THE STORD CHURCH

About 1900 my maternal grandfather, Peter Haugland, immigrated to America from Norway, taking with him this picture of his family church at Leirvik (where he was born) on the island of Stord, south of Bergen.

All my life I've known this picture, but nothing about it except for what I've already told you above. But fortunately I have a good friend, Svein Magnussen, who lives in Bergen, and who once visited me in Washington State. When Svein saw this picture, he said, "I know where that church is"!

Last Sunday Svein went to the island of Stord and took some nighttime pictures of the Stord Church, a Lutheran church at Leirvik. It was built originally of brick in 1857, and restored in 1957. It has changed very little. The road to it is the same. The graveyard you see in Svein's pictures lies beyond the stone wall you see in the old picture above.  

That area of Norway is much like Puget Sound in Washington State, and Grandpa must have felt right at home after moving across the world to Vashon Island.

Today Svein told me what the name of the church is, simply the Stord Church, and I found other pictures of it online.

It's nice to know that some things stay the same. Svein says this church isn't very old, and I told him that, by U.S. standards it's very old. He said maybe, but that on the island west of Stord the Moster Church is about 1000 years old! Norway builds them strong. Maybe that's why Grandpa was almost 98 when he died.

My Grandpa, Peter Haugland

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