Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1906-11-15

though it has been part Of the wall
for Ill years, it is still in good condi-
ton. What an interesting history it
might have if all the facts concerning
it were known.
We publish herewith a very inter-
estipg article on the historic episodes
that led to the founding of the Luth-
eran Church in America, together
with come interesting facts relating to
st. Peters Church. The sketch was
printed last week in the Baltimore
American and was written by Mr..
John Byers, whose ancestors were
among the first members of this his
toric congregation. Mr.. Byers's con.
tribution is as timely as 1t is enjoy.
able, and is as follows:
The building OF new Lutheran
church in Mecklenburg (now Shep-
| herdstown) by the first German colon
lists recalls some remarkable events of
European history, OF which it may we'll
The Palatines, as these emigrants
were called in ante-revolution days,
| came from the Rhine Palatinate, being
driven away from that fertile, beauti-
full region when it was devastated by
the famous Turenne according to the
order of his master, Louis XIV, the
grand monarch, who thereby would
place desert on frontiers OF France to
10 v,xy ~ inS hu
his arrogance and cruelty. The vivid
pages of Macauley tell how thorough
was this destruction. The very stoLes
Of Mannheim were thrown into the
Rhine. The people of Spires, the an
cient imperial city, were allowed three
days 10 pack and remove their possess
IONS, then every house was burned.
Its cathedral, under whose arches stood
the sculptured tombs Of IL Roman en-
perors, was despoiled Of these historic
monuments, the statues mutilated ana
the ashes of the Caesars cast to the
winds, but the building was spared to
afford a barrack and stable for the
French cavalry. The finest castle Of
the Middle Ages, that of Heidelburg,
was blown into ruins, and the grandest
monuments of that romantic era OF the
worlds civilization were ruthlessly de-
stroyed. A whole nation was thus
turned out of house and home, rich,
thriving people reduced to crowd Of
needy emigrants.
Across the Atlantic they came to find
a land as beautiful and even more fer
tile than their Rhineland. From the
Delaware, along the Susquehanna, they
spread through Pennsylvania Carlisle
Valley, across Maryland and its Antie
tam, over which stream they built
splendid Roman arch bridges OF stone.
one of these becoming so tragically
famous in the Civil War; then crossing
the Potomac they came into the Valley
of the Shenandoah, the sparkling river,
named the Daughter of the Starlight
by the poetic fancy of the Indian.
They brought here the industry and
thrift that had made paradise of their
fatherland. Accustomed to congregat-
ed town life, they gathered in villages,
like Mecklenburg, to till the neighbor-
ing lands unlike the English planta-
ton lords of Lower Virginia, who built
their manor houses in the center of
their broad domains. The farms were
smaller, better cultivated, and, with
the vine, they transplanted the customs
of their old home. In the village the
highest hill was crowned by a church
spire like the minister's along the Rhine
or in the high burgs of Germany. In
these churches pealed forth the chorals
of the German PIotestants, and Martin
Luther was to them a grandfather's |
Preside memory.
In a few years they had retrieved
their fortunes by their industry, were
happy, contented, fearing God, mind
ing their own business, and perchance
cared not to know how soon after the |
clouds Of eternal vengeance came with
quick thunderb DIT upon their enemy,
when their people with the English |
Duke trampled the pride and plumes
of the grand monarch in the bloody |
marshes of Blenheim.
The Lutheran congregation was form
ed about the middle Of the eighteenth |
century, though tradition AYERS that
these were not the first white settlers |
on this spot; that it had been occupied |
by a group of Scotch-Irish Presbvter-
JAMS, who called their village POGO !
moke. These latter moved up toward |
the Tuscarora neighborhood upon the |
advent Of the Palatine Lutherans and |
Reformers. 1t seems religion did not |
create friendly sympathy among these |
Protestants, though like prosecution |
did form bond Of union between the |
Lutheran and German Reformers, who |
came here together from the Palati- |
nate, and ofttimes used the same union |
building on alternate Sabbaths, or, as |
in Mecklenburg, built their churches |
side by side, in thorough good will.
The old Lutheran church, built in
1895. and used up to this time, with |
slight remodeling, stood on hill east
Of town, and on the opposite side of
the street from the German Reformers.
The building was of brick, with no
architectural interest, but strangely
a century among these hills and noun
tains was also an emigrant from the
city of Marseilles, France. 1t was thrown
overheard by some explosion OF the
French evolution, that sought to abol-
ish bell, book and candle of the old re-
ligion but it's tones rang as cheerily
fJr these doughty German Lutherans
as it had done to summon the French
Catholics to vespers.
The Church Register shows the
names Of many Of the old German fam
lilies and landholders hereabout-Ernst,
Entler. Baker, Kaufenbarger, Lechle:-
ter, Ronemous, Humrickhouse, Muh-
Ter, Weiss. Reichardt, Rightstein, An
spach, Baier and Fulk (the family name
of Godfrey who married Queen Flea
nor and became the father of the Plan
tagenets of England). Some of these
names are still represented here in an
English form. The Bedinger, Towner,
Morgan and Swearingen families, all of
German descent, on account Of the use
of German in church service turned to
the English form, or the Episcopal
Church, then first established here by
the Lees, Washingtons, Buffers, Shep-
herds and others.
During the first Ealf of the nineteenth
century this Lutheran congregation
had for its ministers succession of