Connecting With Zion’s Past

by Dennis Dugger

About a month ago, the church received a letter from a Mrs. Grimm seeking information on the deaths of Christian Nischan and Albert Nischan. Due to my interest in genealogy, the office forwarded the letter to me. At first, I had little expectation of finding the answers Mrs. Grimm sought, since I had no knowledge of any Nischans ever attending Zion. However, after searching through some of our oldest record books, I discovered that Christian Nischan, born in Prussia, died Mar. 28, 1884 and Albert Nischan died Sep. 4, 1881. Indeed, the early records of Zion have many mentions of the Nischan family. Every now and then our church receives a request similar to Mrs. Grimm’s.

In searching for this information, I realized the need for Zion’s records to be organized, maintained, and secured. So at the April meeting of the Council, I volunteered to act as Zion’s “unofficial” historian, until someone else steps forward to assume the duties. Since April, progress has been made in taking an inventory of our records and in organizing them. In the process I was able to find the original blueprints of the educational building, at the request of Shelby Johnson.

In addition to organizing, maintaining and securing the records, I hope to occasionally contribute a historic tidbit to the newsletter, to post some historical data to our website, and to tackle a few special projects. Currently, I’m compiling a complete record of Zion’s confirmation classes from 1872-Present.  I have also started a compilation of baptisms.  I expect progress on these projects will be slow. I hope that the congregation will find these contributions interesting and informative.  It is my desire to make them relevant by connecting events in Zion’s present and past.  For example, next month I’ll write about events from our past that may be relevant to the current wall problems in the northwest corner of the sanctuary.  I thought that a couple of times each year, I would simply write about Zion happenings of 100 years ago and 50 years ago.

I invite you to share any thoughts that you have concerning how to proceed with these tasks.  I also encourage you to share any resources that are relevant.  Feedback desired.

Dennis