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St. Stephen's Lutheran Church
Concord
St.
Stephen's Lutheran Church near Concord celebrated its 140th anniversary as a
rural congregation on
Sunday's
service included writings from early clergy of the congregation and
correspondence from relatives of family members who were involved in the Civil
War.
The
original St. Stephen's Church began when the newly formed congregation used a
log building as a church beginning in 1862, during the height of the Civil War.
The
current St. Stephen's Church building was built in 1906. Like the previous
church buildings, the German settler members of the rural congregation
accomplished the building project with their own skills using hand-hewn timbers
for the support structure and actually fabricating the blocks used to make the
exterior walls.
Prior to
forming a local congregation, members and families would often walk to attend
church in Lebanon.
Most of the
families of the rural Concord congregation are descendants of the original
congregation.