County of Church: Montgomery County
Location of church: MO-EE, just N. of the Katy Trail and MO-94, E. of Rhineland
Church built: 1891
Architectural Style: Gothic Revival
"St. Marcus was built in 1891 by German immigrants. Rhineland was founded five years later, after the arrival of the Katy Railroad." ~ Missouri Department of Natural Resources
The church was restored by the farmer who lived behind the building, in 1994. The Great Flood of 1993 damaged the building some and the devastation of the flood so great the congregation actually moved from this church to a new one in Hermann, MO.
The farmer thought the history important enough he bought the land buildings and has kept them as best he could since then.
Sign over door:
St. Marcus
Deutsch Enan Kirche
Text on stained glass window:
ST MARCUS
EVANGELICAL CHURCH
"From 1896 to 1897 Carl Schnake was pastor of Die Deutsche Evangelische St. Marcus Gemeinde, or Saint Marcus Evangelical Church, in Rhineland, Montgomery, Missouri. Located on the north bank of the Missouri River, Rhineland was devastated by water in the Great Flood of 1993. It became the first town to accept federal funds to move out of a flood plain. All the houses in the town were moved about 1½ miles uphill." ~ Struckmeier [Struckmeyer] Family History
"Karl (later Carl or Charles) Friedrich Ferdinand Schnake was born on May 17, 1860 in house #73 in the tiny hamlet of Tengern, in Kreis Lübbecke (the county of Lübbecke), in Provinz Westfalen (the Province of Westphalia), a part of Königreich Prueßen (the Kingdom of Prussia).
"Karl was baptized on March 20, 1860 at the Evangelische Kirche Schnathorst in the nearby village of Schnathorst, which was large enough to support a church and pastor. Tengern is located just south of the towns of Holsen, Schnathorst and Hüllhorst in Westfalen where my Struckmeier ancestors originated.
"Beginning in 1880, Karl spent four years as a student for the diaconate at the Brüderhaus Nazareth in Bielefeld, Westfalen, Prueßen. Bielefeld is an industrialized town less than 20 miles south of the farming villages of Tengern, Schnathorst, and Hüllhorst.
"In 1884, after four years of studying for "Inner Mission" work, Karl was offered a position as a deacon at a home for epileptics in the city of Haarlem in the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
"Karl Friedrich Ferdinand Schnake arrived in New York City from Bremen, Germany aboard the S. S. Hermann on July 7, 1886.
"At the time, Eden Theological Seminary trained pastors for Die Deutsche Evangelische Synode von Nord-Amerika (the German Evangelical Synod of North America) formed from a merger of several German Evangelical synods in the United States in 1872. The Synod had its roots in a pastors' association formed in 1840 at Gravois Settlement (now Mehlville, Missouri) and just ten years later they established a seminary, the Evangelischen Predigerseminar (Evangelical Preacher’s Seminary) near the town of Marthasville, in Warren County. By 1866, this German Evangelical pastor's association grew to become Die Deutsche Evangelishe Synode des Westens ?(the German Evangelical Synod of the West).
The various German Evangelical church bodies in North America traced their roots to Die Evangelische Kirche der Preußischen Union (the Evangelical Church of the Prussian Union) in Germany. It grew out of an early nineteenth century union between Lutheran and Reformed (Calvinistic) churches. In 1817, the Prussian king, Friedrich Wilhelm III, wanted a unified Protestant church and he issued a “Call to Union” to the two Protestant churches founded by Luther and Calvin. Part of his motivation was his grief that he had been unable to receive communion with his late wife because she was Lutheran and he was Reformed. In 1817, the Lutheran and Reformed traditions were united into one state church—Die Evangelische Kirche der Preußischen Union. Later, this church was called Die Evangelische Kirche der Altpreußischen Union (the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union).
"He graduated from Eden Seminary and was ordained on June 23, 1889 at Die Deutsche Evangelische St. Pauls Gemeinde, (St. Paul's Evangelical Church) at 1808 South Ninth Street near Soulard Street in the Soulard neighborhood of South St. Louis, Missouri. Today, the congregation is St. Paul United Church of Christ, 3510 Giles Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63116
"Carl Schnake's first German-speaking parish was at Femme Osage in St. Charles County, Missouri where he served from 1889 to 1895.
The Eden Seminary archives don't list a name for this congregation. It just says "Evangelical." The Augusta Evangelical Church was founded in 1833 and may be a possibility for the parish he served. Today, it is Augusta Femme Osage UCC, 4360 Cappeln Osage Road, Augusta, MO 63332-1118 (636-228-4586) At the time, it may have been called Die Deutsche Evangelische Augusta Gemeinde.
"In 1892, the Deutsche Evangelische Synode von Nord-Amerika (German Evangelical Synod of North America) voted to set aside its former seminary property as a home for epileptics to be called the Emmaus Asyl für Epileptiker und Idioten (Emmaus Asylum for Epileptics and Idiots) for persons with mental retardation and epilepsy. Pastor Carl Schnake became the first superintendent of the home when it opened on July 4, 1893. The first resident arrived on July 5th, coming from New Orleans. Emmaus was the first institution of its kind west of the Mississippi." ~ Struckmeyer Family History