Catawba County Soldiers Buried at St. Timothy

St. Peter's Lutheran Church is located in the Oxford Ford section of Catawba County. The deed for the church land was made in 1827, however it is thought the church was organized some years prior to that time. The cornerstone of the old church bears the date 1825, and the first baptism record is August 28, 1825. Rev. C. O. Smith, who prepared a brief history for this church at a cornerstone laying service in 1949, thinks the church may have been started by Rev. R. J. Miller, one of the four pastors who organized the North Carolina Synod in 1803. If that be so, then the organization took place sometime prior to 1821, for Rev. Miller discontinued his work with the Lutheran Church in that year.
Be this as it may, the congregation itself feels sure the or-ganization was effected not later than 1825, and on the basis of that belief celebrated its 125th anniversary in the year 1950. St. Peter's was connected with the Tennessee Synod until 1897, after which it united with the Missouri Synod. Its first house of worship was a log building. The second church was a frame structure, erected in 1873. Their present large brick building was dedicated in 1940. Two of our early Lutheran ministers are buried at this church-Rev. P. C. Henkel and Rev. C. G. Reitzel. Pastors who served this church in connection with the Tennessee Synod, so far as we know, were:

Daniel Moser, 1825-1839
C. G. Reitzel, 1839-1849
Timothy Moser, 1949-1856
J. M. Smith, 1856-1862

No pastor, 1862-1865
J. M. Smith, 1865-1876
P. C. Henkel, 1877-1889
Uncertain, 1889-1897

[Source: History of the Lutheran Church in North Carolina, 1950, pg. 339]