Trinity picnic and hymn sing August 2018
A video of Trinities early history
Phil Snipes
Published on 12 Apr 2010
Video chronicling the Coiner Familys start in America through modern time and how it is intertwined with the history and legacy of Trinity Lutheran Church in Crimora, Virginia up through Bethany Lutheran Church in Waynesboro, Virginia.
Phil Snipes
Published on 12 Apr 2010
Video chronicling the Coiner Familys start in America through modern time and how it is intertwined with the history and legacy of Trinity Lutheran Church in Crimora, Virginia up through Bethany Lutheran Church in Waynesboro, Virginia.
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Huge family left mark on Augusta Co. history
Nancy Sorrells, Special to The News Leader Published 12:54 p.m. ET Feb. 20, 2015 | Updated 4:21 p.m. ET Feb. 20, 2015
(Photo: By Nancy Sorrells)
Imagine the scene.
It was Oct. 19, 1892, and Augusta County was getting ready for what was probably the biggest family reunion ever held in the region.
Two thousand descendants of Michael and Margaret Keinadt, or Koiner, had descended upon Trinity Lutheran Church, which still stands today just off Rockfish Road near Crimora. It was a sight to behold — at least 850 horses and buggies crowded the church grounds, and tables totaling 300 feet in length were overflowing with a bountiful feast.
The purpose of the massive gathering was to remember the family's original Augusta County settlers and dedicate a monument to the family in the middle of the historic cemetery where Michael and Margaret, as well as dozens and dozens of family members are laid to rest. To say the Koiners were prolific is like saying the ocean has a lot of water.
No matter how you spell it — be it Coiner, Koyner, Coyner or Keinadt — they are all related and they all go back to German-speaking ancestors who left the dreadful conditions in the Wurttemberg area of what is now Germany in the early 1700s. They came to Pennsylvania and then Michael and Margaret came to the Shenandoah Valley with their large family.
Many of those early Koiners were Lutheran, a protestant denomination that originated in Germany. By the 1790s, there were enough practicing Lutherans in the Crimora area that a log church was erected. It became known as Spindle's Meeting House, named for the Rev. Adolph Spindle (or Spindler), who conducted services there until 1809. Legend says that 71-year-old Michael Keinadt made the nails used in the interior of the church.
In 1838, that log building was replaced with a brick building called Koiner's Church. By 1880, the second church was replaced with fancier building that included a steeple and large windows. Not only was the building, which is the one still used today, larger, but the church name was significantly larger and incorporated another Lutheran congregation in nearby Waynesboro. The full name of the two combined congregations? The Coyner's Evangelical Lutheran Church of Augusta County, Virginia, worshiping at Trinity and Bethany Churches!
This new church was built several feet outside of the historic cemetery, which continued to serve the church and the community as it had since the 1740s. Through the years the increasing number of Koiners remained keenly aware of the family's important heritage. By 1892, the Koiners had been in Augusta for just over a century and the idea was launched to gather the family history and erect a monument to their ancestors, Michael and Margaret Koiner, who had planted themselves in the county.
What better place, they reasoned, than at Trinity Lutheran, within sight of the original Koiner homestead and at the spiritual heart of the German faith. By this time the cemetery was filled with Koiners and their relatives, and even included some stones decorated in German "fraktur" and written in German. And so the Michael Koiner Association was formed to write a genealogy book and dedicate a marble obelisk.
The Staunton newspaper at the time reported the great gathering and dedication, describing it thusly:
"Moved by the purpose of preparing and transmitting a history of the family, to erect a monument over the graves of their first of American parents, to unify into one if practicable the spelling of the name which had become diversified and for other objects which can well be thought of some time since a large number of the descendants assembled at Waynesboro and organized the Michael Koiner Memorial Association."
They obtained the monument and fixed Oct. 19, 1892, as the date for the dedication.
And so it came to be that the massive gathering of Koiner descendants wound its way to the country church and overflowed the cemetery to witness the unveiling of the family monument and participate in the day-long festivities. Every attendee was given a small memorial ribbon as a souvenir. A 180-page genealogy book was published in 1893 as well.
For those interested in learning more about this fascinating part of Augusta County's German history, let me suggest two visits. Trinity Lutheran Church and cemetery is a remarkable spot filled with history (2564 Rockfish Rd., Crimora). The countryside is beautiful and quiet (unlike it would have been in 1892!). Wander through the historic cemetery and discover the magnificent restoration of the graveyard done through years of labor by the cemetery committee. Among the graves you will find a drummer from the American Revolution, a German headstone with intricate carving, several War of 1812 veterans, and, of course, Koiners and Coyners of every ilk.
This marble monument in the Trinity Lutheran Church cemetery was dedicated to Michael and Margaret Koiner and unveiled in October 1892. (Photo: By Nancy Sorrells)
Then when you are finished, might I suggest you stop by the History Gallery of the R.R. Smith Center for History and Art at 20 S. New St. in Staunton. The quilt exhibit there features four generations of quilts made by women in the J.B. Yount family.
Nancy Sorrells, Special to The News Leader Published 12:54 p.m. ET Feb. 20, 2015 | Updated 4:21 p.m. ET Feb. 20, 2015
(Photo: By Nancy Sorrells)
Imagine the scene.
It was Oct. 19, 1892, and Augusta County was getting ready for what was probably the biggest family reunion ever held in the region.
Two thousand descendants of Michael and Margaret Keinadt, or Koiner, had descended upon Trinity Lutheran Church, which still stands today just off Rockfish Road near Crimora. It was a sight to behold — at least 850 horses and buggies crowded the church grounds, and tables totaling 300 feet in length were overflowing with a bountiful feast.
The purpose of the massive gathering was to remember the family's original Augusta County settlers and dedicate a monument to the family in the middle of the historic cemetery where Michael and Margaret, as well as dozens and dozens of family members are laid to rest. To say the Koiners were prolific is like saying the ocean has a lot of water.
No matter how you spell it — be it Coiner, Koyner, Coyner or Keinadt — they are all related and they all go back to German-speaking ancestors who left the dreadful conditions in the Wurttemberg area of what is now Germany in the early 1700s. They came to Pennsylvania and then Michael and Margaret came to the Shenandoah Valley with their large family.
Many of those early Koiners were Lutheran, a protestant denomination that originated in Germany. By the 1790s, there were enough practicing Lutherans in the Crimora area that a log church was erected. It became known as Spindle's Meeting House, named for the Rev. Adolph Spindle (or Spindler), who conducted services there until 1809. Legend says that 71-year-old Michael Keinadt made the nails used in the interior of the church.
In 1838, that log building was replaced with a brick building called Koiner's Church. By 1880, the second church was replaced with fancier building that included a steeple and large windows. Not only was the building, which is the one still used today, larger, but the church name was significantly larger and incorporated another Lutheran congregation in nearby Waynesboro. The full name of the two combined congregations? The Coyner's Evangelical Lutheran Church of Augusta County, Virginia, worshiping at Trinity and Bethany Churches!
This new church was built several feet outside of the historic cemetery, which continued to serve the church and the community as it had since the 1740s. Through the years the increasing number of Koiners remained keenly aware of the family's important heritage. By 1892, the Koiners had been in Augusta for just over a century and the idea was launched to gather the family history and erect a monument to their ancestors, Michael and Margaret Koiner, who had planted themselves in the county.
What better place, they reasoned, than at Trinity Lutheran, within sight of the original Koiner homestead and at the spiritual heart of the German faith. By this time the cemetery was filled with Koiners and their relatives, and even included some stones decorated in German "fraktur" and written in German. And so the Michael Koiner Association was formed to write a genealogy book and dedicate a marble obelisk.
The Staunton newspaper at the time reported the great gathering and dedication, describing it thusly:
"Moved by the purpose of preparing and transmitting a history of the family, to erect a monument over the graves of their first of American parents, to unify into one if practicable the spelling of the name which had become diversified and for other objects which can well be thought of some time since a large number of the descendants assembled at Waynesboro and organized the Michael Koiner Memorial Association."
They obtained the monument and fixed Oct. 19, 1892, as the date for the dedication.
And so it came to be that the massive gathering of Koiner descendants wound its way to the country church and overflowed the cemetery to witness the unveiling of the family monument and participate in the day-long festivities. Every attendee was given a small memorial ribbon as a souvenir. A 180-page genealogy book was published in 1893 as well.
For those interested in learning more about this fascinating part of Augusta County's German history, let me suggest two visits. Trinity Lutheran Church and cemetery is a remarkable spot filled with history (2564 Rockfish Rd., Crimora). The countryside is beautiful and quiet (unlike it would have been in 1892!). Wander through the historic cemetery and discover the magnificent restoration of the graveyard done through years of labor by the cemetery committee. Among the graves you will find a drummer from the American Revolution, a German headstone with intricate carving, several War of 1812 veterans, and, of course, Koiners and Coyners of every ilk.
This marble monument in the Trinity Lutheran Church cemetery was dedicated to Michael and Margaret Koiner and unveiled in October 1892. (Photo: By Nancy Sorrells)
Then when you are finished, might I suggest you stop by the History Gallery of the R.R. Smith Center for History and Art at 20 S. New St. in Staunton. The quilt exhibit there features four generations of quilts made by women in the J.B. Yount family.