Two photos in Looking back: The German School and
Whenever people gather together, they also will surely part, and in the late 1860s, an issue caused such a rift in the Dittmer community that the congregation at the German Evangelical Church, now St. Martin’s United Church of Christ, split and a new church was formed – St. John’s Evangelical – according to Robert Crean in his book Photographs, Documents and History of Byrnesville, Cedar Hill, Dittmer, Local and Scheve.
Known as “The Black Church” among members of the German Evangelical Church, St. John’s was built about one half mile north of the existing church, and the new church members all had at least one thing in common – they supported the establishment of a new public English school, Crean reported.
Dittmer, however, was decidedly German. The community was made up mostly of German immigrants. In fact, the town eventually took its name from two brothers, John and Henry Dittmer, who came from Hanover, Germany, in 1847, after Henry opened a post office in his store in 1870.
The German Evangelical Church, founded in 1857, established a German school shortly after it formed, where their children went to school and were taught in German. At that time, most people in the community still spoke German and many German Evangelical churches throughout the country conducted their services in German, continuing to do so until after World War I, according to Wikipedia.
However, a committee of Dittmer community members formed to establish the new English public school, and they selected a member to ask the German congregation to support it. Apparently, members of the German church thought the new public school would interfere with their German school and the disagreement divided the community, according to Crean.
The new school was built, and not far from the German school. Today, there are still descendants of the Dittmer families who helped with the construction, including the Crulls, Bruns, Brackmanns, Fickens, Krammes and others.
The new school, which later became Maple Grove Elementary School, opened in 1870. Mr. William Bryan of Morse Mill was the first teacher.
According to Della Lang, in her book On the Road to History, “the two schools operated independently for 35 years.”
Finally, in 1905, “the two opposing parties settled their differences and reunited for the following school term,” Lang wrote.
Rev. J. M. Torbitsky, a former missionary and the church’s pastor and teacher, brought “the two sides back together,” according to Lang.
Both St. John’s Evangelical Church and the German School eventually closed. However, Maple Grove Elementary School, part of the Northwest School District, remains on the site where the old English school was built, directly across the street from St. Martin’s U.C.C. St. Martin’s, which still serves excellent German potato salad with its annual chicken dinners.
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