Johannes Wilhelm Christian Dietrichson

Johannes Wilhelm Christian Dietrichson (April 4, 1815 – October 15, 1883) was a Norwegian Lutheran minister who played an important role in the initial establishment of the Synod of the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which eventually became the Evangelical Lutheran Synod.

Dietrichson was born in Fredriksstad in Smaalenenes Amt, Norway, as a son of Fredrik Dietrichson (1787–1866) and Karen Sophie Henriette Radich (1794–1867). Through his sister he was an uncle of Johan Scharffenberg, and he was a distant relative of Norwegian politician and labor leader, Wilhelm Dietrichson (1880-1949).

In November 1839 he married Jørgine Laurentze Broch (1816–1841). She was a daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Johan Jørgen Broch (1791–1860) and a sister of Ole Jacob Broch and Jens Peter Broch. His wife died in childbirth in 1841, and Johannes Dietrichson then married Charlotte Josine Omsen Müller (1819–1903) in June 1846.

He grew up and attended school in Fredriksstad where his teachers includeds Hans Riddervold. He took his examen artium in 1832 and graduated from the Royal Frederick University in Christiania in 1837. He worked in Christiania from 1839, and was present at the Norwegian Missionary Society national convention in 1843. He was ordained a Lutheran minister on February 26, 1844, immigrating to the United States in July that same year.

Dietrichson arrived in Staten Island on July 8, 1844. After finding little interest in New York in organizing a Lutheran congregation, he continued to Muskego, WI. He preached his first two sermons at the Wisconsin settlements in Koshkonong Prairie on September 1 and 2, 1844. The preparatory address for the second service was from Psalm 78:19, "Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?" This service was held under two oak trees, in which Holy Communion was celebrated. Dietrichson organized the settlers into two churches and was called by each church to be their pastor during 1845.

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