Nearly 100 years later, John Franzman’s altars are still in use today
Tue, 09/19/2017 - 9:22am
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John Franzman was born in Limberg, Geramany, in 1866. He was orphaned at a very young age. When he was just a child, his father was lost in a forest and froze to death during a severe snowstorm. Soon after this, his mother also died. With no family to care for him, the government took over and saw to it that he was educated and taken care of.
It was customary early in life, especially for a boy, what life work they were going to be trained for. It was decided that John Franzman had the abilities and a keen interest in wood carving and wood-related activities, so as early as 10 years of age, John was apprenticed to a carpenter shop with a cabinet maker and it was there that he learned the skills he would use in such a creative way in a land far from the land of his birth many years later.
John and Katrina Franzman, were married in 1891 in Germany and decided to come to America that same year. They first went to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where John hoped to become a cabinet maker. There was no work to be had so he, instead, took a job as a gardener. The family later moved to Crystal, ND, in order to work in the harvest fields. Among some of the first families to move to the Grygla area in 1897, the Franzmans built a 2-room log shack with a sod roof, and started farming in Espelie Township. There were no roads and not much more than woods and meadows. The farm prospered, but the skills John had learned for building fine furniture were put on hold, except for when the children of early settlers passed away and he would offer to make their small wooden coffins.
The Franzman family included six children: Gustaf (died in infancy), Alfred, Minnie, Ida, Johnny and Alice.
In 1920, a German Lutheran minister, Rev. H. Lutz, began to have services both in German and English. As more German people moved to the area, services couldn’t continue to be held in homes, so in 1930, a small church was built in Grygla. It came to be called Bethel Lutheran Church.
Here was the chance John Franzman had been waiting for. He offered to make the altar for the church. He converted a chicken coop into a carpenter’s shop before he began. The work was time consuming, involving much intricate design. John drew his own designs and special kinds of wood had to be ordered from seven different countries. All cutting, fitting, pressing and polishing had to be done with hand tools. Much inlay work was done.
After people saw the beauty of the finished altar, he was asked to make others. He built four in all, with a fifth one in question. In three of the churches, he also made a pulpit, baptismal font and kneeling rail, in addition to the altars.
The first one was smaller in comparison to the others. He wanted to make a larger one for his church, and did so with the smaller one being sold to a church in Goodridge.
Two colors of wood were used for the diagonal design of the inlay. Posts and pillars were carved by hand. Raised designs and religious symbols were carefully carved and then painted with gold paint. The work is that of a true artist.
When the Bethel Church dissolved, the altar was given to the Bemidji Museum and later transferred to the Historical Society in Warren and can still be seen there today. Two are still in use today at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, 15 miles east of Grygla, and St. Petri Lutheran Church, a few miles west of Grygla. The fourth altar that was sent to Goodridge was in use at First Lutheran, then Faith Lutheran Church, and was then sent to St. Paul in 2007 and is now displayed at the Minnesota Historical Society, along with the tools John used for his handiwork.
John started his first alter at age 65 and made his last altar in 1938 at 72 years old. He died of cancer at the age of 72. In his obituary, Rev. Anderson was quoted saying, “John was one of the finest men I have ever met. He thought mostly of beautifying the House of God. He forgot the monetary end and his own work. He enjoyed his work very much and anyone seeing the altars can partially realize the loving touch and infinite care required to make them so exquisite.”
Farmer carves altar for Grygla Church
(Taken from the Grygla Eagle in November of 1930.)
Cabinet maker in Vienna as a young man, pioneer of Northern Minnesota, John Franzman, Sr. has given to Bethel Evangelical Church of Grygla a work of art, the creation of his own hands.
The gift is an altar, exquisitely carved, which will grace the front of the edifice in which Grygla Lutherans worship.
For 38 years, Mr. Franzman has farmed in this community. Hands skilled to the use of tricky instruments for fashioning delicate carved wonders during that time have known the feel of a plow. Have repaired machinery, milked cows, built fences and cared for stock.
That his hands had not lost their oldtime cunning, Mr. Franzman found to his amazement when he began the altar. Perhaps the fact that he wanted so much to make a gift to his church had something to do with his skill. In any event, his family, like himself, was astounded and members of the church came to exclaim over the perfection of the altar he had wrought.
The altar was dedicated here with ceremonies conducted by the pastor, Rev. E.F. Lorenz.