Pastors

Wolfgang Simon Stubnatzy
1850-1852

Johann Georg Kuechle
1852-1864

Ludwig Lochner
1864-1867

Theodore Pissel
1867-1878

Barnhard Burfeind
1879-1889

John Meyer
1889-1897

Tobias Joeckel
1895-1903

Christian Merkel
1903-1920

Emil Hieber
1920-1951

Adolph E. Ullrich
1952-1973

Charles A. Groth
1975-1978

John G. McKiness
1978-1986

Paul Krause
1987-1999

Robert Erickson
1999-2001

Robert Bartz
2001-Present

Early History of Immanuel

Around 1850, some young, single men who were Hanoverians by birth and had previously settled in Dunklee’s Grove (Addison, Illinois), purchased fertile prairie lands here in Skunk’s Grove (Rich Township). They had been members of a Lutheran congregation in Addison.

Upon settling here, they asked Pastor Stubnatzi of the Lutheran Church in Cooper’s Grove (Country Club Hills) to preach to them on Sunday afternoons. Cooper’s Grove was growing and had established a Christian Day School and eventually their congregation felt the people in Skunk’s Grove should join them and felt Pastor Stubnatzi should not preach in Skunk’s Grove on Sunday afternoons.

At that time, 22 families organized and formed the Immanuel Lutheran congregation and per Pastor Stubnatzi’s recommendation, called Pastor Johann Georg Kuechle to serve them. The founding fathers named this congregation “DIE DEUTSCHE EVANGELISCHE LUTHERISCHE KIRCHE VON DER TOWN VON RICH” (The German Evangelical Luther Church of the Town of Rich). They were proud of their German heritage and faithful to the Lutheran Confession.

Pastor Kuechle accepted the call and preached his first sermon to the congregation on June 6, 1852. In 1866 the congregation changed the name to: THE CONGREGATION OF THE GERMAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN IMMANUEL CHURCH, U.A.C. AT RICH, COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS. On February 3, 1946, the name of the congregation was officially changed to: IMMANUEL EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CONGREGATION.

The congregation began a day school almost immediately. At first services and school were conducted in members homes, and Pastor Keuchle lived with different families.

In the summer of 1852 the congregation purchased 15 acres of land from Mr. Heinrich Kruse for $50 in gold. This piece of land was carved out of the southeast corner of Mr. Kruse’s farm and was bordered on the east and south sides by two dirt roads - Cicero Avenue and Sauk Trail. In 1854 the congregation erected a two-story frame building on the property, which served as parsonage/church/school. Cost of the building was about $130. The lower story served as the Pastor’s dwelling and the upper served as the church and school for many years.

The congregation grew quickly from 1855 to 1861 and the church could no longer contain all the worshippers. A new church was built during 1861 (at a cost of $163.60) and dedicated in 1862. The previous building still served as parsonage and school.

As the church grew, so did the school. The Pastor could no longer serve the congregation and teach at the same time, so Immanuel called its first teacher, Georg Bartling. When he married in 1854, the congregation built a new parsonage (cost: $689.50) for Pastor Kuechle’s family, and the old parsonage became the teacher’s home.

During 1868, the congregation made plans to start a branch school in Matteson - about two miles northeast of Immanuel. It was part of the parish community and the congregation decided to divide into two school districts. St. John’s of Cooper’s Grove was asked to help defray the cost of erecting a school house since a number of their parishioners were living in the Matteson vicinity and would send their children to this school. Mr. L. Maurer was called to serve as the first teacher of the “branch school”. It was commonly referred to as the “town school” and Immanuel’s school was called the “country school”.

After establishing the “branch school”, the upper room in Immanuel’s school was no longer needed. In 1871 the Public School District was given permission to use the room rent-free. On September 14, 1873 the congregation called a teacher for the District Public School with several restrictions, such as in the mornings the class was taught in German, and in the afternoons they used the English language. This arrangement with the “English School District” continued until April of 1891 when the congregation decided to terminate the arrangement.

When Mr. Maurer left the “branch school” in 1872, the entire Immanuel congregation - not only the school district - extended a call to Mr. Philipp Bonneront. The Matteson school district, however, was obligated to pay his salary.

In 1878, a majority of Immanuel’s members living in Matteson organized a self-supporting congregation of their own and called it Zion Evangelical Lutheran Congregation, and obtained their own Pastor in 1884.

In 1883 a pipe organ was installed in Immanuel Lutheran Church, leading to a new “office: for the congregation - the office of an “organ pumper” who pumped air into the bellows to provide wind to play the organ. Eventually with the advent of electricity and an electric organ blower, an organ pumper was no longer needed.

For 85 years the services were conducted entirely in the German language. On May 2, 1935 the first English service was conducted. At that time an English service was done once per month, eventually twice per month, etc. All services were conducted in English by the 1960’s. The first confirmation class to be confirmed in English was the class of 1934. In the mid-70’s, since Christmas brings back precious memories, a half-hour Christmas Eve Service with the reading of the Christmas Gospel of St. Luke and familiar songs was done in German, prior to the regular Christmas Eve service. This service was offered until the year 2000.

In 1930 a new pipe organ was installed at a cost of $2240. It had an electric blower; therefore, there was no further need for the office of “organ pumper”.

In 1948 a new school was built. The old one was sold to and moved to an airport on Highway 54. In 1952 a new parsonage was built. Preliminary plans for a new church were presented in 1959, revisions made, etc. Ground breaking ceremonies were held in April of 1961, and the Corner Stone was layed on July 23, 1961. The Moeller organ was moved from the old church, and rebuilt and enlarged by Kilgen Organ specialists. Dedication of the new church was held June 3, 1962. The old church was donated to the Valley Bible Church in Park Forest, Illinois, and now serves the Thorn Creek Nature Center on Monee Road in Park Forest.

In 1965 work began on building a new teacherage. During this process, on February 2, 1965, workmen doing repairs in the school sparked a fire. There was so much damage that the walls needed to be torn down and rebuilt, however, it was decided that they should build a new school onto the west end of the Parish Hall. School was held in the parish hall during construction. Ground breaking ceremonies for the new school were held on March 20, 1966. The corner stone was laid July 31, 1966. The completed school was dedicated on August 27, 1967. An addition, which included a library, additional classroom and a storage room was built during 1982 and was dedicated on September 12, 1982.

In 1989 we entered into an agreement with Zion Lutheran School in Matteson for form a joint school beginning the 1989-1990 school year. Immanuel housed the lower grades and Zion housed the upper grades. However, in the summer of 1990 Immanuel informed Zion that we would pull out of the merged school at the end of the 1990-1991 school year, and we closed our school doors in June of 1991.

In 2001, due to the congregation’s long history of belief in Christian education, we decided to pursue the idea of opening a pre-school, using funds received from the estate of Esther Pralle. A director was hired in the fall of 2002 and the preschool was opened for a few weeks in the spring of 2003, and the first full school year began in September of 2003. In the fall of 2006, Kindergarten was also offered. The spring semester of 2008 proved to be our largest enrollment (28 students) of the preschool/kindergarten to date.