Our progenitor, Johannes Hahn, was extremely upset when his grandchild was taken to a distant church to be baptized following his donation of land to build a church for the community.
Johannes, along with Christian Neigh of Lincoln County and Martin Speagle, trustees of the Lutheran Congregation on Jacobs River, the South Fork of the Catawba River, sold for five pounds (NC money) 10 acres for the building of a Deutsch Lutheran church.
The transaction is recorded in Lincoln County deed book 16 page 301, Oct 12, 1790. Mrs. Eaker describes it thusly:
'The edifice of the church was completed during the latter part of 1791. A granddaughter of Trustee (Johannes) Hahn, Saloma Weaver (daughter of Conrad and Elizabeth Margaret Hahn Weaver, was born Mar 18, 1791 and and the grandfather was especially anxious that the child be baptised in the new church. The father, however, not being pleased with the idea of deferring the baptismal, had the child baptised at St. Paul's Church (a few miles away)"The first church structure was a two story log affair about 30 by 36 ft. and finished with neatness and considerable ornament for that period. There was a balcony across the south end, but only those who sat on the front row of the balcony could see the pastor, the beauty of the pulpit and the chancel. A sounding board was placed over the pulpit. The foregoing description was found in the N.C. State Dept. of Archives in the church records. A similar account was given in ' History of Catawba County' edited by Charles J. Preslar Jr.
(Mrs. Eaker's note: the dispute must have been no small one to have been recorded in the county history. The Deutsch Lutheran Church later changed the name to Zion Lutheran Church and is still in existence today and sits atop a small knoll off Highway 127 five miles south of Hickory, Johannes was the first person buried in the church�s cemetery, adjacent to the church. His second wife, Agnes, is buried alongside him.
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Johannes Hahn: