History
[Adapted from a History of Emmanuel written during the 1980's by lifelong member Edith E. Lidke, who died in March 1996 at the age of 101.]
In 1833 the Rev. Friedrich Schmid was sent by the Basel Missionary Society of Basel, Switzerland, to Christianize the Indians in the Saginaw Valley of Michigan. He came by way of Detroit and soon went west through Ypsilanti to Ann Arbor.
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Rev. Friedrich Schmid |
Rev. Schmid discovered that the Germans in the area had no church and that many were not God-fearing people. They quarreled a great deal over various matters and held lawsuits over property lines and personal grievances of various kinds. So he turned from his Indian mission work to the Germans in Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor and areas to the southwest. In his more than forty years of work (from 1833 to 1879) Rev. Schmid established congregations in Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Monroe, Freedom, Waterloo, Bridgewater, Rogers Corners, Lansing, Chelsea, Marshall, Northfield, Saline, Plymouth, Saginaw, Genova, and one Indian Mission in Sabawaing. He also founded the Michigan Synod of the original American Lutheran Church.
Among the congregations the Rev. Schmid established in 1859 was St. Emmanuels Evangelische Lutherishe Geminde (English translation Emmanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church), at the home of Mr. and Mrs. George Ehman. Charter members of this congregation were N. Bamor, C. Breining, G. Ehman, F. Dergler, J. Collins, G. Erich, Y. Hartman, G. Franz, C. Kohler, W. Lange, G. Otto, L. Schade, C. Siegmund, G. Schweizer, A. Thumm, and G. Warner. Census data from the 1880s suggests that many of the charter members were German immigrants from Württemberg. Descendants of these charter members are members of our congregation today.
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Original Church Building Constructed 1859 -- used until 1923 |
The congregation met at the home of the Ehmans until the first church building was erected in 1860, a year after the congregation was established. The white frame structure stood at the northeast corner of East Michigan Avenue and North Grove Street (the current location of Cluck's Drive-In). A day school was built next to the church in the mid 1880's, and the building was electrified in 1892. At the time of its silver anniversary in 1884, Emmanuel counted 52 families among its membership.
Between 1859 and 1890 our congregation was led by the Reverends Husbaum, Marchand, Stein, Miller, Lederer, Turk, Schoensperlen, Abelmann, and Kionka.
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Rev. Henri Luetjen |
The Rev. Henri Luetjen was called in 1890 and served the congregation for 22 years. Worship services were conducted in Hochdeutsch (high German) up through the end of Pastor Luetjen's tenure; this presented its own set of challenges because an increasing number of wives and children of members did not speak German, and those that did spoke Plattdeutsch (low German) at home. As a consequence, beginning classes in Sunday School all had to be taught the alphabet, syllables, words, and finally whole sentences -- in High German. Sunday School pupils did not use the Bible.
Pastor Luetjen retired in 1912 for health reasons, and convinced the congregation of the need to call a pastor who could preach in English.
Continue to Emmanuel History, Part 2
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“Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son,
and shall call his name Emmanuel -- GOD WITH US.”
Isaiah 7:14 & Matthew 1:23