REV. JACOB HOFFMAN
Rev. Jacob Hoffmann was born in Germany on October 12, 1853 and moved with his parents to Mt. Hope, Ohio, at the age of fourteen and at this age he entered a preparatory college at Ft. Wayne, Ind. and graduated from Theological Seminary at St. Louis, Mo. in June of 1875. He accepted a call to Spring Valley, Kansas and married Miss Pauline Lehner during this same year. Later he accepted a call to St. John's Lutheran Church, Green Garden (8 miles west of Madison) and they journeyed to West Point, which was the end of the railroad line at that time. From West Point they were obliged to travel by oxen team and wagon to their new home at Green Garden. He remained as pastor for ten years at Green Garden. The mission board directed him to do mission work in six counties and he organized congregations at Madison, Humphrey, St. Bernard and Genoa. Rev. Hoffmann served the Battle Creek congregation for 4 years before he accepted a call and became resident pastor in 1887 of the St. John's Lutheran Church at Battle Creek.
The congregation was a very small one and this was also the case with the village of Battle Creek. Mission work among the people was difficult because they were scattered over a wide area. The only way to make calls was on foot or with a horse and buggy. Many, many times Rev. Hoffmann called on prospective members by walking three or four miles. How truly he must have loved his work and the Lord for whom he labored!
The 75th anniversary booklet of St. John's Lutheran Church contains much information about and by Rev. Hoffmann:
The Sainted Pastor Jacob Hoffmann, in a historical sketch written April 5, 1889, evidently intended to be read at the cornerstone laying ceremonies, refers to the origin of St. John's in these words: "The first beginnings of this congregation occurred in the year 1871. In the fall of that year the sainted father of the congregation, August Eyl, at rest in the Lord since 1879, and several other brethren still living, went to Norfolk to seek out a Lutheran pastor of whom they had heard, the Rev. J. C. Rupprecht, and to invite him to minister to the Lutherans of Battle Creek. He gladly consented. But since he had no conveyance, the people of Battle Creek found it necessary to drive to Norfolk to get the pastor and then also return him to his home after each service."
The first place of worship was a public school located about 1 1/2 miles southwest of Battle Creek on the Lucht farm. As early as in the historical record of 1889 Pastor Hoffmann remarked that the younger people of the day could not imagine the "scantiness and wretchedness of the place. Many times the pastor was compelled to move his desk, which served as pulpit and altar, to avoid being drenched by the rain pouring thru the roof."
When Pastor Rupprecht had served the congregation nearly
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