Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Olsson, Olof

OLSSON, Olof, clergyman, b. in Björtorp, Vermland, Sweden, 31 March, 1841. He was educated at the universities of Stockholm and Upsala, and was graduated at the latter in 1861, after spending a year (1859-'60) in the Missionary institute at Leipsic. He also studied in the theological department of the University of Upsala, where he was graduated in 1863. He was ordained on 15 Dec. of the same year to the ministry of the Lutheran church, and at once assumed the duties of pastor, serving in that capacity in his native country until 1868. About this time he came to the United States and settled in Lindsborg, Kan., where he was pastor of Swedish Lutheran congregations in 1869-76. Since the latter year he has been professor of theology in the theological seminary of the Swedish Augustana college, Rock Island, Ill. He edited “Nyat Och Gammtl,” a newspaper, at Lindsborg, Kan., in 1873, and “Luther-Kalender,” an annual (Rock Island, Ill., 1883), and has published in Swedish “At the Cross” (Rock Island, Ill.), which has been reprinted in Sweden; “Greetings from Afar, being Recollections of Travels in England and Germany” (1880; also translated into Norwegian and published in Norway); and “The Christian Hope, Words of Consolation in Suffering and Sorrow” (Chicago, 1887).