HistorySt. Olaf Lutheran Church was organized by the Norwegian settlers of Austin, Minnesota in 1867. Austin was just eleven years old at the time and the President of the United States was Andrew Johnson. The pioneering leader of the church was Reverend C.L. Clausen, who was originally from the island of Aeroe, Denmark and had served as the founding pastor of the Norwegian Lutheran Church in America, located in Muskego, Racine County, Wisconsin. In 1853 Rev. Clausen became a colonizer and led a caravan of seventy-five settlers in thirty covered wagons to Northern Iowa. They chose for their settlement site a juncture of Cedar River and a creek which Rev. Clausen named Deer Creek. He named the site St. Ansgar, which means