PLATTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA
ZION LUTHERAN CHURCH - FORMER PASTORS
Pastor Karl Gerathewhol served Zion from 1893 to 1898. He was Zion's first resident pastor and the first pastor to live in the newly built parsonage.
Pastor R. P. Schimmelpfennig served from 1898 to 1901. He, his wife, and daughter are buried in Zion's cemetery. In the late 1950s their daughter Marjorie was a high school teacher and some young Zion members were her students at Humphrey High School.
Pastor Ernest Walter served from 1911 to 1912. After leaving Zion he returned many times as a guest preacher. He was well liked by all. His later years were spent in Tabitha Home in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Pastor Fredrich Spriegel arrived in 1912 and served to 1921. He was born in Germany, as were all the early pastors. He first settled in Fontanelle where he became acquainted with conditions under which he would have to work. He then located in the Nehawka, Weeping Water and Otoe areas. He would hold services in homes that were centrally located, riding his pony across prairies, through flooded streams, lost in blizzards and allowing his pony to find his way to a home. It was also his first experience meeting bands of Indians. It was a lonely and difficult life. He was unable to earn enough money to sustain himself, so he farmed 40 acres on which the hut he lived in was located. He endured many hardships.
Before Pastor Spriegel arrived at Zion in 1912, two of his wives had died and were buried at Nehawka, Nebraska. On Sunday, February 13, 1921, he conducted the morning service at Zion and returned to the parsonage. Several church members stopped in for a short visit. As they were leaving he may have called to them. They turned around and in that moment he collapsed, suffering an apparent heart attack, and died instantly. He was survived by seven children. One of his daughters Marie married George Gehring, a member of Zion.
Pastor Otto Spehr served from 1921 to 1924. He had a garden, vineyard, horse, cow and a flock of chickens. He was the first pastor to own a car. In the winter when the snows were deep or when the roads were a bottomless mire of mud, he drove his fast, high-stepping, high-strung horse named Prince. He was an expert horseman and kept control of Prince at all times. The pastor would hitch Prince to his hack (which wasn't much more than a box on wheels, similar to the vehicles the Amish still use) and take his children Otto, Karl and Margaret, along with the neighbor children, to school. Old Prince would really take them flying down the road.
Pastor P.O. Spehr was skillful with saw and hammer and would make all kinds of toys for his children doll house, furniture, barns, etc. Some of his chicken feed came in gunny sacks or cloth bags. He would build wooden frames and nail the sacks on them creating outdoor playhouses with many rooms to play in. The rooms were perhaps only 3 to 3 « feet high, not tall enough to stand up, but the children thought they were marvelous and spent many happy hours playing in them. Children of the depression era, and especially farm kids, had very few toys or entertainment of any kind. Occasionally Mrs. Spehr would treat all of the children with grape juice and little yellow cakes with currants.
After Pastor Spehr and family left Zion, word was received that the children had become ill with diphtheria. This was a dreadful disease and put a scare into those who had recent contact with them. The children were promptly taken to the doctor for shots, but fortunately no one contracted the disease.
Pastor P. M. Lobsein, with wife and children Hans and Helen, arrived at Zion in 1925 and remained six years. An arrangement was made with a neighbor whereby the neighbor furnished the hack and horse so Hans, Helen and the neighbor's three children would have transportation to school. All went well for a while. Then one afternoon as the children were leaving school, the wheel of the hack ran over a grate from an old stove and the hack turned over children, lunch pails, books went flying landing on its side. The only door was above the children. They managed to slide the door open and scramble out, unhurt, but badly shaken. They tipped the hack right side up and slowly proceeded homeward. The horse Old Sport stood quietly by while the children regained control. The next morning Hans did not show up, fearing the neighbor's wrath.
Pastor William Strunk served Zion from 1931 to 1934. These were years of deep snow and bitter cold. Roads were impassable most of the long winters. Snow removal equipment was inadequate or non-existent. Fences were out and people drove through fields following trails where the winds had shifted the snow and as the winter deepened, even this method was abandoned. Some farmers still owned horses and wagons or buggies and these were again put into use. But oftentimes drifts were so deep that horses became bogged down and had to be unhitched and led out of the drift.
It was at this time that a baby was born to a young couple, and the child did not live. Pastor Strunk felt it was his duty to called upon the bereaved couple and offer them sympathy and Christmas comfort. The big problem was how to get to their home which was about six miles away. He bundled up and walked to a farm about one-half mile from the parsonage. There he borrowed a plow horse and rose those six miles through deep drifts and intense cold. And then he had to ride home again.