My father was born and raised in Wittenberg, so that place is very special to me. Wittenberg is now a ghost town, but at our museum, we try to keep its story alive. I remember a story that my father told. I do not know why this story has remained in my failing memory, but it has. He told about the times when he was young when he would be expected to pump the old organ that was in St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Wittenberg. When he told that story, he would always say how much he disliked that task, especially on hot Sunday mornings. Today, I am going to attempt to tell the story of another organ from Wittenberg.

Our museum is now the beneficiery of a donation that has been made by Carol Boehme. Carol is now a widow, but at one time she and her husband, Elmer “Sonny” Boehme, acquired a pipe organ that was once used at St. Paul’s in Wittenberg and had it in their home for many years. Now, Carol decided the time had come for her to donate it to our museum where it now has been moved.

I am not absolutely sure when the church in Wittenberg acquired this organ, but I do know this is not an instrument that needs to be hand-pumped, so it must have gotten into St. Paul’s after my dad’s time there. Perhaps one of our readers would know when it first was played in that church. I also figure that it was never used in St. Paul’s first wood framed church, but only in their brick church that was dedicated in 1920.

Wittenberg is situated right on the banks of the Mississippi River, and as years went by, there were more frequent and more severe floods. Most blame this fact on changes to the river channel up north and the building of levees to keep ciities like St. Louis from flooding. One particularly bad flood took place in 1973, followed by another flood in 1979, and, since this organ was placed on the ground floor of that church, it suffered very bad damage as a result.

A few notes about organs can be found in a brief history of the Wittenberg church. First, here is one that was written about the 1973 flood. This mentions that this congegation was supplied with a “loner organ”.

Next, here is a short note about what happened in 1978.

A note from 1979 says there was yet another flood.

Finally, there is this one from1980 which says the new organ was installed in the balcony.

Now, let me tell you a bit about Rev. Ron Kraft and his connection to St. Paul’s, Wittenberg. Pastor Kraft had married Ruby Fuehler, and she has roots in this area. We find her baptism record in the books of Trinity Lutheran Church in Shawneetown.

Ruby had an older sister, Verna Fuehler, who was also baptized at Trinity, Shawneetown.

Verna later married Norman Haertling, who ended up living in Wittenberg. I located this photo of Norman. Locals know that Norman and Verna’s son, Robert, still farms quite a bit of land in and near Wittenberg.

So, when St. Paul’s was in need of an organ expert, the Haertling’s likely suggested that Ruby’s husband, Rev. Ron Kraft, could help them. Pastor Kraft was not only a pastor, but a church musician with experience at building, repairing, and tuning pipe organs. In 1980, he was serving a congregation in Riverside, California. The Kraft’s made the trip to Wittenberg in the heat of summer to help with the repair of the organ and its move to the balcony of the church. They stayed with the Haertling’s.

I talked on the phone with the Kraft’s yesterday, and they emphasized how hot and miserable it was to work on that organ in the balcony of that church with temperatures in the 100’s. This plaque is now attached to the organ in our museum.

It was not that long after that organ was moved to the balcony that the church closed its doors in 1987. Frequent floods led to that church’s demise. When St. Paul’s closed, they donated their altar, pulpit, and baptismal font to the Perry County Lutheran Historical Society, and those items are on display in our museum to this day.

The organ from the balcony went to be used by Zion Lutheran Church in Crosstown next. That congregation used this organ during their worship services for about 10 years. Then, when that congegation was going to replace it with a bigger instrument, the Wittenberg organ was possibly going to be disposed of. It was then that Sonny and Carol Boehme rescued it. Sonny had been born and raised at the Wittenberg church and had a nostalgic attachment to that organ, so he and Carol bought it from Zion.

When the Boehme’s built a new house near Shawneetown, they made sure it would accommodate this organ. Several years ago, Rev. Ron and Ruby Kraft visited this area and were invited by the Boehme’s to once again see this organ. Here are a few photos of that visit.

About a month ago, the process of moving the Wittenberg organ to the museum got started. With the help of Connor and Clayton Steffens, two young bucks with strong muscles and backs, helped move the organ from the Boehme’s house to the old gallery in the museum.

Next, we needed help getting the pipes reinstalled on the organ. That task was tackled by Duane and Carol Wunderlich. Duane has some experience with this kind of work.

Now, the organ is ready to be viewed by our visitors. All that still needs to be done is some captioning.

The Wittenberg organ is nicely situated with several other items from St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Wittenberg. The altar, pulpit, baptismal font, hymn board, a pew, and scale model of the brick 1920 church have been on display in this gallery for quite a long time. Now, the organ is a welcome addition to this exhibit.

I also managed to find a few photographs online at the website for Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church in California. They show Rev. Ron and Ruby Kraft at the dedication of another organ installed by Rev. Kraft.

I will just ask one question. In this photo that we have as part of this exhibit, it shows not only the flood damage inside this church, but you can also see a much larger organ on the floor of the sanctuary. Is this the Treu Organ that was mentioned in the St. Paul’s history earlier in this post?

My father was by no means a musician, but based on his story, I suppose you could say he was once involved in playing the organ in Wittenberg. I feel extremely privileged to live in an area where there are so many Lutheran churches that include pipe organs. I will also state that the Lutherans in this area are good singers. I think their good singing is partly due to the accompaniment from the pipe organs. I just worshiped at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg this morning, and our organist was Tyson Wunderlich, the son of Carol and Duane. Tyson is an incredibly gifted musician. Hopefully someday, I will be able hear him play this Wittenberg organ.