This file part of www.dodgejeffgen.com website

Bethany of Hustisford: 150 Years

Watertown Daily Times, 04 17 2008

Bethany Evangelical Lutheran Church, Hustisford, is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year with a number of special services.

The theme for this sesquicentennial celebration is "150 Years of God's Grace - A Blessed History, A Priceless Heritage, A Promising Future."

The first special service, "History Sunday," will be Sunday. Guest speaker is the Rev. John Brenner, a professor at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in Mequon. He is the great-grandson of Bethany's first regular teacher, Karl F.G. Brenner Sr. (1870- 1878) and the grandson of John Brenner, who went on to become president of the Wisconsin Evangelical Synod.

Bethany's history dates back to 1858 when a German missionary making an exploratory journey through Dodge County influenced a group of Lutherans to form the congregation. Bethany became associated with the Wisconsin Evangelical Synod, with its first church and parsonage combined in a log building constructed on the Gottlieb Lierman farm east of Hustisford.

In 1866 Bethany's congregation relocated to the village of Hustisford in a 30-by-50-foot building purchased from the German Protestant Evangelical Society of Hustisford. This building is now the southern half of the former Roeseler's Hardware store.

As membership increased, an even larger structure was needed. In 1893 the present building that stands near the north end of Lake Street was dedicated. Total cost of construction was $11,637.22.

In 1980 dedication services were held for an addition, which included digging out the basement under the original church for a fellowship hall, the addition of a narthex and rest rooms.

A parochial school has always been a part of Bethany's history, with teaching handled by the pastor until 1870, when the first regular teacher was hired. The first one-room school was erected in 1868. Steadily increasing enrollment led to the building of a new school in 1910. That school, located in what is now the church parking lot, served the congregation until the dedication of the present school in 1962.