Early German Population

This certificate of membership to the German Reformed Church highlights the importance of taking communion. Curiously, the certificate is completely in English.

A certificate of church membership to the German Reformed Church. According to the Wayne County Genealogy and Local History Department, in 1849 when this document was dated, the German Reformed Church referred to "Salem's Church," now known as Salem Lutheran Church.

A program, partially in German, from the 1913 dedication anniversary of the Evangelical Christ Church. The congregation was part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

An artist's conception of the first Zion Lutheran Church Building, which served as a place of worship from 1840-1855. This cabin was similar to many other Evangelical churches of the time.

A large portion of Wooster's early settlers were from German states. They brought their language, their customs, and their varied religions. The Lutherans first brought their skillled larbor and capital to Ohio via Pennsylvania starting after the American Revolution.¹  The German Reformed congregations from the Rhine region of Germany, however, typically came to the British Colonies as poor indentured servants, not skilled laborers.  The doctrine of German Reformed congregations was Calvinist, and like the English Puritans, they believed in predestination - or that God had preordained some men and women to go to heaven and others to hell. These two protestant congregations had little in common - aside from their shared language.²

In 1815, Wooster was growing rapidly with an influx of both Lutheran and Reformed immigrants from Pennsylvania. A pastor was necessary to administer to sacraments, conduct services, baptize young children, and marry church members. The first man to preach in German in Wooster was Rev. D. Henkel, a Lutheran missionary who spoke in Wooster as early as 1815, although there is no proof that he stayed for an extended period of time.³  In the fall of 1819, German Reformed Reverend Henry Sonnedecker preached for a joint Lutheran and German Reformed congregation in Wooster. The two congregations officially joined together to form the “German Lutheran and Reformed Church of Wooster and its Vicinity” in 1820. They met in a brick schoolhouse named “Die Freidens’ Kirche” or “The Peace Church.”⁴  It seems the joint congregation did not take their church's name seriously, however, as the two groups separated within seven years over irreconcilable differences in leadership and church doctrine. Despite the split between the two congregations, they continued to share the Die Freidens’ Kirche building until 1844.

¹ Peter W. Williams, America’s Religions: From Their Origins to the Twenty-first Century, (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1990), 126.
² Jon Butler, Grant Wacker, and Randall Balmer, Religion in American Life: A Short History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 77.
³ Ben Douglass, History of Wayne County, Ohio (Indianapolis, IN: Robert Douglass,1878), 392-397.
⁴ Leo A. Keil, A History of The First Reformed Church, The First Evangelical and Reformed Church, The Trinity United Church of Christ, Wooster, Ohio (1993), 1.