1903

Pastor Walter Frederick, 27, conducting services in the new church building (the present one) on Mill Hill Road in the village.

(To enlarge either picture, just click it.)

Miss Evadora Russell, 23, and sometimes Mrs. Mary Helen Wolven Lasher, 58, led church services on several occasions in the absence of Pastor Frederick. Together with no fewer than 13 other women (Josie Krack Twadell, Florence B. Shultis, Lydia Russell, Miss Martha J. Shultis, Margaret Overbaugh, Mrs. George W. Shultis, Edna A. Herrick [who later married John H. Garrison], Mrs. Walter Frederick, Mrs. C. H. Cooper, Elizabeth Dederick, Miss Ethel Croswell, Miss Elizabeth Britt, and Mrs. Joseph W. Van Gaasbeck) these two occasionally led church services for the next 3 years, a ministry very unusual in a Lutheran church in those days.

According to church historians Magda Moseman and Mark Anderson(1),

The new church building was illuminated by a large, ornate chandelier hanging in the center of the chapel. It was balanced by a counterweight. Miss Florence Peper recalls helping her mother light the circle of kerosene lamps. The chandelier was pulled down with a long hook and the task took about ten minutes.

For the preceding 15 years, each congregation family had their own hymn book. In this year, there was a wish for more hymn books, at least that there might be one in every pew so that the stranger could have a book, too. The congregation held an entertainment in the M. E. Hall and used the proceeds to purchase 50 copies of the new edition of the Lutheran hymn books, one being placed in each pew rack throughout the church. Nearly everyone who had an old hymn book exchanged it in part payment for a new one. (The pictures above are thumbnails of the new hymnal's cover, the title page, and an inside page, respectively; to enlarge any one of the thumbnails, click it.) There were 15 old hymnals that were not in bad condition, and the congregation donated them to a mission church in Homer, Nebraska, who gratefully received them.

According to historian Mark Anderson, the development and use of the common Lutheran service documented in the new service and hymn books is seen by church historians as a turning point: It was the beginning of a liturgical renewal, a return to the historic Lutheran liturgies of the Reformation. The books clearly intended to provide for at least the possibility of weekly communion. Few Lutheran pastors adopted the practice (it would be seven more decades before our church would adopt it, and even in 2006 the vast majority of Lutheran churches in America still do not have a communion service each week).

The congregation sold the old parsonage (now replaced by the new one purchased the year before); the old one was over a mile east of the church, on the Woodstock-Saugerties Road (Route 212).

A new property line was negotiated for the new church (the old line was not at right angles to the highway and not parallel to the side lines of the building). Deeds were exchanged.

In this deal all the expenses were paid by Mr. Charles Cooper, owner of the adjoining property, who also gave the church $40 [$868 in 2006 dollars] in addition for the land secured in the exchange. The new line affords the church sufficient space for a driveway on the west side if needed.(2)

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Quoted from Frederick, Rev. Walter, "Historical Address, Woodstock, N.Y., May 3, 1931," p. 12. (Close)

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During the winter season, Pastor Frederick conducted midweek cottage services for 26 worshippers to the community at Shultis Corners (the intersection of current Route 212 and Glasco Turnpike east of Woodstock; see the map).

The congregation paid its full quota to the synod annually and made other contributions.

The Bible School was flourishing.

Above is a view looking up Mill Hill Road just after our new church was built. It is in the distance on the left of the road. (To enlarge the view, click it.) There is no Joyous Lake or Denny's or CVS (Grand Union) to interrupt the view.

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Theodore Roosevelt (Republican) was President. The newly elected 58th Congress was in session. A dollar in that year would be worth $21.70 in 2006 for most consumable products.

Immigrants from the British Isles and western Europe (especially Great Britain, Ireland, and Germany)--the so-called "Old Immigrants," most of them boasting a comparatively high level of literacy and accustomed to some level of representative government, who were either Protestant (most of them) or Catholic, were arriving during this decade at an average annual rate of 106,900. The "New Immigrants," those from southern and eastern Europe (especially Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Russia), largely illiterate and impoverished, who tended to be either Catholic, Orthodox, or Jewish and who had little experience with representative government, were arriving at an annual rate of 578,900--five and a half times as much as the Old Immigrants' rate, more than a threefold proportionate increase from a decade earlier and more than a threefold increase in raw numbers. The New Immigrants huddled together in large cities, such as New York City and Chicago.

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