Church celebrates Anna Motz’s 98th
The 160-year-old Lisbon Presbyterian Church on Hillside Road hosted a birthday party for a lifetime member who was celebrating her 98th birthday April 6.
Posted: April 23, 2008 Sussex Sun
By FRED H. KELLER
The 160-year-old Lisbon Presbyterian Church on Hillside Road hosted a birthday party for a lifetime member who was celebrating her 98th birthday April 6.
Anna Sophia is the oldest and most senior member of the church, with a treasure trove of stories about its history.
She was born April 11, 1910, to Fred and Anna DeCaluwe. They lived on a 40-acre farm on the southwest corner of Plainview and Woodside roads in Lisbon, without electric lights, telephone, radio or indoor plumbing. They traveled to the one-room church by horse and buggy when it was warm and by a cutter with skis over the snow in winter. They were the last family to travel to church by horse and buggy.
Anna attended Sunday school at the church and later taught there herself.
She also attended the one-room North Lisbon School, the two-year Sussex High School in downtown Sussex (Village Hall today) and Menomonee Falls High School for her final two years, graduating in 1930.
Anna married Otis Walter Motz of Colgate at the church on June 23, 1943. In 1953, they built their house on 9 acres in Colgate that his father gave them. They had one son, and later three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Otis died in 1998.
In September 1943, the newly formed Lisbon Presbyterian Salt and Pepper Club elected Helen Rankin its first president and Anna its first secretary. The deacons of the church were organized in 1961 with Anna as a charter member and elder.
Anna is also a charter member of the 1961-founded Menomonee Falls Business and Professional Women’s Club, a member of Richfield Senior Citizens Club and its secretary for many years, and an honorary member of Germantown Senior Citizens Club.