Late on autumn evening in the year 1748, three emigrant families from Berks County, Pennsylvania, came upon a small clear spring, deep in the Carolina woods, and being weary from their long day's journey, decided to make camp at this place for the night. Nearby lived an old German, and the sound of the campers' axes as they chopped wood for the campfire, soon attracted the settler to their camp. Great was the old man's surprise when he discovered that the travellers were not only from the north, but that they were his former neighbors--Georg and Ludwig KLAPP, and their borther-in-law, whose name was HUNTER. The following day was the Sabbath, and the KLAPP's and HUNTER's and their host spent it in exchanging stories about the country which they had left behind them and the beautiful, forest land into which god had mysteriously led them. On Monday, Herr HUNTER and his family bade their kinsmen goodbye and headed their wagon westward, but the KLAPP brothers and their families remained behind. A short time later, the KLAPP's bought a tract of land along Beaver Creek, and within a few months after their arrival in the willderness they had erected homes and had settled down to a new life. These two families and the other "Pennsylvania Deutsh" families who were to follow them, built the first Lutheran and Reforemed churches in what is today Guilford and Alamance Counties. Like the Quaker and Presbyterian neighbors, these pioneer Germans had brought their Bibles with them, and since there were no ministers among them, they were obliged to read the Word for themselves, and to worship privately in their homes. As their new settlement grew to considerable size, the two sects became aware of the need for churches. A log building was erected near the present Lowe's Lutheran church and the Old Salisbury (trading path) road, and there the two congregations worshipped together. The village schoolmaster, and occasionally a traveling preacher, read the scriptures to them in German. They sang together the hymns in teh "Geminschaftliche Gesangbuch". In some of the early union churches, Lutheran services where held one Sunday and Reformed services the following Sunday. The Reverend Christian THEUS, pastor of St. John's Reformed Church near Columbia, SC, made several missionary tours into piedmont North Carolina between the years 1745 and 1760, and it is probable that he was the first ordained minister to preach at the old log church in Guilford. However, most of the German congregations in this section were organized by the Reverend Samuel SUTHERS. Reverend SUTHERS began his ministry in North Carolina in June, 1768, and in October, 1771, he moved to the Guilford-Orange community. About this time, sentiments grewing out of the Regulation movement caused a division in the congregation of the original union church, and Reverend SUTHERS led a number of Reformed believer to a schoolhouse near the present site of the Brick Reformed Church in Guilford, where they erected an alter and began to hold services. Among the families who founded this church were the ALBRIGHTS, CLAPPS, FAUSTS, INGOLDS, SCHAEFFERS, and others, and for a number of years the meeting house was known as "Der KLAPP Kirche." Reverend John BITHAHN moved to Guilford County from Pennsylvania about the beginning of the Revolutionary War and succeeded Reverend SUTHERS as pastor of the CLAPP Church. He had a short ministry and died one Sabbath evening after he had delivered a forceful sermon. For the next twelve years the church had no pastor. Reverend Andrew LORETS, a traveling minister of the Reformed faith, visited the congregation at CLAPP's about four times a year. In 1801 Reverend Henry DIEFFENBACH begain a six year ministry with this congregation, following which they were again without a pastor for fourteen years. Jacob CLAPP, an elder of the church, or Johannis SCHERER, the schoolmaster, were usually in the pulpit on the Sabbath and services continued, even without a pastor. In 1812 Captain William ALBRIGHT was sent to the Reformed synod in Pennsylvania to secure a pastor for the curch. Young James RILEY came. The Reverend Mr. RILEY, was an able leader, under whom the congregation greatly increased and the building of a new church was begun. The dilapidated log schoolhouse was replace by a brick structure in 1814 which became known as "the Brick Church." In 1821, the Reverend John RUDY became its pastor, and after four years he was succeeded by the Reverend J.H. CRAWFORD who preached to the "Brick Church" congregation for twelve years. The Reverend G. William WELKER took charge of the congregation in 1841, and remained there for more than forty years. In the cemetery of the Brick Church lie the remains of several of these early churchmen and many of their devout congregations. STONER's (or STEINER's) Reformed Church near Belmont was founded by members of the Brick Church in 1758, and a German missionary, Reverend LEINBACH, was one of the first to preach there. Reverend WEYBURG became its first regular pastor. The church stood on a small peninsula between Alamance and Stinking Quarters Creek. Reverend John RUDY, Reverend LORETS, and other pastors of the CLAPP or Brick church served there, but the church services were finally suspended for lack of a regualr pastor. Two miles northwest of Gibsonville stands Friedens Evangelical Lutheran Church, which was founded as a union Lutheran and Reformed meeting about 1744. The first building there was a rustic structure of roughhewn logs which was called "SCHUMAKER's Church," but in 1771 the congregation was reorganized and a two-story frame building was erected. Several buildings have replaced, but the weathered stone steps of the original church have been used to form a monument that stands today in the old church cemetery. On top of it rests an open Bible, carved from granite. In addition to his minisry at the Brick Church, Reverend SUTHER was pastor at Friedens from from 1758-1771, and several other pastors of the Brick Church later served ehre. The name "Friedens" came from an old German word signifying peace and tranquility. St. Paul's Lutheran Church, two miles below E.M. HOLT School, was formally organized in 1773, and was long known as "GRAVES' Church" because of the family who originally owned the land. It became whollly Lutheran in 1801. St. Mark's Reformed Church, a mile and a quarter south of Elon College, was organized at Friedens soon after the Brick church. About 1857, the Reformed Congregation withdrew and held service under a bush arbor two miles southeast of Gibsonville near BOONE's Station on the old stagecoach route to Salisbury. The members constructed their church building a half mile south of the arbor in 1862. These were the parent Lutheran and Reformed churches from which later congregations of these faiths are descended. There was no English sopken in these churches before 1800, and some traces of the Germanic influence remain in their rites today. Because they spoke a language foreign to their neighbors, it was a long time before the "Pennsylvania Dutch" assumed any part in the government of their county and state, yet they proved themselves industrious, hard-working and devout. The officials at Hillsboro frequently took advantage of them, and such corruption bred the discontent which led to later revolutionary riots. George GOERTNER is noted as one of the earliest civil leaders and counselers in the German Settlements. In the latter part of the eighteenth century the names of Reformed and Llutheran leaders began to appear more and more frequently in the records, and some of them betgan to enter the responsible offices of government. Centennial History of Alamance County 1849-1949 by WHITAKER ==== NCORANGE Mailing List ==== Larry Noah - lrnoah@bigfoot.com - Listowner - NCORANGE mailing list Orange Co, NC USGenWeb site is at http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncorange