DUTCHTOWN CHURCH CLAIMS HISTORICAL FAME

The cemetery of the German Evangelical Church has many tombstones with information about the deceased etched in German. Elroy Kinder, left, president of the Church and Cemetery Association, and Rudy Nussbaum, association trustee, read the names of Swiss and Germans who settled the area in the 1830s.

Dorothy Rowley, treasurer of the German Evangelical Church and Cemetery Association, reads an old Bible in front of the original church pulpit. The height of the pulpit prompted the congregation, as the ministers spoke, to look upward toward God.

At the end of a country lane called Mockingbird, not far from Old Bloomfield Road, a red brick church is perched on a hill that is also home to graves of Swiss and German settlers.

The German Evangelical Church, founded in 1836, is considered by many in the area to be the oldest church of its kind in Southeast Missouri.

Although unused since about 1900, the church and its cemetery are tended to by members of the German Evangelical Church and Cemetery Association.

Elroy Kinder, president of the association, says several people, including himself, have researched the history of the church and written articles about its significance.

The history of the church is interwoven with the history of Dutchtown, originally called Spencer.

"So many German families settled in Spencer that the name was changed to Dutchtown, which is a variation of the word Deutsch, which means German," said Kinder, standing inside the one-room church where pews line a hardwood floor in front of a towering pulpit.

Kinder's research dates to 1776 when a Hessian soldier, Martin Rodner, came to America to fight for the British during the Revolutionary War. He was captured by Gen. Nathanial Green and was allowed to settle in Tennessee after the war.

Rodner and his family moved to the area in 1801 and died in 1827. But before his death he owned a water mill on Hubble Creek. Since his neighbors had trouble pronouncing his last name, he was called Rodney and his mill was known as Rodney's Mill.

In 1835 and 1836 many Swiss and German families arrived in the area and founded Spencer, near Rodney's Mill. Two of the settlers, Benedict Schneider and Benedict Mullet, devout Christians and members of the reformed church, purchased the mill.

The settlers met in private homes to sing hymns and listen to sermons from one another. Some of the settlers were farmers, bakers and blacksmiths and also made livings in the "Big Swamp" area there.

The late Robert Eggiman, who researched the history of the church, wrote that in 1837 or 1838 the church was established, although the German Evangelical congregation would not be formally organized until 1846, by Rev. Jacob Koehler.

In 1850 about 1 1/2 acres were purchased from Wilhelm and Wilhelmina Willer and a log church was built there a year later.

The log church was located about 35 feet north-east of the present church building, which was built in 1887. A large walnut tree sheltered the original building and the tree stands today.

At the end of the Civil War in 1865 a parsonage was built. Sandstone blocks from the cellar of the parsonage are visible about 100 feet east of the present church.

"We had a Boy Scout project and they cleaned up the area," said Kinder. "A floor beam from the parsonage is on display in the church."

On May 15, 1887 the present church building was dedicated. A cistern, dug about 1865, which furnished water for the parsonage and the church, collected water from the roofs of the log and brick church buildings.

The German Evangelical Church is small and, except for a stained glass window above the front door, it is not ornate. There is no steeple with a bell.

Three windows on the east and west sides light the room where pews -- slat-back benches painted gray -- face the pulpit on the north wall.

"The pulpit is built high," said Kinder. "So when the congregation would listen to the preacher they would be looking up, kind of like looking up towards God."

The brick used to build the church is hand-molded and kiln-fired. Kinder thinks the bricks were likely made by church members.

The passage of time has mellowed the color of the brick from stark red to a kind of rose hue.

Around the turn-of-the-century Bloomfield Road was relocated about one mile south of the original road that wound through the hills and woods and passed by the church. The congregation then disbanded and joined other congregations that were now more conveniently located.

The cemetery

After the congregation disbanded a cemetery association was formed in 1909 and incorporated in 1910.

The late Katherine Cochran, who researched the history of the church, wrote:

"The German families remained in the same community for their lifetime and attended the German Evangelical Reform Church and school. When they died they were buried in the church cemetery. The tombstone was inscribed in German script."

Some years ago Robert Eggiman, Fred Schneider and Robert Schaefer compiled a list of those known to be buried in the cemetery.

Cochran wrote that Schneider was able to read the old German script. He and Schaefer cleaned the stones with a wire brush and Eggiman recorded the information.

Eggiman, in his history, wrote that many of the tombstones were hard to read due to weathering; however, it was discovered that many of those buried there had been born in Europe.

It was also noted that poetic epitaphs were etched into many of the stones. Some of these are listed in a recent newsletter of the German Evangelical Church and Cemetery Association of Dutchtown.

On the stone of Anna Marie Nussbaum (nee Dubs), born Aug. 8, 1830 and died Jan. 20, 1867, is written in German:

Dort will Ich nun ewig wohnen

Meine Lieben muter Nacht

Eure Treu wird Gott belohnen

Die Ihr habt an mir vollbracht.

Liebste Kinder und Verwanten

Lebet wohl in muter Nacht

Meines Lebens ist voll vollbracht.

The English translations is:

There I shall live forever

Good night my dear ones.

God shall reward your

faithfulness to me.

Dearest children and kin,

farewell, and good night.

My life is completed.

On the stone of Louisa Schwab, who died in 1871 at the age of 19, is etched:

Fleuch hin des Lebens kurtze Zeit

Erfreu mich der Ewigkeit.

Or:

Let life's short day flee

Delight me with eternity.

There are about 150 marked graves in the cemetery, which is still being used. In 1981 the Church and Cemetery Association established a Perpetual Care Fund.

The association meets annually at the church the first Sunday of May.

The board members of the German Evangelical Church and Cemetery Association are Elroy Kinder of Cape Girardeau, president; Melvin Grossheider of Gordonville, vice president; Rose Lee Nussbaum of Whitewater, secretary; and Dorothy Rowley of Jackson, treasurer.

Trustees are Monola Senn, William Schlegel, Rudy Nussbaum and Fred Glueck. Honorary trustees are Otto Moore and Marvin Schrader.