My husband and I have been traveling this week. He presented at a conference in British Columbia the first part of the week, and now we are in Edmonton visiting friends for a couple of days. Even though I haven’t been at this for long, I decided to reprise a previous post since it was the first one I did after we lost access to our Facebook page so, unless you get these posts via the website, you might not have seen it the first time. For those of you who have, I have updated it a little bit with information I have found since the original post.

In highlighting different aspects of our exhibit “Flowing through Time: Wittenberg, Tower Rock & the Mississippi River, I have intentionally been holding off on Wittenberg because I have felt wholly unqualified to say much about it as a “just over a year-long” resident of Perry County. I’ve struggled with how to Wittenberg’s story without showing my ignorance but also not spending all my time in research. I finally settled on this approach: a timeline of Wittenberg gleaned from various sources. For those life-long residents as well as those “born here, left and came back” residents all around here, feel free to correct or add anything in the comments!

When I was able to find them, I have included links to Warren’s blog posts that talk about these places and people.

1797 – First settler in Brazeau bottoms

1803 – John Manning purchased land in what would become Wittenberg soon after the Louisiana Purchase   (Read his story here)

1839 – Saxon Immigrants arrived

I will take an aside here and insert some things I have found in my reading and research. It had seemed strange to me that while the immigrants landed at Wittenberg, there wasn’t an independent church there until much later. I have been reading Except the Corn Die by Robert J. Koenig and, just this morning, I read about how they divided the immigrants among the first colonies. It goes on to state: “At Wittenberg Landing no immediate plans for the founding of either a parish or community were made, for, according to the original plan, this land was to be left vacant for the establishment of a city, and when such a city began to take its shape, Herman Walther would undoubtedly be the pastor of the congregation that would spring up there.” (p. 242)

I also recently came across a booklet that was put together for the “Golden Jubilee 1920-1970” of St. Paul Lutheran Church. Its first chapter is entitled “A Brief Survey of the History of St. Paul’s Lutheran Congregation, Wittenberg, MO.” One of the sections in this chapter is titled “Disadvantages of the Location.” There it states: “Despite the dreams and high hopes of the masters of the settlement of 1839, Wittenberg was not at that time an ideal place for healthy people to live. Though the entire southeastern area of Missouri seemed unsuited to the immigrants who had come from a temperate, northerly climate, yet such factors as the situation of Wittenberg in a low-lying bottomland, where stagnant waters in spring and summer were conducive to the multiplying of mosquitoes and other insects and vermin, and the fact that the female mosquito was the carrier of a prevalent debilitating disease, namely, malaria, were not likely to induce a desirably larger group of settlers to remain permanently in such a location. So we find that more of the ‘well-to-do’ and persons of professional bent, notably craftsmen, chose to make Altenburg rather than Wittenberg their permanent home.” (p. 10) So, even before flooding became a major issue for the town, it was clear that things for Wittenberg would not be easy.

1841 – Records show 15 houses and 2 stores

1854 – Brenner Brewery opened (Read about it here)

1857 – Public school established

1859 – Road from Appleton to Wittenberg approved by MO General Assembly showing its importance as a shipping and receiving port

1862 – First Post Office opened

1864 – William Lueders opened general merchandise store (Read about him here)

1866 – Joseph Weinhold opened flour mill (Read about him here)

~1866 – Nennert Hotel opened

1867 – Wittenberg incorporated

1870 – 116 residents according to census

1875 – A SE Missouri business directory lists businesses in existence as a saloon and confectionary operated by Frederick Arensburg; a stove and tinware business owned by J.A. Barley; a plow, wagon and buggy manufacturing and machine shop operated by Henry Birner; Estel, Weinhold & Co’s steam powered Lone Star Flour Mill; William Lueders’ general merchandise and commission business; a general merchandise, forwarding and commission business run by C.D. Milster; a general merchandise store owned by Zacharias Muller; and Joseph Mueller’s dry goods and general merchandise store.

1876 – John Tucker began ferry service from Wittenberg to Grand Tower, IL

1877 – Lutheran school established when candidate E.D. Kyle was called. He taught at the public school house for the first 3 years. Prior to this, the Lutheran children attended school at Altenburg.

1880 – 129 residents according to census

1880 – Church/School building erected – church services were still held in the afternoon when Trinity, Altenburg’s pastor would come.

1890 – 133 residents according to census

1891 – Brewery closed

1898 – Joseph Mueller opens general merchandise store (Read about him here)

1900 – 114 residents according to census

1901 (or thereabouts) – Birner Hotel opened (Read about it here)

1903 – St. Paul Lutheran Church established as an independent congregation; Flood

1904 – Railroad depot opened

1906 – Bank of Wittenberg opened

1907 – Fire destroyed businesses along the waterfront

1908 – Meisner Lumber Company (“swing factory”) opened (Read about it here)

1909 – Parsonage constructed

1910 – 87 residents according to census

1911 or so – Louis Boehme and Adolph Thurm partner and a bought Lueders’ Store (Read about it here)

1920 – 269 residents according to census

1920 – New brick church constructed; the school continued in the old building.

1921 – Teacherage constructed

1922 – Paul Lungwitz and then his son Otto (also known by Nick) operated the Wittenberg Ferry. (Read about them here)

1922 – Last Train Robbery in Missouri (Read the story here); Flood

1926 – Perfection Furniture Company plant closed; Bank of Wittenberg closed

1927 – Flood

1929 – Estel, Weinhold Flour Mill closed

1930 – 95 residents according to census

1940 – 84 residents according to census

1947 – Parochial school closed (religion still taught 5 days a week at the teacherage); flood

1950 – 54 residents according to census

1955 – Grand Tower Pipeline Bridge opened – first pipeline suspension bridge to cross the Mississippi River

1960 – 30 residents according to census

1970 – 9 residents according to census

1973 – Flood

1980 – 4 residents according to census

1981 – Ferry service ended

1983 – Wittenberg disincorporated

1987 – Last service at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church

Gerard shared a story with me of an extended simile about Wittenberg told by a former pastor (Rev. Al Strand). He said that the town of Wittenberg is like a play. You start out with an empty stage. Then things begin to happen as the set is being built and actors appear to begin rehearsals. The heyday comes when the play opens. It makes its run and is the highlight for a time. Then the run ends, the actors leave and, before long, even the set has disappeared.

Our exhibit shows glimpses of Wittenberg while the play was being performed. Come and enjoy the performance!

If Wittenberg has captured your interest like it has mine, be sure to check out museum blogger extraordinaire Warren Schmidt’s books –

Wittenberg ’03: The Coming of a Church: a work of historical fiction with the setting of one of the original settlements that developed from the original immigration to this area in 1839.  Real characters from the river town of Wittenberg, Missouri have become the characters in this book.  A new church, a new railroad, and new romances all take place in this narration from the year 1903.

“Wittenberg ’04: Coming of a Railroad” continues the stories found in “Wittenberg ’03: The Coming of a Church”.  The railroad begins running through town, some weddings happen, an election occurs, and many more events involving characters found in the previous book…as well as a few new ones.

Both of these books are available in our gift shop as well as from our online store on our website lutheranmuseum.com.

The museum is open daily 10 am – 4 pm. Admission is free. See you soon!