Background
Esbjorn, Lars Paul was born on October 16, 1808 in Delsbo, Sweden. Son of Esbjorn and Karin (Lindstrom) Paulson.
Esbjorn, Lars Paul was born on October 16, 1808 in Delsbo, Sweden. Son of Esbjorn and Karin (Lindstrom) Paulson.
He was educated in Gävle and studied theology at Uppsala University.
He served as the first president of Augustana College from 1860 until his resignation in 1863. He was ordained at Uppsala Cathedral, became assistant pastor at Östervåla, Heby Municipality in Uppsala County then pastor in the Swedish factory town of Oslättfors. Esbjörn and a group of 146 Swedish immigrants sailed from Gävle to New York in 1849.
Together they built Jenny Lind Chapel, which became the "mother church" of the Swedish Lutheran community.
The church was built with funding provided mainly by Jenny Lind, while she was at that time on a concert tour in the eastern United States. Esbjörn would be Andover’s pastor from 1850 to 1856.
Esbjörn divided his time between Andover and Moline. Foreign a decade, Esbjörn struggled to minister to the Swedish Lutheran community within the Synod of Northern Illinois.
Esbjörn was a Professor of Theology at Illinois State Normal University in Springfield, Illinois from 1858 to 1860.
After serving two years as Scandinavian professor at this German-dominated Synod school, where he disagreed with the doctrinal looseness of many of the faculty, Esbjörn resigned and moved to Chicago where he and other Scandinavian church leaders felt that it was time to form their own synod. He was also fundamental in the beginnings of Augustana College. The college and seminary started in Chicago during 1860, moved to Paxton, Illinois in 1863, and finally to Rock Island, Illinois in 1875.
Esbjörn served as the first president of Augustana College and Theological Seminary from 1860 to 1863, when it was based in Chicago.
In 1975, Jenny Lind Chapel was declared to be a national historic site.
Married Amalia Planting-Gyllenbsga. Married second, Helen Magnusson.