The year 1914 brought changes. The Dorcas Society
for younger women was organized on February 24th. An envelope system
was established for offerings. Communion was to be celebrated six
times a year instead of the usual four. In 1916, plans for
completing the upper structure of the church was considered, and the
plans became reality in 1917. The enlarged building was dedicated on
May 20th and 21st with conference President Dr. M. C. Ramsson as
speaker. The following year, Mrs. William Butterworth gave $1500 to
the church which made it possible for the debt on the church to be
paid in full. Another important gift was presented by Dr. Dahlstrom,
the altar painting which had been painted by Olaf Grafstrom, an art
instructor at Augustana College. The young people of Salem decided to
purchase an organ for the church at a cost of $3000. In 1919, membership
had reached 320 adults and 98 children. The C. C. Hanson home at
1910-15 Street was purchased for $4700 and became the parsonage. The
women's organizations agreed to raise the money to pay for it. The
pastor's salary was raised to $1400 a year, plus a Christmas offering
and a two week vacation. The new organ was first played at the
Christmas Eve service. More English services were added as more
members had joined who did not understand the Swedish
language.
Salem sanctuary
1930
In March of 1922, Pastor A. C. Youngdahl of
Knoxville, Illinois, was called to be our new pastor. His salary was
to be $1600 plus the parsonage, telephone, and the Christmas
offering. Dr. L. A. Abrahamson of Augustana College served until the
new pastor arrived in July. By this time the membership had reached
400 adults and 122 children. A four department Sunday School
included, besides children, an adult bible department. Pastor
Youngdahl died in 1926 and Pastor Carl G. Johnson became the interim
pastor. A call was went to Pastor W. X. Magnuson of Geneseo, which he
accepted, and he began his 25 years of service to Salem in 1927. Miss
Martha Anderson was the Sunday School superintendent until 1934. She
was succeeded by Ellwood Winkler, who served for three years,
followed by Allyn Gottsche in 1937. In 1939 it was decided that all
church records should be in English. Mrs. Titus (Mabel) Samuelson was
the church organist with a salary of $425. A new Wangerin organ was
purchased for $6690 plus the old organ.
The year 1930 brought a name change for the church
to Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church. Even though the word Swedish was dropped from the church name, English and Swedish services were
alternated between morning and evening. New membership fees were
established at $20 a year for a man and wife, with $15 for a single
working man, and $10 for a single working lady. No fixed fees were
set for older members and young people in school. The membership was
244 men, 354 women, and 138 children. The early thirties were
difficult years due to the great depression. The pastor's salary was
reduced and a mortgage on the church and parsonage became necessary.
Yet 30 years were celebrated in 1938. A few services were still
conducted in Swedish, attended generally by some 20 members. The
Sunday School was over-crowded. 58 new members joined the church.
Pastor Magnuson was in his twelfth year and his salary was $2400,
partly making up for the reduction of the depression years.
These are the pastors
before Reverend Holmer
Thirty-five years were celebrated in 1943.
Contributions were at a new high. 43 baptisms of which 11 were adults
were performed that year. A class of 31 was confirmed. 92 new members
joined the church for a total membership of 780 adults and 230
children. The property just north of the church was purchased with
the first floor to be used for Sunday School, so no longer did the
little ones have to meet in the crowded area under the church
balcony. There were 117 members in the armed services in 1944, with three dying for their country, and one listed as missing in action. That
same year a complete inventory of the church and its property
brought the total value of Salem at $71,093. By 1946 the church was
again debt-free. This made it possible to look again at a building
project and plans were made for expansion for the Sunday School. In
1948 Moline celebrated its centennial and Salem its 40th
anniversary. Salem participated in the events with the appearance of
Prince Bertil, a grandson of Gustav V. of Sweden who came to visit
the city. The centennial of the Augustana Synod, called the Augustana
Lutheran Church, was celebrated with a special celebration at
Augustana College, special services at Andover, IL, and at the Jenny
Lind Chapel. The annual meeting of Salem was postponed until
February beause in 1949, both Rev. and Mrs. Magnuson had been injured in
a car accident late in the year. In 1951 Pastor Magnuson and Mary
Youngdahl accompanied seventeen Salem youth with many other area
youth to the Colorado Springs Youth Conference. In August of that
year, Pastor Magnuson submitted his letter of resignation, to take
effect in January of 1952, after completing 25 years of service to
Salem. The total church membership at that time was 1104 with 712
becoming members during his tenure.
In June of 1952, Rev. J. Erik Holmer of Buffalo,
New York accepted Salem's call and preached his first sermon in
September of 1952. Two morning services began in 1953 with one at
9:30 and the other at 10:45. This church year was also marked with
plans for an addition to the church, and the church council was to
procure a loan of $30,000 from the Lutheran Mutual Life Insurance
Company of Waverly, Iowa. Thus began the first of three building
additions. Before long the third floor addition was added, but still
more space was needed since the junior department was also growing
out of its area. As the Sunday School continued to grow, Pastor
Holmer suggested a complete reorganization of the staff. Mrs. Earl
(Mary) Youngdahl became general superintendent with Mrs. Harry (Eva)
Abrahamson, beginner; Mrs. Carl (Marie) Norlen, primary; Mr. Allyn
Gottsche, junior; Mr. Clarence Ehlers, intermediate and senior; Mrs.
William (Lois) Anderson, missionary superintendent for all
departments. The offering of the first Sunday of each month was to go
to special mission projects. The entire curriculum was revised, and a
requirement was adopted that a certain portion of the catechism must
be memorized for the students to be promoted on Rally Day.
Rev. and Mrs. Donald Trued became Salem's
missionaries to Africa in 1955. The board also looked into the
possibility of supporting a family displaced by the recent war. This
resulted in the church sponsoring the Aleksanders Slucis family of
four in 1956. Pastor Holmer's report in 1957 said "Our Sunday School
has become one of our greatest joys, and yet one of our greatest
responsibilities." On Rally Day it had grown to 450 members,
including staff, and during the year over a third of its income has
gone to missions. At this time, the Sunday School was self-supporting
for all teaching supplies.
The 50th anniversary of Salem came in 1958. Rev.
and Mrs. Magnuson were brought back from California for the occasion.
Rev. Magnuson was the main speaker at the Saturday night banquet and
at the Confirmation reunion. The Ladies Aid also celebrated its 50th
anniversary and the Salem Guild its 25th. During this same year, Mary
Ann Johnson became a full time secretary. David Peterson, seminary
student, was hired to work with the youth, and Pastor T. A. Holmer
became a visitation pastor. Also in 1958, a new parsonage at
1400-29th Street, Moline, was purchased and the old one sold. The
Baas property was purchased in 1960 and the same year a spinet organ
was purchased and sent to Pastor Carl J. Johansson, a missionary in
Africa.
Ladies Aid Society in
1958
The Lutheran Church of America became a reality in
1963 by the merger of our Augustana Lutheran Church with three other
synods. This brought about the reorganization of all women's groups
into one Lutheran Church Women. Miss Ruth Carlson organized a church
library and became our first church librarian. The library still
serves the church well. The 1960's saw more special events. Leon Lindquist
was ordained as a Pastor, Kenneth Ahlstrand, Mark Holmer and Larry
Warren entered the seminary, followed in a few years by Paul
Holmer,Clark Kilgard, Larry Eyre, Daniel Anderson, Gregory Jackson,
Mel Piff Jr. and Joseph Friberg. The Don Trueds returned from Africa
and the Daniel Friberg family became Salem's missionaries to Africa.
The baptized membership of the church reached 1550 with 1022 as
communicant members. The Sunday School passed the 500 mark. Pastor J.
Walton Kempe became the visitation pastor. By June, 1967, the final
plans to complete the church building additions were made, and the
three houses used by the Sunday School were torn down to make room
for the new construction and the parking lot. The new building was
dedicated in 1968 at the 60th anniversary celebration. Later that
year, the new church council was set up to follow the new
constitution, consisting of seven committees, namely: Property, Finance, Evangelism, Christian Education, Worship and Music, Stewardship, and Social Ministry. Later, a special retirement dinner
was held honoring Mabel Samuelson, organist for 38 years, Mary
Youngdahl, Sunday School superintendent for 25 years, and Bill Anderson,
Sunday School superintendent for 18 years. Mr. and Mrs. Robert
Francis then took over the Sunday School departments. In 1969 the
Salem Seniors reorganized and were renamed the Evergreens.
4th and 5th Grade Sunday
School in 1958...recognize any of these?
At a special congregational meeting in June, 1970,
a motion was passed to purchase the Aswege property. At the annual
meeting in November, two women were elected to serve on the church
council. They were Fern Graflund and Cathie Anderson. These were the
first two women elected to serve, but since then, many have served
Salem on the church council. Early in the 70's, income had reached a
new high, and in 1971, total funds reached over $117,000 with
remaining debt at $22,000.
Pastor and Mrs. Holmer celebrated 20 years of
service at Salem by traveling to India as a gift from the church.
However, Pastor J. Walton Kemp, visitation pastor, had to resign due
to poor health. In June of 1971, air conditioning was installed in
the main auditorium of the church, much to the relief of the
membership. And early in 1973 the loan on the parsonage was paid off.
Because of the high repair cost on the existing church organ, Salem
purchased a new Wicks organ and dedicated it in November of 1974.
Tragedy stuck in December of 1974. The church
suffered from a severe fire determined to be arson. Most of the
damage was confined to the first floor of the new section, but the
entire church suffered from smoke damage. The total cost of the
repairs was approximately $90,000! It took several years for the
smell of smoke to rid itself from the church.
In 1975, the congregation decided to hire an
associate pastor, and in November 21, 1976, Pastor Neville Kretzmann
was hired. The same year, Salem also hired Pastor Myrvin Holmberg as
visitation pastor, a position he held until his death in 1983.
On June 1, 1979, Salem became handicapped
accessible as we dedicated our elevator at a cost of almost $58,000.
Salem, attempting to prevent more vandalism to and as well repair our
beautiful stained glass windows, installed protective covers over all
the stained glass windows. Soon after that, a fire detection system
was installed.
In 1979 Pastor Holmer resigned. The following
year, Pastor Kretzmann became senior pastor. When the Holmers
purchased their own home, the parsonage was sold. At that time, it
was decided that future pastors, including the Kretzmanns, would own
their own home. Salem decided to call a second pastor, and in July of
1981, Pastor James Bennett became an associate pastor, directly after
his ordination. He served Salem until he accepted a call in 1986 from
First Lutheran Church in Princeton, Illinois.
In 1984 the church council reorganized from 24
council members to 18. That same year brought the burning of the
mortgage of over $300,000 to finance the building of the addition in
1968. In December of 1986, Pastor and Mrs. Robert Bowlin, with their
two children, joined the Salem family as successors to the Bennetts.
We watched their children grow to become wonderful young people with
a beautiful gift of music. Both children have gone on to pursue music
as their interest in college. Regarding music, Bonnie Vize was
installed as music director, choir director, and bell master. She had
been in charge of the music since 1976. The hand bell choir started
in 1981, Salem's Junior Choir and Youth Choir were formed in 1984 and
later performed throughout the area wearing Swedish costumes as part
of their program. "Salem Sings", another choir group traveled to the
east cost and performed on the steps of the White House. Since then,
Salem has been renowned as a church full of music.
In 1988, we became friends with Paradise Baptist
Church of Rock Island, promoting love and fellowship with our
neighbors. Later, we donated a piano to enhance their love of music.
In 1988, the Parish Nurse Program began at Salem, and continues to be
strong influence at Salem today. In 1993, with the direction of the
Pattersons, Pat and Patti, the Willard School Partnership Program was
started. It also continues to be a viable rich program to help
neighborhood kids in many ways. The congregation has continued to
give their support with time, talent, and money. It is often
difficult to tell who is getting the most out of this program, the
volunteers or the kids served!
Tragedy struck again in 1996 as Salem is
vandalized entailing costly repairs. Our reaction of compassion for
the vandals that were apprehended made the community realize the love
our church has for others. Salem came back from that loss with a
striving, caring, and compassionate community of worshipers.
In 1995, Pastor Kretzmann took a call to First
Lutheran in Freeport. In 1996, Pastor Robert Pierson, interim pastor for Salem called Pastor Richard Priggie to become pastor. Pastor Priggie
then was called to Augustana to become Campus Ministry Pastor. At
that time, Pastor David Miley became our interim pastor. His unique
voice and style of preaching was adored by many in the congregation.
Recently, we have called Pastor Tom Peterson from Edmonton, Alberta,
to be our Pastor. His immediate welcome by our congregation tells us
of our heart felt love for our new beginning. Pastor Peterson sets a
course for Salem rooted in prayerful love of Christ as Salem moves in
a new direction.
We, at Salem, are rooted in history, music, and
are moving forward with prayerful spirituality in the love of Christ.
We, as our vision states, are indeed "Invited by God's grace our joy
is vibrant worship and song connecting children and youth to
Christ."
Staff