About Decorah-posten. [volume] (Decorah, Iowa) 1874-1903
Decorah, Iowa (1874-1903)

Decorah-posten and Decorah-posten og ved arnen

The Decorah-Posten was one of the longest-running foreign-language newspapers in the state of Iowa and one of the largest Norwegian newspapers in the nation. It was established in 1874 by Brynild Anundsen, and he continued to publish for nearly a century. Decorah, located in Winneshiek County in northeast Iowa, became a center of Norwegian-American culture after large numbers of Norwegian immigrants began settling there in the 1850s.

Brynild Anundsen was born in Skien, Norway, on December 29, 1844, and had little formal education during his early years. At age 20, he left Norway for North America, arriving first in Quebec in April 1864. Anundsen soon moved to Milwaukee before finally settling in La Crosse, Wisconsin. In 1865, he married Mathilde Hoffstrom and the following year they purchased a small printing press and began publishing a Norwegian literary magazine called Ved Arnen (By the Hearth). In 1867, Anundsen was offered a new job as a printer for the Synod of the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church, so he and his wife moved to Decorah, Iowa.

Anundsen's first foray into newspaper publishing came in 1870, when he started Fra Fjærnt og Nær (From Far and Near). The paper was short-lived, but Anundsen's second attempt led to greater success when he launched the Decorah-Posten on September 18, 1874. The Decorah-Posten was strictly nonpartisan and focused on local news as well as items of interest from Norway and Norwegian and Danish communities around the United States. It also stayed true to Anundsen's literary interests, featuring serialized fiction, popular Norwegian songs, and eventually reviving Ved Arnen as a literary supplement to the newspaper. By its second decade, the Decorah-Posten's circulation grew to over 20,000.

As the business grew more successful, Anundsen remained as publisher but passed the editorial role on to others. Johannes B. Wist served as editor from 1901 until his death in 1923. He was succeeded by co-editors Kristian Prestgard and Simon Johnson. The Decorah-Posten continued to prosper, absorbing the Minneapolis Tidende in 1935 and Chicago's Skandinaven in 1941. After three more decades of publication, the Decorah-Posten ceased in 1972, when it was purchased by the Western Viking.

Provided by: State Historical Society of Iowa