>From the records of Old Otterbein Church, Conway & Sharp Streets, Baltimore, Maryland Membership Lists Whatever records were kept from 1771 - 1785 are lost. However, by their names being on legal documents connected with the purchase of the ground, and by the reference to their names found in the old histories, it is quite certain that the following were members in 1771, or within a year thereafter: Pastor Benedict SCHWOPE......................Conrad SMITH John STOVER..........................................Valentine LARSH George DAGEN. 1785 On the first of January, 1785, Pastor OTTERBEIN submitted a document for the government of the Church and had all the male members of legal age sign it. Fifty-four adult males signed their names. Since each man represented a family, it is quite easily possible the real membership at the time was 250 or more. The names on this list were: The Vestry --- P.W.OTTERBEIN....................... Philip BIER Leonard HARBAUGH.................. William BAKER Heinrich WEIDNER...................... Abraham LORSH Peter HOFFMAN MEYER, George; DAGAN, George; WELSH, Jacob; SCHULTZ, Johannes; SLAGEL, Christian; DEVILBLISS, George; UHRIG, Jacob; WAHL, Johannes; OSTER, Philip; LERUH, Johann George; SCHMAL, Jacob-( Architect of the building ); RESSLER, Matthaus; DOHNER, Henrich; KNAACK, Christian Friedrich; CRONMILLER, Thomas; GROBB, Andreas; MEYER, Jacob; SCHOHN, Peter; BERGMAN, Peter; BECKER, Heinrich; ZOLLIKOFER, Johan Conrad; TOOL, Thomas; CRUSE, Jacob; KONIG, Thomas; SCHMIDT, Jacob; FOLTZ, Wilhelm; NEUMAN, Jacob; REHMAN, Daniel; MATTHIA, Christian; BOCK, Johannes; ZUMWALD, Gottfried; SCHROEDER, Jacob; KAMMERLY, Jacpb; SUSENOB, Adam; BENDER, Jacob; SOMVALT, George; SCHRAER, Ludwig; HEITMAN, Herrman; GIMBEL, Heinrich; GROB, Peter; GROB, Michael; RAUMEL, Thomas Arnold; LAHUM, Franz; KLEINFELTER, Jacob; FREY, Samuel; KNATZ, Jacob; FOWBLE, Peter. We have no way of knowing if all the above men signed their name on the same day. It is quite possible some of the names were added even years later. **** So this is another source of material that if anyone needs a look-up, it can be accomplished. This has a record of childs name, dob, baptized, & parents names. Then it also has names with dates of death's included, amoung other things. Tim Robinson Baltimore, Maryland *****************
Tim, Thank you for passing along that information. I think Old Otterbein was a spin off of First German Reformed Church (aka Second Street German Reformed Church). In the early 1770s a split within the congregation led a group to form Second Reformed, which later became Old Otterbein. Some of the names included in Old Otterbein's early Membership List may well have ties prior to 1771 to First German Reformed. That would be another good source to check out. For more information about First German Reformed visit: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~zimzip/balto/churches2.htm#first Karen ============================================= "Family Ties" http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~zimzip Including: "Field Trip: Baltimore","Field Trip:St.Louis", "Zimmerman/Zimmermann Database in Wisconsin" and "KaylorDatabase in Maryland", plus Chuck & Marcelle Keehne's Golden Anniversary Site Karen Keehne Zimmerman zimzip@attbi.com zimzip@yahoo.com ==============================================