Rooted in faith

Monola Senn knows most of her family's history is buried in the German Evangelical Church Cemetery in Dutchtown.

Last week the 91-year-old Scott City resident walked through a row of tombstones and pointed out important gravesites.

"This is my husband's father's grave. He came over here from Switzerland," Senn said, indicating a weathered tombstone with barely legible engravings. She walked further and pointed at several more family tombstones until she reached the one that is most important for her.

"This here is Willie's grave," she said. William Senn, her husband, passed away in 1957 and was one of the first babies baptized in the historic German Evangelical Church.

Had it not been for Senn, her late husband and other members of the German Evangelical Church and Cemetery Association, the aging church and cemetery might not be around today.

Without knowing the 118-year-old church's history, visitors might not give the tiny brick building a second glance. Three small windows line both sides of its white walls. The wooden pews are the same ones there when it opened its doors. On a small table in front of a tall white pulpit at the front of the room sits a Bible printed in German from 1701.

In the cemetery behind the church, the oldest tombstone dates back to a burial in 1852 and sits at the far northwest corner.

The German Evangelical Congregation was formed in 1847 by about 30 Dutchtown setters. The early members met in each other's homes for worship until a log-cabin church was constructed in the 1850s. The present church building was dedicated on May 15, 1887.

Early records refer to the church as "Swamp Church" since Dutchtown was originally located on the edge of a swamp.

In the early 1900s, when Highway 74 was constructed and Bloomfield Road was relocated farther south, the congregation at the German Evangelical Church disbanded. Most of the members went to church in the bigger cities, like Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

For 30 years the church and cemetery sat untouched. Vines engulfed the church building and the cemetery was overgrown with weeds. Mice and other rodents ate away the inside of the church. The church and cemetery's future was very dim, Senn said.

But then a group of relatives of those buried in the cemetery, including Monola and William Senn, formed the association to clean up and maintain the church.

"It was a wilderness. The cemetery was full of yellow-jackets and stumps," Senn said.

Today, members of the German Evangelical Church and Cemetery Association have an established perpetual care fund and continue to preserve the oldest Evangelical church in Southeast Missouri. The group is hoping to get the tiny Dutchtown community's historic church listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

"A lot of people in this community have their roots right here," Elroy Kinder said last week as he stood inside the small church.

Kinder, of Cape Girardeau, has relatives buried in the cemetery. He and Senn are part of the six-member association and thinks the historic listing will be crucial to keeping the church's history alive.

The listing may also qualify the church and cemetery for specific revitalization grants.

Kinder said the state's Department of Natural Resources has encouraged the association to prepare an application for the historic listing.

Sunday the German Evangelical Church and Cemetery Association will hold its yearly business meeting. The group will eat lunch and total its donations -- the only funding the association receives for maintaining the church and cemetery.

Donations can be mailed to Elroy Kinder, 3227 Bloomfield Road, Cape Girardeau, Mo. 63703.

jfreeze@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 246