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BX 7831 Coll7
COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH THE SECOND OLDEST BRE- THREN CHURCH IN AMERICA
1800
S
A HISTORY
OF THE
COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH IN
CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
THE SECOND OLDEST BRETHREN CHURCH IN AMERICA
BY ISAAC N. URNER, LL.D. LATE PRESIDENT OF MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE, CLINTON, MISSISSIPPI
PHILADELPHIA PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 1898
BX7831 56769
COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY ISAAC N. URNER.
03MIB5 Ang 8
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INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
THINKING that a sketch of the early history of the Coventry Brethren Church would be of interest to its members, and hoping that it might tend to preserve the history of the second oldest Brethren church in America, and in the world, too, the following article, introductory to the "Genealogy of the Urner Family," is republished.
Appended to it will also be found brief biographical references to the successive preachers of the church.
Also a list of the members in 1890, when the third church building was erected.
While the Germantown Church was organized ten months earlier than the Coventry Church, the latter, according to Abraham H. Cassel, is, in some respects, more properly the mother church of the Brethren de- nomination in America than the Germantown Church, as the Coventry Church in early times colonized fre- quently and largely, and in this way was the means of founding many of the early churches, while the Germantown Church, owing to its location in a town, colonized very little.
We are told that no early records of the Coventry Church were kept. It seems so improbable that such a church would have no records, "all the early preachers being men of talent and ability," that the more reason- able supposition is that the records have been lost. Even so intelligent a man as the late Rev. Isaac Price
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INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
did not know the time of its organization by some fifty years. In a letter, still extant, written in 1882, when, however, he was eighty years old, writing of his grand- father, George Price, having moved from Indian Creek, Montgomery County, to Nantmeal township, Chester County, before the Revolutionary War, and of a Breth- ren interest that he, George Price, labored to build up in Nantmeal, he said that it was nearly as old as the Coventry Church. George Price moved to Nantmeal in the fall of 1773 or in the spring of 1774, the latter date most likely, and the Coventry Church was founded in 1724, fifty years earlier.
But for Morgan Edwards's work,* "Materials to- ward a History of the American Baptists," published in Philadelphia in 1770, and the "Chronicon Ephra- tense," + published in Ephrata, Lancaster County, in 1786, we should know almost nothing of the origin, organization, and early history of the church, except through vague and unreliable family traditions, and such additional light as might be furnished by patents and deeds for land, by wills and tax-lists, and by in- scriptions on tombstones.
* The work of Morgan Edwards, referred to above, has long been out of print, and but few copies are extant. There is a copy of the work in the library of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, corner of Locust and Thirteenth Streets, Philadelphia.
ยก A good English translation of the "Chronicon Ephratense" was made by J. Max Hark, D.D., in 1889, and published by S. H. Zahm & Co., Lancaster City, Pennsylvania, of whom copies can be obtained.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
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COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH.
ORIGIN OF THE NAME 7
ORIGIN OF THE BRETHREN IN EUROPE 8 CONSTITUENT MEMBERS OF THE FIRST CHURCH AT SCHWAR- ZENAU 8
MIGRATION OF THE I FIRST COLONY OF BRETHREN TO PENN- 8
SYLVANIA .
ORGANIZATION OF THE GERMANTOWN CHURCH : THE FIRST
BRETHREN CHURCH IN AMERICA 9
NAMES OF FIRST SIX PERSONS BAPTIZED IN AMERICA 10 CONSTITUENT MEMBERS OF THE GERMANTOWN CHURCH . 10
ORGANIZATION OF THE COVENTRY CHURCH: THE SECOND BRETHREN CHURCH IN AMERICA . 11
CONSTITUENT MEMBERS OF THE COVENTRY CHURCH 11
ORGANIZATION OF THE CONESTOGA CHURCH: THE THIRD
BRETHREN CHURCH IN AMERICA 11
SPLIT IN CONESTOGA CHURCH, CAUSED BY CONRAD BEISSEL . 12 MIGRATION OF THE SECOND COLONY OF BRETHREN TO AMER- ICA WITH ALEXANDER MACK 12
MARTIN URNER, SR., FOUNDER AND FIRST BISHOP OF COV- ENTRY CHURCH 14
MARTIN URNER, JR., SECOND BISHOP OF COVENTRY CHURCH 15
BUILDING OF FIRST MEETING-HOUSE 15
ANECDOTE OF SECOND BISHOP MARTIN URNER 16
JONAS URNER . 18
BUILDING OF SECOND MEETING-HOUSE, WITH LETTER OF
ABRAHAM H. CASSEL 18
SKETCH OF COVENTRY CHURCH, BY ABRAHAM H. CASSEL 19
LIST OF MEMBERS OF COVENTRY CHURCH IN 1770 21 LIST OF PREACHERS FROM 1724 TO 1898 . 21 EXTRACTS FROM MORGAN EDWARDS'S "MATERIALS TOWARD
A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN BAPTISTS" 23
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CONTENTS.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF ITS PREACHERS FROM 1724 TO 1898.
PAGE
THE THREE URNERS
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CASPER INGLES 31
THE THREE REINHARTS
31
THE THREE PRICES
32
THE TWO HARLEYS
34
DAVID KEIM 35
PETER HOLLOWBUSH
36
JACOB CONNER 37
ISAAC URNER BROWER 39
JESSE P. HETRIC 40
JOHN Y. EISENBERG . 42
AS TO THE NAME 43
LIST OF MEMBERS IN 1890 47
COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH.
As the Urners were the founders of the Coventry Brethren Church, and its preachers and bishops for the first eighty-seven years of its existence, a sketch of its history seems the proper introduction to the genealogy of the Urner family.
The Coventry Church took its name from the town- ship in which it is located, and the township is sup- posed to have received its name through Samuel Nutt, an early settler and iron-master, who came from Coven- try, in Warwickshire, in England. The township first took the name Coventry in the year 1724, the same year in which the Church was organized. Previously the district was known in the assessment lists, which contained the names of Jacob, Hans, and Martin Urner, as "Skoolkill District" in 1719, and as " Scoolkil" in 1722. At its formation the township of Coventry com- prised not only the land along the Schuylkill River, now North Coventry, East Coventry, South Coventry, but all of the upper part of Chester County, and even a part of the present county of Lancaster .*
The Brethren, as the members have always called themselves, have sometimes been called the First Day Baptists, to distinguish them from the Seventh Day Baptists; sometimes they have been called the German
* See Futhey's "History of Chester County," page 172.
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COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH.
Baptists, to distinguish them from the Baptists; and sometimes they are called Dunkers, and Tunkers, from an attempted transliteration of the German word mean- ing Baptist.
In the latter part of the seventeenth and the begin- ning of the eighteenth centuries vigorous attempts were made by the Protestants of Germany and Holland to reform some of the errors of the Churches. These efforts produced violent opposition and persecutions. They also resulted in heavy emigration of the common people and of many of the learned to America. Of those who did not immediately emigrate, many moved into districts whose rulers had themselves been awakened and so granted to the refugees liberty to worship as they pleased. At Schwarzenau, in the Province of Witgen- stein, the first Brethren Church ever organized was started in 1708, with the following eight constituent members : Brethren George Grebe, of Hesse-Cassel ; Luke Vetter, of Hesse-Cassel; Alexander Mack, of Schriesheim in the Palatinate; Alexander Bony, of Basle, Switzerland ; John Kipping, of Bareit, Wirtem- burg; and Sisters Johanna Noetinger Bony, Anne Margareta Mack, Johanna Kipping.
By studying the Bible these people were led to be- liever's baptism and Congregational church govern- ment, and this in a place where Baptists had never been known. As they increased in numbers, persecutions followed. Some were driven into Holland, some to Creyfeld in the Duchy of Cleves; and the Mother Church at Schwarzenau moved to Serustervin in Fries- land; and in 1719 they emigrated in a body to Penn- sylvania, and settled at Germantown; a few scattering to Skippack, Falckner's Swamp, and Oley. This colony consisted of about twenty families.
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COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH.
Though very zealous for the truth, they had bicker- ings and jealousies even during their sojourning in Europe, and while this first colony of Brethren was crossing the ocean, trouble broke out afresh among the members. So for several years after their arrival there were no religious efforts put forth by them. But in the fall of 1722 several of the Germantown Brethren,- Becker, Gommere, Gantz, and the Trauts, visited the scattered Brethren. In the fall of the following year there was an occurrence that finally bridged over their separation and brought them to organize themselves into a church. This event was the application of six "persons on the Schuylkill" for baptism. These "per- sons on the Schuylkill" lived thirty-five miles up the river, and comprised Martin Urner and his wife and four neighbors. This organization of the Germantown Church and baptism of these first six converts took place on the 25th day of December, 1723. In the " Chronicon Ephratense," pages 22 and 23 of the translation by J. Max Hark, D.D., this happening is referred to in the following words :
"In August of the year 1723 a rumor was spread through the country that Christ. Libe, a famous Baptist teacher who had long been in the galleys, had arrived in Philadelphia. This moved some newly awakened persons on the Schuylkill to go forth to meet him. The whole thing, however, was a fiction. These persons were persuaded by the Baptists [Brethren] to go with them to their meeting, during and after which they heard so much of the Germans' awakening that they went home very much edified. Soon after a second visit was made to Germantown, by which both parties were so much edified that the Germantown Baptists [Brethren] prom- ised them a visit in return, which they made four weeks
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afterwards with great blessing. The newly awakened ones were thereby stirred up still more, so that they begged to be received into their Communion by Holy Baptism. This was the occasion of important proceed- ings among the Brethren in Germantown, for they still had in mind the misunderstandings which had arisen between them and their Brethren at Creyfeld. Besides, they were, indeed, a branch of a congregation but yet not a congregation that dared to presume to administer the sacraments. The worst was that they were divided among themselves and had only lately commenced to draw nigh to one another again. After they had seriously pondered over all these things in the spirit, they finally agreed to consent to the request. Accord- ingly, after the candidates for baptism had chosen Peter Becker to be their baptizer, they were baptized in the stream Wiskohikung [Wissahickon], near German- town, on December 25, of the year 1723. And as these were the firstlings of all baptized among the high Ger- mans in America, their names shall be here recorded and given to posterity,-namely, Martin Urner and his female house-mate, Henry Landis and his house- mate, Frederick Lang, and Jan Mayle. The evening following they held the first love-feast ever cele- brated in America at John Gommere's, which created a great stir among the people of that neighborhood ; Peter Becker, mentioned before, ministering at the same.
"Through such a Divine happening the Baptists [Brethren] in Pennsylvania became a congregation."
At the organization of the Germantown Church, in addition to the six who had just been baptized, were the following seventeen members: Peter Becker, Henry Traut, Jeremiah Traut, Balser Traut, Henry Holzapfel,
COVENTRY BRETHREN GRAVEYARD. FOUNDED IN 1743.
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COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH.
John Gommere, Stephen Koch, Jacob Koch, John Hildebrand, Daniel Ritter, George Balser Gansz, John Preisz, John Kaempfer,-thirteen brethren ; and Mag- dalena Traut, Anna Gommere, Maria Hildebrand, and Johanna Gansz,-four sisters.
In the spring of 1724 they resumed their meetings with great success, particularly among the young. During the summer the fame of their awakening spread abroad, and there was such an increase of attendance that there was not room for their accommodation. They also now deemed it well to make a full report of their reunion and success to the Brethren in Germany. They also resolved on a general visitation of all the Brethren in the country. They started out on the 23d of October, and visited Skippack, Falckner's Swamp, and Oley ; holding meetings with breaking of bread at these several places. They then visited "the newly baptized Brethren on the Schuylkill," where two per- sons were baptized, and on November 7, 1724, the COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH was there formally organized, being the second Brethren church in America. The following were the nine constituent members : Martin Urner and his wife, Catharine ; Henry Landis and wife ; Daniel Eiker and wife ; Peter Heffly, Owen Longacre, and Andrew Sell. Martin Urner was made preacher, and when Alexander Mack arrived in America, in 1729, Martin Urner was ordained bishop by him.
The visiting Germantown Brethren then proceeded up to Conestoga, now a part of Lancaster County. Here they also had a successful meeting, and, after baptizing seven, on the 12th day of November, 1724, they organized the Conestoga Church, which was the third Brethren church in America. This Conestoga
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Church is often spoken of as the Ephrata Church, as it was near where the town of Ephrata was subsequently built. The members of this new church made Conrad Beissel, who was one of the seven who had just been baptized, their preacher. This Beissel was a man of considerable ability, but of a dreamy, visionary turn of mind, and gave the Brethren churches much trouble during the remainder of his life. He died in 1768. By his peculiar views he divided the Conestoga Church, in 1728, in two parts,-the Brethren, who remained true to their faith, and the Seventh Day Baptists, his followers. He went off into Sabbatarianism, Monachism, and the advocacy of celibacy. He also built at Ephrata a monastery and a nunnery. The Conestoga Church was by this greatly weakened. The Germantown Church also lost many members, who moved up to Ephrata. The Coventry Church, owing to the good sense and conservatism of Martin Urner and his mem- bers, suffered the loss of but few.
In the year 1729, Alexander Mack, before mentioned as one of the founders of the Brethren Church, with the rest of the Brethren still remaining in Europe, emigrated also to Pennsylvania. This colony was com- posed of about thirty families. This large addition greatly stimulated the Brethren in America, and largely counteracted the deleterious effects of the Beissel seces- sion. The following churches were soon after organ- ized : The Oley Church, in 1732; Great Swamp, in 1733; Amwell, New Jersey, in 1733; Cocalico, in 1735; White Oakland, in 1736; Conowango, in 1738; and others soon after.
Owing to the location of the Germantown Church in a town, it never made much progress in numbers. The practice of feet-washing, of trine immersion, and the
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efforts of some to force a peculiarity of dress upon the members, in imitation of the Quakers, may have been felt as burdensome to persons living in a town. And many of the more emotional of the members found joy in burying themselves in the cloisters of Ephrata and in the wilds of Conestoga.
In the Coventry Church a more healthy sentiment always prevailed; while it had many accessions, its growth in number was retarded by heavy colonizations from the Church. The members were mostly farmers, and while the land was good, the lands in other localities were better. Some moved to what was then called the Conecocheague, now embraced in Franklin and Perry Counties, in Pennsylvania, and Washington County, Maryland; some to the Shenandoah Valley, in Vir- ginia ; and some to Carroll and Frederick Counties, in Maryland, where the Urners, the Wolfes, and the Crumbachers are still found. This migration, while it greatly reduced the church in number, made its influence, on the denomination at large, very great. While the Germantown Church was historically and by some ten months priority of organization the mother church, the Coventry Church was practically the mother church.
But for the schism in the Conestoga Church caused by Conrad Beissel, that church might have divided honors with the Coventry Church .*
The Brethren churches in America now number one hundred thousand members.
* See article of A. H. Cassel, in the "Christian Family Com- panion" of April 9, 1872, pages 228, 229.
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COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH.
MARTIN URNER, SR.
Martin Urner, the founder of the Coventry Brethren Church, and its first bishop, was born in Alsace, then a province of France, in the year 1695. The family had been driven by religious persecution out of the Canton of Uri, Switzerland, whence the name Urner, and took refuge in Alsace. About 1708, Ulrich Urner, with his three sons,-Jacob, Hans, and Martin,-emigrated to Pennsylvania, and is said to have settled for a while at Roxborough, near Philadelphia. In 1712 the name of Martin Urner appears among the settlers of Lan- caster County .* In 1718 he bought a tract of four hundred and fifty acres of land of the Penns, in what is now called Coventry Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, on the Schuylkill River immediately opposite the present town of Pottstown. On this property, now called Belwood, he and his descend- ants lived long years afterwards, and on part of the property the Coventry Brethren Church and the Cov- entry Brethren Graveyard are located. He died in 1755, and was buried in the Coventry Brethren Grave- yard.
The following account of this Martin Urner is found in the work called " Materials toward a History of the American Baptists," published, 1770, by Morgan Ed- wards, then Fellow of Rhode Island College and Over- seer of the Baptist Church in Philadelphia.
"MARTIN URNER, SR., was born in Alsace about the year 1695, and was bred a Presbyterian. He came to America in 1715. [Earlier, about 1708.] He em-
* See Rupp's "Thirty Thousand Names," Appendix III., ed. of 1876.
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COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH.
braced the Principles of the Baptists in 1722; was ordained by Alexander Mack in 1729, at which time he took upon himself the oversight of the church. He died in 1755 and was buried in the graveyard at Coventry. His wife was Catharine Reist, by whom he had the following children : Mary, Martin, and Jacob. These married into the Wolff, Edis, and Light families. Assistant to Mr. Urner was one Casper Ingles."
MARTIN URNER, JR.
The second bishop of the Coventry Church was Martin Urner, Jr., son of Jacob Urner and nephew of the first Martin Urner. He was born 1725, one mile northeast of the present town of Pottstown, Pennsyl- vania. He early joined the church, and was active in all its offices. On the death of Martin Urner, Sr., in 1755, the entire charge of the church fell on him. He was ordained bishop in 1756. He continued preaching to the church with marked success until the time of his death in 1799. After the death of his uncle, Martin Urner, Sr., he bought the homestead and made it his permanent home.
In the year 1772, during his ministry, the first house of worship was built for the Coventry Church.
Prior to the building of this first meeting-house the members met by turns at the homes of different Brethren, though generally at the home of Martin Urner. It was customary to stay and take dinner after preaching, and spend the afternoon in conversation, singing, and prayer. This proved so edifying that it drew many into the church. The Germantown Breth- ren did the same, but in 1770 they built their meeting- house.
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COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH.
As the Coventry Church was at that time very closely connected with the Germantown Church, two years after, in 1772, they also built a meeting-house.
This Martin Urner died in 1799, and was buried in the Coventry Brethren Graveyard.
The following anecdote is told of this Martin Urner by David Urner, of Springfield, Ohio, of the fifth gen- eration, in a letter to the writer of this sketch, dated October 14, 1872.
" I never saw my grandfather, Martin Urner, as he died a few years before I was born. I learned, however, from an old friend, that he was esteemed by his brethren in the church and ministry, as a preacher of more than ordinary ability; so much so, that at their yearly meetings he was always one of the number that were called upon to preach. My friend said that on one occasion when the Yearly Meeting was held in Philadelphia, as the preachers from the country were jogging along on horseback, going to that meeting, one of the preachers said to my grand- father, 'As you will no doubt be called on to preach at this meeting, I want you to preach particularly against the wearing of fine clothes, as the brethren and sisters of Philadelphia are becoming entirely too fashionable in their dress.' And although he urged the matter lengthily, he thought my grandfather did not give all heed to what he said, and asked, 'Did you hear what I said ?' and the answer was, ' Yes.' The next question was, ' Will you do it?' when my grandfather replied, 'If I am called on to preach, I hope I shall have something of more im- portance than to talk to the people about the rags with which they cover themselves.'"
Morgan Edwards gives the following account of this Martin Urner :
"The next and present minister [1770] is Rev. Martin Urner, Jr. He is nephew to the forementioned Martin Urner. He was born in 1725, in New Hanover Township and County of Philadelphia. Was ordained in 1756, at which time he took on
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him the care of the congregation. His assistant is Mr. Peter Reinhart. Mr. Urner married Barbara Switzer, by whom he has children, Mary, Joseph, Martin, and Elizabeth."
In the Brethren's Almanac of 1873, page 15, pub- lished by H. R. Holsinger, at Dale City, Pennsylva- nia, we have the following fuller account by Abraham H. Cassel, of Harleysville, Pennsylvania, the historian of the Brethren Church.
" MARTIN URNER, JR.
" Martin Urner, Jr., was a very popular preacher among the ancient worthies. He was a brother's son, or nephew, of the before-mentioned Martin Urner, Sr., and was born in New Hanover Township, then in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, but now in Mont- gomery County, Pennsylvania, in the year 1725. He became a member of the church at Coventry while very young in life, and after serving in her different offices with exemplary piety and disinterested zeal, he was finally promoted to the office of bishop, being or- dained in 1756. From that time on, the sole care of the church devolved upon him, until released by death. He died in May, 1799, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. He was married to Sister Barbara Switzer, of Coventry, by whom he had children, Mary, Joseph, Martin, and Elizabeth, who have raised him a numer- ous progeny, many of whom are still in fellowship with the Brethren.
" This Brother Urner appears to have been somewhat of a revivalist, as the church flourished greatly under his ministerial labors. He was also the bosom friend of Alexander Mack, as their correspondence manifests the most intimate terms of love and friendship between
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them during life, and the record of his death, also, is in language that bespeaks great tenderness and affection for him."
JONAS URNER.
The Urner family gave a third preacher to the Cov- entry Brethren Church, Jonas Urner. He was the son of the second Martin Urner, and, beginning to preach to the church at an early age, he continued to preach to it down to 1811, when he moved to Carroll County, Maryland, and labored with the Pipe Creek Church. He died in 1813, and his remains were buried in the Wolfe Graveyard, in Carroll County.
LETTER OF ABRAHAM H. CASSEL AS TO WHEN THE FIRST HOUSE WAS BUILT AND WHEN REBUILT.
" HARLEYSVILLE, PA., March 18, 1890. " ISAAC N. URNER :
"DEAR SIR,-Yours of the 15th inst. just to hand. I am sorry that I cannot give you absolutely certain dates, but cor- roborative incidents seem to settle it satisfactorily in my mind that the present building was erected in 1817. Many years ago, when I first commenced writing sketches of the early churches, I made considerable inquiry of those who assisted in the build- ing, and never heard of any other than 1817; and I was also informed that when they resolved on building the new house, they bought a half-acre of ground from Daniel Urner, I think, to enlarge the meeting-house lot, which was in 1817, according to the conveyance; which I think should settle that point be- yond a doubt. James Wells being the architect, I think you might find some papers among his descendants that would sub- stantiate that date.
"You are correct about the church being founded in 1724, but they had no meeting-house for a long time, as the old Brethren were opposed to having a meeting-house. They held their meetings in a kind of rotation, at Martin Urner's and at four other places, and the custom then was that where the
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