USA > Pennsylvania > Chester County > A history of the Coventry Brethren church in Chester county, Pennsylvania, the second oldest Brethren church in America > Part 2
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COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH. SECOND BUILDING. ERECTED IN 1817.
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COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH.
meeting was most of the people stayed for dinner, and the after- noons were spent in private conversation, singing, and prayer, which was so edifying to the people that it was the means of drawing many into the church. The Germantown Brethren did the same, and it there also brought many into the church. In 1770, however, the Germantown Brethren built a meeting-house, which was the first that the Brethren had in America. For all of this I have original documents. As the Coventry Church was then a branch of the Germantown Church, they took ex- ample of them, and also built a meeting-house soon after. I have an old list of the members that belonged to the Coventry Church in 1770, in which it is said that they still had no meet- ing-house, and that they still held their meetings in the above- mentioned rotation. But for various reasons, I feel sure it was built soon after. I think in 1772.
" Very respectfully, " Your friend, " ABRAHAM H. CASSEL."
After the receipt of the foregoing letter I called upon Mrs. Catharine Keim, a daughter of James Wells referred to in the letter. She said that she had always been told that the meeting-house was built in the year in which she was born ; and she was born in 1817.
After the proceedings had been entered, the follow- ing sketch of the Coventry Brethren Church was re- · ceived from Abraham H. Cassel, dated April 12, 1890.
" A SHORT SKETCH OF THE COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH.
" Mainly from the writings of Morgan Edwards.
"The Coventry Church is so called from the township in which it is located. It was organized in 1724, when Martin Urner and wife, Henry Landis and wife, Daniel Eiker and wife, Peter Heffly, Owen Longacre, and Andrew Sell did unite to cele- brate the Lord's Supper and to walk in unity and love, having called Elder Peter Becker to their assistance.
" The first minister that they had was the above-named
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COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH.
Martin Urner. He was born in Alsace, then a province of France, in 1695, and was bred in the Presbyterian faith. He came to America before 1715, and embraced the principles of the Brethren in 1722, and was baptized in 1723. He was or- dained to the office of bishop by Elder Alexander Mack in 1729, at which time he took on himself the entire oversight of the church. He died in 1755, and was buried in the Coventry Brethren Graveyard. His wife was Catharine Reist, by whom he had three children, Mary, Martin, and Jacob. They married into the Wolfe, Edis, and Light, or Lichty, families. His assistant was Casper Ingles.
"The church increased fast, and in 1770 would have been a very large congregation had not so many gone away to get better lands elsewhere, as they were mostly husbandmen. Numbers went to what was then called the Conecocheague, in Franklin and Perry Counties, in Pennsylvania, and some also to Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas.
" The next minister was Martin Urner, Jr. He was nephew of the older Martin Urner. He was born in 1725, in New Hanover Township, then in Philadelphia, now Montgomery, County. He was ordained in 1756, at which time he took on himself the care and oversight of the church. His assistant in the ministry was Peter Reinhart. This Martin Urner was married to Barbara Switzer, by whom he had four children, Mary, Joseph, Martin, and Elizabeth.
" The Coventry Church always had a very efficient local minis- try, as their early preachers were all men of talent and ability, and were often visited by able preachers of other localities and of other denominations, such as Morgan Edwards, Elhanan Win- chester, George De Benneville, Peter Keyser, and others. [Peter Keyser was baptized by Martin Urner in 1784.] The following list of members in 1770 may seem small, but we must remember that great numbers moved away, that some joined Conrad Beissel's Fraternity at Ephrata, and that several also were led astray by the Moravian Count Zinzendorf, and that many were carried away by death.
" From corroborative facts known to me, I have no doubt but that the Coventry Church had hundreds of additions between its organization in 1724 and its census in 1770.
" ABRAHAM H. CASSEL.
" HARLEYSVILLE, April 12, 1890."
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COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH.
LIST OF MEMBERS OF COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH IN 1770.
Martin Urner and wife, Bar- bara.
Peter Reinhart.
Owen Reinhart.
Andrew Wolff.
Henry Dasker and wife.
Esther Switzer (née Urner).
Nicholas Harwick and wife.
Wendel Danfelder.
Abraham Grubb and wife.
Henry Bear and wife.
Christian Monsieur.
Jacob Switzer and wife.
Barbara Miller.
Maud Reinhart.
Barbara Welty.
Jacob Light and wife.
Frederick Reinhart and wife.
Philip Waggoner and wife.
Barbara Urner.
Elizabeth Halderman.
Elizabeth Ingles.
Anthony Bernard and daugh- ter.
Catharine Bach.
John Light and wife.
The above list is taken from Morgan Edwards's work.
In the year 1890 the Coventry Church, with its two branches, Parkerford and Harmonyville, had three hundred and twenty members.
LIST OF PREACHERS OF THE COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH FROM 1724 TO 1898.
Born.
Died.
Martin Urner, Sr.
1695
1755
Martin Urner, Jr.
1725
1799
Jonas Urner .
1772
1813
Casper Ingles
Peter Reinhart
1733
1806
Martin Reinhart
1757
1820
Abraham Reinhart
1770
1842
George Price
1753
1823
John Price, Sr.
1782
1850
Catharine Grumbacher.
John Eiker.
Jacob Pfoutz and wife. Abraham Bach.
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COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH.
LIST OF PREACHERS OF THE COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH FROM 1724 TO 1898 .- Continued.
John Price, Jr.
1810
1879
Jacob Harley
1786
1842
John Harley
1812
1895
David Keim .
1802 1897
Peter Hollowbush
1805
1872
Jacob Conner
1834
Isaac Urner Brower
1844
Jesse P. Hetric
1844
John Y. Eisenberg
1840
As many of the facts connected with the early history of the Brethren Church in America, and of the early history of the Coventry Church, and of the connection of the Urners with these organizations, are found in Morgan Edwards's work, and as copies of this book are becoming very rare, those parts of the history relating immediately to the subjects under consideration are here appended.
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COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH.
MATERIALS
TOWARD
A History of the American Baptists.
BY MORGAN EDWARDS, A.M., Fellow of Rhode Island College and Overseer of the Baptist Church in Philadelphia.
IN TWELVE VOLUMES.
PHILADELPHIA : PRINTED BY JOSEPH CRUKSHANK AND ISAAC COLLINS. MDCCLXX. " VOL. I., PART IV.
"Treats of the Germans in Pennsylvania who are commonly called Tunkers, to distinguish them from the Mennonites, for both are styled Die Läufer, or Baptists. " The first appearance of these people in America was in the fall of the year 1719, when about twenty families landed in Philadelphia and dispersed, some to German- town, some to Skippack, some to Oley, some to Conestoga, and elsewhere. The dispersion incapacitated them to meet for public worship, and therefore they soon began to grow lukewarm in religion. But in the year 1722, Messieurs Baker, Gomery, Gantz, and the Trauts visited their scattered brethren, which was attended with great revival, in so much that societies were formed wherever a number of families were within reach one of another. But this lasted not above three years. They settled on their lees again, till about thirty families more of their persecuted brethren arrived in the fall of 1729, which both quickened them again and increased their number
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COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCHI.
everywhere. These two companies had been members of one and the same church, which originated at Schwar- zenau in the year 1708. The first constituents were Alexander Mack and wife, John Kipin and wife, George Grevy, Andreas Bhoney, Lucas Fetter, and Joanna Nethigeim. These had been bred Presbyterians, except Kipin, who was a Lutheran, and, being neighbors, they consorted together to read the Bible and edify one another in the way they had been brought up ; for as yet they did not know that there were any Baptists in the world. However, believer's baptism and a congrega- tional church soon gained upon them, in so much that they were determined to obey the Gospel in these mat- ters. They desired Alexander Mack to baptize them ; but he, deeming himself, in reality, unbaptized, refused. Upon which they cast lots to find who should be adminis- trator. On whom the lot fell hath been carefully con- cealed. However, baptized they were in the River Eder by Schwarzenau; and then formed themselves into a church, choosing Alexander Mack to be their minister. They increased fast, and began to spread their branches to Merienborn and Epstein, having John Naass and Christian Levy to their ministers in these places. But persecutions quickly drave them thence, some to Holland and some to Cryfelt. Soon after, the Mother Church voluntarily moved from Schwarzenau to Serustervin, in Frezland ; and from thence migrated to America in 1719. And in 1729 those of Cryfelt and Holland followed their brethren. Thus we see that all the Tunker Churches in America sprang from the church of Schwarzenau, in Germany; that that church began in 1708, with only seven souls, and that in a place where no Baptist had been in the memory of man, nor any now are. In sixty-two years that
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COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH.
little one has become a thousand, and that small one a great nation.
" BEGGARSTOWN. [GERMANTOWN.]
" This takes its name from a village of the above name, in the township of Germantown, eight miles north by west from that city. The meeting-house is of stone, thirty feet square, erected this year [1770] on a lot of eighty rods, the gift of one Peter Shilbert. On the same lot stands their old building, erected by one John Pettikoffer for his dwelling in 1731 ; and because it was the first house in the place, and erected by a beggar, the village assumed the name of Beggarstown. The families belonging to the congregation are about thirty ; whereof fifty-seven persons are baptized and in the communion of the church. This was the state in 1770. For their beginning we have no farther back to look than December 25, 1723, when the following persons (some baptized in Germany and some in this country) formed themselves into a society having Peter Baker to their minister ; and had the Lord's Supper and Love-feast, etc., for the first time they were cele- brated in the Province. [For names, see pages 10 and 11.]
" REV. PETER BAKER.
"He was born in 1687, at Dilsheim, in Germany. Educated a Presbyterian. Embraced the principles of the Baptists in 1714. Arrived in this country in 1719. Settled with the church of Beggarstown in 1723. Went to Skippack in 1747, where he died and was buried March 19, 1758. He married Dorothy Partman, by whom he had two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, who married into the Harley and Stump families and have raised him fifteen grandchildren. Whatever his
4
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COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH.
real character was, yet this may be said of him, he la- bored more abundantly than all of his contemporaries. His successor, who had also been his colleague, was
" REV. ALEXANDER MACK.
" He was born in the year 1680, at Schrisheim, in Germany. Was educated a Calvinist. Embraced the Baptist principles in 1708. Arrived in this country with many of his congregation in 1729, and became a minister of Beggarstown the same year. Died in 1735 and was buried at Germantown. He married Anna Magareta Kling, by whom he had children, Valentine, John, Alexander (now minister of Beggarstown), who married into the Hildebrand, Sneider, and Nice families, and have raised him many grandchildren. His fourth child was Anna, now a single sister at Ephrata. Mr. Mack was a man of real piety. He had a handsome patrimony at Schrisheim, with a profitable mill and vineyard thereon, but spent all in raising and main- taining his church at Schwarzenau, whereof he was father and the father of all the Tunkers. His succes- sor is his son,
" REV. ALEXANDER MACK.
" He was born at Schwarzenau, January 28, 1712. Baptized in 1728. Arrived in America in 1729. Ordained in 1749, at which time he took on him the care of the church. He married Elizabeth Nice, by whom he has children, William, Sarah, Hannah, Lydia, Elizabeth, Margaret. Mr. Mack is a sincere, good man.
" COVENTRY CHURCH.
" This takes its distinction from the township where most of the members reside, in the county of Chester, thirty-seven miles northwest by west from Philadelphia.
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COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH.
These people have no public place of worship, but hold their meetings in a kind of rotation at five private houses. The present minister is Mr. Martin Urner, who has to his assistance Mr. Peter Reinhart. The families belonging to them are about twenty-two, whereof forty are baptized. [Here in a foot-note the names of the forty members are given, as found on page 21, preceding.] This was their fate in 1770. For their original we must look back to 1724, when one Daniel Eiker and wife, Henry Landis and wife, Peter Heffly, Martin Urner, Owen Longacre, and An- drew Sell (who had been baptized before) did unite to celebrate the Lord's Supper and to walk together in love, having Rev. Peter Baker to their assistance. They increased fast, and would now be a very large society had not so many families gone away to Virginia, Caro- lina, and other parts. The first minister they had was
" REV. MARTIN URNER.
" He was born in Alsace about 1695, and was bred a Presbyterian. He came to America in 1715. [Earlier.] He embraced the principles of the Baptists in 1722. He was ordained by Rev. Alexander Mack in 1729, at which time he took on him the oversight of the church. He died in 1755 and was buried in the grave- yard at Coventry. His wife was Catharine Reist, by whom he had children, Mary, Martin, Jacob. These married into the Wolf, Edis, and Light families. As- sistant to Mr. Urner was one Casper Ingles. The next and present minister is
" REV. MARTIN URNER.
" He is nephew to the forementioned Martin Urner. Was born in 1725 in New Hanover Township and
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COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH.
county of Philadelphia. Ordained in 1756, at which time he took on him the care of the congregation. His assistant is Peter Reinhart. Mr. Urner married Bar- bara Switzer, by whom he has children, Mary, Joseph, Martin, and Elizabeth.
" EPHRATA,
" This church was distinguished by the above name, which is the name of the village where it exists, in Cocalico Township and Lancaster County, sixty miles west-northwest by west from Philadelphia. The same village is frequently called Tunkerstown. It consists of about thirty or forty buildings, and stands on a parcel of land containing one hundred and fifty-five acres.
" They had their existence as a society on November 12, 1724, when Conrad Beissel, Joseph Shaffer, John Mayer and wife, Heinrich Hehn and wife, and Veronica Frederick were baptized in Pequea River by Rev. Peter Baker. On the same day these seven incorporated into a church and chose Conrad Beissel to be their minister. After this they continued some time at Mill Creek, and then removing about three miles northward, pitched on the land of Rudolph Neagley, in Earl Township. Here they continued about seven years ; and hither resorted many to see them, some of which joined the society. Here they began their economy, the men living by themselves on the forementioned lands, and the women also by themselves on the adjoining lands of John Moyley. Here Conrad Beissel appointed two elders and a matron to preside over his church in the wilder- ness, binding them by a solemn promise (and at the same time giving to each a testament) to govern accord- ing to the rules of that book. Then he withdrew, and made as though they should see him no more. This
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COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH.
was done in the year 1733. He travelled northward till he came to the spot where Ephrata, or Tunkertown, now stands, and with his hoe planted Indian corn and roots for his subsistence. But he had not been long in the place before his society found him out and repaired to his little cot; the brethren settling with him on the west bank of the Cocalico, and the sisters in the east, all in sight of one another, with the river running between them. The next year they set about building their village, beginning with a place of worship. The village is enclosed with a ditch and fortified with posts and rails and quicksets. The founder of this people and their minister was
" REV. CONRAD BEISSEL.
" This was his real name; but when he became a Baptist he assumed the name of Friedsam Gottrecht, and gave new names to all the brethren and sisters. He was born in 1690, at Eberbach in Germany. Bred a Presbyterian. Arrived in Boston in 1720. Thence he and his two companions, Stunts and Steiffel, trav- elled westward to Pennsylvania and lived as hermits about Millcreek and Swedesprings, in Lancaster County. He embraced the principles of the Baptists in 1724. Died July 6, 1768, and was buried at Ephrata. As for his character, I give it in the words of one who knew him well :
"'He was very strict in his morals and practised self-denial and mortification to an uncommon degree. Enthusiastic and whimsical he certainly was, but an apparent devoutness and sincerity ran through all his oddities. He was not an adept in any of the liberal arts and sciences except music, in which he excelled. He composed and set to music (in three, four, six, and
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COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH.
eight parts) a folio volume of hymns and another of anthems. He published a dissertation on the fall of man in the mysterious strain ; also a volume of letters. He left behind several books in manuscript curiously written and embellished. It is expected that his life will be published by his successor and the present min- ister of Ephrata.'"
[The expected " life" or work just referred to has been published and is called " Chronicon Ephratense." An extract from this work, referring to Rev. Martin Urner, appears on page 9, preceding.]
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF ITS PREACHERS FROM ITS ORGANIZATION IN 1724 TO 1898.
THE THREE URNERS.
Ulrich Urner, with his three sons, Jacob, Martin, and Hans, came to America from Europe, from Alsace, then a province of France, about 1708, certainly before 1712, as the name of Martin Urner, one of the three sons, is found in the list of land-owners of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in that year. Originally the family belonged to the Canton of Uri, in Switzerland, as the name unmistakably shows. The inhabitants of that canton are called Urners, as the inhabitants of the Canton Schwytz are called Switzers. The name Urner is common in Uri and in different parts of Switzerland as a geographical designation, as Urner See or lake, Urner Boden or territory, and Urner Loch or tunnel.
About the year 1682 religious persecution drove the Urners out of Switzerland into Alsace, from whence they emigrated to America in 1708. In 1718 Martin Urner, the founder of the Coventry Brethren Church,
COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH. THIRD BUILDING. ERECTED IN 1890.
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COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH.
bought of the Penns nominally three hundred and fifty-six, but really four hundred and fifty, acres of land on the Schuylkill, immediately opposite the pres- ent town of Pottstown, on part of which purchase Cov- entry Brethren Church and Coventry Brethren Grave- yard are located. The original land surveys along the river had only four sides, one being the river itself, and two of the other sides being substantially parallel to each other and at right angles to the river. The road passing the church and running through Kenilworth marks one of these sides, and the road passing the graveyard marks the other. The Urner patent ex- tended over a mile back from the river.
The Urner family, as noted in the above list, gave three preachers to the church founded by the first of them. These preached continuously to the church . from the time of its founding, 1724, down to 1810, when the last of them, Jonas Urner, moved to Mary- land. So they preached to the church eighty-seven years, just one-half of the church's existence, down to the present time, 1898.
CASPER INGLES.
Nothing is known of Casper Ingles, except the state- ment of Morgan Edwards that he was assistant to the first bishop, Martin Urner. In the list of the mem- bers of the Coventry Church in 1770, as given by Morgan Edwards, the name of Elizabeth Ingles occurs, possibly the widow of Casper Ingles, or a sister or daughter.
THE THREE REINHARTS.
Ulrich Reinhart was the first of the family to come to America. He arrived in Philadelphia, August 28, 1733, in ship " Hope," of London, Daniel Reid, master,
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COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH.
from Rotterdam, last from Cowes. He married three times. By his first wife he had four sons,-Rev. Peter, who was assistant to second bishop, Martin Urner, Frederick, Ulrich, and John. By his second wife he had, as far as known, two children,-Rev. Martin Reinhart and David Reinhart. Nothing is known as to children by the third wife. Ulrich, the immigrant, settled on a farm on the right side of the Schuylkill River, in Coventry Township, a half-mile below Frick's Lock, Chester County, Pennsylvania, which farm sub- sequently passed to his son, Rev. Martin Reinhart, then to John Baugh, and is now, 1898, owned by David Updegrove. He was buried in the Union Graveyard at Parkerford, with the following inscription on his tombstone :
U. R. Feb. 12, 1787 a. 822
Two of his sons, Peter and Martin, and a grandson, Abraham, successively became preachers in the Coven- try Church. Morgan Edwards, writing in 1770, states that at that time Peter Reinhart was assistant to the second bishop, Martin Urner. As Peter Reinhart was then thirty-seven years old, it is probable that he had been preaching some years before. In those days men commenced preaching early. As the last of the Rein- hart preachers, Abraham Reinhart, died in 1842, the three Reinharts probably, too, preached to the Coven- try Church some eighty odd years.
THE THREE PRICES.
Jacob Preisz was the immigrant ancestor of the Prices who subsequently became prominent among the Brethren. He was a Prussian and came to America in
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COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH.
1719. About 1721 he settled at Indian Creek, Mont- gomery County, Pennsylvania. He had but one son, Johannes or John. This Johannes Preisz, without much doubt, is the one mentioned on page 11, pre- ceding. When Martin Urner with his company of six applied for baptism at Germantown, in the fall of 1723, this name, Johannes Preisz, occurs among the names of the seventeen who were induced to organize them- selves into a church that they might administer bap- tism to the six applicants. In 1770, when Morgan Edwards wrote his History of the Baptists, the name still retained its German spelling, Johannes Preisz.
In August, 1773, Daniel Price, a descendant, living at Indian Creek, bought land in Nantmeal Township, Chester County, for his son George, who settled there in 1774, his name appearing among the taxables of Nantmeal Township in that year. He continued to live in Nantmeal until 1794, when he sold out his Nantmeal property and bought a farm in Coventry Township, at the present Laurel Hill Locks, where he himself and his son John, the second preacher of the family in Chester County, and his grandson John, the third preacher of his family, continued to dwell during their lives. George Price started a Brethren interest in Nantmeal while he lived there and continued to labor in it until the time of his death in 1823. After moving to Coventry Township in 1794 he also took turns with the Urners and Reinharts in preaching to the Coventry Church. According to the letter of Isaac Price, before referred to, the Nantmeal interest did not prosper after the death of George Price, the members drifting into other churches or back into the world.
When George Price moved to Coventry Township the Coventry Church was seventy years old.
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COVENTRY BRETHREN CHURCH.
THE TWO HARLEYS.
The Harley family furnished two preachers to the Coventry Church, Jacob Harley and his son John Harley.
Rudolph Harley, the first of the family in America, came to Germantown, September 15, 1729, in the ship " Allen," James Craigie, master, from Rotterdam, with the second colony of Brethren, which included Alex- ander Mack and thirty families. This Rudolph Harley had a son Rudolph and one daughter. This Rudolph, of the second generation, married Mary, daughter of Peter Becker, who was so prominent in the German- town Church. Rudolph Harley and Mary Becker had thirteen children. Among them were Hannah, born in 1743, who married Ulrich Stauffer, grandfather of the late Owen Stover and great-grandfather of Eliza G. Urner, wife of the writer of this sketch ; Rudolph, of the third generation, born in 1749, who married Barbara Bach, of the well-known Baugh family of the neighborhood ; Sarah, born June, 1756, who married George Price, mentioned before as the first of the three Price preachers of the Coventry Church ; and Samuel, born March, 1758, who married Catharine Saur, of the prominent Brethren family of that name at German- town. This Samuel was the founder of Harleysville, Montgomery County, to which place he moved in 1790. Abraham Harley Cassel, of Harleysville, the historian of the Brethren Church, is a grandson of Samuel Harley, the founder of Harleysville.
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