South Bend – What Does This Mean?

In very bad weather, on the 17th of October 1838, Wyneken traveled west to Bertrand and Niles, Michigan, along the present route of US 12. There he met several families, but was unable to assemble a congregation for worship. Finding himself once again on the Michigan Road, Wyneken returned via South Bend to Harris Prairie and Elkhart. He preached to them on the 21st, forming two congregations, one located in each place. Striking out across country along the present route of Indiana State Highway 331, he stopped briefly in Mishawaka to baptize a child. Continuing on his way, he reached the town of Bremen, a settlement on the north branch of the Yellow River. Almost all of the people of the town were ill with cholera, yet the circuit rider preached to one of the largest congregations he was to assemble on his first missionary journey.

Wyneken returned to the Michigan Road, traveling through the Logansport to the
Wabash River. He could not locate the German Lutherans he had been told lived along the future route of the canal. Few of the people he encountered there were even willing to take information to their neighbors. Riding on to southwest along the river, he entered the town of Delphi on a Sunday afternoon. Prospects for a worship service appeared slight. Finding only a handful of people who could speak German, he asked if there were Germans living in the area. He was informed that these settlers “belonged to no church.” Not a man to be easily discouraged, Wyneken made the rounds of the taverns, argued heatedly with the men he found there, finally dragging enough of them out of the bars to gather together a sizable congregation for an evening worship service. After lecturing them well into the night, Wyneken convinced them to gather in prayer on future Sundays, rather than desecrate the sabbath in the saloons.

The missionary continued on to Lafayette, where he had no success in gathering a congregation for worship. Following the Wild Cat River, he rode on to a settlement a few miles away. Here he discovered that six congregations existed in the neighborhood of Lafayette, making it ideal for the placement of a resident pastor. After a futile attempt to find a congregation reported to be at the middle fork of the Wild Cat, Wyneken followed the Wabash River into Fountain County. There he encountered a road, running along the present route of US 136 and Indiana 32. Taking this trail, he passed through Crawfordsville and Lebanon, before meeting the Michigan Road and turning north. There he preached to a congregation visited by Eusebius Henkel of Lebanon at the Sugar Creek in Clinton County.

On October 2nd, 1838, Young circuit rider Friedrich Wyneken set out along the Goshen Road towards Elkhart and South Bend (Now US Route 33) A severe cholera epidemic held Western Ohio and Northern Indiana in its grip at that time. Wyneken reported, “On the whole, from a human point of view, the time in which I traveled was an unfortunate time to work for God’s kingdom. Sickness raged everywhere. Often I entered a town where not one house was without a sick person: In many homes, everyone was sick, so that often my gatherings were very small.”

In Benton, Indiana, a town with forty German families in 1838, this deadly disease kept the size of the congregation down to twelve people. These settlers begged the missionary to return to them later, since they hoped to form a congregation. Promising to visit again, Wyneken continued on toward South Bend. At the junction of Goshen Road and the east/west section of the Michigan Road, near the town of Elkhart, and a few miles farther west at Harris Prairie, the missionary stopped to preach. He discovered many Germans in the area and resolved to return to form congregations.

Pressing further west along the Michigan Road, he traveled through South Bend and La Porte to Michigan City. Finding no German Lutherans to the west, he returned to South Bend and preached there on the 12th of October to a congregation of six hastily gathered people. Moving farther east, Wyneken preached again at Harris Prairie on October 13 and at Elkhart on the 14th. These communities asked him to return once more and help them to organize their congregations. Agreeing to do this, the missionary took the Michigan Road northeast to Mottville, Michigan, where he preached on the 16th and visited the sick. He baptized several children there the next day.

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Wyneken Heads South to the Wabash

Friedrich Wyneken’s Missionary Journey