When our church first began in 1807:
• Thomas Jefferson was president of the U.S.
• There were 17 states, the most recently admitted: Ohio (1803)
• Napoleonic wars were raging in Europe as Napoleon attacked Russia.
• Congress passed a law making it illegal to import slaves
• Beethoven was composing his 6th symphony (The Pastoral Symphony)
• John Newton, author of Amazing Grace, died
• 1st horse-drawn passenger railway service began in England
• Robert Fultons made his first steamboat trip on the Hudson River.• Lancaster was the Pennsylvania capital.
• It was the largest inland town in the U.S. with about 6000 residents and 800 buildings.
• Of today’s downtown churches, only Trinity Lutheran still worships in the same building that stood in 1807.
• The main industry was the manufacture of rifles, muskets, and pistols
• There were many taverns. Gambling served as the main form of entertainment.
• There was no indoor plumbing.
• There were 5 newspapers, 2 in German.
• A visitor described the population was in general uneducated and unrefined