German Methodist Episcopal Church

Lawrence, Kansas, U.S.A.
 
The first German Methodist presence in Lawrence can be traced to June 1859 when six faithful settled here. All of them came from Berea, Ohio, one of the centers of German Methodism. Since the congregation was small, Lawrence was included in a circuit (one minister rode horseback from one church to the other) which included various area communities such as Leroy, Howane, Tecumseh, or Franklin and Baldwin City, or Eudora and Captains Creek.
 
 
In December 1862, the Lawrence German Methodist Episcopal Church bought the old Turner Hall which was located on the southwest corner of Berkeley (10th) and New York streets. The Turnverein members sold their building because most of them had volunteered to serve in the Union Army during the Civil War. It was a wooden structure.  
  In 1872, the German Methodists bought the lot across the street on the southeast corner (from Frederick Bromelsick who was a member of the church). They built their brick and stone structure, which is shown here as it appears today. Originally, it had a steeple and belfry.  
 
Membership was always small, starting with 6 members in 1859 and growing to include 75 in 1917. It was closely associated with the Bromelsick family, where August served as trustee, Sunday school teacher, and representative to quarterly conferences. His wife Frederika was an active member of the Frauenverein.  
 

Services were conducted in German until the 1900s. Eventually both German and English were used in sermons and scripture. In addition to Sunday school and worship, there were Wednesday night prayer meetings. Social events included an annual picnic in a city park and a Christmas celebration with a Christmas tree and the arrival of Santa Claus. The Frauenverein raised money with quilting and handicrafts

When America became involved in World War I, the German Methodist Church discontinued its services and sold the building one year later to the Kansas Seventh Day adventists Conference Association. The building is now used as a private dwelling.

This church history is based on Small Town Germans of Lawrence, Kansas 1854-1918, Katje Rampelmann, master's thesis, The University of Kansas, 1993, pp156-166.

  
 

Photos © Phyllis Farrar 2002
This page last updated on February 3, 2003 .

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