From History of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Volume II, Publ. by The Western Historical Company 1881, Page 826

REV. O. P. PETERSEN, Presiding Elder of Chicago Norwegian District, Northwest Norwegian Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born in Kingdom of Norway, the 28th of April, 1822.  He was brought up and educated in the Lutheran Church, of which he was an acceptable member, without an experimental religion.  He came to America in 1843, and spent several years on the sea.  In 1846 he was roundly converted to God, and experienced the change of heart through faith in Christ.  In the Spring of 1849, he went to Norway to tell his friends what the Lord had done for him in this country.  A great revival of religion broke out, which detained him in Norway about ten months, and this visit and revival was the cause of the organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church in that country.  He returned to America in 1850, and spent some time in preparing for the ministry.  In answer to a call from Norway he was sent by Bishop WAUGH in 1853 as the first Methodist missionary to that country, where he labored with good success; organized the first Methodist Society, and built the first Methodist church in Norway.  He was permitted to return to America in 1859, and was then stationed as Pastor of the Bethel Ship in the City of New York, where he labored successfully about four years among the Scandinavian sailors and emigrants coming to this country.  From New York he was sent to Wisconsin to take charge of the First Norwegian District, just then organized, as a Presiding Elder, which position he held for nearly six years.  In 1869 he was again appointed to Norway by Bishop KINGSLEY as a Superintendent of the mission in that country, but he then left his family in this country, and he returned in 1871.  He then served the First Norwegian Church, in Chicago, as Pastor for two and a half years; was then appointed to the Norwegian Mission in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he labored for about four and a half years. He came West again in 1878, as Presiding Elder of the Milwaukee Norwegian District of Wisconsin conference, and at present remains in charge of that district.

Submitted by Carol