St.
Peter's Lutheran Church
Shepherdstown, West Virginia
#NC-08270-WP - Notecards
Also available in Assortment Pack #AST-785
As
Lutherans enter St. Peter's Church, they are confronted with the
admonition in German on the brass escutcheon of the tower door:
"Guard your feet when you into the House of the Lord go."
Taken from "Ecclesaistes," the warning has been counseling
church-goers since it was inscribed on brass by Michael Rickard
for the great walnut door of the brick church on East German Street.
In 1908 it was transferred to the present church where it continues
to guard the key of St. Peter's.
As
early as 1730, German families of the Lutheran faith had crossed
the Potomac River to settle in the region where Shepherdstown
was to be established. The main influx of emigration came with
the founding of Shepherdstown in 1762. It was not until 1765 that
the evangelical Lutheran Church of Shepherdstown was officially
established. Henry Cookus, a membr of the church's first governing
body, deeded in 1774, one acre each to the Lutheran and Reformed
congregations on opposite sides of East German Street. A union
Lutheran-Reformed Church was built on the Reformed acre and a
union German school on the Lutheran ground.
Among
the memorabilia of St. Peter's is the first register Kirchen Buch
der Evangelisch Lutherischen Gemeine Zu Shepherdstown; the handwritten
hymnal of the first pastor; the escutcheon fromn the 1795 church
now on the tower door; and a 40-inch wooden key, which was the
Richard's shop sign.
Text
© 1994 Dianne Harrah, Drawing © 1994 Bill Harrah
.
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