Training the child

“Train a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” — Proverbs 22:6

For some Christian families, sending their children to a parochial school takes no persuasion. And for nearly 70 years before World War II, Trinity Lutheran Church in Egypt Mills did what it could to provide a school and teachers for rural youth.

Recently, past and present community members shared thoughts on going to school there.

Virginia Break of Cape Girardeau grew up in Egypt Mills and attended the one-room school from third through seventh grades. She said her brother, Eugene Borchelt, and sister, Cecelia Bender, would go to the public school at Egypt for first and second grades and return to the public school for eighth grade.

The Borchelt family lived about a mile east of the church and school buildings, and when each child was old enough to walk to the parochial school, that’s where they went. That was what their parents desired.

Virginia and Cecelia both remembered that some of the teachers, who were vicars at the time, would stay with their family for part of the school year, and with each school year came a different vicar.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the congregation, and members will celebrate the event in April. The Lutheran church began at a separate location in Egypt Mills when German families built a log structure for services near present-day Highway 177, and Pastor W. Weisinger from Hanover Lutheran Church helped organize the congregation there in 1867.

In 1874, the congregation bought three acres a mile west and built the church that stands today. Structural additions and interior renovations have happened since to help provide a comfortable, lasting place of worship.

The old school still stands and has been out of service for many years. It’s unknown exactly what year the school building was built, possibly around 1896, and it’s believed a clapboard or log building served as a school house prior to the existing one being built.

From the congregation’s beginning to the 1920s, school records are few, but it’s believed there were at least a few students attending during each of those many years. From 1926 to 1939 there are successive years of teachers. World War II apparently disrupted the school’s permanence, and it’s not known if school resumed after the war. Church voters’ meeting minutes suggest the school closed after the 1939-1940 school year.

The old school house served as a Sunday school for decades until 1998 when a modern addition took its place.