PHILLIP WITTE BEGINS HIS MINISTRY



This is the church (Zion Presbyterian Church, Fosterburg, IL) from where Phillip Witte began his quest for the ministry.
Photo from 1902.

On March 28, 2005, on our trip to Dubuque, Iowa, we found old records in the Archives of the University of Dubuque Library. We found a book identified as “Minutes of the convention of German Presbyterian Preachers (Ministers) and elders of the Northwest 1862-1889”  listing Phil Witte several times. 

A Certificate of Incorporation of “The German Presbyterian Convention of Ministers and Elders in the West” dated August 14, 1868 was handwritten in this book.  Most of the minutes were written in German, but the wording of this certificate is in English.  One of the things that stood out was that German, Dutch and English would be used, but the minutes would be “chiefly in the German language.”

Trustees of the incorporation were Rev. Gottfried Moerz, Jacob Conzett and Conrad Knackstedt.  A. VanVliet was the first signer.  Then a listing of all the ministers and elders present at that time showed Phil Witte on line #52.  (He must have been an elder.) 
 

Early picture of the Presbyterian Church in Prairie Dell, IL.

Phil Witte must have been an ordained minister by 1883 because his name is listed as being from Prairie Dell, Illinois in May of that year (ostensibly as a minister in that Presbyterian Church).  We saw monetary amounts listed by each name on this page ranging from the $100’s down to almost nothing.  After Philipp’s name was the amount of $32.50.  It might have been the amount of money given by his church to the Convention. (There was no official indication as to salary paid to each pastor.)

An April 30, 1885 entry shows Phil Witte as attending the Convention, but no church was identified. 

I believe this was the time that Phillip Witte moved his family to South Dakota - the Lennox/Chancellor area where he assisted in the organization of Germantown Presbyterian Church .