WITTE AND GERMANTOWN

More than a century ago,

 

when Dakota was not yet divided into two states,

when it was still one big territory,

when the town of Chancellor did not exist,

when the city of Lennox was just rising from the prairies

and was only a barren town site with a few wooden shacks and tents,

when there were yet prairie fires and Indian scares in the Dakota territory –

 

At that time, the country became settled with German people,

and the first East Friesian settlers began to arrive

in the part of the country now known as the “Germantown community”

located a few miles northwest of Lennox,

 and a few miles northeast of what is now Chancellor.

 

Back in 1886 and earlier, when the first settlers moved in, they attended the services of the German Reformed Church which was then located five miles south of the present church. Rev. Weiland came to hold services in a public school house, just 1/2 mile south of the present location.

Under present day conditions, it seems unnecessary to build churches within five miles of each other, but back in the 1880’s transportation was not such a convenient thing as today. Many of the people lived farther than five miles from any church and the only means of transportation was by “horse and buggy.” 

The Germantown Community had the desire and longing for a church near enough for them to attend regularly. The German Reformed Church through a committee sent from their church organization, decided that it was not advantageous for them to extend the amount of help needed to organize and build a church in the location requested.  The people of Germantown then turned to the Presbyterian Church (The Synod of the West) for help, which was granted.

A copy of the minutes from an early business meeting of the Germantown Community shows that a committee of three, consisting of Heere Heibuilt, George Heibuilt and Menne A. Plucker were sent to call upon Rev. Ludwig Figge (who was then the pastor of Turner County Presbyterian Church) for help. The committee's efforts were successful. 
 

Early Germantown Church and manse

As a result, on May 5, 1886, the church was organized and 21 persons were received as members. Among them were Menne and Engle Plucker (my great grandparents). Land for the church site was given by Engel and Menne as well as the land for the Germantown Cemetery across the road. Ernest P. Witte (later called Phillip Witte) served the new church as the Presbyterian Church’s “Stated Supply.” 

Services for the Germantown community had been held in a school house about one-half mile south of the church site for about a year, but by 1887 the first services were held in the newly constructed Germantown Presbyterian Church.  

In 1888, two years after the formal organization of the congregation, Rev. Witte was called to serve as pastor of the small group. He was the official pastor there for only about one year, but in that year, the first manse was built. Even though his pastorate was short, two of his daughters married men from the congregation. One of them was Christina Plucker (my grandmother), and the other was Lydia Hoogestraat (Mrs. John H. Hoogestraat).

Menne A. and Engel Pucker are seated in the second row center. John Poppe and Christina are seated second and third from the right - holding Alma and Lydia. In the top row, Wilbur is on the extreme left. Menne and Anna are seated directly below Wilbur. The year was around 1910.

John P. Pucker family.
Alma, Christina, Menne, Lydia, Wilbur, Anna, John.
The year was about 1916.

 

The treasurer’s reports of those days make interesting reading. In 1890 the entire budget of the church not including the pastor’s salary was $174.12. There are no records available to show what Phillip Witte was paid in 1888, but in 1890 the pastor received $350, paid semi-annually.

The following NEWS NOTES were gathered by Wiert Eekoff, pastor at Germantown Church in 1946. He wrote the text of the church’s 60^th anniversary booklet.

*  “On August 28, 1862, the residents of Sioux Falls fled to Yankton under cavalry escort for safety from hostile Sioux Indians. After the settlers had fled the Indians entered the town and burned all the buildings. In their escape the old settlers followed the “Old Yankton Trail” which” [was still visible in many placed in 1946].

*  “It was during the ninth session of the Territorial legislature at Yankton in the winter of 1870-1871, that a legislative act was adopted forming the new county of Turner. Under the territorial act the new county was formed by taking eight townships off the east of Hutchinson and ten off the west of Lincoln. The new county was named after John W. Turner, who was at that time a member of the senate from Clay County.”

*  “In 1880, 679 miles of railroad were completed in Dakota and 341 miles graded.”

*  “The year of 1863 was one of unprecedented drought in Dakota Territory. The Indians had burned off six hundred miles of prairie above Fort Berthold and navigating on the Missouri was fraught with many hazards.”

*  “Land in Dakota in the middle ‘80’s sold at from $5.00 to $10.00 per acre. Hundreds of families from the east came to settle on the low priced land in this new west.”

Much of the text of this post was taken from

The Sixtieth Anniversary,

The Seventy-Fifth Anniversary, and

The One Hundredth Anniversary

Booklets of

Germantown Presbyterian Church,

Chancellor, South Dakota

 

Below are several pages reproduced from the actual Anniversary books of Germantown Church: