In the history for the London Lutheran pastors, Smith and Hold said the group began (in Virginia) with divine services by reading the divine word, singing and praying, etc. I have to interpret this as starting with their arrival and settlement in Virginia before they moved to the Robinson River Valley.
Eight years prior to 1734, namely 1726, the group raised the money to send Cyriacus Fleshman and John Motz to London to pursue the question of a pastor. There had been an exchange of letters before this without any real communication taking place. On both sides of the Atlantic, there was a claim that no letters had been received. Initially, the group was going to send Fleshman and Cook (this is usually what is reported in the histories) but they changed their plans and sent Fleshman and Motz. We know that Fleshman returned to Virginia, but it is not certain that Motz returned also. Two things could have happened, he might have died on the return, or he might have returned to Germany.
The group thought that Spotswood had promised them that if they had a Minister within ten years that they would be exempt forever from the Anglican Church Parish Taxes. This was probably a misunderstanding on their part.
The group wanted to obtain land which was clustered around a central location where they could build a Church. This forced them to go to the mountains. The land between Germanna and the mountains had largely been taken up by others such as Spotswood, Beverley, and Carter. They could meet their physical nourishment in their new homes, but they were not able to trade with the Tidewater communities because of the distance. Incidentally, they were in error about the distance from Germanna to the mountains. Their claim of 40 English miles is excessive.
They immediately built a Meeting House in the midst of their new settlement. It appears that they moved in 1725 so the Chapel dated from this year. They appear to have held a generous number of Church services, but of course without a Pastor and the Sacraments. Michael Cook was probably one of the principal readers, which may be the reason that he did not go to London. As the history moves into the arrival of Stoever in the community, we would like to know how this came about. Apparently, but we do not know, he was traveling through from North Carolina to Pennsylvania. He may have been aware there was a German-speaking community here and decided that he would spend one of his nights here. One thing led to another, especially when the elders in the community found that he had a reasonably good education. The lack of ordination could be cured, it was hoped, by finding someone in Pennsylvania who could ordain him. On this point he was moderately successful. He was ordained, but may have felt that the credentials of the man ordaining him were weak.
(04 Apr 05)
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.