New Hope Lutheran Church in Minnehaha Springs celebrated 150 years of its organization as a congregation August 16, with a worship service and picnic on the church grounds. More than 100 people attended the service and meal.
Henry White (1820-1900), and his wife, Sabina Rexrode White (1829-1888), moved to Douthards Creek from the Bluegrass Valley in Highland County, Virginia, in 1876. Their home was burned by the Northern Army in 1863, while Sabina was pregnant with their seventh child, Henry Lee, who was born in the springhouse the following January. The fire and a rift with his brother, Jacob, were likely the motivating influences for his bid to purchase land at a sheriff’s sale in Pocahontas County.
Among the things they brought with them across Allegheny Mountain to Douthards Creek were a wooden box of letters and records and their Lutheran faith, which they steadfastly taught their children through Sunday School and catechism.
Henry and Sabina, along with Sabina’s cousin, Ida Palmer, and her husband, William, were the founders of the congregation, which for 17 years met in homes, other churches and schoolhouses, until the present church was built in 1893.
Pastoral care and worship services were sparse throughout the remainder of the 1800s and the beginning of the 20th Century until 1928 when New Hope was affiliated with the Thorn Spring Parish in Pendleton County. The church is now a part of the five-point Mountain Lutheran Parish, with four sister churches in Pendleton County.
To celebrate the anniversary, the sermon was delivered by the Right Reverend Matthew Riegel, bishop of the West Virginia-Western Maryland Synod; former pastors Neal Weltzin and Mary Poston attended and participated in the service. New Hope’s current pastors Angela Lambert and Paul Schafer presided over communion. The entire service, which was in itself a timeline of Lutheran liturgy, was contained in a program designed and constructed by Sarah Sanders. The program also included a history of the church by Pam Pritt. Congregation president Alice Irvine welcomed the attendees and introduced the bishop and pastors. Special music was provided by Mike and Mary Sue Burns; Sunny Given was the pianist for the day. Kathy Henry gathered the children who attended to ring the church bell 150 times, or about 10 rings per child. Several descendants of Henry and Sabina White attended the service, as well. Christmas ornaments with a line drawing of the original church building were given to each family who attended. The bishop and pastors were gifted with plaques with the same drawing.
The picnic was catered by Brooke and Frank Pennington, assisted by Katelynn Cohenhour, Susie Landis and Tammy Broce.
