Johannes Telleen

Johannes Telleen was born in Knäred, Halland, Sweden, the son of tenant farmer Sven Andersson and Nilla Jeppsdotter. With his parents and siblings, he emigrated to the United States in 1853. The family settled in Moline, Illinois, where Lars Paul Esbjörn – founder of Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church and Augustana College – had started First Lutheran Church a few years prior.{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=John Telleen |url=https://www.lutheranlibrary.org/authors/john-telleen/ |access-date=2023-04-15 |website=Lutheran Library Publishing Ministry |archive-date=2023-04-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230416194349/https://www.lutheranlibrary.org/authors/john-telleen/ |url-status=live }} In 1856, they moved to Spoon Timber, Illinois. The family had little money while he was growing up so he helped out by doing farm work; he did not receive much education but devoured as much knowledge as he could.

He left home and began his studies at Augustana College and Seminary in 1864 and was supported financially through the efforts of Tuve Hasselquist. Telleen was ordained in 1872. His work was characterized by his focus on missions, which he also sought to emphasize in the denomination.{{Cite journal |last=Erling |first=Maria |date=April–July 2012 |title=Wrestling with the Mission Mantle: Matthias Wahlstrom, Failed Missionary to the Comanche, and the Relation between the Augustana Synod and the Covenant Church |url=https://augustanaheritage.augustana.edu/Erling_Essay.pdf |journal=The Swedish-American Historical Quarterly |volume=63 |issue=2–3 |access-date=2023-04-16 |archive-date=2023-04-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230416194350/https://augustanaheritage.augustana.edu/Erling_Essay.pdf |url-status=live }} He pushed for the denomination's use of English at a time when "he was the only one of the seventy-three clergymen of the Augustana Synod who could speak the English language satisfactorily, fluently, and forcibly".{{Cite book |last=Arden |first=G. Everett |url=https://archive.org/details/augustanaheritag0000geve/ |title=Augustana Heritage |publisher=Augustana Press |year=1963 |pages=241}} Telleen served in the Swedish Lutheran congregations in Des Moines and Denver from 1872 to 1882, founding Augustana Lutheran Church in Denver in 1880.{{Cite web |last=Johnston |first=Bruce D. |title=Augustana Lutheran Church – Historic Churches |url=https://augustanaheritage.augustana.edu/historic_churches.php |access-date=2023-04-15 |website=Augustana Heritage Association |archive-date=2023-03-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316142750/http://augustanaheritage.augustana.edu/historic_churches.php |url-status=live }} He was Swedish vice-consul in Denver in 1883, and in 1882 founded Ebenezer Church (today herchurch{{Cite web |last1=Bromley |first1=David G. |last2=Toomey |first2=Katie |date=2022-11-15 |title=herchurch |url=https://wrldrels.org/2022/10/19/her-church/ |access-date=2023-04-15 |website=World Religions and Spirituality Project |archive-date=2023-04-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230416194351/https://wrldrels.org/2022/10/19/her-church/ |url-status=live }}) in San Francisco, the first permanent Swedish Lutheran congregation in California. He served as its pastor from 1883 to 1890. Telleen also contributed to the Lutheran Church's growth in Utah, founding Zion Swedish Lutheran Church in Salt Lake City in 1882.{{Cite web |last=Peach |first=Mary |date=1994 |title=Utah History Encyclopedia |url=https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/l/LUTHERANS_IN_UTAH.shtml |access-date=2023-04-15 |archive-date=2023-04-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230416194349/https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/l/LUTHERANS_IN_UTAH.shtml |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |date=2011-07-23 |title=Pioneering Faith: 'One-ness,' not 'same-ness' |url=https://www.deseret.com/2011/7/23/20205537/pioneering-faith-one-ness-not-same-ness |access-date=2023-04-16 |website=Deseret News |language=en |archive-date=2023-04-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230416194347/https://www.deseret.com/2011/7/23/20205537/pioneering-faith-one-ness-not-same-ness |url-status=live }}

From 1890 to 1892 he led the fundraising effort for Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas, and was then a field secretary for the Lutheran General Consulate's mission in India for about ten years. He was then pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Minneapolis (1903–1905), taught at Hauge (Red Wing) Seminary (1905–1908), served at churches in Chicago and Benton Harbor, Michigan, and was field secretary of the church's mission to Puerto Rico.{{Cite book |last=Bergendoff |first=Conrad |url=https://augustanaheritage.augustana.edu/TheAugustanaMinisterium_Part1.pdf |title=The Augustana Ministerium: A Study of the Careers of the 2,504 Pastors of the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Synod/Church 1850–1962 |publisher=Augustana Historical Society |year=1980 |location=Rock Island, Ill. |pages=22–23 |author-link=Conrad Bergendoff |access-date=2023-04-17 |archive-date=2023-04-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406095554/http://augustanaheritage.augustana.edu/TheAugustanaMinisterium_Part1.pdf |url-status=live }} Telleen founded the organization Lutheran Orient Mission Society in 1910, which sent missionaries to Kurdistan; he was its first president.{{Cite journal |last=Hall |first=George F. |date=1984 |title=The Missionary Spirit in the Augustana Church |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/234817396.pdf |journal=Church History |publisher=Augustana Historical Society |volume=54 |issue=4 |pages=539–540 |doi=10.2307/3166545 |jstor=3166545 |s2cid=163142010 |issn=0009-6407 |access-date=2023-04-16 |archive-date=2023-04-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230416194347/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/234817396.pdf |url-status=live }}

In 1901 he received an honorary doctorate in theology from Thiel College in Greenville, Pennsylvania.

Telleen was a gifted speaker and a prolific writer. He was the founder of the Swedish-American newspaper Vestkusten, published in San Francisco, which he began publishing in October 1886 as a four-page monthly church publication called Ebenezer. The following year, its name was changed to {{Lang|sv|Vestkusten}}. He soon transferred its operations to Alrik G. Spencer.{{Cite web |title=Vestkusten |url=https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/swedishamerican/vestkusten |access-date=2023-04-17 |website=Minnesota Historical Society |archive-date=2023-04-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417094045/https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/swedishamerican/vestkusten |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Nelson Beroza |first=Muriel |date=Spring 2008 |title=From Ebenezer to Vestkusten, to Nordstjernan |url=https://nordstjernan.com/news/pacific_states/1166/ |website=Nordstjernan |access-date=2023-04-16 |archive-date=2023-04-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230416194349/https://nordstjernan.com/news/pacific_states/1166/ |url-status=live }}

Telleen married Mary Anderson on 27 August 1873; they had six children. He was the father of S. Frederick Telleen, Chase National Bank vice-president; Leonard E. Telleen, circuit judge; Martin Telleen, American Banking Institute secretary; Signe, wife of Augustana Lutheran pastor A. Theodore Ekblad, and Ruth.{{Cite news |date=1933-11-29 |title=The Rev. John Telleen |page=19 |work=New York Times |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/100825824 |access-date=2023-04-15 |id={{ProQuest|100825824}} }}{{Cite news |date=1933-11-30 |title=Dr Joh. Telleen vilar |language=sv |pages=1 |work=Vestkusten |issue=47}}

He retired in 1926{{Cite news |date=1926-07-29 |title=Pastor Retires |pages=2 |work=Askov American}} and spent the end of his life in the church-owned Lakeshore Lutheran Home in Duluth, Minnesota,{{Cite book |url=https://archives.gac.edu/digital/collection/LCAPub/id/26478/ |title=Reports: Seventy-fourth Annual Convention Lutheran Minnesota Conference |publisher=Lutheran Minnesota Conference of the Augustana Lutheran Church Minnesota Conference, Augustana Synod |year=1932 |pages=33 |via=Gustavus Adolphus College |access-date=2023-04-16 |archive-date=2023-04-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230416194351/https://archives.gac.edu/digital/collection/LCAPub/id/26478/ |url-status=live }} where he had been a chaplain, and died there in 1933.

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite book |title=Svenska män och kvinnor |year=1954 |volume=7 |pages=473 |language=sv |chapter=Telleen, Johannes |chapter-url=https://runeberg.org/smok/7/0523.html |via=Project Runeberg}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Telleen, Johannes}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1846 births

Category:1933 deaths

Category:20th-century American Lutheran clergy

Category:Lutheran missionaries in the United States

Category:20th-century American newspaper founders

Category:Swedish emigrants to the United States

Category:People from Laholm Municipality