"Jacob Painter, married Mary Magdalene Etzler in Botetourt county on September 8, 1897 [ probably 1807]. She was a daughter of John George Etzler, Jr., and Hannah Eyster Etzler. Mary Magdalene Etzler Painter was born about 1789 and died in Roanoke County in July of 1867. The Roanoke County Death Records list her age as 78, she a widow of Jacob Painter, cause of death was heart disease, and the death was reported by her son, George Painter." Jacob and Mary Magdalene Etzler Painter were among the first settlers to live at Catawba; he owned hundreds of acres on Catawba, part of his property is the site of present day Catawba Hospital. An early Lutheran group, called Painters Congregation formed in this area; and the first ministers were the Rev. R. J. Miller and the Rev. Jacob Sherer. This congregation placed themselves under the care of the Lutheran Synod of North Carolina, as did the Copps Lutheran Church in Springwood in 1815. A church was built at Catawba, called Painter's Chapel, which was used by the various Protestant congregations in the area, and became the Catawba Baptist Church in later years. Jacob Painter's first home was a log house built into the side of a hill; and a second log house was built near the entrance to Catawba Sanatorium. The two springs on the property continue to supply the hospital with water. The second log house, razed in about 1964, was occupied by the Edward Crawford family and a family of Brizendines in later years. Jacob Painter owned a grist mill, a sawmill, and prosperous farms. He died about 1834, at the age of approximately 49, and he and his wife are buried on their property; the graves were marked with wooden markers, no longer standing. In the distribution part of his party, when the inventory of his estate was filed in Botetourt County on 9/17/1834, each of his ten children received 39 1/2 acres of land in Catawba. Although Mary Magdalene Etzler no longer lived in Botetourt County in 1850, probably having moved to Roanoke County with her son George; she sold 150 acres on Tinker Mountain (the N.E. side) to her son John for $600; this land she had inherited from her father, George Etzler. We are told that following Jacob's death, his two oldest sons, John and William Painter, assumed responsibility for the younger members of the family. The ten children of Jacob and Mary Magdalene Etzler painter were: John, William, Bartley, Barnabus, George Roscoe, Hannah, Harriet, Emeline, Caroline, and Lucy." "Jacob Painter donated the land for an inter-denominational church to be built at Catawba near his home. The original organization, called "Painter's Congregation," was Lutheran, and affiliated with the North Carolina Synod. This church building was used by the Lutherans, Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists, and was the forerunner church for the Catawba Valley Baptist Church. The old church has now been converted to a barn. When the Catawba Valley Baptist congregation celebrated the 125th birthday of the church in 1984, the congregation re-fitted Painter's Chapel as a church for this occasion. The service commemorating their beginnings was held in Painter's Chapel, where the church was formed in 1859 as New Bethel Church . . . and where the New Bethel/Catawba Valley church met until the present church was built in 1922."