24040 580th Avenue, Litchfield MN 55355


Ness Lutheran Church
Ness Memorial Cemetery

The first pioneers to settle in this area arrived by July, 1856, three months after their oxen-drawn prairie schooners left Rock County, Wisconsin. They were the families of Henrik H. Thoen, Ole H. Ness, Nels H. Colberg and bachelors Ole H. Thoen, Gunder Olson and Amos N. Fosen. They organized this community cemetery about one year later, with the first interment recorded in March, 1858.

In late summer 1858, circuit minister William Fredrickson of Goodhue County organized the St. Johannes Lutheran Congregation of Meeker and Surrounding Counties at the home of Ole H. Ness. Three years later, in 1861, the twenty-five member congregation was reorganized as the Ness Norwegian Lutheran Church of Meeker County.

One of Minnesota's oldest monuments, dedicated September 13, 1878, marks the common grave of the first five white settlers killed in the 1862 Sioux Indian War, which began about six miles to the west. Also interred here is Andreas Olson, killed by the Indians in September, 1862.

In 1864 the Ness Congregation purchased forty acres of land, which included the cemetery, for one hundred dollars. In need of a church, since services had been held in a barn, a granary, and homes, they constructed the present church building in 1874 at a cost of $798.57. The church sill contains many of its original furnishings. The baptismal font, hand-hewn from a basswood log by Ellef Olson, dates from 1875. Also placed in the church that year were glass candleholders, now lavender with age.

Over the years, the Ness Lutheran Church has helped to establish more than twenty other churches. At the last Sunday service in 1968, the 110 year old congregation disbanded, leaving the church and its contents to the Ness Memorial Cemetery Association to be kept as a memorial to its members and the early pioneers.

--historical marker

Ness Memorial - This memorial was dedicated by the State of Minnesota in 1878 to the five settlers that were killed in the Indian uprising of 1862. It is the third oldest state monument.

Ness Church in Winter.

Ness Church in the winter.

Ness Memorial Public Cemetery