Our Church History: 175 Years in the Making
Check out our 175th Anniversary Tidbit Archives here.
Amanda Roedl adjusts the first of the 12 new banners that she and her daughter, Kaley, are making to help celebrate our 175th anniversary.
For more photos of anniversary activities, check out the Anniversary Year Photos page.
Countdown to November 4, 2023
Gathering information from our 175-year history began in 2019 when Pastor Ron Jansen, his wife, Becky, and Jill Phegley began to sift through stacks of paperwork, records, notes, photos, and books from our church files and archives.
Jill has continued that work, and now she and Diann Scherle are organizing and preparing the information for a history book to be available this fall.
Information boards, memorabilia, and congregational artifacts are on display in our mini-museum just inside the east entrance to the church.
Weekly Highlights
Each week we highlight, in chronological order, information from one or more years of our congregation’s history beginning in 1848.
This week's highlight comes from voters' meetings in 1946 and 1947: A Men's Club was approved by the voter's and on April 26, 1946, Pastor Friedrichsmeyer opened the initial meeting with a scripture reading and prayer. Besides the pastor, six men were present: Edwin Althoff, Edwin Kruse, Elmer Dannenbrink, William Wegener, Herbert Wegener, and Henry Schrader, Sr. In 1947, digging a basement under the parsonage took most of the year with the dedication on August 31. The congregation decided to buy a furnace for the parsonage, and in October a furnace without a blower was purchased from Mr. Vogt of Red Bud for $365.
Monthly Highlights
Members of the Anniversary Committee are also working on special monthly activities throughout the year.
Each month new banners will commemorate a different aspect of our congregation's history. Amanda Roedl and her daughter, Kaley, are designing and making the banners.
During the month of March, we will be honoring baptisms in our 175-year history. We invited all who had been baptized into God's family at our baptismal font to worship with us and to fellowship after the service over coffee and sweet treats on March 5. The highlight of the morning was seeing our oldest living baptized brother with our littlest sister. Delbert Kueker was baptized in 1931. Josie Kloepper was baptized in 2022.
If you would like to see a complete list, just email your request to stjohnlutheranruma@gmail.com. Include your mailing address, and we'll get a copy out to you.
Special thanks to Anniversary Committee Members: Nancy Kruse, Marlene Ling, Jill Phegley, Amanda Roedl, and Diann Scherle
