Easter Sunday Church Feature

Lutherans in Kaukauna

On April 15, 1877 Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church was organized with 22 charter members in Kaukauna, Wisconsin. The minister was Rev. Reinhold Pieper of Wrightstown and the services were conducted in German. The next year they built the small wooden church with the single steeple that (shown in the photo below) on the 800 block of Grignon Street. In 1885 the Rev. William Hinnerthan was installed as the first official pastor and in 1889 a charter was granted to the church. In 1917 the Rev. Paul Oehlert became pastor and the following year a Sunday School was started. The present red brick church with the two square steeples was dedicated in 1915. Starting in 1920 services were conducted in English as well as German. In 1965 the Rev. John Mattek became pastor and in 1969 the new front entrance was built onto the 1915 church. (Link. )(See photo above.)

1878 Small Wooden Church on right (Link.)

It is interesting to note that the 1915 Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kaukauna, Wisconsin and the Emmanuel Lutheran Church (See March 21, 2010 blog post.) built in 1915 similar styles. Both are red brick and have two square steeples. The street that the Kaukauna church is on, Grignon Street, is named for Charles A. Grignon who obtained the first land deed in Wisconsin.

Sanctuary Altar (Link.)

Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church was the home church of Marie Juergenmeyer when she, her husband Martin, and daughter Hazel lived on Taylor Street in Kaukauna in the late 1920's and early 1930's. The family then moved to Seymour where she attended Emmanuel Lutheran Church. Following Martin's death in the 1950's she returned to live in the Taylor Street house in Kaukauna and again attended Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church. Marie and Martin Juergenmeyer were the grandparents and Hazel the mother of Suzanne Wilson.

For more information on Kaukauna, Wisconsin see blog post from April 3, 2010. 

Thank you: To Irene Luehring and Bill Roerig of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran  

               Church, Kaukauna, Wisconsin, for the information and the memories.

Photos: Colored taken in 2006 by SW.

               B and W probably taken shortly after 1915. See Link.

Link: http://www.trinitykaukauna.com/index.php?pg=pages%2ftrinity_history.htm

Sunday Church Feature

Seymour Wisconsin 1915

Emmanual Lutheran Church at 349 North Main Street in Seymour, Wisconsin was built in 1915. The red brick building with white Bedford stone trim around the trinity front doors features double square steeples with stained glass windows. The larger of the steeples contains a bell tower and clocks on each of its sides. A trinity stained glass window is above the front doors. The sides of the church also feature trinity stained glass windows. The church is on the corner of North Main Street and County Road G. If you travel further down North Main Street you come to the Outagamie Fair Grounds.

Deanna and Jay DeBruin are currently working on the history of Emmanual Lutheran Church. Here are some of the highlights from the Lutheran Standard of March 4, 1939. Rev. Frederick H. Ohlrogge was minister during the erection of the $30,000 church that was dedicated on Jan. 9, 1916. The debt was paid off in five years. The church is 110 feet long and 45 feet wide. The tallest of the square towers is 75 feet high. The front doors are of heavy oak. The Gothic design of the interior features a wooden altar in a large semicircular niche twenty feet wide. A life sized figure of the Lord with arms outstretched stands in the center of the altar and in the lower part a plaque of the Last Supper. The organ is in the rear balcony that seats 100. The main floor seats about 500. Cark Reiman of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and a member of the Stained Glass Association of America 1912-1923 was the designer of the interior and the Neo-Gothic stained glass windows.

Emmanual Lutheran was the church of Marie Juergenmeyer, Seymour Wisconsin, grandmother of Suzanne Marie Wilson, North Vancouver B.C., and great-great grandmother of Holly Marie Misner, Spokane Washington.

Suzanne remembers attending the church with her grandmother when she was a young child in the 1940's . It was there she learned the Apostle's Creed. The minister at that time was Rev. Theo Ohlrogge.

Note: See Blog Post February 20 for more about Seymour, Wisconsin.

Thank you: To Seymour Wisconsin residents: Deanna and Jay DeBruin, Ellen Piehl, and Mark Ellis.

Photo: Taken in 2006 by SW.

Link 1: http://seymourwi.com/
Link 2: https://seymourfaith.ctsmemberconnect.net/home-ctrl.do?view=0&grpId=35013