The Smithfield German Evangelical Protestant church was founded in Pittsburgh in 1782. At that time Pittsburgh was only a hamlet on the frontier. Twenty five years earlier no village was there at all, only Fort Duquesne, a French military outpost. In 1782 the German church had organized and found a place to meet, a log cabin that it rented, but it had no minister. So the congregation sent a letter to the German Reformed Synod in eastern Pennsylvania, saying, in effect, "Please send us a preacher." The man who was sent was named Johann Wilhelm Weber. As the German church grew to about 200 members, it needed a larger and more dignified edifice. So, in 1815, under Schnee's leadership, the original building was torn down and a new structure of brick was constructed on the same site. It seated about 200, with a gallery holding 20. Three years later Schnee resigned and moved back East, leaving the church greatly strengthened. The Evangelical Protestant Church joined the Congregational fellowship as a separate, nongeographical conference, functioning like the Calvin (Hungarian) Synod in the United Church of Christ. In 1962 the church joined the UCC and merged with Slavonic Congregational to form Smithfield Congregational United. The volumes contain meeting minutes and church vital statistics.