The Prairie Bible Camp Board of Directors has published an impressive book of the history of the Lehr Tabernacle, 1921-2021. The Board of Directors are Robert Erbele, Charles Gray, Doreen Bechtle, Rosemary Hauff, Stacy Bader, Coreen Schumacher, Norman Stickelmyer, Beth Erbele and Kara Scherbenske Salzer. The centennial book includes many written memories of persons who attended the Lehr Tabernacle camps.
Rosemary (Fischter/Doll) Hauff writes in the book, “The Lehr Tabernacle, setting in rural North Dakota, certainly cannot be considered as ordinary. To be standing intact after one hundred years of severe summer winds, hail, tornadoes, droughts and floods, heavy snows, and bitter cold temperatures, is a sign of God’s grace surrounding us. Many of the people living in the communities that were building the Tabernacle were first generation Americans. They did not speak English, as evidenced by the written German history of the Tabernacle, the words and lettering, and the long history of German services.”
Carolyn Schott, Seattle, WA, with ancestry to the Fredonia/Kulm area, writes, “The idea of holding the camp meetings in the area started sometime around 1915. The first camp meeting in Lehr occurred in 1921 and was held next to the old Evangelical church in Lehr. In 1921, the Evangelical churches of Lehr, Streeter, Wishek, Linton, Napoleon, Kulm and Ashley formed a German Camp Meeting Association. The Lehr Tabernacle was built in 1922, and old-fashioned evangelistic tent meetings were held each year for a week or longer. These meetings drew people from Evangelical churches all over North Dakota and South Dakota.”
The Lehr Tabernacle, also known at Prairie Bible Camp, was featured in an article in North Dakota Horizons, Spring, 2017, “Lehr Tabernacle on the Prairie,” written by Ronald Vossler. “During a half century and beyond, evangelical farm families, mostly Dakota Germans, crowded the Tabernacle, which was built to seat 1,500. Crowds of 2,000 were not uncommon, and once at least 7,000 worshippers stood 12 deep at the door of the Tabernacle straining to hear the sermon and song.”
“The original gatherings stretched over two weeks, including three Sundays, with families living together in tents or small cabins. They cooked on kerosene stoves, prayed their German prayers. The heart of the Tabernacle serive was the communal prayers, when people knelt on sweet scented straw that lay thick on the earth floor, which raised dust as attendees sought their seats. Songs at the Tabernacle shifted over times, from old standby that were not liturgical like, “Gott ist die Liebe: and “So Wie ich Bin.”
Ila Rae Reich, Eureka, SD, attended the camp with her mother beginning in 1939 when she was two years old until her senior year in high school. Ila again attended the camp from 2000 until 2021. She wrote, “ I love the Tabernacle for its memories, my childhood, my youth, and the comfort in my aging process. Only in North Dakota can one find a yearly contentment for the soul – the Lehr Tabernacle. I remember the large crowd with the ladies wearing hats, men wore white shirts, suits and ties, and children running around. The windows of the Tabernacle opened wide for air circulation and sitting on straw bales, on a dirt floor. There were picnic lunches after church on Sunday, and blankets were spread out on the green lawn. We had fried chicken, lukewarm coffee with milk in the thermos, and pie for dessert. With a mass choir where all the voices were welcome, the music rang out to cover the whole land. The services on Thursday were held in German, with Holy Communion. Flowers and plants were placed on the altar in memory of past family members.”
The Lehr Tabernacle is octagonal. Originally it has dirt floors covered in straw and provided bench seating for about 1,500 with just one center aisle. Later a cement floor was laid and pews from local churches installed. Initially the back of the Tabernacle included four small bedrooms for visiting pastors. The grounds included a kitchen – only a tent at first, but later a real kitchen building was constructed. Dormitories were built, and in the late 1960s the camp was connected to the Lehr city water system.
