Sussex UMC marks 125 historic years

Posted: Sept. 22, 2009

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Kelly Smith/Staff Photographer

S-MASHING GOOD TIME - Volunteers (from left) Carl Barnard, Milt Wilso and Glenn Gratz make mashed potatoes for the pig roast at the 125th anniversary of the Sussex United Methodist Church held in the church parking lot Sunday.

Kelly Smith/Staff Photographer

S-MASHING GOOD TIME - Volunteers (from left) Carl Barnard, Milt Wilso and Glenn Gratz make mashed potatoes for the pig roast at the 125th anniversary of the Sussex United Methodist Church held in the church parking lot Sunday.

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The Sussex United Methodist Church picked a great day to celebrate its 125th anniversary - 1884-2009. However, it could have just been it's 115th (1894), its 144th (1855), or 169th (1840), as all these dates are significant in the evolution to what the church has today.

On Saturday, Sept. 19, parishioners celebrated their 125th with a picnic, mini midway and tour de force - a massive meal made from roast pig. The meal is something of a tradition for the church that was started by the late Glenn Moody who was raised in Sussex and later became the president of the Sussex Jaycees, the Sussex Lions Club and was a longtime village trustee.

Lisbon got its start in 1836 when the first settler claimed a homestead, Thomas S. Redford, who would later be a member of the Lisbon United Methodist Church - the early name of the Sussex Methodist Church.

In 1840, Rev. Fink of Watertown came to Lisbon to preach and had a large response which led to the first minister being hired, a Methodist Elder Wheelock.

Now there was a period when the Methodist and Congregationalist combined to have services in whatever building was available which might have included the stone Lisbon Plank Road School.

These early Methodists and Congregationalists made a major statement by purchasing a corner lot from fellow pioneer, Levi Russell.

Today, that corner lot would be where Halquist Stone Company has its company, Marquee, on the northwest corner of Waukesha Avenue and Lisbon Road.

Immediately a wooden church was erected on this site and it would last until 1894. The memories of this early church for the two religious groups was they would alternate in using it, thus the name Union Church.

There were generations at the Union Church that saw it become a Bible Christian Society, Bible Christian Church and in 1864, a parsonage was built in the emerging Village of Sussex, near where Lisbon Town Hall was built in 1866 - today the Sussex Family Practice.

Now we get to 125 years ago, June 2-3, 1884, when the Methodist Episcopal Society of Lisbon was formed with the Rev. J. S. Lean as pastor.

The Union Church building would be used until 1894 when the Lisbon East Methodist Church was built in Sussex.

Notable is that on April 11, 1888, Frank Grogan was married by the Lisbon Methodist pastor. Grogan would go on to be a charter member of the Sussex Fire Department in May 1922, and would serve for 10 years. At the initial meeting, he was put on the finance committee to get the money to buy the first fire truck.

Later, he would be one of 16 to sign the successful petition to separate Sussex-Templeton from the Town of Lisbon to form the incorporated Village of Sussex, with Grogan becoming the first village president, serving for 10 years until 1934.

When the 1894 Sussex United Methodist Church was built, the cornerstone read, "Lisbon M.E. Church 1894."

One has to push away the ground brushes on the northeast corner of the church front to see this old cornerstone.

Meanwhile, in 1894, the old Union Church was abandoned and sold to a local adjacent farmer who used it for farm machinery storage and eventually it tumbled down about the time of the Great Depression.

Now a dynamic new member came aboard in 1920 with the coming of the Mammoth Spring Canning Company. One of the principal canning company owners and management team was John P. Kraemer. Kraemer is considered the "Father of the Sussex Fire Department," and "Father of the Village of Sussex," and later in life as the co-founder of the Sussex Lions Club in 1939, and the moving factor behind the scenes in purchasing Sussex Village Park in 1958 for roughly $36,000.

Kraemer was involved in the Sussex Methodist finances.

In the 1930s a source for more money was needed. He and Rev. Anton Stury along with Stury's brother, Alfred, came up with and promoted the idea of having a Wisconsin "Oberrammergu", a set of Passion plays with Halquist Stone Company being used from 1932-34 for the locale of these massive productions that attracted thousands of spectators.

A fourth one was done in 1935 at Town Line Road Basting Quarry.

The killer of these highly successful productions was a little one - mosquitoes, and a weariness for the many local people involved.

The 50th anniversary in 1934 produced a history book as did the 75th in 1959 and 100th in 1984.

The early 1960s saw a massive addition to the church as the back half of the set of rooms, kitchen and dining room, were added with Kraemer again in the leadership role.

Meanwhile, a parsonage was built at the Sussex church in 1896 only to have it burn down in 1929, but then was rebuilt. The site of this parsonage is now the west parking lot.

As 2009 is here, the Sussex Methodist Church is a big church in the local scene, and has become a prominent founding member of the six cooperating churches of Sussex: St. James, Christ Our Savior, Lisbon Presbyterian, St. Alban's Episcopal and Redeemer United Church of Christ.

Today, the pastor of Sussex Methodist Church is Rev. Ron Kral. Ann-Marie Meissner is the office secretary, Debby Jansen is the Youth Director, Pat Keller the Church Council Chair and Kim Laughland is the Staff-Parish Chair.

Officially known now as the Sussex United Methodist Church, it bills itself as the, "In the Heart of the Village," church at N63 W23523 Main St. When it was built in 1894, it was on the extreme eastern edge of the village with the open area to east and separation land to the twin community of old Templeton.