Former Site of Saint Peter's Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Out on land owned by a man named Jacob Closner, something was already stirring before anybody made it official. A meetinghouse went up on that property, and folks were gathering, worshipping, building community, all before a congregation was formally organized in 1884.

That's the kind of faith that doesn't wait on paperwork. Then came September of 1887, and under the Reverend Christian Schaer, eight German families came together and started something with a proper name: St. Peter's Church, Evangelical.

Eight families. That's not a crowd, that's a commitment. And Jacob Closner, whose land had already been holding these people, went ahead and deeded ten acres of it, set aside for a church and a burial ground, a place for the living and a place for the remembered.

The congregation put down roots there and kept growing through the decades. By 1949, a new structure had been completed on that ground, a fresh building rising up where the meetinghouse had once stood. Then came 1966, and St.

Peter's made a decision that changed its shape but not its spirit. It joined with the First Presbyterian Church of West to form something new together: the First United Church. Eleven years later, in 1977, the building at that original Closner location was sold.

But the land, that ten acres Jacob Closner had deeded all those years before, it wasn't forgotten. It was retained. Still used as a cemetery.

So the congregation moved on, and the building changed hands, but the ground where those eight families first planted their faith, that ground is still keeping watch.

What the marker says

Before a congregation was officially organized in 1884, a meetinghouse was built on this land owned by Jacob Closner. Under the Rev. Christian Schaer in September, 1887, eight German families started St.Peter's church, Evangelical. Soon Closner deeded this ten acres for use as a church and burial ground. In 1949 a new structure was completed. St. Peter's joined the First Presbyterian Church of West in 1966 in forming the First United Church. The building at this location was sold in 1977 and the property retained for use as a cemetery.