Our History

Excerpt from

Brief history of Emmanuel's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Germantown, Ohio

for it's centennial, A.D. 1809-A.D.

by Siebert, Albert F Publication Date 1909

​

First Beginnings.

The planting of the Lutheran Church in Germantown goes back to the opening years of the nineteenth century, before the town itself was laid out. As early as 1803 and 1804 the advance guard of Pennsylvania Germans began to arrive at the junction of Big and Little Twin Creeks, where Germantown now stands. The larger stream, with its flow and fall, afforded excellent mill sites, and the land was most fertile. Frontiersmen from Kentucky had first noticed the natural advantages of the place and some had settled here, but with the coming of the Pennsylvania Germans they moved farther into the wilder- ness, and the later arrivals became the permanent settlers.

 

In 1804 and 1805 the stream of immigration was very large, mainly from Berks and adjacent counties in Pennsylvania, and by the close of the first decade of the last century, the country was comparatively thickly settled. Nearly all of these were either of the Lutheran or the Reformed Churches. Among those of the Lutheran faith were John Caspar Stoever, Jr., the oldest son of Rev. John Caspar Stoever the pioneer .

 

Read full book available on archive.org

https://archive.org/details/briefhistoryofem00sieb/page/n39/mode/2up