USA > Pennsylvania > Lehigh County > Salisbury in Lancaster County > History of Jerusalem Lutheran and Reformed Church of Western Salisbury, Lehigh Co., Pa. : with complete records of all members of both congregations, baptisms, confirmations, marriages and burials > Part 1
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M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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Go
LLL ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 01181 6375
GC 974.802 AL5WEH
HISTORY
. . . OF ...
JERUSALEM
Lutheran and Reformed Church
.. . OF ...
Western Salisbury, Lehigh Co., Penna. Pa.
With Complete Records of all Members of Both Congregations, Baptisms, Confirmations, Marriages and Burials.
PREPARED AND ARRANGED BY
Tilghman Neimeyer Rev. John B. Stoudt Rev. Myron O. Rath Jacob J. Reinhard Marcus J. Kemmerer Committee
1911
1826771
1
1:
SALISBURY TOWNSHIP (LEHIGH CO. ) PA. JERUSALEM LUTHERAN AND REFORMED CHURCH.
D 285478 .77 History of Jerusalem Lutheran and Reformed church of Western Salisbury, Lehigh co., Penna. With complete records of all members of both con- gregations, baptisms, confirmations, marriages a: burials. Prepared and arranged by Tilghman Nei- - meyer, Rev. John B.Stoudt cand others] ... committee. [Allentown, Pa., H.R.Haas & co. ,1911. 282р.
NL_40-1493
K 1743
BHELP CARD
THE PRESENT STRUCTURE
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
https://archive.org/details/historyofjerusal00sali
D 285478.77
H. RAY HAAS & CO. PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS ALLENTOWN, PA.
K1743
TO THE MEMORY OF THE
FATHERS AND FOUNDERS
OF THE
UNION CONGREGATION
OF
WESTERN SALISBURY
Who, amid toil and tribulation in travail of body and soul laid a foundation deep and strong. Who, though dead as to the flesh, still live with God; and who even now surround us as a cloud of witnesses encouraging and guiding us from their heavenly home, this volume is gratefully inscribed.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
5
THE SALISBURY REFORMED CONGREGATION.
Organization of Congregation -Erection of a Church-Moravian Episode-Michael Schlat- ter and Organization of Coetus-Reformed Pastors-Retrospect-Reformed Members, List of Communicants, May 15, 1796; List of Communicants, April 2, 1820; List of Present Members .7-31
THE SALISBURY LUTHERAN CONGREGATION.
Lutheran Pastors-Lutheran Members, List of Communicants, March 23, 1782; List of Communicants, April 16, 1820; List of Present Members .32-52
ERECTION OF CHURCH, 1819.
Announcement of Corner Stone Laying-Proclamation Read at Corner Stone Laying- Contributions-Announcement of Dedication-Moravian Musicians at Dedication-Thanks of Committee to the Public-Report of Auditors. 53-59
STATISTICS AND BEQUESTS. .60-62
MISCELLANEOUS.
Lights and Shaddows-Name of Congregation -- Heinrich Roth-Massacre of Frantz Family-Vesteries-Organists. 63 .- 67
ADDITIONS AND AMENDMENTS TO THE PROCLAMATIONS.
.08-69
REFORMED RECORDS.
Baptisms-Confirmations-Marriages
.70-114
LUTHERAN RECORDS.
Baptisms-Confirmations-Marriages.
. 115-225
BURIAL RECORD.
.226-282
. ..
CONCLUSION.
.. . . . . 355
.
CONTENTS.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Opposite Title
The Present Structure
The Interior
Page
5
Rev. John Baer Stoudt.
12
Rev. Daniel Zeller
16
Rev. A. J. G. Dubbs
20
Rev. Daniel E. Schaeffer.
66
66
28
Rev. Myron O. Rath.
66
32
Rev. Benjamin German
38
Rev. William Rath
..
42
Present Ddifice Before Remodeled.
Old Communion Service, Baptismal Dish and Schlatter Bible
16
61
The Organ
67
Rev. Thomas N. Reber
..
84
Rev. Charles E. Schaeffer.
92
Rev. J. P. Bachman
16
96
Rev. Preston A. DeLong.
6.
..
104
The Choir
66
I15
An Old Style Pulpit:
.6
136
66
52
..
1
THE INTERIOR
INTRODUCTION.
In response to an action of the congregation the committee has prepared the following pages. It seems strange to us that this work was not done many years ago, when many of the records now lost were still at hand and when the necessary facts for an accurate history might have been more easily collected. Now that a historic renaissance has come upon us which manifests itself in the celebration of anniversaries of historie events national, state and local, of the founding of congregations and the publication of their history and records, it was frequently intimated that the time for the publication of a history of Old Salisbury together with its congregational records and list of burials had now fully come and that there must be no further delay.
The preparation of this volume was directly suggested by the approaching celebration of the 170th anniversary of the erection of the first church. The importance of such a publication cannot be overestimated. A true history of any state, nation or people must instead of clustering around its military heroes, forts and battlefields, or its legislative balls and state policies, follow out the threads of its religious life and development, and follow the churches as they sprang up in one valley or settlement after another, the circuit pioneering of its early ministers, and note the general progress of piety and purity in its families. There is no valley or community in this broad land of ours whose history is not pre-eminently bound up with its venerable churches and well-filled graveyards. These were not only the first prominent sacred and venerated places in the early settlements, but have always been the centers to which the deepest and most earnest thoughts of men have tended and from which have gone out those moulding influences which made individuals, families, communities, states, as wealthy, worthy and peaceful as they are. The careful reader can find hidden in the records of our early church, made up of dates, names, records of birth, confirmations, marriages, deaths, the life of a community with its joys and sorrows, its trials, temptations and sins, its struggles, encouragement and progress.
The pioneer men and women of our church and state, who with sacrifice and tears, in travail of heart and body, in disease and in death made it possible for the church and state to exist, deserve to have their doings recorded and annals preserved. They were unconscious of the greatness of the work they were doing. In this they were like the saints before the judgment throne of whom the Saviour speaks in the 25th chapter of St. Matthew. They too had kept no record of their
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INTRODUCTION.
own deeds, but the Eternal Judge had not failed to have their minutest acts of kindness and love entered upon the pages of the Recording Angel's book. In the publication of this history we believe we reflect the judgment of the Almighty.
Henry Harbaugh in his introduction to the Life and Travels of Rev. Michael Schlatter beautifully says:
"To forget the past is to forget our mercies, and to forget our mercies is to forget God. The tree must ever draw life from its roots; the strength of a stream must ever be replenished from its fountains: so is the nation and the church, in the divine order, ever dependent for vitality and vigor on its past history. The trials and triumphs of the past are as promises to stimulate us in the present, and as pledges to give us hope and courage for the future ..
"For a time the sayings and doings of our ancestors may be left to the preservation of a grateful remembrance, and to the unrecorded traditions which parents hand down to their children. But such traditions soon grow dim and uncertain, and at last vanish away. As the setting sun leaves first a glory, then a twilight, and at last darkness : so the deeds of the past, as they sink beyond our personal recollections, are first bright, then dim, and then gone !- and, too late, we mourn that we have no picture of the faded beauty. Our parents relate to us stories of the days of our grandparents; but our grandparents themselves are gone, and tell us no more what was before them.
"This is our case as a church in America. The grandparents are gone, the fathers are going, the history of their toils and achievements is beginning to swim in half-uncertain twilight, and there is but barely time to record the doings of their life's day before the oblivious night sets in, when records and traditions will no more recognize one another."
What Rev. Harbaugh said more than fifty years ago, concerning the history of the Reformed Church in the United States, may be repeated to-day with even greater significance, relative to the history of the Old Salisbury Union Church. It cannot be uninteresting even to strangers and certainly not the children of those who worshipped or to those who still worship at the old spot made sacred by the memories of many years, to be presented with a picture, dim and im- perfect though it may be, of the organization and development of the Union Con- gregation of Western Salisbury. J. B. S.
THE SALISBURY REFORMED CONGREGATION.
JOHN B. STOUDT.
Organization of Congregation.
To the territory drained by the Cedar Creek and Little Lehigh the Indians gave the name of Macungie (Maguntche), signifying the feeding place of the bears. In this strange Indian name there lurked the prophecy how that, under careful cultivation this feeding place of the Kings of the Forest should blossom like the rose, bring forth golden grain not only ten or twenty fold, but sixty and a hundred fold, and become ahnost a paradise for a later race. Against the constantly increasing stream of German immigrants which began to flow into Pennsylvania from the impoverished Palatinate and Switzerland, in 1683 and continued until the beginning of the Revolutionary War the South Mountain for a time at least acted as a barrier. Soon, however, some scaled its heights and looked upon the great valley beyond, which with its dense forests, broad meadows and swift flowing streams seemed to call for occupation. Prior to 1730 a number of adventurists from Oley and Goshenhoppen crossed the mountains and settled in the regions of Maxatawny and Macungie, the first of whom is said to have been Peter Trexler, of Oley, who settled at what is now known as Trexlertown probably as early as 1723. Other settlers soon followed in such numbers that in 1732 it was deemed advisable to have a public highway laid out from Goshenhoppen through Upper Milford to Jeremiah Trexler's tavern in Macungie. The first white child born in Macungie region of whom we have any record was Ludwig Andreas, born September 29, 1734, who was of the Reformed faith, and probably a son of Rudolph Andreas and his wife Anna Catherine, nee Braun, who migrated from Boehm, near Manheim, in 1730 and settled in Macungie. A daughter, Barbara by name, later married Jacob Ehren- hard, one of the founders of Emaus.
It is a great misfortune that no records of the founding of the Salisbury congregation have come down to us. Either none were made or having been made have been either lost or destroyed. We must therefore depend entirely on tradition and such contemporary letters or documents as will throw light on its organization and early history. The first of these contemporary documents which throw lights on the founding of the Salisbury Reformed congregation is a letter by Rev. John Philip Boehm, to the Synods of Holland, dated October 18, 1734. (See minutes of Coetus, pp. 1-5.)
--
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HISTORY OF JERUSALEM CHURCH, SALISBURY, PA.
The letter opens thus : "True and desired statistics of the German Reformed Congregations in Pennsylvania." After mentioning the congregations of Falk- ner Swamp, Skippack, Whitemarsh, Philadelphia, Germantown, Conestogo, Tulpenhoeken, and Goshenhoppen, together with the number of communicants, he adds, "In addition to the above mentioned congregations there are several places which need to be provided for as much as possible," these are: Oley and also Saucon, in whose neighborhood are Macungie, Maxatawny and Great Swamp, where notwithstanding their being scattered very far apart yet a considerable number of people can come together. As the population increases other congre- gations may be organized; for the present, however, although with much diffi- enlty, they can suitably be served by four ministers in the following manner." Rev. Boehm then goes on in his letter to suggest that one minister serve the con- gregations in Philadelphia and Germantown, a second those at Falkner Swamp, Skippack, and Oley, and a third those in Conestoga and Tulpenhocken, and then adds: "A fourth minister would be greatly needed at Goshenhoppen, about thirty-six miles from Philadelphia. He might conduet services there every three weeks and use the rest of the time to feed the poor sheep at the end of the wilder- ness in the above Sancon, Macungie, Maxatawny, and Great Swamp, who thirst for the hearing of God's word as dry earth for water. Many people from these regions have already been to see me in great sadness, and complained of the pitiable state of their souls. There were also some who being able to make their journey have come at various times to communion in the congregations entrusted to me at Falkner Swamp, a distance of certainly twenty-five to thirty English miles, and brought children for baptism, which journey, however, is impossible for old persons and weak or pregnant women, so that it is not to be wondered at (especially when one remembers that there are children who for lack of a minister cannot be brought to baptism until they are several years of age) that my heart breaks and my eyes are full of tears about this condition. But I cannot accomplish this work alone, for my years are beginning to accumulate and my poor body is getting feeble, since I must not only make long journeys and preach, but also because these poor people are not able to support me, and I must sup- port my large family with manual labor."
In response to the many urgent calls for help from the helpless brethren in Pennsylvania the Reverend Fathers of the Reformed Church in Holland sent the Rev. Maurice Goetschi, of the Canton Zurich, Switzerland, to Pennsylvania to organize congregations. He died on the day of his arrival at Philadelphia, but his son, John Henry, then only seventeen years of age, who had, however, been a student for the gospel ministry, accepted the challenge from the people of Goshenhoppen, Macungie, Maxatawny, ete., and began to preach in houses, barns, groves, and it was in this capacity that he served the people of the Macungie region. In 1739 he retired from his extensive field for the purpose of con- tinuing his studies.
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THE SALISBURY REFORMED CONGREGATION.
Erection of a Church.
During the year of 1741 a small log church was erected on or near the site of the present edifice. It is said that the seats consisted of hewn logs and that it contained neither stove or wooden floor. The Rev. John William Straub was the pastor at the time of its erection. To him was also the deed for two acres granted by Henrich Roth and Johann Martin Bamberger, December 15, 1743, the deed according to quotation in the "Skizzen aus dem lecha thale." (Page 72.)
"Ein aufrichtig redlicher kauf and verkauf ist getroffen und geschlossen worden zwischen Hennrich Roth und Johann Martin Bamberger eines Theil und Johann Wilhelm Straub, Prediger dahier an der kleine Lecha, und dasigen aeltesten, etc., wir begeben uns nun dieses Platzlein (2 acker fur 20 schillinge) mit aller gerechtigkeit auf hiesiger landesfreiheit, an die schon wirklich erbaute Reformirte, Evangelische, Lutherische Kirche, Gott zu ehren unser und unserer nachkominlingen Seelen Heil und Wohlfart."
Moravian Episode.
Hardly had the small log church on the banks of the Little Lehigh been com- pleted and a congregation organized when a great controversy arose in the Re- formed churches in Pennsylvania which for a time threatened her separate existence. It soon spread among the Lutheran congregations of the colony and also very materially affected the smaller denominations and sects. Rev. James I. Good says: "It came at first in the guise of union but soon developed into dis- union." It was an attempt to unite all the various denominations and sects among the Germans in the province in one body, known as the Congregation of God in the Spirit. Pennsylvania at this time was a perfect Babel of denomina- tions and such a union was the hope of many a pious soul. The colony at this time was full of infidels, scoffers and self-righteous saints; the humble, contrite and pious were few, and in addition divided by denominational lines. These, says Rev. L. 'T. Reichel,' when they perceived how vital religion was disappearing more and more, and how the different religious associations, instead of bearing with each other in Christian charity were finding fault and quarreling with each other, earnestly prayed for the dawn of a spiritual day. At the house of Christo- pher Wiegner, at Skippaek, a number of earnest men from various communities, representing different denominations, frequently met for mutual edification and to take counsel together for the propagation of piety. This circle in the course of time became known as the Associated Brethren of Skippack. A central com- mittee, consisting of Henry Antes, John Bechtel, George Siefel and Christopher Wiegner, met every four weeks for exchange of reports and consultation. The coming of the celebrated revivalist Whitefield to Pennsylvania greatly stimulated the religious life of the Germans in the colony, especially in Skippaek, Frederick
I. Moravian History, Page 59.
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HISTORY OF JERUSALEM CHURCH, SALISBURY, PA.
and Oley. By far the most influential member of the Skippack Brethren was Henry Antes, the Reformed Elder of Falkner Swamp, in whose house Whitefield preached in 1740.
When Count Zinzendorf, the head of the Moravian Church in Europe, ar- rived in Philadelphia, in December, 1741, he soon learned of the pious Elder Antes and visited him before coming to Bethlehem. Antes then explained to him his plans for the union of churches, to which Zinzendorf gave his approval.
Rev. J. S. Dubbs' says: "Antes therefore issued his call for a meeting of Christians, to be held on New Year's Day, 1742, in Germantown." It was to be held not for the purpose of disputing with one another, but to confer in love on the imporant articles of faith in order to see how near all could come together in fundamental points. It was this meeting that led to the organization of the "Congregation of God in the Spirit."
At this first meeting or conference, of which twenty-seven were held from 1742 to 1747, eight denominations were represented by thirty-six delegates, and it seemed as if this well-meant plan would prove very successful. Evangelists were sent into the remotest settlements in the province and into the adjacent colonies. Missionary activities were begun among the Indians ; circles of Brother- hoods were established to the number of thirty-one, exclusive of the stations among the Indians, the most important of these besides Bethlehem and Nazareth were at Philadelphia, Germantown, New Province, New Hanover, Oley, Macungie, (Emaus) Tulpenhocken, Heidelberg, Bethel, Lititz, Muddy Creek, Donegal, Hebron, Muhlback, and York. The Synod or conference which met at Lancaster, December 6, 1745, was composed of sixty-two Lutherans, seventy- seven German Reformed, seven Moravians, two Siebentagers, one Separist, and three Indians. The purpose of these circles or troupes was to organize the devout Christians in societies without separating them from the denominations to which they previously belonged.
At this Synod the following resolution was adopted: "We will carefully guard against any one favoring the idea that this or that denomination, this or that Church is the Church of Christ to which he must belong in order to be saved; for though we cheerfully acknowledge the happiness of our times, in which the Saviour collects His children into congregations here and there, still we firmly believe that there are children of God among the different denomina- tions of various nations of whom but few may possibly be known to us." In commenting upon this union movement of Zinzendorf, Rev. J. S. Dubbs, D.D., says: 2 "The congregation of God in the Spirit was so exalted in its purpose that we might be inclined to regret its lack of permanent success. The reasons for its failure are, however, not difficult to determine. In the first place the personal influence of Count Zinzendorf was too pronounced. That he was thoroughly sincere could not be doubted ; but his forms of speech appeared new and peculiar.
I. Reformed Church in Pennsylvania, Page 114.
2. Reformed Church in Pennsylvania, Page 183.
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THE SALISBURY REFORMED CONGREGATION
The mystics first withdraw, while those of the Reformed and Lutheran who attended the conferences became fully conformed to the Moravian type of piety and devotion. To reach a similar result with the great multitude to whom such conditions were entirely strange, would have demanded long and patient training and this was evidently impossible."
Some of the ministers of both the Lutheran and Reformed denominations at- tacked in sermons and pamphlets this union movement of Zinzendorf as a hidden method of enticing their members into the Moravian Church. Disputes as to the ownership of church properties soon arose which became very bitter and in several instances resulted in fist fights.
Michael Schlatter and Organization of Coetus.
In 1746 Rev. Michael Schlatter, of St. Gall, Switzerland, arrived in Penn- sylvania with definite instruction from the Synod of Holland to organize the Reformed adherents into congregations and charges and to unite themselves into a Synod. He visited the different German settlements in the Province and also those beyond its borders and found upward of forty-six congregations to whom he explained his commission and plans, He was kindly received and everywhere the congregations acceded to his plans. He organized the various congregations into sixteen charges and united them into a Synod. Consequently the Reformed element largely withdrew from the Congregation of God in the Spirit.
In his diary' he says: "As far as I can judge, I have come to this country, through God's wonderful providence, just in time with my emphatic instructions, which everywhere produced good results and great joy. Since the Lord's vine- yard lay in miserable devastation I came at such a time that people could justly say when the need is greatest, God's help is nearest. Because it all looked as if the 'Herrnhutters' would quickly play the master. But since I am here about 100 people have come back and I have not heard that they have gained since that time a single disciple."
In 1748 the Lutheran congregations throughout the province, through the efforts of Rev. H. M. Muhlenberg, organized themselves into a Synod similar to that of the Reformed congregations. The result of the organization of both a Reformed and Lutheran Synod was that those congregations, which had been served by Moravian pastors, either joined their respective Synod or entered into closer connection with the Moravian Church, as was the case of the congregation at Emans.
The year following the erection of the first church at Salisbury such a circle was organized in Macungie ( Maguntsche) (Emaus) and in the fall of the same year, 1742, a small log church was erected at what is now the old Moravian burial ground. The connecting link between the Salisbury Reformed Church or
I. Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society, December 1905, Page 164.
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HISTORY OF JERUSALEM CHURCH, SALISBURY, PA.
congregation, the circle at Emaus, and the congregation of God in the Spirit is found in Sebastian Knauss and his brother John Henry, sons of the Ludwig Knauss who in 1734 signed the appeal of Rev. Boehm. They had taken up lands in the vicinity of Emaus and were members at Salisbury. Sebastian learned the trade of wheelwrighting with Henry Antes, already referred to as the pious Elder, where he was spiritually benefitted. It was through the efforts of Sebastian Knauss and Henry Antes that Zinzendorf came in the fall of 1742 to the Macungie region and preached to a large company in the house of Jacob Ehrenhard, a neighbor to Sebastian Knauss.
Ehrenhard was a native of Worms and of the Lutheran faith. The fame of Zinzendorf had preceded him to America and it created quite a stir among the settlers of the Macungie region when it was announced that the Count was coming to visit them and would preach in the house of Jacob Ehrenhard. He made a deep and lasting impression upon the settlers who requested that he or some one else from Bethlehem should preach to them more frequently. The only pastoral care that these people enjoyed prior to this time was probably several visits by Rev. J. P. Boehm, an occasional sermon by the itinerant boy preacher Goetschie, and the services of the unordained school teacher J. H. Straub, whom Rev. Boehm charged with both drunkenness and immorality. Is it any wonder then that they, "thirsting for God's Word as dry earth for water," gladly formed themselves into a circle or troupe in the hope of not only obtaining the services of a regularly ordained minister, but one imbued with the spirit of the Master. Especially when it was understood that by so doing they would not be forsaking the faith in which they had been confirmed in the Fatherland. For uniformity sake it was agreed that the sacraments should be administered ac- cording to the Lutheran custom, though it appears that those of the Reformed faith were in the majority. John Gottlieb Pezold and Leonard Schnell were ap- pointed by the authorities at Bethlehem to organize the work in Maguntsche (Emaus) and to regularly break the bread of life to the hungering souls. In order that the children might be trained in the knowledge and love of God a schoolhouse was erected in 1746. The Pennsylvania Synod at this time began to show signs of disintegration and the authorities at Bethlehem in order to con- serve their interests in Macungie ( Emaus) called a lovefeast on July 23, 1747, to discuss the question of a closer relation with the Brethren Church. It was determined that on the following Sabbath, July 30, the organization of a Breth- ren congregation should be consummated and all should come to Bethlehem for this purpose.
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