About
The first white settlers in Allen Township, Noble County, Indiana, began arriving in the late 1830s and early 1840s. Among them were German Lutherans who emigrated from northwestern Germany and the present-day French province of Alsace.
They had no church or minister, but God had his eye on them and sent a great missionary, the Rev. Friedrich Wyneken, to them. The Rev. Wyneken, a native of Hanover, Germany, answered God’s call to minister to Lutherans in the wilderness of the American frontier.
Several of his journeys took him to Allen Township, Noble County, where he found a group of Lutherans near the future town of Avilla. They welcomed him with open arms and were thankful for his interest in them and in the Word of God.
According to records of Immanuel congregation, he would come every four weeks and hold services in the home of Samuel Weimer.
The first members of Immanuel, which included the Weimer, Diehm and Housholder families, built the first church — a log cabin — on the property owned by Samuel Weimer. It was located in a woods across the road from the present St. Mary’s Catholic Church on North Main Street, Avilla. It was in this log cabin that Immanuel Lutheran Church was organized in 1844.
In early 1892, due to the growth of the membership, the church building proved inadequate. After much discussion, in 1892, the congregation voted to build a new church in town at the present site on West Albion Street.
Immanuel, has been served by 26 ministers in its over 160 years of existence. The Rev. Patrick Kuhlman is the current pastor.
