History of Old Dutch Meeting House
Rural Hall, NC is the township where the "Old Dutch Meeting House" is located. The original log church was built in 1785 and stood for 94 years. It was built on 102 acres of land donated by Adam Geiger in 1778. The acreage originally came from a land grant made by the State of N.C. which named Adam Geiger and Jacob Petree as the tract owners. They agreed to donate the land provided the church pay the "entry fee" (we assume this was a real estate tax).

In some of it's earliest history, the church was also known as "Beaver Dam Church" or "Fessler's Church". Eventually, it would become known as The Nazareth Evangelical Lutheran Church. The present day church was built on the same site in 1878 which is located along highway NC 65, west of Rural Hall. The N.C. Advisory Committee on Historical Markers designated the church as a historical building in 1959 and erected a marker to recognize it as such. Many family members of the first few generations of N.C. Geiger/Kiger/Keiger's are buried in the adjacent church cemetery.
(Photos by Bill Keiger)

Front view of present day church
Side view of church and cemetery
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