Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
GERMAN (GRACE) METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH
German (Grace) Methodist Episcopal Church. Formally organized in 1843, German (Grace) Methodist Church was created by eight persons from St. Louis who felt the need to worship in their own language while preserving their ethnic heritage. The membership erected their first church at 11th and Jackson STREETS. The name became Grace Methodist Church in 1846 following the merger of the of the Methodist Episcopal, Protestant, and Episcopal South churches. With an increase in membership, a larger church was built on the same location in 1854.
Over the next twenty years, membership in the church declined as people moved west or joined the larger English-speaking Methodist churches in Dubuque. Despite declining membership, a new church was built in 1885 at the corner of 17th and Iowa streets.
With the outbreak of WORLD WAR I, Governor William Lloyd Harding issued the Babel Proclamation in 1918. This act outlawed the use of foreign languages in public, over the telephone, in school, and in religious services. The name of the church was formally changed to Grace Methodist Episcopal Church and later Grace Methodist Church. The "Frauen Verien" became the Ladies' Aid Society.
The loss of the distinctive German character of the congregation and the financial strains caused by the GREAT DEPRESSION led again to a decline in membership. On June 6, 1965, Grace Methodist Church officially became part of ST. LUKE'S UNITED METHODIST CHURCH. The merger resulted in a congregation at St. Luke's of approximately 1,000. (1)
In 2021 during a major restoration of the old building by UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST FELLOWSHIP, HeritageWorks, and GRONEN PROPERTIES/GRONEN RESTORATION, a tin box was found underneath the cornerstone. According to documents found inside, the box was place there on June 14, 1885. The box contained several German publications, a newspaper, a journal called "Haus and Herd"(Home and Hearth). the broadsheet of the Dubuque Sunday Times, and a letter signed by the church secretary, Fred Wirth. There was also a five-cent piece and a $5 Wisconsin Territories endorsed by the secretary.
Wirth's letter noted that the construction of the church had cost $4,000 and that the church had gained $2,000 from the sale of the old church.
---
Source:
1. "2 Methodist Churches Here to Merge Sunday," Telegraph-Herald, June 6, 1965, p. 1
2. London, Michelle, "Church's Time Capsule Yields Treasure," Telegraph Herald, November 27, 2021, p. 1
