Although St. Michael Lutheran Church was formed in 1968, the church is located on a historic Lutheran site. The history of the site and the congregations on this site are detailed below.
Portions of the following account are from The German New River Settlement by Rev Ulysses S.A. Heavener:
Throughout their history, the British colonies of North America had served as a scanctuary from persecution for a wide variety of ethnic groups. Practically from the moment of their founding, these colonies from Canada to Georgia, in one way or another, represented freedom to immigrants who were willing to hazard the dangers of setting in a wilderness. Freedom from overbearing debt, from religious persecution, from social segregation and the simple hope for a better life, prompted thousands to make the voyage west.
Between the years 1720 and 1770 a new life in the British colonies became the goal of vast numbers of German immigrants. The majority of these individuals were simple peasant farmers who hoped that in North A
merica they would be free of the Roman Catholic persecution which had driven them from the German homeland.
In 1738 several shiploads of refugees from the Palatinate arrived in Philadelphia. Once safely ashore, these Germans began collecting themselves. There were strange people with a strange language in a strange land. They decided first to remain together and move west across the colony of Pennsylvania before turning south through the colony of Maryland and into Virginia, crossing the Potomac above the present-day site of Harpers Ferry. Arriving in the famous Shenandoah Valley of Virginia they decided to pass up numerous German settlements established earlier and instead made their way south to the banks of the New River. The arrival date is somewhat clouded but is believed to be around 1741. Although the river had been scouted prior to their arrival by explorers from eastern Virginia, these Germans were the first to actually settle there. They established their original settlement on the horseshoe bottoms now occupied by the Radford Arsenal and soon expanded their settlement to the contiguous bottoms near the mouths of Tom’s and Strouble’s creeks. The first years were difficult for these immigrants; however, the land was good and soon a thriving colony was established.
During the first years of settlement, organized religious services competed with the necessity of staying alive on the frontier. The settlement was without the services of an ordained Lutheran minister during these first years and when visited in 1749 by a Moravian missionary named Schnell, the settlement was reportedly badly in need of a pastor to perform such duties as baptism. Apparently the mortality rate was high, especially among the young, and the need for baptism was of great concern to the settlers. During his brief visit to the New River, Schnell resided with Jacob Harman and before returning to Pennsylvania delivered several sermons to the settlers assembled in Harman’s house. In addition to the private home, meadows and shaded areas were also likely sites for community worship. As the settlement grew, the Germans often held their services in McDonalds Fort on Tom’s Creek, a fortified tannery where gun powder was later manifactured for use in the forthcoming wars with the French and later the English.
As the years went by and the frontier opened, the Germans found more and more settlers moving into the area. In 1748, a Scotch-Irish settlement called Draper’s Meadow was established on the upper end of Strouble’s Creek. An Irishman, James Patton, had secured vast land patents in the area and was partially responsible for the settlement at Draper’s Meadow. Unlike the Germans who maintained compact settlements and whose only claim to the land was in the form of squatters’ rights, the Scotch-Irish tended to spread out over the land with land grants from the royal government of the Viginia colony.
By the 1750′s the Germans had expanded their settlement to include not only the upper reaches of Tom’s and Strouble’s creeks, but also the plateau between the two called Price’s Fork. With their population growing, the Germans petitioned James Patton for a grant of land located midway between the two creeks and just east of Price’s Fork. They wanted the land for a church, their first. Patton agreed to the transfer and the land was marked off. However, in 1755, before any formal deed was drawn up, Patton became one of the hundreds of victims of the increased Indian hostility along the frontier. Responsibility for these attacks must be shared equally by the French as well as their Indian allies. The French, owners of that vast inland empire of the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys, were fearful of English expansion and were inciting the Indians to wage war on the frontier settlers. Although the Germans, who hitherto had had little trouble with the Indians, had to fight to defend their homes, they were spared the fate of Draper’s Meadow which was wiped out by the Shawnee in 1755. For the next five years the frontier was in constant upheavel as the French and their Indian allies fought desparately to hold the English to the territory east of the mountains. In 1763 it was all over, the French had been defeated and it was only a matter of time before the Indians too would be subdued.
By 1770, seven years after the war had ended and fifteen years since the death of Patton, the Germans finally succeeded in erecting their first church on the Patton land. The church was built of hewn logs and called St. Michael’s. The deed for the land was not officially given to the Lutherans until 1806 when the executors of the estate delivered the deed to the four acre tract to representatives John Wall and Michael Surface. Barely had the construction been completed when the country was once again at war, this time with the English, a war for independence of colonies.
Their alien language prevented the Germans from taking an active role in the political confrontation with the mother country and fortunately most of the fighting in this war was done along the coastal regions. However, when the British, under Charles Lord Cornwallis, invaded the southern colonies in 1780 the Germans joined the other settlers of New River in defense of their adopted homeland. They served under Joseph Cloyd and saw action against the British in fighting near Guilford Court House. If the respect of the enemy is any indication of their fighting ability, these settlers must have given a good account of themselves as numerous British reports of the battle attest to the fierceness of the Virginia backwoodsmen. The war for independence ended successfully in 1783 and shortly thereafter the name of the church was changed from St. Michael’s to St. Peter’s.
Because of the shortage of ordained Lutheran pastors, St. Peter’s was often under the care of itinerate Lutheran clergy who visited the congregation from both the northern Shenandoah valley and from settlements in North Carolina. The first of these itinerate preachers of whom recorded evidence exists was the Rev. Peter M. Brugell who registered the confirmation of Elizabeth Harless in 1788. Another early pastor to St. Peter’s was the Rev. Daniel Flohr, born in Germany but educated in France. Flohr is believed to have served St. Peter’s twice during his career, holding the pastorate briefly around 1795 and again from 1800 to 1823.
The first constitution of St. Peter’s was recorded in 1795. It was written in the original German and was signed by the Rev. Wolfgang Fried Augustine Daser. In addition to St. Peter’s, Rev. Daser also ministered to St. John’s Lutheran Church in Wytheville, where he is buried. Rev. Daser was succeeded in 1800 by the Rev. Flohr, who was followed in 1823 by the Rev. Martin Walther and in 1838 by the Rev. Daniel J. Hauer. By 1830 the old church had begun to deteriorate badly. Still occupying the original log structure, by then some 60 years old, the congregation found the roof so decomposed as to make service impossible during inclement weather. In addition to the physical problems with the building, internal disputes had begun to plague the congregation. One of these disputes centered around the continued use of the original German in the service. The younger members of the congregation had little use for the old language and urged the adoption of the more popular English. During the following years, repairs were made and English was substituted for German in the service. Sometime in this era the church was either rebuilt or repaired with brick. Several historical accounts made reference to St. Peter’s, not only as “Price’s Church” but also as the “old brick church”. A brief crisis was weathered in 1840 when St. Peter’s was divested of the services of the Rev. John T. Tabler who ministerial credentials were revoked due to his abuse of ardent spirits. Following on the heels of the deposed Rev. Tabler came the Rev. Solomon Schaeffer, a man of remarkable energy and devotion. Not only did he revitalize St. Peter’s but was also responsible for the founding of numerous other Lutheran churches in the area. Two of which were in Giles County and the others at Mt. Zion and Mt. Tabor in Montgomery County.
Schaeffer left St. Peter’s in 1860 just one year prior to the outbreak of the War between the States. During the war, St. Peter’s was served by the Rev. John Prey, an old and somewhat sickly professor at Roanoke College, a small Lutheran school located in Salem, Virginia. Very few of the German settlers were slave owners and since the geography of the area prevented anything like the one-crop plantation system from establishing itself, there was much disinterest in the political and social issues of the war. However, when Virginia was faced with Federal invasion, several members of St. Peter’s joined the companies being mustered in Montgomery County. Due to the remoteness of the region, Montgomery County was spared the destruction so rampant in other areas of the south during the war.
The Rev. Schaeffer died in 1871, leaving a legacy of dedication that few have been able to match. Shortly after the death of Schaeffer, two more Lutheran churches were erected, St. Mark’s located in Price’s Fork and Luther Memorial located in the town of Blacksburg. By the 1880′s, St. Peter’s had once again begun to deteriorate badly, so that in 1885 the old church was closed and two years later demolished. Its members for the most part were absorbed by the numerous other Lutheran churches founded during the preceeding decades. However, some members of the congregation remained and continued to hold services in the old one-room log school which was located next door to the site of old St. Peter’s.
In 1905, under the leadership of the Rev. D.B. Groseclose, a new Lutheran church was erected in the Glade community some two miles from the site of old St. Peter’s. The new church was appropriately called New St. Peter’s and served the community faithfully for the next six decades, when the congregation voted to merge with St. Mark’s at Price’s Fork. The merger was sucessful and the united congregation laid the cornerstone of their church in 1971. The site chosen was the original Patton land grant of 1750, the old school house having been dismantled and moved.
The new church was named St. Michael, in honor of the first Luthernan church erected on the site 200 years earlier. The decaying crumbling stones in the old church yard can attest to the heritage of St. Michael, a heritage of endurance, faith, and religious freedom.