135 YEARS IN GORDONVILLE: SOME TRADITIONS CHANGE, BUT OTHERS STAY THE SAME

GORDONVILLE, Mo. -- Irma Keller remembers the days when worship at Zion Lutheran Church was segregated by gender, not race.

For years, the women and young children of the church sat on opposite sides of the sanctuary than the men. "But we decided that we wanted to sit where our husbands sat," she said of her peers.

So the tradition changed, and today no one "knows where it came from," Keller said. It had just always been that way.

But sitting on opposite sides of the church sanctuary and working out the logistics for communion was difficult, Keller said. Mothers with young children had to pass the child across the aisle to the father and then take communion, picking up the child on the way back to their seat so that the father could take communion.

During its 135-year history, plenty has changed at Zion Lutheran Church and much has stayed the same. People still fill the pews for services each Sunday morning and the church still serves a rural population that lives nearby. The property, at the intersection of County Road 226 and Highway 25 about a mile south of Gordonville, Mo., is surrounded by fields of beans and corn.

In honor of its 135th anniversary, the congregation has planned special activities and worship services Sunday. The activities are being planned in conjunction with a missions festival. Worship will be at 10:15 a.m., with Sunday school at 9:15 a.m. The Rev. Wayne Schwiesow will speak. A potluck barbecue dinner will be at 11:45 a.m. on the church grounds.

Keller, a church member since 1938, knows plenty about the church's history. What she didn't learn from her grandparents she discovered while translating old church records written in German, including the original constitution and baptism and confirmation records.

Some early pastors would switch from German to English when writing in the church records, Keller said. "Some would mix German and English," which made the translation a little more confusing, she said. Others wouldn't write legibly or didn't have adequate writing instruments to record information.

The church was founded by German immigrants in 1865 and grew steadily until 1899 when several members living near the Gordonville village decided to form a new church "for the sake of convenience," records said. That church, Christ Lutheran, celebrated its centennial last fall.

The first confirmation service held in English at Zion Lutheran was in 1920. Up until then much of the worship and special services at the church were conducted in German. But with World War I, there was a push toward speaking English, said Schwiesow, who has been pastor at the church since 1997.

The church seal, which is stamped onto baptism records, is still in German, he said. Even the inscription on the church bell was cast in German.

The bell was given by church member Henry Wessel and others in the congregation in 1904. It reads: "Kommt Denn. Es Est Allas Bereit. Ev. Luth. Zion Gemeinde U.A.C. Bei Gordonville, Mo Von Henry Wessel Undanderen A.D. 1904." The English translation of the first two sentences is "Come then. All things are ready."

The area was settled by German families "and that was what they spoke," Schwiesow said of the church's German history. "Eventually they made that transition" to English.

Yet much of the German heritage remains. Names on tombstones and in old church records are still written in German. Many of the founding families with names like Keller, Gerecke, Schwab, Bohnsack, Wessel and Siemers -- names that for generations have been listed on baptism and confirmation records kept by the church -- still are part of the 278 people listed on the membership rolls.

Sometimes people will call looking for genealogical records and the names can often be confused in the translation to English. But the records are there for reference, said Schwiesow.

Historical records show that the church also had a school in its early days. A cemetery surrounded the "old church," a wooden building first used by the congregation. The brick structure was dedicated in 1915, at the 50th anniversary of the congregation.

A replica of the first church building has been constructed from descriptions and memories of older church members. It will be put on display during the anniversary celebration, along with other memorabilia from the church.