Some background and overview of Trinity Church

In 2003 & 2004 I started hearing about the downturn of membership at the Trinity Church.
I had been working with Harold & Darlene Asmus and Bob & Ruth Hansen on their family histories and the history of the Trinity Church.
In 1874 my Kusel ancestors started to move from Eastern Iowa to this area. Some of my Kusel relatives moved to Lincoln Township in the area where the church would later be built.
One branch was Henry & Rosa (Kusel) Friedrichsen and many of their descendants attended Trinity.

In 2004, it was becoming obvious that the Trinity Congregation was going to end so I started visiting with several members of that church to suggest moving the church to the Manning Heritage Park.
In 2005, we could not find the original church record book, so after visiting with Harold Asmus, we checked the church parsonage. Amazingly it was in a front porch area near a window. I suggested to Harold that it be put in a safe and I suggested that Puck Implement might have a safe large enough - and they did, so that is where it was kept until 2006.

Sometime in November of 2005, an official committee was formed to promote the relocation of the church.
Promotion was discussed and I suggested that we try to get National Geographic to film this project for a "Monster Move" show, so I e-mailed National Geographic and they got me in contact with Carlo Massarella of Windfall Films in England.

Below I'll give a brief overview with pictures, e-mails, and other information.

As I had mentioned above, a number of my Kusel relatives were members of the Trinity Church. In 2003, I had a Kusel reunion and it was at that time I had several relatives ask for directions to the Trinity Church and if it was open.
One of them was the Friedrichsen sisters...they were baptized in this church but the family moved to Oregon when they were very little so they don't have any direct memories, but their parents always talked about the Trinity Church and this area of Iowa.
After they returned back to Manning, they told me how amazing it is that the church doors were not locked, and they could walk right in...not something that could be done in Oregon.

In 2004, I sent out an e-mail to my Kusel relatives who attended the Trinity Church and told them that there was a possibility that the church might be moved to the Manning Heritage Park. Around March of 2004, I received a letter from Mavis (Friedrichsen) Brown and in there was a check for $1000.00 - I was shocked and immediately contacted Mavis and told her that no decision had been made and there was no official group to proceed with such a project. She told me that the donation could be used for whatever need the church had.
So Mavis, who is my 3rd cousin, is the first person to donate and get the project off to a start.

Mavis, Sheila, Cathy 1998 Kusel reunion in Manning

Ruel & Mavis Brown 2003 Kusel reunion in Manning - at the Kusel farm

November 8, 2005 first meeting in the Trinity basement

Ruth (Kanning) Hansen, Rick Lohrmann, Craig Hansen, Robert Hansen, Russell Bruhn, Stan Baack, Dan Peters
Ruth's parents were Pastor William and Louise Kanning - pastor at Trinity starting in 1946.

Original Trinity record book (approximately 2 feet x 1.5 feet)

Baptism entry in the Trinity book for Anna Rott who lived to be 114.

Born October 15, 1900 - Passed away December 21, 2014
Baptized October 15, 1900 at her home
Last Trinity Church member baptized in 1900
Parents are Carl & Bertha (Borkowski) Rott
Sponsors are Johanna Rott (grandmother of Anna) and Adolph Elias
Anton Ehlers - Pastor

Anna Stoehr, 114, died Sunday, December 21, 2014, at Green Prairie Place in Plainview, Minnesota.
Anna Martha Stoehr was born to Carl and Bertha (Borkowski) Rott near Manning, Lincoln Township, Iowa, October 15, 1900. In 1901 her family moved to a farm near Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, then returned to the Manning area in 1903. In 1908 they moved to a farm near Wessington Springs, South Dakota, where she completed elementary school and attended a 1-year confirmation class at nearby Lane.
In 1919 her family moved again, to a large farm near Ridgeway (Winona) Minnesota. Here she often did domestic work for neighbors, assisting at times of birth and death. Her family moved to a farm near Elgin in 1927. On May 9, 1928, she married Ernest Stoehr at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Potsdam. She and Ernest farmed near Ridgeway until 1936, when they moved to a farm near Potsdam (Elgin).
Following her husband’s death in 1998 she lived alone on the farm until April 2013, when she moved to an apartment at Green Prairie Place, Plainview, residing there until her death.

Anna - picture taken October 15, 2003

Trinity Lutheran Church Relocation Project
The relocation committee has been meeting each month since this summer in hopes of achieving the goal of preserving this beautiful structure. The goal is to raise enough funds to relocate Trinity to the Manning Heritage Park. The picture on this flier shows a super imposed picture of Trinity at its new location. Trinity would bring its history and beauty to a wonderful location that can be shared for decades to come. The funding needed is $100,000.00. Through generous donations which included the sale of the church property and gifts received from individual families we have reached 50% of the needed funding. Please help us with this project with a year-end tax-deductible donation.

February 8, 2006 - first contact with National Geographic

First response from Carlo Massarella

Over the next weeks/months, Carlo made several trips to Manning from England, initially meeting with Dan Peters and myself, and then later he met the committee members and held some presentations.

April 28, 2006 Heritage Park - Carlo Massarella giving a presenation of a "Mega Moves" feature about Trinity.

Rick Lohrmann, committee member, introduces the various speakers.

Bob Hansen, life-long member of Trinity and committee member provides some history about the church.

Ruth Ohde, president of the Heritage Park board, offers full support for the church relocation.

I asked Mayor Ron Colling to present Carlo with Manning's 2006 Quasquicentennial history book.

Committee Chairman, Dan Peters, provided details about the relocation project.

Trinity members and interested citizens
It is amazing at how many of our citizens have passed on since 2006.
On the closest table, Ardith Lage, Lola Ahrendsen, Sharon Grimm
also Dan Peters, Ruth Ohde, Bob Hansen, Ruth Hansen, Ron Colling.
What would we do without these type of active citizens?

Some of the committee members: Carlo Massarella, Denny Grimm, Russell Bruhn, Connie Ahrendsen, Larry Ahrendsen, Bob Hansen, Ruth Hansen

To save on heating costs, the congregation only heated the basement during the winter for the last several years where they held their services.
This was one of the last services held in the basement.

April 2, 2006

Service

After the service a meeting was held to continue the relocation progress.

I won't go into details about the preparations before the move and the move - those pictures and more information can be found at this link. Click to Trinity Church details

Here are a few more highlights during the relocation...
Groundbreaking ceremony April 4, 2006

Chuck Amoura, Carlo Massarella, Frank Boeck, Shane Boeck, Dan Peters, Curt Struve, Dennis Grimm, Robert Hansen

Carlo with his film crew

Last official church service May 7, 2006

May 2 filming the teardown and preparation for the move.

I had some fun with this black board

May 24

May 25

May 26

May 30

May 31

May 25 scouting out filming locations.

June 2

June 4 scouting out filming locations.

Carlo had lots of questions and requests for me. One was he wanted several boom trucks that could reach 100 feet into the air to capture the move on film from various locations.
I knew right away who he could ask which was Orland Fara - I knew Orland would have such contacts.

June 7 moving day 7:30 a.m. Bruce Construction, Red Oak, Iowa.

7:38 Carlo on a two-way radio, communicating with his film crew to get ready - the church is on the move...

Initially the state troopers showed up in an older trooper car that was somewhat dirty...
When they saw all of the cameras, they immediately called in for a new/clean trooper vehicle.

A sad day for Bob & Ruth Hansen for the ending of an era.
BUT a proud and happy day that the church will be preserved in Manning.

8:01

9:19

9:29 I also told Carlo that Soll's Service had a boom truck which is shown here.
Interesting enough we purchsed this boom truck from Solls a couple years later.

Could you imagine the surprise and shock if you didn't know about the church being moved and saw this scene?

10:44 - In the Monster Move video you see a scene from over the 90 feet church steeple - here is why.
The farm on the right was originally owned by Herb Ullerich - a member of Trinity.
We custom farmed for him for around 25 years.

Some of the members of the choir that sang in front of the church.

I had forgotten some of the members who sang and since have passed away.
Judy Joens is in the first picture and Mitch Robinson just above - Arlene Mohr has also passed away and sang.

Carlo came up with the idea to have a choir sing a song about the church and march in front of it out in the country, so he asked me if anyone in Manning would be interested in forming a choir for this purpose - I immediately told him to contact Helen Wiese - I knew she would be the perfect person to assist Carlo with this idea.

Later on Carlo took the choir to a professional studio to have the audio recorded.
Dan Pemberton composed the special song, "Here It Comes."

June 4 practice in the Senior Center

Helen Wiese

Practice marching & singing on the Rec Center parking lot.

Carlo also wanted a plane to film the move and I told him that Orland Fara could also give him a contact.

11:31 - almost home!

4:00 p.m. - Safe & Sound!

June 7 at 7:48 a.m

June 8 at 6:21 a.m.

June 7 at 5:55 p.m.

Windfall crew: Alex Tate, BettinaTruemper, Carlo Massarella, Jamie Lochhead, and Russel Bruhn
Right before Carlo and crew headed back to England.

June 9 - "It is finished"