Written by Phil Wala
1874 (August 1)
You may have heard that Hennepin Church was “started because of a fistfight.” Such a fight did, in fact, occur in May 1875 (if one can call a single knockout punch a “fight”). But was that the start of the problems, or just a symptom of something deeper? Historical archives that were not readily available when previous church histories were written have shed some new light on the topic.
Here, for example, are several newspaper headlines showing that the “scandal” at Centenary Church was already the talk of the town at least nine months before the infamous fisticuffs. In fact on August 1, 1874, the Gopher Mirror devoted its entire front page (and much of the back page) to covering the story everyone in Minneapolis wanted to read about. Apparently, there was more to the story than previously known.
Now, after four-and-a-half years of new research, that more complete story is about to be told. Watch for the book, Aspire! 150 Years at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church, coming this September.
1891 (July 30)
Hennepin Avenue Church at 10th and Hennepin hosted a lecture by Professor H. T. Kealing.¹ Kealing was the son of slaves, a gifted orator, an accomplished educator, and a prominent member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Unfortunately, in a sanctuary built to seat 700, fewer than 50 people showed up to hear Professor Kealing. Because the event had been poorly advertised, Bethesda Church invited Kealing to repeat his lecture a week later. The second lecture garnered only half as many attendees as the first. (Minneapolis Times)
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¹ The initials stand for Hightower Theodore (the article gets his middle initial wrong)
1911 (August 5)
In 1910, during Pastor Gillies’ summer vacation, Dr. Luther Freeman, president of Morningside College (Methodist) in Sioux City, Iowa, preached at Hennepin Avenue Church for six consecutive weeks as Hennepin’s “summer pastor.” The church would like to have him back again this summer, but there are three complications.
1) Freeman has resigned from Morningside College and has just been called to be the new pastor of Lowry Hill Congregational Church in Minneapolis.
2) Hennepin Church has just left their building at 10th and Hennepin and are now meeting at the Fowler Church building at Franklin and Dupont.
3) Fowler Church (where Hennepin Church is meeting) is across the street from Lowry Hill Congregational (where Freeman is now the pastor).
The solution: Hennepin Avenue Church and Lowry Hill Congregational will hold joint services (in the Fowler building) for the month of August. Dr. Freeman will serve simultaneously as Hennepin’s summer pastor and Lowry Hill Congregational’s new full-time pastor. The arrangement works out so well that the joint services will be repeated in the summers of 1912, 1913, 1914, and 1915.
1933 (July 30)
Thure Fredrickson was Hennepin’s music director and organist for an amazing 37 years, from 1928 to 1965. But in a new discovery by the archives team, we learned that Fredrickson actually stepped out of that role for a time. The July 30, 1933, bulletin announced that Fredrickson had resigned. A few weeks later, Allen L. Meyer was hired to replace him as music director and organist, and Fredrickson took a job as director of the Minneapolis Civic Opera.
Fredrickson did not sever ties with the church, however. Just four months after his resignation, the church bulletin noted that while Meyer was still music director, Fredrickson was back in his role as church organist. Meyer continued as music director until 1937, whereupon Fredrickson returned to his previous role.
1949 (August 2)
Students from the University of Life serve as volunteer painters in the Elliot Park neighborhood. (Minneapolis Star)
1995 (July 30)
Rev. Patricia Toschak (seen below with Associate Pastor Peter Boehlke) served as Executive Pastor of Hennepin Church from 1993 to 1997. This included the 11-month period from September 1993 to August 1994 (between the pastorates of Rev. Scoates and Rev. Wilmoth) when the church had no lead pastor.
Here are two recordings of messages preached by Rev. Toschak during This Week in Hennepin History:
July 30, 1995, “Teach Us to Pray”
August 4, 1996: “Enough”
