Small Lutheran church in Egypt Mills celebrates 150 years

Small Lutheran church in Egypt Mills celebrates 150 years

About a mile off Highway 177 in Egypt Mills sits a postcard-perfect little white church on a hill -- Trinity Lutheran Church, established in 1867.

Pastor Barry Pfanstiel has been the minister for three years, and he said he is having fun.

"It's different," he said. "Definitely a rural church."

Pfanstiel said the 150th-anniversary celebration started with a worship service, where he counted 160 people in the sanctuary.

Guests tour the schoolhouse during a celebration Sunday of the 150th anniversary of Trinity Lutheran Church in Egypt Mills.BEN MATTHEWS

"I think the rain hurt us," he said.

Pfanstiel said a meal was prepared for 300 people. As of 1 p.m. Sunday, 206 people had been through the line to enjoy chicken and dumplings, ham, green beans, corn, German potato salad, desserts and drinks.

Pfanstiel said he was grateful to everyone who helped make the celebration happen and those who attended.

"Organist Matt Palisch played for our service, and that was really special, considering he has a recital at Old St. Vincent's [Church] in Cape this afternoon," he said.

Lutheran Church Missouri Synod district president Rev. Dr. Lee Hagan spoke at Sunday's worship service.

Ringer Hill Bluegrass provided live music Sunday afternoon.

Pfanstiel said the celebration's theme, "Our Help, Our Hope," allows them to focus on the past and hope for the future.

Pfanstiel estimated about 75 people worship at the church regularly. But he noted: "Realistically, it'd be great to have a larger congregation."

Member Larry Hanebrink, chairman of the cemetery board, said a lot of the region's history is in the cemetery, which dates to about 1880.

"The congregation bought the property before the church was built," Hanebrink said.

Church services originally were held in a building close to Juden Creek a few miles away, on land owned by his great-great-grandfather.

"But that got flooded," he said.

The congregation then built the little white church where it stands today, next to the cemetery they already had established, Hanebrink said.

Although he never has added up the total number of graves, Hanebrink said it's a lot -- including two Civil War veterans and veterans of World Wars I and II, Vietnam and others.

"Four generations' worth of people are buried here," he said.

Head elder Dave Heise said he was glad everyone came to the celebration.

"Even though a lot of people are related here, a lot aren't," Heise said, adding his great-grandfather and brothers, Heise's great-great-uncles, built the church.

"It's a nice church, a homey atmosphere," Heise said. "It's an honor to come here."

That the church has held services every Sunday since 1880 is an accomplishment, Heise said.

The Lutherans who landed at Wittenberg, Missouri, in Perry County in 1839 "were looking for something that looked like home," Heise said, gesturing to the lush hills and forest around the church, which he said probably reminded early settlers of the Saxony region of Germany they once called home.

Those settlers founded the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and founded several churches in Perry and Cape Girardeau counties.

Photographs of church members, renovations, classes graduated from the little schoolhouse that was active from 1900 until 1939 and other historic events were displayed.

That also included confirmation and baptism certificates, with older certificates written in German.

"The history goes on and on," Heise said.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630

Pertinent address: 5665 County Road 635, Cape Girardeau, Mo.