Carroll County IAGenWeb

HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY IOWA

A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement

VOLUME I ILLUSTRATED

CHICAGO THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1912

Transcribed and donated by Marilyn Setzler.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE WHEATLAND TOWNSHIP GERMAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

In the extreme northwest corner of Carroll county, only a short distance from the Crawford county and also from the Sac county lines, we find a church building, which has been a landmark of this part of the county for many years. It is the church of the German Presbyterian congregation of Wheatland township. Amongst the first settlers of this part of the county were H. F. Garrels, G. von Glan, R. Freese, R. Ohden, R. Wessels, G. Janssen, John Flink and others, most of these having arrived here in 1874. Some of them came from Illinois, the others came from Grundy county and Butler county, Iowa. Rev. E. A. Elfeld, from Freeport, Illinois, and other ministers of the gospel had preached here at different times and, in the spring of 1877, a Presbyterian church was organized here by the presbytery of Ft. Dodge. The congregation resolved to erect a church building, for which the people, although all of them in moderate circumstances, contributed to the best of their ability. The building was to cost only one thousand, six hundred dollars, but it was impossible to collect such an amount of money here and it was only through the kindness of friends in the east and the financial assistance of the Presbyterian Board of Church Erection, which gave four hundred dollars, that the erection of the church was made possible. The church was dedicated on the 17th day of February, 1878. The site for the church and also a five acre tract of land were donated by Mr. G. von Glan, on whose original one hundred and sixty acre farm the building was erected.

During the summer of 1878, Rev. L. Huendling, then still a student for the ministry in the McCormick Seminary of Chicago, was asked to supply the church and, in the spring of 1879, a pastoral call was extended to him. This call was accepted and after his ordination in the spring of 1879, he became the pastor of the church. With the exception of two years, spent as instructor in the seminary in Dubuque, Iowa, Rev. Huendling has served the church as pastor until the present day. He is, without doubt, in length of service, the oldest pastor in Carroll county. The church has never had another pastor and the pastor has never had another church. For many years the field of labor was a large one, extending from four or five miles north of West Side in Crawford county, through Carroll county, to where the town of Ulmer, in Sac county, is now situated. Later the field was divided and is now served by three pastors in three churches. In 1898 the church was enlarged and remodeled, and, although not very large, it presents a neat appearance; in 1903, a fine pipe organ was installed. The amount donated by the Board of Church Erection has been repaid voluntarily, in order that other needy churches in the west might have the benefit of the money. About fifty families are connected with the congregation. Mr. G. von Glan has served the church in the offices of deacon and treasurer from the organization of the church to the present day. When the general assembly of the Presbyterian church authorized the erection of German presbyteries, the church became connected with the Presbytery of George, of which presbytery the pastor of the church has been stated clerk and treasurer since its erection.

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