USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II > Part 71
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This movement, which had such small beginnings, has now reached extensively throughout the city. It occupies two entire buildings, known as Self-culture Halls; one of them at 1921 South Ninth Street, and the other at 1832 Carr Street. It also for a time carried on a third branch at Tower Grove, and for a number of years conducted educa-
tional classes and lecture courses at Marten's Hall, 921 Old Manchester Road. Efforts are now on foot to establish a further branch in North St. Louis, where a course of lectures has been given with great success, and an average attendance of several hundred peo- ple at the hall over the power house of the street railway company, at 3700 North Broadway.
The resident director of this institution, who resides at the North Side Self-culture Hall, is Mr. W. H. Lighty, while the general management of the educational work has al- ways remained in the hands of the lecturer of the Ethical Society.
But after a few years it was decided to sep- arate this movement altogether from the Ethical Society, and form it into an entirely independent corporation. The movement had been started on March 3, 1888. In the year 1892, however, this separation took place, and a new corporation was formed, known as the Self-culture Hall Association. The leadership in this step was taken by Mr. James Taussig, who for a time was presi- dent of the association and did a great deal for its advancement. Its board of trustees has no connection with the Ethical Society, but comes from representative citizens throughout St. Louis. The following gentle- men are the trustees at the present time : Adam Boeck, A. L. Berry, Gustav Cramer, George O. Carpenter, Jr., Elias Michael, T: A. Meysenburg, Dr. William Taussig, I. W. Morton, General John W. Noble, W. L. Sheldon.
The first treasurer of the association was Mr. N. O. Nelson, who was among the fore- most founders of this work.
The work of this association has developed from a free reading room, with a lecture course, into a great number of departments. The plan has been to furnish the widest pos- sible variety of opportunities for general self- culture. There have been classes in literature, cooking, dressmaking, mechanical draw- ing, history and biography, civil govern- ment, bookkeeping, natural science, music and other subjects. Debating clubs are car- ried on, and excursions organized to inspect prominent institutions in St. Louis, such as large manufacturing establishments, or the Museum of Fine Arts.
The main effort in the work, however, has been concentrated on the lecture courses.
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There are usually four to five of these lecture courses going on every week in different parts of St. Louis. Co-operation in this work has come from all sides, without regard to creed or church.
Among those who have taken part in these lecture courses have been clergymen such as the Revs. William Short, W. W. Boyd, John Mathews, James W. Lee, George W. Martin, S. J. Niccolls, F. L. Hosmer, John Snyder, Samuel Sale and Bishop D. S. Tuttle. Physicians have been on the lecture courses, such as Dr. W. E. Fischel, Dr. Raymond Ra- vold, Dr. Ella Marx, and others. Then there have been lawyers and business men, such as F. W. Lehman, N. O. Nelson, Honorable Richard Bartholdt, General John W. Noble, C. H. Sampson, Dr. William Taussig, Mr. Goodman King, and others. Naturally, the teachers and educators from all sides have joined cordially in the work, including Mr. W. S. Chaplin, Professor F. Louis Soldan, Miss Mary McCulloch, Mr. F. M. Crunden, Mr. W. H. Pommer, and Professors .H. C. Ives, William Trelease, M. S. Snow, C. M. Woodward, E. R. Kroeger, James M. Dixon, J. B. Johnson, E. D. Luckey, E. H. Sears and Holmes Smith. The list of these various lecturers would cover probably 150 names all together.
Courses of lectures are being given throughout the year on such subjects as "American History," . "Psychology and Health," "Literature," "Engineers and Engineering," "Travels," and the various departments of natural science.
Those who attend the classes or lectures organize themselves into clubs, with their own officers. One of the members who has been attending the work for many years is to be made an officer of the association itself, as an assistant organizer, Miss Ida Bohl- mann.
The association publishes a small monthly paper as its "Bulletin," giving the items of news connected with the work. This paper was started October, 1897, with the head- ing, "Wage-earners' Self-culture Clubs- Monthly Bulletin."
One of the most peculiar and striking de- partments of this association is known as the Domestic Economy Schools. This branch is devoted to education in house-keeping for young girls. It has classes in cooking, laun- dry work, sweeping a room, table-setting,
care of a bed room, sewing and all the general class of work that would come with the care of the home. These schools were founded by mrs. W. E. Fischel, who has worked out the course of instruction.
There are now two branches of the Domes- tic Economy Schools, one at each of the Self-culture Halls. The one on the South Side has been in charge of Miss Ellen Fisher, who has been the leader in developing this work in that part of the city.
The support for the association comes from the citizens of St. Louis. The subscriptions range from $25 to $50, and for the most part are contributed annually for three years. It costs about $5,000 a year to carry on the work of the association. It is the hope of the managers to establish a network of branches of this association all over St. Louis, reaching out further and further with the lecture courses, classes and self-culture halls.
W. L. SHELDON.
Eureka .- A place of 250 inhabitants, thirty miles west of St. Louis, on the Missouri Pacific and St. Louis & San Francisco Rail- roads, laid out in 1858. It is in the beautiful and fertile Meramec Valley, and surrounded by prosperous farms. It has a Methodist (South) Church, and Episcopal Chapel and a Masonic Hall. It was for a time the home of Edward W. Johnston, a brilliant newspaper writer, whose Washington City letters to a Philadelphia paper over the signature of "Il Segretario," about 1848, attracted much at- tention. The vicinity of Eureka was the scene of a railroad collision, attended by the loss of several lives, and the wounding of many other persons, in 1869.
Evangelical Church. - St. Louis has at present-1898 twenty-one congregations belonging to the German Evangelical Synod of North America, a constituent of the Evan- gelical Church. In its confession this synod acknowledges the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the word of God, and as the only and infallible criterion of Chris- tian doctrines and precepts; it accepts that interpretation of the Holy Scriptures which is laid down in the symbolic books of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches so far as they agree. Among the chief of these books can be named the Augsburg Confession, Luther's small catechism, and the Heidelberg
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catechism. But in points of difference of these symbolic
books the German Evangelical Synod simply adheres to the passages of the Holy Scriptures alluding to these points of controversy, and makes use of that liberty of conscience existing in the Evangelical Church. This body has adopted the name "Evangelical"-from the Greek "evangelion," signifying "Gospel"-because it endeavors to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ unchanged and unadulterated, as found in the New Testament. One of the great aims and objects of the German Evan- gelical Synod is to unite the various factions of the church by reformation. While being strictly biblical in its doctrines and teachings, it allows freedom of conscience in questions of minor importance, and in its confession has a platform upon which members of dif- ferent denominations may meet and extend to each other the hand of fellowship, and ac- knowledge each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. Thus the prayer of Christ may become a reality: "That they may be one as Thou, Father, art in me and I in Thee; that they also may be one with us; that the world believe that Thou hast sent me."
A church with similar principles and pur- suing the same objects exists in Germany since 1817, when the union of the Reformed and Lutheran Churches was proclaimed in Prussia by Frederick William III, the king of that country, known to this day by the name, Prussian Union. This union rapidly spread over other States of Germany, viz .: Baden, Wurttemberg, Nassau and Hesse.
The German Evangelical Synod of North America, however is an independent organi- zation, having nothing to do with any church of state in Germany. The founders of the synod were sent by the Basle Missionary So- ciety, a religious society of strictly unsec- tarian character, simply to preach the gospel to the Germans of this country, who were sorely neglected as to religious truth and mostly were without gospel and church. The founders first labored among the Germans in the neighborhood of St. Louis. The first two messengers of the Basle Missionary Society arrived in New York, April 1, 1836, and later on, during the same year, started out for St. Louis. Here, one of them, G. W. Wall, took up his work and continued therein until the end of his life in 1866. He had great diffi- culties to contend with, and found his labors
very hard, suffering much from the enmity of irreligious people, so-called German free- thinkers ; but he patiently endured it and per- severed. The hatred and enmity of this would-be tolerant element and class of people went so far, at one time, that Rev. Wall's little congregation was compelled to guard him two weeks with shotguns and rifles. "O tempora, 0 mores!" Wall's companion, Joseph Rieger, led a rather Pauline sort of life, traveling from place to place through Southern Illinois and Missouri, preaching the gospel and organizing congregations. Others soon followed, so that, in 1840, about eight missionary workers were found in St. Louis and vicinity. On the 15th of October, 1840, six of them, invited by Rev. Louis Nollau, one of their number, assembled at the Gra- vois Settlement, Missouri, and organized themselves, calling their body "The German Evangelical Church Association of the West." At this time the confession was drawn up, and principles agreed upon. Later on other German ecclesiastical bodies of the East and Northwest, which had the same principles in general, united with the German Evangelical Church Association of the West, and the name was therefore changed, in 1877, to the one it bears to-day: "The German Evangelical Synod of North America." The number of pastors now belonging to the synod is about 900, having charge of 1,150 congregations, with 89,000 families, and 194,- 647 communicants. Hitherto the services have been conducted throughout all the con- gregations almost exclusively in the German language, but in our day, when the English language is more and more used in every-day life-yea, almost permeating the American air-services in this language also are grad- ually being introduced, especially in congre- gations of Eastern cities and States.
The Evangelical Synod has two Theologi- cal Seminaries, one at Elmhurst, Illinois, a pretty little village sixteen miles from Chi- cago, and the other at St. Louis. The one at Elmhurst is known by the name, Evangelical Protestant Seminary, and is a preparatory to Eden College, situated just beyond the city limits of St. Louis, on St. Charles Rock Road. The Protestant Seminary celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in 1895; Eden College-which see-will have been fifty years in existence in 1900. The hymnals, prayerbooks, school and Sunday school
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books, and various papers and periodicals are published at the Eden Publishing House, the chief book concern of the synod, fitted out with the best modern printing improvements and facilities. The same is located at 1716 Chouteau Avenue, St. Louis, and is managed by Mr. A. G. Toennies.
The synod carries on extensive benevolent and missionary work, having eight Orphan Homes, six Deaconess Homes, two Homes for the Aged, and an Asylum for Epileptics. It sustains quite a mission in India, several missionaries laboring there, not without marked success.
St. Louis has always been considered to be the heart of the synod, having itself, accord- ing to statistics of 1897, twenty-one congre- gations, with 10,325 communicants. Each congregation has its church and pastor. Con- nected with most of the congregations there is a parochial school, where, besides elemen- tary branches, Bible history is taught and re- ligious instruction given. There are at present engaged in these parochial schools twenty-six teachers, having a total of 1,675 scholars. Some of these schools have been of untold blessing not only to their pupils, but also to the congregations with which they are connected. The Sunday school has always been a significant feature. In 1898, 353 teachers were giving their time to the Lord, and to 4,060 scholars. Most of the Sunday schools belong to the Evangelical Sunday School Union of the Missouri District of the Evangelical Synod of North America.
And now it only remains for something to be said of each congregation in special. They follow here in the order in which they were organized :
The German Evangelical St. Mark's was organized by Rev. G. W. Wall in the year 1843. The following named ministers have served it : G. W. Wall, 1843-67 ; H. Braschler, 1867-75; J. Hoffman, 1875-7: John Nollau, 1877-85, and Lonis Nollau, 1885-94. The present pastor is Rev. E. H. Eilts, installed in November, 1894. Membership, seventy-five. Its church societies are : St. Mark's Ladies' Society, St. Mark's Young Ladies' Society, St. Mark's Junior Society, St. Mark's Sewing Society, St. Mark's Mixed Choir, and St. Mark's English Ladies' Choir. The congre- gation has a day school, with an average daily attendance of seventy pupils throughout the whole year, Mr. G. H. Braeutigam being
teacher. It also has a Sunday school, with 200 scholars and sixteen teachers. The church property consists of a church, parson- age, and house for the sexton, on Soulard Street, between Broadway and Third Street, valued at $15,000; one-half of an old grave- yard, no longer in use, near Cherokee Street, between Lemp and Wisconsin Avenues, val- ned at $10,000; old St. Mark's Cemetery, on Gravois and Loughborough Avenues, valued at $15,000, and new St. Mark's Cemetery, on the west side of Gravois Avenue, south of River Des Peres, valued at $40,000; total $80,000.
The congregation built its first small church in 1845. This was torn down in 1866, and a new and larger house of worship was erected, and in the following year dedicated for divine service. When, on the 27th of May, 1896, a tornado swept over the south- ern part of St. Louis, half of this church was blown down and the great church organ was totally destroyed. But with the aid of God and the help of Christian friends, the house of worship was restored, and on the 13th of December, 1896, again dedicated to its divine purpose.
Evangelical St. Peter's Church was organ- ized in July, 1843, by Rev. G. W. Wall, who remained with it until 1845. The following have served as pastors : G. W. Wall, 1843-5 ; J. J. Ries, 1845-52 ; Louis E. Nollan, 1852-60; A. W. Roeder, 1860-70; E. Roos. 1870-80; A. B. P. J. Thiele, 1880-5; and J. F. Klick, the present pastor, who has served since 1885. The congregation has 200 members, and a week-day school, with three teachers: H. Rabe, Paul Austmann, and Miss Werning, teaching an aggregate of 225 scholars. The church property, situated at the corner of Fif- teenth and Carr Streets, consists of a church, a parsonage, and a dwelling for teachers and sextons. With the exception of Bellefon- taine, Calvary, and Evangelical St. Mark's, the St. Peter's Cemetery on Hunt and Lucas Avenues is the largest in the city, comprising ninety-seven acres-Christopher Karbach be- ing superintendent. The property of the congregation aggregates in value about $100,000.
Evangelical St. Paul's Church was founded in October, 1848. The ministers have been : A. Baltzer, 1848-51; J. Will, 1851-61; H. S. Seybold, 1861-3; Dr. R. John, 1863-78; C. A. Richter, 1878-80; O. Telle, 1880-1; and from
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1882 until the present time and still serving, Rev. J. Irion. Its present membership is 120, and its auxiliary societies are: the Young Men's, Young Ladies,' and Ladies' Auxiliary Societies, a Mission Society, a Sewing So- ciety, Sunday-school Union, and a Benevo- lent Society. It has a day school with three teachers and 150 to 200 scholars ; and a Sun- day school with from 350 to 400 children. The church property is situated at Lafayette Avenue and South Ninth Street, and consists of property worth $40,000. The tornado of 1896 totally destroyed the church and par- sonage, but both have since been rebuilt in elaborate style. The congregation also has a beautiful cemetery on Gravois Road.
Evangelical St. John's Church, located at Fourteenth and Madison Streets, was organ- ized in October, 1852, by Rev. J. Will. It has been served successively by Rev. J. M. Will, Rev. J. J. Riess, Rev. Christopher Schrenck, Rev. L. Haeberle, Rev. C. Mueller, and the present pastor, E.T. Bettex. It has a member- ship of 241 families, and its auxiliaries are : a Ladies' Aid Society, Young Ladies' Society, Young Men's Society, and a Christian En- deavor Society. It maintains a parochial school, with about 200 children and four teachers; and a Sunday school, with about 370 children. It has property at Fourteenth and Madison Streets valued at $50,000, also a cemetery on St. Cyr Road, valued at $30,000.
Evangelical Friedens Church was founded by Rev. J. M. Kopf, who is still pastor, in 1858. Membership, 200. The societies con- nected with it are: the Ladies' and Young Ladies' Societies, and the Sunday School Union. It has a parochial school, with three teachers; and its property consists of a church, schoolhouse and parsonage, on Nine- teenth Street and Newhouse Avenue, valued at $40,000, including a cemetery at the head of North Broadway.
Evangelical Zion's Church was founded in October, 1868, by Rev. A. Mueller, with seven members. Its ministers have been : A. Muel- ler, 1868-72; J. F. Koewing, 1872-6; H. Kler- ner, 1876-83 ; and from 1883 until the present day, Rev. John Baltzer, still serving. The congregation owns a beautiful cemetery on the St. Charles Rock Road, containing forty- nine acres. In 1889 a lot fronting 100 feet on Benton Street, at the corner of Twenty-fifth Street, was bought, and a four-room school- house erected thereon. In 1895 a new par-
sonage was built, and the church was en- larged so as to have a seating capacity of 950. Its membership is 249. The day school has 250 pupils, the Sunday school 400, and the Ladies' Society 246 members.
Evangelical Bethania Church was founded in 1869, by Rev. C. Stark, at that time mem- ber of the Evangelical Synod of the West. Since then the following ministers have served: Rev. L. Austmann, Rev. C. Kramer and H. F. Deters. Rev. H. F. Deters is still pastor of the congregation. It has a mem- bership of seventy-five families; the Ladies' Aid Society, 105 members, and the Young Ladies' Society, thirty members. The church and parsonage are located at the northeast corner of Twenty-third and Wash Streets, assessed at $45,000. Its cemetery, on the St. Charles Rock Road and the Wabash Railway, is worth $60,000.
The Evangelical Carondelet Church was founded by Rev. J. Will, in November, 1869. The following named ministers have served since: F. Weygold, 1870-2; A. Mueller, 1872-81; E. Berger, 1881-8; J. Hoffmann, 1888-96; and Rev. Edward Bleibtreu, since 1896. It has ninety-eight members, and maintains, the Ladies', Young Ladies', and Young Men's Societies, and a Sunday School Union. The church is located at Koeln and Michigan Avenues, and its church, school and parsonage are worth about $10,000.
Evangelical St. Luke's Church was founded in October, 1870, by Rev. A. Reusch, who remained in charge until 1876. Rev. William T. Jungk was pastor from 1877 to 1881, and from 1881 to the present time Rev. H. Walser has served in that capacity. Its parochial school has sixty scholars, and its Sunday school 200 children enrolled. It maintains the Young Ladies', Ladies', and Young Men's Societies, and has church property on Scott and South Jefferson Avenues worth $24,000.
Evangelical St. Matthew's Church was founded in October, 1875, by Rev. H. Braschler, who remained until 1882, to be succeeded by his son-in-law, Rev. H. Drees. Rev. Drees worked faithfully until 1895, when his health failed, compelling him to sever his connection with the parislı. Rev. C. Kramer, from Alton, Illinois, was unanimously elected in his stead and still has charge. The num- ber of members is 150, with Ladies', Young Ladies', Mission and Choir Societies. The
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parochial school has 150 pupils, and the Sun- day school 300 pupils. The church building, school, and parsonage, situated on Jefferson and Potomac Avenues, have a value of $45,- 000. The congregation owns a cemetery at Bates Street and Morgan Ford Road, with a chapel thereon, worth $4,000. This is the finest cemetery in the southern part of the city. Until 1889 the congregation had its church on South Seventh Street. This church was sold in the latter year, and the new large edifice on Jefferson and Potomac Avenues was built in 1890.
Evangelical Ebenezer Church was founded in September, 1886, by Rev. W. Fritsch. Rev. S. A. John followed. At present, Rev. Max Habecker is pastor of the congregation, which has 100 members. It has the Women's, Young Ladies' and Benevolent Societies, and the Sunday School Union ; a parochial school with 100 scholars and two teachers; and a Sunday school with 350 children and twenty- eight teachers. Its property, on McNair Avenue, between Pestalozzi and Arsenal Streets, is worth $35,000.
St. Jacob's Evangelical Church was organ- ized and its constitution adopted August II, 1886. Prior to 1886 Rev. J. M. Kopf and students of Eden College occasionally preached the gospel to the Germans in the locality commonly called Lowell. In July, 1886, Rev. C. G. Haas was called to take charge, so as to take definite steps toward organization, which was effected on the date above given, the constitution being drawn up and signed by fourteen members. Until Sep- tember, 1888, services were held in the little schoolhouse on DeSoto Avenue, below Broadway. When the quarters there got too small a piece of property, 119 by 238, was bought on College and Blair Avenues, and a church, with a seating capacity of 650, and subsequently a parsonage and school house, were erected at a total cost of $20,000. The dwelling of the pastor was paid for by the Ladies' Auxiliary Society, which has been a hearty co-operator of the congregation in its various monetary affairs. The organ and the steam-heating were also donations of this society. The membership of the church is 120. The parochial school has one teacher and thirty-five scholars, and the Sunday school 275 scholars and nineteen teachers. Rev. C. G. Haas, the founder, is still pastor of the congregation.
The Evangelical Salem Church was founded by Rev. George Toennis in 1885. Rev. J. J. Fink was the first pastor and remained in charge until 1897, when he accepted a call of the Evangelical Jesus con- gregation, St. Louis. Rev. H. Walz, of Mas- coutah, Illinois, was chosen as his successor. There are seventy-five members of this church. The Ladies' Society has fifty-five members, and the Young Ladies' Society twenty members. The church and parsonage are on Margaretta and Marcus Avenues. Under the energetic work of Rev. H. Walz, the little old frame church has become too small and the congregation erected, in 1898, a large new church, at a cost of $13,000.
The Evangelical Bethlehem Church was organized January 18, 1891, by the Board of Home Missions, with H. Graebedinkel as pas- tor. The church has a membership of sixty- three, and its societies are: The Ladies' Aid Society, fifty-eight members; Mixed Choir, fourteen members; Male Choir, twelve mem- bers, and the Sunday School Choir, twelve members. The parochial school has forty scholars, and the Sunday school 250 scholars. The church is situated on Shaw Avenue and Hereford Street, and the value of its prop- erty is estimated at from $10,000 to $12,000. In April, 1897, the congregation decided to erect a new edifice. The corner stone was laid October 31, 1897, and the building was finished and dedicated on Sunday, March 20, 1898. It cost $6,000.
Christ Evangelical Church was organized in 1888, by Rev. G. Kienle, in Benton, a suburb of St. Louis. The present pastor is Rev. John Erdmann. The church property is worth $2,000, and the congregation numbers forty-five members.
Immanuel Evangelical Church is on Euclid Avenue, near Washington Avenue. The con- gregation was organized by Rev. Charles Pleger, in 1889. Its membership is thirty- nine, and its property is worth $4,000. The present pastor is Rev. F. Pfeiffer.
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