Town Clock Church

Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887), the famous abolitionist, clergyman, reformer, orator, and brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe who wrote, Uncle Tom's Cabin, preached at this church in 1866.

The German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Congregation began construction on the "Town Clock" Church located on Bedford at High Street in 1848. It was dedicated in March 1850. Tradition states that the name "Town Clock" stems from an offer by the city to supply a town clock to the church tower completed first by either the German Lutherans or the German Catholics at St. Peter and Paul's. The Lutheran women held torches and lanterns for their men to work by night in order to complete the steeple and win the competition. The clock, which cost the city of Cumberland fifty dollars, was placed in the tower in June 1857. In 1927, the original congregation, the St. Luke Congregation, relocated, and in 1931 the edifice became the First Christian Church.