St. John's UCC Church - (Cappeln) New Melle, MO - Carillon on Waymarking.com

County of church: St. Charles County
Location of church: St. Johannes Lane, S. of MO-D, 2 miles W. of New Melle
Phone: (636) 828-5221
Pastor: Kevin E. Weaver Interim Pastor

"The earliest beginnings of the history of St. John's Church dates back to the late 1830's when several waves of German immigrants arrived in the Missouri River Valley with the hope of settling family farms and finding a new way of life in a land said to be rich in natural resources. One of the most cherished possessions these settlers brought to their new home was their religious faith. . . the Deutsch-evangelische (German Evangelical) faith. The earliest founding of one of these German Evangelical churches was near by Femme Osage, about 1833.

"About the year 1835 several families in and around what later became known as Cappeln, MO, secured the services of the Femme Osage pastor, Herman Garlichs to come to this neighborhood as a "circuit" pastor and occasionally hold church services. For some years services were held in the Schultz family home about four miles west of the present site of the church. Then in early 1839 a forty acre plot of land was given to the St. Johannes Gemeinde" (St. John's Congregation) by the Borgelt family. This is the same site that has remained in the hands of the congregation for some 140 years. It was on this location in 1840 that the first church structure was built. It was a log building situated just east of the present school house, there it stood and was used as the worship sanctuary and Christian education building until it was replaced by the present stone church in 1865.

"A carillon system (clock and hymn chimes) was installed in 1993 in the steeple of the church. This was a gift given in memory of Herman and Lydia Freese by their children Mabel Busdieker and Raymond Freese and their families. A secondary part of this donation was a two octave set of hand bells for St. John's ministry of music." ~ A Narrative History