Located just north of Madison, VA, the Hebron Lutheran Church is the oldest continuously operating Lutheran Church in the U.S. and is one of a handful of wooden Virginia churches that pre-date the Revolutionary War. It was built in 1740 by the Germanna immigrants of 1717 (the second Germanna Colony). They had moved down to the Madison area from the Germanna settlement (located where Virginia Route 3 crosses the Rapidan River) in about 1726 and took out land patents. They had finally won their freedom from their indenture to Gov. Spotswood, and it was in this area that they began building lives for themselves and their children.
The settlers first built a log chapel on the current site of the church, then set about attracting a minister. Initially they were not successful, and made do with Michael Cook as lay reader. In 1733 they were able to attract Johann Caspar Stoever to be their pastor. They then commenced a fund-raising drive to finance the construction of a real church. Rev. Stoever and two of the immigrants, Michael Smith and Michael Holt, went to Europe to raise money and find an assistant pastor. On both counts they were successful, securing the needed funds and hiring George Samuel Klug. Rev. Stoever died on the return trip, however, leaving the task of building and consecrating the church to Rev. Klug.
The church is located on small a rise that affords it a pretty view of the Robinson River and surrounding area. The building had an annex put on around 1800 and it was fitted with a Tannenburg organ from Pennsylvania. The organ, largely unmodified, is still in use today. The church was substantially renovated in 1962. A cemetery dating from 1903 is located in the front of the building.
The information above was taken from John Blankenbaker's article in Beyond Germanna, v.2, n.4, July 1990, and is itself based on Rev. W.P. Huddle's History of the Hebron Lutheran Church, Madison County, VA, from 1717 to 1907, published in 1908. An updated version of this book is available from the Hebron Church, PO Box 100, Madison, VA 22727.
15 August 1996
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