Riverdale, Nebraska
St. Paul's congregation organized in 1896 at the rural school District 55, known as the Scheihing school. They met at the school and in the homes of members, often those of Christoph Rieckman or Wilhelm Mueller. In 1904, the church was incorporated, as reported in the Kearney Daily Hub, November 30, 1904, on page 3:
New Church incorporated. Articles of incorportion [sic] of the Evangelical Lutheran St. Paul's Church of the Unchanged Augsburg Confession of Rusco have been files in the office of the county clerk. The incorporators are Anton Berger, Vinzens Kreutzer, William Rieckmann, William Mueller, Anton [sic] Lammers, Claus Reeh, Chris Reickmann [sic] and John Zweiner [sic]. The officers are Anton [sic] Lammers, president; William Mueller, clerk, and Anton Berger, Vinzens Kreutzer, and William Reickmann [sic], trustees.The church building was completed in April 1906 with dedication in July. It was located on the north part of the southeast quarter of section 30 of Rusco Township.
Another article in the Kearney Daily Hub, from Friday, October 27, 1916, reports:
J.D. Curd and Gust Schini have just completed a German parsonage at what is known as the Peake German church.See photos of the interior of St. Paul, or the church and parsonage.
In the mid 1950's St. Paul's Church and St. John's Lutheran Church near Poole joined together to form a new congregation in Pleasanton, called Grace. The parsonage from Peake and the church from Poole were moved to a site on the south edge of town.
A small cemetery remains next to the location of the former St. Paul's Church at Peake.
me permission to transcribe these records and to make them available to family historians.