INTRODUCTION

St. Peter Ev. Lutheran Church was located in Montpelier Township, Muscatine County, Iowa. The Kurchenbuch (Church book) was written in German. James Batchelor completed the translation on 6 May 1976, as a bicentennial project.

According to the Church Book, the congregation was organized in 1883. The eleven men who were the charter members were:

Daniel Grimm	Georg Grehard	Daniel Grim, Jr
August Stormer	August Henke	Fred Grimm
Theobald Drumm	Jacob Haupert	Chas. Grossarth
L. Gerhard	Juius Welsch

The Rev. Henry Reinemund was apparently the supply pastor for their needs. He was pastor of the Muscatine Evangelical Protestant Church 1881-1885, and then Zion Lutheran Church, Muscatine Iowa, 1885-1896. The congregation met in the old Patterson (District #4) schoolhouse. The services were conducted in the German Language.

The Church Book contained the records of six funerals and forty-two baptisms that took place during thirteen years of this congregations’ existence.

When Pastor Reinemund ended his ministry at Zion Lutheran Church in Muscatine, IA in 1896, no more records appear in the church book. The oral history collected by James Batchelor suggest that this began a gradual decline of the gathered congregation. A few years later, in 1907 Ziegler Memorial Lutheran Church at nearby New Era was organized. Their services were conducted in English from the very beginning. Many of the members of St. Peter became active in that congregation.

The original records of St. Peter Evangelic Lutheran Church were at Zion Lutheran Church in Muscatine, Iowa and now are in the regional church archive located at:

Wartburg Lutheran Theological Seminary
333 Wartburg Place
Dubuque, IA 52003-7797
(319)589-0200
http://www.wartburgseminary.edu/