New Baltimore / St. John's Lutheran Church
Date Visited: August 25, 2019
Stop: #57
The New Baltimore side of the
marker describes the early history of the city.
Native Americans from the Chippewa tribe lived in this region when the
first French explorers, led by Pierre Yax, arrived in 1796. Yax was actually of German descent. His father, Michel Johannes Yax, born in
Germany in 1709, is credited with being the first German to settle in Michigan,
by way of Pennsylvania. Michel and his
wife settled in Grosse Pointe, and in 1763, Pierre was born.
After Pierre and the French
explorers settled in the New Baltimore area, naturally, more settlers
followed. Most settled along the waterfront
and rivers on plots of land with 400 to 900-foot frontages. The first purchase of government land was
made by Fabian Robertjean on August 20, 1820, in Section 11, near what is now New
Baltimore's Washington Street.
In 1845, a Mt. Clemens
businessman by the name of Alfred Ashley, platted 60 acres of land lying on
both sides of Washington Street. Ashley
built a sawmill and a dock, and the settlement became known as Ashley. On September 20, 1851, a post office was established
and called Ashleyville. Alfred became
the first postmaster. Alfred continued
to stoke the village’s economy by opening businesses in lumbering, shipping,
and real estate. The original village
covered an area that is now the central part of downtown New Baltimore. The settlement continued to grow when a group
of German pioneers settled along the Salt River in 1853. The settlement, still known as Ashley,
changed its name to New Baltimore in 1855.
The village continued to grow
and became a bustling port city, shipping out manufactured goods and raw
materials from the area. As the modes of
transportation evolved and trains and cars grew in prominence, water travel
decreased in importance. The village
began to take on a new look as its main industry shifted from manufacturing to
tourism. More commercial building sprung
up – restaurants, an opera house, hotels, etc.
New Baltimore incorporated as a village in 1867 and as a city in 1931.
Today, New Baltimore is a
coastal resort community that boasts a vibrant downtown of boutique shops,
restaurants, bars, and a winery. It has
a beautiful waterfront park, marina, pier, and beach. It has a population of 12,403 (as of 2018)
residents. It is a popular summer getaway
town with many cottages lining the shore of Anchor Bay.
So, after getting a good
history lesson on New Baltimore, we turned our attention to the other side of
the historical marker. This side focused
on the history of the Lutheran religion in the area. As mentioned above, there was an influx of
German pioneers to New Baltimore in 1853.
According to the marker, Lutheranism took root in the New Baltimore area
in 1863. Seven German families made up
the original congregation of St. John’s Lutheran Church. Their first minister was Reverend Engels, who
served from 1863 to 1871. Worship
services were held in the log cabin home of Fritz Turkow. Eventually the congregation moved to a chapel
(located at the corner of Washington and Green Streets) that they rented from a
Baptist church. They were known as the
German Lutheran Church at this time, and they stayed at the chapel for about 5
years.
In January of 1869, the
Honorable Gilbert Hatheway donated to the congregation $100 and a plot of land
at Green and Maria Streets so they could build their own church. The church was completed in 1870. Services were held in German until 1916, when
English was introduced for one service per month. By 1934, services were held exclusively in
English.
