INTRODUCTION
This is a collection of historical segments of sermons presented by Rev. Dennis Gaertner during his tenure as Pastor of the New Knoxville Methodist Church from 2008-2024. He brought personalities of historic figures of New Knoxville into his sermons to “make spiritual points in worship services.” When these sermons were presented, Rev. Gaertner invited descendants and family members of his sermon subjects to be present and to fact check his statements about the subject.
Quick Links to the Sermons
HOGE LUMBER: FROM FATHER TO SON
By Pastor Dennis Gaertner
(from a sermon preached at the New Knoxville Methodist Church on Father’s Day, June 20, 2010, with John Hoge in attendance)
He was 23 years old, newly married and wanting to be a father. Boy did he! Fourteen children! And today if you speak to people like John Hoge, Dean Hoge, Bruce Hoge, or Jack Hoge you are speaking to members of a family he helped build.
Imagine how many cards he got for Father’s Day! One father put it this way, Father's Day was near when I brought my three-year-old son to the card store. Inside, I showed him the cards for dads and told him to pick one. When I looked back, he was picking up one card after another, opening them up and quickly shoving them back into slots every which way. "What are you doing?" I asked. "Haven't you found a nice card for Daddy yet?" "No. I'm looking for one with money in it."
But there are other living examples of what he built. He wanted to use his skills for earning a living. The Civil War was over, and the nation turned to rebuilding. From his farm days just east of NK in Washington Township, he had acquired skills in carpentry. He now turned his attention to home building around NK where people were replacing log cabins with frame and brick houses.
He even built a construction crew and enjoyed a successful career for twelve years. About that time, he saw an idea played out just down the street two blocks west of where we are worshipping today. In 1888 a hoop-making plant—a plant for making the hoops that hold barrels together--was purchased in Celina and set up for operation. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long. But Herman Henry Hoge could not get the idea out of his head. So, in 1900 he, George Bergman, and Henry Stukenbroke, Jr. began investigating to see if producing hoops for barrels could be profitable.
They traveled to several places in Ohio to see whether wooden hoops were being used, what kind of wood was being used, and how profitable it might be. They concluded that elm was the best wood, and they decided to establish the New Knoxville Hoop Company with $7000 of start-up money. For a few years the new company worked to produce the hoops, but disagreements between shareholders caused a sale of the company into receivership, and that is when Herman Henry Hoge stepped forward to purchase the company. The company did well enough that in 1908 they purchased acreage from Charles Meckstroth, and they moved the business from its location at the present-day Crown office facility (formerly Brookside Laboratories) to its present location on the south edge of the village.
Herman Henry Hoge accomplished all of this with a promise made to himself and his family. Business decisions would never interfere with loyalty to family, and the business would adapt to the changing needs of the market. He also wanted a business that would add strength to the NK community. He built a business that would be passed along to his family, including his four sons who followed him in the work, one of whom was Arthur, father of John Hoge and grandfather of Jack Hoge.
On Father’s Day we ask ourselves whether we are passing on to our children something that will last. Nothing lasts longer than when we pass along our faith in Jesus to our children. How are we doing on that front? Meanwhile, we can leave our mark on the NK community in a way that helps our neighbors for years to come. That contribution sets fathers apart in our hearts forever.
Hoge Lumber Company has operated for 116 years. Throughout all these years, the company has provided products that served needs around the world. Countless members of the NK community have found gainful employment with Hoge and provided for their families. Herman Henry Hoge’s dream became a reality, and he passed this dream along to his sons and grandsons.
NOTE:
The Hoge farm buildings were located at 10389 Bay Road, and the farm remained in the possession of the descendants of Herman Hoge’s brother Ernst Frederick Hoge until 2024.
More information on Herman Hoge can be found on our website at:
History > Biographies > Hoge, Herman H.
History > Interviews > Hoge, Herman H.
MR. HERMANN MECKSTROTH’S FINAL REST
By Pastor Dennis Gaertner
(from a sermon preached at the New Knoxville Methodist Church on Sunday, July 5, 2009, with Janean [Meckstroth] Oberlander and Dwain Meckstroth in attendance)
Life is short. We all know about our own mortality. The Bible reminds us repeatedly.
The Apostle Paul compared earthly life to a tent. He was speaking of his own life in this world where living for Christ can create enemies. He describes suffering for Christ, including feeling pain which causes us to “groan” in this earthly existence. He says we long for that eternal home in the presence of the Lord when the time comes for our earthly tent to be folded up (2 Corinthians 5:1-7).
Most of us get reminders that this earthly tent is temporary. These bodies do not perform as well as they used to. One man explained it this way.
Now that I’m over 40, younger teammates have begun to tease me about my declining abilities as a softball player. During one game, I was playing third base when a batter ripped a shot over my head. I leaped as high as I could, but the ball tipped off the end of my glove and fell safely for a hit. At the end of inning, I was heading for the dugout when our left fielder caught up with me. “That much!” he called, holding his thumb and forefinger a few inches apart. “I know.” I replied. “I almost had it.” “No,” he said. “I mean that’s how far you got off the ground.”
Our German ancestors lived with this truth that this life is like living in a tent--temporary. Mr. Hermann Meckstroth left Ladbergen with his wife, Anna Christina, and made their way to NK in 1836. Many of our church members today are here as descendants of their family, including Irene Howe, Annett Kuck, Lois and Denise (Wilson) Schuler, Dirk and Dana (Brown) Meckstroth, Chris (Schroer), Barb (Howe), Sondra (Thatcher), John, and Mike Shaw, Dan, Dwain, and Janean (Oberlander) Meckstroth.
Herman Meckstroth’s one desire in coming to NK was for his sons. Two of his sons had come previously in 1834. The oldest boys, Wilhelm and Heinrich, came to scout out farmland. In Germany the older sons would not have the same opportunity to own a farm. Hermann Meckstroth’s dream was that all his sons could own a farm.
Next it was Hermann and Ana Christina’s turn. They spent twelve miserable weeks in the belly of a ship crossing the Atlantic, finally arriving in the new world, landing in Baltimore, bumping along the National Road in a wagon, across Maryland, through southern Pennsylvania, and then on the Ohio River to Cincinnati where they embarked on a muddy road for the final 80 miles to NK. But Anna had no sooner settled into the crude, wilderness cabin of her older son on December 15, 1836, when she had to admit that she was sick. A month later she was gone and with no cemetery in NK, was buried just west of Bremen in January of 1837.
For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened. . .
Now Mr. Hermann Meckstroth was without his wife, but still determined to set his sons up as farmers in the new land. During the next years he finally found land that he could purchase. He sent a letter back to Ladbergen announcing to his two younger sons that all was now ready, but in December of 1841 he fell sick, and on December 26th he died. He was the first adult citizen to be buried in the newly opened cemetery in New Knoxville.
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
The eternal truth that Hermann Meckstroth knew is one that another family would know just eight years later. Asian cholera came to the area in 1849 and struck at the home of Hermann Wilhelm Fledderjohann (currently the residence of Dwain and Brenda Meckstroth). The first to die was Christina, the 23-year-old mother of three. Hermann, himself was taken two days later at age 24. Next his father, Hermann H., died at age 63. And then just two days later a four-year old son, William, passed away. Finally, the fifth victim was taken two days after that. She was Christina E., aged 67. This misery moved from house to house, taking many lives.
Just over 100 years later Lawrence Meckstroth remodeled this same farmhouse, his family’s home, in 1950. Located a mile and a half west of NK, the whole community was fascinated when he discovered a crafted German inscription covered over with paneling on the south wall of the house.
The inscription dates from April 4, 1846, a solid oak, carved inscription with a sobering perspective about life on the Ohio frontier. The translation into English reads roughly:
We (at this house) go in and out
The world is indeed a pleasant room.
But it is also a borrowed house
And if we make ourselves too comfortable here
Then death shows us the door.
Yes, life in this world is temporary, just like a tent!
NOTES:
The farmhouse discussed in this article is located at 06027 New Bremen-New Knoxville Rd. It was originally the home of Hermann Wilhelm Fledderjohann and his family. When five members of the family were taken by the cholera epidemic, two small children survived, one of which was Elisabeth Catherine. She was raised by her uncle and married William George Meckstroth, thus the transition of the homestead from a Fledderjohann farm to a Meckstroth farm. In 1895, ten acres of this farm were sold for the establishment of the new Pilger Ruhe Cemetery.
More information about the unique inscribed wooden slab found in the farmhouse and a picture of it can be found on our website at:
History > Articles > 104 Year Old Inscription Uncovered in Home
The original inscribed slab is displayed in the Dr. H. E. Fledderjohann house in our Heritage Center at 107 E. German Street in New Knoxville.
HENRY KRUSE TEACHES ABOUT HOSPITALITY TO STRANGERS
By Pastor Dennis Gaertner
(from a sermon preached on June 6, 2010, at the New Knoxville Methodist Church)
What would NK look like if you could get on a time machine and go back 185 years? Four angle roads left town on their way to Wapakoneta, St. Marys, New Bremen, and Botkins. A few miles west of town the Miami Erie Canal was in full construction.
Our little village was a dot in a vast sea of forests—great forests of hickory, maple, oak, poplar, walnut, sycamore, and elm. E. R. Kuck says that the trees were thick enough to darken the land and were inhabited by droves of wild turkey and other edible fowl, not to mention deer, wolf, panther, bear, and a giant herd of buffalo (An Historical Account, p. 5).
The old saying goes that a squirrel could start at the Ohio River and travel all the way to Lake Erie without touching the ground. It is hard to imagine how isolated homesteaders could feel among these woods. At a site south of Lima, a marker is placed next to a cemetery, describing a pioneer who worked on clearing his land for a full year in 1832 without knowing that he had neighbors just five miles from his cabin.
In these years a farmer was doing well to clear a total of three acres per year. That was the scene one winter night in the 1840s when two men surprised Henry Kruse. He lived southwest of town about a mile, and the two visitors were from Springfield trying to get to Minster. They needed a place to spend the night.
The Bible makes the point repeatedly about the need for believers to show hospitality. To open up our home to someone who needs a place to stay is a reflection of our Christian faith. To refuse is considered a sign that our faith is dead.
James 2:14-17 puts it this way:
14What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
One example of hospitality pointed to in Scripture is when Abraham was visited by the two heavenly travelers. Genesis 18 tells the story. Abraham did not know it, but these visitors had come from God. For this reason, Hebrews 13:2 comments that Abraham’s actions made him a monument to the grace of giving.
2Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
Of course, some people say no to hospitality because of the cost. Do you avoid extending your assistance because of the cost? Some people refuse to accept the price of loving.
A woman accompanied her husband to the doctor's office for his checkup. Afterwards, the doctor took his wife aside and said, "Unless you do the following things, your husband will surely die." The doctor then went on to say, "Here's what you need to do. Every morning make sure you serve him a good healthy breakfast. Meet him at home each day for lunch so that you can serve him a well-balanced meal. Make sure that you feed him a good hot meal each evening and don't overburden him with any stressful conversation, nor ask him to perform any household chores. Also, keep the house spotless and clean so that he doesn't get exposed to any threatening germs." On the way home, the husband asked his wife what the doctor said. She replied, "He said that you're going to die."
Henry Kruse decided to say NO. He sent the two men toward town to find lodging. Then he sat down to reflect on his decision and began feeling guilty. He got a lantern and went out into the night looking for the men, hoping that they found their way. But he saw no sign of them and went back home. The next day he roused his neighbors to see if they had seen the two men, but no one had seen any sign of them. (NK Centennial, p. 97-98)
The next spring, a hunter passed through this section and found one of the strangers frozen in the woods. The hunter buried him at a spot on the future farm of H.O. Kuck, and marked the grave, making sure to inform the neighbors, and they began a search for the other stranger, and found his body a mile further south in the forest. Both graves were maintained as a way of honoring the dead, and also of remembering why it is important to show hospitality to strangers.
Jesus gives us our incentive for saying yes to hospitality in the parable of the sheep and goats.
37“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
(Matthew 25:37-40)
Haberkamp and Stienecker: Phone Lines to Connect Us
By Pastor Dennis Gaertner
(from a sermon preached at the New Knoxville Methodist Church on Father’s Day, June 20, 2011, with Don Stienecker and Shirley [Stienecker] Meyer Bryenton in attendance)
There are some rare things that both modern teens and their parents like, but not many. They usually end up on opposites sides. The problem showed up at prom time for one family.
The teenager had been in the boutique for several hours and finally chose the "perfect" prom dress. The saleswoman was surprised when the girl returned the next day with the outfit. "Can I exchange this for something else?" "What seems to be the problem?"
"My parents like it."
The telephone has a history of being a favorite in families for both parents and teens. Can you imagine how the first residents felt in New Knoxville when the telephone arrived on the scene?
To appreciate their excitement, we have to go back to the late 1880s in our village. NK had 50 years under her belt. Our little town was an isolated community cut out among the large wooded expanse of forest with cleared farmers’ fields sprinkled in. Communication to the outside world came by postal service, a long buckboard ride, or an even longer walk along dirt roads.
By 1885 Pastor F. H. W. Kuckherman was in his last five years of ministry at the German and Reformed (First) Church, the church that now dominates the spiritual landscape in NK. By this time the Methodist Church had long since lost its position of superior numbers having labored under a succession of twenty pastors in the same period that First Church had but one—Pastor Kuckherman.
Prosperity was reaching out to NK in ways people could see. Log cabins were being transformed into brick residences. Thriving businesses were being established. Life was becoming more predictable. Contact outside the community, however, was limited until the arrival of the telephone.
In the winter of 1883-84 one NK resident got a glimpse of what was coming. She was shocked. As an elderly patient of Dr. Gustav Zuelch she noticed a box hanging on the wall with a bell on it. Suddenly the bell tinkled. Dr. Zuelch reached up and took a handle off the box, placed it to his ear, and began speaking into the box. The patient was mystified. When she questioned the doctor, he explained that he and E. L. Kattman had a special connection not known to the public. The doctor’s office was located a couple of blocks from Kattman’s house, and they used this “telephone” to talk to each other. It was explained that this telephone allowed anyone to speak to someone at a distance.
The patient could not comprehend this concept, but she would not be able to keep it quiet. Other citizens she told were no more at ease, but all agreed about one thing. They did not want this box in their home because they didn’t want people to hear the conversations going on inside their houses.
In the next few years other people in the community decided to try their own telephone and by 1896 W. H. Fledderjohann was given the rights to erect poles along streets and roads in the community, including a toll line from St. Marys, extended all the way to Botkins.
At this point two enterprising citizens of NK stepped forward. William Haberkamp and A. H. Stienecker were both talented and innovative thinkers. Stienecker was the first in town to have paved sidewalks at his house and the first to have indoor running water, which he established on the strength of an Artesian well that would reach the second floor of his house.
Haberkamp approached Stienecker wondering why St Marys and Botkins could have lines for telephones and not NK. Stienecker replied, “It will take money.” So, he called a meeting of citizens in January of 1905 and announced to the eleven who showed up that he was going to study the feasibility of getting phone service for NK. After determining that the project would work, 100 citizens stepped forward to put down $35 each to form The New Knoxville Telephone Company.
It is impossible to overstate the impact phone lines and the telephone have had on our community. The ability to speak to anyone at a distance at anytime day and night was a revolutionary concept. The NK community was now connected in a way that had never existed before, and our town was now linked to other towns around us in a way that no one could have foreseen.
The Bible speaks of how isolated we become as sinners. Colossians 1:21 uses the phrase “separated from God.” The best demonstration of this is what happened to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Their sin caused the shame that had them hiding from God.
Through Christ we are reconnected like phone lines. One of the memories that many of us hold is of the old “party lines” that were customary for the first 50 years of telephone history. Neighbors would share a telephone line. When we phoned someone, we could hear a “click” that meant that someone sharing the line had picked up and could hear what we were saying. If they were polite, they would hang it up in which case we would hear another “click.”
The Apostle Paul addressed the believers in Rome about how Christians are connected. It is a lesson we all should remember. Because we have Christ, we also have attachments, relationships, a connection—connected to Christ and connected to Christians. As Romans 12:5 says it, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
NOTE:
More information about A. H. Stienecker and the establishment of telephone service in NK can be found on our website at:
History > Interviews > Stienecker, August H.
More information about William Haberkamp can be found on our website at:
The Venneman Mercantile and Respect for Others
By Pastor Dennis Gaertner
(from a sermon preached at the New Knoxville Methodist Church on June 13, 2010, with Irene Howe in attendance)
What sacrifice would you make to preserve someone else’s faith? The Bible describes the trials that King David faced before he became king over Israel. King Saul was jealous of David’s popularity and wanted him dead. He attempted to send a spear into David’s heart but missed.
1 Samuel 26 tells how David and his fighting men had a chance on one occasion to assassinate King Saul. He was chasing David in the Judean mountains. One night while King Saul slept on the ground, surrounded by the royal guard which was also asleep, David and his fighting men arrived. David’s men urged this future king to strike King Saul and end the threat, but David refused. He rejected the thought of harming the one anointed by God to be king, even though that king was corrupt and evil (26:7-11).
Some actions should be ruled by faith rather than profit. David’s faith prevented him from profiting by ending the life of King Saul. What sacrifice would we be willing to make if someone else’s faith was at stake?
Or is our motto one that says, “I don’t sacrifice anything unless it is forced on me”? One dad made this point to his son.
This young man was elated when he turned eighteen in a state where curfew is 11:00 p.m. for anyone seventeen years of age and under. He told his dad how happy he was that now he could stay out until 3:00 a.m. if he wanted. "Yes, you can stay out as late as you want, but the car is under eighteen and it has to be in the garage by eleven," his father said.
If you knew that someone was teetering on the edge of losing his faith because of some church fight or controversy, what would you do to keep his faith intact? What would you sacrifice? What would you give up to protect the faith of someone?
The Apostle Paul addressed the Roman believers during a church fight where too much disrespect was being shown among Christians. Paul’s words to the church are found in Romans 15:7. Paul says, “accept one another,” but just before he says that, he says,
respect one another’s convictions.
There is one building in NK that represents this respect for one another. The building represents a business that respected customers for decades and decades. Today it has portraits in the window and has served as a studio. You might remember it as Adolph’s or the Double A Restaurant. But before 1936 the business was known as B.E. Cook’s Store, and before 1900 it was known as Henry Cook’s Store, and before 1882 it was known as Venneman’s Mercantile.
Henry Venneman was born in 1804 in Westphalia, Germany. He immigrated to NK in 1838 where he began working on a farm outside of town, as well as on the canal that was then under construction. He decided in 1840 to start a mercantile store in NK. He opened his new store by selling a barrel of whiskey but lost $4 on the sale. When he sold another one, he made enough to get even again.
His business began by selling out of the backroom of his house where he kept chests he had brought from Germany, using them as his countertops and shelving in the form of rough planks laid on pins in the logs of the cabin. His English was so bad that he sometimes mistakenly told customers he didn’t have something when it was what he had the most of. Despite these challenges, he respected his customers, and his business began to grow. He bought butter and eggs for shipping to Cincinnati, and he sold groceries, hardware, cigars, and tobacco.
Henry’s daughter, Elizabeth, married Henry Cook, a carpenter, and soon they were working by the side of the Venneman’s as the business continued to flourish. In 1856 they built a new two-story frame combined dwelling and store in the heart of town at Bremen and Main. Twenty years later this building was expanded with another addition. The building can still be seen today just one block west of our church on German Street.
When Henry Venneman died in 1882, Henry and Elizabeth Cook took over the store, and when Henry retired in 1900, B.E. Cook, their son, took over the store. He built a fine, two-story, brick building in 1902, 90’x 48’, one of the finest retail buildings in the area.
For years—well into the 1930s—people shopped in this store. Meta Hoge remembered the store in 1986, and she commented about buying hats, shoes, hardware, paint, and even some ice cream from a corner in the back of the room.
When it came time for B. E. Cook to retire, he had $20,000 worth of goods in his store. He could have sold the items to traveling salesmen and made a profit, but decided instead to let his NK customers have all of it at a discount. Irene Howe remembers being taken to the store by her mother so that she could buy her first bathing suit. B. E. Cook reasoned, just as Henry Venneman had, that his customers deserved the favor. His customers had shown such support for him over the years that he wanted them to know of his respect and gratitude for them.
NOTES:
The Venneman store was located in the northwest corner of the intersection of Main Street and Bremen Street. It was later moved to 206 West German Street, where it is still used as an apartment house.
The Venneman Store
B. E. Cook built his new store directly across Main Street from the Venneman store in the northeast corner of the intersection of Main Street and Bremen Street. In 1905 the newly formed New Knoxville Telephone Company was located in the southwest corner of the building on the second floor, where it remained until 1959.
The B. E. Cook Store
KUCKHERMAN'S DREAM: FROM CANAL TO CLASSROOM
By Pastor Dennis Gaertner
(from a sermon preached at the New Knoxville Methodist Church on June 5, 2011, Graduation Sunday to honor our high school graduates.)
If we could climb into a time machine and travel back to a younger New Knoxville, imagine the sights. Imagine flying to the NK school on South Main Street, a facility that holds all 12 grades and kindergarten, a cafeteria, and gyms that get a lot of use. Imagine spinning backwards in time at this very site, going all the way back to 1938 when this facility is shiny and brand new. On the front of the building is the motto:
>Religion and education safeguard a nation.
We don’t need to stay in 1938, though. Let’s leap back to 1926 when school is held a few blocks away, on East South Street. The two-story building with its new addition has additional classrooms, a study hall, and a gym, and is filled with excited young students, long before it carries the name Hoge Brush Company.
Our machine again drifts backward in time. In 1914 school in NK is now located in the old town hall building while the old 4 room schoolhouse on East South Street, built in 1885, is being razed to be replaced by the building that would eventually become the home of the Hoge Brush Company. Small township schools, spaced about every two miles for rural students, are meeting all around the area. When we travel back a bit farther, we see school students in a one-room frame building* on West Bremen Street adjacent to the frame church building of the Reformed congregation, which today is known as First Church. Then one more retreat backwards in time puts us in a log building** on South West Street where members of The Reformed Church meet for worship on Sunday mornings, and the building converts to a schoolhouse during the week.
Our time machine has traveled back to the earliest stage of education in NK. Here in this year of 1840 one man had a dream. He had arrived from Ladbergen as a 19-year-old son of a farmer. He had a thirst for learning, so farming would not hold his many interests. His name was F. H. W. Kuckherman.
Kuckherman spent his first couple of years in NK walking over to the site of the latest expansion of the Miami Erie Canal where he worked part-time for 50 cents a day. The work included digging and blasting through the tough blue clay ridge which separated the St. Marys Watershed from that of the Auglaize River, but Kuckherman knew that he had more to contribute than the opening of a huge ditch through the countryside.
Even at 19 Kuckherman was recognized as a bright, motivated young man with a lot to offer the community. In our wilderness town of NK, he was considered to be essential to the education of other young people. So, townspeople urged him to take the written exam that would lead to teacher certification, and he responded by walking to Lima where the test was administered. Passing the exam easily, he returned to NK where by 1842 he was teaching school children.
On this Sunday when our graduates stand before us, waiting for their shining moment in the Commencement Service this afternoon, F. H. W. Kuckherman’s dream is speaking loud and clear. His plea? Don’t get stuck in your canal of life.
This talented young man may have wondered at times if digging dirt out of the Ohio swamp would be his only contribution in life, but his life was committed to Christ. The words of Jesus from Matthew 25:14-30 remind us about the servants who were given talents and told to make good use of them. One servant had the audacity to bury his talent, and Kuckherman was not going to bury his talent. Graduates, your Savior calls on you today. Do not bury your talent. Look beyond the canal. Your talent has new opportunities for you, and your God will guide you.
As the leading educator in the NK community, Kuckherman was teaching children from both First Church and the Methodist Church. His generosity toward Methodist members was noted in the community and much appreciated. Classes were held in the log cabin house of worship used by First Church. Students joined his classes on a subscription basis, paying 5 cents per day or $1.00 per month (a value of about $38.50 in 2025).
During these years of teaching Kuckherman remembered his life’s purpose—to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33). Graduates, there is no better way to form up the core of your future plans. Each decision of life should be measured against the question, “Does this move keep me in search of God’s kingdom and His righteousness?” Doing so will guarantee that no effort will ever take you off course.
Kuckherman’s teaching ministry was just beginning because the need for spiritual leadership from First Church was calling, and this dedicated teacher would become a blessing to the churches and to the whole community as a devoted pastor of nearly half a century at First Church. Today we remember him as Rev. F. H. W. Kuckherman.
* In 1893-1894 the old frame church building was moved to the west, now the location of the church parking lot, and the school building was moved across the street to make room for the existing brick church building. Today the old school building serves as a residence at 203 West Bremen Street.
** The log church building was located adjacent to the German Reformed Cemetery at the end of South West Street.
NOTE:
More information on the History of our schools in New Knoxville can be found on our website at:
History > Biographies > F. H. W. Kuckherman
History > Our Agricultural Heritage > Henry Kuck, Scientific Farmer, 1890-1915