St. John's Ridgeley celebrates 150by Mary Le Arneal One of the oldest churches established in the North Bend area is the St. John’s Ridgeley Lutheran Church. It was first organized in 1874 as the German Evangelical Lutheran St. John’s Church in Ridgeley Township about 9 miles northeast of North Bend. This year the congregation is celebrating 150 years as a congregation. There are still members of the church related to the founding fathers.
Howard Roemer’s grandfather, John Roemer, was one of the founding members, and Howard is a lifetime member with lots of memories. “I went to Sunday School at the old parsonage,” Roemer, 86, said. “One time during the Christmas program when we didn’t have electric lights – we had candles – somehow the pastor got turned around and caught the tree on fire. (Dads) got up and put the fire out. We got electric lights in the mid ‘40s.” The congregation first met in a log cabin and later a schoolhouse before the first church building was constructed in 1879. At that time the name was changed to the present name, St. John’s Ridgeley Lutheran Church. Supply ministers were used until 1886 when the first full-time minister was called. When the drought of the 1930s hit, the church with its agriculturally-based congregation could no longer afford a full-time minister and returned to using supply ministers. In 1941 they were able to call a full-time pastor once again. In 1944 the church was remodeled, and in the 1950s a parsonage was built. World War I brought a major change in the congregation. The use of the German language was no longer considered acceptable, so the church services changed over to English. During WWII they had to cut off the steeple in the because of the nearby Scribner Air Force base airport. Roemer remembers it was replaced in 1951. “Some people were upset about the steeple not being square,” he said. “That’s when the four little steeples were added.” Like many churches, St. John has seen a decrease in membership. When Roemer went to confirmation in seventh and eighth grades in the early ‘50s, there were seven in his class. Bruce Ferguson, 71, had four in his class in the early ‘70s. Ferguson’s sons had two and four in their class in the mid 1990s. Currently there are no confirmation age students in the church, but there are eight younger students who attend the Wednesday Church School. Ferguson says the decrease in membership is due to the decrease in population in the area. But there are still members who no longer live in the area that still come to St. John’s. Read the full story in the print or e-edition. <<Back to the front page |
