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Synod Membership Shortlived
Also, Dahlstrom led St. Mary's to synod membership with the United Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church. On Jan. 20, 1897, at the annual business meeting, members voted to unite with their Danish Lutheran brethren, a sig-nificant decision since the church had been an independent for nearly 23 years.
Synod membership was brief, however, lasting not long after the Rev. Dahlstrom left. His successor, J. Borggaard stayed three years, but because he left few written records, those pages in St. Mary's history are blank. We do know, though, that in October 1903, the congregation reversed its 1897 decision and dropped synod membership. Though again independent, the parish did continue a loose affiliation with the UDELC and supported its missions and church projects.
That return to independence would last nearly a half-century, until 1952, when St. Mary's sought membership in the United Evangelical Lutheran Church. Pastor Lawrence Siersbeck, in fact, would serve as synod secretary and was a leader in the 1960 merger of the UELC, American Lutheran Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church and Lutheran Free Church that formed the American Lutheran Church. Subsequently, in 1987, the ALC and Lutheran Church in America (LCA) merged into today's ELCA.
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The coming of the 20th Century marked a period of explosive growth for the community. Between 1900 and 1910, the population nearly doubled, to over 21,000, jumping Kenosha from tenth to third among Wisconsin cities. The century's first decade also was marked by substantial immigration from Denmark to southeastern Wisconsin. In Kenosha, many of these new Americans would look to St. Mary's for their church home.
The church's downtown location was convenient for early-arriving Danes who had settled near the lake. But the later wave of Danish immigration, finding little room in the established Scandinavian neighborhood, moved to what then was the southwest side of the city, focusing on an area between today's 60th and 75th Streets, centering on Roosevelt Road, and also east of Lincoln Park.
The Rev. C. Hansen came to St. Mary's in 1903, and stayed until 1907, followed by Pastors N.P. Lang (1907-1909), A.S. Nielsen (1909- 1913) and P.L.C. Hansen (1913 -1918).
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During the pastorates of Lang, Nielsen and Hansen, plans moved forward not only for a new church, but a relocated one. In 1909, St. Mary's purchased for $3,000, a sizeable lot at the corner of Salem Avenue (Roosevelt Road) and Howland (22nd) Avenue.
But the building project did not take off immediately. No buyer could be found for the existing church and parsonage. And then came World War I to slow things further, until 1918, when the old buildings were sold.
By then, though, the building lot purchased nine years before was no longer considered a suitable site. However, with land values inflating, it was easily sold to business interests at a nice $7,500 profit, the money being used to acquire a new site further south along Howland (22nd) at Strong (65th) Street.
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