The Beginning
Times were hard. It was 1874. America was struggling to recover from a serious economic depression. Banks and businesses had failed. Half the nation's factory workers were jobless, and the other half worried about losing theirs. But a small band of immigrants had faith, faith in the Lord's guidance, and faith in their own ability, whatever the economic climate, to support their own Danish Lutheran church in Kenosha.

It had begun three years earlier, during the Christmas season, when these Kenosha Danes sent an invitation to the Rev. Adam Dan, newly ordained and pastor of Racine's Emmaus Lutheran Church. Would he conduct a service for them?

He would, and did on the Third Sunday in Advent, 1871. But the time was not yet right for establishing a new church, so many months passed. During that time, the Rev. Dan found himself in the middle of a doctrinal controversy of a sort, that sadly tore apart a number of Scandinavian Lutheran churches in the late 19th Century.

At Emmaus, the oldest Danish Lutheran church in America, some parishioners accused Dan of preaching false doctrine; others rallied behind him. A lawsuit followed. Although the court sustained the allegation against the minister, his supporters were granted the church property and the Emmaus name.  None of this dismayed the small group of Kenosha Lutherans, however, and, on Dec. 26, 1873, they invited Dan to return to conduct a Danish language Christmas service. This time there was strong impetus to organize a Kenosha congregation and, on Jan. 22, 1874, the church was founded. A few weeks later, the church constitution was adopted.

Financial support was pledged by about 50 charter members, but, given the difficult times, it wasn't much. When Dan was called as pastor, April1, 1874, all the church could offer him was a part-time salary of $150 annually, plus Easter, Pentecost and Christmas offerings.

Having seen how doctrinal disputes could split a church, the local congregation declined to affiliate with any synod. So firm was this conviction that for most of seven decades, St. Mary's remained an independent parish with no synodical ties. Given its history, it is interesting that the church now is the largest in the Greater Milwaukee Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

At first, services were held in the German Lutheran Church, but soon they were shifted to the Congregational Church downtown. Dan would come to town to preach once a month, but parishioners met twice weekly to sing familiar hymns and listen to a lay leader read from a Danish book of sermons. By the end of 1874, St. Mary's had purchased the white frame Congregational Church they had been borrowing.

It was a building with a curious past. It had been built on the northside, but the Congregationalists decided to move the buidling seven blocks south to a downtown site. Being winter, they managed to jack up the structure and mount runners beneath it. Teams pulled the church down the street and nearly across the frozen Pike Creek, where it remained, stuck fast, for several days. But when a late winter thaw threatened to sink the church to the bottom of the harbor, the entire community pitched in and managed to save the day.

When the Danish Lutherans acquired this near-Noah's Ark, they remodeled its interior. One parishioner contributed a baptismal font, Communion ware and altar vestments. The next year, one church bazaar alone raised nearly a fifth of the remaining indebtedness. In five years, they owned it free and clear.

St. Mary's Gets Its Name

Synod Membership Shortlived

A New Church Is Built

Years of Growth

A Vision, a Move and a New Church

Third Pastor Called

On to a New Era

A Renewed Commitment to Music

Siersbeck Retires

A Challenge is Met

Planning for the Future

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