Bluefield's Oldest Church

Immanuel Lutheran
Written and Submitted by: Glen Tate Dudley

Immanuel Lutheran, Bluefield's oldest church, was founded in 1887. This was before the first school, before the formation of city government, before the development of a water supply, before the first bank, before the first telephone exchange, before the first newspaper, and before the first hospital.

A history of Immanuel should not begin without first discussing the decades prior to its founding. The persons most responsible for the beginning of this church and its continuance into the twentieth century had their roots in Southwestern Virginia and particularly in Tazewell County.

The first Lutheran congregation in the area was organized by either Rev. Jacob Scherer or Rev. Nehemiah Bonham in Burke's Garden, Tazewell County, in 1828, with George Spracher as elder and Matthias Rox and Michael Ritter as deacons. Rev. Jacob Scherer served as a missionary from the North Carolina Synod to the Lutheran settlers in Southwestern Virginia. There were also strong ties to the Tennessee Synod, to which Rev. Nehemiah Bonham belonged, since in 1828 the Burke's Garden congregation petitioned the Tennessee Synod for pastoral services. In 1837, John B. Floyd was elected trustee of the church. He later became Governor of Virginia, Secretary of War, and Confederate General. When George Spracher died in 1847, Stephen Spracher, who had signed the original petition in 1840 to form the Southwest Virginia Synod, was elected to fill his vacancy as elder.

In 1888, during his tenure as Immanuel's first pastor, Rev. Joseph B. Greever, D.D., founded Wartburg Evangelical Lutheran Church, Bluefield, Virginia. The congregation began by worshiping in the Methodist Church and then in the chapel of Wartburg Seminary subsequent to its completion.

In 1904, the cornerstone of a new frame building with adjoining Sunday School rooms was laid. Trustees were L.C. Cole, Thomas Peery, and J.S. Carr. On April 2, 1931, the membership merged with Immanuel Lutheran's congregation. Wartburg's bell was removed and placed in Immanuel's steeple, where it is still in use.

In 1952, the trustees sold the property. Subsequent to the sale, an addition to the church building was completed, and Dudley Memorial Mortuary established its claim of being " The only funeral home in America with an authentic church chapel".