The History of Samuel UCC

In 1905, St. Louis was straining under the weight of expectations, prosperity, urban problems and construction. A predominantly Catholic city, many of the German speaking immigrants traveled ten miles or more to attend services and confirmation classes at Protestant churches. The long journey in the age of street trolleys, horse and carriage and foot meant many wanted something closer to home, and they wanted to hear services in their native German. Mr. and Mrs. Bernhardt Fischer had an idea: a church close to home.

In May 1905, the heads of nine families gathered to found Deutschen Evangelischen Gemiende (The German Evangelical Church) in Clayton. Two months later, someone decided to invoke the Old Testament Prophet Samuel and they added it to the name of the church. Thus, Samuel Church was born.

The first service was held on May 21, 1905 in Clayton’s Mt. Olive Saengerbund Hall near the intersection of Maryland and Meramec Avenues. Attendance was small; just 9 children for Sunday School and 18 adults, led by Rev. Theo Uhdau.

Our German roots were strong, but a changing world and changing attitudes meant the church needed to change as well. In 1920, Sunday School classes began to use English instead of German. Services and Sermons were conducted entirely in German until April 1934 when it was decided to conduct the regular Sunday services in English, although monthly German services were held until 1944 when the horrors of the Nazis and World War II made continuing to do so a challenge. In 1925, “German” was dropped from the church’s official name. It was now “Samuel Evangelical Church.”

By 1934, the national Evangelical church had merged with the Reformed Church in the United States, and Samuel Church was along for the ride. A building fund for a more permanent home was established, and Adolph Litzsinger made the first pledge of $5 (about $95 today).

The current location of Samuel UCC was purchased in 1940 for $15,500. Construction of the original building began in 1946. The address of 320 North Forsyth was chosen because at the time the building began, there were 320 members of Samuel Evangelical and Reformed Church. An education addition was dedicated on May 22, 1966 to house Samuel Preschool, which is still in operation today.

Since its beginning, Samuel has been a church looking forward. Folks who tended to have the broadest and most openly inclusive notions of what it meant to be a Christian stayed while those with more passionate views about subtle distinctions between faiths moved on. In the 1940s, Rev. John Flucke implemented a monthly interracial Fellowship Church, Samuel hired an African American janitor and Vacation Bible School was integrated. When Samuel Preschool opened in the fall of 1966, it was open to all children of all denominations. Samuel UCC became a Just Peace congregation in the 1990s and officially Open and Affirming in the 2000s.

Today, Samuel UCC still moves forward. We are learning to embrace the technology of the 21st Century by live streaming sermons and changing the format of our newsletter. Numerous 12 Step groups use our building to host meetings. We sponsor Boy Scout Troop 493. We welcome the homeless to our building every 5th Tuesday and are expanding our Children, Youth and Family Ministry with the addition of new staff. We continue to grow and learn.

2020 and the COVID pandemic drew us further online as the church closed to in person services. Although this was a new way to worship and connect, somehow we were able to increase our attendence as folks who had prevouisly been members or were out of town joined us every week. We are exploring the options available to keep livestreaming. Our new website went active, and we continued our missions - raising $10,000 in 2021 for Habitat for Humanity.