The Old Salem Shrine story began with Jacob Albright, whose parents left Germany in 1732 to escape their homeland’s continuous political and religious conflicts. In America, they farmed near Pottstown, Pennsylvania and joined a growing community of Germans known as the Pennsylvania Dutch. On May 1, 1759, Jacob was born. At age 26 he married Catherine Cope and they raised six children on a 45-acre farm near Hangstown, but a dysentery epidemic claimed all six of their children.
Overcome with grief, Jacob searched for a new meaning in his life and believed he could help others who had suffered adversities. At first, he traveled through nearby towns as an unpaid lay-preacher and established an Evangelical church in a nearby town. With a growing interest in his message he organized three evangelistic classes which became the seed of the evangelical movement and the formation of the Evangelical Association of North America.
When he died in 1808 the Association had thousands of members and a core of preachers traveling throughout the United States and Canada serving German families in pioneer communities. The German families in northern Dakota County would be one of those communities.