Brun Serves in Dakota 18 Years

Pastor and Mrs. Nikolaus Brun on their wedding day.

Born in Odessa, Russia, on August 13, 1864, Nikolaus Brun, son of Leo and Sophie Brun, went to Germany as a young man and attended the Missionsanstalt at Neuendettelsau. In America he attended the Missouri Synod Seminary in St. Louis for a short time but soon joined the Iowa Synod and, receiving further education at Springfield, Missouri, and Wartburg Seminary, was ordained in Berlin,
Nebraska, on April 24, 1892.

He married Anna Pett, sister of Pastors Otto and Ernest Pett, on April 26, 1893. Of the Dakota congregations he served for 18 years, only St. James and one in Ashley, North Dakota, still exist today. After serving Leola from 1895 to 1897, he went to Krem, north of the present Hazen, North Dakota, 1899-1900; Jewell, North Dakota, 1902; Ashley, 1903-1904; Belle, 1905-1907; and Esmond, 1908 -19 12, both in South Dakota.

After Bethune, Colorado, where he served the Immanuel church until 1915, he moved to the Zion church of Phillipsburg, Kansas, where he remained active until 1924. After his death on April 19, 1925, Mrs. Brun moved to Longmont, Colorado, with the four youngest children. She passed away there March 1, 1956, and was buried beside her husband at Phillipsburg.

Information furnished by Marie, now Mrs. Frank Oehlke, of St. Paul, Minnesota, the oldest of the ten children, also reveals that a brother died in infancy at Bethune. Other children are Mrs. Gus (Amelia) Adolf, of Wapato, Washington; John, of Enderlin, North Dakota; Mrs. John (Beatta) Gundel, Portland, Oregon; Mrs. Richard (Dorothy) Gundel, Cupertina, California; Mrs. J. W. (Albertine) Fonda, Poplar Bluff, Missouri; Mrs. Annie Ring, Denver, Colorado; Mrs. Jesse (Wilma) Merlan, Moscow, Idaho; and Herman, of Long Beach, California.