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BACKGROUND
Records of Churchbook One of the
German United Evangelical Zion Church
Zion United Church of Christ
(Evangelical and Reformed)
Dyer, Hanover Township
Lake County, Indiana
© copyright 1997 by Edwin C. Friedrich, Karen S. Rowe and FEEFHS, all
rights
reserved
Edwin C. Friedrich
3105 Beacon Bay Place
Davis, California 95616
eMail address: mailto:friedrich@chem.ucdavis.edu
and
Retyped and reformatted by: Karen Rowe
122 West Saunders Avenue
Lincoln, Nebraska 68521-3925
eMail address: rerowe@inetnebr.com
First Posted 9 February 1997
Background:The German United Evangelical Zion Church (Deutsche
Vereinigten Evangelisches Zions Kirche) congregation was organized on August 31, 1859 as
a daughter congregation of St. Johns Lutheran Church of Eagle Lake, Illinois. Their first
church, measuring 40 x 30 feet, and which included living quarters for the pastor, was built
at the site of the present church on 113th Avenue, about a half mile east of the
Indiana-Illinois State Line.
Farmer Otto Buehre donated a five acre corner of his farm for the church property. The
families who founded the church lived both in Crete Township, Will County, Illinois and in
Hanover Township, Lake County, Indiana. The signatures of the original signers of the
church constitution on August 31, 1859 are in many cases faded and difficult to read.
However, lists of the contributors from among the members of the congregation to the
building and maintence of the church building are given for 1860 to 1863 in the church book
and are quite legible.
The names given on these early lists, in alphabetical order, are: Heinrich Bahlmann, Johann
Bahlmann, Friedrich Battermann, Heinrich Battermann, Heinrich Behrens, Friedrich
Braemer, Heinrich Braemer, Christian Brenker, Friedrich Brenker, Heinrich Buehre, Otto
Buehre, Gottlieb Buerkle, Heinrich Claus, Johann Elting, Rosine Glade, Wilhelm Grages,
Dietrich Haake, Friedrich Hasselbrink, Heinrich Hecht, Heinrich Heisterberg, Karl
Hitzemann, Wilhelm Holton, Friedrich Hue, Katharina Jung, Friedrich Kahle, Father
Klemme, Christian Klemme, Friedrich Klemme, Heinrich Klemme, Georg Lesemann,
Wilhelm Mussmann, Wilhelm Noehren, Friedrich Oehlerking, Christoph Piepho, Friedrich
Ringgenberg, Christoph Ruessel, Heinrich Schoenbeck, Christoph Seegers, Conrad Seegers,
Heinrich Seehausen, Karl Tegtmeier, Heinrich Thuennemann, Friedrich Wehrmann,
Friedrich Wille, Christoph Zieseniss, Philipp Zimmermann. Note that womens' names were
not included unless they were widows.
According to a list given in the Zion One Churchbook in the pastors' own writing, the
pastors of the church up to the turn of the century were:
- Peter Lehman from Womb (or Warb?), Kanton Bern, in Switzerland, served from 01
September 1859 to 12 July1868.
- Jacob Furrer from Reimsmühler / Reimsmuehler / Reimsmuhler, Kanton
Zürich / Zuerich / Zurich, Switzerland, served from 12 July
1868 to June 1872.
- J. Robert Ruegg from Pföffikon / Pfoeffikon / Pfoffikon, Kanton Zurich,
Switzerland, served from 25 August 1872 to 02 October 1876.
- C. August Kitterer from Stuttgart, Kingdom of Württemberg / Wuerttemberg /
Wurttemberg, served from 05 November 1876 to the end of September1884.
- Wilhelm Wahl from Ebersberg, district of Welzheim, Wurtemberg, served from 03
November 1881 to 15 April 1884.
- Gottfried Emil Daehler from Bern, Switzerland, served from 10 August 1884 to 06
August 1885.
- H. Christian Friedrich Schmidt from Schleswich, North Germany, served from 17
October 1885 to 22 October 1899.
- Friedrich Grosse, born in Ballenstadt on Harz, Principality of Anhalt, Germany,
"took over the congregation on 02 November 1899 and worked with them through the Grace
of God until 17 November 1907".
The lists which follow were photocopied from the original church records by Judy Claus
Segal of Wheaton, Illinois (Gr. Gr. Grandaughter of Heinrich and Wilhelmina (Battermann)
Claus) or by Christian Orlov (Gr. Gr. Grandson of Christoph and
Wilhelmine (Seegers) Ohlendorf and Christian and Sophia (Grages) Klemme) of New York,
New York. They, as well as the present writers who have translated and tabulated the
records (Edwin Friedrich is the Gr. Gr. Grandson of Friedrich and Maria [Knief] Wille and
Friedrich and Dorothea [Ostermeier] Battermann; and Karen Rowe is the [??????]) , are all
descended from early members of the Congregation.
All of the entries from 1859 to 1900 in Book One of the church records were written in
German. Before 1876 the Old Style German Script was mainly used except for names.
After 1876 the script is generally the English style. Fortunately, the handwriting is quite
legible throughout the early records of Book One.
It is of interest to note that a recent pastor of the Zion church, Reverend David McDonald,
has recently published a compilation of the church records entitled:"So Great a Cloud
of Witnesses: The People of Zion Church, Hanover Township, Lake County,
Indiana", Muttonburger Press, Kreitzburg, Indiana, 1996. This compilation covers the
baptism, confirmation, marriage and burial records of the church from the beginning to the
present, and also includes baptism sponsers and some family trees of early church
members.
Information about ordering a copy of this book, as well as another book by Rev. McDonald
containing the records of Saint John's United Church of Christ of Beecher, Will County,
Illinois, a daughter church of Zion, may be obtained by writing to: Rev. David McDonald,
313 West Corning Avenue, Peotone, Illinois 60468-9833.
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