St. John's Lutheran Church

Pastors of the Congregation

1864 – 1959

• 1864
  –
  1873
  Photo

  Rev. J. F. Hornberger

  1864 – 1873  ·  Founding Pastor
• 1874
  –
  1876
  Photo

  Rev. G. Erdmann

  1874 – 1876
• 1876
  –
  1878
  Photo

  Rev. C. Richter

  1876 – 1878
• c. 1878
  Photo

  Rev. Pens

  c. 1878

  Served approximately three months
• 1879
  Photo

  Rev. B. Sickel

  1879
• 1879
  –
  1881
  Photo

  Rev. A. Reinhard

  1879 – 1881
• c. 1881
  Photo

  Rev. C. Wargowski

  c. 1881

  Served a few weeks
• 1881
  –
  1886
  Photo

  Rev. N. Gottmannshausen

  1881 – 1886
• 1887
  –
  1890
  Photo

  Rev. F. H. M. End

  1887 – 1890
• 1890
  –
  1893
  

  Rev. G. Hehl

  1890 – 1893

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  Biographical information for Rev. G. Hehl is being compiled. A photograph taken at Weedon Studios, Ava, Illinois is known to exist, depicting Pastor Hehl with his wife Martha and their newborn daughter Martha, circa 1892.

• 1893
  –
  1897
  Photo

  Rev. E. Reh

  1893 – 1897
• 1897
  –
  1898
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  Rev. W. Graef

  1897 – 1898
• 1899
  –
  1903
  

  Rev. M. Pinkert

  1899 – 1903

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  Max Pinkert was born in March 1869 in Silesia, then part of the German Empire. He emigrated to the United States in 1896, and the following year married Hildegard. He was called to St. John's "Post Oak" in 1899 and served the congregation for four years. During his tenure his daughter Hilda was born on 2 July 1902 and baptized at Post Oak Church. His son Gerhard had been born in Illinois in July 1898, shortly before the family's arrival at Campbell Hill.

  In 1903 Pinkert accepted a call to Dr. Martin Luther Church in Oconomowoc, Waukesha County, Wisconsin, a congregation founded in 1896. He served there until 1907. By 1910 the family had moved to New York City, where a son, Bartholomew, was born in the Bronx on 28 February 1909. By 1915 Pinkert was serving St. Bartholomew's Lutheran Church in New York. Max Pinkert died in 1935.

  Sources: U.S. Census records; Post Oak baptismal register; genealogical research compiled by Joel S. Russell.
• 1903
  –
  1921
  

  Rev. J. Kupfer

  1903 – 1921  ·  18 years

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  John Kupfer was born on 14 June 1858 in Germany. At the age of fifteen he sailed from Hamburg aboard the SS Frisia, arriving in New York on 16 October 1873. He was ordained into the Lutheran ministry and by 1900 was serving in Tippecanoe, Shelby County, Indiana, with his first wife Christina. Following her death he came to Jackson County, Illinois, where in 1903 he married Margaret Heisser and accepted the call to St. John's "Post Oak."

  Kupfer served Post Oak for eighteen years — the longest pastorate in the congregation's history. He was present for the dedication of the present brick church on 22 October 1905, which drew some three thousand people. His tenure spanned the years of World War I, during which German-speaking Lutheran congregations across southern Illinois faced severe pressure to abandon the German language. He and Margaret raised four children — John Jr., Paul, Gertrude, and Ruth — in the Campbell Hill parsonage.

  After leaving Post Oak in 1921 he eventually resettled in Nebraska. He died on 30 June 1945 at the age of 87 and is buried at Memorial Cemetery, Fremont, Dodge County, Nebraska.

  Sources: passenger records, SS Frisia; U.S. Census 1900; Jackson County marriage records; genealogical research compiled by Joel S. Russell.
• 1921
  –
  1928
  Photo

  Rev. W. Kronsbein

  1921 – 1928
• 1928
  –
  1939
  Photo

  Rev. F. Freytag

  1928 – 1939  ·  11 years
• 1939
  –
  1942
  Photo

  Rev. L. C. Urlaub

  1939 – 1942
• 1942
  –
  1946
  Photo

  Rev. A. H. Kaitschuk

  1942 – 1946
• 1946
  –
  1951
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  Rev. H. L. Wagner

  1946 – 1951
• 1951
  –
  1952
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  Rev. A. G. Suechting

  1951 – 1952  ·  First term
• 1952
  –
  1955
  

  Rev. J. Juhkentaal

  1952 – 1955

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  Julius Juhkentaal was born on January 23rd, 1909 in Estonia. He was ordained in 1936 and married his wife Martha in 1939. In 1941 he was deported by the occupying Soviet Army and sent to slave labor camps throughout the Soviet Union. Along with four others he escaped the harsh conditions and fled to Kabul, Afghanistan. He was arrested and spent a year in prison there for illegally crossing the border. His requests to the British Embassy resulted in his release and he then worked at their Embassy in Peshawar. From there he accepted a job to work as a missionary in Mardan, Pakistan amongst the Muslims.

  At the end of the war in 1945, he was able to locate his wife and daughter, who had escaped Estonia in 1944 and had relocated to Germany, along with many other refugees from all parts of Europe. They stayed in the Crown Colony of India until India's independence in 1949. At that time, he moved to England and Julius was pastor of a church there until 1952. During the summer of that year, he immigrated to the United States and settled in the parsonage of St. John's "Post Oak" Church near Campbell Hill, Illinois. He served this congregation for three years.

  Over the next 20 years he served churches in Hebron, IL, Milwaukee, WI, Beloit, WI, and Madison, WI. In 1974 he retired to Seattle, WA where he continued to serve the community. Pastor Juhkentaal died on July 27th, 1998 and his wife died on August 2nd, 2000.

  Information and photograph kindly provided by Andrew Scott.
• 1955
  –
  1959
  Photo

  Rev. A. G. Suechting

  1955 – 1959  ·  Second term