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Trinity Lutheran Church was formed - 1877
Lutherans from St. Paul's, New
Gehlenbeck (now Hamel), living in and around Worden, formed the nucleus of Trinity Lutheran Church and
Day School in 1877.
Early settlers in Omphghent Township, where Worden is located, were from St. Louis, Missouri; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Virginia; and from the
countries of England, Ireland, Switzerland, Germany and Prussia.
Early members of Trinity were made up
of immigrants from Westphalia, Prussia;
Braunschweig, Hanover and Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany; and from
Switzerland. (See History of
Madison County, Illinois, 1882, reprinted
in 1973, pages 570-71. Besides
Madison County history that is sketchy, information for this report came from
records of voters meetings, past celebrations, other church and school records,
and notes of early residents.) It is not clear when the Worden congregation joined the Synod. It is also not clear when the congregation officially parted from the Hamel congregation. Although the preamble to the Worden constitution speaks of "having been given a peaceful release in 1877," the Hamel centennial book of 1956 indicates these Worden members were not officially transferred until 1881.
Church, School, and Parsonage Built - 1877 In 1876 or 1877 these twenty-five families built the first structure that housed church, school and parsonage, costing approximately $3,000.00. At this time it is the first and second grade classroom of the Trinity Center of Trinity-St. Paul Lutheran School.
Founding Members - 06 May 1877
A copy of the constitution in Pastor's Hansen's handwriting is in the back of Volume 1 of the church record book, pages 301-305. The signatures are on page 305. In some reports of the signers, Karl Hermann's name is added and Heinrich Behrhorst's omitted. These reports failed to notice that the latter was added later in a smaller handwriting of Pastor Hansen's between Pieper and Vogt. At the same time a small red line in the margin after Niederschulte marked off the original twenty-five. Pastor George Albert Schieferdecker, pastor at Hamel at the time, helped these twenty-five families organize in the spring of 1877. He had recently been reinstated in the Missouri Synod, after being removed because of confusion and differences in teaching and doctrine about the Last Day and the end of the world. After restudying his position, and restating and reaffirming his faith, he was accepted again into the Missouri Synod, and soon after called as pastor at Hamel. "Synod"
is the name given groups of congregations
who voluntarily join together on the basis of Holy Scripture and the Lutheran
Confessions. These
congregations together may carry on joint activities,
such as print Christian literature for teaching the faith; train students to
teach, or be pastors in schools and
churches; and send missionaries to new fields in this country or
overseas. "Missouri
Synod" refers to that group of
congregations formed at the first Synodical
convention at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Chicago, Illinois on April 26, 1847.
It includes any others who joined by having congregational constitutions
approved and being accepted at a regular convention.
First Pastor and Teacher Called - 21 Oct 1877 The first resident pastor and first teacher at Trinity School was Peter Hansen, called in the fall of 1877 and installed October 21 of that year.
"Calling"
- In order to have a pastor, a
Lutheran congregation usually prepares a
list of candidates supplied by members or the District President.
At a special meeting of the voters assembly, copies
of the names and notes about them are read.
Prayers are said to guide the decision of the assembly. Then, after
assessing the needs of the congregation and matching them with the candidates, a
name that receives majority vote
receives the call. There is usually
a motion to make the vote unanimous. Then
a phone call that evening may be placed and a call document with general and
specific duties Is sent the candidate.
Occasionally pictures of properties are included.
If the pastor feels God is calling him to the new
congregation, he may request further information, visit that congregation in
person, or make his decision without a personal visit.
It was usually without a personal visit that a pastor accepted a call
in Pastor Hansen's
time.
First Baptism - 28 Oct 1877 Pastor Hansen's first baptism was Julius Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reese on October 28, the Sunday after he was installed.
Baptized
children usually took on the names of the child's sponsors as middle names to
honor them. The sponsor was
to be a lifelong spiritual friend and adviser to the child and his parents to
help them stay close to the true God.
Before laws to provide legal guardians for children took effect, these
persons often were called on to raise godchildren in emergency situations.
The First Church Custodian - 1877 One of the
charter members, Sam Merz, was church custodian from 1877 to 1894 without
pay. After that he was paid $20.00 a year, and one year was
to get $40.00! But apparently
some felt this was too much increase, and he
went back to the $20.00 a year salary.
His duties included getting up at 4:00 a.m. Sundays and building a
fire to warm the church for services.
He was also to ring the church bell
three times daily: at 5:00
a.m. to wake the coal miners for work,
at 12:00 noon for a dinner bell, and at sunset, usually 6:00 p.m.
The 6:00
p.m. bell was still rung on Saturdays as an old reminder of church the next day
until 1977.
Karl J. Kirsch is first called teacher - 1882 In addition to his pastoral duties,
Pastor Hansen also taught school for the first five years until the arrival
of Teacher Kirsch. The pastor
received $35.00 a
year until 1882, and then donated $5.00 of it toward Teacher Kirsch's
salary. Most income for
pastors and teachers, until recently, came from produce from the fields donated
by members. Still the
salaries were quite low in these early days!
Early records of the church and school are sketchy. According to an early resident, Charles Merz, who died in 1970, the records of the first five years of Trinity were read at the following meeting, accepted—and discarded! The pastor kept membership records of baptisms, confirmations, marriages, funerals, communicants and voters. Total membership for any one year could be approximated by counting children in school (the absentees are the best record book!) and adding communicants. Voters were all men over 21 who had signed and read the church constitution.
Pastor Hansen's first wife dies - Spring 1883 In the spring of 1883 Pastor Hansen's first wife, Maria Hanna nee Ahner died at 29. That same year on December 30, he was joined to his second wife, Emma D.C. nee Ahner, his first wife's cousin, by Pastor Schieferdecker. His family had another death when their 10-month old Theodore died in 1890. Deaths of small children in these early years were frequent. Other children were Petronella (confirmed in 1878), Dorothea (1897), Johannes (1898), Friedrich (1901) and Paulus (1908). Pastor and Mrs. Hansen also adopted H. August F. Depping (1910). This was one of the smaller families then!
Corner-stone is layed - 16 Dec 1894 Mining began the winter of 1876, with Worden Mining Company. The first coal was sold the following year. Additional mines in 1881 in Worden and in surrounding communities brought increased population to town and church. Railroads, the Wabash, Illinois, Chicago & Northwestern, with farming and the stores that supported this population gave the communities of New Hampton and Worden rapid spurts of growth.The congregation got along with their first church building, except to build a 14' x 10' entranceway in 1886, costing $67.00. But in 1894 it was necessary to seriously discuss a new church to seat the growing church family. Every meeting this year had more details of the new building. It was to face the west (altar side). A festival service for cornerstone laying was planned for December 16, 1894. Four neighboring congregations were invited: Gehlenbeck (Hamel), Braunschweig (Immanuel, South Staunton), Staunton (Zion), and Prairietown. Items of value to be placed In the cornerstone were: the church service for the day of dedication; the church constitution; Luther's Catechism; the hymnal and agenda; the constitution of Synod; the latest Proceedings of Synod; the latest Proceedings of the District; the issue of the Lutheraner, the official magazine of the Lutheran Church at that time, that contained the write-up of the dedication; and the Pioneer, a children's magazine! The contract price for the church was $3675.00; $167.00 for the bell; and $650.00 for the Kilgen Organ. (Volume 1, page 47).
Confirmation Room is built - 1896Another important change came in 1896 when the congregation decided to build a confirmation room 16' x 18'. During the winter months, confirmation classes had been conducted by the pastor in a small summer kitchen. "Confirmation" is a series of lessons, with youth or adults, based on the Bible and Luther's Small Catechism. The catechism is a book of questions and answers, briefly explaining the major teachings of the Bible. It includes: the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, baptism, the church (also called the Office of the Keys), and the Lord's Supper (or Holy Communion). Notes from the Merz, August Neuhaus and Walter Neuhaus families at the time of the 75th anniversary are also interesting. The children gathered around the teacher's desk and recited or discussed school subjects. Older children helped the younger with their schoolwork. When children were needed at home for threshing, butchering or washing clothes, their attendance was irregular. When they came to school, many were barefoot when weather permitted; in winter they usually wore felt boots. Girls wore aprons to school and changed them every day. Besides keeping the classroom clean, children were put on teams to build the fire at school and pump the organ for Sunday services.
Teacher Karl Kirsch leaves Trinity School - Jan 1899 Robert Winkler of St. Louis, a nephew of Ida and Charles Merz, relates that the father, Sam Merz, would call out "Der Kirsch kommt," ("Teacher Kirsch is coming") when the teacher and Mr. Merz wanted to visit. That was a signal for all children to prepare for bed instantly. Karl Kirsch taught from 1882 to 1899.
25th anniversary of the congregation is celebrated - 1902 The congregation celebrated 25 years by enlarging the teacherage in 1902. The services, morning and afternoon, were a combination of mission festival and anniversary the last Sunday of August. The afternoon meal was served without charge. But at later mission festivals, because some merely came for the free meal and wasted food, a small fee was added. Members referred to these nuisances as "yankees." January 1, 1902, the same year of Worden's 25th anniversary, nine members of St. Paul's, New Gehlenbeck, were given a peaceful release to organize in Carpenter.
World Exposition at St. Louis in 1904
Schools in the St. Louis area were asked to take part in the World Exposition at
St. Louis
in 1904. Teacher H.F. Bunjes sent in schoolwork for the
1902-1903 school year. The
work was bound with over 750 other books from 222 congregations.
Worden's was Volume 71. It was
returned from files of Concordia Teachers College, River Forest, Illinois
by Prof. William Ewald, "Books
Back" Project Director, and Dr. John Groh, Chairman of the 125th Synodical
Anniversary Committee with a covering letter April 7, 1973. It
was part of a collection described in the 1904 issues of the Schulblatt,
a journal for Lutheran teachers and educators, ancestor to the present-day
Lutheran Education Association. School
that year had seven grades of 93 children.
The school was ungraded, that is, students could advance at their own
pace. It rivaled modem
schools in subjects like penmanship, letter
writing, geography, English and German.
The latter two subjects were called "language work."
New school was planned - 1905 The congregation almost made plans for a new school in 1905, but the elected committee was disbanded and plans postponed indefinitely at the following meeting.
Steeple is repaired - 1906
The problem of rain leaks in the church steeple was met in 1906 by repair of the
steeple by the trustees. The
congregation celebrated Hamel's 50th anniversary that same year.
First revision and printing of the church constitution - 1907
In 1907 came another series of firsts: first mention of a youth group, first
revision and printing of the constitution,
incorporating the congregation, and first mention of any insurance on church
buildings.
Cemetery Committee is formed - 1908 One
member
of the school board was to keep an eye on the schoolboys during church in 1908.
Young men and
young women were also encouraged to contribute to salaries.
This concern at all age levels for stewardship of time, talents and
treasures was noteworthy in this young congregation. In
the same year regulations for the cemetery and the first cemetery committee came
into being. The first regulations
are in Volume 1, page 134 of Voters
Minutes.
First Pastor, Peter Hansen retires - 11 Apr 1915 At a special meeting on April 11, 1915, Pastor Hansen announced his retirement. Peter Hansen served Worden for 38 years until his retirement in 1915. During a portion of that time Julia Hirschhauser was a servant in the parsonage of Pastor and Mrs. Hansen, according to records of Mr. and Mrs. Alex Barlows of St. Louis.
Pastor Herman C. Kothe was installed - 11 Jul 1915 The
new pastor, Herman C. Kothe, was installed July 11,
1915.
He was to receive a starting salary of $50.00 a month and begin preaching
in English every two weeks. Two
hundred English hymnals were ordered for those services.
Signs of growth - 1915 Many other signs of growth accompanied the arrival of the new pastor. The school got a new look with an addition to the east, facing south. This was to prepare for a separate teacher for lower grades at Trinity School. The bid for building the additional classroom was $915.00 but it finally cost $1314.00; it is still used as the classroom for Kindergarten class for Trinity-St. Paul Lutheran School. Another
sign of growth was the introduction of the envelope system.
Church envelopes are a systematic way to encourage regular giving, to
keep records for members of their gifts and to encourage members to give as God
prospers them. This system is
based on Corinthians 16:2; "Upon the first day of the week, let every one
of you lay by him
in store as God has prospered him."
Numbers identify families for the financial secretaries, but protect the families
from a need to feel either too proud of a very large gift, or too ashamed of
their small gift. It
was estimated that a parsonage for the pastor would cost $3290.00, but it
finally cost $4792.00.
The new furnace for the parsonage was financed by a 5-year interest free
note from Pastor Hansen of $500.00. The church was wired for electricity in 1915. Older residents remember signs of growth such as the streetcar that ran the length of Kell (the street past the post office), the gas lights lit at 4:00 a.m., and the burly policeman that broke up fights and accompanied women and children home at curfew time. At 8:00 p.m. each evening the curfew still sounds.
German to English - May 1918 A painful sign of growth was the change from German to English. In May 1918 the decision was made to begin teaching religion in English. Lutherans were torn between their love for the language in which they had been raised, and obedience to a recent state law that banned the German language in schools during the First World War. There was also the fear of what might happen if they did not change. Evidently the desire to be loyal citizens of America took precedence and German was made optional.
Teacher Albert Meyer leaves school - 1919 When teacher Albert Meyer accepted the call to Fort Wayne in 1919, the congregation paid him $30.00 for installing the electric lights in the teacherage.
25th Anniversary of the church building - 28 Sep 1919
September 28, 1919 saw a brief but happy time in the 25th anniversary of the
church building, celebrated with a mission festival.
The congregation made a great effort to pay all debts
before that date!
English Bible class and English Communion - 1920 Pastor was urged in 1920 to organize an English Bible class and English Communion three times a year. The congregation began to become more open to gradual changes from this point on.
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