United Church of
Christ, Bedford, Penn. built on the
site of the former German
Reformed & Lutheran Church -
photos submitted by Kathie Kline <kkline@trib.com>
The United Church of Christ
on West John St. in Bedford, Pa. occupies the location of the
former German Reformed and Lutheran Church. The following sentences
are abstracted from "The History of Bedford and Somerset
Counties"by Blackburn and Welfley. The first German Reformed
and Lutheran Church structure in Bedford was a log church and
it's date of construction has not been determined. However, the
log church structure was standing in 1812 and in good general
repair. The original brick structure with a central spire, used
by both the German Reformed and Lutheran congregations, was constructed
in 1823. A separation of the two congregations took place in 1850
and the Lutheran congregation sold their interest to the Reforms
for the amount of three hundred dollars, and began to build their
own structure.
In recent years the old German
Reformed and Lutheran Church Cemetery was "redone" and
the stones were removed, with some of them being placed in rows,
side by side in the rear of the church property.
View from the back of the
Church property.(above)
As can be seen in the photo
below, some of the tombstones remain legible and are still valuable
for those who have an ancestor whose tombstone is among those
still on the church property.
This is the tombstone for
Johannes "John" (Bader) Border an ancestor of Kathy
Kline. John was born June 29, 1776 in Frederick Co., MD. and died
July 11, 1856 in Bedford Co., Pa. John was married three times
and had at least 21 children.
One of my relatives, Sharalotte
Wallick, (wife of John Michael Wallick) died March 24, 1841 and
was buried in the German Reformed and Lutheran Church Cemetery
also. However, her stone is not one of those that survived..
If you would like to submit
photos of a church or cemetery in Bedford County, please contact
me at clabaugh@richnet.net
