Photo identified as the Anoka Lutheran Church
Anoka, Nebraska -- Messiah Lutheran Church & Trinity Lutheran Church -- Historical Ties Together
Anoka was laid out in 1902 and organized in 1903. The village was established by the Pioneer Town Site Company. The railroad coming through shortly thereafter quickly caused business growth so growth by 1905 had thirty-one operating businesses in town.
Obviously, The Baptist church was part of this growth. However, about 1920 their membership had dwindled to the point they decided to sell their church building and the parsonage sitting east of the church.
The Anoka Trinity Lutheran Church ended up with this building and came to be a strong influence in this community.
The beginnings of this church were through the Messiah Evangelical Lutheran Church. It was organized October 13, 1894, at a meeting held at the Swan Erlandson home about 2.5 miles northeast of where Anoka would soon be established in 1903.
This group had it’s beginning on a ridge on the Nels Brood Farm just south of the Old Settler’s Cemetery that was also located on the Brood farm. Interested parties who have attempted to locate the exact spot where this building was located have not been successful beyond the basic description of location coming down through that area’s history. During the short history in this building, during a worship service, Mrs. Brood was at the church’s organ when she noticed out the window a prairie fire advancing on the church building from the blacksmith shop to the south (in these days, a Blacksmith would set up his shop in the country usually on someone’s farm and serve the farmers in the area). The members immediately vacated the building to fight the fire and saved their edifice.
In 1899 this group purchased the Swedish Church that was located near Anoka (at this time I am not aware where that Anoka location was because the Anoka village was still a few years away from being established) and moved it to Baker. At this time, the Baker community was expecting the railroad to come through their community from Spencer to Fairfax, South Dakota so Baker was considered a town with a promising future (beginning in 1891 while this area was still considered to be in South Dakota – the State line further north was established in 1895). By 1908, the last stores in Baker were closing and only the churches remained. The Baker Messiah church remained open until 1965.
When the Anoka Baptist Church came up for sale, the Baker Messiah church had many members who lived in the Anoka community so as a mission project, they helped establish the Anoka congregation by purchasing the Anoka Baptist Church building shortly after 1920 and established the Trinity Lutheran Church in Anoka. The above photo showing this congregation in 1924-25 gives an idea of the active congregation. As a result, some of these folk had a round trip on worship locations starting with the sod church, then to Baker and now back to Anoka.”
The below Congregational Photo is of the Messiah Lutheran Church in Baker during the early years of 1950.
Information courtesy of Joe E. Thurstenson, Volunteer Historian
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