence. [3]
     To properly honor Oliver Berg, this essay will include substantial material on World War I. Among that material will be found information on Oliver, his family, and the Bradish, Nebraska community where they lived; the officiating minister at his funeral, Rev. Karl Xavier; and, of course, the sermon manuscript of Oliver's funeral.

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[1a] Karl Xavier, "Funeral Sermon (Oliver Berg)" in manuscript, original in possession of the author, (Bradish, NE, 1918), pp. 1-2
[1b] Holice Ballard Young and Bill Wever, submitters, "WWI Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines from Boone County, Nebraska," derived from "Nebraska Military" Boone County, NE (Lincoln, NE: Nebraska State Historical Society). Part of USGenWeb Nebraska Archives. Site visited several times in 2005-2012.
     See further, for detail on the Influenza Epidemic: Carol R. Byerly, Fever of War: The Influenza Epidemic in the U.S. Army during World War I. New York: New York University Press, 2005.   
     See also, Alfred W. Crosby, America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, c. 1989.    

[2]  Larry Spomer, Ed., 100th Anniversary History of Immanuel-Zion Parish, Albion Nebraska: 1874-1974. (Albion, NE: I-Z Parish, 1974), pp. 6-12. As was so often the case in the lands west of the Mississippi, place names evolved over time. Immanuel Church was for many years locally referred to as South Branch. (This was either in reference to the branches of Shell Creek or to branches of rail and road lines, or all of the above.) Readers can properly assume that any reference to South Branch in this essay pertains to the Immanuel Church. Immanuel, having gone through various consolidations, is now known as Immanuel-Zion, or I-Z.
[2a] On Immanuel Lutheran Church (Bradish), see: Olaf M. Norlie, et al., Norsk Lutherske Minigheten i Amerika. [Norwegian Lutheran Congregations in America] Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1918.

[2b] See also, Elisabeth (Turmo) Berg, "History of the South Branch Parsonage 1894-1909," in Spomer. pp. 15, 48. Ms. Berg (nee Aasa Elisabeth Turmo), a sister-in-law of Oliver Berg, recounted how Immanuel was deemed worthy to act as host church of a major multi-state church conference in 1900. Notable among attendees of that large gathering were Norwegian Lutheran leaders Rev. U.V. Koren, Rev. N.P. Xavier (Rev. Xavier's father), and Prof. Laur. Larsen (Rev. Xavier's father-in-law from his deceased first wife, Henrietta).
     In further reference to the long reach of even a microhistory,  Elisabeth (Turmo) Berg presents an interesting example. She was the youngest daughter of a former pastor of Immanuel, Rev. Andrew Turmo, and was once a student of Rev. Karl Xavier during his tenure from 1903-1910 as a professor at Lutheran Normal School  in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. At The Normal, Elizabeth was also a schoolmate of Bina Kamrud, a student returning after some years as in the teaching field. Elizabeth's husband, Eli Berg was of the founding Berg families of the South Branch-Immanuel community; he also attended LNS, in his case during the 1890s, as a contemporary there with Elizabeth's older sister, Lena Turmo.
     Of greater importance for this article is that Ms. Berg was a sister-in-law of Oliver Berg, having married  Eli, Oliver's eldest brother in 1926, "in...[the Immanuel parsonage] parlor, brother Olaf officiating." Rev. Olaf Turmo, pastor of Immanuel from 1920-41, carried on a Turmo tradition: four Turmos held pastorates there from 1894 to 1941, interrupted only by Rev. Karl. Xavier's pastorate of 1910-1919!
[2c] See also, "Henry I. Berg History," in Spomer, p. 48. The Berg family of Henry I. and Ragnild (Knudson) Berg was large, with eleven children. Henry's brother Iver I. Berg lived in the same area, with at least two daughters, Ida Marie (Berg) Nelson and Marie J. (Berg) Frank. Ida was a teaching colleague of Rev. Karl Xavier at LNS from 1903-1908, while Marie was his student there 907-1910. Other probable daughters of Iver I. Berg, on whom my records are inadequate, include Matha I. Berg, Sigrid K. Berg and Rina (Berg) Strand. All three were students of Rev. Karl Xavier at The Normal, and Rina would become, along with husband Martin, a foster parent to Karl Astrup Xavier, for about two years, 1925-27. On the Iver Berg family see Spomer, p. 48.
[2d] See also, Olaf M. Norlie, et al., School Calendar: Teachers and Educators in Norwegian Lutheran Schools and Colleges. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1924), pp. 67-68. 
[2e] See further, Sivert A. Jordahl, Memorial History: Lutheran Normal School Sioux Falls, South Dakota 1889-1918 (Moorhead, MN: Sivert A. Jordahl, 1918), pp. 74, 77, 80, 89, 90-93, 99.
[2f] for biography on Rev. Xavier, see John [Edward] Xavier, "Karl Xavier (1869-1924)," Arran Nos. 54 & 55 (2009-2010), pp. 5-8. [Note: Thanks to Arden Johnson, Editor emeritus of Arran (publication of the Sami Siida of North America)  for encouragement, editorial assistance, and permission to use Arran material.]
 [2g] See further, on Rev. Karl Xavier and Bina (Kamrud) Xavier, including education, publications, parishes served, etc. Olaf M. Norlie, et al., Who's Who Among Pastors in the Norwegian Lutheran Churches of North America. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1928. Also, Olaf M. Norlie, et al., School Calendar: Teachers and Educators in Norwegian Lutheran Schools and Colleges. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1924. 

[2h] Leigh D. Jordahl, "The Gentry Tradition--Men and Women of a Leadership Class: How Shall the Faith and Human Culture Interrelate, " in Charles P. Lutz, Ed., Church Roots. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1985), pp. 101-117. The Lutz work, has become a standard source in the history of The American Lutheran Church  (TALC), a successor to the Synod of pre-World War I.
          Church Roots includes considerable information and bibliography on the process of church body mergers, and spin-offs by those remaining outside of the big merger of 1917, including solid essays on other Norwegian-American Lutheran groups. These include Hauge Synod, as well as Iowa, United Norwegian, and Lutheran Free groups. It is worthy of note that member of the extended Xavier family had roles in all of these Norwegian ethnic Lutheran groups, over many decades, and up to and including our time in 2012.
     An example of the active gentry-class leadership of Karl and Bina in the work of religion and assimilation is found in Karl's leadership in favor of the adoption of English-language worship services at the Immanuel and Vor Frelsers churches, in 1914. The move to English was well in advance of the war-inspired anti-foreign language pressures and measures to require political conformity which emerged after the United States declared war in April of 1917. Larry Spomer, Ed., 100th Anniversary History of Immanuel-Zion Parish. 1874-1974. (Albion, NE: 1974), p. 6.

[3] Jill Lepore, "Historians Who Love Too Much: Reflections on Microhistory and Biography," Journal of American History, Vol 88, No. 1 (June, 2001), pp. 129-144. Prof. Lepore explains the workings and advantages of close-in studies such as this, as scholars and the reading public-at-large seek to understand the larger picture.
[3a] Nancy Gentile Ford, Americans ALL!: Foreign-born Soldiers in World War I. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2004. Ford discusses the multiple ethnic groups making up the Expeditionary Force (US Army abroad) in World War I.
[3b] On assimilation and urbanization trends: Jon R. Jenswold, " Becoming American, Becoming Suburban: Norwegian-Americans in the 1920s," NAS XXXIII (1992), pp.3-26.
[3c] Carl H. Chrislock, Ethnicity Challenged: The Upper Midwest Norwegian-American Experience in World War I. Topical Studies, Vol 3. (Northfield, MN: NAHA, 1981), especially the chapter "The Politics of Loyalty," pp. 89-121. This is a thorough study of the complexities of ethnicity and (especially) of social and religious aspects of the Norwegian-American communities in mid-America in World War I.
[3d] On the life of N.P. Xavier (1839-1918): Einar Niemi, "Nils Paul Xavier: Sami Teacher and Pastor on the American Frontier," NAS, vol. 34 (1995), pp.245-270.
[3e] Karl Xavier, "Nils Paul Xavier: En skisse," Nord-Norge, 12 (1918), p.14-18. On p. 18 is Karl's unsigned poem, "In Memoriam," dedicated to the honor if the late Nils Paul Xavier.
[3f] John E. Xavier, "Nils Paul and Amanda: Technology Expands theStory of My Sami-American Family," Arran, Number 46 (Gidda/Spring 2007), pp. 4-6.

[3g] As an example of the large casualties of World War I, which shocked many Americans, refer to a website on the February 1914 German torpedo attack and sinking of the troopships Tuscania. Steve Schwartz, site manager, Tuscania, An American History: Histories, Photos, Memorials, and more, at http://www.freepages. history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~carmita/index.htm (Site visited Jan 10, 2012. Thanks to Mr. Schwartz for posting detailed information about Pvt. Gothard Xavier of 6th Batallion, 20th Engineers Regiment, Company F (later 18th Co.). When the Tuscania was torpedoed with heavy loss of life, Mr. Schwartz notes, it "was a story that shocked America, for it was the first time since the American Civil War that Americans had felt the loss of mass casualties on such a large scale." (from Home page). Garth Xavier survived the war, and re-entered the lumber industry, where he held several positions, including as a government lumber inspector.
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Part I. The World of Oliver Berg: 
His Connections to Family, Communities, and the Officiating Minister at His Funeral

 
     The death of Oliver Berg in the fall of 1918 at an early age surely presented his family and community with a number of issues, mostly of social and religious nature. Those who felt the loss of Oliver would have sensed bewilderment and grief, among other emotions. By the fall of 1918, such emotions due to cause of war were not foreign to the Immanuel Church., for by then war had gone on for a year and a half. In that time several area young men had been casualties to the Great War, as World War I was known at the time.
     Yet each event of death for a young member of the military services called forth a new cycle of grief for the community and a simultaneous need for community support for the family. For this was a time of closely-knit communities, where almost everyone knew each other, or about each other. As prominent Minnesota funeral home director John Lynch has said recently, "The dead do not care, but the dead matter." Surely this is true, for the dead matter to those of us who remain in the world of the living. [1]
     Thus, it fell to Rev. Karl Xavier, the pastor of Immanuel Church, my grandfather, to carry out a two-fold task for coping with community bewilderment and grief. His role as pastor and church leader would be first to officiate at the funeral service. Then, beyond the rites and standard hymns, he would deliver the funeral sermon. This sermon, like most, drew on a number of core Biblical references, but was at the same time an openly verbal expression Rev. Xavier's own and the public feelings about the loss of Oliver.
     The year 1918 was a long year, with death and destruction of war and of the normal course of life, it had fallen on Rev. Xavier to officiate at several funerals, and to compose a lengthy life sketch ("skisse" in Norwegian) in honor of his own father, Rev. Nils Paul Xavier. A reader today would do well to imagine the solemn but heartfelt delivery of the sermon for Oliver Berg. The sermon would have been marked by the rich baritone for which the scholarly Rev. Xavier was well known, as this pastor by thoughtful words placed the loss of Oliver Berg in a meaningful framework for Oliver's family and for the larger community, as well. [2]
     The loss of young Oliver Berg was personally felt by Rev. Xavier, for he had developed considerable ties to Oliver's family. The most important of those ties arose from the considerable time the Xavier family resided in the Oliver's home community, the Bradish area.  This area was in the heart of the northeastern Nebraska region predominantly populated by Norwegian immigrants and first-generation descendants. Bradish  was not far removed from Albion or Norfolk, near the line between Madison and Boone counties.
     Rev. Xavier's role there since 1910 was as pastor of Oliver's home congregation, Immanuel Lutheran Church, and of the Vor Frelsors (Our Savior's) Church as well. In that region, Immanuel Lutheran Church was among the most prominent Nebraska congregations in the Norwegian Lutheran Synod (known usually as The Synod), about 120 miles northwest of Omaha. And there in that region and in Immanuel were to be found many in Oliver Berg's extended family.
     The Berg extended family first arrived in the Bradish area in the 1870s, and from that time was active in Immanuel Lutheran Church. Oliver's parents, Henry I. and Ragnild (Knudson) Berg and their large family had been a significant presence, in both that church and the larger community. As will be evident from the following sermon manuscript, young Oliver Berg had also begusn to assume responsibilities within the Immanuel church community.  [3] 
     Thus it was that Rev. Karl Xavier composed and delivered a funeral sermon in honor of Oliver Berg. This was the sort of sermon painfully delivered during World war I throughout the U.S. and Canada. Yet, this sermon honoring Oliver Berg does so not only by its words: this sermon remains unique due to the rarity of its survival in manuscript form. Few, if any, such manuscripts exist any longer in the archives of the Norwegian Lutheran Church (and its successors), or in other known places of preservation.
     The sermon was written in Rev. Xavier's classic hand, in English, for he was at home in several languages, in the honored tradition of his father, Nils Paul Xavier. Rev. Xavier had already led the transition of church activities at Immanuel from the Norwegian to the English, in 1914, prior to the outbreak of World War I. The sermon manuscript, in nearly perfect condition, is a rarely found original document from that time. The document honors Oliver, delivering him forth to us from out of the fog and mists of time, as a written accompaniment of  faded, but surviving, war photographs of a near-century past.
     Along that line of bringing forth from the past, compiling this post with the professionalism of the historian is a most difficult challenge. That challenge arises from both the need for respectful research on Oliver Berg's funeral and its twin need for respectful approaches to the intensity of the words and circumstances leading to Oliver Berg's funeral.
     The passage of time has bought some sort of opportunity to be historically objective about Oliver Berg's funeral and my grandfather's sermon. That is simply because I have personally met only Rina (Berg) Strand of the extended Berg family. Also, I did not know Rev. Karl Xavier, my grandfather, for he died in 1924, over twenty years before my own birth. But his children knew him, and his early death prompted one daughter, Valborg Henrietta Xavier (later Valborg Houghtelin), to save on her own initiative a number of his manuscripts, including poetry, sermons, essays, and speeches.
     Valborg feared the post-death chaos in the family would result in the loss of her father's papers, and so somehow preserved those manuscripts in loving fashion for 56 years. Then they were discovered as several family members assisted Valborg to move to a nursing home. I recall the looks exchanged among those of us present as we realized the importance of her thick file labeled (as I recall) "Father's Papers." When asked about it, Valborg was both clear and adamant, as she said that she saved the papers, because "Everything was going, moving, being sold, or burned."
     The papers were saved, as explained in the preface, with the proper disposition of the file folder was immediately decided in about thirteen or fourteen minutes by two of Valborg's brothers and their wives: Karl Astrup and Edith Xavier; and Valdemar U. and Elna Xavier. It was a short, once-in-a-lifetime meeting of the minds.
     As a result of all this family activity, the Oliver Berg funeral sermon manuscript was preserved. Thus, in this essay, we honor both the memory of Oliver Berg and that of Rev. Karl Xavier, the author of the sermon  manuscript. We do this by publishing for the first time another of Rev. Xavier's papers preserved by his daughter, Valborg Henrietta (Xavier) Houghtelin. This is a prime example of meaningful history: loved, preserved and published.
     We who nearly a century later read this are called on to ponder for at least a few moments another world:  the life and times of Oliver Berg. Then, let us ponder as well the fortuitous circumstances and the worthy individuals whose preservation efforts have allowed us a first-hand look at the world of 1918, the world of the life and times of Oliver Berg, and his community, through the words of his pastor, Rev. Karl Xavier. [4]

[1b] Holice Ballard Young and Bill Wever, submitters, "WWI Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines from Boone County, Nebraska," derived from "Nebraska Military" Boone County, NE (Lincoln, NE: Nebraska State Historical Society). Part of USGenWeb Nebraska Archives. Site visited several times in 2005-2012.
[1a] Karl Xavier, "Funeral Sermon (Oliver Berg)" manuscript, original in possession of the author, (Bradish, NE, 1918), pp. 1-2.
[1b] On the impact of the Influenza Epidemic, see Carol R. Byerly, Fever of War: The Influenza Epidemic in the U.S. Army during World War I. New York: New York University Press, 2005. 
[1c] Alfred W. Crosby, America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, c. 1989.
[1d] Nancy Gentile Ford, Americans ALL!: Foreign-born Soldiers in World War I. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2004.

[2a] Larry Spomer, Ed. Immanuel Zion Lutheran Church 1874-1974 Centennial. (Albion, NE: Immanuel Lutheran Church, 1974),  p 48.

[3a] Olaf Morgan Norlie, School Calendar 1824-1924: A Who's Who among Teachers in the Norwegian Lutheran Synods of America. (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1924), 67, 68
[3b] Spomer,  pp. 4, 48.

Footnotes for editing: Nord Norge SKISSE / Arran article.

Ida Marie Berg (daug. of Iver I. Berg and Elie Fodness  att lns 1893-95, 96-98. facualty lns 1903-1908.

Marie J. Berg.

att lns 1907-1911 grad nor wng class; iver and marit strand

Sivert A Jordahl, Memorial History Lutheran Normal School Sioux Falls , South Dakota 1889-1918
Nplace, sA Jordalh

Benson Bobrick, Wide as the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution It Inspired (NY: Simon & Schuster, 2001).

The United States and Nebraska in 1918: Family and Community Contexts
        

     Much of the America of the World War I era has been wiped out by economic and political changes since that war ended in November of 1918. The decade of the 1910s marked the peak and final years of the dominance of rural America, on balance the equal of urban America in both political and economic power. The family of Oliver Berg had already been active in the Bradish, Nebraska area since the 1870s, when Oliver's father, Henry I. Berg claimed land near Immanuel Church.  It was in those peak years, the "parity years,"The decade of the 1910s Yet it was in that America, from 1910 to 1919, that Rev. Karl Xavier and his wife, Bina (Kamrud) served the Immanuel Lutheran parish in rural eastern Nebraska. The Xavier family lived near Albion, located in a predominantly Norwegian Lutheran area right on the line between Boone and Madison counties.The Bradish parish Karl and Bina served, sometimes also called by the name of Newman Grove, was among the premier Norwegian Lutheran parishes of Nebraska, comprised of the renowned Immanuel and Our Savior's (Vor Frelsers) churches.
      The nine years Karl and Bina's family were active in Nebraska included for practical purposes the decade marking the peak years of the political and economic power of rural America, on balance the equal of urban America.  It was in those peak years, the "parity years," that the Xavier family lived in the storied Norwegian Lutheran area immortalized in various works of Willa Cather, further described in South Dakota references by O. E. Rolvaag in Giants in the Earth, and in endless other local and church histories.
     There in eastern Nebraska, in the salad days of rural America,  Karl and Bina Xavier lived actively, with an evident relish for life and with sincere and eloquent leadership worthy of their education and station. They carried out their efforts for family, church, community, music, and intellectual pursuits--living an almost baronial life. In today's dollars, Karl's compensation included a solid salary, by itself worth between sixty or seventy thousand of our dollars; with the salary went twenty acres of land, horses, cows, buildings, and in 1915, a Model T Ford, to say nothing of the feed and gas needed for both horses and the Model T. Rural life in Nebraska had become prosperous and Lutheran pastoral leaders such as Karl, with their educated and talented wives, were at the forefron in a world now erased by automation, depopulation, and demographic shifts.


The Bradish, Nebraska Area in 1918

     In 1918, Oliver Berg, a member of Immanuel Church, was a young sailor in training at the Great Lakes Naval Station in Chicago, Illinois. He, like so many in the military forces, was fatally struck by one of the most puzzling and frightening epidemics in world history: The Great Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1919. The Influenza, arising in the waning days of World War I (often referred to as The Great War),  killed early and often, sweeping across oceans and nations alike, spreading from wherever its origins were, due to massive interaction of populations due to wartime activities.
     The influenza was particularly vicious in attacking young people, who for this disease found little refuge in their lack of years, succumbing in a manner one would expect of the vulnerable or the elderly. The Influenza killed more people than The Great War itself. When Oliver Berg died at Great Lakes, as it was called and is now, he was one of several members of the Immanuel Lutheran Church of Bradish, Nebraska, to become a casualty of World War I.
     Oliver Berg was well-known in the Bradish area, at that time a thickly populated agricultural area. His family was prominent, likewise his father, Henry I. Berg, active in serveral roles in the Immanuel Church. Successfully engaged in agriculture, Henry was also an elected official, as an area school board member and as of 1903, as a Commissioner for Boone County. So, as was the case for other war-related casualties in the Bradish area, the death of Oliver Berg was a shock to the Bradish and Immanuel communities. These were communities that had gone well beyond some earlier epidemics to become young and healthy: Immanuel Church had in fact suffered not one funeral in 1917. [1]

    In the background of this funeral sermon lurk also the family concerns of Rev. Karl Xavier, whose family circles had been directly affected by the war. Karl's brother, Corporal Gothard Waldemar Xavier, had been torpedoed on the troopship Tuscania, near Ireland earlier in 1918. Several relatives of Karl's wife, Bina, were in uniform, including her cousin and former student Julia Hippe, serving as U.S. Army Nurse. Two of Karl's brothers-in-law, Jakob Larsen and Henning Larsen, were in Army uniforms as well. In sum, the military concerns were everywhere, and there had already be several war-related deaths in the Immanuel Church community.

[1] Larry Spomer, Ed. Immanual Zion Lutheran Church 1874-1974 Centennial.Albion, NE: Immanuel Lutheran Church, 1974. (pp 48 re Bergs)

Kamrud Family Tree.

Carol R. Byerly, Fever of War: The Influenza Epidemic in the U.S. Army during World War I. New York: New York University Press, 2005. 
 
Alfred W. Crosby, America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, c. 1989.

Nancy Gentile Ford, Americans ALL!: Foreign-born Soldiers in World War I. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2004.

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Funeral Sermon for Oliver Berg, United States Navy

by Rev. Karl Xavier

Delivered October of 1918

Immanuel Lutheran Church, Bradish (Newman Grove), Nebraska

Edited by John Edward Xavier

     By way of basic textual introduction, a couple of elements are noteworthy. In his writing mechanics, Rev. Xavier makes use of several abbreviations, such as G for God, X or JX for Christ and Jesus Christ, and Xian for Christian. I make editorial note in text the initial time such abbreviations are used. I have left those abbreviations in place to allow the reader to share the flavor of his composition. On the human level, Rev. Karl Xavier's Funeral Sermon combines the personal aspects of Oliver's life, his own feelings as a pastor who has known Oliver and his extended family, and the Norwegian Lutheran spirituality of the times. 

     The text reveals that spirituality in references to both earthly and spiritual aspects of human life in the light of concerns over human sinfulness, struggle with sin and the hope of eternal salvation, as offered by the God of Christian and Norwegian Lutheran doctrine. Thus, the sermon encapsulates the main line of Norwegian Lutheran doctrinal approaches to death on the one hand and, on the other hand, to the human (earthly) struggle with loss of a member of the community. That human element is revealed in Rev. Xavier's extraordinary openness to the personal aspects of his pastoral acquaintanceship with the Oliver Berg. Rev. Xavier used a tightly reasoned, Bible-based Norwegian Lutheran approach, rhetorically solid, and seasoned with parallels and experiences on the human level--all to address the loss of Oliver Berg.

     In brief, this sermon is in a way an accounting of spiritual and earthly costs of war brought home. The Great War and the Great Influenza had descended in full force and fury on America, with high cost to the small and closely knit community of Oliver Berg. Oliver Berg's pastor, Rev. Karl Xavier was to officiate at the Immanuel Lutheran Congregation funeral of a young member of that community; he was expected to  then find words for the community. We turn now to those words.       

    

Funeral Sermon (Oliver Berg)
(2 Tim. 4:7-8) [1]

     This is indeed a sad day for us all. I feel that it is a difficult  task to stand here and officiate. We are all stirred by the sudden death of our young friend Oliver. Six years ago he was confirmed here - repeated his baptismal vow, made his allegiance to his King and Savior Jesus X [abbrev. for Christ] promised to be true to Him unto death, also promised to be true to the colors of his church on earth. About two months ago he enlisted in the Navy and went to the Great Lakes, where he seemed to be very much pleased with his military duties and the general life of camp. Not long ago his mother had a letter from him telling that he was in the best of health and that she should not worry. Then shortly after came the sad message of his death. His journey here had ended. His work here had come to a close. Shortly after he had been called to the [p. 2] colors to serve his country he received another call from his heavenly King. He was not to come across and take part in the great struggle for freedom and justice.[2] He had only begun the preparations when he had to lay down his weapons and go across to a country where there is no war, no struggle - where everything breathes peace - ever-lasting peace.

     And now his remains are in our midst. We are to perform the last sad rights [sic.] in the house of God and then lay his body to rest in the bosom of mother earth until the great resurrection day.

     But why the chosen text? Is it appropriate? It speaks of a great fight and victory, about glorious results and a beautiful aim and here the deceased seems to have fallen in the fight and [p. 3] is to sink in the grave. And still the text is appropriate - for the deceased was a young Xian [abbrev. for Christian].

And about a Xian we may very appropriately
say about his death:
1) He has fought the good fight.
2) Then is laid up for him a crown of righteousness.

I

V. 7 The apostle Paul here speaks of himself. In the preceding vers [sic.] he says: "For I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand." It is his death he has in view. And this means a great deal to him. It means that his fight and struggle [have] come to an end. And he had fought a good fight. He had conquered in it. Now his life and all the evils and sufferings thereof are behind him. And what was his present state of mind? Looking back upon his life could he be satisfied with it? The most [p. 4] important question with Oliver was whether he had been true to his master JX [abbrev. for Jesus Christ], whether he had remained steadfast in his faith to the end. And, see he was happy, because he could say "I have kept the faith."

      This may be said in true meaning of every true Xian who in spite of many hardships of life and suffering would not leave his God but trusted in his merciful promises - who would not follow in the ways of the world, but did cling to God and the Savior - who did not lose heart in the tribulations, but always sought help and protection from God and remained thus to the end of his life.
     No Xian [Christian] accomplishes this without a fight. The Devil will not permit him to walk the [p.5]
path of righteousness unmolested. The world with all possible means at its disposal will tempt him and many a Xian [Christian] has thus been enticed away from God and thus accomplished his downfall.
     If he meets reverses, he may be tempted to impatience, doubt and despondency - he mistrusts G [God] and the prince of darkness now points at his sins and tells him that G. no longer is merciful to him. How difficult then not to despair, but to remain sure of the forgiveness of sins through X and trust in the mercy and faithfulness of God. Then a fight is necessary. All his life a Xian is in constant danger of losing his faith. But when he at last has a Xian Faith and has conquered all temptations and danger [ p. 6 ]then may we not speak the words of praise and say: He has fought a good fight and kept the faith?
     I believe this text may be applied to our deceased friend. He has been born in the midst of this congregation. He was carried to the baptismal font when he was baptized in the name of the Triune God and thus became His child and member of His congregation. Here he grew up, went to our parochial school received instruction in the diverse truths and after working faithfully with the confirmation class for two years he passed his examinations with honors, made open confession of his faith before the congregation and made
[p. 7] public allegiance to his master and Savior. JX. Later he has been a diligent attendee at our public services, has also been a not infrequent guest at the Lord's table. Of late he also took part in the work of our choir and at the time of his departure he was the president of your Young People's Society. When we had the spring drive for our Lutheran Commission for soldiers and sailors he willingly worked as one of the collectors and did his work with excellent spirit and splendid results. He was not a slacker in the performance of his Xian duties. [3]
     He was young - he had his temptations and has not [p. 8] always been as strong in resisting temptation as he ought to - he has had his weaknesses - his youthful sins - but I don't believe he tried to excuse these and dress them as virtues. He has sought in G's word and Sacraments - strength.
     In his relations to his country he neither was a slacker. He enlisted, joined the Navy as a volunteer and had begun his training with enthusiasm, eager to get ready to cross the ocean and take part in the great struggle over there.
     Shortly after his arrival at his camp, I received a few lines from him, in which he expresses his great satisfaction at being there, his joy in camp life which he seemed to relish. [p. 9 ] Then he tells about about how many chaplains there were in the camp and that they had communion services every Sunday morning - and last Sunday he had partaken in the Lord's Supper with about 300 other soldiers. Here I found the spirit of loyalty to both his country and to his Savior and his church. And I rejoiced. May we not hope that when sickness attacked him that his heart hastened for support, strength and consolation to Him whom he had met so often in His gospel and now so recently at his table XJ certainly did not forsake him when [p. 10] the shadow of death enveloped him. Our young friend did not realize his earthly aspirations - that of partaking in the great fight on French soil. This may seem sad. But this was God's will. And he had performed his duties as a loyal citizen as far as he was allowed. And may thus be considered as one of our soldier boys who went to fight for his country. And he had fought the good fight also in this respect as far as he was allowed in faithfully performing his nation's duties and preparing for the fight - In the meantime he had not forgot that he was also a soldier of X, a spiritual soldier - that should fight for his faith in loyalty. [p. 11] to his Savior. And when he had to fight with the last enemy [,] death, his Master certainly has been with him and when he had to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, His rod & staff has comforted him. Thus he, through X, was able to fight the good fight and keep his faith.

II

    This assurance I believe we may have - if we believe in the mercy of G., in the loving kindness of our Savior, who had died also for Oliver.
    And then we are also sure in the same faith that a crown of righteousness is laid up for him - As Paul says v-8. St. Paul is sure of his goal. It [the same faith] can no longer fail - the crown of righteousness is laid up for him. And thus it is with every true Xian [p. 12] when he remains steadfast in the fight which he has to go through, when he gains victory and keeps the faith and dies in this saving faith, the crown of righteousness, the crown of eternal life is certain. It has been promised to him already here on earth, it belonged to him, he possessed it in faith.
    But, here, there was only one great danger threatening: namely that of falling away from faith. If he lost his faith, he also lost his crown. But, if he clung to faith and dies as a Xian then the danger is over. Then he had reached the aim  of his most ardent hopes and he would be among those to whom the Lord would say on the last great day: "Come ye blessed of my  F. [flock], inherit the kingdom prepared for you from [Matthew 25:34][p. 13] the foundation of the world.
     When we think of this then we must say: however sad our loss is, let us rejoice on behalf of our young friend. He had not had an opportunity to earn a Cross as a military honor in this war - but he has instead received a crown - the crown of righteousness - through the merit of Jesus X. This crown no enemy can take from him. As a military hero is honored so is he now our most exalted in honor and heavenly glory.
     Friends, we see him lying in the casket enveloped in our flag[,] the emblem of [p. 14] our nation. Thus we honor him as our soldier boy who went to serve his country and president.
     But we also believe that he was enveloped or shrouded in the robe of the righteousness of X, the emblem of X's church and the Xian faith. Thus he was honored as a soldier in the camp of Christ X. And let us hope that he now is communing with his Savior and with the others of our Soldier boys who have met a similar fate here in the camps or over there in that great struggle.
     But that vision remains with us: His remains here [p. 15] shrouded as by a robe in the national emblem - and his soul before the Lord shrouded in the white robe of righteousness which X gave him through grace, because he accepted him in faith a  - a citizen loyal to his earthly and his heavenly Master.
     And may God in His mercy make us loyal both to our earthly home and our heavenly house - proven loyal citizens of church and state in these troublous times - so that we may secure and promote peace for our own and other nations and ever promote the true peace and salvation in Church and congregations.

For X's sake,

Amen

[End of p. 15 and of manuscript]

[1] World War I at the time was often referred to in idealistic terms, beyond the common references to the"The Great War," or "The World War." Among those idealistic terms were the oft-repeated "The War to End Wars," and "The War to Make the World Safe for Democracy."

[1] Rev. Karl Xavier, Funeral Sermon (Oliver Berg (manuscript, original in possession of the author, (Bradish, NE, 1918), 15 pages.

[1a] The Holy Bible [King James Version] Containing the Old and New Testaments translated out of the original tongues: and with the former translations diligently compared and revised, by His Majesty's special command authorized. (NY: Harper & Brothers, c. 1950), p. 267 of New Testament pagination.
     Rev. Xavier's choice of Biblical reference has long been a favored text for Norwegian Lutheran funeral sermons, and remains so even into our times. His reference in this sermon draws from the King James Version of the (Protestant) Bible, from the New Testament book of Second Timothy, chapter four, verses seven and eight. I have added verse six here to enhance our understanding of the chosen text, as Rev. Xavier draws on it in his sermon in the larger framework of World War I and the Influenza Epidemic [italics in original]:

6- For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
7- I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
8- Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me that day, and not to me only, but unto all them that also love his appearing.

[1b]  Bennson Bobrick, Wide as the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution It Inspired (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2001). Bobrick's excellent work is a thorough and readable discussion of the evolution of the King James Bible, including an inventory of its English-language predecessors. Most interestingly, Bobrick writes in detail about two main issues.
     The first is the highly able committee of scholars, anonymous until 1958 when nearly forty pages of their working notes were found. Their choices of rhetoric and vocabulary have shaped, and echoed in, the English language since the King James Version (KJV, or Authorized Version) appeared in the 1600s. The second is the impact of the King James Bible on the development of democracies: the overthrow of Papal authority, the dispersal of religious authority, and the broad distribution of the Bible, thus encoraging general literacy, for the populace to read, review and interpret.
[1c] Guy Davenport, "People of the Book: A new history of all King James's Men," Harper's Magazine (May, 2001), pp. 66-69. Davenport discussed Bobrick's book, and the importance of the KJV.

[2] World War I even as late as 1918 was most often referred to in idealistic terms, beyond the common references to the"The Great War," or "The World War." Among those idealistic terms were the oft-repeated "The War to End Wars," and "The War to Make the World Safe for Democracy." Much of this idealistic tinge was due to major efforts at propaganda, but it is safe to say that most citizens embraced this interpretation about the nature of World War I.

[3a] Spomer, pp. It was typical of the Immanuel Congregation that the deep roots of the parish were expressed by what we might today term a faith journey, marked by certain landmarks, including baptism, confirmation, participation in adult communion practices, and assuming such responsibilities as ushering, fundraising among one's peers, care of horses during events, and so on.
[3b] Spomer, regarding the YPL (often referred to as Luther League since the 1930s) pp. 4-5.
[3c] N.M. Ylvisaker, "Preface," in Young People's Luther League Convention Song Book, 5th edition, (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1925), p. 2; and end-page. The of the Song Book was to carry forward and affirm the long-standing dictum: "The Lutheran Church is the singing Church'' and to facilitate larger gatherings with a ready-made core of song collection. YPL was reorganized in 1917 with the merger of several Norwegian Lutheran church synods, or associations. Donations (from its 1600 chapters and over 100,000 members) were large enough to fund construction of a hospital.