Bredow, Rev. Hermann

GROSSMANN, GROSCH KEPHARDT

Posted By: BCGS
Date: 12/3/2009 at 09:34:09

Rev. Hermann Bredow, who in June, 1912, celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of his call to the pastorate of St. John's German Evangelical Lutheran church in Sumner, is known as one of the most active and zealous ministers of the gospel in this section of the state and during the quarter of a century has made an enviable record for the amount and character of the work he has accomplished. He was born in Dubuque, Iowa, September 13, 1865, and is a son of Paul Bredow, a native of Pomerania, Germany, and a minister in the Lutheran Synod of Iowa for nearly fifty years. Further mention of his career is found elsewhere in this work. His widow makes her home at Waverly. Her son, Otto, is employed in the State Bank of that city. Another son, Gustave, is solicitor for the Mutual Aid Society of Waverly. Mr. Bredow's grandfather, G.Grossmann, organized the Iowa Synod and served as its president for many years.

Rev. Hermann Bredow attended the parochial and public schools of Maxfield [township], Iowa. He then entered the Lutheran College at Mendota, Illinois, and was graduated from that institution in 1884. He afterward took a theological course in the Theological Seminary now at Dubuque and received his degree in 1887. He was ordained to the Lutheran ministry at Maxfield by his grandfather, who was then president of the Iowa Synod and in the fall of the same year came to Sumner, where he superintended the building of the new Lutheran church and taught in the parochial school. In January, 1888, he was chosen pastor of the church and has since served continuously, having in the interval preached upwards of two thousand sermons, baptized seven hundred and seventy-six people, buried three hundred and twenty-nine, confirmed five hundred and forty-five, married two hundred and twenty-nine couples and administered the Lord's supper to thirteen thousand nine hundred and fifty-eight communicants. The parish has one hundred and seventy-one voting members and the congregation totals eight hundred and fifty. A beautiful new church was built in 1908, a description of which appears on another page in this volume.

On the 3rd of May, 1888, in Bureau county, Illinois, Rev. Bredow married Miss Emma Grosch and they have become the parents of nine children: Helen, the wife of Arthur Kephardt, who will move to the state of New York in the near future; Paul, who died at the age of two and one-half; Valeska; Eleanora; Max; Edgar; Elsie; Martha and Dina.

Rev. Bredow is one of the most popular men in this part of Bremer county and holds several synodical offices. He is president of the Iowa Evangelical Lutheran Orphan Society, which has its home at Waverly, Iowa, and secretary of the Iowa District of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Iowa and Other States, and a member of the board of Wartburg College at Waverly, Iowa. In these positions of responsibility he is serving his church and his state most acceptably. During his twenty-six years' service as pastor he has accomplished a great deal of consecrated work among his people and he has their love in large measure, as he has also the respect and esteem of people of all denominations.

History of Bremer County, Iowa Vol. II 1914