St Johns Evangelical Protestant Church
Pooles Creek, Kentucky
History
Information comes from LDS film #1550343
Ninety Years 1876-1966
A History of the Original St John Evangelical Protestant Church then to St John Evangelical Congregation Church which is now St John United Church of Christ
By Rev Edward C Sinning, Minister and Mrs.
Elsie Kraft, Historican
Our journey will begin about year 1875, right here is a little settlement called Pooles Creek. Here we find a small group of German settlers who have bought farms and established homes for their families. These people have come from Christian families and it soon became very evident to them that a full and complete life requires more than food and shelter for the body, it requires spiritual food and training of the mind or an education.
Thus we find 24 of these settlers banded together with a determination to build a church. Records tell us the names of these men were Reinhardt Phirmann, Ulrich Ziegler, Henry Wasser, Fred Leistner and Christian Schweitzer, Gotlieb Schweitzer, Jacob Andreas, Christian Meyer, John Nurnberger, Michael Kopp, Wilhelm Kopp, Carl Wasser, Carl Daehnert, Heinrich Dischar, Philip Koehler, John Koersdorfer, Christian Kenneweg, George Deinlein, Peter Schmidt, Valentine Braun, Conrad Leistner and John Haeckle.
Each of these men is willing to use the talent that God has given him. For some it is the ability to give land on which to build a church; for some it is to dig the rocks out of the creeks and hills of their farms and haul them to the place where the church to be built; for others it is their ability to build the stone walls of the church; and to still others the ability to do the good work, or carpenter work necessary to complete the church.
With the united efforts of these men, in the year 1876 we see a church completed. We see carved in the stone over the door, the name of this church. It is St John Evangelical Protestant Church. Behind the church auditorium we find a room which is used as the school room for the Pooles Creek Public School. Then over the school room we see several small rooms which we learn are to be used as living quarters for the minister.
Rev Mueller was the first minister. He was hired by the first church board, namely: John Koerzdorfer, president; Reinhardt Pirmann, secretary; George Deinlein, treasurer. We know there were three deacons, but their names are not written in the records for us. We also learn that the minister has been chosen to teach public school during the week. We find these ministers names listed as having served as spiritual leaders in the following order: 1-Rev Mueller; 2-Rev Bersch who served at two different times; 3-Rev Linsteadt; 4-Rev Keitz; 5-Rev Horst; 6-Rev Obley; 7-Rev Waywork; 8-Rev Hammerschmidt; 9-Rev Wagner; 10-Rev Schoenwandt; 11-Rev Bob Eversull; 12-Rev William Johnson; 13-Rev Emmitt R Harrell; 14-Rev Edward C Sinning
About the year 1908 the church has grown to a point where they have built a parsonage beside the church. Some of the small rooms occupied by the minister and his wife were torn away and the remainder was made into one larger room which has been used as a Sunday School room and dining room for the church. Up until this time services were conducted in German, but the Church Council realized that the young people of the church do not understand German, so it was agreed to have the services in German one Sunday and in the English language the next. A few years passed and all the services were in the English language.
In 1925 the Congregation voted to join the Congregational Church Group and was then known as St John Evangelical Congregational Church. In 1966 the interior of the church needed to be redecorated and it was decided to have it paneled. Love one another as Christ has loved you was the motto for the past 60 years.