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REV.
JOHN HARSCH was our first resident pastor.
Our first pastor
(Rev. Feddersen) resided in Petoskey while
he served Traverse City.
Rev. Harsch was born November 2, 1859,
in Davenport, Iowa. He attended Concordia College, Fort Wayne, Indiana
graduating on July
15,1882. He
enrolled and
graduated from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri
in a class of 29. After graduation, he came to
Traverse City and served Trinity from
1885-1889 as the first resident
pastor.
While
serving Traverse City, he also ministered to other
mission churches in the
area. His daughter Clara remembers
he spoke of Suttons Bay.
To reach these missions, he traveled
by horse and buggy in the summer and in winter he traveled
by cutter and sleigh.
After leaving Traverse City in 1889, he served the congregation in Waltz,
Michigan, as pastor for fifteen
years. In 1904, Pastor Harsch moved with his family to
Covert, Michigan where he became pastor of
a German Lutheran country church about 3 miles northeast of Covert. Due
to failing health, he left the ministry and bought a small farm near South Haven
where he lived until his death. He died
on January
19, 1915, several months past his 55th birthday. Funeral services for Rev.
Harsch were held
on January 22, 1915 at
St. Paul's Lutheran Church, South Haven, Michigan.
Rev. Hahn of Owosso
was in charge of the service with Rev. Peterman of Covert
assisting.
Rev. John Harsch
married Johanna Paul in Fort Wayne, Indiana on August
12,
1886. Clara Harsch was
born in 1897. The family grew when
Louise was taken into
the family after her father drowned in the Boardman River and her mother died. John was left with
the Pastor's family as an infant after the death of his mother.
Local sources tell us that Rev. Harsch was a brother of Henry Harsch of
Traverse City. Several
Harsch's are listed in the
early confirmation
classes of Trinity.
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