The Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, of the town of Somerset, was organized prior to the year 1800 by Rev. Frederick Long. Among the original members were:
Adam Snyder and family
John Kurtz, Sr.
Frederick Neff, Sr.
George Pile, Sr.
Frederick Beigle
George Chorpenning
Jacob Snyder
Henry Snyder and families.
It appears that Mr. Long officiated as pastor for a number of years. His successors have been:
Ernst H. Tiedeman, 1813-18
John Rebenach, 1819-20
Peter Schmucker, 1821-4
C. F. Heyer, 1824-8
D. Heilig, 1829-31
C. F. Heyer, 1832-6
Peter Reizer, 1838-47
William Uhl, 1848-52
Augustus Babb, 1852-6
Charles Witmer, 1857-9
Graft M. Pile, 1860-1
Leonard Gerhart, 1861-6
J. P. Hentz, 1866-71
J. A. Tomlinson (supply), 1871
A. M. Whetstone, 1872-81
J. B. Shearer, the present pastor, since 1881.
Present membership is about two hundred.
The first house of worship, a log structure, stood on a corner of the cemetery grounds. It was torn down about 1810. The next, a frame building, below the parsonage on Union street, was burned about 1824. A brick church was then built on or near the same site— below the parsonage. In 1857-8 a church edifice was built on Kreiger’s corner lot, which was occupied until its destruction by fire during the conflagration of May 9, 1872. The present handsome brick structure was commenced in 1874, and cost about twenty-one thousand dollars.
(Source: extracted from History of Bedford, Somerset & Fulton Counties, PA; 1884)
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