Introduction

Biography

John was the son of Jes­per Carl­son and Li­sa Sam­uel­son, and hus­band of Ma­thil­da So­fia An­der­son (marr­ied 1888).

Emigrating to Am­er­ica in 1873, he gra­du­at­ed from Au­gus­ta­na Col­lege, Rock Is­land, Il­li­nois, in 1883. In 1885, he re­ceived a Ba­che­lor of Di­vi­ni­ty de­gree from Au­gus­ta­na Theo­lo­gic­al Se­mi­na­ry.

He was or­dained in the Au­gus­ta­na Sy­nod of the Ev­an­ge­li­cal Lu­ther­an Church, and served his first pas­tor­ate at the Swed­ish Lu­ther­an Church in Bur­ling­ton, I­owa.

In 1888, Jes­per­son was in­vit­ed to join the Board of Di­rect­ors at Au­gus­ta­na Col­lege and Theo­lo­gic­al Se­mi­na­ry. In 1889, he suc­ceeded Er­land Carls­son as Ge­ne­ral Man­ag­er, and al­so be­came sec­re­ta­ry of the col­lege.

After leav­ing Au­gus­ta­na in 1903, he took a post at the Swed­ish Lu­ther­an Sa­lem Church in Spo­kane, Wash­ing­ton.

In 1907, he be­came pre­si­dent and trea­sur­er of Coeur d’A­lene Col­lege in Coeur d’A­lene, Id­a­ho, stay­ing there un­til 1914.

Jesperson als­o served as Su­per­in­ten­dent of the Au­gus­ta­na In­ner Mis­sion in Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois, for 15 years, and or­gan­ized the Svens­ka Lu­thers­ka Kyr­ko-Brands­tods-Bol­a­get, a fire in­sur­ance as­so­ci­ation.