Madison County Virginia USGenWeb Archives History - Books .....Chapter 4, The Church Built And The Congregation Permanently Established Under Rev. George Samuel Klug, 1739-1764 1908 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Alice Warner http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00015.html#0003503 August 12, 2008, 12:05 pm Book Title: History Of The Hebron Lutheran Church, Madison County, Virginia, From 1717 To 1907 History of the Hebron Lutheran Church, Madison County, Virginia, from 1717-1907. By Rev. William Peter Huddle, Pastor. Henkel and Company, Printers and Publishers, New Market, VA. 1908. Copyright 1907, W. P. Huddle. ------------------------------ CHAPTER IV THE CHURCH BUILT AND THE CONGREGATION PERMANENTLY ESTABLISHED UNDER REV. GEORGE SAMUEL KLUG. 1739-1764 Though God buries his workmen, he still carries forward his work. Rev. George Samuel Klug became Rev. Stoever's successor. Little is known of his life in Europe and little information exists as to his protracted labors as the second pastor of the congregation. He was born at Elbing, Polish Prussia, about the beginning of the eighteenth century, and studied theology at Helmstedt under Abbot Mosheim. In 1736, through the advice of Rev. Daniel Rittersdorf, pastor primarius of the church of St. Mary and Senior of the Ministerium at Elbing, he was induced to accept a call which the commissioners of the church then in Germany were authorized to extend him, to become assistant pastor[36] to Rev. Stoever in Virginia. After examination before the Lutheran Ministerium of Danzic, he was by their authority publicly ordained in the principal church of St. Mary, August 30, 1736, and a testimonial was given him by the Evangelical Ministerium there. Soon after his ordination he started to London on his way to Virginia, to enter upon his duties as assistant pastor, while Mr. Stoever continued in the work of collecting money in Germany. He arrived in London in January, 1737, bearing recommendations and letters to Dr. Ziegenhagen from Rev. Stoever who had furnished him money for his travelling expenses. He lodged with Rev. Mr. Palm. Here he remained about two years. The reason for his long stay in London is not positively known, but it seems to have been caused by some trouble between him and Rev. Stoever. The latter, in his will, shows clearly that Mr. Klug had been engaged through the suggestions of Michael Holt to the Ministerium at Danzig. Prof. W.J. Hinke, D.D. offers the explanation of the difficulty between them: "Mr. Klug[37] was secured by the machinations of Michael Holt, who thereby tried to supplant Mr. Stoever. I infer that he made false representations to the ministers at Danzig, and on the strength of them Mr. Klug was engaged. When Stoever heard of it he was at first very angry, but finally submitted to the inevitable, and gave him money to travel to London. That Mr. Klug was not on the best of terms with Stoever seems to be implied in the attitude of Dr. Ziegenhagen towards Stoever, in the continued silence of Klug, refusing to answer Stoever's letters, and in the absence of any reference to him when the older Stoever advises his son about the future of the congregation." He left London some time after September 28, 1738, for he carried a letter bearing that date from Dr. Ziegenhagen to the congregation at Philadelphia. He is known to have been in Virginia, May 20, 1739. This was the year of his arrival, according to Rev. Brunnholtz.[38] At once he entered upon his ministerial duties, gathering his scattered flock and preaching in the German chapel. The two commissioners had returned. They and the church officers were called together at the home of Michael Smith, May 20, 1739, the subscription lists were looked over and found correct, and the funds collected and due were turned over to the congregation. We give a translation of the last page of the old subscription book. It was made by the late Rev. Paul Menzel, D.D., of Richmond, Va. "The accounts of this collection books were looked over and found correct at Michael Smith's house in Orange County, Virginia, by me as pastor of the Virginia Evangelical congregation, in the presence of the vestrymen and elders of the congregation in the year 1739, May 11, 12 old calendar; and the money due the congregation was paid out in gold to it. God grant that it may be used to His honor and to the edification of the members of the congregation. This is the wish of George Samuel Klug, born in Elbing, Polish Prussia, at present minister of the divine Word with this congregation. Orange County, A. D., 1739, May 20." On the 21st of July following, a farm[39] of 685 acres of land was bought of Mr. Thomas Farmer, for five shillings sterling and deeded to Michael Clore and George Utz, trustees for the German Congregation. This is the farm so often spoken of as having been bought with money secured in Germany. It was located at the Great Mountains in the Great Fork of the Rappahannock River in the northern part of Madison County, near the Champlane farm. It was patented by Mr. Farmer in 1734, and with additional lands was repatented by the church in 1794. The work of building the church began soon after his arrival. To build such a house was no small undertaking in those days. It required much labor and time to fell the trees, hew the logs for the strong framework, saw the weatherboarding and ceiling with whipsawas, rive, shave, and joint the shingles, and make all the nails in the blacksmith shop. But perseverance overcomes all difficulties, and at length the heavy timebers were ready. the framework reared, and the work completed in 1740, as the date on the great girder shows. It was a frame structure, rectangular in form, fifty feet long by twenty-six wide by thirty high, with a small vestry room, nine by thirteen feet, attached to the north side just back of the pulpit. There was a door at each end and doubtless one on the south side. A gallery to which a stairway led extended across each end. The pulpit, as the custom was at that day, was goblet shape, set up high against the side of the house, and was reached by steps. The roof was really self-supporting, but the walls were further braced by a great girder laid across the plates midway between the ends. The interior was ceiled, the overhead ceiling being curved. The weather boarding was sawed to a feather edge, and all the nails used inside and out were shopmade. Every piece of work about it shows that these sturdy Lutheran pioneers built to endure. The year the church was completed, the congregation addressed a letter[40] of thanks to all their benefactors, high and low, in and outside of Germany. It was dated, Orange County in America, August 29, 1740, and signed in the name of the congregation accepting the unaltered Augsburg Confession. George Samuel Klug, pastor, Michael Cook, Michael Smith, Michael Holt, Michael Clore, George Utz. Strange as it may now seem, negro slaves were bought by the congregation, between 1739 and 1743, to work the church lands. "This is one of the rare cases wiherein Germans departed from their dislike of the institution of slavery." This institution was then recognized and sanctioned by law, and some of them had their own slaves. It was not considered wrong by many Christians to buy, sell, or own them. As the institution existed in the colony the congregation took advantage of it, and the purchase was made with money obtained in Europe. Pastor Klug was himself a slave owner. The inventory [41] of his property, taken after his death, shows that he had six in his possession. The year of the purchase by the congregatioin and number are not known. Neither do we know the number owned at any one time, except in 1743 when there were seven, and in 1748 when there were nine. The number has been put at thirty and as high as sixty. But these figures are certainly too high. A conservative estimate, we think, would be from twelve to fifteen at most. The average price of a slave in 1740 was about twenty pounds. Estimating the number first bought at nine (and this is quite likely) the cost would have been a hundred and eighty pounds or about nine hundred dollars. The pastor and congregation were carrying out Rev. Stoever's purpose which was to buy twelve and use them in clearing and farming the church lands, and thus provide a salary for himself and an assistant pastor without burdening the church members. He also though that by treating them well and by instructing them in the Word of God that they might become Christians and much good be done them and others in this way. And we know that in later years some of them were communicant members of the church. Some time after the church was completed, a good and substantial school-house was built and a congregational school was started-- the first German school of its kind in the South. It is known to have been in operation as early as 1748-- how much earlier, we know not. The idea of the school and the provision made for the means to establish it were Rev. Stoever's but the actual establishment of it was the work of Rev. Klug. Some of our members still speak of the old house. It was a frame building about sixteen by thirty feet and divided into two rooms. This school was not kept up regularly, yet it appears at intervals for more than a century. The school now known as Warwick Academy, one mile from the church, conducted by Prof. John D. Fray, A.M., had its beginning in a little house on the church lot, a short distance from the site of Rev. Klug's school-house. The instruction given in this first school comprised, it is said, religion, reading, writing, and arithmetic. From 1743 to 1753, Moravian missionaries, in their travels, visited the neighborhood of Hebron church several times. If they tried to win converts from among his people, they did not succeed well. From their diaries [42] we have gathered some facts about the congregation and its pastor. It seems certain that Pastor Klug visited and preached for the Germans in the regions now comprising Rockingham, Page, Shenandoah, and Frederick Counties. In 1747, he was visiting and preaching on the Shenandoah River twice a year. His parish at Hebron, the following year, consisted of about eighty families within a circle of a few miles. The congregation at that time (1748) had a beautiful church and school-house and parsonage with several hundred acres of land and seven slaves to work it. The pastor's salary, November 25, 1743, was eight hundred pounds of tobacco. "In or about 1746, the vagabond[43], Carl Rudolph, visited Madison County before going to Frederick, Maryland, and gave trouble for a time" to both pastor and people. In June, 1749, Pastor Klug visited some of the Lutheran ministers in Pennsylvania and spent two weeks with them. How comforting it must have been to him, who stood as the only representative of his church in Virginia, to come into contact and association with the ministerial brethren of his own faith! Dr. Muhlenberg says,[44] "He complained that he stood so entirely alone in that large and extensive country, as most of the inhabitants are English, and was without the opportunity of being cheered and edified by his German colleagues in office." We are not surprised at his loneliness and desire for fellowship with ministers of the same faith and the same language. Rev. Peter Brunnholtz refers to the same visit in a letter[45] of July 3, 1749: "When we had returned from Lancaster we had a visit from Pastor Klug, of Virginia, three hundred and thirty miles from here, who went there ten years ago. He desired to see our arrangements and become acquainted with us. We received him kindly. He left rather quietly and pleased." He adds the prayer, "God grant that the journey may be a blessing to him." "In 1754, Mr. Muhlenberg says[46]: 'We have recently received discouraging accounts from there,' but he does not say of what nature. In an unprinted letter of Mr. Muhlenberg, dated September 12, 1753, found in one of his manuscript books, after mentioning some circumstances out of the history of the congregation and the provision for pastor's support, he says, 'His Reverence Pastor Klug can live there and wait on his office peacably and comfortably. Whether any great hunger for the Word of God and of books manifested itself then, I cannot say with certainty, but I have heard from some one (si fabula vera est) that some years ago they burned a pile of treatises. We had the honor several years since to see Pastor Klug here in Pennsylvania and were astonished at his hearty and vigorous bodily constitution. May our gracious and almighty God strengthen our brother and fellow laborer, especially as to his soul, make him his chosen instrument and voice in the Virginia desert, especially as he appears to have such robust, bodily strength and so healthy a spleen.'" Dr. Muhlenberg's language shows plainly that he did not have the highest opinion of his Christian zeal and spiritual earnestness in discharging the duties of his high office. He had some trouble with his people, the exact nature of which does not appear, because he did not keep within proper bounds in regard to things indifferent, and ran into extremes; but he lived on good terms with the clergy of the Episcopal church. No records of his work are to be found, except in the baptismal register of the church and then only for fourteen years. During that time, he baptized only about sixty infants, so far as we can ascertain. No doubt the list is incomplete and does not properly represent the number. He is spoken of as a man of ordinary ability, open to conviction, and orthodox in doctrine. He was not a Pietist, nor over-zealous in the work of the Master. Having a salary provided without effort in his part, without contact with ministers of his own church, and with many and great difficulties to meet in his work, it is not a matter of surprise that we are led to the conclusion that during his long pastorate the church did not greatly prosper. After twenty-five years of service, he went to his reward about the beginning of 1764. This we know from the records of Culpeper County. He was alive March 7, 1763, and appeared at court as one of the witnesses[48] of Peter Clore's will. An inventory[49] of his property was presented in court, May 17, 1764, and ordered to be recorded. He must have been dead only a short while. His body was laid to rest in front of the chancel under the church. Though he had his faults and had some trouble with his people, he must have been held in high esteem. His widow Susanna, whose maiden name does not appear and who in later years married Jacob Meadley, was given the use of the parsonage for seven years after his death. He had a son who was educated in an English academy and studied theology. He traveled to England and returned with regular orders. The following persons married daughters of Rev. Klug: Godfrey Yager, Michael Broil, Matthias Broil and William Lutspeck. His descendants could be found in the county after many years. [36] Va. Mag. of Hist. and Biog., Vol. XIV., No. 2, p. 156. [37] Va. Mag. of Hist. and Biog., Vol XIV., No. 2, p. 158. [38] Hallische Nachrichten Series, No. 2, p. 402. [39] Deed Book 3, pp. 298-300, Orange Co., Va. [40] Va. Mag. of Hist. and Biog., Vol. XIV., No. 2, p. 168. [41] Deed Book A, p. 367, Culpeper Co., Va. [42] Va. Mag. of Hist. and Biog., Vols XI., XII. [43] Hebron Church, Article III., Lutheran Visitor, April 15, 1886, by Dr. Schmucker. [44] Hallische Nachrichten, Series No. 2, p. 288. [45] Hallische Nachrichten, Series No. 2, p. 402. [46] Hallische Nachrichten, p. 656; and Hebron Church, Article III., Lutheran Visitor, April 15, 1886, by Dr. Schmucker. [48] Will Book A, Culpeper Co., p. 310. [49] Will Book A, Culpeper Co., p. 367. Additional Comments: Note: There really was no footnote numbered 47 in the original book. They just skipped the number. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/madison/history/1908/historyo/chapter4320gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/vafiles/ File size: 16.2 Kb