Adeline Zion Evangelical Church is located about one mile south of the North Grove Church, in today’s small community of Adeline. The original church structure was destroyed in the Cyclone of 1898, and was rebuilt thereafter. This generally quiet northwestern corner of Ogle County seems bucolic in contrast to Chicago, one of America’s largest cities, sitting one hundred miles to the east.
In 1860 the German Evangelical churches at North Grove and Adeline were combined into one charge, with alternating services led by the first official pastor, Rev William Jung. By 1867, Rev William Biesemeier was called to this work, and served the two churches for the next thirty five years, until 1901. The 1870, 1880 and 1900 censuses place William Biesemeier and his family in Maryland township of Ogle county Illinois, and it seems likely that he lived for some years in the parsonage adjoining the North Grove Church.
A biographical account for William Biesemeier indicates that, beyond his pastoral duties, he also taught school. This teaching sojourn may have happened at the Green Prairie School, a one-room rural school located nearby. He is said to “have had in all three hundred pupils.” Accounts suggest that the churches and schools of the area were conducted in German well into the early twentieth century.
Rev William Biesemeier had been married in 1863 to Hermine Gassman of adjoining Stephenson County. They were the parents of six children, four of whom survived to adulthood. The North Grove Church, and community, was their particular home throughout their childhoods. In the 1952 obituary of their daughter, Josepine Biesemeier Hoffman, we learn that she “was a talented musician, serving as church organist for fifteen years in the Evangelical Church at North Grove, Illinois . . She received her education in the German and English School of the North Grove community.”
The North Grove Evangelical Zion Cemetery rests quietly behind the church. William Biesemeier and his wife Hermine “Nina” Gassman Biesemeier are buried there, along with two of their sons who died in 1870 – Johannes, age five and Jonathan, age two. Nina died in 1888, at the age of forty-two years. William lived many more years, remaining unmarried and serving his congregations until 1901. He died in 1913, at the age of eighty years.
A brief history of the North Grove church included at the USGenWeb site for Ogle County Illinois gives insights into the life of the community at the dawn of William Biesemeier’s tenure as pastor:
The history of North Grove Church as an organized congregation officially began on October 20, 1860. However several families came to this area about 1845 and formed a Christian fellowship. These families came from the state of Maryland. The name - North Grove - seems to have been given to the area because it was the northern most timber land in Ogle County, Maryland Township.
The Coffman family was the first to locate in this area. They built their first log cabin in 1840. In the next years after Ogle county had been opened for settlement, these first families wrote to their family and friends in Lippe-Detmold Germany encouraging them to move here. Among the early families who came were the Fosha, Kaney, Schure, Korf, Kilker, Brockmeier, Moring, Paul, Runte, Stukenberg, Tadtman, Vietmeier and Zumdahl families. One of the main reasons for the exodus from Germany at this time was the unsettled political situation there and the compulsory military service.
The little group of Lippurs - so called because of the area they came from and the dialect they spoke - soon grew and prospered. They had not only a common bond of language, origin, thrift and energy but all had a deep interest in the church. In the early days they were served by a pastor from Freeport. The services were first held in the home of a Kaney family and later in the Green Prairie school house. The Rev. W. Kampmeier succeeded in uniting the Adeline and North Grove congregations into one charge and on October 20, 1860; both churches subscribed to the Constitution of the German Evangelical Synod of North America. Mr. Fredrick Moring attended a conference in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1862 and at this time the congregation was officially accepted into the denomination.
At the same time that the North Grove congregation was organized the members decided to construct a church building. The land for the building was purchased from the Schure family for $50.00 and a promise to keep up the fences around the land. Construction was begun in the summer of 1861. The stone for the building was quarried near Adeline on the banks of Leaf River, on land which was later owned by Earl Gesin. The stone was hauled in carts drawn by oxen or horses and most of the work on the building was done by members. This project cost a total of $2.745.00 part of which was raised by assessing each household a certain amount of money for each 80 acres owned. This practice of assignment was used for the building of the parsonage and for the school house on the church grounds. The church was dedicated on February 19, 1862. The Rev. Wm. Jung was the first pastor . .
For more details on William Biesemeier, visit his page at the Family Stories website.
Further Reading:
North Grove Evangelical Church; from USGenWeb site for Ogle County Illinois.
Zion United Church of Christ of Adeline, Now Zion Evangelical; from the book "The First 100 Years," a book about Leaf River, Illinois, 1982.
“Little Markers”, a history of one room schools in Ogle County Illinois, 1990s; from the historyoglecounty.info website.
Cyclone of 1898 (18 May 1898) from newspaper accounts given at the genealogytrails website for Carroll County Illinois.
About the Photo:
North Grove Church in Maryland township of Ogle County Illinois; from northgrovechurch.weebly.com.
Moving back in time: Elba Josephine Hoffman 1898 > Josephine S Biesemeier 1866 > Rev William Biesemeier 1833.
Rev William Biesemeier is my husband’s great-great grandfather.
No comments:
Post a Comment