St. Paul Lutheran Church
                         Valley City, Ohio
 
 
 The beginnings of St. Paul go back to the early 1830s with its 
 roots in another congregation. The land was a harsh wilderness 
 inhabited by wild animals and controlled by the Chippewa 
 Indians.  By the settlers it was called New Connecticut, then Salt 
 Springtown and finally Liverpool, but today the second permanent 
 settlement in Medina County is called Valley City. Political 
 instability in Germany brought many families of the Lutheran 
 traditions to this area being directed by the land companies. For 
 some years they would have to be content with the ministers of 
 other persuasions  A Rev. G. W. Emmanuel Metzger a native of 
 Wuerttemberg, Germany was the first Lutheran pastor ministering 
 to this group. In 1835 this group formed Zion Lutheran Church 
 which became the mother church of this area, it became later a 
 member of ALC now ELCA. The first log church was about a 
 mile from the center of Liverpool. It soon became obsolete for 
 several reasons. A new church building was erected in 1838 at a 
 different location. A certain group, dissatisfied with the new 
 location withdrew and formed Emmanuel Lutheran Church which 
 was later absorbed by the Evangelical and Reformed group, now 
 the United Church of Christ. In 1846 Zion called the Rev. K. A. 
 W. Roebbelen as their pastor.  It seems Loehe was responsible for 
 his presence in the U.S.A.  Roebbelen then served both 
 congregations, Zion, the mother church and also Emmanuel.
 
 Pastor Roebbelen was very energetic and mission minded. He 
 worked tediously to gather the Lutherans in the area and others 
 into the existing two congregations. He also contributed numerous 
 articles to "Der Lutheraner," the official organ of the newly 
 formed synod. The work and travel at this time were wearing him 
 out and he requested an assistant to help out. Pastor P. G. 
 Trautman came as that assistant in September 1849. Pastor 
 Trautman's ministry lasted only 8 months at which time he left 
 because he felt the congregations were not making use of the 
 additional services he had planned for them. We do not have the 
 specifics of what exactly happened at this time but another group 
 left the mother church and this marked the beginning of St. 
 Paul's. After Pastor Trautman's departure, the newly formed St. 
 Paul's congregation called  the Rev. Ferdinand Steinbach. He was 
 ordained and installed on April 2, 1851. Pastor Steinbach's first 
 project was to rewrite the constitution. It was approved by the 
 congregation 26 days after he was installed.  The first house of 
 worship was dedicated on October 17, 1852.
 
 The parochial report for 1852 showed 172 souls, 27 voting 
 members, 46 school children, 7 baptisms, 8 confirmations and 1 
 wedding.
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     This text was converted to ascii format for Project Wittenberg
     by Debbie Harris and is in the public domain by permission 
     of Rev. Manfred K. Rembold. You may freely distribute, copy or
     print this text. Please direct any comments or suggestions to: 
                      Rev. Robert E. Smith of the 
           Walther Library at Concordia Theological Seminary.
                                       
                       E-mail: bob_smith@ctsfw.edu
                                       
       Surface Mail: 6600 N. Clinton St., Ft. Wayne, IN 46825 USA
          Phone: (219) 452-2148             Fax: (219) 452-2126
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