Though he was pastor of Zion in Rhinelander, he took the Gospel
to 14 other "preaching stations," several of which, he had
personally started. Rev. Dejung Sr. made Crandon became part of
the old Lake Shore-Rhinelander Mission Field. The first record of
services held at Crandon is January 15, 1896, with a Communion
service and two Baptisms (Lambie and W. W. Waite).

Rev. Dejung, Jr. was ordained and installed on July 13, 1896 at
Zion, Rhinelander.

The church building on Glen St. was built that same year.

The German word "Taufen" at the top of these records distinguish
them as baptismal records. Expand the pictures and you will see
that the first one seems to be recorded completely in German,
while the second one has the German title, but the records
themselves are written in English.

1904 was a rough year for Pastor Weber. Added to the
congregations mentioned above, he was called on to serve Laona
and Wabeno. For a man already in his fifties, it was quite a
trek to include Wabeno in his circuit. Remember that they didn’t
have the roads and cars that we have today. Pastor Weber had to
take the train from Crandon, to North Crandon, on through Laona
Junction, and finally to Wabeno. How long did the trip take?
Four days! Why so long? Thanks to the connections he had to
make. The passenger train stopped in Wabeno only twice a week,
on Wednesdays and Fridays.

But Pastor Weber wasn’t the kind to sit around waiting for the
train to arrive. Oh, no. He started hoofing it, instead – first
from Laona back to Crandon, and then later all the way from
Crandon to Wabeno, and back again!

In 1905 a new arrangement was made, resulting in the formation
of two fields, the Eagle River field, with a pastor at Eagle River,
and the Crandon field, with a pastor at Crandon. The Crandon
pastor retained Crandon, North Crandon, Laona, and Wabeno.
Pastor Weber also served Lennox when needed. And then toward
the end of his ministry in Crandon, he visited and served the
people in Hiles.

Presidents of the Ladies Aid have been:

1922-1942 Mrs. Frank Kobin
1942-1945 Mrs. John Hoffman
1945-1952 Mrs. Robert Netzel (Imogene)

In 1911 St. Paul became an official member of the Wisconsin Synod.

In 1912 North Crandon called its own pastor. In August of 1912
Hiles and all the missions on the Soo Line Railroad ceased to be
part of the Crandon mission field. That allowed Pastor Weyland
to focus on opening a full-week parochial school at Crandon.

The Lutheran school was a typical one-room school. A room on
the second floor of the parsonage had been set aside for the
Christian training of the children. There are no records on how
many children attended. Since Rev. Weyland's successor is
known to have taught the children himself, I am assuming that
Pastor Weyland did the same.

Pastor Ruege continued Weyland's one-room school.

On one such occasion, he was aroused from his meditation by a
persistent train whistle. The engineer was waiting for the
station master to do something, possibly to switch the tracks.
When Pastor Ruege investigated what was going on with all the
whistling, he found the station master intoxicated.

It seems that the ministry also caught on to the Sabrowsky side
of the family. Violette's brother, Lee (the boy sitting front left),
entered the ministry and served as a WELS minister in South
Dakota during the "Dirty Thirties." His son, Dan, also entered
the ministry and has served in both the WELS and the ELS.

I'll permit him to speak for himself about the changing mission
field. For St. Paul's 75th Anniversary he wrote: "I shall always
remember with fond recollections the years I served the Crandon
congregation. It was my first call into the holy ministry and I
was called as a graduate of the seminary to serve the dual
parish, the Crandon-Argonne and the Enterprise-Monico mission
field. The two fields had been combined in that year of 1931, for
those were the years of dire depression.

"Two years later I began to conduct catechism instruction classes
and services at Hiles; and so the congregation at Hiles became
established, the fifth year of my parish [1935].

Those were tough financial times for the "Joint Synod," whose total debt was $286,572.
The Northern District was receiving a little over $12,000 per year to do mission work.
Missionary pastors were given 3 cents per mile for the large distances that they
traveled.

Pastor Gieschen was responsible for 3 churches - Friedens of
Argonne, St. Paul of Crandon, and Christ of Hiles. The church
records which are still extent begin with his ministry.

Their synod offerings in 1944 were: Argonne - $28.25;
Crandon - $62.14; Hiles - $6.65.

For the 75th anniversary of St. Paul, he sent a letter in which he
remembers Crandon's winters:

"We can well remember moving into a parsonage which, during the
winter months, required four heating units to keep the house in
every room warm, including the living room oil burner which could
be counted on to fill the entire house with rank fumes at least once
a week."

It should be noted that this was a time of rising turmoil between the
Wisconsin and Missouri Synods. The early 1900s were marked by
mergers of several Lutheran synods. These mergers would have
been reason for joy in Christianity, if they didn't come at the cost of
pastors giving up their confessional stance. God's Word fell to the
attitude: "Let's merge now, and we will settle our differences in
doctrine later." This always leads to a watering down of a synod's
beliefs.

But it was not an easy time. Vacation Bible School was cancelled "due
to a lack of funds and a shortage of teachers."