FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. In the summer of 1846, Rev. Peter and Mrs. Sophie Flury arrived from Switzerland in the village of Dubuque—in the territory of Iowa—and ministered to German-speaking immigrants. The Flurys lived in a house on Seventh Street between Bluff and Locust Streets. They invited children into their parlor to learn German and English, writing and singing, and the Christian faith. Adults were invited into their home in the evening for a similar experience of learning.

Iowa became a state on December 28, 1846. The German Evangelical Church was organized on December 25, 1847 with 35 members, including Rev. Flury as the pastor. In the summer of 1848, the congregation built a small brick church at the southwest corner of Ninth and Iowa Streets, a site now occupied by the headquarters of the Dubuque Fire Department. Since Rev. Flury came from Switzerland, and many of the original members were Swiss immigrants, the church was commonly known as the “Swiss Church.” Drawing of First Presbyterian Church in Dubuque, Iowa

Sophie Flury became ill and died on November 25, 1848. After a short stay in Milwaukee, Rev. Flury returned to Switzerland. He was succeeded by Rev. Jean Baptiste Madoulet, who served for two years. There is no evidence that he continued the informal school begun by the Flurys, but he did tutor Johannes Bantly, a Swiss immigrant, in preparation for the ministry.

Meanwhile, Adrian Van Vliet, a Dutch immigrant traveling from New York to St. Louis to Galena, pursued his vocation as a tailor and cap maker. His wife died in Galena and, after her death, the grief stricken Van Vliet walked to Platteville where Johannes Bantly was a pastor. It appears that Van Vliet and Bantly had become acquainted when they lived in Galena. Impressed with Van Vliet's gift of teaching from the Scriptures, Bantly encouraged him to prepare for the ministry. Van Vliet was tutored by Bantly and Rev. John Lewis, and ordained by the Congregational Association at Mineral Point in 1851. He became the third pastor of the German Evangelical Church in Dubuque in the spring of 1852.

Van Vliet began tutoring two young men to minister to German-speaking immigrants in the autumn of 1852. Then, a few more young men became students in the home of Van Vliet. In 1854, Van Vliet persuaded the German Evangelical Church to join the Presbytery of Cedar Valley, and it became the First German Presbyterian Church. Two years later, the church property was sold for $4,500, and land at the corner of Seventeenth and Iowa Street was acquired on June 21, 1856 for $2,000. The remaining funds were used to construct a church.

It was a two-level stone building, measuring 40’ x 60’, with the interior and exterior walls covered with plaster and painted blue, reflecting the Dutch background of Van Vliet. The church was commonly known as “Die Blaue Kirch” or “The Blue Church.” The upper level was the sanctuary and the lower level accommodated the pastor's apartment and classrooms. This lower level became the setting for the expanding tutoring and apprentice program informally known as “Van Vliet's School”. Indeed, the congregation purchased two houses next to the church as living quarters for the growing number of young men wishing to study with Van Vliet.

“Van Vliet’s School” was organized as the German Theological School of the Northwest in 1864. Adrian Van Vliet died on May 9, 1871, and was succeeded as pastor and professor by his fourth student, Rev. Jacob Conzett. Under Conzett’s leadership, the school expanded and obtained property on the hill across from the church in 1871, but the close connection between the school and the church continued.

On March 4, 1894, Rev. Ernest Kudobe, the pastor, led 51 members to withdraw to form an Independent Presbyterian Church. His successor, Rev. E. Schuette, encouraged the remaining 71 members, and another 17 members were added to the congregation within a short period. In less than two years, the congregation assumed responsibility for building a new church to replace the small and deteriorated “Blue Church.” The latter was razed in early 1896, and the present building was dedicated on November 13, 1896. Its design is “Gothic Revival”, an architectural style developed in England in the eighteenth century, which became popular in America during the nineteenth century. The engraved stone above the main entrance to church indicates:

Joel L. Samuels (Expanded on August 16, 2008 and lightly edited on December 8, 2008)