Ole Peter Petersen

Who was Ole Peter Petersen?

Ole Peter Petersen is credited as the founder of Methodism in Norway and co-founder of Norwegian and Danish Methodism in the United States.

Ole Peter Petersen was born in Fredrikstad, Norway the son of Peter Hansen, a ship’s carpenter and his wife, Catherine. Peter Hansen deserted his family in 1825, and a year later Catherine died. Petersen had thoughts of becoming a clergyman, but his low social status and lack of opportunity for higher education combined to discourage such a notion. He opted for the sea instead, leaving Fredrikstad in 1836. In 1845, during a stop in Charleston, South Carolina, Petersen heard a series of sermons that brought him to a consciousness awareness of Methodism.

Washington Prairie Norwegian Methodist Church located outside Decorah, Iowa is considered the mother church of Norwegian-American Methodism. Ole Peter Petersen first established this church and later returned to his native Norway where he established the first Methodist congregation in that country.