Femme Osage United Church of Church

Femme Osage, St. Charles County, Missouri, USA

Map

The Femme Osage United Church of Christ is located at 4360 Cappeln Osage Road in the unincorporated village of Femme Osage, a short distance north of State Highway T, in St. Charles County, Missouri. The U.S. postal service address for the church is Augusta, Missouri 63332.

Founded by German immigrants in 1833 as the deutsche evangelische Kirchegemeinde (German Evangelical Congregation), it is reported to be the oldest Evangelical Church west of the Mississippi River. Since the merger in 1957 of the Evangelical and Reformed Church with the Congregational Christian Churches denomination, the congregation in Femme Osage has been known as Femme Osage United Church of Christ.

There are two burial grounds connected with the congregation at Femme Osage. The oldest is located across Cappeln Osage Road from the church. A later cemetery was created on the hill behind and overlooking the church and parsonage.

The birth and baptism of Heinrich Rudolph Fiegenbaum is recorded in the baptismal register of this church. In 1840, his father obtained a federal patent for 40 acres of land a few miles east of the church.

Herman Garlichs, the first pastor at Femme Osage, was instrumental in the founding of other congregations in the area, including the church at Holstein, Missouri. The archives of this congregation document the early life in Missouri of the Johann Heinrich and Catherina Elsabein (Hagen) Fiegenbaum family. Thirteen members of the nuclear and extended family emigrated from northwestern Germany in 1841.

Online Burial Records

Information is available for this cemetery at Find A Grave.com.