In the last segment of our story we learned a little about the city Ascension has called home for the last 70 years. Now, we should figure out how our church home came to be in this beautiful city of Waukesha. If you remember, our first church (we have had three in the last 70 years) was at what is now 803 Madison Street on the corner of Fairview. Our home there, sadly to say, is no longer standing but instead a small park graces the area. What once stood there, however, was a beautiful “chapel”-style church not much bigger than a modern-day three-car garage.
This small church was built from scratch, pretty much, as a do-it-yourself project by our first Pastor, Rev. Lee Egloff. He personally built much of the concrete block building himself, with a $20,000 loan from the Mission Fund of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. Most of the construction occurred during the fall of 1948 through the summer of 1949. Although built of concreate block, one of the first construction projects to use this method in Waukesha, the inside has been described as being warm and friendly with a hard wood floor and oak trim throughout. Its foot print measured 24’ by 40’.
We have to assume Pastor Egloff came to Waukesha with a strong vision of the future and with the will of God at hand, as he began constructing his church before he even had a congregation to serve or a name for our future home. Sources such as the Waukesha Freeman and our own previous historical compilations pick the date of the first service at this new church as occurring between April 1949 and November of that same year. Further research is needed to confirm. We do know for sure that by November of 1949 Ascension Lutheran was conceived with a membership of 24. In April of 1950 our founders applied for membership to the Missouri Synod English District. We also purchased property on the corner of Moreland Boulevard and Hawthorne Drive, as already the vision was that this small chapel would not be able to comfortably-support a rapidly-expanding congregation. We offered two services on Sunday mornings, 8 and 11 a.m. The 8 a.m. service was specifically focused for the children of the congregation while the 11 a.m. was directed more for adults. Our first baptism occurred shortly following the first service, in the new church, for baby Marsha Ullsperger (now Marsha James).
In a ten-year span to 1959, this 24 member congregation had grown to 215 with 115 children in Sunday School. Somewhere in these 10 years, church services changed to almost what we have today, 8:15 and 10:45 a.m., with Sunday School between. In that same year, 33 newborns where also added to the swelling numbers of the church. With a strong plan for the future and a growing congregation, Pastor Egloff moved on to accept the challenges of a new congregation by accepting a call to St. Johns Lutheran Church in Oxford, Wisconsin in July of 1962. Theodore Heusar took over the reigns of pastor of Ascension. However, soon after arriving, he became ill and died of cancer in December 1964. During this careworn time, we had several interim pastors with Walter Gauger being the longest serving until the fall of 1965.
Even with the struggles of a suffering pastor and the uncertainty of who would fill the pastoral shoes, our forbearers kept the vision of a strong congregation in sight. In August of 1964, 7.5 acres of land was purchased on Dopp St. with the thought that this land could house not only a church but a fellowship hall along with plenty of parking and the ability to expand further when that time came. The land previously purchased on Moreland was deemed not suitable to fulfill these potential plans and was sold to support the new purchase.
In August 1965 Pastor Henry C. Ebeling accepted the call to Ascension. With no room to expand nor even the ability to park a car nearby for Sunday morning service, ground was broken at the new site on Dopp St., on July 31, 1966. Construction crews began building the new church and fellowship hall in August of that same year. What took $20,000 to build in 1949, took $125,000 to build in 1966, albeit on a much larger scale to accommodate a much larger congregation and expanding community.
As you can see, we have been a church community in fluid motion since our beginnings. We have never been a congregation to just sit on our heels and accept what we are in that place and time. We have always thought of the future, not only of our current members but on future members and the community we occupy, as well. With God as a guide we move forward, remembering our past but not living in our past.
Our next journey in looking back will take us from the ground breaking of our second church to the wonders of expansion into the spaces we now occupy.
The answers to last month’s quiz — 1.Who was the President of the United States back in 1949? (Harry S. Turman) 2. How many Presidents have there been since Ascension came to be? (13) 3. Who was our State Governor? (Oscar Rennebohm) 4. How many church buildings has Ascension been in from 1949 to today? (3) Bonus question for those looking for an A+, how many Pastors have we had in the last 70 years? (7)
Remember this is not a history of a building or things and objects, it is the history of people, of you, of us. If any of you have memories of our time as a congregation in our first church and the ground breaking of our second church we would love to hear from you. You can send an email, leave a written note at the church office or find myself, Roger Norberg or Linda Hansen and tell us. We would love to compile your memories of Ascension and be able to share with all.
Scott Tenwinkel
Council board member, Ascension’s 70th anniversary team
Reprinted from the June 2019 newsletter.
