Founding of Zion Lutheran Church – Alva

Dale William Kirmse

Missionary – Johann F. Lill

Zion Lutheran Church – Alva was organized officially on May 21 of 1899 under the leadership of missionary J. Lill. Rev. Lill himself is a figure who remains somewhat cloaked in mystery. Johann F. Lill was born on September 24, 1874, in Chicago, Illinois. He graduated from seminary in Springfield in the year 1898 and was ordained on October 2 of that a same year in Huntsville, Kansas. After a short pastorate, he served as a traveling missionary at Plevna, KS, Nashville, KS, Preston, KS, Stafford, KS, and Alva, OK. How many churches he might have helped organize remains uncertain. His term as a missionary was also brief as by the 23rd of September, 1900, he was serving as a pastor in Dubuque, Kansas. He resigned from the ministry in 1901. (His resignation is listed under “teacher”, so he may have served in a dual role). That is all that was known of Lill at the 100 year of Zion. A genealogical search for Johann Ferdinand Lill was made to determine a timeline of events in his life in Chapter: Johann Ferdinand Lill – Missionary.

Though Lill’s historical personage is lost to us, or apparently out of reach, his impact continues to be felt in the presence of Zion Lutheran Church – Alva. Perhaps Lill’s greatest influence was as a certified representative of an established church body. Imagine a group of people convening to call themselves a church. By whose authority other than their own could this be done? They would surely seek the ratification of their charter by an established group. These were not men and women raised in a place or a time where non-denominational churches flourished. Most of them would have belonged to either state-sponsored or long-ago established churches. Lill therefore provided them with a sense of legitimacy.[1]

Constitution Adoption

On May 21, 1899, Rev. Johann F. Lill and several individuals who had been affiliated with a Lutheran Churches elsewhere held a meeting in Alva. They met in the upper room of a store which is currently occupied by LaDEEda’s, on the corner of College and Flynn. There they adopted a constitution, thusly creating Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church of Alva.

A mystery has arisen because on that fateful day a flood of the Salt Fork River kept some of the Lutherans living north of the river from attending the meeting. As a result only 13 were present and could technically be called the founders of the congregation. At least that is the account which has been handed down to us. Rev. Otto Hoyer set down this record in 1949 while compiling the 50th anniversary book. However, he lists only twelve names: William Quast, Sr., John H. Schaefer, Wm. Breford, John Wagner, Ernst Wamhof, Christ Wagner, Wm. Schaefer, Benjamin Niehaus, Theodore Wagner, Albert Ertmond, C.H. Mauntel, and Heinrich Wagner. Possibly the 13th was Lill himself.

Unfortunately, no extant copy of the original constitution is available. Some believe that a copy may be buried in the church cornerstone, in which case we will have to wait for the mystery to be solved. In 1978, Rev. Paul Hoppe wrote in the front of the church directory for that year the list of charter members to which he added the names of Geo Meixer, Jacob Haas, and Carl Goeringer. Normally, one would be inclined to regard the older list as more authentic, being closer to the actual historical event, so it remains puzzling why these names were added. From what source were they drawn, as no other listing has included these names? It is possible, perhaps even likely that Goeringer was the 13th original signer of the constitution as his name, more than these other two, has been frequently associated with the founding fathers.

To further complicate the matter, in the first minutes from the church meetings, Ernst Wamhof – rewrote the original constitution and then recorded the names of those who signed at the time as well as those who later joined in succeeding years. It is assumed he had before him an original copy which he was transcribing. However, in these later listings there is no mention of Geo Meixner even among those names subsequently added. Perhaps it will remain a mystery as to who were technically amongst the first signers of the constitution.[1]

Charter Members

The authentic stories of the families who settled the Alva area have been well documented in other historical records.

However, it has been deemed good to recall stories of those men who came to be our founding fathers at Zion. Their variety of stories and backgrounds offer a sampler of what was common to many settlers.[1]

William Quast Sr.

–Born in Altanfliez, Germany, William came to America in February of 1856 at the age of 14 with his parents. They settled in Wisconsin, then to Kansas, where William learned the trade of shoemaking, and finally moving down to the Oklahoma Territory near Capron in 1897. He married Maggie Wagner, the daughter of John Wagner, another founding father, in 1887. This pattern of Lutherans intermarrying with Lutherans would be a phenomenon which would characterize the close-knit structure of the Zion family down to this day. Maggie won a reputation for availing herself to stay with new mothers in the community for a few days after having a child. Upon their arrival in Oklahoma, the Quast family leased 160 acres and built a four-room house 12′ by 24′. The Quasts had seven children (one living only a week) and have descendants who are members of the church yet today. One history book tells us that William would sometimes read the sermon in his native German language when the pastor would be absent. – He passed away on November 11, 1923. His legacy continues on with W.E. Quast III, Nelda White and Nadine Keitel.

John H. Schaefer

–An instrumental figure in the organization of Zion Lutheran Church, J.H. Schaefer moved to Kansas in 1885 after being raised in Indiana (Kentucky being the actual state of his birth). In 1894 he came to the Oklahoma Territory and located on a farm three miles east of Alva. He later sold that farm to Ernst Wamhof and moved to Alva. He married Emma Meyer, first cousin to fellow founding member C.H. Mauntel. In town, Schaefer thrived in the real estate business, bringing many Germans into the area. He became a man of high repute within the county. The Schaefers had seven children. No direct descendents from the J.H. Schaefer family are known to presently be in the area as the family left for Long Beach, California in 1917.

William Breford

–Born on the 12th of June, 1855, married to Marie Louise Lubbert on September 22, 1881, with whom he had 10 children, William Breford came to the Oklahoma Territory in 1898 with William Schaefer and C.H. Mauntel to purchase homesteads. The three men decided to stay on and Breford returned with his family by train on March 1, 1899, to their new home. On one occasion, soon after coming to Alva, the family was eating their meal when Indians entered their home and took all the food from the table and the loaves of bread which had been baked. The family silently watched this process take place, knowing it wisest to do nothing. If one needed a reminder that this was still the Old West, an untamed land, this was it. The Breford family, having sired 10 children, is still represented within our congregation. Garold and Wilda Busse are great-grandchildren of Breford, Evelyn Kamas and Norman Schaefer are grandchildren.

John Wagner

–Born on September 5, 1834, in Germany, Wagner came to America in 1860 and settled in Saginaw, Michigan where he met and married Anna Reinbold on the 13th of June, 1866. He moved to Kansas in 1878 and entered Woods County at the opening of the Cherokee Strip during the land run of 1893. He settled a farm seven miles north of Alva and had 12 children, two of whom were also charter members of Zion Lutheran Church. His son William died of internal hemmoraging after being kicked in the stomach by a horse, and another son, John, passed on in the flu epidemic of 1918. One of his daughters, Maggie, married William Quast Sr., another charter member of Zion. Neva Graham, Hazel Leatherman, and Leola Meyer, members yet today, are grandchildren to John Wagner.

Theodore Wagner

–The son of John Wagner (see above), Theodore came from Saginaw and later Kansas with his parents. He married Anna Giesler, but had no children. In their latter years they were assisted by our current member Neva Graham, Theo’s niece. Whereas the rest of the Wagner clan struggled to make a living and divide it among so many children, Theo and his wife homesteaded independently and managed to attain a better financial position. It comes as a bit of irony that Theo is remembered as the Wagner sibling least endowed with the rich sense of humor characteristic of the rest. The Wagner family was ripe with unique characters. August was notorious for never allowing an automobile to come to a full halt before jumping off. It was this very trademark which eventually claimed his life by way of an accident.

Christ Wagner

–Another son of John Wagner, the Christ Wagner family eventually moved east into Arkansas where they went into strawberry farming. Later he moved to Texas, where some of the family still resides. He made one last trip back to Alva, where he passed away, and is therefore buried in the Lutheran cemetery east of town. Many former members of Zion, long since moved away, have always considered Alva their home. Some have returned following retirement, and some have even returned to be buried in the place they have always called home.

Ernst Wamhof

–Born on October the 24th, 1855, in Hanover, Germany, Wamhof came to the United States to an area near Holland, Indiana. There he became acquainted with Marie Anna Meyer, a first cousin to C.H. Mauntel, whom he married on September 27, 1883. The couple came to Woods County on March 7, 1898, and settled 21/2 miles east of Alva. Wamhof left in 1919, moving to Long Beach, California. He passed away on May 1, 1941. He is the grandfather to current member, Martin Kletke and great grandfather to Doug Kletke.

William Schaefer

–Born in 1858, married to Sophia Niehaus (b. 1862) in Holland, Indiana. In 1899 he came to Oklahoma with his wife and five children (two more were later born in Oklahoma) by train and settled 4 miles east of Alva. Two of Schaefer’s sons, one of which (Edward) is the grandfather of Evelyn Kamas, married Breford girls. Schaefer’s other living grandchild is Norman Schaefer. Mr. N. Schaefer and Evelyn Kamas are thereby double cousins, sharing Wm. Schaefer and Wm. Breford as grandparents. Wm. Schaefer passed away in 1939.

Heinrich Wagner

–Not related to the John Wagner family, Henry and his wife Anna left Russia in their early 20s. On their journey out of Russia, via Germany, they lost their first child, Susanne, from pneumonia. Infant mortality in those times played a much greater role in family life than it does now. A visit to the Lutheran Cemetery attests to the disturbing frequency of children gone too soon. Eight of the Wagners’ ten children would later be born in the United States. They settled in Otis, Kansas, where Wagner took a job with the Santa Fe Railroad Co. He received $1.25 for one, ten-hour day of work in gold! When the job was finished, Wagner purchased a claim in Oklahoma for $40. Rita Porter and Tavey Lewis remain as a few of the last remnants of the Wagner clan at Zion Lutheran Church.

C.H. Mauntel

–Born on May 24, 1873, Mauntel came to Woods County with several others in 1898 from Holland, Indiana. He passed away on the 23rd of May, 1960. Whether fictional or genuine we cannot be sure, but it has been handed down to us that Mauntel left the church in anger due to a sermon in which the preacher reportedly made a comment to the effect that there was great doubt as to whether a lawyer could find his way into heaven or not. Mauntel, a lawyer himself, predictably had some reservations about such a comment and departed. If this is true, it would be undoubtedly amongst the first of many controversies which would perpetrate themselves at Zion. Over the years individuals and whole families have left the congregation with hard feelings. Establishing blame is pointless. Neither churches nor individuals are perfect and the historic reality of the church is thus. Interestingly, when Mauntel died due to “injury in brain in fall” he was still buried at the Lutheran Cemetery, despite long since having left the church. It is recorded that Heinrich Wagner was the last of the founding fathers to enter eternal glory, but in actuality, Mauntel endured the longest. The record stands with Wagner as the last undoubtedly because Mauntel had long ceased to be a church member. Mauntel is remembered as an extremely intelligent man and, it is postulated, was connected somehow to the Wamhoff clan.

George Meixner

– George Meixner, son of George Meixner, was born in Ohio on 29 June 1898 and his wife Christina, daughter of Johann Goeringer, was born in Russia on 14 September 1880. Christina (Goeringer) Meixner and her husband settled in Alva and had the first bakery in Alva. Christina’s brother, Peter Goeringer, and a sister, Maria Christina (Goeringer) Hort, also settled in Alva. According to the Zion Lutheran Church – Alva 1904 membership records, George and Christina (Goeringer) Meixner joined Zion Lutheran Church – Alva on 21 May 1899.

Carl Goehringer

— was related to the Heinrich Wagner clan by marriage.

Benjamin Niehaus

— was among the charter members.

Albert Ertmond