This is a brief history of the oldest Reformed Church west of the
Mississippi. Nestled in the rollig hills of farm country in eastern Iowa, a village blossomed.
They named the place Harmony Grove. Later, since that name was in use elsewhere, the name of
the village was changed to Zwingle, named after the Swiss reformer, Ulrich Zwingli. But the
church remained Harmony Church. The first pastor was F. C. Bauman of the
German Reformed Church in the United
States. The church was set in order on Christmas Day 1851. Bauman pastored the church
from his official call the Fall 1853 until his death September 25, 1909. Altogether,
counting his initial service as a summertime student pastor, he invested his adult life in
service to this congregation: 56 years. It is interesting that this congregation started out
with a student pastor and now calls students from Dubuque Seminary to fill their pulpit.
Pastor Bauman's grave can be found off the northwest corner of the church building in the
historic Harmony Church cemetery.
Most of this history has been adapted from the Harmony Church 125th Anniversary
Celebration booklet, complier unknown. The About page contains data on the mergers
that led to the UCC, and was borrowed from the
UCC.org web site. Sharon Workman, a great, great granddaughter of F. C. Bauman,
contributed many photos and other information.The transcription to electronic media was done
by Dr. Larry Vern Newman who served as the 16th
pastor of Harmony Church, from August, 1972 to May, 1974 while a student at the
University of Dubuque Theological Seminary. This is a
labor of love and is intended to be free to all who have an interest in Harmony Church.
I dedicate this volume to the late John Shady and his wife Hazel Shady, leaders in the
church, who were generous in care and helpfullness to this overloaded seminarian while I
crammed three years of studies into two. Thank you Hazel!
