Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Title
Date(s)
- 1980 (Creation)
Extent
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
A booklet regarding the 75 year jubilee of Abraham Vereide’s immigration to America in 1905. The booklet is in Norwegian.
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
Physical access
Technical access
Conditions governing reproduction
Languages of the material
Scripts of the material
Language and script notes
Finding aids
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
Immediate source of acquisition
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information
Accruals
Related materials elements
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related archival materials
Related descriptions
Notes element
General note
Biographical Note
Abraham was born on Vereide Farm in Nordfjord on 7 October 1886. His parents were Anders and Helene Vereide. Helene died when Abraham was eight years old, in 1894. In 1905 Abraham received a ticket to America from a neighbor who was unable to use it. He traveled to Montana and found work starting in 1906 as the leader of a mission center in Great Falls, Montana. He married Mattie Hansen from Denmark in 1910. Abraham also served as a minister in Spokane, Portland, and, starting in 1916, Seattle. During these years he and Mattie had one daughter, Alicia, and three sons, Warren, Milton, and Abraham (Abe).
The family moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1931. On personal invitation from Governor Franklin Roosevelt he attended a conference regarding the social relief program for New York State. In 1935, Vereide founded the prayer breakfast movement in the United States. In 1942 he founded the International Christian Leadership (ICL) group together with Marian Johnsen, incorporated as Fellowship Foundation, in Chicago as the U.S. headquarters for the prayer breakfast movement. He was the executive director of this organization until his death. He was part of a peace conference in San Francisco after World War II. He visited Norway in 1946/47 on a tour to gain members to ICL in Europe. In 1953, Vereide started the Presidential Prayer Breakfast, later called the National Prayer Breakfast or the International Prayer Breakfast. He visited Norway once more in 1960. He was editor for The Christian Citizen together with captain Leonard Larsen. Abraham died in May 1969 and his wife died later that same year.