This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: JanRobison Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.northcarolina.counties.rowan/12357.1.1.4.3/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Nussmann, 224 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY CHAPTER XXVIII LUTHERANISM IN ROWAN The Lutheran Church in Rowan County is composed chiefly, but not exclusively, of the descendants of those German settlers who began to occupy the county about 1745. Fortunately for the history of this people, the Rev. Dr. Bernheim, in his book, entitled "History of the German Settlers and of the Lutheran Church in the Carolinas," has gathered up and preserved the traditions and documents that tell the story of their settlement and religious life. The author of these pages had intended that this chapter should be written by a minister or layman of the Lutheran Church, but succeeded only in securing a very brief but most interesting Sketch of Organ Church, by the Rev. Samuel Rothrock. For the general account he is indebted to Dr. Bernheim's interesting volume, which has been freely used in composing this chapter. St. John's Lutheran Church in Salisbury is entitled to the distinction of being the oldest Lutheran congregation organized in the Province of North Carolina. In the year 1768, John Lewis Beard, a wealthy citizen of Salisbury, and a member of the Lutheran Church, was bereaved by the death of a daughter, and her body was interred in a lot of ground owned by her father. To prevent her remains from being disturbed by the march of civilization, Mr. Beard executed a deed for the lot, containing one hundred and forty-four square poles, to a body of trustees of the Evangelical Lutheran congregation, of the township of Salisbury, allowing ministers of the High Church of England to occupy it when not used by the Lutherans. Upon this lot, now known as the Lutheran graveyard, or Salisbury Cemetery, the congregation soon after erected a log church, or block-house. All this was in preparation for some minister whom they expected in time to obtain. Five years later, in 1773, the Rev. Adolph Nussmann, a ripe and thorough scholar, and devoted and self-sacrificing Christian, was induced to come from Germany to Rowan County. After laboring in Salisbury and Organ Church for a short time, Mr. Nussmann removed from Salisbury and took charge of Buffalo Creek Church St. John's-in Mecklenburg, now Cabarrus. At the same time that Mr. Nussmann came from Germany, Mr. Gottfried Ahrend came over as schoolmaster. As ministers were much needed, and Mr. Ahrend was qualified, he was ordained to the work of the ministry 225 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY in 1775. As he preached at Organ Church-then called Zion's Church-from 1775 to 1785, it is probable that part of his time was devoted to the Salisbury Church. In 1785, Mr. Ahrend removed from Rowan to Lincoln County. For twelve years these two Lutheran ministers, with the Rev. Mr. Beuthahn, a German Reformed minister, labored among the German population of Rowan, Cabarrus, Lincoln, Catawba, Iredell, Davidson, Guilford, and other counties. At this time the Rev. Mr. Harris, and after him the Rev. Samuel E. McCorkle, was preaching to the Presbyterians at Thyatira, Rev. James Hall in Iredell, and Rev. David Caldwell in Guilford. These seven were breaking the bread of life to the thousands of people in this vast region. Soon after the arrival of Messrs. Nussmann and Ahrend, the Revolutionary War opened, and for nearly eight years all correspondence with the Fatherland was cut off, and the congregations and ministers of Rowan were left to their own resources. No ministers, no books, no material aid or sympathy came to cheer them. Besides this, Mr. Nussmann was persecuted by the Tories, and forced to seek safety by hiding himself in a secure retreat, not far from his residence on Dutch Buffalo. At the close of the war, Mr. Nussmann reopened correspondence with friends in Germany, and in 1787 the Lutheran Church in North Carolina was put into connection with the parent church. A supply of books was obtained from Helmstadt, in the Duchy of Brunswick, and a call for several ministers to labor in North Carolina was preferred by Pastor Nussmann to Dr. Velthusen. In 1787, the Rev. Christian Eberhard Bernhardt, a native of Stuttgard, was sent to Rowan. His first charge was on Abbott's Creek, Davidson County, where he labored for a year. He afterwards labored for several years in Stokes, Forsyth, and Guilford Counties, and in 1800 removed to South Carolina. The year 1788 was signalized by the arrival in Rowan of one who may be called the apostle of the Lutheran Church in Rowan. This was the Rev. Carl August Gottlieb Storch. He was sent out by the Helmstadt Missionary Society, and was a native of Helmstadt, and educated at the University of that city. Upon his arrival he took charge of the Salisbury, Pine, and Organ Churches. The Pine Church Called Union-he soon resigned, and next year an to preach in the "Irish Settlement," once a month, for which he was promised thirteen or fourteen pounds, about thirty-five dollars. His salary for the two churches of Salisbury and Organ was eighty pounds (£80), paper money, equal to two hundred dollars. The lees for funerals and marriage ceremonies averaged one dollar each, 226 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY and may have amounted to fifty dollars annually, the whole amounting to nearly three hundred dollars. With the simple habits of those early days, and the cheapness of the necessaries of life, this salary of three hundred dollars was more liberal than the average minister's salary of these days. Besides having charge of these churches, Mr. Storch had charge of a small German school in Salisbury, and gave instructions in Hebrew to some pupils in the Salisbury Academy. Whether he realized any income from the schools is not known. Not long after this he married Miss Christine Beard, daughter of John Lewis Beard, and lived in the house on the corner of Main and Franklin Streets. After this he removed to what is now known as the Chilson place, one and a half miles east of Salisbury. A few years afterward he gave up the Salisbury Church, and moved ten miles south of Salisbury, on the New Concord Road, convenient to his three churches, Organ, Savitz's, and Dutch Buffalo. Here he spent the remainder of his life. On the twenty-seventh of March, 1831, Dr. Storch died, aged nearly sixty-seven years. His dust reposes in the graveyard of the Organ Church, where a suitable stone marks the spot and commemorates his life and labors. He was a ripe scholar, familiar with the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages, and it is said that he could converse fluently in five or six different tongues. Abundant in labor, crowned with honors, and rich in the affection of his people, he departed full of faith and hope in the Redeemer. His long service of more than forty years, including the critical period of his people's transition from the use of the German to the use of the English language, did much to preserve Lutheranism from decay and extinction in Rowan County. It is because of his labors, doubtless, that the Lutherans are, at the present day, equal in numbers to all other denominations together in this county. But to return. A few months after Mr. Storch's arrival, in 1788, Rev. Arnold Roschen, a native of Bremen, was sent to North Carolina by the Helmstadt Mission Society, and upon his arrival began his labors on Abbott's Creek, now in Davidson County. We may mention in passing that, in 1791, the present massive stone church was erected for the Organ congregation, and an organ of excellent quality was built by Mr. Steigerwalt, one of the members of the church. As this organ was the first and only instrument of the kind in the county it gave the name to the church, which it retains to this day. In 1794, the Lutheran pastors, Nussmann, Ahrend, Roschen, Bernhardt, and Storch, ordained to the work of the ministry Robert Johnson Miller, obliging him to obey the "Rules, ordinances, and 227 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY customs of the Christian Society called the Protestant Episcopal Church in America." This was a singular proceeding, but the request was made by Mr. Miller, and a congregation in Lincoln County which desired his services, and it is said was counseled by the Presbyterians. Mr. Miller afterwards sought and obtained Episcopal ordination at the hands of Bishop Ravenscroft. The number of Lutheran ministers in North Carolina was reduced by the death of Mr. Nussmann in 1794, the removal of Mr. Bernhardt to South Carolina in 1800, and the return of Roschen to Germany the same year. Dr. Storch was however reinforced by the Rev. Adam N. Marcand, who became pastor of St. John's Church, Cabarrus, in 179'T. He however remained but two years. In 1801, the Rev. Philip Henkel, from Virginia, took charge of the Guilford pastorate. Thus far the church seems to have depended upon foreign supplies for the pulpit. But a change was taking place that looked toward a home supply. On the second day of May, 1803, the Rev. Messrs. Gottfried Ahrend, Robert J. Miller, C. A. G. Storch, and Paul Henkel, with a number of elders and deacons, met in Salisbury, and formed the North Carolina Synod of the Lutheran Church. From this time the work went on more systematically. From the annual report of the Rev. Paul Henkel, in 1806, we learn the state of the church in North Carolina at that date. In Orange and Guilford Counties there were three Lutheran churches and one "joint" church-that is Lutheran and German Reformed-served by Philip Henkel. In Rowan, east of the Yadkin, there were three "joint," and one Lutheran churches, served by Rev. Paul Henkel, afterwards by Ludwig Markert. In the vicinity of Salisbury three strong Lutheran churches enjoyed the ministry of the Rev. C. A. G. Storch for nearly twenty years. This report represents that about twenty years previous to that time there had been a tolerably strong German congregation in Salisbury, but as the German people and their language were changed into the English, the German worship soon became extinct. The three strong churches mentioned in the report, were doubtless the Pine Church-now Union, the Organ Church, and Savitz's now Lutheran Chapel once called the Irish Settlement. The report goes on to state that near Buffalo Creek, Cabarrus, there is one of the strongest Lutheran churches, served by the Rev. Mr. Storch. About eighteen miles west of Salisbury-I suppose near the present Troutman's depot there was another Lutheran church. Also in Lincoln County there were eight or nine German congregations, mostly "joint," served 228 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY by the Rev. Mr. Ahrend. There were churches also in Wilkes, Stokes, and other counties. In 1805 the Synod ordained Philip Henkel to the full work of the ministry, and licensed John Michael Rueckert and Ludwig Markert. At a meeting of the Synod, October 22, 1810, held at Organ Church, there were present ten ministers and a number of lay delegates. This Synod ordained Gottlieb Schober as a Lutheran minister. Mr. Schober continued to be a member of the Moravian Church to the end of his days, while at the same time he was a Lutheran minister and pastor of several Lutheran churches. These excusable irregularities, such as the ordination of Miller and Schober, give evidence of a fraternal feeling between the different churches of that day, and became necessary because of the great scarcity of laborers in the whitening harvests on all sides. At this same Synod of 1810, Jacob Scherer and Godfrey Drehr were licensed, and the limited license of Cathechists Rueckert and Jacob Greison were renewed. Twenty-three churches were reported, of which three were in Rowan. In 1811, the North Carolina Synod, endued with the true spirit of missions, sent out several exploring missionaries to learn the condition of the Lutheran congregations in South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Ohio. The Rev. Messrs. Miller, Franklow, and Scherer were the missionaries, and they traveled and preached the gospel in distant regions. In 1813, David Henkel, J. J. Schmucker, and Daniel Moser were licensed to preach the gospel. In the year 1814, it is estimated that there were twenty-one ministers in the Synod of North Carolina, including those laboring in South Carolina; and eighty-five in the whole United States. The remainder of the history of the Lutheran Church, so far as these sketches propose to give it, will be found in a brief and interesting account of the Organ Church, prepared by its present pastor, the Rev. Samuel Rothrock, to which will be added a sketch of St. John's Church, Salisbury, since its reorganization, and a general statement as to the ministers, churches, and number of communicants as they now exist. ORGAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH The first organization of a congregation at this place dates back more than a century. The original members were Germans, few in number, but devotedly attached to the church of their choice. The services, and records in the church-book, were all in the German language. From the German church-book which is well preserved, we gather the principal items in relation to the history of this con 229 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY gregation. The following is a translation from the records of the church-book, and in the translation the German orthography of names is preserved, and the present English orthography thrown in parentheses. TRANSLATION In the year A.D. 1774, the following members of our congregation commenced to build the so-called Organ Church, viz.: Georg Ludwig Siffert (George Lewis Sifford), Wendel Miller, Peter Edelmann (Eddleman), Johannes Steigerwalt (John Stirewait), Philip Gruss (Philip Cruse), Peter Steigerwalt (Stirewalt), Michael Guthmann (Goodman), Christoph Bless (Christopher Pleas), Leonhard Siffert (Sifford), Jacob Klein (Cline), Anton J. Kuhn (Anthony J. Koon), Georg Heinrich Berger (George Henry Barger), Christoph Guthmann (Christopher Goodman) Johannes Rintelmann (John Rendleman), Johannes Eckel (John Eagle), Bastian Lenz (Bostian Lentz), Jacob Benz (Bentz), George Eckel (George Eagle), Franz Oberkirsch (Francis Overcash), Johannes Jose (John Josey), Heinrich Wenzel (Henry). A majority of the aforementioned members united in the year 1772, and resolved to solicit for themselves a preacher and schoolteacher from the Hanoverian Consistory in Germany. For in their time, North Carolina, together with all the other now free American States, were under the King of England, who was likewise Elector of Hanover. Christoph Rintelmann (Christopher Rendleman) and Christoph Layrle (Christopher Lyerly), were sent to London as deputies from the congregation, from which place they journeyed to Hanover, and through Gotten, the counselor of the Consistory, obtained a preacher and school-teacher, viz.: as preacher, Adolph Nussmann; and for school-teacher, Gottfried Ahrend. Both arrived safely in America in the year 1773. At this time there was but one common church for Reformed and Lutherans equally, the so-called Hickeri (Hickory) Church. One year the new pastor preached in this church, but some disharmony arose, and a majority of the Lutherans resolved to build for themselves an own church, and thus organized Organ Church. But before this church was built, Nussman left the congregation and devoted himself to Buffalo Creek. Whereupon, the congregation, which before had one church and one schoolteacher, but now no preacher, procured the aforementioned Gottfried Ahrend to be ordained to the office of preacher in the year 1775. He served the congregation until 1785, when he devoted himself to Catawba River, residing in Lincoln County until the close of his life. For two years Nussmann served the congregation again, but 230 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY he left the church for the second time. From 1787 to 1788, the congregation had no preacher. Gottfried Ahrend came once in a while. In 1788, at the desire and petition of Nussmann, a preacher, viz.: Charles Augustus Gottlieb Storch, was sent from Germany, who, according to Nussmann's assignment, was to go to Stinking Quarter, in Orange County. Various circumstances transpired that he did not wish to go to Stinking Quarter, but resolved to take charge of the congregation at Organ Church and the one in the town of Salisbury. He entered his services in the former on the twenty-sixth day of October, 1787, i.e., the twenty-third Sunday after Trinity; and in the town the second Sunday of November, i.e., the twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity in the same year. The congregation at Organ Church promised their preacher a yearly salary of forty pounds (£4O), North Carolina currency. The number of those who subscribed to the salary, as well as to the new church regulations, amounted to seventy-eight persons. The new church regulations referred to above, very concise and wholesome in their nature, were introduced and adopted on the first day of January, 1789, are upon record in the church-book, but are not here translated. The following ministers have been the successive pastors of Organ Church: Rev. Adolphus Nussmann from 1773, to 1774, one year; Godfrey Ahrend, 1775 to 1785, ten years; Adolphus Nussmann, 1785 to 1787, two years. The church was now vacant for one year, and was visited occasionally by Rev. Gottfried Ahrend. Rev. Charles A. G. Storch, from 1788 to 1823, thirty-five years; Daniel Scherer, 1823 to 1829, six years; Jacob Kaempfer, 1829 to 1832, three years; Henry Graber, 1832 to 1843, eleven years; Samuel Rothrock, 1844 to 1866, twenty-two years; W. H. Cone, from January 1, 1866, to May, 1866, four months; William Artz, May 1, 1866,___; Samuel Rothrock, from July 1, 1868, to January 1, 1869, six months; Revs. S. Scherer and W. H. Cone, from January 1, 1869, to January 1, 1870, one year; W. H. Cone, January 1, 1870, to May 1, 1873, three years and four months; W. R. Ketchie, from June, 1873, to January, 1874, seven months; P. A. Strobel, from January 1, 1874, to October 1, 1875, one year and eight months; Samuel Rothrock, from January 1, 1876, and still pastor, December, 1880. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.