NEW VIDEO ILLUSTRATES EAST PERRY COUNTY LUTHERAN IMMIGRATION

Its history is important to the residents of East Perry County. The East Perry County towns of Altenburg and Frohna are visited by tourists year-round. The great Saxon Lutheran immigration to the area in the late 1830s left its mark on these towns, and a 30-minute video will depict this.

The history of the immigration has been an annual celebration the past 15 years during the Fall Festival at the Saxon Lutheran Memorial in Frohna. By early July, a video chronicling the years from 1838 to 1870 should be available.

Rev. Willard Kassulke, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg and a coordinator of the project, said the Saxon Lutheran Heritage Video is being produced in cooperation with Perry County residents, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod Foundation and Wiley and Associates, a production company in St. Louis.

"We'll offer the video to tourists as a souvenir," said Kassulke. "It will be part of what we know to be the largest religious immigration to America."

Kassulke said the idea for the video is traced to Bob and Darlene Bachmann of Salem. Bob Bachmann was born in Farrar and his wife was born in Frohna.

"They visited Altenburg last spring and took the tour and became very excited about the history of the area," Kassulke said.

Besides Kassulke, other area people involved in the project include George and Verna Thurm of Altenburg, Dorene Grebing of Frohna, Bob and Lillian Fiehler of Altenburg, and Dick and Tillie Luckey of Brazeau.

Also, residents of Pocahontas, Wittenburg, Uniontown, Shawneetown, Crosstown, New Wells, Jackson, Perryville and Farrar are participating.

The video will show the first Lutheran Church building and the log cabin college seminary in Altenburg, which are supervised by the East Perry County Lutheran Historical Society, and it will show the Saxon Lutheran Memorial and the Keyle homestead, which was the original site of church services in Frohna.

The video will have six segments. Besides showing historical sites, it will have scenes filmed at recent fall festivals that are held in October in Frohna.

At these festivals people don period garments and make apple butter, quilts and engage in other activities prevalent during the settlement years.

Since there will be speaking parts, a script is being written for the video. Kassulke said it has been revised three times and will probably be rewritten twice more.

An audition was held Saturday at Trinity Lutheran School for people wanting to be actors in the production, when filming resumes in March. People of all ages will be used and there will be parts for 20 to 30 children.

"There are some men around here who are growing their hair and beards longer to look more authentic. And some people will be talking German. On the video there will be subtitles in English," said Kassulke.

Much adventure and drama is found in the story of the 700 immigrants from the Saxony region of Germany. The leader was Rev. Martin Stephan who fell into disfavor with the other settlers soon after they arrived in the area.

Reportedly, Stephan was placed in a boat and rowed across the Mississippi where he was exiled in Illinois.

Another leader soon emerged among the immigrants as they were clearing the land for farms and settlements. He was C.F.W. Walther. In a debate in the log cabin college seminary in Altenburg, Walther convinced the other Lutherans they were not a sectarian movement but an actual church.

Kassulke says Walther, who moved to St. Louis in 1841, helped organize a convention in 1847 from which sprang the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

"We have a lot of information on the church history that we think people will find interesting," Kassulke said.