Our History

In 1846, a group of German immigrants settled in Stanleyville and established a small Lutheran congregation. The German families initially held

worship services in each other’s homes, taking turns hosting their small congregation each Sunday before constructing a modest wood frame church building in 1872. The church was named Berg Kirche, meaning “Hill Church” in German. By 1852, the group had grown to over 50 members and officially organized as the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Fearing Township, Washington County, Ohio.

Daniel Hirsch, who had been forced to leave

the Palatinate in 1850 for political activity,

immigrated to Washington County. He settled with his family at the end of 1851 in Fearing Twp. and was chosen pastor by this newly

organizing church community and paid by the members of the congregation. To this Pastor Hirsch, we owe an enormous debt, for he kept complete and systematic records of the members of various German-American communities in Washington County, and also complete records of births, baptisms, marriages and deaths, as well as records of important church transactions. These

records were all painstakingly translated by Barbara Gerhart Matt from the original German fraktur script in the early 1990s.

Near the end of Daniel Hirsh’s term as pastor in 1872, the congregation purchased land from Daniel Biehl and built on the present site of the Berg Church. This land is situated some distance south of the original church building.

Frederick Charles Trapp was minister to the congregation for 1873-1883, save for

one year. At some point during Trapp’s tenure, the church listed 52 members. In 1878 the congregation wrote a constitution which named their church the First German Protestant Evangelical Church

By 1910, the original building of worship had become too small, so a new larger church was built on the same site.  The berg, or hill, on which the church stood gave it a prominent position in the area. The church served as both a house of worship and a community center for Stanleyville’s German residents.

During World War I, like many German institutions

in America, Berg Church faced pressure to reduce the use of German in services and ceremonies. By the

1920s, services transitioned to mostly English with some German hymns and prayers remaining. and expanded capacity to accommodate the post-war population boom.

Today, Berg Church continues to serve the Stanleyville community as a landmark of faith and determination. While our congregation is no longer gathering, we honor our founding members by preserving our history. Historic photos, documents, and artifacts that are displayed in our sanctuary are available by request. We invite all to come learn about Berg Church’s legacy!

It remains one of the oldest functioning church buildings in Ohio.

Thirty years ago for the first time I held in my hands the Berg Church ceremonial Kirchenbuecher church books - ledgers - containing over 50 years of entries in handwritten German script of baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and burials. Clearly, I can still recall the deep satisfaction I felt while turning the pages and discovering entry after entry concerning my own family!

Accessing the information in those meticulous records was an exciting but time consuming process. First, I studied textbook examples of each letter of the alphabet in the German script. 

Using those German script ideal examples, I then struggled to determine how each one of the several writers of the Berg Church records had formed the various letters in his own individual handwriting. Next, I transcribed each entry I wished to understand from unfamiliar German script to familiar English cursive. And, finally, I translated the German entries into English, looking up unfamiliar terms in a German-English dictionary and asking fluent German speakers the meaning of colloquial terms.

The information was so meaningful to me it seemed well worth my efforts. I learned a great de.al about where our family had originated in the Bavarian Rheinpfalz; when they had emigrated to the Untied States and settled in Washington County, Ohio; and how those who came continued our family and their community in the area served by Berg Church.

Happily the original records I handled, all fragile and irreplaceable, are now preserved in the Special Collections department of Marietta College's Legacy Library in Marietta, Ohio. But just as happily, those Berg Church records are now readily accessible in English translation without requiring any preliminary effort! Now it is possible to have in our own homes, for immediate reference anytime we wish, and in English translation, the entire collection of surviving Berg Church German-language records that so far have come to light.

What a valuable resource for increasing our understanding of our family stories, our German roots, and German-American historical experience.  Berg Church, though no longer a regularly active congregation, lives in the memories of the Berg Church and Cemetery Association, and is open to families of former Berg Church members, current residents of the Berg Church neighborhood, and to all others with an interest in the heritage of Berg Church. Our group extends a cordial welcome to any reader of this publication to join us at Berg Church during our annual Homecoming on the third Sunday of September. Meanwhile, we join in celebrating this publication - a convenient gateway to English translations of Berg Church records!

By

Kurt Ludwig

2014

*Kurt Ludwig served as secretary of the Washington County Historical Society, was also a trustee for the organization and served as president of the Berg Church Association.