History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 161

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358

USA > Missouri > St Louis County > St Louis City > History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men > Part 161

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Carondelet German Evangelical Church was organized by the Rev. John Will, who served as its first pastor, on the 7th of November, 1869. It is situated at Fourth Street and Koeln Avenue, South St. Louis, and the present pastor is the Rev. E. Berger. The corner-stone was laid in November, 1869, and the completed building was dedicated in November, 1870. It is a brick structure forty-two by seventy-two feet. Connected with the church are one hundred and fifty families, two hundred and seventy-seven communicants, nine teachers, and one hundred and twelve pupils in the Sunday-school, an Evangelical Young Men's Society, organized in 1880, and a parochial school, organized in 1882, with thirty- eight pupils.

Zion's German Evangelical Church, Rev. J. Henry Klerner, pastor, is located at the corner of Benton and Twentieth Streets. It was organized in 1869, in the hall of a market-house at Eighteenth and Montgomery Streets, the incorporators being J. H. Lippelman, Henry Klages, G. Frederick, and Rev. A. Müller. The first building occupied by the congregation stood at the corner of Nineteenth and Montgomery Streets. Its corner-stone was laid in the fall of 1869, and the church was dedicated in the fall of 1870. It was converted into a dwelling- house after the congregation had removed to its pres- ent location, in the fall of 1872. The pastors have been Revs. A. Müller, F. Koewing, and J. H. Kler-

ner. A Christian Aid Society, Ladies' Society, and Young Men's Society are maintained in connection with the regular organization of the church.

St. Lucas German Evangelical Church, situated at the northeast corner of Scott and Jefferson Avenues, Rev. Henry Walser, pastor, was organized in 1870 by Pastor Reusch, who was succeeded by Pastor Jungk, and in 1881 by the present incumbent. A small chapel was first erected on the rear portion of the church lot, which is now used as the parish school. An addition to it, which is used as the teacher's residence, has been built, and the school is attended by seventy-five pupils. The present elegant Gothic church edifice, of brick, forty by seventy feet, with a seating capacity of eight hundred, was built in 1878. The parsonage, on Jefferson Avenue adjoining the church lot, was erected in 1882, and is a neat and commodious dwelling. The membership of the church numbers nearly two hundred persons, and the Sunday-school is attended by fifteen teachers and seventy-five scholars.

St. Matthew's German Evangelical Church was organized Nov. 14, 1875, at the private school-rooms of G. H. Braeutigam, on Carondelet Avenue ncar Anna Street, the incorporators being Henry Brasch- ler, Nicholas Frank, William Kollmeyer, John Voepel, and Louis Hunt. Besides these, P. Hueffner, P. H. Sauerwein, W. Winefeld, G. Schildroth, and a few others were the first members. The corner-stone of the church building, 3331 South Seventh Street, was laid Nov. 28, 1875, and the building was dedicated March 5, 1876. Rev. Henry Braschler has been the pastor from the first. The choir and Sunday-school were organized in March, 1876. The latter now numbers over three hundred scholars. The pastor resides in the church building, in which is also main- tained a day school attended by fifty scholars, and conducted by Rev. Henry Drees, assistant pastor of the church. It was organized in 1879. The parish numbers about fifty families.

ST. MATTHEW'S CEMETERY, Pennsylvania Avenue and Morgan Ford road, is connected with St. Mat- thew's German Evangelical Church. The corpora- tion was chartered April 18, 1878, with Charles Bauer, Henry Braschler, William Kollmeyer, Wil- liam Habighorst, and Conrad Brinkmann as incor- porators. It is distant three miles from the church, contains twelve acres, and is handsomely laid out and ornamented. The sale of lots is not confined to mem- bers of the church, but is open to all.

Bethlehem Church .- The congregation of Beth- lehem German Evangelical Church was organized by its present pastor, the Rev. C. F. Stark, with twenty-

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five members, on the 6th of January, 1878, in the church built by the Beaumont Street Baptist congre- gation, at the northeast corner of Morgan and Beau- mont Streets. The Evangelical congregation rented the building, and occupied it for about one year and a half, at the expiration of which it was sold to the Turners. Their present building, situated at the northwest corner of Elliott Avenue and Wash Street, was purchased in January, 1881, from the congrega- tion of St. Mark's English Lutheran Church, which had erected it at a cost of twenty-two thousand dol- lars. It is a brick edifice forty-six by eighty feet, with a capacity for seating five hundred persons, and has two stories, the first of which is used by a day school, attended by one teacher and thirty pupils, and a Sunday-school of seventy-five scholars, under the charge of the pastor and one teacher, and as a lecture- room. The lot is fifty by one hundred and thirty-five feet. About fifty families compose the congregation, and the communicants number seventy.

EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCHES.

In 1838 a body of Lutherans who had been sub- jected to persecution by the government of Saxony on account of their adherence to the doctrines of the Augsburg Confession of Faith emigrated to this coun- try and settled partly in St. Louis and partly in Alten- burg, Perry Co., Mo. Those who made St. Louis their home arrived there in the winter or early spring of 1839, and applied to the rector of Christ Church for permission to use the church building for their services. The request was granted, as appears from the following notice, which was read by the rector, Bishop Kemper, in the church one Sunday in March of that year :

" NOTICE .- A body of Lutherans, having been persecuted by the Saxon government because they believed it their duty to adhere to the doctrines inculcated by their great leader and con- tained in the Augsburg Confession of Faith, have arrived here with the intention of settling in this or one of the neighboring States, and having been deprived of the privilege of public worship for three months, they have earnestly and most re- spectfully requested the use of our church that they may again unite in all the ordinances of our holy religion. I have there- fore, with the entire approbation of the vestry, granted the use of our church for this day from 2 p.M. until sunset to a denomi- nation whose early members were highly esteemed by the Eng- lish Reformers, and with whom our glorious martyrs Cranmer, Ridley, and others had much early intercourse."

This congregation of Lutherans occupied the base- ment of the church for three years from 1839 to 1842.

They established the first Evangelical Lutheran congregation of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession in St. Louis, which soon began to grow rapidly in membership and wealth. In 1869 four congregations had been established, with two large churches and over

six hundred communicants. There are now twelve churches of this denomination in St. Louis subject to the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other States, which, with three other Synods, con- stitutes the "Synodical Conference." The Synod of Missouri, etc., is now divided into eleven districts, with over eight hundred ministers, and owns and maintains the Concordia College and Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Concordia College at Fort Wayne, Ind., the Theological Seminary at Springfield, Ill., and the Teachers' Seminary at Addison, Ill. It also possesses an extensive printing establishment and book-store, situated on the northwest corner of Miami Street and Indiana Avenue, which is the central supply depot of the Synod, and at which are published Der Luther- aner, Lehre und Wehre, and Evangelischesluther- isches Schulblatt (three semi-monthly journals), Magazin für Evangelischelutherische Homiletik (monthly), the St. Louis Theological Monthly, and The Lutheran Witness. Members of this denomina- tion settled in the vicinity of Concordia College and the Church of the Holy Cross form a large and wealthy community.

Concordia College and Theological Seminary was established jointly by the congregations of St. Louis and Altenburg, Mo., in 1842, and was located at Altenburg, but in 1850 it was removed to St. Louis, where the first college building had just been erected. The dedication of this structure took place July 11, 1850. In 1851 the ownership of the college was transferred by the joint congregations to the Synod of Missouri, Ohio, etc. In the summer of 1882 the first college building was demolished, and on its site is being erected a much larger and more imposing edifice, the corner-stone of which was laid Oct. 1, 1882. It is to be of Gothic architecture, with a cen- tral steeple one hundred and thirty-six feet in height, and the main building and two wings will have a front- age of two hundred and thirty-four fect. The depth will be sixty-four fect, and the buildings will contain a vestibule, a class-room for one hundred students, four class-rooms for sixty-eight students, a library- and read- ing-room, a number of smaller dwelling and sleeping apartments, bath-rooms, etc. In the basement of the tower there will be a gymnasium sixteen feet in height. The college will accommodate two hundred students. It was attended during 1882 by ninety-two students, and has a faculty of five professors. The college grounds, which are three hundred and fifty by two hundred and twenty-five feet in size, are situated on Jefferson Avenue and Winnebago Street, and in addi- tion to the main building, are occupied by several smaller houses connected with the institution.

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HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

Dreinigkeits Church, U. A. C.1-It has already been related how, in 1839, a body of Lutheran im- migrants procured permission from Bishop Kemper to hold religious services in the basement of Christ Protestant Episcopal Church, and how the congrega- tion continued to worship there until 1842. This society of Lutherans was organized under the name of the "Dreinigkeits" (or Trinity) Church of the Evangelical Lutheran denomination, and was the first or original congregation, from which sprang all the other German Lutheran Churches of St. Louis. In 1842 the congregation removed to a building of its own, on Lombard Street. The present building, at the southeast corner of Lafayette and Eighth Streets, was erected in 1865. It is a handsome brick structure in the Gothic style, and has a tower two hundred feet high. The nave measures sixty by one hundred and ten feet, and the transepts forty-five by ninety feet, and the building is capable of seating fifteen hundred persons. The dimensions of the lot, on which a fine parsonage is situated, are one hundred and fifty by one hundred and forty feet. The total cost of the ground and buildings was one hundred and twenty thousand dollars.

The pastors have been Revs. Hermann Walther, Z. F. W. Walther (brother to the former), Pastors Wienigen, Schaler, Brauer, and the present pastor, Rev. Otto Hanser. The parochial schools are con- ducted in two buildings, one on Victor Street and the other at Eighth and Barry Streets. They are at- tended by six teachers and four hundred scholars, who, in lieu of attending Sunday-school, assemble at stated periods for instruction and examination in re- ligious subjects. The congregation embraces two hundred and twenty-five families.

Immanuel's Church, U. A. C .- Immanuel's Evan- gelical Lutheran Church, U. A. C., situated at the southeast corner of Morgan and Sixteenth Strects, was organized in 1848 by the Rev. F. Buenger, its first pastor, who died Jan. 23, 1882. His successor was the Rev. Gustavus Wangerin, who took charge on the 16th of August following, and is still the pastor. The first church erected by the congregation stood at the corner of Eleventh Street and Franklin Avenue. It was destroyed by fire on the 9th of De- cember, 1865, the walls only being left standing. These were at once roofed over, and the building was still used for worship until the present edifice was ready for occupancy, when the former property was

sold and converted to business purposes. The present church was dedicated March 22, 1868, and the exer- cises were continued on the following day, Monday, March 23d. It is a noble Gothic edifice of brick, sixty by one hundred and thirty-five feet, and will seat fifteen hundred persons. The steeple is two hundred and nine feet, and rises from the main portal. Situated on the same lot are a handsome pastoral residence and a fine parish school building sixty feet square and two stories high, capable of seating three hundred and eighty-four scholars. There are three teachers and one hundred and eighty-eight pupils connected with the school. The cost of the ground and buildings was about one hundred and eighteen thousand six hundred dollars. The congregation comprises one hundred and eighty families and a membership of five hundred persons. The Nor- wegian Evangelical Lutheran Church, Rev. J. Jo- hansen, pastor, a small congregation of about twenty families, assemble for worship in the parish school building on Sundays.

Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Cross (Saxon) .- This congregation, whose church is located on Miami Street, between Texas and Ohio Avenues, Rev. G. Stoeckhardt, pastor, was organized in 1858 as the Third District of the First Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession in St. Louis, and until the erection of the present church building held its religious services at Concordia College. The corner-stone of the church building was laid on Trinity Sunday, 1867., and the - edifice was dedicated on the second Sunday in Advent, 1867. It is located on the old cemetery of the con- gregation, which is no longer used for burials, this church, together with Dreinigkeits Church, now own- ing a cemetery near Gravois road. The old graveyard is three hundred by five hundred feet in area, and the church building is forty-five by sixty-five feet, and has five hundred seats. It cost thirty thousand dol- lars, and is a handsome edifice of modernized Gothic architecture. The tower and steeple are one hundred and seventy-five feet in height, and the general ap- pearance of the structure is very pleasing. The par- sonage on Texas Avenue stands on a lot fifty by seventy-five feet, and the house and lot are valued at two thousand dollars. The church has had two pastors, -Rev. Theodore Brohm, appointed June 22, 1858, and Rev. G. Stoeckhardt, Oct. 13, 1878. The parish comprises one hundred and twenty-five families, or about six hundred and fifty persons, in addition to the students of Concordia College, and there are five hundred communicants. No Sunday-school is con- ducted by the church, but the parish maintains a

1 The initials U. A. C. are an abbreviation of the term Un- altered Augsburg Confession, used to distinguish this particular branch of Lutherans.

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flourishing day school, attended by three teachers and one hundred and eighty pupils. It was established in 1850, and first occupied a building erected for the purpose in 1851 in the Concordia College grounds. The present school-house is situated on the northwest corner of Ohio Avenue and Potomac Street. It was built in 1872, is thirty-five by sixty feet in size, and will seat two hundred and ten pupils.

St. Trinity Church (German), U. A. C., east side of Sixth Street, between Robert and Koeln Streets, South St. Louis, Rev. C. F. W. Sapper, pas- tor, was organized in 1860, and the first house of worship was dedicated on the third Sunday in Ad- vent of that year. It is a two-story brick building, twenty-eight by forty feet, situated opposite the present church. It was used both for worship and school purposes, but is now entirely occupied by the school. The present edifice was dedicated on the third Sunday after Trinity, 1873. It is a handsome Gothic structure of brick, forty five by one hundred feet, with a spire one hundred and fifty feet high, and will seat six hundred persons. The lots owned by the church measure two hundred by one hundred and fifty feet, and the property is valued at twenty-five thousand dollars. The pastors have been Rev. O. Hanser, appointed in 1860; Rev. M. Hamann, ap- pointed in 1862, and the present pastor, who has served since 1866. This was the first German, and is still the only Lutheran congregation in Caron- delet. It embraces one hundred and twenty families, with one hundred and five voting members, and eight hundred communicants. The parochial school, estab- lished simultaneously with the church, is conducted by two teachers, and attended by one hundred and twenty pupils. The cemetery connected with the church is located on Lami Ferry road, two miles south of Carondelct.

Zion Church, U. A. C. (German), situated on the southeast corner of Warren and Fifteenth Streets, Rev. George Link, pastor, was organized in 1860 by Rev. Frederick Boese, its first pastor. The present pastor was appointed in August, 1873. The church is a brick edifice, forty-five by seventy-five feet, of two stories, with a lecture-room on the first floor. A fine parsonage adjoins the church on the east. The parochial school building, erected in 1868, stands in the rear of the church, and the school comprises four teachers and two hundred and twenty pupils. The church lot is one hundred by one hundred and eight feet. Two hundred and twenty families compose the parish, and the communicants number twelve hun- dred. As is frequently the case in this denomination, no regular Sunday school is conducted, but the chil-

dren of the parish school are required to attend a class for instruction and examination in the catechism, the pastor conducting it in person.

St. Paul's Church (German), U. A. C .- The Evangelical Lutheran St. Paul's Church (German) was organized in 1862 at Lowell, North St. Louis, and first assembled for worship in a hall on what is now De Soto Avenue and Benedict Street, and in 1863 built a small frame church, which has since been converted into a dwelling. Rev. G. R. A. Claus, who organized the congregation, was its first pastor. The corner-stone of the present building, which is situated at the northeast corner of Prairie Avenue and Von Phul Street, was laid on Sunday, July 28, 1872, and the completed structure was dedicated May 25, 1873, Rev. J. H. Ph. Graebner, of St. Charles, Mo., preaching the sermon. On this occasion the second pastor of the church, Rev. I. Achilles, was installed. It is a brick building with a steeple, and its dimensions are thirty-four by sixty-eight feet. In the first story the parochial school is located, with two teachers and one hundred and two pupils. The pres- ent pastor, Rev. C. C. E. Brandt, was installed on Nov. 5, 1876, Revs. Professor G. Schaller, George E. Link, O. Lenk, and M. Hein being the officiating clergymen. There are now one hundred and five families, about five hundred persons, connected with the church, of whom fifty-two are members (voters), and three hun- dred and forty-five communicants. There are a Young Men's and Young Ladies' Society in full vigor, and in lieu of Sunday-school the pastor conducts a catechism class and examinations on Sunday afternoons.

St. John's Church (German), U. A. C., corner of Morgan Ford road and Chippewa Street, was organ- ized in 1865 by Professor August Craemer, its first pastor. The congregation worshiped in the Epis- copal Church until, in 1866, it began to occupy its present building, a frame structure with a seating capacity of one hundred and fifty. The church owns one acre of land, and is about to erect a second and larger building. Rev. Hermann Bartels, its second and present pastor, was ordained and installed by Professor Craemer, Aug. 1, 1875. About sixty fam- ilies, with two hundred communicants, are connected with the congregation. The Sunday-school has eighty pupils, and the parochial school the same number.

Bethania Church, U. A. C. (German), Natural Bridge road, near Spring Avenue, Rev. M. Martens, pastor, was organized in 1872, by Mr. Mangold, who had previously conducted a private school, which then became the school of the parish. Rev. Mr. Heine was the first pastor. The congregation numbers about sixty members, and there are seventy pupils connected

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HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

with the day school. The building is a frame chapel, which is also used for the day school, under the charge of H. Papke.

St. Mark's English Lutheran Church .- St. Mark's English Evangelical Lutheran Church was organized on the 14th of May, 1867, at the residence of John A. J. Shultz, No. 1116 North Twentieth Street, by John A. J. Shultz, D. C. Siegrist, R. R. Honeyman, and their wives, with others. Their first house of wor- ship was situated at the corner of Wash Street and Elliott Avenue. Its corner-stone was laid Sept. 6, 1868, and the completed building was dedicated on the 21st of January, 1872. The edifice was of brick, of Doric architecture, and its erection was superintended by G. W. Berry, after designs by C. S. Artaugh. The dimensions of the building were forty- five by sixty feet, and those of the lot on which it stood fifty by one hundred and thirty-two feet. The exterior was plain, but the interior is described as having been neat and attractive. Rev. Mr. Rhodes officiated, and the music was rendered by the " St. Cecilia Vocal Union," directed by Professor Malmene. The building cost twenty-two thousand dollars, and was sold in 1881 for seven thousand five hundred dol- lars. The church has had three pastors,-Rev. S. W. Harkey, D.D., Professor J. B. Corbet, and Rev. M. Rhodes, D.D.

At the beginning of Dr. Rhodes' pastorate, ten years ago, the congregation numbered only twenty members, and the church was embarrassed with a debt of twelve thousand dollars. This has since been paid off, and the membership has increased tenfold. The congregation is in a highly prosperous condition, and during the last ten years has contributed thirty thou- sand dollars to the benevolent operations of the church. The lot at the southwest corner of Bell Street and Cardinal Avenue, on which the present edifice stands, is most eligibly situated for its purpose. It is seventy- five by one hundred and thirty-four feet in area, and was purchased in 1880 for five thousand two hundred and fifty dollars. The corner-stone of the building was laid May 29, 1881, and the lower or lecture-room was first occupied Feb. 19, 1882. The completed church was formally dedicated Sunday, Oct. 1, 1882, on which occasion the exercises were participated in by a number of ministers from other churches, among whom were Rev. Drs. W. V. Tudor, James H. Brooks, W. W. Boyd, C. E. Felton, C. L. Goodell, H. D. Ganse, T. M. Post, and Rev. W. H. Black, of St. Louis ; Rev. Dr. S. A. Ort, president of Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio; Rev. Dr. G. F. Stelling, of Omaha, Neb .; Rev. Dr. F. Springer, president of the Synod of Central Illinois, and others. The edi-

fice, which is entirely unique among the churches of the city, was designed and erected under the super- vision of C. K. Ramsey, architect, and combines several styles of architecture, English Gothic predominating. The exterior dimensions of the building are seventy- five by one hundred and twenty feet. The main auditorium is sixty-five by ninety-five feet and thirty- six feet in height, and is arranged in the form of an amphitheatre; it will accommodate eight hundred persons, and is noted for the excellence of its acoustic properties. The walls are frescoed in oil, and the win- dows are of cathedral glass, rich in color and design. The church is furnished in walnut richly carved, and the organ is built in an alcove to the left of the pulpit, with a balcony extending for the choir. The base- ment contains three furnaces, a dining-room, kitchen, and other rooms. The lecture-room seats four hun- dred and fifty persons, and there are also class-rooms, a library, and other apartments for the use of the pastor and congregation. Altogether St. Mark's is one of the most complete and thoroughly appointed church structures in the country. As its pastor, Rev. M. Rhodes, D.D., says, " The whole edifice is a pic- ture, a harmony, a magnificent tribute to the skill of the designer and the liberality of a joyous and favored people." The entire cost of the lot, building, and furnishing was a little over sixty thousand dollars. The present membership of the church numbers three hundred persons, and the Sunday-school is attended by two hundred and eighty pupils. A week-day school is conducted in the building, and is attended by one hundred and twenty-five scholars.

HEBREW CONGREGATIONS.

United Hebrew Congregation .- The oldest re- ligious association of Hebrews in St. Louis is that of the " United Hebrew Congregation," Rev. Henry J. Messing, rabbi, located at the southeast corner of Olive and Twenty-first Streets. Its organization was effected in the spring of 1839, at the house of H. Marx, on Locust Street, between Third and Fourth Streets. A. Weigel was elected president, and ser- vices were held at first in a house on Carondelet Ave- nue, in the section then known as Frenchtown. In September, 1848, the society removed to a brick building on Fifth Strect, between Washington Ave- nue and Green Street, which was consecrated on the 27th of the same month. In 1855 a lot on the east side of Sixth Street, between Locust and St. Charles Streets, was purchased from Judge W. Beirne for the sum of six thousand two hundred and forty dollars, on which a synagogue was erected. The work of construction was commenced in 1856, and the build-

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History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 161

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898 Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1358

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358