St John's Lutheran Church

My name is Henry Naber. I was born in November, 1860 in Germany. When I was 12 years old I came to the United States with my mother and brothers and sisters. In 1883 I was married to Sophie Johannes.

I have been waiting exactly one hundred years--and sometimes impatiently, to tell you how excited I am about the things that are happening in our neighborhood. All spring and summer, and maybe last winter, we have been thinking and talking and talking! ! ! ! ! ! We have been concerned about our children and their religious education. It is a long, cold drive in winter to St. Paul's or to West Point. Even in summer it is not convenient. Then we started to dream about having our own church here between Scribner, Hooper, and West Point It is a big area. The more we thought about it the better it sounded to us.

Sophie and I talked about it, and she agreed that we would invite anyone who was interested to come to our house the first Sunday in November. Our house overflowed! Thirty two families showed up. Some wives came too, and for some just the father.

There was lots to talk about. It was good to be together. When we settled down to business, the meeting moved along quite well. We decided to buy six acres of land from Arnold Romberg. The north part of his land is on a high hill and we could see a church there from a long way in several directions. He can keep three acres to farm one more year. What shall we call our church? Many suggestions were made but then we listened to Father Havekost. He is 70 years old now, and he moved that we call the new church St. John's. It was agreed on.

Then it was time to choose some leaders. I was elected President. Carl Schroeder was elected secretary, and Gerhard Havekost, treasurer. Henry Muller, Arend Havekost and John Glisman were chosen to be elders.

It was so good to get together again this week. Sophie enjoys company and we were glad to have our friends and neighbors gather in our home. Everyone is excited about our plans and all have many questions. When I went to Scribner to buy coal this week, businessmen asked about our new church.

First we decided that on Monday we should start to fence in the three acres that we are going to use this next year. We want to use woven wire fencing and we need 12 or 13 men to set in the posts. This is important because the committee laying out the cemetery is going to meet. This committee is Henry Muller, Gerhardt Poppe, and Henry Nabar.

Gerhardt Witte is a carpenter and we agreed with his suggestions that the new church should be 14 feet high, 30 feet wide, and 50 feet long. The bell tower should be 50 feet high, with six corners. The balcony should be 10 -14 feet wide. We would all like to have a bell and an organ which will be placed in the balcony.

There will be expenses with fencing materials so an offering was received. Twenty four families contributed $1580.

Annual meetings will be held on the first Monday after January 1st at one 0 'clock.

There was a lot of discussion about whether to join a synod or not. We finally agreed that we would ask the German Nebraska Synod for help in finding a pastor. Offerings that we would give for mission work would be sent to this synod too. At this time we would not join a synod.

The last item of business was to appoint a committee to write a constitution. Six men were chosen for this task. They will probably need to meet several times and it is a busy season. There is still harvesting to be done and we hope for good weather. When the constitution is ready we will meet again for the signing. That will be an exciting day!

Yesterday, December 1, was the day we have been anticipating. Our good neighbors came again to our home for the reading of the constitution. The committee has worked hard on this and finished it in two weeks.

The constitution was read and discussed and completely accepted. Twenty five men signed the constitution. Others were not able to be there and twenty two signatures were added later. Because they were widows, two women were signers.

The next item of business was to choose numbers for each family's cemetery lot. This day we did not know that in ten days the Paasch family would experience a death and need a lot.

Carl Schroeder and I plan to go to Fremont to have our incorporation papers recorded at the county Clerk's office as soon as they are available. At the same time we will record in the Fremont Record Office our deed from Arnold Romberg for the six acres of land.

We rejoiced 100 years ago on December 1. Let us rejoice today for the leadership and commitment to establish St. John's.

The School House has gone from St. John's Lutheran Church. It was. built at St. John's Lutheran Church, north of the cemetery fence, south. of the chicken building and some east, in 1906.

The School Rouse was 16' by 22' and 10' high and had and entry hall. The inside was finished with wallpaper above wainscoting. After the Luther League was organized, their first Project was to purchase new wall paper for the School House.

Our School House needed for many things and we needed it for Confirmation for classes to have our boys and girls to have our pastor teach of the Bible, Catechism, religion and our church. We were pleased for the School House.

An organ was purchased in the School House in 1925. The choir could practice during the week. Some of the children went to Sunday School in the School House too.

Many times we had food and ice cream for Church vacation around the School House.

When our Church moved where it is, we had the basement and two rooms, we did not have use for School House any more. Arwin Hasebroock bought the School House for a garage and he used also for his tools.

For many years we wore blessed for having our School House.