Janson: Dixville Lutheran gets new temporary members

Here's a cool episode in Buckman/Pierz history, told partly by our friend Anon, and corroborated by someone else's family story. It concerns the school/church controversy in Pierz (c. 1900 to 1960).
I've been corresponding with Charlie Brandl's grandson Kyle, and asked him if this story sounded familiar:

"When Anon was a kid (1950s), he helped at Zenners store, especially on Sunday mornings. He said there were very few cars thru Buckman at the time, so those that did drive by were notable.

A few Sundays in a row, he noticed the same car, with two men, headed south thru town, and then it would return in a couple hours. He asked Kilian or Dela who those men were, and was told they were Mr Gau, who'd been excommunicated over the school controversy in Pierz, and his friend Mr Wermerskirchen, the editor of the Pierz Journal.

Rather than NOT go to church at all, Mr Gau had joined the Dixville Lutheran church, and Mr Wermerskirchen was angry at the priest in Pierz for excommunicating Gau, so he quit St Josephs too".

And here's Kyle's reply:

"I haven't heard that story specifically, but it certainly sounds accurate. My grandfather Alfred (James) Wermerskirchen was the editor of the Pierz Journal, and was neighbors with Mr. Gau on Main Street in Pierz, across the street from the church. I know that they were friends, and also that my grandmother, Gladys... was of German-Lutheran decent, and grew up in Little Falls. She happened to attend the Dixville church as well. Each of their children attended school in Little Falls as a result of falling out with the Pierz church over the school controversy. That is, all except my dad who attended Pierz, I am told, to play sports. Nonetheless, I've always been told the whole family attended St. Joseph's on Sundays except my grandmother, so I'm not sure if my grandfather W. actually quit St. Josephs.

There are many amusing stories I have heard over the years about minor friction between my grandparents and the parish. It seemed that my grandmother, as a Lutheran, was more willing then many other townsfolk to call a spade a spade so far as the church was concerned, so that her other friends, who were members of the parish, would come to her to set the priest straight on one issue or another. It is definitely a relic of another time, as I don't think the town priest has as much clout, for good or bad, today".