On the overall growth of humanistic Western Conference Unitarianism in Iowa, recognizing not only the women ministers who were primary drivers of that movement, but also noting the men who took part and their strong support for the women.

During the last two decades of the 19th century and well into the 20th, there was an extensive Unitarian mission to the Nordic immigrant communities in Canada and the US beginning with the appointment of the acclaimed poet Kristofer Janson as a missionary to the Norwegians of Minnesota in 1881.

When Americans moved west in the 1800s, religious groups played a prominent role in shaping the new communities. According to historian Charles H. Lyttle, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and Unitarians showed particular interest in establishing tuition-free secular public schools in the new territories...

The settlers around Hanska, Minnesota, came from the area of Toten and the valley of Gubrandsdal in Norway during the 1860s and ‘70s. They found many hardships in this raw new land, but the stamina of many years of struggle in Norway stood them in good stead. As was expected, they formed Norwegian Lutheran churches, an

This series focuses on the history of Unitarian Universalism in the Midwest, where immigrants often encountered American religious liberalism. The humanist-leaning immigrants were especially attracted to Unitarianism. I will start with a few remarks giving my understanding of humanism.

Why take the trouble to write a congregational history? It is a helpful source of information and gives members a sense of their connection.

Willmar (population 19,000) sits in the rural center of Minnesota, where both politics and religion are generally conservative. But generalizations usually have exceptions, and in Willmar many of these are supplied by the Unitarian Universalist congregation.

Eliza Tupper Wilkes (October 8, 1844-February 5, 1917) was a circuit-riding preacher who started eleven Universalist and Unitarian churches in the American West. Among the first women ordained into the ministry, Wilkes worked with and mentored other liberal women ministers in the West.

One doesn't research Adlai E. Stevenson (1900-1965) very far before an impressive picture begins to form. His 1952 acceptance speech for the presidential nomination, for instance, would seem odd today because of the speaker’s ambivalence, but it plainly comes from an extraordinary mind:

Most UUs know that Spaniards, Italians, Transylvanians, French, Poles, and other groups had a hand in shaping our tradition. Here in North America we should also look at the Icelanders and their descendants. Emil Gudmundson, a Canadian, had crucial roles in both tracing the Icelandic influence and in organizing Unitari