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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY 263
was in turn succeeded by Dr. E. Schulenberg, and the present church,
at the corner of Adams Street and Columbus Avenue, was erected.
If .-the plans mentioned in the minutes of the meeting of January 23,
1845, Avere carried out, then a stone building Avas erected on the site
of the present high school building, 40 feet long, 36 feet wide and 15
feet high. It is certain that the building was erected in 1845 and
finished so far that services could be conducted therein.
Just Avhere the Evangelical Protestant congregation received the name
"Iniinanuels" cannot be ascertained from the minutes of the church
record. For a long time it was called the Gilcher Church. From 1854
on, and in a neAV constitution that was adopted, it bears the name
"Immanuels" Church. Yet it is pretty definitely stated that the church
received this name on the day of dedication.
Up to the time when the church was completed so services could be
conducted therein, and again in 1850 and 1852, the Evangelical people
united with the Lutherans in their religious worship. In 1852 the
Lutherans withdreAV from the Evangelical congregation and continued
their services in the old courthouse, until they purchased the small Baptist
Church on Wayne Street, back of Grace Church.
In 1872 the congregation united with the Evangelical Synod of the
West. For over thirty years Rev. J. G. Ensslin Avas pastor of Immanuels
congregation, having entered upon his pastorate May 1, 1876. Much
has been accomplished that AVIIS deemed impossible at'the beginning,
and the cliureh is in a flourishing condition. Rev. Theodore Eisen is the
present pastor.
ZION LUTHERAN CHURCH
The actual beginning of the Lutheran Church dates back to 1847, at
Avhich time a Reverend Mr. Richter gathered a small band of Lutherans
together and encouraged building a church, AA'hich Avas built by a Mr.
Knoepfle at his OAVH expense in the hope that the Lutherans would take
it off his hands. Tt AVIIS used for church purposes a short time and sold
to the city for a school building. It stood on the Courthouse Square
facing Jackson Street. Prior to this time the Lutherans Avorshipped in
a dwelling house in the Avest end of the city, and after the sale of the
cliinjcji building they Avorshipped in the courthouse until they purchased
tlieliltle frame church built by the Free Congregationalists and later
knoAvn as the Baptist Church which stood at the rear of Grace Episcopal
Church. The church AVIIS first organized June 14, 1852. In 1862 it
exchanged the little frame church for the old Beatty Methodist Church,
then standing on the nortliAvest corner of the Courthouse Square. They
occupied this building until the completion of their new church at the
corner of Columbus Avenue and Jefferson Street. Its pastors have been
Reverend Schladermundt. Rev. 13. Klein, Reverend Seidel, Rev. G. Lehrer,
Rev. J. Dornbier, Rev. A. II. Dornbier and Rev. Theodore Stellhorn,
the present pastor. The church has more than 1.000 members. Avith a
Sunday school & more than 500 scholars, and while its expenses are
several thousand qqftirs a year it is out of debt.