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M. L.
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02220 8034
Gc 974.802 M45g 1990830
REYNOLDS HIST .HAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
Lo John k . Miller , with the complements of the author,
George Philip Toll.
april 19, 1904, Thay Town, Pa.
-
REV GEORGE PHILIP GOLL. Pastor since 1900.
LEAVES FROM A CENTURY PLANT.
THE HISTORY
OF THE
ST. JOHN'S
EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH MAYTOWN, LANCASTER CO., PA.
1765-1904.
BY REV. GEORGE PHILIP GOLL.
AUTHORIZED BY THE CHURCH COUNCIL.
WICKERSHAM PRINTING CO., LANCASTER, PA. 1904.
82 6943.2
PUBLISHED as a Souvenir of the Centennial Anniversary of the Building of the Stone Church, and the One Hundred and Thirty- ninth Anniversary of the Founding of the St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church of Maytown, Lancaster County, Penna. . .
1590830
to the HONORED MEMORY OF THE DEAD AND LIVING PASTORS,
WHO FAITHFULLY SERVED OUR CHURCH, THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.
PREFACE.
"Nothing useless is, or low; Each thing in its place is best; And what seems but idle show, Strengthens and supports the rest."
When the Committee on Historical Research was appointed, it was thought that a week's work would be sufficient to write the history of this old and historic church. That things are not always what they seem, this book amply proves. For in- stead of one week, it required many months of laborious research and the reading of many old German records unthought of at first. As the writer delved beneath the surface for facts, which had to be authenicated to make this history reliable, he was confronted by most perplexing problems in the form of conflicting dates, incomplete records, etc., which could only be made correct by a thorough search and study of the records of the other churches in this charge whose history is identical with that of the Maytown Lutheran Church.
While the writer was searching for records in the Trinity Church of Lancaster, Pa., through the courtesy of its pastor, Rev. John E. Whitteker,
V
vi
PREFACE
D. D., M. D., he was shown the most up-to-date historical work on the Lutheran Church in this State, viz .: "The Lutheran Church in Pennsyl- vania," by Rev. Theo. E. Schmauck, D. D., of Lebanon, Pa., in which no mention whatever is made of either the Maytown or Elizabethtown church. How so careful a student and writer as Dr. Schmauck could overlook these really histori- cal churches is difficult to understand, and while it is to be regretted, the writer has the assurance that this history of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Maytown, Pa., will be an absolutely necessary link to make the great chain of Lutheran Church his- tory of this State perfect and complete.
Incomplete and unsatisfactory as these records no doubt will be to many, in justice to the author let it be borne in mind that the fault is not his, but is due mainly to the carelessness and indifference with which the old records were too frequently kept, and also to the culpable negligence on the part of those who should have preserved them. And if this history will do nothing more than impress upon the reader the urgent need of keeping better and more concise records of events and transac- tions in the future, it shall not have been written in vain.
Grateful acknowledgement and sincere thanks is
vii
PREFACE
herewith made especially to Mr. William Clepper for his valuable aid and counsel in the preparation of this history; to Jolin K. Miller for the excellent photographs of the church and communion ser- vices; to John H. Epler, Esq., of Elizabethtown, and G. W. Hackenberger of Bainbridge, for the use of their church records; to Mr. Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress, and Mr. Philips, Chief of Map Division of the Congressional Library; and to the following for their valuable assistance in gath- ering data and giving helpful suggestions: Dr. G. A. Harter, Rev. Milton H. Valentine, D. D., A. D. Chiquoine, William Bontz, Frank L. Goll, Miss Bessie Jolinstin, Mrs. Joseph Koehler, Miss Ella Buller, Mrs. Saralı Hulsinger, Mrs. Henry Haines, D. E. Pennepacker, John A. Dehoff, J. Frank Jolinstin, and to the many friends, too numerous to mention, who encouraged the writer in this work.
" We may build more splendid habitations, Fill our rooms with paintings, and with sculptures, But we cannot Buy with gold the old associations."
THE AUTHOR.
MAYTOWN, LANCASTER CO., PA.,
March 26, 1904.
INTRODUCTION.
IN so young a nation as ours, whose institutions, great and flourishing as many of them are to-day, date their origin, for the most part, from compara- tively recent times, it is but natural that particular regard should be paid to those whose beginnings reach back into the colonial period. It is not sur- prising, therefore, that this history of St. John's Lutheran Church, Maytown, Pa., should be pub- lished in connection with the centennial celebra- tion of the erection of the stone building that took the place of the log church in which the congrega- tion thirty-five years before had held its initial services. The very age of the congregation pre- sents a challenge to the antiquarian and historian.
In accepting this challenge, the present pastor, Rev. George P. Goll, has made a valuable contri- bution to historical studies of the State of Pennsyl- vania, and especially of the Lutheran Church which has liad such honorable share in the develop- ing history of the State. Whatever Lutheranism has accomplished for God and man in this great and growing Commonwealth, has been done, in
ix
x
INTRODUCTION
the last analysis, through the units of its organiza- tion, the local congregations. The history of Lutheranism is but the aggregate of what tliese congregations have achieved within their several and immediate spheres and through their repre- sentatives in synodical assembly.
Among the things which the general historian gratefully recognizes to-day is his debt to the monograph. The historian of Lutheranism in America, for example, would find it impossible to make personal investigation into the original docu- ments of the congregations severally, scattered throughout the land. For much of his data he is dependent upon such books as this. The interest which the volume has, therefore, is not simply for the local church, justly gratified though its mnem- bers may be at the honorable record here spread before them; the interest which it excites is wider; it is felt by the Church as a whole, and especially by those who are concerned for the accumulation and preservation of a body of information for the use of future historians of Lutheranism in America.
Rev. Mr. Goll has done his work in the prepara- tion of this volume with painstaking care. It has been no light task to compile from incomplete, time-worn, and occasionally conflicting records, many of them in the German language, such a
xi
INTRODUCTION
connected narrative as is given in these pages. It is to be sincerely hoped, however, that the admir- able success with which he has accomplished the task will inspire other pastors to gather into some permanent form the historical facts concerning the origin and development of their congregations. The danger that the original documents from which these must be obtained may be lost or de- stroyed increases with the passing years.
M. H. VALENTINE.
PHILADELPHIA, PA., April 12, 1904.
CONTENTS.
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PAGE
EPOCH FIRST-THE BEGINNING I EPOCH SECOND-GROWING 33
EPOCH THIRD-THE REMODELLED CHURCH
59
EPOCH FOURTH-FRUITION, 1896-1904
.
103
LIST OF MEMBERS, 1853
I28
LIST OF PRESENT MEMBERS
129
SUNDAY-SCHOOL .
132
WOMAN'S HOME AND FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY
150
AID SOCIETY
154
YOUNG PEOPLE'S SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR
159
EARLY PUBLIC SCHOOL HISTORY .
163
EARLY INDUSTRIES AND WHO CONDUCTED THEM
174
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE REV. GEORGE PHILIP GOLL Frontispiece.
CHURCH COUNCIL, 1903 AND 1904 . I
CHURCH AS REMODELLED IN 1896 2
FIRST COMMUNION SERVICE 16
COMMUNION SERVICE, 1879-1904
17
INDIVIDUAL COMMUNION SERVICE 17
ENLARGED MAP OF PENNSYLVANIA
29
OLD STONE CHURCH AS REMODELLED, 1853
38
DIAGRAM OF INTERIOR AS BUILT IN 1804 .
39
ALEX. SHIREMAN, BUILDER OF STONE CHURCH
42
REV. W. GERHARDT-REV. W. S. LAITZLE
43
REV. J. W. EARLY-REV. F. F. HOOVER 43
AUDITORIUM AS REMODELLED IN 1853 .
62
SUNDAY-SCHOOL ROOM 63
REV. B. F. APPLE 6.4
REV. GEORGE P. WEAVER, M. D.
65
PARSONAGE 80
GENERAL SIMON AND MRS. CAMERON 81
JAMES F. JOHNSTIN-REV. J. H. HOUSEMAN 81
REV. MILTON H. STINE 84
REV. C. M. AURAND 85
REV. A. H. SHERTZ 92
REV. W. H. HARDING 93
AUDITORIUM AS REMODELI,ED IN 1896 .
116
ELDER ABRAHAM S. RHOADS
117
REV. JULIUS F. SEEBACH .
124
MRS. ANNA WELCHANS .
JOHN HAYS
142
SUNDAY-SCHOOL ROOM IN 1896.
143
DIRECTORY.
PASTOR. REV. GEORGE PHILIP GOLL.
Officers of the Church.
ELDERS. DEACONS. TRUSTEES.
WILLIAM FRYSINGER, JOHN WOLFE,
DR. G. A. HARTER,
EDWARD FITZKEE, C. C. KEISER, CLAYTON FARMER,
JOHN KAUTZ. EPH. WILLIAMS. BAYARD T. BRANDT.
Officers of the Church Council. PRESIDENT. DR. G. A. HARTER.
SECRETARY. TREASURER.
BAYARD T. BRANDT. WM. FRYSINGER.
Ushers for Church.
MR. ALBERT CLEPPER.
MR. ISAAC WOLFE.
Divine Services. EVERY SUNDAY.
Morning service, 10 a. m. Evening service, 7 p. m. Mid-week prayer-meeting, Thursday evening, 7:30 o'clock. Sunday-school 9 a. in. and I p. m .; Junior C. E. Society at 5:30 p. m. Senior C. E. Society, 6 p. m. : every Sunday.
Regular Council meeting every Monday after the first Sunday in the month.
Monthly Meetings.
Aid Society meets on the first Wednesday in the month.
Woman's Home and Foreign Missionary Society meets on the last Tuesday in every month.
The church is supported by the voluntary contributions of its members and friends.
All seats are free and everybody is welcome.
CHURCH COUNCIL 1903 AND 1904.
Reading from left to right : B. T. Brandt, Dr. G. A. Harter, Wm. Frysinger, John Kautz, John Tome, John Wolfe, C. C. Keiser, Edw. Fitzkee, Clayt. Farmer, Albert Clepper, John A. Dehoff, Eph. Williams.
I photographed This groups , and will pay Theat 6. Co. Heiser is no see The group. Red Sea Salt stood in the place consegued Ihr Reise. Just an That There were.
il Is me where To be thategofiled , were
na to Res, Sale substituted for Her I
ST. JOHN'S EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH. Remodelled 1896.
EPOCH THE FIRST
THE BEGINNING, 1765-1802
THE LOG CHURCH
AND SOME
CONTEMPORANEOUS HISTORY.
T HE history of St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church of Maytown, Lancaster county, Pa., is so closely identified with the history of the town in which it is situated, and with which it grew, that some facts concerning the founding of Maytown will be of considerable importance to those who are interested in the history of the church.
It is difficult for many of us of the present gen- eration to realize, as we look upon the beautiful little town named after the delightful month of May, in which it was founded, in 1760, that things were not always as they are at present. For where the comfortable and cozy homes, with their well- kept gardens and lawns are now seen, there was once only wild, virgin forests in which the savage red men lived, hunted, and fought their bloody wars. Yet those were the actual conditions exist- ing more than one hundred and fifty years ago in what is now recognized as one of the richest agri- cultural counties in the world.
When Lancaster county was first settled in 1709, it was inhabited by Indians belonging to the Con- estoga, Shawanese, Delaware, and Ganawese tribes, some of whom had been driven out of Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas. These
3
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LEAVES FROM A CENTURY PLANT
Indians gave the early settlers considerable trouble, as their homes and hunting-grounds were so ruthlessly invaded by the advent of the white man.
The encroachments of civilization slowly but surely wrought great changes, and with the com- ing of the trader and pioneer began the passing of the child of the forest.
Owing to the treaties made with these various tribes by the Governor at Philadelphia, through his agents, these early years were, comparatively speaking, times of peace as far as Pennsylvania was concerned.
In the year 1748 Lazarus Lowrey took out a patent for 411 acres of land in the township of Donegall, which was organized in 1722 by the Chester county court. Through this tract of land ran what was called the "Old Peter's Road," probably from the fact that it lead to a prominent distant point lying to the north known as "Peter's Mountain," (which can be seen on an old map in the archives of the map division of the Congressional Library, at Washington, D. C., which was made by a German in the year 1750) and on this road May- town was located.
"In the same year in which Lazarus Lowrey took out his patent for this large tract of land, he sold
5
THE BEGINNING-1765-1802
150 acres of it to a trader in his employ, named Dennis Sulivan. This man paid only a part of the purchase money, and on account of losses sustained by the Indians he was unable to meet his obliga- tions, and a year or two later the sheriff sold the land and Mr. Lowrey repurchased it. In the year 1753 he again sold the same tract of land to another Indian trader, named John Kenedy, who not only met with losses by the Indians but was wounded and taken prisoner by them. This resulted in Sheriff Smith selling him out May 7, 1754, and Thomas Harris and Joseph Simons, Indian traders, who held a mortgage against the land, purchased it."
In this same month and year (May 28, 1754), Washington fired the first gun that opened the long and bloody French and Indian War, in the west- ern part of Pennsylvania, which eventually led to the evacuation of Fort Du Quesne, and the found- ing of Pittsburg in 1758. Desperate indeed were the battles between the English and the French with their bloodthirsty Indian allies. Horrible beyond description were the massacres perpetrated by the red fiends incarnate. The student of history will no doubt recall the names of Crown Point, Ticonderoga, Du Quesne, Niagara and Quebec, all glorious trophies of the valor and bravery of those
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LEAVES FROM A CENTURY PLANT
early colonists who bore the brunt of the battles, and the burden of debt which inevitably followed these intercolonial wars. "This war cost the colonists $16,000,000, of which the English gov- ernment only paid $5,000,000."
The surrender of Quebec brought a cessation of hostilities, and just about this time, or to be more exact, on February 15, 1760, the two Indian traders, Harris and Simons, sold their tract of 150 acres of land to Jacob Downer, who had settled in Lampeter township in 1731, and who commenced to purchase land which bounded this 150-acre tract on the east, in Donegall, from Lazarus Lowrey in 1750.
THE FOUNDING OF MAYTOWN.
In the month of May Jacob Downer laid out a town upon the 150 acres he had bought and called it Maytown. It seemed to be a very desirable location, and the lots sold readily, but only ground-rent deeds were given. These quit- or ground-rents amounted to a considerable sum, but they did not realize sufficient money to relieve Mr. Downer from the debts which were sorely pressing him at this time. The result of this was that in the fall of 1770, James Webb, Jr., high sheriff of Lancaster county, sold out Mr. Downer, and his
Apr du.
1 .
Montio
F:T
‹
May _ Town
Sehrester
Hallaut
H
.
ENLARGED MAP OF PENNSYLVANIA, 1792.
7
THE BEGINNING-1765-1802
lands, including the ground-rents, which were pur- chased by Col. Alexander Lowrey (son of Lazarus Lowrey, the original owner of the tract), and the conveyance was made to him November 10, 1770.
These changes, however, had no effect on the growth and development of the town, and it was not long ere it became "one of the first and most important places west of Lancaster borough. The back settlers," we are told, "came many miles to purchase tea and coffee at a store kept by James Eagen, those luxuries not being for sale at any other place west of Lancaster. He was also the first person west of Lancaster to keep iron-mong- ery (hardware) for sale, and for fifty years it was the most important town in Donegall township."
While Mr. Downer was busy founding Maytown, Revs. Muhlenberg and Wrangel were making earnest efforts in Lancaster to revive what was then known as the Ministerium of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North America, which had been organized in 1748, in the same year that Lazarus Lowrey took out his patent for 411 acres in Donegall township. This ministerium, after holding about seven sessions, gradually went down, and for about six years was practically dead, until 1760, when these earnest servants of God succeeded in reviving the organization again.
8
LEAVES FROM A CENTURY PLANT
This ministerium is the oldest organization for the union of the different synods of the Lutheran church in America, and was the first successful attempt at synodical organization.
Among the many members who worshipped at the Lutheran church at Lancaster about this time was a devout and earnest Christian named Ludwig Lindemuth, who, accompanied by his wife Marga- reta, left Germany and arrived in America, Septem- ber 19, 1749. He made his way to Lancaster and on March 2, 1752 he bought a farm of 206 acres from Robert McFarland, who moved to Virginia. This farm was situated on the banks of the Little Chick- isalunga (Chickies) creek, about a mile south of the present site of Mount Joy. As there was no Lutheran church in the neighborhood, the only church in the whole region being the old Donegal Presbyterian church, Ludwig Lindemuth regularly attended the Trinity Lutheran church at Lan- caster, with which he and his family had con- nected themselves, as the old records of Trinity church show, where their names, Ludwig Linde- muth, his wife Margareta, and son Hans Georg Lindemuth are entered in the list of members who communed on Easter Sunday, 1751. This church was twelve miles from his home, and "he often walked there and back again in the same day."
9
THE BEGINNING-1765-1802
While Jacob Downer was laying out the town- lots of Maytown, events were transpiring at Lan- caster the influence of which was soon to be manifested in this new town. It appears from the records that the members of the Lutheran church in Lancaster found the stone church which was erected in 1738, and in which they worshipped, too small for their rapidly growing congregation, and foundations were laid for a larger church, and on August 1, 1761, the corner-stone of the present Lutheran church of the Holy Trinity was laid. Without doubt this work and the imposing services in connection with the laying of the corner-stone, which Ludwig Lindemuth undoubtedly attended, inade a deep impression upon him and filled his lieart with a zealous desire to do something for His Master and the extension of His Kingdom, and in the rapidly growing village of Maytown so near his home, he saw his opportunity for doing prac- tical missionary work in the interest of his beloved church. Gradually he gathered together the Luth- erans who had settled in the neighborhood and those who were making their home in Maytown, and in 1765, with the assistance of Peter Thiel, Johan Adam Nas, Johan Jacob Wolf, Philip Brenner, Frederick Bauer, Frederick Schwartz, Philip Klug and others, he succeeded in organizing
IO
LEAVES FROM A CENTURY PLANT
and founding the first Lutheran church in Donegal township, west of Lancaster.
Their first meetings were held in a log building situated on Queen street, on one of the two lots, which later on in 1770 were practically presented to the church by the founder of the town, Jacob Downer, together with the "Building," which is expressly mentioned in the deed.
These earnest workers were no doubt so busy in looking after their new work that in the first year or two no effort was made to keep regular records until 1767, shortly after they had secured the ser- vices of an ordained minister, which was made possible by the founding of another Lutheran con- gregation in the village of Elizabethtown about the same time, and the two churches became one charge and were for many years served by the same ministers.
REV. HORSEL.
1766-1769.
Of their first pastor nothing more is known than that his name was Horsel, and he served them for the first two years, and was negligent in keeping records.
In the "Kirchen Protocol for the Evangelical, based upon the Augsburg Confession, Lutheran
II
THE BEGINNING-1765-1802
Congregation in Maytown and vicinity, and en- dowed for that purpose in 1770," the first entries made were the Baptismal records dated April 17, 1767, and the names of the parents who had their children baptized, and the sponsors who stood for them, is herewith given. A fact that needs to be remembered in connection with this list is, that according to the old established rule of the Luth- eran church, all who took such vows and responsi- bilities upon themselves were recognized as eligible communicant members of the Lutheran church, and no doubt some of the following were charter members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Maytown, Pa.
The following is the list as given in the " Protocol: "
Peter Thiel, and wife
Anna Margaretha Thiel.
Johannes Buchtel, and wife
Katharina Buchtel.
Jacob Hautz, and wife Magdalena Hautz.
Johan Adam Näs, and wife Katharina Näs. Jacob Schümpf, and wife
Christina Schümpf.
Johan Adam Wern, and wife
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LEAVES FROM A CENTURY PLANT
Mrs. John Adam Wern. Michel McCaferty, and wife Susana McCaferty. Andreas Hautz, and wife Katharina Hautz. Miss Magdalena Verdristin. Jacob Öllweiler and wife Anna Öllweiler. Bernhard Speck, and wife Magdalena Speck. Christian Schneckenberg, and wife
Dorothea Schneckenberg. Theobald Vote.
Mrs. Dorothea Pfeiffer. Michel Glaus and wife Elizabeth Glaus. Johan Jacob Wolf, and wife Maria Barbara Wolf.
Johan Heinrich Hänckel, and wife Magdalena Hänckel. Philip Klug, and wife Veronica Klug. Jacob Kintzer and wife Elizabeth Kintzer. Joseph Seigfried, and wife Christina Barbara Seigfried. William Hall.
13
THE BEGINNING-1765-1802
Maria Magdalena Goleyn.
William Yost. Johan Boers and wife
Anna Maria Boers.
In the year 1769 Rev. Horsel closed his labors in this field.
While the foundations of the Lutheran congre- gation in the thriving village of Maytown, were being laid, events of far-reaching importance were shaping the destiny of the colonies. In 1764 the British Government passed the obnoxious Naviga- tion Act, which practically meant the suppression and prohibition of all American manufactures, and William Pitt, then Prime Minister of Eng- land, and the so-called friend of America, declared that "America had no right to manufacture even a nail for a horseshoe." The constant and persist- ent attempts of the British Government to tax the colonists, without giving them representation in Parliament, thoroughly aroused the Americans,
who declared "that taxation without representa- tion is tyranny." In 1765 the Stamp Act was passed, which so aroused the colonists that Patrick Henry, in the Assembly of Virginia, sounded the trumpet of the Revolution in his ever-memorable speech : "Cæsar had his Brutus, Charles I. had his Cromwell, and George III."-and amid the cry
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LEAVES FROM A CENTURY PLANT
of treason he finished by saying-" may profit by their examples; if this be treason, make the most of it."
The whole country was aroused, and so bitter and threatening were the demonstrations of the people that the English Government repealed the act in 1766.
But they quickly fanned the smouldering fires of revolution into brighter flames by insisting on their right to tax the colonies and laying on new duties on various necessary commodities ; and fear- ing opposition, they also passed "the Mutiny Act, by which they tried to compel the colonists to shelter and feed their oppressors. To be taxed was bad enough, but to be enslaved in this way filled the people with burning indignation. The New York and Massachusetts Assemblies refused to comply with the act," and matters went from bad to worse until they resulted in the Boston Mas- sacre on March 5, 1770, and it was only with the greatest difficulty that the threatened uprising was quelled. But the whole land was in a ferment of excitement, and the English Government, alarmed by the state of the people, rescinded the taxes on everything in 1773 except the tax on tea, which they left to maintain the principle. This only served to thoroughly exasperate the colonists, who
15
THE BEGINNING-1765-1802
were fighting for a great principle. It resulted in drastic measures of every kind in the various parts of the colonies by the people, and in Boston men disguised as Indians threw 342 chests of tea into the waters of the harbor. The demand for a union of the colonies became insistent and imperative, and everywhere companies of soldiers were formed, who were known as "Minute Men." And in 1774 the first Continental Congress was held in Phila- delphia.
This digression into contemporaneous history is merely made as a reminder to the reader of the fact that the growth of the Lutheran Church in Maytown was not in a time that was particularly conducive to such an enterprise. For the good people who lived in this section of the country were as thoroughly aroused over the epoch-making events as were those in the larger cities. And many of the citizens, as the Revolutionary records prove, enlisted when the first call for troops was sounded. And yet the church grew gradually but surely, as the records clearly show.
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