USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > Hempfield > History of old Zion Evangelical Lutheran church in Hempfield Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Near Harrold's > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/historyofoldzion00zund
GEN
Jen 10 -
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02219 9647
americana PA.
GENEALOGY 974.801 W52Z
1
Old Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church (Harrold's)
HISTORY OF OLD ZION EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH
in Hempfield Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Near Harrold's
By William Arter Zundel, M.A., B.D. Pastor of St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church Maywood, Illinois Field Missionary for Montana
Published by the Church Council Rev. Isaac K. Wismer, Pastor.
Jacob E. Wineman
Robert M. Zundel, Secretary
John G. Ruff
James E. Cope, Treasurer
Charles H. Eisaman
Frank Harrold
Cyrus A. Snyder
Thomas E. Taylor
Robert C. Eisaman C. D. Eisaman, Cemetery Treasurer
Committee of Council on Publication of History Rev. Isaac K. Wismer Jacob E. Wineman Robert M. Zundel Henry M. Zundel, Associate Member of Committee
COPYRIGHT-1922 BY WILLIAM ARTER ZUNDEL
1
1193878
Y
0
Detthe
PREFACE
For many years, the authentic records of Old Zion Evan- gelical Lutheran Church have been locked in the German lan- guage in the old Church Register.
This old register had been carelessly handled for many years and was thought by many to have been lost or destroyed. But it found friends that knew its value and preserved it.
The volume came into our hands some years ago and we at once set about to translate its contents.
We have made diligent search for authentic information concerning this church. The early history has been enlarged and made as full as possible. To a casual observer it will seem that incidents of other places should have no place in this narrative, but they contribute valuable information con- cerning the times, and show the problems and difficulties pecu- liar to all pioneer life.
Much of this history was written before the World War and is not in any way affected by the animosities of recent years. The record of Old Zion for patriotism stands clear from the bloody Revolution to the World War and the muster rolls of her country bear the names of her sons who served their country well.
In recording the synodical affiliation of Old Zion, there has been an effort to make clear, for the first time, the real synodical connections of the church throughout the years. Fidelity to truth and historical fact necessitated references to unpleasant events of the past and our readers will realize that few participants had a full knowledge of the situation
VI
and the facts during the period of strife. We have taken pains to present both sides of the controversy and also to state the plain and full facts of history. The division of the church is a cold historical fact and requires an account of its cause and effects.
We have made no effort to include the history of the St. John's Reformed Church. We hope one of her sons will some day write the history of her long life and glowing achievements. For about one hundred years Old Zion and St. John's Churches have lived together in peace and harmony in the same house of worship and burying their dead in the same God's Acre.
Since the strife in the eighties and the division, a new generation has grown up; they have been educated in the same schools and associated together on all occasions. They have inter-married and, except for the two organizations, have forgotten the strife of the past. Both congregations now belong to the same Synod and the United Lutheran Church in America.
It may be the pleasure of some future historian to relate how the two congregations united their forces for a greater "Zion oder Herold's Kirche" of the future.
Suitable recognition has been given to the sources of information that we have used. However, especial mention should be made of the painstaking efforts of the late Charles Strohbach of Freedom, Pa., who assisted materially in the translation of the old Church Register. Special care has been taken to preserve the old forms of names and to give literal translations. The names given in the several Appendices will be valuable in tracing family genealogies; they are also valuable as legal evidence.
Valuable aid has been rendered by the historian of the Pittsburgh Synod, Rev. Duncan M. Kemerer, and the coun- cil and committee of Old Zion's Lutheran Church and others.
VII
Acknowledgements are made of the services of H. M. Zundel, who furnished many cuts and contributed many re- cent facts of Chapter XVI and aided in the general work of publication.
1
The work connected herewith has been a labor of love, a token of gratitude to the Mother Church that baptized us into the Kingdom of God and nourished us in the faith, whose portals have been the doorway to Heaven for hundreds of saints during her history of one hundred and fifty years.
-
LIST OF AUTHORITIES CONSULTED
Original Parish Register.
Southern Conference History, Rev. W. F. Ulery, Church Register Co., Greensburg, Pa.,-1903.
History Pittsburgh Synod of the General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Rev. Ellis B. Burgess, Philadelphia,-1904. The German Element in the United States, by Albert Bernhardt Faust, Two Volumes, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York,-1909.
Col. Henry Bouquet and 'His Campaigns by Rev. Cyrus Cort, Stein- man and Hensel, Printers,-1883, Lancaster, Pa.
History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, by John N. Boucher, The Lewis Publishing Company, New York and Chicago,-1906, Three Volumes.
The Frontier Forts of Western Pennsylvania by George Dallas Albert, Report of the Commission to locate the site of the Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania.
A History of the Reformed Church within the Bounds of Westmore- land Classis, edited by a Committee of Classis, Reformed Church Publication Board, Philadelphia,-1877.
A History of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States by Rev. Henry Eyster Jacobs, D.D., L.L.D., Charles Scribner's Sons, New York,-1902.
The Lutheran Cyclopedia, edited by Rev. Henry Eyster Jacobs, D.D., L.L.D., and Rev. John A. W. Haas, B.D., Charles Scribner's Sons, New York,-1911.
The Broken Platform by Rev. John N. Hoffman, Lindsey and Blake- ston, Philadelphia,-1856.
The Formulation of the General Synod's Confessional Basis by Rev. J. S. Neve, D.D., German Literary Board, Burlington, Iowa,-1911.
Documentary History, Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsylvania, Phila- delphia,-1898.
X
Documentary History of the General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North America, S. E. Ochsenford, D.D., Philadelphia,-1912.
Geschichte der Allgemeinen, Evang. Lutherischen Synode von Ohio und Anderen Staaten, Peter und Schmidt, Columbus, Ohio,- 1900.
Border Warfare in Pennsylvania during the Revolution, L. S. Shim- mell, Ph.D., Harrisburg, Pa.,-1901.
Who Are the Pennsylvania-Germans? By Theodore E. Schmank, Lancaster, Pa.,-1910, New Era Printing Co.
The Domestic Life and Characteristics of the Pennsylvania-German Pioneer, by Rev. F. J. F. Schantz, D.D., Lancaster, Pa.,-1900 by Pennsylvania-German Society.
Albertus Magnus, bewahrte und Approbirte Sympatetische und Na- tuerliche Egyptische Geheimnisse fuer Menschen und Vieh.
Fuer Staedter und Landleute Fuenfte vermehrte und verbesserte Auf- lage, - - Brabrand.
History of the Pittsburg Synod of the Reformed Church in the United States. Rev. David B. Lady, D.D. Chas. M. Henry Printing Co., Greensburg, Pa.,-1920.
Lutheran Symbols or American Lutheranism Vindicated, by S. S. Schmucker, D.D., T. Newton Kurtz, Baltimore,-1856.
Life and Times of Henry Melchior Muehlenberg, by William J. Mann, D.D. G. W. Frederick, Philadelphia,-1888.
The Life of Rev. H. Harbaugh, D.D., by Linn Harbaugh, Esq. Re- formed Church Publishing Board, Philadelphia, Pa.,-1900.
History of the Joint Synod of Ohio, by C. V. Sheatsley. Lutheran Book Concern, Columbus, Ohio,-1919. . Hallesche Nachrichten.
Regina, the German Captive, Rev. B. Weiser. General Council Pub- lishing Board, Philadelphia, Pa.,-1919.
CONTENTS
Page
Chapter I.
The Location
1
Chapter II. Early German Colonists 5
Chapter III.
Explorations and Early Settlements in Westmore-
land County
Chapter IV.
Zion Church Settlement
13
Chapter V. Frontier Conditions 44
30
Chapter VI. The Red Revolutionary War 58
Chapter VII.
Forts and Blockhouses
80
Chapter VIII. Social Life of the Pioneers
90
Chapter IX.
The Patriarchs
95
Chapter X. .
Property Affairs and Relations with the Reformed
Church
110
Chapter XI.
Synodical Relations
114
Chapter XII.
Contending for the Faith
125
Chapter XIII. Rebuilding
137
Chapter XIV. Our Sister Church
147
Chapter XV. The Fruitage 150
Chapter XVI. The Sunday School, Cemeteries and Reformed Pastors, etc. 155
Chapter XVII. Education among the German Elements in West- ern Pennsylvania 164
Appendix A. Early Baptisms 187
Appendix B.
Communicants
231
Appendix C.
Confirmants
247
Appendix D.
Taufschein
256
Appendix E.
Annual Settlements
258
CHAPTER I The Location
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion. Walk about Zion, and go round about her; tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks ; consider her palaces ; that ye may tell it to the generation following. For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even unto death. Psalm 48.
Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Selah. And of Zion it shall be said, this and that man was born in her : and the highest himself shall establish her. The Lord shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there. Selah. Psalm 87.
Moved by religious motives and fascinated by the magni- ficent scenic beauty of the location, the founders, like David of old, called their new home "Zion Church Settlement ;" in the midst of which they set apart land, styling it "Good Purpose," for the establishment.of their Church and school. Zion Church meant to them all that Mount Zion meant to David.
This new Mount Zion was to them beautiful for situation. Nestled on a sheltered southeastern slope of a long range of hills that separate the headquarters of the Sewickley and the Brush Creek streams, Zion Church has a magnificent land- scape before her. At the foot of the hill lies a fertile valley, which at that time, was covered with a magnificent forest of Grbg. 1
2
HISTORY OF OLD ZION EVANGELICAL
/
Birds-eye View of Portion of "Good Purpose" (Harrold's)
3
LUTHERAN CHURCH, GREENSBURG, PA.
oaks, hickory, poplar, beech, walnut, maple and other hard- wood trees. A brook of clear cool water flowed in a wind- ing course away into the distance until it joined other tribu- taries of the Sewickley Creek. Beyond the valley rose the foothills of the Alleghenies and beyond on the horizon the Blue Mountains rose in grandeur. In springtime the opening buds and unfolding leaves gave an ever changing variety, while in the fall when the frost touched vegetation there appeared a gorgeous display of the most beautiful colors na- ture has ever devised for the delight of the eye of man.
The Rocky Mountains may speak of power and magni- tude; the plains may excell in distances and unlimited range of vision; the sea may in its various moods awe or please the heart of man but the Pennsylvania hills in autumn, backed by the Blue Mountains, and clothed in natures holiday attire, speak peace, love, beauty and contentment.
Here the seasons are at their best. Four seasons of distinct climate. Rain in plentiful quantities; yet no rainy season. Spring and summers warm enough for an abundant growth of vegetation ; yet not long enough to be enervating. Boosters may write of the wonderful climate of other coun- tries and state, but here nature boosts for herself. What coun- try can boast of a finer stand of forests of various hard woods? Or a larger variety of desirable wild animals and birds? Here was the hunters paradise; a fit explanation of the efforts of the Whites to conquer and the Reds to main- tain this happy hunting ground through fifty years of the most deadly conflict between the Red men and the White men for the control of a continent.
The soil that grows oaks and the various hard woods, is fertile; a land of oak and limestone has been the delight of the German settler from that day to this. Deer, bear, wolves, beaver, wild turkey were plentiful. Small game and fur hear- ing animals still abound.
4
HISTORY OF OLD ZION EVANGELICAL
Few countries are blessed so richly and abundantly by nature. Amid the trees of wonderful hard wood there roamed abundant game. The soil was fertile and abounded in lime- stone with which to renew the fertility. Beneath the soil na- ture stored up wondrous veins of coal and iron, which has made the Ohio Valley the heart of the iron and steel industry. Yet deeper in the earth, abundance of oil and gas has been found.
With a climate unexcelled, and such wondrous natural re- sources we may well commend the shrewdness and sagacity of our forefathers who originally settled here.
. 5
LUTHERAN CHURCH, GREENSBURG, PA.
CHAPTER II Early German Colonists
Columbus, an Italian, re-discovered America; Martin Waldseemueller, a German, named the new found land, "America." Spaniards, English, French, Dutch and Swedes made settlements. The Germans made no settlement as a nation. They came as a people to make their homes under other flags than their own. Though the most numerous of all peoples that came to America they never colonized under a German flag.1
There were German settlers at Port Royal, in South Carolina, in 1562. There were a number of Germans at Jamestown in 1607. Germans were also among the Dutch of New Netherland; one was the first governor, Peter Minuit, and another Jacob Leisler became governor.
Minuit was born at Wesel on the Rhine, and was a protestant. He bought the Island of Manhattan from the Indians for about $24.00. Later he was a friend of Gustavus Adolphus, the Swedish King who was planning a colony for America.2 The associations of Minuit at this time would lead us to infer that he was of the same faith as the Swedes, i. e. A Lutheran. In 1638 he planted the Swedish Colony on the Delaware. Since many German cities of the Baltic co-operated in the Swedish settlement we may infer that some Germans were among them. John Printz the first
1From 30 to 40 per cent of American blood is Teutonic. See Lutheran Influence in American Affairs by the author.
2The German Element in the United States. (1) Note :- Faust. (1).
6
HISTORY OF OLD ZION EVANGELICAL
governor, according to trustworthy authority, was a German nobleman .- Johahn Printz von Buchau.
John Lederer was sent out by Governor Sir William Berkley of Virginia, to explore the land south and west of the James river in 1669-70. Peter Fabian, a Swiss-German was a member of an exploring expedition sent out by the English Carolina Company in 1663. The report is probably written by Fabian because the distances are recorded by the standard of the German mile. A German by the name of Hiens was with LaSalle in Texas in 1687.
Germans settled in large numbers in Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and New Jersey. By the aid of Hofrat Heinrich Ehrenfried Luther, of Frankfort-on-the-Main, German settlers were secured to settle on the Kennebec River in Massachusetts, (now Maine) some also settled around Boston.3 The wan- derlust of the early Angles and Saxons who conquered Bri- tain, Gaul and Rome was not lacking in the Teutons that came to America. We find them on the frontier from Maine to Georgia.
As there was no census in those early days it is difficult to estimate the number of Germans in the Colonies before the Revolution. The Continental Congress in 1776 estimated the population at 2,243,000 whites and 500,000 slaves. This esti- mate is considered too high. Bancroft estimates the popula- tion in 1775 to be 2,100,000. Charles A. Hanna, in his book "The Scotch-Irish," estimates the Scotch-Irish population of the colonies at 385,000, which is evidently too high. Faust (German Element in the United States) estimates the German element in 1775 as follows :
3Israel Bissel, probably a descendant of these settlers, is the man sent by Eldridge Gerry, who warned Hancock of the coming of the British. Bissel delivered his message at 9 o'clock at night, just one hour before Paul Revere started.
7
LUTHERAN CHURCH, GREENSBURG, PA.
New England
1,500
New York
25,000
Pennsylvania
110,000
New Jersey
15,000
Maryland and Delaware
20,000
Virginia and West Virginia
25,000
North Carolina
8,000
South Carolina
15,000
Georgia
5,000
Total
225,000
"Future researches in the colonial history of the Ger- mans will undoubtedly reveal larger numbers than have been given above, but the attempt has been made here to confine the estimate within limits that are clearly incontestable." Fausts figures are too low. There were many settlements on the frontiers not included in his estimates.
Some historians have invented the fiction that the Ger- mans were not on the frontier in pre-revolutionary times, but a careful survey shows that they were on the extreme frontier, from Maine to Georgia. Though the English and Scotch-Irish held most of the appointive positions and there- fore wrote the official reports, from which historians hereto- fore have mainly drawn their data, a closer study reveals a differing history.
In New York the Germans on the Mohawk, Schoharie and German Flats stood the brunt of the Indian wars. In Pennsyl- vania the Germans were as far west as any settlers. The Wetzel's, Zanes and- Henry's at Wheeling and settlers in Westmoreland were pioneers (which see later). In Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia the original explorers and settlers were Germans. The Royal American Regiment not only fought in all the frontier contests but garrisoned the frontier forts for many years.
8
HISTORY OF OLD ZION EVANGELICAL
"As we study on the map the location of the Germans before the Revolution, two facts impress themselves. In the first place, the Germans were in the possession of most of the best land for farming purposes. They had cultivated the great limestone areas reaching from northeast to southwest, the most fertile lands in the colonies. The middle sections of Pennsylvania were in their possession, those which became the granary of the colonies in the coming Revolutionary War, and subsequently the foundation of the financial prosperity of the new nation. The Shenandoah and Mohawk valleys were the rivals of the farm-lands of Pennsylvania, while the German countries of North and South Carolina pushed them hard for agricultural honors. The Germans in these sections supplanted all other nationalities through their superior in- dustry, skill, and material resources acquired through habits of economy."
"Even before the Revolution the value of the midland Pennsylvania counties as provision-houses for armies was recognized by the following incident. In 1758 an army was raised for the taking of Fort Duquesne, near which Brad- dock had met disaster three years before. The question arose whether the army starting from Pennsylvania should go straight through the woods, hewing a new road, or should march thirty-four miles southwestwardly to Fort Cumberland in Maryland, and thence follow the road made by Braddock. It was in accordance with the interests of Pennsylvania that the new road be made; while Virginia was unwilling to see a highway cut for her rival that would lead into the rich lands of the Ohio, claimed by Virginia. Washington, who was then at Fort Cumberland with a part of his regiment, earnest- ly advocated taking the old road, while the Quartermaster- General, Sir William SinClair, advised in favor of the Penn- sylvania route. The generals in command, Forbes and Bou- quet, decided for a particular reason to take the straight
9
LUTHERAN CHURCH, GREENSBURG, PA.
course. It was shorter and when once made would furnish readier and more abundant supplies of food and forage: but to make it would consume a vast amount of time and labor. As later events proved, it was not British success in battle, but mainly the advantage of position, the possibility of getting supplies and holding out longer, advantages beyond the reach of the French, that forced the latter to evacuate Fort Duquesne."4
Dr. Benjamin Rush, the noted Philadelphia physician, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence ; surgeon in the Revolutionary Army, etc., says the Pennsylvania farms produced millions of dollars, which after 1780 made possible the foundation of the Bank of North America. The first bank in America, chartered 1781. Washington's "honest friend," Christoph Ludwig, baker-general of the army, who provided all the bread for the patriot army, drew his supplies of grain directly from the Pennsylvania German farms.5 "The second striking fact which impresses itself in a study of the map is the occupancy by the German settlers of almost the entire frontier area from Maine to Georgia." "The credit for defend- ing the American frontier has very commonly been accorded to the Scotch and Irish settlers. From the map, based upon a careful study of the location of the German settlers, it ap- pears that the Scotch and Irish could not have had a larger share in the defense of the frontier than the Germans, when the whole extent of the frontier line is considered. There were certain reasons why so large a percentage of the German immigration settled on the frontier. Similar causes operating for the bulk of the Scotch, Irish and Huguenot immigrants. They were poor, and were obliged to go where land was cheap or where squatters could maintain their independence."
Dr. Benjamin Rush, like the historian Tacitus wrote a modern "Germania" of the Pennsylvania Germans. It was
4Faust, Vol. 1, Page 266.
"Faust-Page 267, Vol. 1.
10
HISTORY OF OLD ZION EVANGELICAL
entitled "An account of the manners of the German inhabi- tants of Pennsylvania, written in 1789." The author treats his subject under sixteen heads. He discusses "a few particu- lars in which the German farmers differ from most of the other farmers of Pennsylvania."
1. (Housing horses and cattle). In settling a tract of land the Germans always provide large and suitable accom- modations for their horses and cattle, before they lay out much money in building a house for themselves. The next genera- tion builds a large and convenient stone house.
2. (Good land). "They always prefer good land, or that land on which there is a large quantity of meadow ground. By attention to the cultivation of grass, they often grow rich on farms, on which their predecessors have nearly starved. They prefer purchasing farms with some improve- ments, to settling on a new tract of land." (This latter state- ment did not hold true for the frontier regions, only the older regions in Eastern Pennsylvania).
3. (Methods of clearing land). "In clearing new land they do not girdle or belt the trees simply, and leave them to perish in the ground, as is the custom of their English or Irish neighbors; but they generally cut them down and burn them." Underwood and brush they would pull out by the roots.
4. (Good feeding). They feed their horses and cows well. "A German horse is known in every part of the state." Indeed, he seems to feel with his lord the pleasure and pride of his extraordinary size and fat.
5. Fences). "The fences of a German farm are generally high and well built so that his fields seldom suffer from the inroads of his own or his neighbors horses and cattle."
6. (Use of wood). "The German farmers are great economists of wood." They do not waste it in large fireplaces
-
11
LUTHERAN CHURCH, GREENSBURG, PA.
but burn it in stoves, using about one fourth to one fifth as much.
7. (Comfort of cattle). "They keep their horses and cattle as warm as possible in winter, by which they save feed."
8. (Economy). "The Germans live frugally in their homes with respect to diet, furniture and dress."
9. (Gardens). Kitchen gardening the Germans intro- duced altogether. Their gardens contained useful vegetables at every season of the year. "Pennsylvania is indebted to the Germans for the principal part of her knowledge in horticul- ture."
10. (Few hired men). The Germans seldom hire men to work upon their farms. The wives and daughters of the German farmers frequently forsake for a while their dairy and spinning wheel and join their husbands and brothers in the labor of the fields.6
11. (Wagons). "A large and strong wagon covered with cloth is an essential part of the furniture of a German farm. These Conestoga wagons became the "prairie schooner" of a later date.
12. (Children). "The favorable influence of agriculture, as conducted by the Germans, in extending the most happi- ness, is manifested by the joy expressed at the birth of a child. No dread of poverty or distrust of Providence from an in- creasing family, depress the spirits of this industrious and frugal people."
13. (Love of labor). "Germans produced in their chil- dren not only the habits of labor but a love for it. When a young man asks the consent of his father to marry the girl of his choice, he does not inquire so much whether she be rich or poor, or whether she possess any personal or mental ac- complishments, but whether she be industrious and acquainted with the duties of a good housewife."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.