A Strong German Heritage

New Baltimore / St. John's Lutheran Church

Date Visited:  August 25, 2019

Stop:  #57

 Kathy and I found it hard to leave our last destination – Youngblood Vineyard – but we still had adventures ahead of us on this day, so we continued our journey eastward across Macomb County and set out for New Baltimore.  We drove 11.3 miles to our next stop, which was the St. John’s Lutheran Church located on the southern corner of Maria Street and Green Street.  The historical marker itself is located on Maria Street, about 75 feet from Green Street.  The marker is a two-sided sign with two different topics.  On the side facing the southeast, the topic is the town of New Baltimore, and the topic on the northwest facing side is St. John’s Lutheran Church.

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.

In 1905, the church, now known as the St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, purchased a Hinners mechanical action organ, which is still in use today.  In May of 1916, the church was raised several feet so a basement could be dug.  The same year, the congregation made other renovations including the construction of an altar niche, a furnace room, a kitchen, added new oak pews, wired the church for electricity, and added carpeting.  In 1955, an additional building was added next to the church.  The Michigan Historical Plaque was awarded to the church in 1979.  The church, known for its tall steeple, still holds services twice per Sunday – 8:00 am and 10:30 am (due to COVID-19, services times and formats may be different).

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