{"id":1781,"date":"2010-01-27T16:20:57","date_gmt":"2010-01-27T20:20:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/?p=1781"},"modified":"2010-01-28T12:37:57","modified_gmt":"2010-01-28T16:37:57","slug":"st-johns-unitarian-church-records-searching-the-history-of-one-of-cincinnatis-oldest-churches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/2010\/01\/st-johns-unitarian-church-records-searching-the-history-of-one-of-cincinnatis-oldest-churches\/","title":{"rendered":"St. John's Unitarian Church Records: Searching the History of one of Cincinnati's Oldest Churches"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"1903confirmation_web2\"<\/a>

The Confirmation class of 1903 with Rev. H.G. Eisenlohr<\/p><\/div>\n

The Archives and Rare Books Library holds the records of a few local churches, including St. John\u2019s Unitarian Church, one of Cincinnati\u2019s oldest houses of worship.\u00a0 This church\u2019s rich history began in 1814 when Joseph Zaeslin (also spelled Zaeslein), a Moravian minister, organized a church for German immigrants in Cincinnati under the name The German Evangelical and Reformed Church.\u00a0\u00a0 The history of this church is important to both Cincinnati\u2019s religious history and to the history of Cincinnati\u2019s German-American community.<\/p>\n

At its beginning, the church was diverse and included both Protestants and Catholics since there was no Catholic church in Cincinnati at the time.\u00a0 The beliefs of the congregation also ranged from liberal to conservative elements, but Zaeslin was successful in keeping everyone together until his death in either 1817 or 1818.\u00a0 When Ludwig Heinrich Meyer became pastor in 1820, however, things were not as peaceful and the congregation endured a number of splits throughout the 1830s.\u00a0 Yet, the original congregation maintained a liberal character, and in 1839 was incorporated as German St. John\u2019s Church.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The church on the corner of 12th and Elm in Over-the-Rhine, 1916<\/p><\/div>\n

The congregation\u2019s first church building was built in 1824 on Arch Street, but in 1868 St. John\u2019s moved to the corner of 12th<\/sup> and Elm Streets in Over-the-Rhine, the heart of Cincinnati\u2019s German community.\u00a0 More changes came to the church in the early 20th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 Under the leadership of Rev. H.G. Eisenlohr, the congregation slowly stopped using the German language, and by 1918 the church was keeping records and holding all services in English.\u00a0 Also while Eisenlohr was pastor, the congregation joined the American Unitarian Association and changed their name to St. John\u2019s Unitarian Church.\u00a0 The mid-20th<\/sup> century brought a new church on Resor Avenue in the Clifton neighborhood of Cincinnati.\u00a0 The church is still located there and is now known as St. John\u2019s Unitarian Universalist Church.<\/p>\n

The records of the church in the Archives and Rare Books Library are on microfilm.\u00a0 These records include church minutes (1822-1916), and lists of baptisms, marriages, funerals, and confirmations (1839-1935).\u00a0 The records are primarily in German, but the church minutes have been translated into English.\u00a0 The microfilm also contains a history of the church written by H.G. Eisenlohr, and the Archives and Rare Books Library holds several pamphlets relating to the history of the church.\u00a0 The microfilm of the church records is part of the German-Americana Collection and is Microfilm Number 10 in the ARB\u2019s holdings.\u00a0 Various pamphlets on the church can also be found in the German-Americana Collection under the call number SpecCol Fick<\/strong> BX 9861.C5 S346.<\/strong><\/p>\n

– Suzanne Maggard<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Archives and Rare Books Library holds the records of a few local churches, including St. John\u2019s Unitarian Church, one of Cincinnati\u2019s oldest houses of worship.\u00a0 This church\u2019s rich history began in 1814 when Joseph Zaeslin (also spelled Zaeslein), a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,13],"tags":[53,54,76,64,24],"class_list":["post-1781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arb","category-uclibraries","tag-cincinnati-history","tag-featured-resource","tag-genealogy","tag-german-americana","tag-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1781\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}