For 15 years, beginning in about 1880, Confirmation or Catechism was taught in the parsonage. The first class was confirmed in 1881. The young people in these early classes were themselves German-born, as were their parents who built the church. Classes ran Monday through Thursday, November through Easter for two to three years.
At the annual meeting in 1895, the Congregation voted "to build a schoolhouse north of the Church." In essence this was a parochial school. For the next 70 years Confirmation or Catechism classes would meet in that schoolhouse.
From Rev. Spindler in 1880 until Rev. Bemberg in 1930, all classes were taught in High German by pastors who spoke no English. (At home, the families spoke Low German.) The contents of the Catechism were memorized, also many Psalms and hymns, plus oral reading and discussion from a special Bible storybook. Confirmands were taken from public school and educated by the pastor in the German School building.
By 1932 the two-year German Confirmation cycle would end. Confirmation went to Saturday classes, and sometimes summer classes, taught in English.
By 1964 the church basement had been excavated, with new oil furnaces added, providing a more comfortable place for students. So by 1965 the last Confirmation class was held in the 70-year-old schoolhouse.
The ageing building would be little used over the next 30 years.
However, by 1995 a renovation program would be completed by church members and others, in time to celebrate the centennial of the St. John's German Schoolhouse.
--adapted from the German School Centennial booklet, by Rev. Laura Odegard