The Early Years at St. Paul

A Short History of St. Paul Church

The Early Years

The Second St. Paul Church building

• Rev. T. Tauberth (1859)
• Rev. Theodore Klingsohr (1859 - 1861)
• Rev. Ed Graf (1861 - 1866)
• Rev. J. C. Mosebach(1866 - 1871)

• Rev. Ferdinand Fleischer (1871 - 1884)
• Rev. A. F. Sterger (1884 - 1888)
• Rev. William Weber (1888 - 1900)
• Rev. Erich Becker (1900 - 1905)

By the middle 1850's many parents chose to send their children to the public school and interest in the church declined. The pastor was told to collect his own salary, but Rev. Hoppe rejected this indignity and resigned. There was no pastor from 1857 to 1859 and church services were discontinued.
A few faithful members had enough trust in God and themselves on April 15, 1860 to begin a new church building on the present Heritage Hall site at a cost of $4,271.21. The new church building (the present Chapel and Heritage Hall) was dedicated on May 12, 1861, one month after the beginning of the Civil War. In 1863 they purchased a new organ for three hundred and sixty dollars. In 1868 the first church school building and parsonage was built.

In 1868 the first church school building and parsonage was built on the site. By 1871 Belleville had ten thousand residents and St. Paul's had two hundred members. In 1872 the congregation sold its first pipe organ and bought a larger one, costing $1,250.

In 1888 Rev. William Weber, who had studied at universities in Bonn and Strassburg and had earned a PhD at Yale was called to serve St. Paul. The secular entertainment given by the congregation during the twelve years of Rev. Weber's ministry brought in a lot of money, but caused the members to give less in voluntary Christian sacrifice and offerings. In October of 1900 he threatened to resign, refusing a salary raised by the sale of beer at a picnic. On November 10 he did resign because of differences in opinion on the methods of raising money for church expenses.

What's New - Other Things

Click for the video of Reese Delaschmidtt. It is the last item under the Service Menu.

The Sermons are back online again. Click to go to the sermon page.

The Scholarship information has been transferred to "What's New at St. Paul"

The February OSP is online

The Bulletins and News and Notes for Sunday March 7^th, are available.

The OSP has gone electronic - sign up for electronic delivery on the website

Did you know that you can listen to the St. Paul Sunday worship service from anywhere in the world? Just click on Listen to KSTL at 8:30 a.m. or 11:00 p.m. CST on Sunday and a window will open with KSTL's broadcast.

Watch a short portion of the Fine Arts concert on Friday, Nov. 13th. It will open in Windows Media. If the video picture is garbled please upgrade to a later version of Windows Media.

http://www.stpaulucc.org/service/reecedelaschmitt.html

A Short History of St. Paul Church

The Early Years

Who's Online

What's New - Other Things