Iowa State Bank

Rev. Bernard Braskamp (far left, standing next to the casket), chaplain for the United States House of Representatives, presides over the graveside funeral service for Speaker of the House of Representatives Sam Rayburn at Willow Wild Cemetery in Bonham, Texas, 1961. Seated in the front row are former presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower, President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Carl Hayden of Arizona, and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. Photo by Cecil Stoughton, White House Photographs, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston (Public Domain).

ALTON NATIVE WAS ‘COUNSELOR, FRIEND AND BROTHER’ TO MEMBERS OF CONGRESS

Even though he had to walk several miles from his home in Alton to school in Orange City, Bernard “Ben” Braskamp was never late for 8 a.m. chapel services at Northwestern Classical Academy, As the forerunner of Northwestern College, the Northwestern Classical Academy was established to prepare students for the ministry. Ben Braskamp’s ministry eventually led him to be the spiritual counselor for some of most powerful politicians who ever served in the U.S. Congress.

Born in Alton on Feb. 18, 1887, Bernard Braskamp graduated from the academy in 1903 at the age of 16. He then earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan; master’s degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary and Princeton University; and was later awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Hanover College. Ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1911, he spent nearly 40 years as a pastor in Washington, D.C., initially serving the congregation of what later became known as the National Presbyterian