“God With Us”

A History of
Emmanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church in Petersburg

    Out of the dense forest a clearing was made. From the tall trees that were cut, Jacob Seyler made a log house on lot 7, located on the southwest side of the two narrow intersecting horse paths, across thecorner from Peter Wilker's farm. This tiny log house looked very basic, it was square with a doorway at the front, and three windows, one on each side. There were a number of houses and farms already built or in the process of being built, so Jacob was not alone. A number of years later, in 1841, this small settlement was called Petersburg , named after Peter Wilker, who was the first permanent settler here.

 Jacob Seyler's plan for this house was to raise a family and make a new life here, and continue to clear and prepare the land for farming, which was going to take many long years of hard work. But God's plan for this tiny log house was different. Jacob didn't know that someday his house would be the first meeting house of a Lutheran congregation, that its years would span over a century and a half and beyond.

 The Lutheran congregation that gathered here grew out of the spiritual needs of these first German settlers finding a new home in Wilmot Township . As early as 1844, Lutherans from Petersburg and area gathered to worship at this log house, even though there was no congregational name or permanent pastor to serve them. The log house was known as our “Versammlung Haus” meaning, meeting house.  Before this pioneer congregation gathered at this log house, the same building was used as Petersburg 's first schoolhouse since 1836. For at least four years (1844 - 1848), the meeting house and the school shared the same building. Then, in 1848, a new brick schoolhouse was constructed.

 The first known pastor who served our congregation was Rev. Pfiefer, of the New York Ministerium. Pastor Pfiefer also served Mannheim and New Hamburg with two other pastors from the New York Ministerium. Although there are no records for Emmanuel at that time, there could have been Rev. Popplow, also from the New York Ministerium and Rev. Fredrick Bindemann serving us occasionally during the years previous to 1851.

 In 1837, Jacob Seyler sold his 25 acres of the northeast quarter of land, including the log house, to Theobold Seyler. In 1845, Theobold Seyler sold one half acre to Adam Seyler, Leonard Zoeger, Abel Müllerand John Banoldest(?), “trustees of the protest faith,” for two pounds.  This parcel of land was situated at the northeast angle of lot 7,South Snyder's Road. There are no further details to this transaction, so it is unclear if this was a purchase for a burial ground, the building, or if they purchased both.

 Many settlers at that time had much of the forest cleared off their land for farming, since they lived in those harsh conditions for up to 20years. This included Peter Wilker, as mentioned before, who was the founder of Petersburg and one of the main leaders of starting a Lutheran church in this new settlement

The Birth of “Emmanuel's Gemeinde (Congregation)”

Thirty years after the first European settler arrived, the construction for a new Lutheran church began. It was financed through the generous donations of money, materials and services from many members of the community and area. According to the oldest of church

records, starting at 1851, a new church was in the plans to be built on the south side of Snyder's Road just east of the village. The new church property was adjoining the school property that was to the east of the church.

 The construction of the church was under the direction of Georg Rock, treasurer, and Rev. Immanuel Wurster, our pastor and president.  Georg Rock was the owner and operator of the sawmill two miles west of Petersburg that provided most of the cut lumber for the church. Rev.Immanuel Wurster was a missionary from the Pittsburgh Synod, who came to Canada in 1851. He reported, “The first Sunday after my arrival I preached an introductory sermon at Waterloo , and, in the afternoon of the same day, rode to Petersburg , six miles distant and held service in the old log meeting-house.”

 In March of 1851, the name of “Der Deutschen Evangelishe Lutherische Emmanuels Gemeinde” was used, which translated word for word means, “The German Evangelical Lutheran Emmanuel's Congregation”. For many years after, the congregation's name was misspelled “Immanuel's” or mistakenly known as “St. Emmanuel's” or “St. Immanuel's Church”. Or was it not misspelled? If you take into consideration that Rev. Immanuel Wurster was our pastor and president as the church was being built, it is understandable why it was referred to as “Immanuel's Congregation”. Subscriptions to financing and materials of the new church were now accepted, and the construction began in June of that year.

 The main contributors were: Nicolaus Busch, Christoph Seeger, Peter Wilker, Johannes Koch Sr., Johannes Koch Jr., Ludwig Zöger, Nicolaus Klein, Heinrich Liersch, Michael Karrer, W. Schrönan, Conrad Siebert, Abel Müller, Jacob Kollmann, Johannes Lippert, Adam Seyler and Johannes Bauer.

 When the mid-summer of 1851 arrived, our church was ready for the laying of the cornerstone. Minutes of the Synod reported that, “The cornerstone of a neat frame church, 45' by 45' in size, was laid out by the missionary (Rev. Wurster) on the 27th of July”.

 The subscriptions for the building materials were listed in detail dated March 1851. The subscription for 4200 bricks were $23 and 8 shillings, a foundation made of field stones, over 45 bushels of lime, 31½ bunches of shingles, 2000 feet of lattice, thousands of feet of lumber, and 8 sawhorses. The cast iron and castings were purchased from Jacob Beck & Co. at a price of four dollars. The blacksmith who did the installing was Conrad Bauer. Special mention should also go to Georg Arnold and Jakob Demmer for the carpentry work they did on our first church. When the month of August in 1851 came, the church exterior was almost

completed, as the roof and shingles were all in place. The church was now ready for the interior work to be done, which would take another year.

 In September of 1851, the Member of Parliament, August J. Ferguson, came to visit. Certainly he must have been impressed, since he donated $10 and loaned another $10 to the church for the construction.  On January 18, 1852, our new frame church was solemnly consecrated with the name of “Emmanuel's Church”.  It was hard work to complete the construction of the church, even though it was not all that large. First, and probably most important, was the lack of money. Many members from both the congregation and community gave money, but there never seemed to be enough. Secondly, all of the materials were brought to the construction site by horse or by foot. The Grand Trunk Railway was years away, so residents from Wilmot Township crafted mostly the entire church locally. Volunteers did a fair amount of the work, but for those who were hired that worked on the church, the treasurer paid one dollar a day for each man.

 Now that the church construction was completed, it was quite obvious that the older meeting house was not needed anymore. The log house was removed and the site was cleaned up. The building was about 20 years old and must have been in poor shape since only the windows were salvaged and sold by the church for the price of two dollars and two shillings.

 The next year, in 1853, Emmanuel and Trinity Lutheran Church , New Hamburg, joined together to become a dual parish. Rev. Charles F. Deihl accepted our call, and immediately made changes to the way the church operated, particularly Emmanuel.

 Although Emmanuel had a name since 1851, there were no records of elected church officers or, more important there was no written constitution.

 On Monday, November 14, 1853, after two public invitations to the church, the first recorded church meeting was held to discuss and record Emmanuel's initial constitution. Pastor Charles Deihl acted as president and chairman, and Georg Rock was elected as secretary. Pastor Diehl said a prayer and then called the meeting to order. After this, he explained to the congregation in a short but concise speech the purpose, necessity and the usefulness of church rules and regulations. The church constitution, which was entered in Emmanuel's land register, was then debated by each point and article and was accepted unanimously. Once this was completed, it was decided that Pastor Diehl would purchase a book for the constitution to be written in, and that each male member sign it to be an eligible voting member.

 In agreement and in accordance to this meeting, another meeting was held on Monday, January 2, 1854, where the following men were elected as Emmanuel's first church officers:

 President: Rev. Charles Deihl

Directors: Peter Wilker, Johannes Becker & Johannes Lippert

Elders: Nicolaus Klien & Wilhelm Beilstien

Secretary: Johannes Bauer

Treasurer: Peter Wilker

Trustees: Georg Rock & Johannes Bauer

July 1851 - This is the title page of the
oldest surviving church record book.
“Schatzmeister Buch” means Treasury Book.

The excitement of the birth of a new church was high, but the joy also came with the pain of the debt owing to the creditors. By February 1854, a meeting was called to discuss the “speedy reprimand” of the church debt. A decision was made to take out a loan for several years and make yearly payments, through voluntary contributions. The intention was to pay the loan in full as quickly as possible.

 There were other problems other than financial that were facing our congregation at the beginning. On August 7, 1854, a meeting took place to discuss the welfare of the congregation. Pastor Diehl impressed upon the present members the importance of mutual work to suppress the immoral behaviour of several members of the congregation. The “immoral behaviour” consisted of mainly drunkenness, but secondly, Pastor Deihl also showed the gathering the damaging consequences of scorning or not taking the ministry seriously. A decision was made to enforce immediately the strict discipline of the church constitution, without regard to who it may be, and that this be made known to the congregation.

 At the same meeting there was some talk about starting a Christian newspaper that could be published by the Lutheran Church Canada West. It was decided that the present members of the church council investigate and examine if a publication could be brought about, and render a report by October 1, 1854. The findings of this report is unknown, if it was written it has since been lost.

 Our pastor provided more than spiritual guidance in the 1850's, but also served as a mediator where complaints could be settled, like a judicial court. The church council gathered at Pastor Deihl's house on March 21, 1855, to examine a complaint submitted by the elder Jacob Reichert, against the director and treasurer Peter Wilker.

 About 4½ years earlier, in August 1851, the church ordered shingles for the new church. Of these shingles, Conrad Hupt delivered two bundles to Peter Wilker's house, a value of $2.25 per bundle that the church paid. Jacob Reichert claimed that Peter Wilker never delivered these to the church.

 When the witness, Conrad Hupt testified to this, the defendant, Peter Wilker admitted that he had kept the shingles. He said that his excuse was that the church roof was already completed and Conrad Hupt owed him previously, so he viewed the shingles as payment.

 The plaintiff and defendant then stepped down as the four present members of church council, consisting of Nicolaus Klien, Wilhelm Beilstein, Georg Rock and Johannes Lippert voted on their decision in privacy. The vote was 3 to 1 that Peter Wilker pay the church the interest on $4.50 to date. When the council member (Mr. Klien) saw that he was the only one that disagreed with the decision, he did agree with the rest of the council to make the decision unanimous.

 The chairman then called in the plaintiff and the defendant and informed them of their decision. Peter Wilker was satisfied with the decision, however Jacob Reichert was not. He demanded that Mr. Wilker return the shingles or pay the present cost. The ruling was made, in favour of the defendant.

 Despite the minor problems our church faced, the church financial situation was rapidly improving. It was only a little over a year that a loan was taken to pay the church debt. Total expenses for the building at that time were $916, 1 shilling and 12 pence. The receipts were about $36 short, totalling $880, 5 shillings and 7 pence as of July 1, 1855.

 The church membership was increasing too. It is estimated that there were almost 100 members in this time period.

The Years of Indecision

By the end of 1855, Emmanuel was looking for a new pastor. Pastor Feyfel served us from 1856 until 1857. Any information regarding Pastor Feyfel is very vague, it is unknown if he was temporarily filling in as our interim pastor or he was a steady pastor.

Since the response and service from other Lutheran pastors was not what our congregation was expecting, Emmanuel looked to an Anglican pastor, Rev. William Ralby in 1857.

With an Anglican pastor in charge of a Lutheran congregation, the teachings were probably more Anglican than Lutheran. Rev. Benjamin Cronyn D.D., performed special services like confirmation. Queen Victoria appointed Rev. Cronyn as First Bishop of Huron in 1857, and his principles were “low church”. The term “low” refers generally to the more protestant side of the Protestant/Catholic mix in the Anglican spectrum.

Pastor Ralby was the first pastor to keep accurate records of church activities and membership in English, where he indicates that nine “young persons were confirmed in Emmanuel Church, Petersburg, on Sunday, the eleventh day of July 1858, by the right Rev. B. Cronyn D.D., Bishop of Huron; presented by the Rev. W.B. Ralby.” The confirmands were: George Arnold, John Koch, John Wilker, Christina Beilstein, Barbara Diebel, Barbara Ernst, Catherine Frank, Elizabeth Karrer and Margaret Seiler. Their ages were all 14 and 15 years old.

 Emmanuel made its first property expansion on October 18, 1858, when land was purchased for £2, for the purpose of a cemetery for the church. This land was bought from Theobold Seyler, whose ten-year-old son died a month earlier. The move to buy the cemetery reflects the membership increase, but also the harsh life our pioneer members had lived through. The communicant membership in 1858 grew to exactly 103 people, but there were six deaths that year, in which all were victims of accidents or disease. Five of the deaths were children from the age of nine months to 15 years, while the sixth was 22 years of age. Despite the bleakness of that year, there were 12 children born and baptized including a set of twins.

 Pastor Carl Brügmann accepted Emmanuel's call after Pastor Ralby's departure in 1859, and resigned the following year, in 1860.

 During the time Pastor Brügmann was with us, some mistrust was within the church council, particularly with the treasurer. The treasurer did nothing wrong and all books were in order, but a payment of $42 to an individual was recorded 5 years earlier (in 1855), and it could not be proved that it was really paid. To prevent this from happening again, a new set of stipulations were made with the way expenses were paid: “That the treasurer is not allowed to make any payments on his own, but has to obtain and have directives from the president or vice-president with the signature of the secretary before he can make payments.

And furthermore, that the secretary must keep a record of the book, in which he registers all the income and expenses of the treasurer, which at the settlement of the account must be compared to the treasurers.”

 For the next 2 years, 1860 to 1862, Pastor Mayer served our congregation. Church records are once again incomplete during these years, which suggests that Pastor Mayer may have been an interim pastor with other pastors from the area. One of these pastors would have been Rev. Schmidt from New Hamburg in 1862.

 During this time in the spring of 1862, a fence was installed around the church yard. For the past ten years since the church was built, there was some inconvenience, especially in the winter, to walk up the steep hill to get to the church. When the fall arrived, Johannes Koch constructed a wooden staircase to help the worshippers climb the hill for the coming winter. It was completed just before the installation service for the new pastor.

 Pastor Jakob Leonhard Raw, from Bridgeton , New Jersey , was installed at Emmanuel on the 9th of November in 1862. He accepted the call on the recommendation of the then president of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Canada West, Rev. Rechenburg. With his wife and three children, he stayed at the church council president's house, Johannes Ernst Jr. A few days later, he was given a parsonage at Friedrich Liefert's house, located west of the church, which the congregation rented for $25 a year.

 At this time Emmanuel was an actively growing congregation in adult membership, with many children and youth. This period of adult growth reflects the steady flow of new immigrants that were settling in this area. Pastor Raw recorded seven confirmations on Palm Sunday, March 29, 1863. They were: Adam Seyler, Ludwig Seyler, Johannes Dörr, Johannes Lippert, Margaretha Bauer, Anna Schmidt and Elizabeth Kraus. On Pentecost Sunday May 24, 1863, the congregation grew even more. Christine Seybert and Catharina Fink of North Easthope joined Emmanuel through adult confirmation, and at the same church service, twelve other people were accepted as members through transfer. 

 When a baptism took place, our church did not use a baptismal fount as we do today, but just a simple porcelain bowl and a pitcher.  When the offering was taken, a tin plate was passed to the worshippers.

 The complete inventory of the church was nothing too elaborate, as recorded on November 18, 1862 and in March of 1863:

 1) Communion vessels on hand:
1 wine decanter, 1 cup and 1 plate from Britannia, 1 white and 1 black altar cloth
2) Baptismal Items: 1 pitcher and 1 porcelain bowl
3) Church Books: 1 Church Book listing the Constitution and the names of the church members “in Folio”
1 Treasurer and Minute book, “in Folio” *
1 Baptismal book and Funeral Register, etc. “in Quarto”
1 Record Book for communicants, confirmands, etc. started by Pastor Ralby in English. *
1 Record Book for marriages in English, “Folio”
1 Leather-bound Bible in large “Quarto” March 1863 donated to Emmanuel Church by Elder Heinrich Hufs.

4) Other Items:

1 Box to store the church books 
1 Tin Plate for the gathering of the offering
3 Wooden plaques to note the church hymns

Unfortunately, of all the items and church books listed, only two books (marked with a *) exist in our archives today.

Complete history books (112 pages, with lots of pictures) are available for purchase for $20.
Contact Rodney Jantzi if you are interested.

Last updated: June 29, 2006 08:42 PM