The following biographical information was mostly translated and taken from a Lithuanian language religious online magazine, "8th Day" (https://8diena.lt, posted September 24th, 2018) with a few context notes added.
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This year (2018) marks the 170th anniversary of the birth of Martin Keturakat (Martynas Keturakaitis) - Lutheran pastor, press associate, bookseller, and founder of Lithuanian Lutheran congregations in Lithuania Minor and North America.
Martin Keturakat was born in June of 1848 (exact date unknown) in the center of Georgenburg (now Mayovka), Chernyakhovsky District, Kaliningrad (now Russia). Intent on becoming a missionary, he studied theology in Germany at the Barmen Seminary of the Rhine Mission and graduated from there in the summer of 1878. Due to a lack of funds, however, he did not go into the mission field in 1878.
Upon being ordained as a pastor, he traveled throughout Lithuania Minor for about two years, promoting mission work and collecting donations. The ethnic Lithuanians noticed that his hair was not parted not in the middle of the head, like all other collectors, but on the side.
Early in his ministry, Pastor Keturakat became involved in several publishing endeavors. He collaborated with the publishing house of Heinrich Holcs and Martynas Šerniaus in Klaipėda, Lithuania, to prepare John Bunyan's book "Pilgrim's Progress" (1878) for the press. He also edited and wrote explanations for the illustrations of Johann Arndt's "The Garden of Paradise" (1879) and others.
In 1880, after passing the theological examination of the Curonian Consistory in Mitava (now Jelgava, Latvia), Martin Keturakat became pastor of the Ev. Lutheran congregation of Kretinga, Lithuania. In order to take up this position, he had to become a Russian citizen and renounce his Prussian citizenship. From November 1880 to 1883 he was in Kretinga, and from 1883 to 1892 he was pastor of the Ev. Lutheran congregation at Tauragė, Lithuania. He also served congregations in Batakiai (the church building there was dedicated on October 27th, 1885), Jurbarkas, Kelmė, Sartininkai, Žemaičių Naumiestis (the last baptism recorded by Rev. Keturakat there was on December 20th, 1892), Raseiniai, Skaudvilė, Šilalėand Žvyriai (Skirsnemunė).
Pastor Keturakat was an excellent preacher, a charity worker, and Lithuanian educator. After settling in Tauragė, he organized the transportation of banned Lithuanian language books. (At this time the Lithuanian language was being actively suppressed by the Russian Empire in favor of "Russification".) After coordinating with Russian border guards, he would load a large cart in Lithuania Minor and bring banned Lithuanian language literature (not only Protestant books, but also Catholic and secular) into Lithuania Major.
Beginning in 1888 he established prohibited schools in his congregations. He also worked for the legalization of Lutheran literature in the Lithuanian language: Parishioners M. Juozepaitis and J. Jurgutaitis wrote to the Raseiniai County clerk on November 24th, 1891 (probably at his urging), and on December 24th, 1891, Pastor Keturakat himself petitioned the governor of Kaunas.
Finally, Tauragė customs officers began to detain book parcels addressed to him. In one such shipment in 1892, they found Lithuanian language books. Five Lithuanian books in both Latin and Gothic letters were also found during a search of his house. Pastor Keturakat was then removed from his duties and forbidden from living in the districts of Vilnius, Kaunas, or Gardins (Lithuania) by decree of the Russian Tsar on September 29th, 1892. Pastor Keturakat then fled to Lithuania Minor.
Afterwards he lived in Jelgava, Latvia, for some time - possibly looking for a position as a pastor through the Curonian Consistory. After going to St. Petersburg (Russia) to ask for permission to live in Lithuania Major (he visited three of the Tsar's palaces), he was arrested again in 1895 and exiled - without his family - to the Caucasus, on the border of Turkey and Iran. For a time he served the small German community of Aleksandershilf, near Tbilisi, without pay, as pastor of an Evangelical Lutheran congregation (65 families).
On January 10th, 1896 he wrote a poetic letter to MK (probably Lutheran mission editor Mikelis Kybelka, 1837–1906) "Ah, Dear Brother in Christ! (Ah mylims brolau Kristuje!)" which was 51 quatrains long and printed by "Keleevis" (February 25th, 1896) in Priekulė, Lithuania. In 1897, Pastor Keturakat escaped from exile through Turkey and returned to Prussia to reunite with his family in Elbing (now Elbląg, Poland). At the beginning of July in the same year, as a Russian citizen (for he still held Russian citizenship), he and his family departed for the United States of America. They sailed from Hamburg on the steamship "Fürst Bismarck" among 5,000 passengers and reached American shores on July 16th.
They first settled in Chicago. Within two years, Pastor Keturakat would travel twenty thousand miles in America, visiting 25 cities where he found Lithuanian Lutherans. On April 20th, 1898, he stayed in Collinsville, Illinois, where he began to gather the first Lithuanian Ev. Lutheran congregation in the United States and organize the construction of its church building. But soon these efforts failed due to disagreements between the parishioners and the pastor.
In the same year (1898) Pastor Keturakat moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he established a joint German-Lithuanian Ev. Lutheran congregation and on March 5th, 1899 dedicated the first Lithuanian Ev. Lutheran church building in the USA. However, not much later, the Lithuanian parishioners quarreled with the Germans, the parish collapsed, and its property was eventually bought by the Germans.
After leaving Philadelphia, Martin Keturakat began serving as pastor of a German-speaking Wisconsin Synod parish in Eitzen, Minnesota. But as the people of Collinsville, IL, continued their efforts to gather a parish, Pastor Keturakat was invited to return there, and from 1900 to 1911 he lived in Collinsville where he helped establish the Lithuanian Jerusalem Ev. Lutheran Church and led the construction of its building. That same building, dedicated on October 25th, 1903, is serving the congregation today.
While living in Collinsville, Pastor Keturakat gathered Lithuanian Lutherans in neighboring St. Louis, Missouri, and in 1903 established a parish there. In Chicago, Illinois, together with Pastor Petrus Drignaičius, he helped organize Zion Ev. Lutheran Church (now in Oak Lawn, IL) which was officially established on December 4th, 1910, and which is still active today. He also maintained relations with Lithuanian Lutherans who lived in other areas.
While ministering in the United States, Pastor Keturakat was affiliated with the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. In addition to direct service to his congregations, he distributed "The Help (Pagalba)," a newspaper published by the Lithuanian Ev. Lutheran Educational Union and Charity Society. He also collaborated with "The Letter of the Conservative Society (Konservatyvų draugystės laiške)" and "The Lithuanian Newspaper (Lietuwißka Ceitunga)". He gave lectures on various topics to Lithuanian emigrants.
While still living in Lithuania Minor, Martin Keturakat married Anna Clashen. Five children were born to them: Martynas (Martin), Neomai (Naomi), Vilius (William), Lydia and Hannah. Both sons would become Lutheran pastors in the United States. Daughter Lydia Anna (1889-1975) would marry the Rev. Henry Edward Ziemer (1887-1978) of St. Louis, Missouri. Thus the family was very familiar with Lutheran ministry.
Before reaching his sixty-third birthday, Pastor Keturakat died of a heart attack on March 15th, 1911, in East St. Louis (Illinois) while visiting Rev. Carl Christoph Schmidt (1843-1925). He was solemnly buried at the Holy Cross Lutheran Cemetery in Collinsville on March 19th.
After the death of her husband, Anna (now a widow), moved to live with her daughter Naomi in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The eldest son, Martin, was ordained as a pastor after graduating from Concordia Seminary in Springfield, Illinois, and ministered in the Dakotas. He was pastor of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zeeland, North Dakota (established in October 1910) and a builder of the congregation's church building (in 1915). He later pastored outside of Summit, South Dakota (in Mazeppa Township, Grant County) as well as having served elsewhere. He died in 1937.
The younger son Vilius (Wilhelm, in German, or in English, William), who was born on September 3rd, 1886, in Tauragė, began his studies at Northwestern College in Watertown, Wisconsin, and in 1909 graduated from Concordia Seminary in Springfield, Illinois. He was ordained an Ev. Lutheran pastor in Collinsville in June of the same year. Also there (June 9th, 1910), he married Marie Mueller with whom he would have five children. After the death of his father, William Keturakat served as the pastor of the Lithuanian Jerusalem Ev. Lutheran parish of Collinsville in 1911-1913. Then, until his retirement in 1945, he served as a pastor in various parishes in Wisconsin. He died in 1965. William's son, Pastor Dr. Charles William Keturakat (1922-2013), ordained in 1947, served Lutheran parishes in Oklahoma, Texas, and from 1978, in Escondido, California. Although he no longer spoke Lithuanian, he tried to participate in the life of the Lithuanian community in the diaspora and supported the publishing of religious literature in Lithuanian.
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This year (2018) marks the 170th anniversary of the birth of Martin Keturakat (Martynas Keturakaitis) - Lutheran pastor, press associate, bookseller, and founder of Lithuanian Lutheran congregations in Lithuania Minor and North America.
Martin Keturakat was born in June of 1848 (exact date unknown) in the center of Georgenburg (now Mayovka), Chernyakhovsky District, Kaliningrad (now Russia). Intent on becoming a missionary, he studied theology in Germany at the Barmen Seminary of the Rhine Mission and graduated from there in the summer of 1878. Due to a lack of funds, however, he did not go into the mission field in 1878.
Upon being ordained as a pastor, he traveled throughout Lithuania Minor for about two years, promoting mission work and collecting donations. The ethnic Lithuanians noticed that his hair was not parted not in the middle of the head, like all other collectors, but on the side.
Early in his ministry, Pastor Keturakat became involved in several publishing endeavors. He collaborated with the publishing house of Heinrich Holcs and Martynas Šerniaus in Klaipėda, Lithuania, to prepare John Bunyan's book "Pilgrim's Progress" (1878) for the press. He also edited and wrote explanations for the illustrations of Johann Arndt's "The Garden of Paradise" (1879) and others.
In 1880, after passing the theological examination of the Curonian Consistory in Mitava (now Jelgava, Latvia), Martin Keturakat became pastor of the Ev. Lutheran congregation of Kretinga, Lithuania. In order to take up this position, he had to become a Russian citizen and renounce his Prussian citizenship. From November 1880 to 1883 he was in Kretinga, and from 1883 to 1892 he was pastor of the Ev. Lutheran congregation at Tauragė, Lithuania. He also served congregations in Batakiai (the church building there was dedicated on October 27th, 1885), Jurbarkas, Kelmė, Sartininkai, Žemaičių Naumiestis (the last baptism recorded by Rev. Keturakat there was on December 20th, 1892), Raseiniai, Skaudvilė, Šilalėand Žvyriai (Skirsnemunė).
Pastor Keturakat was an excellent preacher, a charity worker, and Lithuanian educator. After settling in Tauragė, he organized the transportation of banned Lithuanian language books. (At this time the Lithuanian language was being actively suppressed by the Russian Empire in favor of "Russification".) After coordinating with Russian border guards, he would load a large cart in Lithuania Minor and bring banned Lithuanian language literature (not only Protestant books, but also Catholic and secular) into Lithuania Major.
Beginning in 1888 he established prohibited schools in his congregations. He also worked for the legalization of Lutheran literature in the Lithuanian language: Parishioners M. Juozepaitis and J. Jurgutaitis wrote to the Raseiniai County clerk on November 24th, 1891 (probably at his urging), and on December 24th, 1891, Pastor Keturakat himself petitioned the governor of Kaunas.
Finally, Tauragė customs officers began to detain book parcels addressed to him. In one such shipment in 1892, they found Lithuanian language books. Five Lithuanian books in both Latin and Gothic letters were also found during a search of his house. Pastor Keturakat was then removed from his duties and forbidden from living in the districts of Vilnius, Kaunas, or Gardins (Lithuania) by decree of the Russian Tsar on September 29th, 1892. Pastor Keturakat then fled to Lithuania Minor.
Afterwards he lived in Jelgava, Latvia, for some time - possibly looking for a position as a pastor through the Curonian Consistory. After going to St. Petersburg (Russia) to ask for permission to live in Lithuania Major (he visited three of the Tsar's palaces), he was arrested again in 1895 and exiled - without his family - to the Caucasus, on the border of Turkey and Iran. For a time he served the small German community of Aleksandershilf, near Tbilisi, without pay, as pastor of an Evangelical Lutheran congregation (65 families).
On January 10th, 1896 he wrote a poetic letter to MK (probably Lutheran mission editor Mikelis Kybelka, 1837–1906) "Ah, Dear Brother in Christ! (Ah mylims brolau Kristuje!)" which was 51 quatrains long and printed by "Keleevis" (February 25th, 1896) in Priekulė, Lithuania. In 1897, Pastor Keturakat escaped from exile through Turkey and returned to Prussia to reunite with his family in Elbing (now Elbląg, Poland). At the beginning of July in the same year, as a Russian citizen (for he still held Russian citizenship), he and his family departed for the United States of America. They sailed from Hamburg on the steamship "Fürst Bismarck" among 5,000 passengers and reached American shores on July 16th.
They first settled in Chicago. Within two years, Pastor Keturakat would travel twenty thousand miles in America, visiting 25 cities where he found Lithuanian Lutherans. On April 20th, 1898, he stayed in Collinsville, Illinois, where he began to gather the first Lithuanian Ev. Lutheran congregation in the United States and organize the construction of its church building. But soon these efforts failed due to disagreements between the parishioners and the pastor.
In the same year (1898) Pastor Keturakat moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he established a joint German-Lithuanian Ev. Lutheran congregation and on March 5th, 1899 dedicated the first Lithuanian Ev. Lutheran church building in the USA. However, not much later, the Lithuanian parishioners quarreled with the Germans, the parish collapsed, and its property was eventually bought by the Germans.
After leaving Philadelphia, Martin Keturakat began serving as pastor of a German-speaking Wisconsin Synod parish in Eitzen, Minnesota. But as the people of Collinsville, IL, continued their efforts to gather a parish, Pastor Keturakat was invited to return there, and from 1900 to 1911 he lived in Collinsville where he helped establish the Lithuanian Jerusalem Ev. Lutheran Church and led the construction of its building. That same building, dedicated on October 25th, 1903, is serving the congregation today.
While living in Collinsville, Pastor Keturakat gathered Lithuanian Lutherans in neighboring St. Louis, Missouri, and in 1903 established a parish there. In Chicago, Illinois, together with Pastor Petrus Drignaičius, he helped organize Zion Ev. Lutheran Church (now in Oak Lawn, IL) which was officially established on December 4th, 1910, and which is still active today. He also maintained relations with Lithuanian Lutherans who lived in other areas.
While ministering in the United States, Pastor Keturakat was affiliated with the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. In addition to direct service to his congregations, he distributed "The Help (Pagalba)," a newspaper published by the Lithuanian Ev. Lutheran Educational Union and Charity Society. He also collaborated with "The Letter of the Conservative Society (Konservatyvų draugystės laiške)" and "The Lithuanian Newspaper (Lietuwißka Ceitunga)". He gave lectures on various topics to Lithuanian emigrants.
While still living in Lithuania Minor, Martin Keturakat married Anna Clashen. Five children were born to them: Martynas (Martin), Neomai (Naomi), Vilius (William), Lydia and Hannah. Both sons would become Lutheran pastors in the United States. Daughter Lydia Anna (1889-1975) would marry the Rev. Henry Edward Ziemer (1887-1978) of St. Louis, Missouri. Thus the family was very familiar with Lutheran ministry.
Before reaching his sixty-third birthday, Pastor Keturakat died of a heart attack on March 15th, 1911, in East St. Louis (Illinois) while visiting Rev. Carl Christoph Schmidt (1843-1925). He was solemnly buried at the Holy Cross Lutheran Cemetery in Collinsville on March 19th.
After the death of her husband, Anna (now a widow), moved to live with her daughter Naomi in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The eldest son, Martin, was ordained as a pastor after graduating from Concordia Seminary in Springfield, Illinois, and ministered in the Dakotas. He was pastor of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zeeland, North Dakota (established in October 1910) and a builder of the congregation's church building (in 1915). He later pastored outside of Summit, South Dakota (in Mazeppa Township, Grant County) as well as having served elsewhere. He died in 1937.
The younger son Vilius (Wilhelm, in German, or in English, William), who was born on September 3rd, 1886, in Tauragė, began his studies at Northwestern College in Watertown, Wisconsin, and in 1909 graduated from Concordia Seminary in Springfield, Illinois. He was ordained an Ev. Lutheran pastor in Collinsville in June of the same year. Also there (June 9th, 1910), he married Marie Mueller with whom he would have five children. After the death of his father, William Keturakat served as the pastor of the Lithuanian Jerusalem Ev. Lutheran parish of Collinsville in 1911-1913. Then, until his retirement in 1945, he served as a pastor in various parishes in Wisconsin. He died in 1965. William's son, Pastor Dr. Charles William Keturakat (1922-2013), ordained in 1947, served Lutheran parishes in Oklahoma, Texas, and from 1978, in Escondido, California. Although he no longer spoke Lithuanian, he tried to participate in the life of the Lithuanian community in the diaspora and supported the publishing of religious literature in Lithuanian.
The following biographical information was mostly translated and taken from a Lithuanian language religious online magazine, "8th Day" (https://8diena.lt, posted September 24th, 2018) with a few context notes added.
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This year (2018) marks the 170th anniversary of the birth of Martin Keturakat (Martynas Keturakaitis) - Lutheran pastor, press associate, bookseller, and founder of Lithuanian Lutheran congregations in Lithuania Minor and North America.
Martin Keturakat was born in June of 1848 (exact date unknown) in the center of Georgenburg (now Mayovka), Chernyakhovsky District, Kaliningrad (now Russia). Intent on becoming a missionary, he studied theology in Germany at the Barmen Seminary of the Rhine Mission and graduated from there in the summer of 1878. Due to a lack of funds, however, he did not go into the mission field in 1878.
Upon being ordained as a pastor, he traveled throughout Lithuania Minor for about two years, promoting mission work and collecting donations. The ethnic Lithuanians noticed that his hair was not parted not in the middle of the head, like all other collectors, but on the side.
Early in his ministry, Pastor Keturakat became involved in several publishing endeavors. He collaborated with the publishing house of Heinrich Holcs and Martynas Šerniaus in Klaipėda, Lithuania, to prepare John Bunyan's book "Pilgrim's Progress" (1878) for the press. He also edited and wrote explanations for the illustrations of Johann Arndt's "The Garden of Paradise" (1879) and others.
In 1880, after passing the theological examination of the Curonian Consistory in Mitava (now Jelgava, Latvia), Martin Keturakat became pastor of the Ev. Lutheran congregation of Kretinga, Lithuania. In order to take up this position, he had to become a Russian citizen and renounce his Prussian citizenship. From November 1880 to 1883 he was in Kretinga, and from 1883 to 1892 he was pastor of the Ev. Lutheran congregation at Tauragė, Lithuania. He also served congregations in Batakiai (the church building there was dedicated on October 27th, 1885), Jurbarkas, Kelmė, Sartininkai, Žemaičių Naumiestis (the last baptism recorded by Rev. Keturakat there was on December 20th, 1892), Raseiniai, Skaudvilė, Šilalėand Žvyriai (Skirsnemunė).
Pastor Keturakat was an excellent preacher, a charity worker, and Lithuanian educator. After settling in Tauragė, he organized the transportation of banned Lithuanian language books. (At this time the Lithuanian language was being actively suppressed by the Russian Empire in favor of "Russification".) After coordinating with Russian border guards, he would load a large cart in Lithuania Minor and bring banned Lithuanian language literature (not only Protestant books, but also Catholic and secular) into Lithuania Major.
Beginning in 1888 he established prohibited schools in his congregations. He also worked for the legalization of Lutheran literature in the Lithuanian language: Parishioners M. Juozepaitis and J. Jurgutaitis wrote to the Raseiniai County clerk on November 24th, 1891 (probably at his urging), and on December 24th, 1891, Pastor Keturakat himself petitioned the governor of Kaunas.
Finally, Tauragė customs officers began to detain book parcels addressed to him. In one such shipment in 1892, they found Lithuanian language books. Five Lithuanian books in both Latin and Gothic letters were also found during a search of his house. Pastor Keturakat was then removed from his duties and forbidden from living in the districts of Vilnius, Kaunas, or Gardins (Lithuania) by decree of the Russian Tsar on September 29th, 1892. Pastor Keturakat then fled to Lithuania Minor.
Afterwards he lived in Jelgava, Latvia, for some time - possibly looking for a position as a pastor through the Curonian Consistory. After going to St. Petersburg (Russia) to ask for permission to live in Lithuania Major (he visited three of the Tsar's palaces), he was arrested again in 1895 and exiled - without his family - to the Caucasus, on the border of Turkey and Iran. For a time he served the small German community of Aleksandershilf, near Tbilisi, without pay, as pastor of an Evangelical Lutheran congregation (65 families).
On January 10th, 1896 he wrote a poetic letter to MK (probably Lutheran mission editor Mikelis Kybelka, 1837–1906) "Ah, Dear Brother in Christ! (Ah mylims brolau Kristuje!)" which was 51 quatrains long and printed by "Keleevis" (February 25th, 1896) in Priekulė, Lithuania. In 1897, Pastor Keturakat escaped from exile through Turkey and returned to Prussia to reunite with his family in Elbing (now Elbląg, Poland). At the beginning of July in the same year, as a Russian citizen (for he still held Russian citizenship), he and his family departed for the United States of America. They sailed from Hamburg on the steamship "Fürst Bismarck" among 5,000 passengers and reached American shores on July 16th.
They first settled in Chicago. Within two years, Pastor Keturakat would travel twenty thousand miles in America, visiting 25 cities where he found Lithuanian Lutherans. On April 20th, 1898, he stayed in Collinsville, Illinois, where he began to gather the first Lithuanian Ev. Lutheran congregation in the United States and organize the construction of its church building. But soon these efforts failed due to disagreements between the parishioners and the pastor.
In the same year (1898) Pastor Keturakat moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he established a joint German-Lithuanian Ev. Lutheran congregation and on March 5th, 1899 dedicated the first Lithuanian Ev. Lutheran church building in the USA. However, not much later, the Lithuanian parishioners quarreled with the Germans, the parish collapsed, and its property was eventually bought by the Germans.
After leaving Philadelphia, Martin Keturakat began serving as pastor of a German-speaking Wisconsin Synod parish in Eitzen, Minnesota. But as the people of Collinsville, IL, continued their efforts to gather a parish, Pastor Keturakat was invited to return there, and from 1900 to 1911 he lived in Collinsville where he helped establish the Lithuanian Jerusalem Ev. Lutheran Church and led the construction of its building. That same building, dedicated on October 25th, 1903, is serving the congregation today.
While living in Collinsville, Pastor Keturakat gathered Lithuanian Lutherans in neighboring St. Louis, Missouri, and in 1903 established a parish there. In Chicago, Illinois, together with Pastor Petrus Drignaičius, he helped organize Zion Ev. Lutheran Church (now in Oak Lawn, IL) which was officially established on December 4th, 1910, and which is still active today. He also maintained relations with Lithuanian Lutherans who lived in other areas.
While ministering in the United States, Pastor Keturakat was affiliated with the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. In addition to direct service to his congregations, he distributed "The Help (Pagalba)," a newspaper published by the Lithuanian Ev. Lutheran Educational Union and Charity Society. He also collaborated with "The Letter of the Conservative Society (Konservatyvų draugystės laiške)" and "The Lithuanian Newspaper (Lietuwißka Ceitunga)". He gave lectures on various topics to Lithuanian emigrants.
While still living in Lithuania Minor, Martin Keturakat married Anna Clashen. Five children were born to them: Martynas (Martin), Neomai (Naomi), Vilius (William), Lydia and Hannah. Both sons would become Lutheran pastors in the United States. Daughter Lydia Anna (1889-1975) would marry the Rev. Henry Edward Ziemer (1887-1978) of St. Louis, Missouri. Thus the family was very familiar with Lutheran ministry.
Before reaching his sixty-third birthday, Pastor Keturakat died of a heart attack on March 15th, 1911, in East St. Louis (Illinois) while visiting Rev. Carl Christoph Schmidt (1843-1925). He was solemnly buried at the Holy Cross Lutheran Cemetery in Collinsville on March 19th.
After the death of her husband, Anna (now a widow), moved to live with her daughter Naomi in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The eldest son, Martin, was ordained as a pastor after graduating from Concordia Seminary in Springfield, Illinois, and ministered in the Dakotas. He was pastor of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zeeland, North Dakota (established in October 1910) and a builder of the congregation's church building (in 1915). He later pastored outside of Summit, South Dakota (in Mazeppa Township, Grant County) as well as having served elsewhere. He died in 1937.
The younger son Vilius (Wilhelm, in German, or in English, William), who was born on September 3rd, 1886, in Tauragė, began his studies at Northwestern College in Watertown, Wisconsin, and in 1909 graduated from Concordia Seminary in Springfield, Illinois. He was ordained an Ev. Lutheran pastor in Collinsville in June of the same year. Also there (June 9th, 1910), he married Marie Mueller with whom he would have five children. After the death of his father, William Keturakat served as the pastor of the Lithuanian Jerusalem Ev. Lutheran parish of Collinsville in 1911-1913. Then, until his retirement in 1945, he served as a pastor in various parishes in Wisconsin. He died in 1965. William's son, Pastor Dr. Charles William Keturakat (1922-2013), ordained in 1947, served Lutheran parishes in Oklahoma, Texas, and from 1978, in Escondido, California. Although he no longer spoke Lithuanian, he tried to participate in the life of the Lithuanian community in the diaspora and supported the publishing of religious literature in Lithuanian.
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This year (2018) marks the 170th anniversary of the birth of Martin Keturakat (Martynas Keturakaitis) - Lutheran pastor, press associate, bookseller, and founder of Lithuanian Lutheran congregations in Lithuania Minor and North America.
Martin Keturakat was born in June of 1848 (exact date unknown) in the center of Georgenburg (now Mayovka), Chernyakhovsky District, Kaliningrad (now Russia). Intent on becoming a missionary, he studied theology in Germany at the Barmen Seminary of the Rhine Mission and graduated from there in the summer of 1878. Due to a lack of funds, however, he did not go into the mission field in 1878.
Upon being ordained as a pastor, he traveled throughout Lithuania Minor for about two years, promoting mission work and collecting donations. The ethnic Lithuanians noticed that his hair was not parted not in the middle of the head, like all other collectors, but on the side.
Early in his ministry, Pastor Keturakat became involved in several publishing endeavors. He collaborated with the publishing house of Heinrich Holcs and Martynas Šerniaus in Klaipėda, Lithuania, to prepare John Bunyan's book "Pilgrim's Progress" (1878) for the press. He also edited and wrote explanations for the illustrations of Johann Arndt's "The Garden of Paradise" (1879) and others.
In 1880, after passing the theological examination of the Curonian Consistory in Mitava (now Jelgava, Latvia), Martin Keturakat became pastor of the Ev. Lutheran congregation of Kretinga, Lithuania. In order to take up this position, he had to become a Russian citizen and renounce his Prussian citizenship. From November 1880 to 1883 he was in Kretinga, and from 1883 to 1892 he was pastor of the Ev. Lutheran congregation at Tauragė, Lithuania. He also served congregations in Batakiai (the church building there was dedicated on October 27th, 1885), Jurbarkas, Kelmė, Sartininkai, Žemaičių Naumiestis (the last baptism recorded by Rev. Keturakat there was on December 20th, 1892), Raseiniai, Skaudvilė, Šilalėand Žvyriai (Skirsnemunė).
Pastor Keturakat was an excellent preacher, a charity worker, and Lithuanian educator. After settling in Tauragė, he organized the transportation of banned Lithuanian language books. (At this time the Lithuanian language was being actively suppressed by the Russian Empire in favor of "Russification".) After coordinating with Russian border guards, he would load a large cart in Lithuania Minor and bring banned Lithuanian language literature (not only Protestant books, but also Catholic and secular) into Lithuania Major.
Beginning in 1888 he established prohibited schools in his congregations. He also worked for the legalization of Lutheran literature in the Lithuanian language: Parishioners M. Juozepaitis and J. Jurgutaitis wrote to the Raseiniai County clerk on November 24th, 1891 (probably at his urging), and on December 24th, 1891, Pastor Keturakat himself petitioned the governor of Kaunas.
Finally, Tauragė customs officers began to detain book parcels addressed to him. In one such shipment in 1892, they found Lithuanian language books. Five Lithuanian books in both Latin and Gothic letters were also found during a search of his house. Pastor Keturakat was then removed from his duties and forbidden from living in the districts of Vilnius, Kaunas, or Gardins (Lithuania) by decree of the Russian Tsar on September 29th, 1892. Pastor Keturakat then fled to Lithuania Minor.
Afterwards he lived in Jelgava, Latvia, for some time - possibly looking for a position as a pastor through the Curonian Consistory. After going to St. Petersburg (Russia) to ask for permission to live in Lithuania Major (he visited three of the Tsar's palaces), he was arrested again in 1895 and exiled - without his family - to the Caucasus, on the border of Turkey and Iran. For a time he served the small German community of Aleksandershilf, near Tbilisi, without pay, as pastor of an Evangelical Lutheran congregation (65 families).
On January 10th, 1896 he wrote a poetic letter to MK (probably Lutheran mission editor Mikelis Kybelka, 1837–1906) "Ah, Dear Brother in Christ! (Ah mylims brolau Kristuje!)" which was 51 quatrains long and printed by "Keleevis" (February 25th, 1896) in Priekulė, Lithuania. In 1897, Pastor Keturakat escaped from exile through Turkey and returned to Prussia to reunite with his family in Elbing (now Elbląg, Poland). At the beginning of July in the same year, as a Russian citizen (for he still held Russian citizenship), he and his family departed for the United States of America. They sailed from Hamburg on the steamship "Fürst Bismarck" among 5,000 passengers and reached American shores on July 16th.
They first settled in Chicago. Within two years, Pastor Keturakat would travel twenty thousand miles in America, visiting 25 cities where he found Lithuanian Lutherans. On April 20th, 1898, he stayed in Collinsville, Illinois, where he began to gather the first Lithuanian Ev. Lutheran congregation in the United States and organize the construction of its church building. But soon these efforts failed due to disagreements between the parishioners and the pastor.
In the same year (1898) Pastor Keturakat moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he established a joint German-Lithuanian Ev. Lutheran congregation and on March 5th, 1899 dedicated the first Lithuanian Ev. Lutheran church building in the USA. However, not much later, the Lithuanian parishioners quarreled with the Germans, the parish collapsed, and its property was eventually bought by the Germans.
After leaving Philadelphia, Martin Keturakat began serving as pastor of a German-speaking Wisconsin Synod parish in Eitzen, Minnesota. But as the people of Collinsville, IL, continued their efforts to gather a parish, Pastor Keturakat was invited to return there, and from 1900 to 1911 he lived in Collinsville where he helped establish the Lithuanian Jerusalem Ev. Lutheran Church and led the construction of its building. That same building, dedicated on October 25th, 1903, is serving the congregation today.
While living in Collinsville, Pastor Keturakat gathered Lithuanian Lutherans in neighboring St. Louis, Missouri, and in 1903 established a parish there. In Chicago, Illinois, together with Pastor Petrus Drignaičius, he helped organize Zion Ev. Lutheran Church (now in Oak Lawn, IL) which was officially established on December 4th, 1910, and which is still active today. He also maintained relations with Lithuanian Lutherans who lived in other areas.
While ministering in the United States, Pastor Keturakat was affiliated with the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. In addition to direct service to his congregations, he distributed "The Help (Pagalba)," a newspaper published by the Lithuanian Ev. Lutheran Educational Union and Charity Society. He also collaborated with "The Letter of the Conservative Society (Konservatyvų draugystės laiške)" and "The Lithuanian Newspaper (Lietuwißka Ceitunga)". He gave lectures on various topics to Lithuanian emigrants.
While still living in Lithuania Minor, Martin Keturakat married Anna Clashen. Five children were born to them: Martynas (Martin), Neomai (Naomi), Vilius (William), Lydia and Hannah. Both sons would become Lutheran pastors in the United States. Daughter Lydia Anna (1889-1975) would marry the Rev. Henry Edward Ziemer (1887-1978) of St. Louis, Missouri. Thus the family was very familiar with Lutheran ministry.
Before reaching his sixty-third birthday, Pastor Keturakat died of a heart attack on March 15th, 1911, in East St. Louis (Illinois) while visiting Rev. Carl Christoph Schmidt (1843-1925). He was solemnly buried at the Holy Cross Lutheran Cemetery in Collinsville on March 19th.
After the death of her husband, Anna (now a widow), moved to live with her daughter Naomi in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The eldest son, Martin, was ordained as a pastor after graduating from Concordia Seminary in Springfield, Illinois, and ministered in the Dakotas. He was pastor of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zeeland, North Dakota (established in October 1910) and a builder of the congregation's church building (in 1915). He later pastored outside of Summit, South Dakota (in Mazeppa Township, Grant County) as well as having served elsewhere. He died in 1937.
The younger son Vilius (Wilhelm, in German, or in English, William), who was born on September 3rd, 1886, in Tauragė, began his studies at Northwestern College in Watertown, Wisconsin, and in 1909 graduated from Concordia Seminary in Springfield, Illinois. He was ordained an Ev. Lutheran pastor in Collinsville in June of the same year. Also there (June 9th, 1910), he married Marie Mueller with whom he would have five children. After the death of his father, William Keturakat served as the pastor of the Lithuanian Jerusalem Ev. Lutheran parish of Collinsville in 1911-1913. Then, until his retirement in 1945, he served as a pastor in various parishes in Wisconsin. He died in 1965. William's son, Pastor Dr. Charles William Keturakat (1922-2013), ordained in 1947, served Lutheran parishes in Oklahoma, Texas, and from 1978, in Escondido, California. Although he no longer spoke Lithuanian, he tried to participate in the life of the Lithuanian community in the diaspora and supported the publishing of religious literature in Lithuanian.
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