The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1900-05-04


dren having built for him and his
good wife fine home in University
Heights overlooking Camp Randall
and the greater part of the city.
Mr.. Winter, who talks freely on
many subjects of broad interest, says
there Is some occasion for the query
as to whether or not religion is dying
out among the common people. He
has had his finger on the religious
pulse, so to speak, Of the German
ProtestantS of Wisconsin for the past
forty years or more. He says that his
ObervatiOn has been that among the
Germans in the rural districts religion
is made matter of convenience, that
the churches among them are very
gradually dying out and that their
houses of worship are being taken up
by other nationalitieS. This does not
apply to Catholic communities, he
says, which continue to flourish and
expand. He says also that in proper
tion as the Germans become Amerl-
eanized and drift away from their hab-
it's of simplicity and piety that they
also become Indifferent to religion and
lost to the church. In fact he attri-
butes the weakened religious sense
among the people to the commercial
spirit, the desire for gewgaws and So
cial and political power and the los
ing of the homely virtues of simple
life. The change of the Germans or
the Reformed church from their first
faith, says Mr.. Winter, is usually by
way of Methodism, though many be-
come Baptists or Presbyterians, but
in Sheboygan county they adhere zeal
ously to the Reformed church, and at
Franklin they have a Reformed col
lege and mission house, founded on
the German mission house plan.
Driven to sheboygan by Persecution.
This Sheboygan county settlement is
the well-known Upper group, for
whose coming to Wisconsin MIR. Win
ter is largely responsible. They came
from Lippe-Detmold, small princi-
pality in northwestern Germany, bor~
dering on the river Weser and inter-
sected on the south by the famous
Tentoberger valid, in whose mountain
GUS Wilds Hermann the Great ami
hilated the great Roman army under
Arminius, sent to conquer Germany
in the year 9 A. d. 1t is the custom
here for the oldest son to inherit the
property, and in this way the estates
are kept undivided for centuries.
Previous to 1917 overpopulation com"
PEELED the inhabitants to migrate dur
ing the summer months to Hamburg,
Bremen and Holland to make brick
and tile, returning to their homes with
their earnings in the fall. Emigration
was an almost-necessaryr result Of these
of
cause was the famine Of the year of
1S47 To this was added desire for
religious freedom. There was much
religious persecution in Germany and
a revival in Lippe-Detmold between
the year 1910 and 1850 led the people
TO overstep official regulations. Mr..
Winter, then a young man, had come
to St. Louis in 1916. La 1S47 he in
duced some of his country people to
follow him and shortly afterward
about one hundred families came and
settled in Sheboygan and ManitOwoc
counties, where they and their descend
ants still remain. They came poor and
were Obliged to work in the SaWmll1s
but bought government land, and by
industry soon had it clear Of mort
cages. Today they form most sub
,ssantial community. Two years ago
they celebrated the fiftieth anniversary
of their coming to Wisconsin.
Mr.. Winter has done work in the
vienyard of the Lord of which he may
Justly be proud He was born in
Iippe-Detmold in 1926 within sight of
the mighty monument erected ON a
mountain top to Hermann the Great,
the deliverer Of Germany. From his
birth he breathed the air Of freedom.
He received his preliminary education
at the gymnasium OF Lemgo. His
youthful ambition was to become an
African missionary, but the sight of a
cargo Of native Africans disillusionized
him of this dream and in 1916, at the
age of 20, he came to America to car
nv on his work. He first came to st.
Louis, where he remained three years.
He then went to Mercersberg, Frank
lin county, Pa, where he studied for
two years. Another year was devoted
to study at the Heidelberg seminary
at Tiffin, O., from which theological
institution he had the honor to be the
first graduate in 1852. His first charge
was a missionary field in the Indian
reserve in Ohio. In 1858 he was mar
ried to Miss Margaret LauX. who was
born in Baden, Germany. They have
had ten children Mr.. Winter has
founded nearly a dozen churches in
Wisconsin and elsewhere and has
served q half dozen or more beside
carrying on much Sunday and pa
wochial school and other church work.
Second Church West of Milwaukee,.
The church over which he now pre-
sides and in which he has held services
fer the past thirty-four years, was the
first frame Protestant church but one
west of Milwaukee. 1t stands on
South Butler street, opposite the Mad
ison police station, and was built in
1916, as a plate above the door re-
vealg. It is thus coeval with Mr.. Win
ter's work in America. 1t was dedi-
Gated as the English Congregational
church in 1S47, and the Madison Con-
gregationalists assisted in the jubilee
celebration of it's dedication two years
ago 1t stood in the edge Of a dense
grove in what was then the little vii
lage of Madison. The society instru-
mental in its building was organized
Oct. 4, 1910, by Rev. Ebert Singer
land, and consisted of two men and
seven women: DaviC. Brigham and
William N GevmOJ1r and MaSdamns