Strasburg church book 'a history of the area'

Below is an article that appeared in The Northern Virginia Daily, dated February 21, 2020

STRASBURG —​ A history of St. Paul Lutheran Church, the town’s first congregation, has been about eight years in the making.

The book, titled “Legacy: A History of St. Paul Lutheran Church, Strasburg, Virginia, 1700s-2000,” is 246 pages, hardbound with vivid color pictures, and contains stories of the church, its members and Shenandoah County over about 250 years.

The congregation, which has been waiting on the book for a while, was excited when the hardbound books arrived, said Rev. William H. Hall II, pastor emeritus, who served the church from 1980 to 2000 and co-authored the book.

Everyone kept asking, “Is it here yet?” he recently recalled.

What started as a history of the church quickly turned into so much more, said church member Gloria Stickley, president of the Strasburg Museum, who also co-wrote the book with Hall.

“Doing the history of the church is very much like doing a history of the area,” she said.

St. Paul dates to 1747, Stickley said. “We are the oldest congregation here in Strasburg,” she said.

Church members have included soldiers from the Revolutionary and Civil wars, said Hall.

The church was “used as a hospital, then arsenal and finally a stable,” he said.

Col. Peter Muhlenberg preached at the church and he visited there when he was recruiting soldiers for the 8th Virginia (German) Regiment, quoting Ecclesiastes:

“There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die, ...

a time for war and a time for peace.”

Church members Christian Strait, of Winchester, and Simon Harr, a parochial schoolmaster, joined up as military chaplains, Hall said.

The history includes Strait’s journal, Hall said, “because everybody’s kind of tied back to him.”

At the school, Harr would teach the children, and Strait would ordain them, Hall said.

Other stories in the book include the trials and triumphs of community members who have made an impact on the church.

Over the years, the church has seen its share of mysteries, Hall said, such as the question of what happened to the Hook & Hastings organ given to the church for a 1903 celebration but lost to time after one of the town’s mayors traded it out years later for a Moeller organ.

“He gave the new organ if he could get the old organ,” Hall said.

The choir director at the time resigned over the loss, Hall recalled learning.

More than half a century later, he said, “We haven’t found it.”

In researching history, he said, “You raise more questions than you answer. … Boy, it’s just mystery after mystery.”

The church’s various ministers also figure prominently in the book, he said.

In Winchester’s Mount Hebron Cemetery, he said, “A lot of the Lutheran ministers are buried within sight of each other.”

Hall said the idea for the book came about “because we didn’t have a history printed.”

Research began in the 1990s, Stickley said, but took off about eight years ago.

“I think it meant a lot to the congregation to have a history,” Hall agreed.

The church has ordered 250 books from Winchester Printers. Copies are available at the church for $25, Stickley said. All proceeds will go back into the book fund to cover costs.

Stories are told in chronological order through a series of essays, she said, starting with a land grant from Lord Thomas Fairfax, and early settlers who spoke only German until the mid-1800s.

“It’s about the first church building, the first pipe organ brought from Germany by wagon and the St. Paul Lutheran Church during the Civil War,” she said.

Contact Josette Keelor at jkeelor@nvdaily.com