Our Church Founder

Rev. Peter Greding, D.D.

(1859-1863)

                                                                                                                           

     With the influx of German immigrants coming to America around the year 1850, many of these families settled in the north end of small town Lima, Ohio. The newcomers often felt isolated living among English-speaking strangers, and lost without worship since a German church had not yet been established. Bonding together they eventually began convening in homes, schoolhouses and other places opening doors to the foreigners. 
     An ambitious young man named Rev. Peter Greding stationed at Riley Creek near Bluffton, Ohio, heard about the plight of this group and diligently helped them organize a church congregation. Traveling 15 miles from Bluffton by horseback or buggy requiring roughly four hours of travel one-way depending on the weather, he conducted regular services in the German native-tongue at Sanford Hall between 1859-1863. He also organized a choir which rehearsed on Saturday evenings to prepare for singing the anthem on Sunday morning. And for about the next 20-years continued to work closely with the church, editing German lesson materials for Sunday School.   
      According to the History of Allen County, OH (1885), Peter Greding was born in Thusis Graubunden, Switzerland, February 28, 1837. After his father died in Switzerland, Peter and his sibling came to America with their widowed mother in 1858, and settled in Milwaukee, WI. Highly educated, graduated in his homeland from the Cantonal College in Chur; and studied the English language and theology at Heidelberg College and Seminary in Seneca County, OH, where he later became a Professor. Peter Greding was ordained a minister of the Reformed Chuch in 1859, the same year he came to Allen County, OH. He married Anna Matter in 1860, and they owned & operated a farm on 133 acres. Their children: Lydia, Jennings, Calvin, Emma, Bertha, Clara, Amelia, Leander, and Hulda.     
      Rev. Peter Greding died on April 28, 1910 at the age of 73. Funeral services were held at the Lima church he founded, burial in Bluffton.