Today I’ll wrap up a three-part exploration of what’s revealed about my grandparents and their families in the 1940 U.S. Census. We started among the Petersons and Nelsons of western Wisconsin, and will now cross the Badger State to meet my father’s forebears. My dad’s dad grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which is a much … More The USA in 1940: The Gehrzes of Milwaukee
Yesterday I took a look at the 1940 Census records of my Grandpa Peterson and his family, noting that they were relatively more comfortable than the family Grandpa married into in 1946: the Nelsons of River Falls, Wisconsin. My grandmother, Hildur, was fourteen at the time of the census, the third of four daughters for … More The USA in 1940: The Nelsons of River Falls
4/9/12 – Just eleven more days until Bethel hosts its inaugural Colloquium on Pietism Studies. If you want to hear talks by best-selling author Scot McKnight and historian Jon Sensbach, discuss Pietism past and present with scholars, pastors, and others, and pay $0 for the privilege, be sure to register today!
For genealogists and U.S. historians, this has been an exciting month, marking the full release of records from the 1940 U.S. Census. (Such data are treated as confidential until seventy-two years after the census. The aggregate statistics can be found here.) My colleague Diana Magnuson happens to be a census historian and could tell you … More The USA in 1940: The Petersons of Pierce County
Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I … More Resurrection
Earlier this week I posted meditations that I had contributed to the 2011 and 2012 editions of our church’s Lenten devotional. The first such book came out in 2010: it seems like my contribution to that inaugural edition fits well with Easter Saturday, the painful space between Crucifixion and Resurrection during which many Christians keep … More Stay Awake
Each of the last three years, the members and friends of Salem Covenant Church in New Brighton, Minnesota have produced a Lenten devotional book. On Monday I shared the meditation I contributed to the 2012 devotional. On this Good Friday, it seems appropriate also to post what I wrote for the 2011 edition, which had … More The God Who Grieves
One more post on baseball writing in honor of one more Opening Day: that of my Minnesota Twins, playing their first 2012 game against the Baltimore Orioles later today. Having already spotlighted an 1888 baseball manual by one of the most unique players in MLB history and a 2001 update of a cult classic by … More Play Ball! – My Favorite Baseball Books (part 3)
Yesterday I celebrated the official start to the Major League Baseball season by describing my favorite book written by an active baseball player: pitcher/shortstop/lawyer/labor organizer John Montgomery Ward’s 1888 how-to guide, Base-Ball. But I’m enough of a traditionalist to believe that the honor of starting the season ought to belong (as it did for decades) … More Play Ball! – My Favorite Baseball Books (part 2)
Check out the “tag cloud” on the home page of this blog, and you’ll find — amid all the terms related to Christianity, history, and education — one sport. So even if you hadn’t read my post-Super Bowl post extolling the virtues of baseball over football, you might be able to guess how excited I … More Play Ball! – My Favorite Baseball Books (part 1)
The Pietist Schoolman 