Femme Osage UCC Church - Femme Osage, MO
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 38° 38.229 W 090° 56.431
15S E 679250 N 4278523
Femme Osage has a population under 60, and the next closest town id Dutzow, about 5 miles away. German immigrants to the area found this as an Evangelistic Church, then transferred over to UCC.
Waymark Code: WM1APRN
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 09/20/2024
Views: 1
County of church: St. Charles County
Location of church: State Hwy T & Cappeln Osage rd., Femme Osage
Founded 1834
Built: 1888
Architectural Style: Gothic Revival
Phone: 636-228-4586
"Femme Osage Church, founded in 1833, as the first German Evangelical Church west of the Mississippi River. The church pictured, erected in 1888 is the third structure to house this congregation. The foundation of the current church was constructed using the stones from the previous church. It is situated on the Cappeln-Osage Road in the beautiful Femme Osage Valley, north of Augusta, Missouri." ~ Femme Osage
"The church is in the centerpiece of this 1948 photo by Conrad Holt.
It also the center piece in the lives of the people in the community.
The old cemetery is beyond the buildings in the leftmost part of the photo and the new cemetery is up the hill to the right.
The old stone parsonage is the building behind the church going up the hill.
A new parsonage was built nearer to the rear of the church." ~ Genealogy Trail
"The second Femme Osage story begins in 1830 when a group of German immigrants settled in the upper reaches of the Femme Osage valley. Herman Garlichs, a university trained layman, began preaching to the settlers in 1831. Sensing a call to vocation, he returned to Germany for final training and ordination. He then returned tn Femme Osage as minister to his small congregation. He later organized congregations at Cappeln (St.Johns), Holstein (Emmanuel), Washington (St.Peters). Schluersberg (Bethany), St.Charles (Friedens) and one near Warrenton. The first Femme Osage church was a simple log building. In l84l, it was replaced by a stone church. In 1888, the congregation dedicated the church in use today. The stone church was torn down and some of the stone used to build the schoolhouse that stands today across the creek from the church.
"The Femme Osage Church was the first congregation in the "Kirchenverein des Westens"(Synod of the West) of the Evangelical Church. Other Firsts for the church were the publication of "Friedensbote" a church paper in the German language and the establishment of the first American seminary for the denomination within the boundary of the parish of Emmaus. This seminary later moved to Webster Groves as the Eden Seminary." ~ Robert C. Schultz
Radical attacks, prejudices fought, and the struggles to worship their way, in a PBS special PBS