Sesquicentennial Interview: Emanuel and Elizabeth Haas

Wed, 11/06/2024 - 11:56am

When: 1974

This interview was conducted in 1974 as part of the I Remember When television series produced by the Ann Arbor Public Library.

Transcript

• [00:00:12] TED TROST: Where was the first German church located, Bethlehem? Where was its first location?
• [00:00:17] EMANUEL HAAS: The first German church as I recall, it was located in Bethlehem Cemetery. Then they built the church, I don't remember the year, on the corner of First and Washington Streets. Then they moved up to 423 South Fourth Avenue, in 1895.
• [00:00:40] TED TROST: Go ahead. Bethlehem, the congregation has been around for a good long time, hasn't it?
• [00:00:45] EMANUEL HAAS: Yes, it has.
• [00:00:47] TED TROST: When did you join Bethlehem church?
• [00:00:48] EMANUEL HAAS: I joined in 1917, that's the year we got married and my wife was a life member of Bethlehem. I joined in after we were married.
• [00:01:02] TED TROST: Then, Elizabeth, you were confirmed at Bethlehem Church.
• [00:01:05] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: Yes.
• [00:01:06] TED TROST: What was confirmation like in those days? Was it a big thing?
• [00:01:10] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: Yes, it was a big thing. Everybody. All your relation came to the church to hear you, and then afterwards we went home and had a big dinner.
• [00:01:20] TED TROST: It was on Palm Sunday.
• [00:01:21] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: That was on Palm Sunday, yeah.
• [00:01:23] TED TROST: Well, being a life member of Bethlehem Church, I suppose you've seen some changes over the years.
• [00:01:29] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: I sure have.
• [00:01:31] TED TROST: What is the biggest one that you've seen?
• [00:01:33] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: There are so many, I couldn't even start to think which would be the largest one.
• [00:01:39] TED TROST: Is the congregation.
• [00:01:41] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: Has grown.
• [00:01:41] TED TROST: It has grown.
• [00:01:42] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: Grown. Many people are, Well, they're grown up and have children that I are not really acquainted with all of them.
• [00:01:53] TED TROST: When you were going to church, was it in the German language? Did you have German services?
• [00:01:58] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: Yes.
• [00:01:58] EMANUEL HAAS: Yes.
• [00:01:59] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: I was confirmed in German. But when we had our catechism, Reverend John would explain it in English. That's how I could understand it much better. We all could understand it much better. But when we were confirmed, we were still confirmed in German, and I think that was one of the last times after that was a couple more years that he confirmed.
• [00:02:24] TED TROST: You served on the church council?
• [00:02:26] EMANUEL HAAS: Yes. I was served two terms on the church council and I had about 17 and a half years on the cemetery board.
• [00:02:34] TED TROST: What were some of the big issues that you had to deal with in those.
• [00:02:38] EMANUEL HAAS: Well, the first time was on the big issue was the Parish Hall. That was started, and Alfred Walker, who happened to be chairman of the Church Council and I was Secretary, and we were authorized to sign the contract with the James Baird Company to build the Parish hall.
• [00:03:03] TED TROST: That is a Parish Hall, I think it's the only one in the city that has a gymnasium?
• [00:03:07] EMANUEL HAAS: Yes.
• [00:03:09] TED TROST: Was Dr. Schmale the minister here then?
• [00:03:11] EMANUEL HAAS: Yes, Dr. Schmale. He came in 1928.
• [00:03:16] TED TROST: Does the cemetery, though it's related to the church, it operates by itself.
• [00:03:21] EMANUEL HAAS: Financially, it operates by itself, but it's owned by the church.
• [00:03:27] TED TROST: By the church. Elizabeth, what are some of the things that the women have done in the church. You've been active in those groups?
• [00:03:34] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: We have sewed a lot for missions. That's one of the projects that I'm still interested in now. We still sew and we still have about 16 or 18 women that come every week to sew for Mott Hospital and for our missions in our Detroit home. Well, what wherever our mission stations are.
• [00:03:56] TED TROST: I know this is greatly appreciated. I remember seeing a certificate, I think.
• [00:04:03] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: From America.
• [00:04:04] TED TROST: From America. Who was that from? The president?
• [00:04:07] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: From the hospital.
• [00:04:08] EMANUEL HAAS: From the hospital? And a lot of those ladies have been working for must be over 50 years?
• [00:04:14] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: I started in sewing during World War I, at that time, we started in just the Red Cross work and I've been active in sewing ever since. Different things, you know.
• [00:04:29] TED TROST: As you both look back at the services that you've had in a Church, are there any particular days that stand out as being particularly meaningful?
• [00:04:41] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: I can't think of a special one.
• [00:04:45] EMANUEL HAAS: 100th anniversary of the 75th anniversary, in fact, that was quite a big day and then came the 100th anniversary.
• [00:04:53] TED TROST: How about Christmas, wasn't that an exciting time?
• [00:04:56] EMANUEL HAAS: Yes. Christmas, it used to be different. They used to have the little children get up in front and each one recited a little recitation or something about Christmas.
• [00:05:10] TED TROST: At one time, they had real candles on the tree?
• [00:05:15] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: Wax candles on the tree. The very first one that I remember.
• [00:05:21] TED TROST: Wasn't there a concern there might be a fire?
• [00:05:24] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: Yes. They had pails of water underneath the tree ready in case of fire.
• [00:05:30] TED TROST: Who threw a man here, who would throw the pail?
• [00:05:33] EMANUEL HAAS: That was before my days before I joined
• [00:05:37] TED TROST: That's great. Having belonged to the church for so long and having seen many changes, as you've said, why is the congregation particularly meaningful to both of you? Why don't each one of you handle that?
• [00:05:56] EMANUEL HAAS: Well, it just seems we got interested in church work, and Elizabeth and I, we both since we were married, we've been working in the church and helping whatever we could do.
• [00:06:13] TED TROST: You feel it's benefited your spiritual life?
• [00:06:15] EMANUEL HAAS: Yes. I think it's benefited both of us.
• [00:06:18] TED TROST: What have you enjoyed most about it?
• [00:06:21] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: Well, the friendship.
• [00:06:22] TED TROST: The friendship.
• [00:06:23] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: The friendship, the working together. Yes.
• [00:06:27] EMANUEL HAAS: Years ago, they used to put on a dinner for everyone who wanted to come. Used to have about four, 500 people come to that dinner.
• [00:06:39] TED TROST: It'd be from all over the city of Ann Arbor.
• [00:06:43] EMANUEL HAAS: Then they used to have the county fair out at the fairgrounds for I think they call it, not West Park.
• [00:06:53] TED TROST: Burns Park?
• [00:06:55] EMANUEL HAAS: Out at the fairground it used to be at the Veterans Park. That's where the fairground used to be. The church, they had a tent out there and they served meals, and we used to go out there 6:00 in the morning till 6, 8:00 at night.
• [00:07:15] TED TROST: Well, now, was this both men and women from the church who'd work out there?
• [00:07:20] EMANUEL HAAS: Women served the meals and the men they did the heavy work. Couple men stayed out there in the tents at night. Guarded the tent.
• [00:07:33] TED TROST: What would they guard the tent? What was in the tent?
• [00:07:36] EMANUEL HAAS: Well, there was all the equipment needed for cooking and food and different things that they had to use.
• [00:07:46] TED TROST: Was there a profit sometimes made from the food?
• [00:07:49] EMANUEL HAAS: Yes. There was always a profit.
• [00:07:51] TED TROST: What was that used for?
• [00:07:52] EMANUEL HAAS: That was used for the church and to the church treasury.
• [00:07:57] TED TROST: For the church. For what?
• [00:08:00] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: For the the building funds.
• [00:08:02] TED TROST: That's the way you built the parish house?
• [00:08:05] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: I think the women had about $20,000 that they gave at that time that they had made for these fairs.
• [00:08:13] TED TROST: That's good. I always felt that on the great day of judgment when they have that heavenly banquet that the women from Bethlehem Church would be serving the meals. I knew that always willing workers.
• [00:08:31] EMANUEL HAAS: In 1939, I remember that year very well. You renovated the church. We put a glass on the outside of all windows, and we lowered the organ, and we put in a new chancel, and we painted the interior of the sanctuary. The painter gave us $500 off if we do the work for our scaffold. Put the scaffolding up because then days, you had to use lumber. They didn't have these portable scaffolds they have now. We went to Fingerle lumber company and borrowed the lumber and one Saturday morning, about 75 men came there and they put up that scaffold and at 2:00, it was done. It was all up, that scaffold. The painter sent a man to supervise the job. But everybody worked, very hard.
• [00:09:38] TED TROST: Was the Sunday school at one time quite large, wasn't it?
• [00:09:42] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: Yes, it was. But I didn't have any part in Sunday school.
• [00:09:49] EMANUEL HAAS: I think the enrollment was at one time, it was between 6 and 700.
• [00:09:56] TED TROST: Today, there don't seem to be as many younger couples.
• [00:10:00] EMANUEL HAAS: Not as many children in Sunday school as it used to be.
• [00:10:03] TED TROST: Do you have any idea why that might be?
• [00:10:06] EMANUEL HAAS: No, I don't. Dr. Trost, I don't have any idea. How that came about.
• [00:10:12] TED TROST: Seems to be one of the serious conditions we're all having to face today.
• [00:10:16] EMANUEL HAAS: Yes.
• [00:10:17] TED TROST: Attendance is falling off, to be sure. As you look back over Ann Arbor, have you seen some changes in our community?
• [00:10:29] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: Oh, yes.
• [00:10:30] TED TROST: What do you think the biggest one is?
• [00:10:32] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: The subdivisions. Is that what you mean?
• [00:10:35] TED TROST: Well, it could be if that's what you see.
• [00:10:37] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: I think of all the different places.
• [00:10:39] EMANUEL HAAS: The shopping centers.
• [00:10:41] TED TROST: Do you find them convenient? Do you like to go to?
• [00:10:44] EMANUEL HAAS: Well, it's convenient to park. You always can find a parking place when you go to a shopping center. Where downtown, sometimes you have to hunt quite a bit for parking space.
• [00:10:56] TED TROST: Well, you know some people are so excited about shopping centers that they have shopping center churches and even drive in churches where you can go on a Sunday morning and just just sit in your car. I wouldn't like to do in the summer, unless I had air conditioning. You've noticed, how many ministers were there at Bethlehem since?
• [00:11:23] EMANUEL HAAS: Reverend Pastor John was the first one, and then came, Reverend Neumann, that I remember, and then Reverend Schmale and Reverend Press, and then came Reverend Klaudt, Reverend Bizer was associate.
• [00:11:42] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: Wait a minute, you're forgetting one.
• [00:11:45] EMANUEL HAAS: Then after Dr. Klaudt, you came.
• [00:11:48] TED TROST: Yes. Now Pastor Willimann is there
• [00:11:53] EMANUEL HAAS: Yes. Now Pastor Willimann.
• [00:11:54] TED TROST: I think that it is rather significant that generally, the ministers at Bethlehem Church, have stayed longer than most of our younger men are today.
• [00:12:05] EMANUEL HAAS: Yes. I think they have stayed longer.
• [00:12:09] TED TROST: There's an advantage to that as far as you get to know them.
• [00:12:14] EMANUEL HAAS: Yes. I think there is an advantage that you get acquainted with the members better than you do if you're only short there a short time.
• [00:12:23] TED TROST: Of course, today, many of the younger members are moving away.
• [00:12:26] EMANUEL HAAS: Yes. New ones come in, and some of them leave.
• [00:12:32] TED TROST: As you look at our society today and bolstered by a Christian faith and a strong Christian faith, are you optimistic about the future in our country? I feel discouraged.
• [00:12:46] EMANUEL HAAS: Well, I believe that the people are turning to church more again now than they did a few years ago. It's a pretty good thing.
• [00:12:58] TED TROST: Yes. Maybe we will, in these times that are rather difficult economically.
• [00:13:03] EMANUEL HAAS: Yes.
• [00:13:04] TED TROST: Realize we need each other more than we think so than we did in a time of affluence. Yes, they say that the statistics are up a little this year. That's good. Have you enjoyed the music of the choir? The church.
• [00:13:18] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: Yeah.
• [00:13:19] TED TROST: Yeah, through the years?
• [00:13:21] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: Yes, enjoyed. Yes, sure.
• [00:13:22] TED TROST: Enjoyed. Yes, sure. I guess the choirs used to be even larger than they are now.
• [00:13:29] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: I don't remember being larger. We have a nice choir. Nice musician. Michelle is really good.
• [00:13:39] TED TROST: Michelle is a good organist. Emanuel, do you know anything about how those beautiful stained glass windows.
• [00:13:47] EMANUEL HAAS: How what?
• [00:13:48] TED TROST: How those stained glass windows got to the church?
• [00:13:51] EMANUEL HAAS: No, I don't.
• [00:13:52] TED TROST: I wondered about that at one time. Someone said they were brought from Germany. I can't find anyone who can actually.
• [00:14:00] EMANUEL HAAS: I don't know where they were brought.
• [00:14:01] TED TROST: Document that. But the wooden Christ on the front of the chancel that figurine.
• [00:14:09] EMANUEL HAAS: Yes.
• [00:14:10] TED TROST: Didn't that come from Germany?
• [00:14:11] EMANUEL HAAS: No. A man in from Grand Rapids, a man from Germany carved the carving. But it was done in Grand Rapids.
• [00:14:20] TED TROST: In this country.
• [00:14:22] EMANUEL HAAS: That was done in 1939, when you renovated the church, we had that new Chancel that was the time that carving was put in there. Reverend Schmale supervised that.
• [00:14:34] TED TROST: It's a beautiful.
• [00:14:35] EMANUEL HAAS: Yes, it is I agree.
• [00:14:35] TED TROST: I'm glad it was retained when there was the later renovation.
• [00:14:39] EMANUEL HAAS: Yes. I think there would be quite a lot of money to get that now.
• [00:14:44] TED TROST: Yes. Did the church ever have difficulties or always have difficulty paying its bills? Is that a problem?
• [00:14:53] EMANUEL HAAS: Well, not always, but there have been times when it has.
• [00:14:59] TED TROST: I guess in earlier days, there were more activities where you would have dinners.
• [00:15:05] EMANUEL HAAS: Fundraising, dinners in like this fair booth out there and so on.
• [00:15:15] TED TROST: How long have you lived right here? You didn't always.
• [00:15:18] EMANUEL HAAS: 1961.
• [00:15:21] TED TROST: In 1961, you came out here?
• [00:15:23] EMANUEL HAAS: When we were married, we lived at 707 South Division Street. Then when this subdivision was opened here, we happened to be lucky enough to get one of the four slots available.
• [00:15:38] TED TROST: Did most of the Bethlehem people live in what used to be called the old Second Ward?
• [00:15:47] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: Quite a few of them. Yes.
• [00:15:49] TED TROST: That meant that the community was closer together than it is today?
• [00:15:55] EMANUEL HAAS: Yes. I think it was at those days.
• [00:15:59] CATHERINE ANDERSON: I'd like a feeling of the flavor. The way the church has changed over the last from 1917 to now. I'm sure with all the different changes in ministers and all just the social scene, the way it's changed, I'd like a feeling of your feelings on how the church has changed over those years.
• [00:16:18] TED TROST: Think about it.
• [00:16:18] CATHERINE ANDERSON: You don't have to be polite just because he's here.
• [00:16:21] TED TROST: Now you can say [LAUGHTER] How would you say it's changed?
• [00:16:28] TED TROST: Yeah, go already. Be sure of this.
• [00:16:30] EMANUEL HAAS: You had to explain this.
• [00:16:31] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: I don't know how to say it. I don't know whether it's changed a great deal. I can't even tell you how I would feel.
• [00:16:43] TED TROST: As you see it, you haven't seen much change [OVERLAPPING] or haven't felt much change?
• [00:16:48] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: Felt much change? No. Of course, the older ones are all dying out and most of the younger ones who I'm not so well acquainted with the younger people.
• [00:17:01] TED TROST: How about you, what have you seen?
• [00:17:04] EMANUEL HAAS: Just like Elizabeth says, I'm not so well acquainted with the younger generation, either. I used to know about three quarters of the membership. Well, I don't believe that I know one quarter now because the younger people are coming up and you don't get acquainted with them as well as you knew the older people.
• [00:17:26] CATHERINE ANDERSON: Why do you think that is? Is it because you don't have social functions together or because they aren't as friendly or?
• [00:17:33] EMANUEL HAAS: Well, I used to attend the Brotherhood regularly. At that time, it was the Brotherhood, now it's a men's club, I believe it is. But lately, I haven't been going because I don't go too much anymore. Elizabeth, she still attends her auxiliary meetings, and that's, I guess just about the same as it used to be.
• [00:17:58] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: Oh, I think so.
• [00:18:01] TED TROST: But now, we even during the time when we were together there, we've had a little excitement. Were you there that Sunday when we were interrupted to have a manifesto?
• [00:18:11] EMANUEL HAAS: Yes.
• [00:18:12] TED TROST: That was a change, wasn't it?
• [00:18:13] EMANUEL HAAS: Yes, that was a change.
• [00:18:15] TED TROST: What did you think about that at that time?
• [00:18:18] EMANUEL HAAS: Well, I thought it was rather strange at that time to come in all the churches and do that. But I guess it's still going.
• [00:18:31] TED TROST: Yes, and things have passed. There was a positive thing that happened, I think, insofar as we tried to do something for people in Ann Arbor. The little house next door to the church, was that at one time a Parsonage?
• [00:18:48] EMANUEL HAAS: That at one time belonged to the janitor. Mr. Meyer.
• [00:18:56] ELIZABETH BLAESS HAAS: Meyer.
• [00:18:57] EMANUEL HAAS: Mr. Meyer. He willed it to the church. He said the church had to pay a certain amount for it, but he had that in his will that he goes to the church for that certain amount. We used to have a parsonage across the street that was built in 1924.
• [00:19:18] TED TROST: The little house we're talking about, though, didn't that become headquarters for the Council of Churches?
• [00:19:24] EMANUEL HAAS: Yes. Rev. Schmale lived in there after he retired. Then after they left, it became headquarters for the Council of Churches. Now our caretaker, our custodian lives in there.
• [00:19:42] TED TROST: Well, it's a beautiful church. I think one of the most beautiful in the city.
• [00:19:46] EMANUEL HAAS: Yes.
• [00:19:48] CATHERINE ANDERSON: Have you ever worked on the Church Council?
• [00:19:52] TED TROST: Yes. She asked the question. Have you worked on the Church Council? Yes.
• [00:19:56] EMANUEL HAAS: Yes, I have served two terms on the Church Council and 17 and a half years on the cemetery board.
• [00:20:03] CATHERINE ANDERSON: Can you explain a little bit about what the council does?
• [00:20:08] EMANUEL HAAS: We used to have regular meetings once a month and discuss the church affairs and finances and I think that's about the regular routine of the council.
• [00:20:24] TED TROST: You never had any real crisis except.
• [00:20:27] EMANUEL HAAS: No [OVERLAPPING]
• [00:20:28] TED TROST: The big decision to go ahead and build the Parish Hall.
• [00:20:34] EMANUEL HAAS: When we built the Parish Hall, we didn't have any trouble there. There was about $30,000 that we didn't have, and they issued bonds for that, and they were taken up by the members of the congregation. Then they paid them off as they got the money to pay them off. I think 10 years after that, they had another drive and they paid off all those bonds on that Parish Hall. Well, that's when we were free of debt. Now we have debts again.
• [00:21:07] TED TROST: Yes. Because there was a new addition put on?
• [00:21:09] EMANUEL HAAS: Yes.
• [00:21:10] TED TROST: When Pastor Klaudt was there, but that's suitable.
• [00:21:15] EMANUEL HAAS: But I think we work out of that all right.