| HISTORY OF St. John Ev. Church New Fane
The year was 1859…Wisconsin had been a state for just eleven years. Abraham Lincoln had just been elected President, and the Civil War was just two years away. A small settlement had sprung up along the Milwaukee River in Southern Fond Du Lac County and was named “Eblesville” after Andrew Eble of Milwaukee who built a sawmill there in 1855. Adjacent to Eblesville was the town of New Fane, named after a town in New York from which the “Yankees” had come. Soon afterward New Fane would absorb Eblesville, and so the area would remain named New Fane from 1875 onward. Many of the new settlers in this area who had emigrated from Germany wished to start a Lutheran Congregation. In 1858 some of those men wrote to a Pastor serving a congregation 36 miles away, expressing their desire to begin a congregation in New Fane. Despite the difficulties involved in such a long trip, the Pastor agreed to travel to New Fane, and on December 5, 1859, the first service was conducted in one of the area homes. A parcel of land was donated for the church site in 1860, and a log cabin church was built during that year. The congregation was legally organized on June 24, 1861.
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| | The beautiful fieldstone church, which continues to be used today, was built in 1871 from the native stone found in the local Kettle Moraine area. It is one of two outstanding examples in Wisconsin of the Celtic Gothic architecture of Ireland and Scotland. The members of the congregation within a year at a cost of $4000.00 erected the building. Later additions included a 1200 lb. Copper alloy bell purchased in 1886, a stable and wagon shed built for the horses in 1888, and a chapel organ purchased in 1900 (which would be replaced with a pipe organ in 1944). Many improvements were made between 1902-7 including interior wall paintings done, the replacement of plain glass with stained glass, the installation of a metal ceiling, and the replacement of the kerosene lamps and wood burning stoves with electric lights and steam heating. With the newest addition of an outside elevator, we have made St. Johns accessible to the physically challenged to attend worship and special services. |
| | In 1866 the congregation attempted to start a Christian Day School, but trained teachers were hard to find. From 1867 to 1873 the Pastors’ taught the children. After that time teachers’ were called, serving in conjunction with the Pastors’. The classes were originally taught in the old church building until a log school building was erected in 1879. In 1921 another school building was built in the traditional “Prairie School” style. That school was closed in 1940, re-opened in 1959, and closed again in 1963. That “Prairie School” no longer stands. In 1998 a brand new Fellowship Hall has been erected which holds our church offices, Sunday school, kitchen, classrooms, our pre-school, and of course the beautiful hall. |
| | St. John congregation of New Fane was instrumental in planting three other area congregations, Emmanuel in Campbellsport, Trinity in Dundee, and Pilgrim in West Bend. These congregations have been blessed by God through the years and remain established today in their communities. This gives evidence of God’s gracious activity among his people over the years in the new Fane area. To God alone be the Glory!!!! |
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