Lutheran Church and Cemeteries
Ohiowa, Fillmore Co., NE
Can anyone help with the history of the Lutheran Church and Cemeteries at Ohiowa?
Excerpts from Centennial History 1880-1980 St. John's Ev. Lutheran Church, Ohiowa, Nebraska
January 1, 1880 - St. John Ev. Lutheran Church was organized with the following charter members: Henry Claussen Sr., Frederick
Matthies Sr., Henry Langhorst Sr., Christian Claussen, Frederick Mussmann Sr., Hans Claussen, Gerhard
Hopken, Anton Domeier, John F. Goevel, William Schilke, John H. Thole and Gottfried Schilke. The
following members comprised the Church Council: Christian Claussen, President; Henry Langhorst, Secretary;
and Frederick Matthies Sr., Treasurer. This new congregation began under the leadership of Rev. William
Thole. Services were held in a small frame church two miles east of Ohiowa.
April 11, 1880 - Pastor Thole's annual salary set at $200.00.
April 24, 1881 - St. John's becomes a member of the English Lutheran Synod of Nebraska, a district of the General Synod.
1887 - 1889 - Rev. J. Bond was called to serve the congregation.
1889 - 1890 - Rev. O. L. Luschei serves as minister. The congregation voted to withdraw from English District and join the newly organized German Ev. Lutheran Synod of Nebraska.
Zion German Ev. Lutheran Church forms.
August 24, 1890 - (St. John Ev. Lutheran) Rev Herman Schumann became pastor. Congregation continues to grow.
April 3, 1893 - Congregation voted to build a new and larger church... this building was to serve the congregation until 1954.
1895 - 1896 - The Rev. Ch. Thomsen served until the Rev. F. Schwarz was called in 1896. Pastor Schwarz
served until he was appointed as superintendent of missions for the Synod in 1899.
1899 - Rev. M. Kossick became pastor and served the congregation for eight years.
1908 - The Rev. L. H. Traubel is called to serve at St. Johns for four and 1/2 years...
1912 - The Rev. J. A Bahnsen preached his first sermon and was called as pastor.
1921 - ... the actual moving of the church building from the country into town began...
Excerpts from A History of Ohiowa 1887 to 1976
.... St. John's Evangelical Lutheran church organized January 1,
1880.... The first building was 2 miles east of Ohiowa on the section of
land owned by Anton Domeier and now owned by Gust Nun, Sr...
April 24 1881, the newly organized congregation voted to become a member of
the English Lutheran Synod of Nebraska, a district of the General
Synod. In 1890, the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Nebraska was
organized with all German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Nebraska. Sixteen
in number of the English district withdrew among them St. Johns'
Church. The German Evangelical Church was located on the section of land
owned by Henry Hopken south and east of Ohiowa. The church was moved into
Ohiowa and later dissolved. The cemeteries of the two churches are still
maintained by St. John's church in Ohiowa.
Excerpt from Ohiowa Story 1887 to 1987 St. John's Lutheran Church
...The Rev. Herman Schumann became pastor August 24, 1890. He served four and one half years also
preaching for Lutherans at Turkey Creek. As the church building became too small for the
new and growing congregation, it was voted on April 3, 1893 to build a new and larger church.
The building committee was Gottfried Schielke, Henry Claussen, John Goebel, William Schielke,
Henry Langhorst and John Most. It was a fine church building and served for worship until 1954...
There are several references in the St. John's Lutheran Church records to Turkey Creek.
Was there a Lutheran church in a community near Ohiowa called Turkey Creek?
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Ohiowa Newspaper Item: 02 MAR 1893 Rev. R. Baur died at the residence of Wilhelm Buchmeier
(son of Christian Buchmeier Sr.) aged 30 years old. Funeral is at the Ev. Lutheran of Ohiowa.
Excerpt from Ohiowa Story 1887 to 1987 page 74: At Grace Ev. Lutheran Church
Rev. Rhinehart Baur was installed as pastor of the church in August 1890. In 1891 Rev. Max
Henning replaced Rev. Baur in May 1891.
Wilhelm Sieckmann (1830- APR 1894) is buried German Lutheran Cemetery east of Ohiowa, he has a grave
marker there. His wife Wilhelmine Buthe Sieckmann (1839-1902) is buried at the St. Johns Cemetery 1 miled
north of the German Lutheran Cemetery.
Christian Buchmeier Sr.'s (1816- JUL 1894) This date of death came from a 1994
Geneva, NE newspaper item (100 Years Ago Today) stating that Christian Buchmeier Sr. died in July. The
original 1894 newspaper item is not found.
(Where did this 1994 death information come from?)
The burial/death records for Rev. Baur (1893), Wilhelm Sieckmann (1894) and Christian Buchmeier (1894)
are not found in either Grace Lutheran or St. Johns Lutheran Church records. There are other burials recorded in
the two churches records for these years and the actual ledgers' page #'s are in chronological order (no missing
pages). Note: The immigrant Sieckmann and Buchmeier families travelled together on their trek to America and Ohiowa
in the 1860's.
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An 1898 obituary is found for Christian Buchmeier Sr.'s wife Sophia Sieckmann Buchmeier
and it states that funeral services were held by Rev. Fricke. A burial record is found in the
St. John's death records and a note in these records states that she had moved away meaning that
she and her husband Christian Buchmeier Sr. may not have lived at Ohiowa or attended a church at Ohiowa
since before her husbands death in 1894. She died at the home of her son Christian Buchmeier Jr.
who lived 2 miles south of the Grace Lutheran Church.
Is she actually buried at the St. Johns Cemetery, there is no gravestone?
Christian Buchmeier Jr. died in 1904. His obituary states funeral services were held in the Methodist Church
at Ohiowa by Rev. Otto Klatt assisted by Rev. Gwins and that interment was made in the cemetery 2 miles east and 1/2
miles south of Ohiowa (St. John's Cemetery?).
Why is there no gravestone? ... he was a well-off man.
In 1887 Christian Buchmeier Jr. and his wife Laura Saatmann had a deadborn child in 1887. There is a burial
record for this child in the Grace Lutheran Church records. Laura remarried to Hermann Kappmeyer after her first husbands'
death in 1904. Herman and Laura are buried on the Grace Lutheran Cemetery and have a gravestone.
There are other infant burials in the records during this time, why is there no tombstone on the cemetery
for the Buchmeier infant who died in 1887?
Christian Buchmeier Jr., who died at Ohiowa in 1904, left a whopping 1/3 of his estate to
Fillmore County, Nebraska, to be kept for if the County board of said county deem best, to be sold
and the proceeds of such sale invested as a permanent fund in either case to be used to better the
condition and increase the comforts of the inmates of the county poorhouse... ie: the Fillmore County
Poor Farm.
Our research indicates that this institution was used for old folks who were committed.
It was located near Geneva (Stanton Twp, Section 16 1875-1949). We could not find anyone with more
information about the Poor Farm (including the county clerk and the State of Nebraska of Social Services,
other than a 1937 Newspaper article about the Fillmore County Assistance
Home and how every county had some sort of poor farm where old people and others unable to support
themselves were taken care of...
Poor Farm Article Nebraska Signal July 1939
Poor Farm Article Photo
Are there records to be found regarding the residents of the Fillmore County Poor Farm?
Original Church Membership Lists
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