Trinity Lutheran Church

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Trinity Lutheran Church in Lee County. Now, some institutions just sort of drift into existence, a little here, a little there, nobody quite sure when it all started. But Trinity Lutheran Church in Fedor?

That one has a date. March 11, 1870. Somebody wrote it down, and somebody signed their name, and then five more somebodies did the same.

A. Handrick, A. Symmank, C.

Dube, P. Pahn, A. Suchy, and A.

Bleumel. First names on the constitution of the congregation. You can almost picture that room, can't you.

The scrape of a chair, the scratch of a pen, and a community making itself official. The first pastor to stand before that congregation was the Reverend Johann Pallmer. Holding things together alongside him on the original board of elders were G.

Boback, A. Lehmann, and G. Schroeder.

Now, one of those names, Boback, deserves a little extra attention. He didn't just lend his name to the cause. He gave fifty acres of land to the church.

Fifty. And the congregation, not wanting to be outdone in the spirit of commitment, turned around and bought another acre to use as the actual building site. From that ground, Trinity Lutheran grew into the center of religious, educational, and social life for the whole Fedor community.

And that word educational is not just decoration on the sentence. The Reverend John A. Proft, the first resident pastor, opened a parochial school.

A place for the children of Fedor to learn, right there in the shadow of that church. But if you want to talk about dedication, if you want to talk about a man who showed up and kept showing up, you have to talk about Pastor G. Birkmann.

His tenure ran from 1876 to 1923. The marker calls it nearly half a century. Let that settle a moment.

Generation after generation of that community, baptized, confirmed, married, mourned, and Birkmann was there. That is not a career. That is a life given over to one place and one people.

Trinity Lutheran Church has been the heartbeat of Fedor since March of 1870, and some heartbeats, it turns out, are built to last.

What the marker says

Since organization on March 11, 1870, the center of religious, educational and social life in Fedor community. First to sign constitution of congregation were A. Handrick, A. Symmank, C. Dube, P. Pahn, A. Suchy, A. Bleumel. First pastor was the Rev. Johann Pallmer. On original board of elders were G. Boback, A. Lehmann, G. Schroeder. Given 50 acres of land by Boback, church bought another acre for building site. Parochial school was opened by the Rev. John A. Proft, first resident pastor. Longest tenure (nearly half a century, 1876 to 1923) was by Pastor G. Birkmann. (1970)