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St.
John Lutheran Church
History 
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Problems with the website? Contact our webmaster. This site has been completely redone - June 2001.
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This
history is from the 125th Anniversary Booklet The early history of the St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church of Maxfield dates back to 1853. In the spring of that year Friedrich Bruns and a few others came from Cook County, Illinois, to settle in this part of Bremer County, Iowa. Carl Bruns, Christian Wente, Wilhelm Wente, Christian Nevermann, Johann Griese, Christoph Kehe and others followed the next year. In 1855 more families arrived. They built their first dwelling places out of native logs, hewn by hand. Most of them were one-room houses with hard-packed clay floors. Indians were their neighbors and cornbread often constituted their main bill of fare. In spite of the hardships, these early settlers were happy to be in Iowa where it was possible for them to have their own homes. Land was plentiful and they found the virgin soil rich and productive. What they missed most sorely, however, was their church. They had brought along their Bibles and hymnbooks, but on Sunday morning there was no place to gather for a regular church service, nor was there a pastor to baptize their children and to solemnize their marriage vows. Thus they sent word to their former pastor, the Reverend N. Volkert of Shaumburg, Cook County, Illinois, and asked him to come at some convenient time and conduct worship services for them. Pastor Volkert gladly complied with their request and visited Maxfield in the spring of 1856. It was on the Sunday of Cantate, April 24. With their former pastor in their midst, their hearts ere attuned to the spirit of the day, "cantate," taken from the Introit of the day, " O sing unto the Lord a new song." We may be sure that they all joined in heartily as they opened the worship with one of our good old Lutheran hymns. A confessional service was held at 9:00 a.m. at which Pastor Volkert spoke on the Gospel Lesson, John 16, 5-15: "But now I go my way to Him that sent me, etc." In the afternoon at 2:00 another service was held at which 2 Thess. 2, 13-17 was used, "We are bound to give thanks always to God for you, etc." Forty-six partook of communion on that day and five children were baptized. Before departing on Friday morning, Pastor Volkert had a brief farewell service at which occasion he used as his text the Epistle for Jubilate, 1. Peter2, 11-29: "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, etc." At the close of the service they sand, "Abide with us, Lord Jesus," and "Ich bin ein Gast auf Erden." In departing, Pastor Volkert promised he would use his best influence to induce the Mission Board of "The Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri and Other States" to supply them with a pastor as soon as possible. His efforts proved successful, for in the fall of that same year Pastor H. Graetzel arrived to serve them. That was the beginning of "The St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church of Maxfield." "The
St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church of Maxfield" was organized
having a charter membership of twenty-five families. Their names as
recorded in the secretary's books are as follows: Just before Christmas in 1856 Pastor H. Graetzel and his family arrived to serve as the first resident pastor of the Maxfield Church. During the winter they were obliged to share the difficulties of pioneer life with their people, making their home with some of the families of the parish and holding services in the homes of congregation members. In the spring of 1857 the newly organized congregation set about to build a combined church and parsonage. It was a two-story frame building (16x24xl4 ft.). The first story was used as the parsonage and the second story served for school and church purposes. Five acres of land were donated to the church by Carl Bruns. After two years of service Pastor Graetzel very suddenly and unexpectedly left Maxfield in the fall of 1858, and the congregation was without a pastor for an extended period of time. Since no communication was received from any official of the Missouri Synod as to the future plans for Maxfield, the young mission congregation felt very much forsaken. Somehow, by God's guidance, a young man named Sack, who was a student at Wartburg Seminary, then located at St. Sebald in Clayton County, Iowa, discovered the Maxfield group and learned of their need for a spiritual shepherd. He reported his findings to Pres. G. Grossmann of the Iowa Synod, who, together with Professors Sigmund and Gottfried Fritschel and seminary students, served the Maxfield Church until a pastor could be provided for them. In
the fall of 1859 Candidate P. Kleinlein of Wartburg Seminary was called
to Maxfield, who served here faithfully for six years. Under his guidance
the congregation grew rapidly, so that the space provided by the upper
story of the parsonage-church was not adequate to accommodate the
people for church services. In the early years of the Maxfield church a group of Lutherans from Jubilee (about 35 miles to the southeast) came to Maxfield by wagon on Sunday mornings, leaving from their homes about two o'clock in the morning so as to be at Maxfield in time for church services. Later arrangements were made for the pastor of Maxfield to hold services in one of their log dwellings at regular intervals. Often these trips were made afoot across the prairie. This continued until August 1861 when the Jubilee people called the Rev. H. Brueckner to be their pastor.
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A
new and larger church was built the following year, in 1860. It was
a frame structure (30x50 ft.) with a steeple and a church bell. It
soon became known in the community as the "Big Church".