St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church
Champaign, Illinois
Church Book A: 1860-1875
Background
copyright © 1996 by Edwin C. Friedrich
3105 Beacon Bay Place
Davis, California 95616-2701
First Posted: 2 October 1996
St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church was the first German church in Champaign County,
Illinois. It was organized in 1855 only one year after the first Illinois Central train came to
town. The first church building was built in 1858 on the corner of Columbia and Randolph
Streets when Champaign was still called West Urbana, and was used by the congregation
until 1880 when they moved to their second building at Fourth Street and University
Avenue.
During the first five years of its existence the congregation did not have a regular pastor, but
was served on an
irregular basis by Rev. C. A. Th. Selle of Crete, Ill. and various Lutheran ministers from
Chicago. The earliest
records of St. John's which still exist, and which were filmed by the Champaign County
Historical Archives in
1989 (Roll 20), are contained in St. John's Book A. These date from 1860 with the arrival of
Rev. G. M.
Zucker.
Both Rev. Zucker and his successor Rev. C. F. Th. Mertens, who served the church during
the difficult Civil
War years of 1861 to 1866, made their entries in the church book in the difficult to read
old-style German script.
Their successors Rev. Th. Buszin, who remained until 1868, and Rev. H.F.C. Grupe, who
stayed until 1875 and
closed out Church Book A, although still writing in German, mostly wrote using quite
readable English-style
script.
According to existing records, the charter members of the church were: Friedrich Beisser,
Karl Schubert,
Christian Liermann, Charles Fleck, Heinrich Schnuecke (my Great Grandfather), F. H. Lange,
Fritz Schreiber, J.
H. Lange, F.W. Muenning, John Doss, Christopher Dust, John Nicklaus, F. Meier, William
Froehlke, Friedrich
Bollmann, August Krueger, George Krueger, Carl Kruse, Johann Possendorf, H.F. Lange,
William Eichhorst,
John Demlow and J. Trabert. Some of the earliest deacons of the church were reported to be;
John Krueger,
Karl Fleck, Friedrich Schweizer, George Ihle and William Augustin. Trustees of the church
who were listed on
city election certifications for 1865 to 1872 for the church were: Henry Schnuecke, Frank
Henry Lange, Karl
Peters, Friedrich Beisser, Charles Fleck, John Nicolas , Friedrich Bollmann, and Gottfried
Kreuger.
The St. John's church records listed in book A are given in the order: Baptisms,
Confirmations, Communicants,
Marriages, and Burials. In the tabulations which follow, the lists of communicants are not
included because they
have little value to the family historian except for possibly showing when an individual first
started attending or
stopped attending the church.
Besides the data shown in the tabulations, the original church records also give: the dates
and the names of
godparents for baptisms, the dates and the names of a few fathers for confirmations, a few
parents names for
marriages, and the dates and some additional causes of death and information concerning
survivors for burials.
It is strongly advised that family researchers not just rely on the present tabulations for
data but also check
the microfilm of the original records for accuracy and completeness.
It should finally be noted that the same microfilm roll containing the Book A records of St.
John's Lutheran
church also contains the church's Books B,C and D records which continue through 1988.
These records are in
general quite legible and fairly easy to read. The microfilm also contains the 1874 to 1927
records of the
Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hensley Township, Champaign County, Illinois.
An alphabetical
tabulation of these was published by the present writer in the Volume 13, No. 3, Winter 1992
issue of
Champaign County Genealogical Society Quarterly.
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