Coon Prairie Lutheran Church, Westby, WI

Coon Prairie Lutheran Church
in the country

where the ancestors are buried

 Coon Prairie Lutheran Church
in town

"Coon Prairie Lutheran Church was established on July 12, 1852, just four years after Norwegian settlers entered the Westby area. The congregation received its first pastor in 1855 and dedicated its first wooden building in 1857. Coon Prairie’s pastors served as many as 11 congregations throughout the region for many years. During the pastorate of Halvor Halvorsen (1872-1921), a fine stone building was erected which burned to the ground on Easter Sunday, 1909. Congregation members could not agree on a new building site and two identical edifices were built at $22,500 each: Country Coon Prairie on the original site and Westby Coon Prairie in the thriving new town. Coon Prairie was an important member of the Norwegian Lutheran Synod and experienced the theological divisions over predestination which rocked that church body in the 1880s. In 1917 it joined 92 percent of Norwegian Lutherans in the United States in forming the Norwegian Lutheran Church in America and is currently part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America." 

 - From Westby, Wisconsin Remembered blog, by Eric Leum, Mr. C.'s cousin. In memory. Today would have been his 70th birthday.

 

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"Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime." - Martin Luther
 

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Have a blessed Lord's Day,

Coon Prairie Cemetery and What's Blooming

1. I'm trying to come up with divisions of 5 in this post for Five on Friday. Why isn't this easy for me?? I think I just take way too many pictures. But I'm going to start with this Lutheran church in the countryside outside Westby, Wisconsin. Mr. C's ancestors are buried there, so we like to stop out there when we're in the area. I know I've posted about this church before, but hopefully it was a while ago. It is such a pretty church and cemetery.

 Entrance to the cemetery

It's not easy finding some of the names because many stones are flat on the ground and easy to miss.  But they're all interesting. I'd hate to be the person who has to mow that cemetery. I'd buy a couple goats. Goats are nice. I don't think that would be disrespectful. It would feed the goats and keep the cemetery tidy. Especially if the goats wore diapers. Just a thought.

 West entrance door and window

I wasn't going to post this photo because of the name on the stone, but I guess anyone can find out our surname anyway, so...  This photo was taken when the family was in the area to attend Mr. C.'s cousin's funeral (the one whose house we're still working on...). It was wonderful to have our son and some of the grandkids with us.

2. It's what's blooming at our house. Daffodils and the flowering crab. Not included in the photo is our poor old McIntosh apple tree which seems to have quite a few blossoms on it, in spite of its near-death experience a couple winters ago. A hard frost is forecasted for during the next week I think, and if we get it, there will be no apples on our tree this year. It's way too big to cover with a cloth for protection.

 August 2011. It was LOADED with apples.

3.

Reminds me of the old movie, 'Witness.'

 Amish country, Wisconsin

 I think the above photo speaks for itself. I loved catching the sign and wagon in the same shot. :-)

4. More Wisconsin countryside. I wish I had better definition on this photo, and I probably would have if I'd ever learned all the wonders of my old PaintShopPro program. The yellow is mustard, a plant every farmer dreads finding in abundance in his fields. Something about this shot makes me think of Willa Cather stories. 

5. My nod to Anglophile Friday, which I have been neglecting lately. I have many more photos of Canterbury Cathedral, starting with this post.

Canterbury Cathedral, Buttresses

1 D.  I have to put this photo in here, at the end of the post. I took it at sundown, when we were back at the Coon Prairie Cemetery and finally found Grandpa Roy's grave stone. This time we took note of landmarks which will help us locate it another time. Unless the two tall cedars go down in a tornado. Then we're in trouble.

Coon Prairie Cemetery at Sunset

Linking to Five on Friday, Friday Foto Friends, Skywatch Friday, Freedom Friday

Instagram: @cranberrymorning

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