{"id":919,"date":"2015-08-22T02:30:07","date_gmt":"2015-08-22T02:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/?p=919"},"modified":"2015-08-22T02:30:07","modified_gmt":"2015-08-22T02:30:07","slug":"focus-on-the-backroads-st-olaf-kirke-the-rock-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/?p=919","title":{"rendered":"FOCUS ON THE BACKROADS:  ST OLAF KIRKE (The Rock Church)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"pp-lightbox-1440210504\" class=\"pp-lightbox-placeholder pp-gallery-placeholder lightbox-1440210504 mceItem\" style=\"display: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/p4\/placeholders\/lightbox-placeholder-1440210504.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>Norwegian settlers began settling in Bosque County in 1854. \u00a0Most of their time was spent clearing the land, building homes, harvesting crops, and providing for everyday life. \u00a0Most of these settlers were Lutheran and Sundays were days of rest and gathering to worship in their homes. \u00a0In 1886 <strong>St Oafs Kirke (The Rock Church)<\/strong> was built. \u00a0Rocks were hauled by church members from the surrounding mountains. \u00a0The church was built on land that was purchased for $25.00.<\/p>\n<p>Services began while the church during the construction although it had only dirt floors and planks placed on kegs were used for pews. \u00a0In 1895, <strong>St Olaf Kirke<\/strong> was dedicated now with wood floors, pews, a wood stove, gas lights, stained glass windows, and pump organ. \u00a0In 1897, the Ladies Aid Organization purchased the Swedish bell which still hangs in the bell tower. \u00a0Today the simple rustic charm of this church still exist.<\/p>\n<p><strong>St Olafs Kirke<\/strong> is now used for special services at Easter, Christmas Eve, and other planned events. \u00a0It is also available for wedding, baptisms and funerals.<\/p>\n<p><strong>St Olaf Kirke<\/strong> is yet another reminder of the strong community spirit that existed as folks \u00a0from other countries settled in Texas. \u00a0This historical church is worth a drive down the backroads!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Norwegian settlers began settling in Bosque County in 1854. \u00a0Most of their time was spent clearing the land, building homes, harvesting crops, and providing for &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-backroads","category-texas-towns"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/The-Rock-Church-1-5.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=919"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":927,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919\/revisions\/927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}