FIRST REFORMED CHURCH OF NEW KNOXVILLE
From the 1923 History of Auglaize County, Wm. J. McClain, Editor Historical Publishing Company, Indianapolis (pages 340-342)
In a review prepared for publication in connection with the ceremonies incident to the laying of the corner stone for the extensive addition planned for the commodious First Reformed church at New Knoxville in the summer of 1922, it is pointed out that the beginning of this church dates back to the years 1838-40, but that "by whom and just when this congregation was organized cannot definitely be determined, as no record of the proceedings of this day is available." It is stated, however, that the first service conducted there was under the direction of a visiting minister, the Reverend Jaertin, and that the first regular resident pastor was the Rev. J. H. Tanke, who served the congregation during 1840-43. In January, 1840, the congregation purchased for $60 a tract of fifteen acres in the Knoxville settlement and thereon erected a log church building and a log cabin parsonage and established a cemetery. On December 12, 1841, the congregation adopted a constitution which was signed by the Reverend Tanke and forty members, representing as many families. Art. I of this constitution states that "the name of this congregation shall be the First Reformed and Lutheran Church of New Knoxville; therefore, according to the confession of faith, it shall be the German United Reformed and Lutheran Church and freedom of faith, freedom in seeking as to religious truths, shall always be the privilege of all its members."
Two or three years later doctrinal differences arose in the congregation and the Reverend Tanke was obliged to leave, the congregation for sometime thereafter being without a stated pastor but occasionally visited by the Reverend Braasch of Cincinnati. During this period lay services often were conducted by the village schoolmaster, F. H. W. Kuckherman, a young man of devotion and promise, who presently was prevailed upon by his neighbors to devote himself to the ministry. After pursuing a course of theological training at Cincinnati he was licensed to preach in 1847 and in 1852 received his ordination and became installed as pastor of the First Reformed church at New Knoxville. It was thus that the Rev. F. H. W. Kuckherman entered upon his labors in the church at New Knoxville which were to continue for a period of forty years, or until his resignation on account of failing bodily powers in 1890. He continued, however to make his home at New Knoxville, where he died on March 29, 1914, and his funeral was one of the most largely attended ever held in Auglaize county.
It was following the beginning of Mr. Kuckherman's pastorate that the congregation, in 1853, bought a new building site and erected a frame church to supplant the old log structure. Five years later a parsonage was erected which served until the present parsonage was built in 1888. Up to 1874 this congregation had not become affiliated with any ecclesiastical body, but the pastor was a member of the Lutheran Synod of Ohio. The majority of the members, however, held to the Reformed faith and in that year it was formally decided to become affiliated with the Reformed Church of the United States. This church thus then became a member of the Heidelberg Classis, then of the Synod of the Northwest, but now a subdivision of the Central Synod, and in that same year became incorporated as such. In 1890 the Rev. A. Schneck was installed to succeed the retiring pastor and he served for two years, to be followed in October, 1892, by the Rev. Moritz Noll, who served until his death, November 2, 1898, and was succeeded by the Rev. J. Bachman, whose failing health compelled his resignation in January, 1910. He moved to Cleveland, where he not long afterward died. In March, 1910, the Rev. Josias Friedli was chosen to succeed Mr. Bachman and he remained until he was elected general secretary of the home mission board of the church and in April, 1915, left to assume his new duties, and was followed by the present pastor, the Rev. L. H. Kunst, of Buffalo, N. Y., who entered upon his pastorate on the Sunday after Easter, 1915, and under whose direction the remodeling and enlargement of the handsome church edifice erected in 1894 is being undertaken. Twenty young men of this congregation have gone forth as pastors, two of them as foreign missionaries.
NOTE: The location of the original log buildings was located by the cemetery at the intersection of West South and South West streets in New Knoxville. The congregation originally owned 15 acres in that area, and later purchased the property at the current location of the First Church building.