The collection is divided into five series: Historical Materials; Administrative Records; Financial Records; Church Organizations; and Photographs. Consisting of newspaper clippings, booklets, and miscellaneous correspondence, the HISTORICAL MATERIALS document the history of the Immanuel congregation. A transcription of an oral history collected circa 1890, with the English translation, concerning the founding of the Ebenezer parish, booklets issued for the 50th, 75th, and 100th anniversaries of the congregation, and a copy of the Immanuel congregation's constitution as well as the charter of the Emmanuel Methodist Episcopal Society are included in this series. Some of the records are in German.
The ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS consist primarily of two types of documents, the Official Board Minutes, and the Church Registers. The former are complete only from 1950 to 1966 and are mainly concerned with the daily administration of the congregation. Information on membership, baptisms, marriages, and deaths can be found in the Church Registers and Membership Rolls, which cover almost continuously the period from 1855 to 1974. Other details on the administration of the Immanuel Methodist Church can be found in the Quarterly Conference Reports and Correspondence, 1917-1924. The marriage affidavits and licenses, 1887-1980, provide valuable information for those interested in family history. Some of the documents are in German. The records of the educational activities of the Immanuel congregation are unfortunately limited to the Board of Education Minutes, which cover the period only from 1950 to 1961.
The FINANCIAL RECORDS consist primarily of the annual reports of
the treasurer. Most of the documentation concerns the local budget, the Apportionment Statistics and the Correspondence with the Board of National Missions. The latter two provide insight into the congregation's relationship with district and national Methodist organizations.
The social and structural changes affecting the Immanuel United Methodist Church and other German Methodist churches during this period are documented in the CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS series. Under Methodist Church national directives issued in 1939, auxiliary organizations such as the Women's Mission Society and the Martha Tarbell Circle were consolidated into the Women's Society of Christian Service. The Jugend Bund, which was the predecessor of the Epworth League, formed in 1898, thereafter became the Methodist Youth Fellowship. The German Sick Benefit Society was a fraternal insurance association, which assisted members of the congregation and the associated German community. Most of the materials, created before 1940, are in German. Regretfully, some organizations are not represented at all in this series, such as the Tabea Circle and men's groups, while the records for the represented organizations reflect their activities for a fairly brief time period.
The PHOTOGRAPHS contain prints of the church structure, congregation, members of sundry organizations, including the 1929 basketball team and some Sunday School classes. Photos of the 1882 and 1890 structures are in the collection along with those of the Kenosha Fire Department extinguishing the 1960 fire and the remodeling of the edifice resulting from that blaze. The series is divided into photographs that are dated (1882-1954), and those that are undated.
