Unfavorable economic conditions in Sweden in the mid-1800s led many young people to seek a better life in America, and in 1873 brothers Ben and Carl Johnson of Halmstad, Sweden, became the first Swedish immigrants to homestead in Benton Township. As word spread that land was available in Dakota Territory, more settlers came, facing droughts, grasshopper invasions, blizzards, epidemics, prairie fires, and high infant mortality, yet enduring through faith in God and support from relatives and Swedish neighbors. At first, itinerant preachers from Minnesota held occasional services in homes and a nearby school, and on May 4, 1878, twenty-five Swedish Americans met in Samuel Johnson’s home to organize a congregation called The Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Congregation. The group later bought one and one-half acres at this site for four dollars and fifty cents for a cemetery and church building. Pioneer Pastor J.H. Randahl served the young congregation from 1879 to 1890 through most of its building program, with stone hauled from Sioux Falls, materials and furnishings freighted from Minneapolis, and members providing most of the labor during the six years of construction. In 1890 the newly organized Ladies Sewing Society raised the money for pews through a sale of articles they had made, and on May 15, 1891, the new church building was dedicated with sixty-five communicant members and ninety-two children; a steeple and bell were added in 1894. In 1913 lightning struck the church and fire quickly destroyed the building, leaving only the cracked and unusable steeple bell to be salvaged, but the members immediately resolved to rebuild. A new church costing thirteen thousand dollars and seating four hundred worshipers was dedicated on January 27, 1915, and among its distinguishing features were grand leaded art-glass windows. Early ministers served part-time until 1921, when Pastor Martin W. Gustafson was called to serve full-time. Services were conducted in Swedish until 1920, when English was gradually introduced, and Swedish was discontinued in 1943. Since its beginning in 1878 on the Dakota prairie, the church has continued to grow and has maintained a long history of support for local and worldwide missions.