MESSIAH EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH
(Rev. Michael Van Dyke, R. D. 1, Bedford PA 15522, 814/623-0390)
Historical account: The congregation composing the Messiah Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bedford township was organized about the year 1790. Soon after a log church edifice, 30X50 feet, was built, the labor and material being mostly donated. This building was occupied as a house of worship until 1838, when a stone building, 38X52 feet, was constructed at a cost of one thousand dollars. In the summer of 1867 the stone church was taken down, and the present church edifice, a framed building, 40X60 feet in dimensions, was built at a cost of one thousand five hundred dollars. The building committee of the present structure being composed of Henry S. Sill, Daniel Fetter, George Zimmers and Adam Simons.
This church is located in the St. Clairsville charge, hence see the history of St. Clairsville church for list of pastors. The present members are about one hundred and twenty-five in number, of whom Joseph Tomlinson, Daniel Fetter, Adam Simons and Henry S. Sill are elders, William W. Phillips, Jacob Walter, John Imler and Frank Smith, deacons.
(Source: The History of Bedford, Somerset and Fulton Counties, Pennsylvania, 1884, Waterman, Watkins & Co., pp. 268-9.)
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