Pastor Louis John Haas was born April 2, 1844 at Durlach, Baden, Germany. He attended elementary school until age 14 in Germany. His mother, Barbara Haas, a devout Christian, "Taught him love for Jesus in his heart." He worked in a mission as director for one year and was ordained by Pastor Adolph Stoeber in Muhlhausen, Germany on May 2, 1869. Shortly after ordainment he and other missionaries were sent to Kyebi on the Gold Coast, West Africa.While there, he subscribed to a picture bride service, (a common practice at that time-recall Seattle's famous Mercer girls). Through the service he met his first wife Maria Gattin (nee Strub). They were married on December 19, 1872. (Nordsten's translation of Haas's obituary states that Maria suffered a stroke on November 6, 1873.) Verbal accounts received from children of Haas' second marriage relate that Maria and Louis had two children who died of yellow fever, and that Maria later died o sleeping sickness, carried by the tsetze fly. Haas developed malaria while in Africa, but suppressed it with quinine.Louis remained in Africa until 1874, when he was called home to attend his mother, who died September 11, 1874, at Durlach. (Per the obituary translation, he suffered a breakdown shortly after November 6, 1873 and requested and was granted permission to return home for the 1874. Three weeks after arriving home in august of 1874, his aged mother passed away. Ruth Anne Goos Halligan) He spent a year and a half with Baron Julian von Gemmingen in Gernsbach on the church publication "Christliches Kolportageverein". Louis Haas came to America in the fall of 1876. His first assignment, on December 16, 1876, was at Loudenville, Ohio.Louis Haas, now 33 years old, married his second wife, Wilhelmine Augusta Locher, age 19, in March 1877. They had 12 or 13 children, nine of who survived until adulthood. Their first child, Marie, was born a year later. He had pastoral assignments in Newark, Ohio; Napoleon, Missouri; Manchester, Missouri; McWilliams, Nebraska; and Old Monroe, Missouri. A new child was born at every stop along the way. At Old Monroe, he had a recurrence of malaria, which caused many severe headaches. After the General Synod of 1899 he acquired the task of editor of the "The Theological Magazine", which he performed until his death April 7, 1914.In September 1906, the Louis Haas family and several other families moved to Otis Orchards, Washington (suburb of Spokane) where he became Pastor of a newly build church. Services were given in both English and German. The family, now large, started a small farm, not far from the church. The soil was not particularly good, and the developers who sold him his tract greatly overcharged him. It was many years before the place was free of debt. Louis John Haas had become a highly educated man, who spoke seven languages: English, German, French, Latin, Greek, and two African dialects, the Gee and the Ga. He retranslated the original Greek Bible to German one or more times. He was very strong headed and did not believe that education should be wasted on women. He thought this was "dumheit", or nonsense. His youngest daughter, Catherine was the only daughter to graduate from high school; although several of her brothers did. Catherine maintained an English and German corrspondence with her aunt Elsie Locher Weber as long as Elsie remained alive. Elsie, who lived in Webster Groves, Missouri (suburb of St. Louis), kept close touch with Casper Wilhelm Locher, and routinely sent Catherine clippings about "Uncle Will's" publicities during the late 20's and early 30's.In the summer of 1914 his wife (Wilhelmina Augusta Marie Locher) was struck by lightning, which hit the distribution box she was attending following a power failure. The burns received caused blindness, which continued until cataract surgery nine years later. She died in 1927.Both Louis John and Wilhelmina Locher Haas are buried in the Saltese Cemetery, in Greenacres, Washington (near Otis Orchards).