Louis Penningroth and family papers and research files

Louis Philip Penningroth was born on November 19, 1888, in Red Oak Grove, about five miles north of Tipton, Iowa on the family farm. He had seven living siblings, and was the third eldest child after his brother Charles and sister Martha. He learned German in the family home, and didn't fully learn English until his school years. Louis graduated from Tipton high school in 1908, with intentions of moving on directly to college. However, he was convinced to stay and work on the family farm another year, while also teaching at the high school. Following his older brother Charles, Louis began attending the University of Iowa in 1909, and graduated in 1913. At Iowa, he became involved in the University chapter of the YMCA, and served as President of that organization for three years. He subsequently attended Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

During World War I, Louis worked in Austria for the YMCA war relief, working with POWs from the Eastern Front, including Russian prisoners of war. It was from this experience he learned Russian. Once the United States entered the war, in April 1917 Louis was expelled from Austria, as he was a citizen of a combatant country. He returned to the United States briefly, then travelled to Russia to assist the troops in Moscow and St. Petersburg, serving as the YMCA Secretary of War Prisoners Aid . In June, 1918, the Allies intervened in Northern Russia, and soon after that in October 1918, there was an assassination attempt on Lenin's life. As a result, all foreigners were expelled from Russia, and Louis was one of the last to leave the country.

Louis was then stationed in Copenhagen in early 1919, where he learned of a number of Allied soldiers being held as prisoners of war by the Bolsheviks, captured during the Allied intervention in North Russia months before. While he was unable to obtain an official visa, he did receive special travel documents from charities and government officials in Scandinavia, and headed to the Russian border town of Vyborg, where he convinced the authorities there to let him enter the country, and then went directly to Moscow to work on freeing the Allied POWs. He was able to convince Lenin's Foreign Commissar, Georgy Chicherin, to allow six American and six British POWs to leave the country with him, but it was his responsibility to determine who would go with him and who would remain in the prison. Louis interviewed candidates before making a selection. His travel group included the twelve liberated POWs, one woman, and a bulldog abandoned by an American business man. In April, 1919, Louis turned over the liberated men to the American and British ambassadors in Stockholm, and returned to the United States. Once stateside, Louis was bombarded with anti-Bolshevik sentiments, and the disapproval of the YMCA. He was expelled from the organization, and was required to remain silent on his experiences abroad.

In September, 1919, Louis married Ethel Blythe and focused on his religious vocation. Louis was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1921, and around mid-October of that same year, Louis was appointed the minister of the Lowry Hill Congregational Church, on the corner of Franklin and Dupont Avenues, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 1922, the Lowry Hill Church was destroyed by fire and plans were made to rebuild at a new location on 21st Street and Lake of the Isles Boulevard as Lake of the Isles Church. The construction was hampered by opposition from parts of the neighborhood and financial difficulties. Ultimately, Louis resigned from Lake of the Isles Church in 1927 and went on to serve at churches in the Iowa cities of Atalissa, Davenport, and Red Oak Grove. Louis additionally ran the family farm in Tipton while raising a family with Ethel. Louis enjoyed writing of his experiences, including the self-published Horse and Buggy Days, about his childhood on the farm in Iowa, as well as Retirement and You, Modern Proverbs, and More Modern Proverbs.