AUSTRIAN-SETTLED POCAHONTAS ON SCENIC DRIVE

St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Pocahontas was founded by Austrian immigrants in 1868. Standing at the entrance are, from the left, Marvin Ludwig, Dorothy Ludwig and Marjorie Swan.

The old church cemetery, where cattle used to graze, is being restored by church members. The last burial there was in 1920. Marvin Ludwig clears brush from the graves of his ancestors, who helped found the church following The War Between the States.

Over 5,000 cars laden with sightseers from places such as St. Louis, Memphis, Paducah and Springfield, Ill., are expected to cruise the narrow winding streets of petite Pocahontas next weekend.

Pocahontas is one of about 20 scenic villages that are part of the fifth annual Mississippi River Valley Scenic Drive.

Marjorie Swan, who represents Pocahontas, population about 125, says the scenic drive has no beginning and has no end: "You just join it where you want to and end it when you're ready.

"Most people spend two days visiting the towns and the old churches and cemeteries. It's a beautiful time of the year to promote tourism."

Pocahontas tends to be in the east-central portion of the scenic drive. Cape Girardeau marks the southern-most point and Perryville the northern-most point of the drive. The route also reaches west to Marquand.

Churches play an important role in the scenic drive -- many date to the early 1800s. In Pocahontas, Apple Creek Presbyterian Church was founded in 1821 and is the third oldest Presbyterian church west of the Mississippi. And St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Pocahontas, founded in 1868, has a history as colorful as any in the area.

In the years immediately before The War Between the States, immigrants from the mountainous regions of Upper Austria began to settle in the Pocahontas area.

They came not in large numbers and all at once, but rather one family or one person at a time. The wooded hillsides and creek-bottomed valley were said to be as beautiful as the land from which they had come.

The Austrians were accustomed to hard work. They cleared land, built homesteads, planted crops and raised animals. Blessed with happy, sunny dispositions, the industrious Austrians toiled, grubbed, plowed, sowed and harvested.

As they wrestled a living from the thin soil, they raised families, practiced goodwill and neighborliness, and enjoyed their freedoms.

"They were industrious, thrifty and sociable," said Swan, who has lived in Pocahontas 49 years. "They were also God-fearing and church-going."

Lutherans by birth and conviction, many had been oppressed by the Roman Church in their homeland. The Saxons, around the 1840s, had settled in Perry County and established Lutheran congregations in Altenburg and other area villages. In 1853 they founded a Lutheran Church and parochial school in New Wells, about six miles from Pocahontas. And for about 10 years the Austrian Lutherans from Pocahontas traveled the distance to attend the church and school.

By the middle of the 1860s the families around Pocahontas asked the New Wells congregation that a Christian school be started in Pocahontas. According to a history of St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, the request was denied because the New Wells congregation did not want to share the expenses of a teacher's salary.

About a year later the request was again made, but this time with the addition that preaching services would be held at Pocahontas for those who could not travel to New Wells. The request was again denied.

A third request was not made. The Lutherans of Pocahontas then invited pastor Theo Koeberle of the Lutheran Church in Altenburg to conduct services in Pocahontas.

"The first service that was held here was in an old country home in the nearby wilderness," said Marvin Ludwig, a member of St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, and whose great-grandfather helped found the church.

Services were soon held in other homes and a congregation formed. In 1868 or '69 the building of the church began on land just west of the present church site.

The church was completed in 1870 and land was purchased for a parsonage. In the spring of 1870, according to the church records, seven men and their families severed voting membership in the New Wells church and joined the effort in Pocahontas.

Pastor Joseph Westenberger arrived in September 1870 to assume the duties of leading the congregation of the fledging but determined church.

"That's when keeping the church records began," said Swan, who has helped to compile church history.

Parochial school was regularly conducted and Westenberger was the teacher. Westenberger, however, left Pocahontas after little more than a year. His successor, Pastor Johann Hacker, also did not remain long. Inadequate housing was one reason.

Although a 23-by-20 log parsonage had been built, it proved to be unsuitable for the pastors and their families. The salary in those years was between $200 and $300 and wheat, corn and meat were often considered partial payment.

A third pastor, Herman Freytag, was hired, and it was during his pastorate that the church marked its 10-year anniversary. Each year at least one family had joined the congregation.

The year 1892 marked a period of increased activity for the church. The congregation was incorporated and plans were made to build a new church on two acres purchased for $225. The Methodist Church near Old Appleton, which is also on the Mississippi River Valley Scenic Drive, served as a pattern for style and size.

Within a year the new St. John's Church was completed at a cost of $3,157. Nearly $500 had been contributed by people from outside the congregation. The old church and school were razed.

In 1895 Joseph Pilz bought an acre of ground next to the church and donated it for use as a cemetery. The old church cemetery fell into disuse.

A new parsonage was built in 1903, and all the labor and almost all the material were donated. The parsonage was described as "a roomy, beautiful home" that was a credit to the congregation and the town.

Disaster struck during the night of May 4, 1910 -- lightning hit the church spire and it burned, only blackened brick walls remained. But the church was rebuilt that same year with an addition -- a clock was built into the tower.

In 1928 a German-made pipe organ was dedicated to the church, the weekly offering envelope system was initiated in 1931 and electricity arrived in 1938.

A $12,000 parsonage was built in 1951 and a new parish hall was constructed in 1958. The 100th anniversary of the church was celebrated in 1968. Also in 1968, Rev. Frank Engelhart died at the age of 95. He was the first member of the congregation to become a minister. He was born near Ruzenmoos, Austria, in 1872 and came to the United States with his parents in 1875.

Church records were microfilmed in 1971 and in 1973 a monument was erected in memory of St. John's founders, who are buried in the old cemetery, about a half-mile east of Pocahontas. In 1991, restoration work began on the cemetery.

Marvin Ludwig, the great-grandson of one of the founder's of the church, and a Sunday School teacher there for 35 years, said the cemetery clean-up was a community effort.

"We set up a big cross that's lighted at night and can be seen from the blacktop that goes to Altenburg and Frohna."

"You can also see it from the church," said Ludwig's wife, Dorothy.

Ludwig said the first person buried in the cemetery was a child, maybe 5 years old, named Pilz.

"We're still uprighting headstones and we want to set them in new concrete," said Ludwig, chasing a garter snake near the headstone of his great-grandfather. "And wouldn't it be great if those two big cedars could talk?" he asked, pointing to tall trees near the center of the graveyard, and calling them by their German name, 'cedar baumen.' "They'd tell you a barrelfull of history."

Marjorie Swan, the Pocahontas representative for the Mississippi River Valley Scenic Drive, said cattle used to roam in the cemetery and would knock the headstones over, until a fence was built to keep them out. Inscriptions on the headstones are written in German. Many read "Hier Ruht in Gott" -- Here rests in God.

In a mailbox at the entrance to the cemetery is a complete list of those buried there, and their birth and death dates. "It helps people with their genealogy," Swan said. "There's a lot of history in this town."