Robert England, who lives in Hebron, Kentucky, sent me a copy of the " History of the Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Hopeful Church, Boone County, Kentucky ", written by the Rev. David Harbaugh. Written in 1854, it had been prepared for the forty-eighth anniversary of Hopeful Church. Not surprisingly, a few of the earliest members were still living. At the time of the founding in 1806, the county seat, Burlington, consisted of a few houses, a log court house and a log jail. Covington consisted of a farm and orchard. Cincinnati had two brick and two frame houses with a number of log cabins.
On the 8th of October 1805, George Rouse, Elizabeth Rouse, John House, Milly House, Frederick Zimmerman, Rose Zimmerman, Ephraim Tanner, Susanna Tanner, John Rouse, Nancy Rouse, and Elizabeth Hoffman had left Madison County, Virginia. They made good time in their travels as they arrived on the 25th of November 1805.
The males in the above group signed the first church constitution which bears the date of January 6, 1806. This constitution was signed by ten persons, all males. The five men who came in 1805 were signers, but Michael Rouse, John Beemon, Jacob Rouse, Daniel Beemon and SimeonTanner also signed. The discrepancy between the list of those who came in 1805 and the signers had puzzled me but Rev. Harbaugh says the last five names signed later. He identifies them as ones who came subsequently.
Services were held in German even though the Rouses, Tanners and Zimmermans had been among the earliest of the Germanna settlers, almost 90 years earlier.
For eight years they were destitute of a pastor. Rev. Carpenter from Virginia visited them twice during this time. In October of 1813, Rev. Carpenter moved to Boone County and became their pastor. He preached in German, generally once a month. By this time they had constructed a log cabin church. They adopted a new constitution in January of 1815.
In 1823 a new Log Church was built. It was in this church, in the year 1824, that he first preached in the English language. It is said that he had been willing earlier to preach in English but he was bitterly opposed by some of the members. About the year 1832, when Rev. Carpenter was approaching his proverbial three score and ten years, he urged the Rev. Jacob Crigler to consider moving to Boone County. Part of his argument ran that Crigler's old father-in-law and Crigler's two brothers and their wives were members at Hopeful. Rev. Carpenter did die in 1833 and, in the following year, Rev. Crigler did come. Shortly thereafter a brick church was built. Rev. Crigler preached in both German and English, usually giving two sermons a month. By the end of his pastorate in 1842 he was preaching only in English. He was succeeded by the Rev. John Surface of Ohio.
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I did not make my intent clear in the last note when I gave some of the
couples who had children baptized at Hopeful Church in the early years.
While I gave only one child per family, this was the earliest one for whom
there was a record at Hopeful. This may not have been the oldest child in
the family. As some of you pointed out, in some families there were older
children. The baptisms were not until Rev. Carpenter came. By then some
families had several unbaptized children and they had them all baptized at
the same time. But my list was intended to show who some of the early
families who immigrated to Boone County were. They may not have been in the
first wave of emigrants but they were early. There may have been other
individuals who were early but who do not show up as having a child baptized.
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We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.