Good afternoon

I was asked by Merle to give a history of this congregation and church. Before I start, I want to thank Irene for all the info she had in a folder tucked away. There was 2 sheets of history note books, some of the dates didn’t quite agree but things were close. I was truly amazed at the early history of this congregation. I was totally unaware of this due to the fact that this church only became our church in around 1962-63.

This is the story I compiled starting in 1917.

Pastor Wetzstein of Regina was the first Missouri Synod pastor to hold baptisms and services. The first service was held in 1917. The pastor would come once a month and travel via train. The pastor would arrive late Saturday afternoon in Cadillac, somebody would pick him up, either Albert Fischer or Eugene Lontz, and take pastor to their home. They would have church on Sunday, stay overnight, and go back on the train on Monday. The first services were held in homes for a few years, then as school houses were built, services were held in those schools. School houses in this district included Beaver Valley, Driscol Lake, and Fairy Lake.

In 1918, Rev Beaupler of Ogema served as pastor. They held morning services in the south in the Beaver Valley district at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Burmeister, grandparents of Delphine Selanders & Doren Kane. They also held services to the north in the afternoon at the homes of Eugene Lontz or Albert Fischer.

In 1923, the first confirmation classes were held with Pastor Kasishke. The pastor and class would stay at one home and have classes for a week. Pastor Kasishkeee was from Bateman. He stayed at Kunnicks Saturday night and held services on Sunday.

The Ladies Aid was organized in 1929 at the home of Mr.s Olaf Klath, with Mrs. Hedstrom as president.

Then came the 30’s. They got a student minister by the name of Rev. Herb Miller, who stayed at the Fisher’s home for his year of vicaring. He was followed by another student minister, Pastor Baumon. These student ministers traveled to a lot of congregations: Orkney, South Fork, McCord, and many other places, often via the mail truck.

In the 30’s there were 140 church members registered.

In the 20’s-30’s, the pastor also went to Orkney, Masefield, Vidora & McCord also in our register.

There is a list of 22 different pastors who served these churches from 1917-1958.

In 1959, the people in this area bought the Fairy Lake School and moved it to this location on No. 4 hwy and little 6 grid.

They remolded it and called it Trinity Lutheran Church.

The church was dedicated in June of 1960 with visiting Pastor rev. Ristine, a former pastor now living in Regina, and our regular Pastor Rev. Gruenwold of Swift Current. Also present was Rev. Peterson of the South Emmanuel church, he was from the Synod.

In 1962 or 1963, our congregation from south of Cadillac, was being served by a Pastor from Shaunavon Augustana Lutheran Church. We were informed they would quit coming to our small congregation. Some of us joined this church. At that time this church was full every Sunday. There were people attending from all directions, some as far away as Val Marie.

Rev. Gurenwald stayed on as pastor for 10-11 years. Then we had a lay pastor, Don Adams for a while.

Then we had Pastor Towriss and Don Adams who serve Swift Current and area parish. From 1969-71. The Area Parish was closed and Pastor Towriss continued to serve as pastor of Trinity & Mount Calvary churches until Dec. 31st, 1978. Pastor Dombrosky was our next pastor who served from 1981-88.

Our next pastor was rev Bruce Timm, a young fellow from Minnesota who came to us right out of seminary. He and his wife enjoyed coming to Trinity and used to take part in lots of things after church.

Our next pastor was Rev. Tim Wangerein, who served as our last pastor of this church. He served from 1992-96. In 1993 we had our 75th anniversary celebration on May 30th at Cadillac hall. Our guest speaker was Pastor Towriss, now a pastor at Fort Coquitlam, BC.

I don’t know when we started going to Cadillac hall, but due to no power, we held our annual church and annual meetings at Cadillac hall, so we could have a social & potluck supper after the meeting.

We had our last annual meeting in Cadillac hall on December 17th, 1995.

We started holding our church services in Ponteix in January 1996. Pastor Tim Wangerein left later in 1996, I think in late October.

This concludes the story of the time spent here with this building being our special little church.