Faith of the Founders: The Zehnder Family

“My hope for the church is that it remains a continuing legacy for future generations.”

An interview with Jill Zehnder Lewis, Past President of Old Salem Shrine Board of Directors, and granddaughter of C.J. Zehnder, one of the founding members of the church. Jill passed away on Sunday, June 7, which would have been Founders’ Day Sunday at Old Salem Shrine.

I remember my grandfather (C.J. Zehnder) talking about how the American Indians would use the grounds at Old Salem for their tents, etc. Occasionally Old Salem would hold a revival meeting over the weekend that would include those Indian families. After the uprising and the hanging of many Indians, families within the church adopted the orphan Indian children as their own.

For me, my earliest memory was that the Founders’ Day Service in June was a “big deal.”

This was the service held for the original families and their descendants to celebrate the heritage we had all been given. My Grandfather Christian J. Zehnder (nicknamed C.J.) spent a lot of time cutting grass, planting flowers, trimming, etc. to have everything in shape for that service. My father, Cyrus Zehnder, would work with the Conference to have a speaker available, the building in tip-top shape, and bulletins prepared. My mother, Edith Woods Zehnder, would provide the organ music for the service.

Both my father and grandfather were dedicated to the caretaking of the property. Both Grandpa and Dad would spend countless hours there planting and watering flowers, cutting grass, cleaning up brush and freshening up the church building. I remember that every summer my father would dedicate a week to paint the fence along the street. Occasionally he would find helpers, but he felt that wrought iron fence needed an annual paint job!

I was not very involved at Old Salem until the late 80s as Dad declined with Alzheimer’s. My role in the church grew over the years from attending services, to playing the organ for the services, and then to becoming an active participant on the committee.

I believe that Old Salem is a beacon for the community to show the historical significance as well as a continuing place of quiet rest for neighbors to reflect, meditate, and appreciate the surroundings.

“Old Salem is a signal to the modern generation of a ‘grounding’ to the past—so much that our ancestors gave up to have a place of worship and a church family.”
— Jill Zehnder Lewis, June 2020

Neighbors, I am told, say “we love our church” and several take an active role in keeping an eye on it.

The original name of Upper 55th St. was Salem Church Road – a great reference to the fact that there are two “Salem” churches on the road. Years ago, the neighborhood was primarily farms and has grown with development, both commercial and residential. The appreciation shown by the neighborhood when help is needed for Old Salem is very heartwarming.

I remember when both the fence and the aluminum siding were installed to assist in the ongoing maintenance. The original wood siding, as well as the fence, needed to be painted every year or two and the volunteers that had done it for many years had died. So, with contributions and volunteers, the aluminum siding was installed. In hindsight, that has proven to be a mistake in applying for historic status and associated grants.

One of my fondest memories is of my son, Mark, who was working at Old Salem when his wife went into labor with my first grandchild. She had been “pushing” the lawn mower while Mark was trimming in preparation for the Founders’ Day Service. It felt like a blessing connecting the generations.

Growing up, there were two services held at Old Salem each year: Founders’ Day on the first Sunday in June, and the Father/Son service on Father’s Day. My best memories would be watching the care my grandfather and father had for the church. Going to a service when I was a kid was somewhat mandatory but always heartwarming watching my mother playing the organ and my father greeting everyone who entered there.

Our challenges always seem to have been financial with continuous expenses to maintain the property, yet we have little connection to descendants of most of the families buried there.

My greatest joy has been watching as new visitors are in awe of the way which the building has been preserved in its original state.

I believe that my greatest contribution has been in involving more community members. Historically, the President of the Old Salem Committee of Trustees was the District Superintendent of the Evangelical United Brethren Church, and after the merger in 1968, the United Methodist Church.

The District Superintendents, though great leaders, were not familiar with the neighborhood and those who showed an interest in Old Salem.

This article appeared in the June 2020 issue of the Old Salem Shrine newsletter.

Excerpts from Congregational Meetings 1857 - 1900


October 30, 1857 at 2:00 pm - The men members of the Salem’s Congregation of the Evangelical Association met at an Assembly Hall to discuss congregational matters. This was likely the first annual meeting of the men members of the congregation. Women and adolescents were not invited to this meeting, which established a trend for subsequent meetings. Those in attendance were Brother August Hulster, Brother Fred Zehnder and Andrew Tarnutzer, the first minister of Salem EV.

January 22, 1867 - The first trustee selection was held, and the church was named “Salem’s Kirche.” The first trustees included Michael Gackstetter, Georg Glassing and Heinrich Schafer. Andrew Strohmeier was the first preacher.

July 6, 1867 - The Trustee Book was presented by Andrew Strohmeier to Brother Michael Gackstetter, the first Trustee of Church Property, described as “Salem’s Kirche of the Evangelical Association, Dakota County, Minnesota State, North America.” The first nine pages include trustee meeting data from 1867-1870.

The Church Building

The first church building was erected on land donated by the Blasé family in 1867 and by 1869, the congregation was eager to build another church to accommodate future growth.

November 18, 1869 - The congregation of approximately eleven families was roughly split between choosing a new site or one near the existing site.

April 9, 1870 - Michael Gackstetter presented a bill for approximately $45, which is believed to be the purchase price of the new church site on his farmstead. Each family was to be assessed $4.50 so that Michael could be paid by November 1, 1970. This transaction was not successful since the congregation would later choose a site near the existing site.

February 1, 1875 - A three-man committee was selected to secure a site to build the church. The church building was to be 20’x32’ and was largely completed that year. The shutters, the final finishing touch, were paid for in August 1876. Member pledges ranged from $1 - $10 with a total of $740.32 raised, of which $670 covered the cost of church, with $70.38 left over for a window shutter.

October 27, 1879 – Fire insurance should be secured on the church valued at $600.

October 1, 1880 - The old church should be sold, and Rev. Herman Bunse bought it for $5 in cash.

Rules of the Church

April 8, 1871 - The Rules were established for the Salem Congregation. Everyone shall take a seat and keep it from the beginning until the end of the meeting. No one is allowed to withdraw without permission from the chairman. Anyone wishing to speak shall stand and honorably address the chair and speak no longer than five minutes at a time and not more than three times over one objection. No one shall be interrupted in his speech until he has finished.

Old Salem Cemetery – “God’s Acre”

December 11, 1876 - George Glassing should write a card of the place of the burials and owners of lots on the cemetery and numbers of lots not yet sold.

October 28, 1878 - Trustees to “see to it that God’s Acre (cemetery) be used to plant tomatoes.”

October 27, 1879 - Each plot on the cemetery should cost $7 and a single grave should sell for $1.

October 25, 1881 - Trustees to plot the cemetery and quarterly collections should be taken during the year for the upkeep of the church.

October 6, 1883 -Trustees have the right to get the church painted and members build a fence around the cemetery. Each one shall bring six fence posts for the fence.

September 7, 1887 - God’s Acre should be surveyed, the north end should be laid out in family lots, the hill on God’s Acre be cut down, single graves be sold until family lots were laid out, and family lots be raised in price from $5 to $10.

February 26, 1888 – Single graves should be raised in price from $1 to $2, wire fencing should be used for the fence along the swamp.

September 7, 1889 - Lawyer advised the trustees that they should have a regular deed for cemetery lots and should have one hundred handbills printed at $7.50. Each lot owner should get regular deed for it. Decided that “whoever wants a lot in our cemetery or a burial place in our cemetery shall pay for it in full before he can bury his dead.”

January 8, 1910 - Last entry in the chronicle. “It was suggested that the work of serving the church should be done the same way as the former year. It was accepted.”

Faith of the Founders: Jacob Albright – 1759-1808

The Old Salem Shrine story began with Jacob Albright, whose parents left Germany in 1732 to escape their homeland’s continuous political and religious conflicts. In America, they farmed near Pottstown, Pennsylvania and joined a growing community of Germans known as the Pennsylvania Dutch. On May 1, 1759, Jacob was born. At age 26 he married Catherine Cope and they raised six children on a 45-acre farm near Hangstown, but a dysentery epidemic claimed all six of their children.

Overcome with grief, Jacob searched for a new meaning in his life and believed he could help others who had suffered adversities. At first, he traveled through nearby towns as an unpaid lay-preacher and established an Evangelical church in a nearby town. With a growing interest in his message he organized three evangelistic classes which became the seed of the evangelical movement and the formation of the Evangelical Association of North America.

When he died in 1808 the Association had thousands of members and a core of preachers traveling throughout the United States and Canada serving German families in pioneer communities. The German families in northern Dakota County would be one of those communities.

John Frederick Hielscher

Note: In an April 7, 1956 letter to Clifford Ruona, Virginia Irene Zehnder-Janecek recalled memories of her Uncle John and Aunt Leah Hielscher and their visits from California. “John would hold us spell-bound with stories of the Alaskan frontier and his many narrow escapes.” This is Virginia’s story.

John Frederick Hielscher was born on June 15, 1866 in Le Seuer, MN. On June 15, 1891, he married Leah Zehnder and they made their home in San Francisco. Leah died on August 27, 1954 and John on November 27, 1955.

John was the son of the Rev. Ernest Julius Hielscher (1826-1914) and ran the first grocery and feed store on Concord Street, where the Drover’s Bank now stands in South St. Paul.

His story, however, chronicles the adventures of a butcher, gold miner, world traveler and very proud owner of a 1921 Model-T Ford.

With the coming of the Alaskan Gold Rush John and Leah moved to Seattle. “He took with him 138 live hogs and established the first butcher shop in Alaska. Each hog was sewed into a gunny sack and sent across the Chilkoot Pass by cable and then to Fairbanks, where he sold the hogs at 150 per pound live weight.”

During the next 17 years he made 29 trips to Alaska from Seattle, each time taking with him cattle, sheep, horses and hogs. He ran a butcher shop in Valdez and became publisher of the Valdez News while keeping up his mine interests. He was also known as a trader with the Eskimos.

When John retired they went home to Seattle and he purchased a 1921 Model-T Ford, second-hand, in 1923. He painted the wheels red and polished the motor like new and set out to enjoy a “second honeymoon,” travelling through the U.S five times, visiting all 48 states, Canada and Mexico. In fact, at the time of their 60th wedding anniversary in 1951, he had over 153,000 miles on the car and famously refused to accept Henry Ford’s tempting offer to trade his Model-T for the newest model. In 1949, his brother, Dr. Adolph Hielscher, left him an inheritance of several thousand dollars.

He used the money to travel to St. Paul and from there they travelled to Chile and Argentina and from there they went by plane, train and thousands of miles up the rivers by boat to see South America first-hand but said it did not compare with the old Model-T travels.

Virginia recalled that on each one of his visits he would hold them spell-bound with stories of the Alaskan frontier and his many narrow escapes. “He always was so interesting! Both Uncle and Aunt enjoyed life like few people can in their later years. . .they just traveled about and were interested in the history of the places they visited. He is known as my ‘Rich Uncle’ as money never was an obstacle for to him - he made plenty in Alaska – during those early years that he could afford to take life easy later. Pioneering days however were hard and rugged but the history of Alaska will never be written without his name.”

Leah died on August 26, 1954 and “somehow the honeymoon was over for him.” John continued living in the apartment “living with memories which made him very, very lonely – but somehow he picked up the loose ends again and made plans for the future. . . much like a young man setting out – with a great future ahead – but little did he realize that the time ahead would be short” In the midst of packing things to a visit with Virginia and Joseph he died of a heart attack and was buried December 3rd, 1955. Virginia received a long letter he’d sent before his death and wrote in her letter “it makes you weep what plans were left unfinished.”

He was having a special granite tombstone made in St. Cloud for Leah, telling their Alaskan story, but the sculptor was left with an unfinished model after John’s death.

“Just before his death he sent me a small box and when I opened it here he sent me the first gold nugget he panned in his Alaskan Gold Mine - back in 1898- he wanted me to have it – so he took it out of the safety box at the bank and mailed it to me. Why? Because I was kind to him – I sent him a sympathy card when Aunt Leah died with a few words which touched his heart. Then I kept sending him letters of cheer until his dying day and somehow he appreciated it much.”

“Well poor Uncle John is over on the other shore enjoying another “honeymoon with Leah” now and I’m sure he is happy wherever he is. We shall always cherish those memories of the stories that came out of his Alaskan experience. Both were 89 years of age.”

Virginia Irene (Zehnder) Janecek
Virginia Zehnder, born December 26, 1898, was the daughter of Christian J. Frederick and Martha Zehnder. On June 7, 1922 she married Oscar Ingwald, who died in 1934. On August 31, 1939, she married Joseph J. Janecek. Virginia died on October 20, 1977.

This story was published in the Old Salem Shrine newsletter, vol. 5, 2018.

The Johann Kochendorfer Family (Circa 1858)

Remembering August 18, 1862

The headline in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on April 15, 1926 was stark, “Warning Unheeded, Children See Parents Die.” The article recounted the history of the Sioux massacre which had occurred sixty-four years earlier in what was then the Lower Agency near the present site of Redwood Falls. The historical account, however, was personal, written by John Kochendorfer and his sister, Rose Keller. John was 11 and Rose was 9 when they witnessed the murder of both parents when Indians attacked their home.

“Our three horses, a wagon, a cow and household goods were unloaded on the Minnesota river bank from a steamboat. We set up our coal stove: mother cooked dinner, set the table and we had a hearty meal. Then we loaded our belongings and drove eight miles to our new home. Father pitched a large tent in which we lived while he broke up some land, planted a garden and also oats and corn, felled trees and built a log house into which we had partly moved at the time of the massacre. The land in front of our house was prairie and back of it was forest.”

“Our life during the spring and early part of the summer was peaceful and uneventful. Most of the families in our settlement were Germans, honest, industrious, God-fearing people. The Indians came across the Minnesota river to visit us nearly every day and were always friendly. We learned a little Sioux language…enough so that we could understand them.”

“On Sunday, the day before the massacre, nearly 100 adults and about 30 children were present at a religious service at the home of a Mr. Lettau, a throng so large that most of the men and boys sat outside the open door to listen to the sermon. Of all within 24 hours, not more than 30 were living. The others, including the minister, Rev. Mr. Mierentz of the Evangelical association, had been murdered by the Indians.”

“Father had been asked permission by a band of Sioux the day before to store some of their belongings in our house. They said that they were going to fight the Chippewa’s and were afraid their goods would be stolen by the enemy. So they were allowed to conceal beneath our beds their tomahawks and other articles of warfare.”

“On Monday, an Indian wearing a belt of cartridges and carrying a gun came to the house. Before this we had seen red men armed only with bows and arrows.”

“Soon we children saw a band of Indians in our field and reported to father. He came from the house and stood beside me with his hands on my shoulders. Then the Indian who had accepted our hospitality shot father. He fell to the ground carrying me down with him. John, running toward the woods, saw the Indian turn and shoot toward mother…who was still at her washing.”

“We girls afraid the Indians would find us under the bed, where we had taken refuge, ran outdoors... all but Sarah, who would not follow us, and who soon after was slain. Father, still lying on his back, was unable to speak, but he groaned and motioned to us to run into the woods.”

“We met John in the forest. He said that we should go to a neighbor’s home in the river bottoms, so we went a little way through the heavy timber, then crossed a small strip of breaking that father had recently done, and reached the bluff overlooking our neighbor’s place. Our gaze rested on Indians in the act of killing our friends there.”

The children walked 11 miles, carrying the smaller children at times and then traveled with neighbors driving ox teams to Fort Ridgely where they remained through the memorable siege that ended with the arrival of General Sibley’s relief expedition.

The Kochendorfer children were taken into the homes of friends in St. Paul. John and Margaret became members of the household of Gottfried Schmidt on a farm in the district now the site of South St. Paul.

When John Kochendorfer was 30, he received a letter from a Mr. Timm, who had homesteaded on the land where John’s parents had been killed and which had reverted back to the government. Mr. Timm wrote that while he was digging post holes for a garden fence he had found graves of Johann and Catherine Kochendorfer and Sarah. They were finally laid to rest in Oakland Cemetery, St. Paul, the final incident of the family’s tragedy.

Gottfried Schmidt was born in 1815 in Germany and was orphaned at age 12. In 1849, he came to America and, after living two years in St. Louis, he moved to St. Paul. In 1852, he married Mary Dickhudt. They had no children but adopted three, the first was an Indian boy. In 1854, an Indian came to the Schmidt home with his little son, asking Mr. Schmidt to adopt the one and one-half-year-old boy. The family adopted him, naming him Charles Schmidt.

In 1862, the Schmidt’s adopted two orphans of the Indian massacre, John and Maggie Kochendorfer, who retained their parents’ names.

In his will, Gottfried Schmidt named John Kochendorfer sole executor of his will and bequeathed the sum of one thousand dollars in trust to Charles Schmidt.

Military Service: Henry Christian Schmid

Muster in: September 27, 1864
Muster out: June 17, 1865

In June 1864 Christian was drafted to serve in the Civil War but paid a commutation fee of $300 so he could continue to help his parents with the farm. During a second draft call in September 1864 he volunteered and served in the First Regiment of Minnesota Heavy Artillery, Company B.

Christian chose to be inducted under the alias of Henry Christian Smith, the Anglican equivalent of his real name. After leaving Fort Snelling for his tour of duty, a daguerreotype* was taken, most likely in Missouri. He applied gilt to the daguerreotype to highlight the buttons on his uniform.

His company was sent to Chattanooga, Tennessee but was not involved in any major battle. Christian, however, was left with permanent damage to his hearing as a result of the heavy artillery fire and he returned to Minnesota in June 1865.


*A daguerreotype was made by polishing a sheet of silver-plated copper to a mirror finish, treating it with
fumes that made its surface light sensitive, exposing it in a camera from a few seconds for brightly sunlit subjects or much longer with less intense lighting, making the resulting latent image on it visible by fuming it with mercury vapor, removing its sensitivity to light by liquid chemical treatment, rinsing and drying it, and then sealing the easily marred result behind glass in a protective enclosure. Viewing a daguerreotype is unlike looking at any other type of photograph. The image does not sit on the surface of the metal, but appears to be floating in space, and the illusion of reality, especially with examples that are sharp and well exposed, is unique to the process.

Source: Wikipedia