Fiftieth Anniversary - First
Evangelical Lutheran Church (1919)
Our Church Today:
- Officers of the Congregation
- Church Council
- A Word About Our Parish School
- Our Ladies' Aid Society
- Our Young Peoples' Society
- Our Sunday School
- Our Church Choir
- Our Lutheran Church
- A Word About The Missouri Synod
- An Interesting Item (sale of old church property to L & N Railroad)
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| President | Mr. Gus Engert |
| Secretary | Mr. Gustav Gade |
| Assistant Secretary | Prof. W. W. Rittamel |
| Treasurer | Mr. J. Fred Tauscher |
Messrs. Gus Engert
Gustav. Gade
Ferd Miller
Wm. Furian
John H. Meyer
J. Fred Tauscher
Rev. K. Kretzschmar, Pastor
Prof. W. W. Rittamel, Teacher
A WORD ABOUT OUR PARISH SCHOOL
Our parish school has been in existence for nearly fifty years. Beginning with the ministry of Rev. Julius A. Friedrich in 1897, the school has been maintained without interruption up to the present time. Many are under the erroneous impression that our parish school is conducted in opposition to our public schools. Nothing further from the truth could be imagined. Our parish school like the nearly 2000 schools of the Missouri Synod, is designed to supply what public schools, according to our country's constitution are unable to give, religious instruction, training and dicipline [sic]. While our people willingly pay their taxes for the support of the public schools, they cheerfully raise large sums for their parish schools, because they are convinced that it is of prime importance that children be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, so that they may be and remain children of God, and honest, faithful citizens of their country as well. It goes without saying that all essential secular branches of learning are as competently taught in the parish school as they are in the public schools, so that children passing from the former to the latter, keep up with others of their age without difficulty.
During the years in which our parish school has been maintained by our church, the following teachers have had charge of the school:
| Prof. O. Katthain Prof. George Maahs Prof. William Kammrath Prof. William Buck Prof. Frank B. Miller Mrs. Martha Coutant |
Student E. J. Friedrich Student Theo. Sanders Mrs. O. Katthain Prof. C. Michel Mrs. Ida Trotter Prof. W. W. Rittamel |
The Ladies' Aid Society has been in existence in our congregation for many years, but reorganized by Rev. Ed. Koehler, in July, 1904. It is an acknowledged important factor in our church activity, covering a broad field of usefulness. This band of faithful followers of the Master is constantly busy with charitable and benevolent work, comforting the sick, helping the helpless: in very truth bearing one another's burdens. A regular contribution is paid into the church treasury. An average of $120.00 yearly is expended in this way. A tax of one penny is levied per year on each member, and the funds thus collected are used to provide delicacies for the sick. Quite a neat sum is forthcoming from the quilting department, annually. The Lutheran Tuberculosis Sanitarium, of Wheatridge, Colorado, and our Orphan Homes, are remembered by shipments of articles indispensable to the inmates of those institutions. The society has an active membership of thirty-two, with an average attendance of twenty, at the meetings held the first Thursday of each month at the homes of the members. Standing on the threshold of our fiftieth anniversary, we thank God with devout hearts for the countless blessings that have been ours, and rejoice that we have been permitted to labor for the upbuilding of his Kingdom. Through the leadership of the following officers, we try in truth to be an "Aid" society.
Mrs.. E. B. Nichols, President
Mrs. Mary Gross, Vice-President
Mrs. Lena Neas, Secretary
Mrs. Clara Whisman, Treasurer
An organization which has always had the welfare of the church at heart is the Young Peoples' Society. The present society was organized June 29th, 1909, under the able leadership of Rev. C. J. Fricke, and since that time it has enjoyed a steady growth. The object of the Society has always been to keep the young people with the church and to co-operate [sic] with the church in any way possible toward upbuilding the Kingdom of God. In addition to assisting materially in various ways, the society has been instrumental in buying a piano for the Sunday school, installing electric lights in the church auditorium, enlarging the choir platform, and creating the impulse which resulted in the purchase of a pipe organ.
The officers are:
Miss Louise Mauelshagen, President
Mr. Clarence Meyer, Vice-President
Mr. Alfred Frankenberg, Treasurer
Miss Vera Meyer, Secretary
OUR SUNDAY SCHOOL
The Sunday school classes are held in the Sunday school hall adjoining the church auditorium every Sunday morning at 9:00 o'clock. Pastor Kretzschmar in charge. Prof. Rittamel, Superintendent.
Teachers are:
Mrs. Louise Nauss, Primary Class
Miss Rosa Knaffla, Junior Class
Miss Alma Asquith, Senior Class
Pastor Kretzschmar, Bible Class
OUR CHURCH CHOIR
The congregation is proud of its choir, and appreciates the time and labor given so willingly by the members of this splendid organization to enhance the beauty of the church services.
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OUR LUTHERAN CHURCH
Many ask the question what does the Lutheran Church stand for? In the little space before us, we can only very briefly answer this question, and then not fully.
The following statement presents the chief elements of Lutheranism:
The Lutheran Church bears the name of Doctor Martin Luther, the greatest of all reformers of the sixteenth century. The name Lutheran was originated by the enemies of the Reformation and is borne by our church not as a token of man-worship but as a testimony to the conviction that Luther's Gospel was the original divine and saving truth revealed in the Bible.
Lutheranism stands for:
First - Implicit faith in the divine inspiration and infallibility of the Bible in its every word and utterance, which faith involves the acceptance of the Bible as the complete and only guide of doctrine and life.
Second- Justification without the deeds of the law alone by faith in Christ Jesus who being the Son of God and man was made a substitute for sinners, keeping God's law for them, atoning for their sins with his death and being raised from the dead for their complete rustication.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church is the largest Protestant Church in the world, numbering almost as many members as all the others combined. In this country it ranks third among the Protestant bodies, and in white membership is said to exceed them all. Its missionaries are found in every corner of the globe.
The Lutheran Church however, does not seek glory in numbers but in the saving of souls by the preaching of the pure Gospel of the crucified and risen Christ, the only Saviour of mankind.
A Word About The Missouri Synod
Many ask the question what is the Missouri Synod, and what's it for? Well, the answer is simple. The Missouri Synod is a body or a number of churches of the Lutheran Doctrine, joined together in what is termed a Synod, for the purpose of united efforts in all lines of spiritual and religious activities.
A Lutheran historian has this to say about the early history of the Missouri Synod: "New life was infused into the Lutheran Church in this country by the arrival, in the late thirties, of loyal Lutherans who had left the fatherland, because they could not, for conscience sake, remain where error and false doctrine were tolerated and defended by the church authorities. They settled chiefly in the Middle West, and in 1847, under the leadership of C. F. W. Walther, F. Wyneken and others founded the Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other States, which has ever since stood for conservation, confessional Lutheranism and by its courageous testimony to the truth has had a decided influence for good upon the whole American Lutheran Church. A loghut college, which had been erected in 1839 in the backwoods of Perry County, Mo., by the Saxon immigrants, was taken over by this Synod and in the course of a few decades developed into a chain of educational institutions stretching from New York to San Francisco and from St. Paul to New Orleans."
To show to what a strong, powerful and active organization the Missouri Synod has grown, it is only necessary to give a few statistics.
The Synod proper comprises 22 districts in the U. S. and Canada, with 2403 ministers; 3244 congregations; 1002 preaching stations, which include more than one million souls and nearly three-quarter million communicant members. 1846 parish schools are conducted, in which 320 female teachers, 1050 male teachers and 973 ministers teach 84,832 pupils. The Synod furnished more than thirty thousand men for the U. S. army and had thirty-three chaplains in the army and navy. The Synod carries on missionary work in fifteen different languages and dialects.
One event in the history of our church is well worthy of recording in this sketch, and the Publicity Committee is pleased to give the event this public announcement.
The Louisville & Nashville Depot and the depot property rest partly on the site of our church and parsonage. The lot on which the church and parsonage stood, cost the founders of our church $900.00 September 2nd, 1867. In the negotiation for the sale of our church property to the Railroad, our congregation was of the unanimous opinion that the progress of time demanded a peaceable sale of its property to the Railway Company, and although the officers of the Company in charge of the negotiation could have driven a sharp bargain for our property, they did nothing of the kind -- instead they graciously and generously and no doubt with the view of not offending any member of the church, paid our congregation in cash, the liberal price of $14,000.000 virtually for the naked lot, donating to the congregation the old church building, the two story parsonage, all iron fencing and the stone walls.
Is it a wonder that all our pastors, teachers and members ride on the L.& N.?
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