Bleeke Cincinnati Church Records
Deutsche Evangelisch-Lutherische und Reformierte Kirche
The families of brothers Carl Friedrich Bleeke (1794-1853) and Johann Heinrich Philip Bleeke (1797-1883) were members of the Deutsche Evangelisch-Lutherische und Reformierte Kirche von Cincinnati ("German Evangelical Lutheran and Reformed Church of Cincinnati") until December 17, 1838 when the church split.
While members of the congregation, two Bleeke children were born, one of whom died the following hear, and one was confirmed.
Born:
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Emilie Bleeke, daughter of Johann Heinrich Philip Bleeke, born March 11, 1837, who died the following year.
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Friedrich Joseph Bleeke, son of Carl Friedrich Bleeke, born March 12, 1837.
Confirmed:
When the church split on December 17, 1838, the Johann Heinrich Bleeke family and likely the Carl Friedrich Bleeke family joined the group of north Germans who founded a new church, the Norddeutsche Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche (the North German Lutheran Church of Cincinnati).
Discovery of Bleekes Cincinnati Church
Wilhelm Möllman was pastor of the Deutsche Evangelisch-Lutherische und Reformierte Kirche von Cincinnati ("German Evangelical Lutheran and Reformed Church of Cincinnati") from 1837-1838. From 1838-1840 he was the pastor of the Norddeutsche Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche (North German Lutheran Church of Cincinnati).
These dates come from Genealogy of Some German Evangelical Churches in Cincinnati, Ohio written by Robert C. Rau, located on the Hamilton County, Ohio, Genealogical Society’s website.
Pastor Möllman connects the Bleekes in Cincinnati, who were members of the N with the Bleeks of Norddeutsche Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche (North German Lutheran Church of Cincinnati), with the Bleekes who were founding members of Immanuel Lutheran Church, Decatur, Indiana.
Pastor Möllman is mentioned in the Immanuel Lutheran, Decatur, Indiana, founder’s biography of Johann Heinrich Philip Bleeke. He is mentioned as the pastor who confirmed his son Carl Fridrich Wilhelm in 1840.
in 1837, after a heated vote, Wilhehn Moellmann, from Osnabrück, was elected to fill the preacher’s office. He immediately discovered the great difficulties in the congregation, and wanted to resign. However, in the year 1838 a solution was finally achieved. After several meetings it was decided to separate into two different congregations, with the one group now being the South Germans, who would keep the old church building, and the other group being the North Germans, who would receive a sum of money. Pastor Moellmann went with the North Germans, and this group, the third German congregation in Cincinnati, took the name North German Lutheran Church. As early as 1839-40 they erected a church on Walnut Street between 8th and 9th Streets. The South German group, who now called F. M. Raschig as pastor, took the name German Protestant St. John’s Church.
Genealogy of Some German Evangelical Churches in Cincinnati
The aforementioned biography of Johann Heinrich Philip Bleeke mentions the names of two pastors in Cincinnati, Möllmann and Lauer:
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his son Carl Fridrich Wilhelm, born 30 November 1825, was: "confirmiert um Ostern 1840 on Past. Möllmann in Cincinati[sic] (confirmed at Easter 1840 by pastor Möllmann in Cincinnati".
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his daughter Emilie, born on 11 March 1837 was: "Getauft von Past. Lauer. (baptized by pastor Lauer)".
Digial Records
PDFs of the church registers of theGerman Evangelical Lutheran and Reformed Church and the North German Lutheran Church are part of the Third German Protestant Church Records of the German Americana Collection of the Archives and Rare Books Library at University of Cincinnati.
An important repository listed on the Records Repositories page of the Hamiliton County Genealogical Society’s website is the Archives and Rare Books Library at University of Cincinnati. It has a German Americana Collection that includes digitized records (in the form of PDFs) of the Third German Protestant Church Records, the erstwhile North German Lutheran Church:
In 1879 the North German Lutheran Church had changed its name to the "Third German Protestant Church," and again in 1927 to the "Third Protestant Memorial Church." Today it is the Third Protestant Memorial United Church of Christ in Clifton.
Genealogy of Some German Evangelical Churches in Cincinnati