Confirmation - Palm Sunday

Story

Pictured are confirmands - all the girls in white on the front row are displaying their bibles.

Location

The pulpit and altar behind the confirmands is very much like that shown in a picture of the Zion Lutheran Church - Grand Prairie Township  [1] [2] pulpit and altar [3].  There are differences both of the altar and the stairs leading up to the pulpits as well as the wall in the background.  Possibly the church sacturary had been remodeled.

Who's Who

There are 14 people shown in the picture. I am assuming that the man on the right side in back is the pastor. The two men in the back row appear to be much older than the six boys in the middle row - I suspect that these two were either teachers in the Zion Lutheran School or were elders of the church.  Checking the list of confirmands for Zion Lutheran Church through 1924[4], there were 11 confirmands in 1913 - including five girls and six boys,  assuming that Dena is a boy.

1. GEHRING, Ida
2. JANSSEN, Otto
3. JANSSEN, Wilhem
4. JOHNSON, Dena
5. JOHNSON, George
6. JOHNSON, Hanna
7. MAURER, Edward
8. MAURER, Elsa
9. MICHAELSEN, Lucia
10. SIEBLER, Henry
11. WENDT, Freida

Possibly this was the confirmation class shown here. If 1913 is the correct date, the pastor would be Pastor Fredrich Spriegel who arrived in 1912 and served to 1921[5].

Date

Confirmation is usually on a Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter.  From above, the year is assumed to be 1913.

Notes

1. Curry, Margaret. History of Platte County, Nebraska. Murray & Gee, Culver City, California. 1950. p. 271 - Zion Lutheran Church. http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/topic/resources/OLLibrary/Platte/pages/hpcn0048.htm
2. McLaughlin, Tom.  Zion Lutheran Church - rural Platte Center, NE. https://www.flickr.com/photos/thebouncingczech/7568055712/in/photostream/
3. Zion Lutheran Church Altar. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~neplatte/churches/zionaltar.html
4. Platte County, Nebraska - Zion Lutheran Church Confirmands - through 1924. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~neplatte/churches/zionluthc.html 
5. Platte County, Nebraska Zion Lutheran Church - Former Pastors. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~neplatte/churches/zionpastors.html