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Missionaries
By 1880 an influx of German settlers had come to the Escanaba area. Settlers of many other nationalities were already present. But the German Lutherans caught the attention of fellow Lutherans of similar background and interests.
The thirty-year-old Wisconsin Synod (founded In Milwaukee, 1850) sought to provide spiritual food for the new arrivals. The system for doing this in the northern part of Wisconsin was that a number of pastors devoted several weeks each to traveling missionary work. This was coordinated and directed by Pastor E. Mayerhoff of West Bend and Forest, Wisconsin. Since that system proved to be too haphazard, it was decided that a full-time special synodical missionary should replace the earlier part-time men.
"Reiseprediger" this missionary was called. That translates as "traveling preacher." But it was no relaxing pleasure cruise on which he traveled. Pastor G. Thiele began this work in October of 1880. Soon he was serving twelve preaching stations in the Upper Peninsula (including Escanaba) and three near Marshfield, Wis.; he was helping Pastor Bergholz in Marathon County; in time he also went to Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls. After three years of such labor he submitted his resignation in October of 1883.
Thiele's successor was Candidate of Theology Herman Monhardt. A native of Canton Berne in Switzerland, he received his theological training at our Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in Milwaukee. On Nov. 18, 1883, he was ordained and commissioned by Dr. Adolf Hoenecke in
St. Matthew's Ev. Lutheran Church in Milwaukee.
In the first seven months of his work centered on Escanaba, he covered 3,012 miles by railroad, 508 with horse and buggy, 102 by boat, and 175 on foot. His report to the 1884 Wisconsin Synod convention described work in Norway, Florence, Escanaba (enjoying an increase of seven families), Ford River, Fayette, Indiantown, Daggett, Wilson, Powers, Iron Mountain, Iron River, Stambaugh, Crystal Falls, and Whitney. Pastor Monhardt also visited Quinnesec, Stephenson, Wallace, Menominee, Manistique, and Marquette during his ministry in the Upper Peninsula.
In other report Pastor Monhardt told of summer travels on foot with only a blazing sun and a backpack for company. In winter, travel was by horse and sleigh. On the trip from Escanaba to Fayette travelers sometimes had to be carried into the halfway house because they were so cold.
The roads were wilderness roads through uninhabited country punctuated only occasionally by lone Indian wigwams. Sleigh drivers were always armed because of the dangers of wolves. One unwary woodchopper was reduced to scattered bones just a quarter of a mile from his camp; one parishioner spent a night in a tree surrounded by 20 wolves.
Services in Escanaba were conducted for a time in a German hotel located at North Fifth and Ludington Street. At other times the Augustana Lutheran Church (now "Bethany") was borrowed for services. The first baptism recorded at Escanaba was that of Fred Rudiger in April of 1884. By 1885 organized congregations existed in three of the places served by Missionary Monhardt: Holy Cross of Daggett, St. John's of Ford River, and St. Peter's of Stambaugh. That year Pastor Monhardt accepted a call to Caledonia, Wis.
In May of 1885 Candidate Johannes Ziebell began serving the area. His regular schedule called for services every four weeks in Escanaba. Pastor Ziebell wrote a hair-raising report of a midweek trip to Fayette to visit a dying man. The ice on the bays was 5 inches thick, thick enough to make the over-water route more attractive than the roundabout trip overland. He relates that the ice was clear; he could see the water under the horse's hoofs. He came to cracks in the ice over which he would make his horse jump. As the sleigh passed over, the ice would crack and crash into the water behind him. (He mentioned the presence of goose bumps. We understand.)
On his return trip the next morning he got lost and had to retrace fourteen miles back to Fayette. A snowstorm came that night and covered up the cracks, making any hope of a safe return on the ice out of the question. In order to get back to Escanaba for scheduled service, he left at 9 a.m. the next morning and arrived at 11:45 p.m. At 7:00 a.m. the next morning he was on his way in a blinding snowstorm to preach at Ford River. Such was the life of a "Reiseprediger."
After Pastor Ziebell left in 1888 the field was served for some months by Seminary Student M. Busak. At that time Escanaba had services every two weeks with 30-40 people in attendance.
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