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Zion Lutheran Church and Cemetery

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c. 1820 cemetery; 1898 church. 635 Needmore Ln.

Located just north of Floyd, this is the fourth church built to house a congregation established in 1813 by the area's German Lutherans. The wooden church, like many other buildings in the county, has a random-coursed soap-stone foundation, and a steep bracketed gable roof. Pews were salvaged from the congregation's previous building on the site. The most intriguing aspect of the property is its cemetery, which has the area's largest group and greatest variety of rough-shaped and carved soapstone grave markers. This rich collection of funerary art, derived from Germanic traditions, includes slabs with rectangular-shouldered bodies and disc-shaped heads as well as a few unusual triangle-topped stones. Other than plain, carefully lettered inscriptions, the markers are typically devoid of surface decoration.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Anne Carter Lee

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