Ringing the Bell on Christmas Eve (Listen!)

In 2007, St. Pauli revived a bell ringing tradition that took place in the early days of the church when Nels Marius Nelson was the klokker (bell ringer) and custodian.  

His family tell of this custom in Pennington County History (1976),

Mother and Dad were members of the St. Pauli Lutheran Church which is located about a half mile north of the home place. All eight of us children were baptized and confirmed from that church. Mother herself (Hannah Louise Lokken) was confirmed there around 1900 [August 4, 1903] with Carrie [Karen] Fredrickson, Fred Fredrickson, Annette Loken, and a Hostvet boy [Adolph]. I. T. Aastad was the pastor at the time. Dad was the klokker or bell ringer and custodian of the church for many years. Many times we would help clean the church, and when there was to be a funeral we would assist Mother in decorating the church for the funeral. In winter Dad would have to go to the church early to get a good fire going so that it would be fairly comfortable by the time church services started. On Christmas Eve some of us would trudge [with Dad] through the snow over to the church and ring the bell, heralding the birth of the Christ-Child, and again on Near Year’s Eve to ring in the new year....

When Nels and Hannah’s daughter, Myrtle Erickson, was in her mid-80s, she spoke of this tradition to a member of the congregation and the church reinstituted the bell ringing on Christmas Eve 2007.

Myrtle passed away less than three months later on March 14, 2008.

Christmas Eve 2007
If this looks easy, it's not!
Bruce Mathson	Chris Mathson Carter	David Lee
Gary Iverson (current klokker)	Jan Strandlie	Jim Strandlie
Jodie Torkelson	Kari Torkelson	Madison Underwood Kari Torkelson
Marisa Johnson Benson Wahna Torkelson Smith	Wally Torkelson	Michelle Mathson Forness
Shelley Mathson	Oliver (Skip) Swanson	Travis Underwood