Lutheran mystery solved

By Kevin D. Sloop

For the Salisbury Post

It has been said that Rowan County’s early European settlers were much more interested in making history than recording history. This certainly

was true of the Germans who organized Lutheran Chapel Church in China Grove, and their lack of record-keeping created two mysteries concerning the first years of the congregation’s existence.

The earliest records of Lutheran Chapel’s congregation are found in the diaries of Rowan’s first two Lutheran pastors, Nussman and Arends. Beginning in 1780, entries are found of baptisms, confirmations, etc. in Lutheran Chapel’s congregation, and the church considers this the year of their organization. All of these entries refer to the congregation as “Irish Settlement,” and the church retained this name into the 19th century. In fact, it was not until the cornerstone was made for the present church building in 1866 that the current name, Lutheran Chapel, was adopted by the congregation. It is known that the portion of southern Rowan the church is located in was predominantly settled by Germans, and that the Scotch-Irish predominantly settled in the western portion of the county. Thus, the first mystery: Why was the congregation called “Irish Settlement?” Until recently no one living seemed to have an answer for this question.

In 1799, Lutheran Chapel’s congregation jointly built with Mt. Zion United Church of Christ’s congregation a log church, which was located on the opposite side of the railroad tracks from where Chapel’s church building now stands. There is no record of Lutheran Chapel meeting in a house of worship from its organization in 1780 until 1799 when this log church was built, but a history of the church written in 1920 by one of the founding members’ great-grandsons states that the congregation worshiped two miles to the east of its present location prior to 1799; however, the exact location was not given.

Thus, the second mystery: Where did the congregation first worship? Again, until recently no one living seemed to have an answer for this question. There had been speculation that during those first 19 years worship happened in an unnamed member’s home two miles to the east of the present church building, but the genealogy charts of the founding families showed them growing rapidly during this period, and it seemed doubtful that anyone would have had a home large enough to accommodate the congregation.

Two years ago while research was being done on one of Rowan’s early families, an undated document was found that listed the epitaphs on tombstones in the cemetery of Crystal Spring Presbyterian Church, which was organized sometime prior to 1770. This congregation dissolved in the early years of the 19th century, and their building soon decayed and rotted down. All the tombstones on the list were in English and bore Scotch-Irish names, with the exception of one stone noted at the bottom. This stone was written in German and bore a German name.

A note below this epitaph indicated that this information had been found in the Oct. 29, 1879, issue of a periodical, “NC Presbyterian.” The presence of a German gravestone in a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian cemetery seemed odd, and a search was begun to find a copy of the periodical, in hope that an explanation would be given.

A copy of the periodical was found in the archives of a North Carolina university, and it was discovered that the information about the German stone came from a letter to the editor written by William Coleman of Concord. His letter was a request that local Presbyterians clear the overgrown cemetery, and he gave a brief history of Crystal Spring Presbyterian Church.

In this history he tells that the church was comprised of members of a small “colony” of Scotch (Scotch-Irish) settlers, and that “the colony was surrounded by a German population.” Coleman then mentions the German stone, and included the German inscription, but gave no explanation as to how it came to be in the graveyard. The editors responded with the English translation.

Still not knowing why the German stone was in a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian cemetery, the actual physical location of the burial ground was then researched. Once found, the current owners of the cemetery were contacted, and, although initially reluctant, they eventually gave permission for a search through the cemetery to see if the German stone was still intact. The bottom portion of the stone was found after a tedious search. It had been overturned and was covered with an inch of soil, only one small corner the size of a dime exposed above ground.

It should be noted that the Crystal Spring Presbyterian Church cemetery is located on private property, and due to vandalism it has suffered in the past the owners do not tolerate trespassers. So don’t attempt to visit this cemetery.

The clues to solving the two Lutheran Chapel mysteries had begun to appear. However, it was only with the eventual late night realization that Crystal Spring Presbyterian Church’s cemetery, and, at one time, church building, were located approximately two miles in a somewhat eastern direction from Lutheran Chapel’s current building that the pieces of the puzzle all fell into place. Interestingly, the two Lutheran Chapel mysteries were intertwined.

It now seems most likely that when the German Lutherans of southern Rowan organized their congregation in 1780, they were given permission to worship in Crystal Spring Presbyterian Church’s building, and that they continued to worship there until they built their own log church in 1799. Coleman’s 1879 letter supports this theory when he tells that Crystal Spring Church was located in a colony (settlement) of Scotch (Irish), and further confirmed by the early Lutheran pastors’ reference to Lutheran Chapel as the church (congregation) in (which meets in) the “Irish Settlement.”

This not only solves Lutheran Chapel’s first mystery — why the name “Irish Settlement”? — but also, paired with Crystal Spring’s physical location matching that of the 1920 history’s description of where Chapel first worshiped, solves Chapel’s second mystery, where they assembled prior to 1799.

And it also appears Crystal Spring’s congregation not only was kind enough to allow the Lutherans to use their building, but also allowed them to bury their dead in the Presbyterian cemetery. This would explain the presence of the German tombstone at Crystal Spring. The person whose grave is marked by the German stone died in 1792, seven years before Lutheran Chapel built the log church. It is very possible that a number of German and English stones that once stood in this cemetery have deteriorated and no longer exist.

And so, alas, it appears that Lutheran Chapel Church’s two early mysteries have indeed been solved with the help of Presbyterian records.

Kevin Sloop was born in Rowan County and now makes his home in Henderson, Nev.