"Kellers Church was one of the oldest Bucks County settlements north of Doylestown. Heinrich Keller founded St. Matthews Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1744. Rev, Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America, exercised some involvement with the Kellers Church congregation which was known as "Tohecka congregation" due to its proximity to Tohickon Creek.
"The present church was built in 1894 and cost $12,000. It was considered one of the finest in its day.
"A post office was established at Kellers Church in 1877 with Charles Scheetz as postmaster.
"Besides the church, only a few structures share the intersection of Ridge Rd and Kellers Church Rd. The most dramatic view is of the cemetery, rolling hills, and Haycock mountain in the distance. Noticeably absent were signs of activity during our early weekday morning visit. An occasional single automobile would pass conspicuously breaking the silence." [1]
" Keller's church, Lutheran and Reformed, is situated on the Ridge road, leading from Bucksville to Sellersville, near Haycock mountain, and was organized early, the land it was built on was conveyed to Henry Acker, Henry Keller and Christian Stoneback for that purpose and an additional tract was subsequently purchased of John Ott. Henry Keller was one of the active leaders in the development of this church. In 1840, the Lutherans and Reformed became a union congregation, and joint owner of the real estate by deed dated January 1, 1858. The first union church was erected, 1841, at a cost $1,900, and a new building put up, 1894, at an expense of $12,000. It is modern in all its appointments with a seating capacity of 500; seats arranged in amphitheater form and a Sunday school annex. A movement to open a cemetery was made in 1874, incorporated the same year, and the first burial was 1876. It is not known when the first interment was made in the graveyard of Keller's church, but some of the grave stones are as old as 1782. The first organ was brought from Germany, the gift of the Rev. Mr. Hecht, the pastor, but the present one was built at Quakertown in recent years. The church records, of the period of which we write, speak of the congregation as the "Vacant Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of the Tohickon, township of Bedminster, county of Bucks." The first Lutheran pastor was the Rev. Lucas Raus, of Germany, who was sent to take charge of the congregation, by the Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, D. D., in 1751, and preached his introductory sermon the 7th of July. From the close of the Rev. Mr. Raus's pastorate, about 1757, to 1865-70, there were fourteen successors to him ..." [2]
Street Names
Kellers Church Road • Ridge Road