Martha and William Kirmse became members of the St. Paul Lutheran Church which was located about two miles north of their homestead.

Church History

St. Paul Lutheran Church[1] was founded on 5 March 1905 (about a year after William and Martha arrived) under the leadership of Pastor Henry Asmus Marxen of Enid, Oklahoma.

St. Paul Lutheran Church was built in the style of the German Russian traditions[3]. And, the church was dedicated on 11 March 1906[2].

Membership

The St. Paul Lutheran Church membership as well as the membership of the nearby Baptist and Seventh Day Adventist churches were mostly settlers who had emigrated from the Volga region of Russia. Martha and William Kirmse had homesteaded in a colony of Volga German-Russians who settled in Ellis County, Oklahoma. The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture notes that “Between 1900 and 1902 Evangelical Volga Germans moved from Marion, Kansas, to Shattuck, in Ellis County. This colony proved to be the state’s most cohesive and long-lasting.” [4] My father, Julius Kirmse, said that while the Kirmse family spoke German in their home, the church members conversed in a strange German dialect that made it difficult to understand what they were saying.

Notes

1. St. Paul Lutheran Church rural Shattuck, Oklahoma, 2013. http://cvgs.cu-portland.edu/immigration/united_states/oklahoma/shattuck/shattuck_st_paul_lutheran.cfm
2. Christ Lutheran Church Shattuck, Oklahoma, 2014. http://cvgs.cu-portland.edu/immigration/united_states/oklahoma/shattuck/shattuck_christ_lutheran.cfm
3. The Oklahoma Cemeteries Website – St. Paul Lutheran Cemetery (Also known as Christ Lutheran or Lutheran)  http://www.okcemeteries.net/ellis/lutheran/lutheran.htm
4. Everett, Dianna. GERMANS FROM RUSSIA. Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, Oklahoma Historical Society. Downladed October 26, 2017 from: http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=GE008.