The following notes were compiled by this site's Webmistress from various sources.
The present St. Paul's Lutheran Church was
built on two acres of land, donated by Henry Best, in
Beaver Township. The first church serving the two
St. Paul's congregations was presumably erected in 1813 and of log construction.
In 1825, the population increased, and a larger frame building was
constructed. The two St. Paul's congregations continued to grow,
and a new stone church was built and dedicated in 1859. This stone
church served the two congregations satisfactorily until September 17,
1904, when it was decided that each congregation should build its own
church. The old church was torn down after each congregation had
its own building completed. The Lutherans bought the bell and placed
it in the tower of their new church and recovered enough stone to construct
the existing bulletin board. The church was completed in 1905 at
a cost of $17,000. On August 1, 1956, fire destroyed everything
except the walls of the church. The present stone church was reconstructed
at an approximate cost of $100,000. [The foregoing paragraph was
taken from a local calendar, published circa 1989.]
The Lutheran Church in St. Petersburg was organized by members who broke away from St. Paul's.
The churches' history and abstracts from early registers were published in 1961 in the book Historical Sketch of St. Paul's Churches, Beaver Township, Clarion County, Pennsylvania, by Raymond E. Hollenbach and John B. Dengler. The book is hard to find, but copies exist in some research libraries in Pennsylvania. The Web mistress of this site has acquired a copy of the 1961 volume and hopes to index it and present it here in the future.
A limited map to burials in the cemetery at St. Paul's exists. Contact the church for details.
We are hoping to get the early St. Paul's baptismal and burial records transcribed for this Web site.