Church


In 1856
, a small group of German farmers assembled in a general store owned by Chauncey Thomas to find a way to form a Congregation in the village of Shohola. For the first fifteen years, services were conducted once every third month in the Shohola school house which stood on the south side of Glen Drive. On October 9, 1868, thirty two heads of families signed a Constitution which officially established the new Congregation. They then approved the name St. Jacobi Lutheran Church and selected the German language version of the Apostle St. James. The names of the thirty two founding fathers are preserved on an engraved memorial tablet, called the “Gedentktafel” which remains on display in the sanctuary of the church to this day. Many of the family names are still heard today.
Gedenktafel


In 1871 these early pioneers completed construction of the new church building on a parcel of land donated by Chauncey Thomas, the merchant, hotel keeper, and bridge owner. In 1887 an additional portion of land was donated by the Kilgour family. John F. Kilgour owned and operated the Shohola Glen and Pond Eddy Blue Stone Company. From one if its quarries he hauled one of the largest slabs of blue stone ever cut and placed it at the entrance to St. Jacobi where it remains today.

History courtesy of the Shohola Railroad & Historical Society