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St. Paul Lutheran Church History
In the spring of 1864, a number of families moved to the St. Paul area from Mayville, Wisconsin. The families were Friedrich Malchow, Robert Maske, Friedrich Sasse, Gottfried Stein, Michael Sassse, Ferdinand Buss and Ludwig Lenz. Reading services were soon conducted in the home of Friedrick Malchow. Regular Church services were also held every Sunday and church holiday. Occasionally, Pastor J. W. Streckfuss of Grand Prairie, near Okawville, Illinois, came to preach and to administer the Sacraments.
Later in the year of 1864, other families came down from Wisconsin and other regions to settle in the St. Paul area. Early in 1865, the heads of sixteen families and a number of single men met in the home of Friedrich Malchow to organize a Lutheran congregation. Friedrich Fellwock and Ludwig Rubin were elected as the first St. Paul Church Elders. The St. Paul Lutheran Church Constitution was adopted and signed by the following twenty-five (25) members:
Friedrich Malchow, Robert Maske, Ludwig Rubin, Friedrich Ernest, Friedrich and Wilhelm Fellwock, Gottfried Stein, Ferdinand Buss, Heinrich Bockwald, Christian Krug, Karl Beyer, Michael and Ferdinand (sic) Sasse, Ludwig, Wilhelm and August Lenz, August and Wilhelm Knick, Moritz Kock, Michael Oertwig Sr. Michael Oertwig Jr. Friedrich Oertwig, Christian Knospe, Friedrich Schukar and Friedrich Wollin.
75th Anniversary of St. Paul Lutheran Church
(Taken from a Vandalia, Illinois Newspaper article that was published in 1939.)
The congregation of St. Paul Lutheran Church, in Wilberton Township, on last Sunday celebrated its 75th Anniversary.
Seven families, descendents of the Saxony pioneers, living in Mayville, Wisconsin, a little more than 75 years ago, came to this county and settled on the St. Paul Prairie.
A Mr. Malchow, one of these, lived one-fourth mile north of the present church. He invited the others to come to his house for religious worship.
Another member of the group had built a frame house here about two miles south of the present church, and after he was here a while, decided that he wanted to return to Mayville, Wisconsin. He offered to sell his ground and his house to be used as a church. They bought it, and with five yoke of oxen, moved it up to the present site, where they had purchased 40 acres of ground.
They used that house as a church, until more families arrived, and it then became necessary to build a new and larger church. The old building was then used as a school-house, and as a residence for the teacher, and some that old building is yet a part of the teacher's house.
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