USA > Pennsylvania > Ancient and historic landmarks in the Lebanon Valley > Part 11
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LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.
LEBANON : PAST AND PRESENT.
BY J. H. R.
There was a German gentleman whose name was Yorick Steitz, He came across the ocean from a canton in the Schweitz ; 'Tis many years ago, you know, a hundred years and more, Since this old German gentleman first landed on our shore. He came with pluck and energy, with brains and money, too, Just as the immigrants those times were always wont to do. 'Twas ere the foreign governments, to get rid of their scamps, Dumped on our shores their anarchists, their nihilists and tramps. For if they then had sent such scum across the raging main, We'd hanged them higher than a kite or sent them back again. He traveled inland from the sea, and when he reached this spot, 'Twas here that he resolved to stay, at which we wonder not, For the valley stretched before him and the brooks went murm'- ring by,
'Twas charming to the senses, and most pleasing to the eye ; And here he founded Lebanon, since grown to some renown, But his neighbors, out of jealousy, called it old Steitz's town, A name it bore for many years, two score of years or so, Till Time, at length, with ruthless hand, laid Steitz's neighbors low. And as it was to good George Steitz, so 'tis to us to-day, A place not to remove from, but one in which to stay. He builded better than he knew, for north, hid in the hills, Lay coal to feed our furnace fires, our forges and our mills, While southward rose an iron mount, awaiting, as we've seen, The magic touch of master hand and sight of vision keen. Between these mounts of coal and iron stretched valley, hill and wood,
A fertile land on which to raise the grain to give us food.
Here, too, were raised, as well you know, brave men of brawn and brain,
Who inarched with Washington and Greene, with Lafayette and Wayne.
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A WALK ABOUT STEITZTOWN.
In eighteen twelve, and later still, in time of direst need,
They fought with Grant in Richmond's front, at Gettysburg with Meade.
But time moved on and changes came; the town it grew, of course, And Peter Kahl's old stage gave way to Reading's iron horse. We had our shops and factories and churches, schools and scholars, Our stores were lit with gas at night, our bank-vaults filled with dollars.
So thus in peace we moved along, content to have it known, That every decade showed our town had somewhat larger grown. But suddenly there came a change, as if magician's hand
Had touched the town, and upward sprang new buildings tall and grand.
But I must not prolong this tale, and yet I fain would tell How Colebrook furnaces came first, and then the C. & L .;
How then the business boom came on, and how we got our freights, From north and south, from east and west, at low competing rates. And then came forges, bolt works, mills, whose fires are burning bright,
Bank buildings and the new depot, and then the electric light. And yet we'll name Mt. Gretna Park in Conewago's hills,
With pleasant paths and cooling shade, its lake and rippling rills. And so where once a village stood when good George Steitz held sway,
A modern city upward rose and proudly stands to-day. For this we've met in Banquet Hall-friends, you know all the rest, How much is due to him who is to night our Honored Guest.
CHAPTER XXII.
TABOR REFORMED CHURCH.
As we have decided to enter Steitz's town from the south, we will come in on the old plank road of the Colemans, whose last and illustrious scion, Robert H., has turned the sleepy village into a bustling city, and the rickety old highway of planks into a well-graded pike. This brings us into town on what is now Tenth street, and accordingly the first ancient landmark that meets our eye is the old Tabor church and school house. It is what is generally known as the First Reformed Church of our city-or, as a stone in its wall would in- dicate, the "Hoch Deutsche Reformirte Kirche." The present building was erected in 1792, and the school- house, it is believed, about thirty-six years previous to that date. From a succinct history of the church pub- lished two years ago by its present pastor, Dr. Klopp, we are enabled to cull many important data of its long, historic and beneficent life.
This declares the congregation to liave been organ- ized in 1760. The first deed, indentured June 10, 1760, whereby George Stites conveys to Frederick Steindorf, Felix Miller and Jacob Sollinger, "Deacons of the Dutch Presbyterian Church," and in trust for said
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TABOR REFORMED CHURCH.
Church, the greater portion of the ground lying east of the present church and constituting the old burial ground, is still extant. It cost the original sum of five shillings and the yearly rent of "one Red Rose in the Month of June forever, if lawfully demanded." How often this yearly rental has been paid since, the writer can not tell. As the date has just passed (roth of June), it is possible that the congregation feels it has dis- charged its debt after having brought loads of roses and other flowers to church in its annual Children's Day Festival, celebrated last Sabbath-the anniversary of this legal agreement. It might prove a worthy task, but more difficult than last Sunday's service, to find the grave of this generous promoter of "true religion and piety " and deck it year by year with these choice blossomns of June. This seems to be an unknown spot. It is believed that he rests near his offspring and relatives in Salem Lutheran graveyard. The writer found the tomb of Mrs. Samuel Stites (Anna) in the Womelsdorf graveyard, but knows not whether her husband was a relative of George or not. This lady was born March 3, 1817, and died March 28, 1846. A similar requirement of the yearly rental of one red rose binds also the Salem Lutheran Church of our city to Mr. Steitz, and the Zion Lutheran Church, of Man- heim, to the quaint Colonial founder and benefactor of that town, Baron H. W. Stiegel. This last-named flock celebrated last Sabbath the yearly Festival of Roses, amid a jubilee of song and addresses, and in the
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LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.
presence of relatives and lineal descendants from Ger- many, Virginia, New York, and Harrisburg. They are raising a fund to place memorial chimes in their spire in honor of this kindly and long enterprising, at last impoverished Baron.
Whatever generosity George Steitz may have mani- fested towards the early religious denominations of his day and town, it would seem as if the sheriff of the county a few years later seized his property, including this donated portion of his farm or town plot, consisting of lot numbered 136, and sold it, inasmuch as we find this same Reformned Church lot was sold by the sheriff and re-purchased by said congregation but three years after its very considerate sale by Steitz. At this time Jolın Hay was sheriff of the county (Lancaster), and the purchasers of the tract, including these church lots, were Rev. Jolın Casper Stoever, Christopher Wegman, Philip Greenawalt, Casper Schnebele, George Hock, Christian Gish, and John Ulrich Schnebele. These again sold in 1765 the church lots (upon which a log church had already been erected in 1762, situated on the northeast corner of the old graveyard,) to John Huber, John Rohrer, Jacob Smith, and Abraham Wide- 111an, in trust for the "German Presbyterian Church." They paid five pounds in their second purchase to get back their improved property.' This second transfer was made August 5, 1765.
Before the establishment of this church, the Re- formned of this community worshiped for a generation
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TABOR REFORMED CHURCH.
at the Hill church, northwest of Lebanon, and at the "Grubben " or "Kruppen " church. The log house in which Rev. Conrad Templeman, the earliest pastor of these Reformed churches, lived, is still standing at Templeman's Hill, a mile east of Cornwall. It is in a dilapidated condition, and was found empty and for- saken by the writer in a recent visit thither. The asso- ciations of this energetic and faithful inan of God, wlio spent the latter years of his life here in total blindness and suffering, while yet often ministering to his flock in holy things, should arouse an interest to keep this landmark from total decay.
According to an account of the event preserved by the Moravian pastor in the Hebron Diary, the first Re- formed church was dedicated o: the 18th of July, 1762. The name of Tabor was given it, evidently from the Mt. Tabor of Scripture. In this building the congrega- tion worshiped regularly until June 12th, 1792, when the present stone edifice was erected. There was an interim of several years between the razing of the old church and the completion of the new, when the right of worship in their church edifice was kindly accorded this flock by the Salem Lutherans.
Improvements to the property have constantly been made since the beginning. In 1772 the church lots were enclosed by a dry stone wall, at a nominal expense of about $130, because of the very reasonable rates of labor and material at that day. On March 8, 1780, an adjoining property-the lot on which the present church
I5
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LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.
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MT. TABOR REFORMED CHURCH AND CEMETERY, LEBANON, PA.
stands, and on which was then already standing the stone house, now used as a sexton's house, but for many years as a congregational or parochial school-house-
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TABOR REFORMED CHURCH.
was bought of Philip Greenawalt and wife, for the sum of thirty pounds, or about $146. When this purchase was made, Gottfried Eichelbrener, Michael Krebs and Rudolphı Kelker were the trustees. In the deed trans- ferring this property, the school is mentioned, which was built some twenty years previous to this date, and is still here as a witness to the value set upon instruc- tion by our early German ancestors. A parsonage was purchased by a committee representing the different congregations constituting this pastorate at that day, viz., the Lebanon, Hill and Jonestown churches. They were Gottfried Eichelbrener, Nicholas Weiss, Jacob Lausher, Henry Dubs, John Tetweiler and John Bickel. This house stood many years on the site of the present handsome parsonage, corner of Chestnut and Spring streets. Formerly the services were all in Ger- man, and preaching but once in two weeks. Since 1828 English preaching has been regularly continued, though in constantly increasing proportions, until at present the German is limited to two Sabbath mornings a month.
The present building was erected in 1792-96. It was originally about 42x62 feet in dimensions. The corner- stone was laid June 26, 1792, under Rev. Ludwig Lupp's pastorate, when the Rev. William Hendel preached a sermon from Gen. xxviii. 12. The building committee consisted of Philip Greenawalt, John Glon- inger, Anthony Kelker, Gottfried ,Eichelbrener, George Bowman, and Martin Imhoff.
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LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.
An interesting Children's Service was held in con- nection with the laying of the corner-stone but a day or two previous, showing that such a thing as "Children's Day" in our churches is no new thing, and that Bishop Vincent, of the Methodist Church, can not boast being the founder of this now popular novelty. The fact is, all the good things in the Church of to-day are found in their prime and purity in the German Reformation churches, and were rocked into life by the Protestant Reformation of Luther, Melanchthon, Zwingli, Calvin, and others. From an old hymn or programme of exercises used on this occasion, over a hundred years ago, still extant, and a copy of which is in the hands of the Hon. Rudolph Kelker, of Harris- burg, whose grandfather was then Treasurer of this church, it would appear that they far excelled much of the modern namby-pamby stuff dished up with flowers and singing canaries on our "Children's Days."
The church was dedicated May 8th, 1796. We can- not account for the length of time consumed in build- ing this structure, except, like the grinding of some sleepy mills situated along shallow and well-nigh dried up streams, the propelling power did not flow in faster. But the character of the structure does not suggest poverty. It is known to have cost about $6,500, and has upon it superior workmanship. There has been somne extra expenditure to make it churchly in appear- ance. Over the windows of the west side, facing Tenth street, appropriate Scripture passages have been en- graven. Beginning at the northi they read as follows :
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TABOR REFORMED CHURCH.
Ist. "Lasset uns ihn lieben denn Er hat uns zuerst geliebet."- I John 4 : 19.
2d. "Der vernünftige Mensch lernet Gottes Wort gern, und wer die Weisheit lieb hat horet gern."
3d. “Dieser Eckstein dieser Kirche ist gelegt worden, den 26ten Juni 1792.
"Herr lass deine Augen offen sein ueber dieses Haus Tag und Nacht. Hoere das Gebet deines Volkes."-II Chron. 6: 20-21.
4th. "Das Gesetz deines Mundes ist mir lieber denn viel Tausend stück Gold und Silber."-Ps. 119: 72.
5th. "Thut Busze und glaubet an das Evangelium."-Mark I : 15.
At its dedication Revs. Becker, Pauli and Hendel officiated. But even still after a new church was se- cured, improvements were continued. In 1809 a pipe organ was purchased, at a cost of $1,500. The present wall surrounding the graveyard was built in 1816; the steeple erected in 1827, and part of the cemetery, oppo- site the church, on Tenth street, bought in 1847, with an additional part in 1848. The entire church was re- modeled in 1844 at considerable expense, when the vestibule end at the north was added. In 1845 the church was incorporated, in which charter the follow- ing persons are named as Trustees, viz .: Jacob Arndt, Leonhard Greenawalt, Christopher Reigert, Philip Shaak, Sr., and John W. Gloninger ; and the docu- ment is signed by Governor F. R. Shunk and by Speakers William P. Wilcox of the Senate, and Find- ley Patterson of the House. At the ratification meet- ing of the congregation, accepting this charter, held May 24, 1845, a number of important resolutions were
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LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.
adopted, relative to the spiritual care, the temporary support and the nurture of the youth of the church. The pew system was then adopted at English services, and other provisions pertaining to burial rights adopted. In 1857, John W. Gloninger and wife conveyed a lot of ground for burial purposes, situated west of town along the pike.
In 1860, sixty-eight members were dismissed to found St. John's Reformed Church of this city, of which the Rev. Dr. Henry Harbaugh, the celebrated author and Pennsylvania German poet, was first pastor.
In 1864, the Reformed Lebanon Classis, convened at Annville, divided and changed the pastorates in this community so as to constitute the Tabor Church in a separate pastoral charge. This necessitated the pay- ment of $600.00 to the Hill Church for its interest in the parsonage, which was at once accomplished, the collections being over this amount, leaving the church treasury a handsome surplus of $206.76 from this effort. In 1869, the pastor's salary was fixed at $1,200.00 per annum. In 1872, the Lecture Room of the church was changed and Tabor Chapel built, which was enlarged and altered in 1890, thus adding an Infant Room and Pastor's Bible Class Room.
In 1877, at the establishment of St. Paul's Reformed Church of Bismarck, this church again lent a willing hand, and at its regular organization dismissed no less than eighty-six members from her fold. Another child coming out of the bosom of this mother church is the
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TABOR REFORMED CHURCH.
St. Mark's Reformed Church, in the northern part of the city. It came to organized life in 1887, which again cost 166 of the living stones of the old church, and quite a number besides since that date. Temple- man's Chapel, at Cornwall, cost the inother church another thirty of her members. Thus it is seen what a blessed "mother" this First or Tabor Church has been, and how she lives in her children, into whose youthful energies she poured of her best blood. Though vener- able with hoary years and inany deeds of beneficence, she is still bearing fruit in her old age, and strong enough to vie with any of her younger sisters or daughters in the work for God and humanity. She is well equipped with officers and working societies, and is one of the strongest churches in numbers and activities of this city. The handsome parsonage, which in 1890 took the place of the old historic manse on the corner of Spring and Chestnut streets, is a model of beauty and modern domestic convenience, and is alike a credit to the congregation and its pastor, under whom it was built, and a proof that this "inother" is not as yet going into decrepitude or decline. May she long live to bless mankind, and breathe among our younger churches and generations of citizens the earnest and godly spirit of her pious and sainted founders and earli- est promoters !
The following pastors have served her:
After the pioneer services, preparatory to the found- ing of Reformed churches in this vicinity by Rev. Con-
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LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.
rad Templeman, from 1727 to 1760, this local church was served by
Rev. Frederick Miller, from 1762 to 1763.
Rev. William Stoy, from 1763 to 1768.
Rev. John Conrad Bucher, from 1768 to 1780.
Rev. John William Runkle, from 1780 to 1784.
Rev. Andrew Lorentz, supplied from 1785 to 1786.
Rev. Ludwig Lupp, from 1786 to 1798.
Rev. William Hiester, from 1800 to 1828.
Rev. Henry Kroh, from 1828 to 1835.
Rev. Henry Wagner, from 1835 to 1851.
Rev. F. W. Kremer, D. D., from 1851 to 1889.
Rev. D. E. Klopp, D. D., from 1889 to date.
From the Tabor News we learn that the following persons constitute the present
CHURCH OFFICERS.
Pastor-Rev. D. Earnest Klopp, D. D.
Elders-B. F. Gingrich, William H. Boyer, William F. Spayd, Wil- liam M. Snyder, J. Adam Becker, J. H. Witenmoyer.
Deacons-Frank Z. Miller, J. V. Smith, F. E. Bomberger, D. O. Mader, John A. Kleiser, Alvin H. Royer, Edward Brandt, George M. Snyder.
Trustees-Andrew J. Meredith, John H. Michael, Joseph L. Lem- berger, Daniel P. Witmeyer, Jacob Brubaker.
Treasurer-William D. Rauch.
SUNDAY-SCHOOL ORGANIZATION.
Superintendent-Joseph L. Lemberger.
Assistant Superintendents-Dr. E. P. Kremer, Miss Annie Matthes. Secretary-Daniel G. Miller. Assistant Secretary-John Shank.
Treasurer-Jacob B. Karch.
Librarian-Jacob B. Karch.
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TABOR REFORMED CHURCH.
Assistant Librarians-Daniel M. Sharp, Frank Gleim, John Shank. Teacher of Adult Bible Class-Dr. E. P. Kremer.
Organist-Walter Garrett.
Junior Department.
Superintendent-William F. Spayd.
Assistant Superintendents-William M. Snyder, Miss Savilla Wit- meyer.
Secretaries or Librarians-Mrs. Jennie Shaak, Mrs. D. G. Miller, Miss Millie Gleim.
Chorister-Mrs. D. G. Miller.
Organist-Miss Nora Light.
Infant Department.
Teachers-Miss Ella Ebur and Mrs C. G. Rauch.
Assistants-Miss Sallie Schram and Miss Gertie Reigel.
In the next chapter we shall stroll into the adjoining graveyards, and here come face to face with a large number of Lebanon's past worthies in the sacred and in secular callings.
CHAPTER XXIII.
FACE TO FACE WITH PAST WORTHIES.
BEFORE leaving the ancient shrine of Lebanon's first Reformned worshippers, let us spend an hour in com- pany with the noble inen and women who have been "gathered unto their fathers," and sleep their last long sleep in the shadow of the very church in which they worshiped and taught, or were taught, the way to heaven. The ancient burial ground that lies to the east of this historic church, contains the sacred ashes of not a few of Lebanon's mnost distinguished citizens of "ye olden time." In fact, this and Salem's Lutheran burial grounds contain almost all the dead of the first six or eight decades of this city's life. The Hebron Moravian cemetery contains a few, but its dead are mostly from the outlying country. The Reformed hold in sacred keeping a generous share of the ancient dead, and they keep their trust faithfully by looking well to the proper order of this last resting place of their dead.
June, the month of roses and robins-when every bush of the former glows with hundreds of bursting buds of beauty and fragrance, and every nest of the latter is ready to hold commencement-day and send
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FACE TO FACE WITH PAST WORTHIES.
forth from its seminary of young bird-life its full-fledged trio of red-breasted songsters-what a month of beauty and bloom, of flowers and fragrance, of life and love! Just the month in which to visit a graveyard! The chirp of the sparrow, the sweet song of the robin and the thrush, and the exciting chatter of a score of swal- lows, which, as evening approaches, take their winged chariot races through the air-each racer urging on his feathery steed with noisy ado-combine their notes and noises to overcome the otherwise painful silence of a lonely burial ground. And so the waving grasses, and the blooming and budding life on every shrub, help to mellow the otherwise too sombre consciousness of being in the presence of decay and death. Moreover, these natural evidences of life and beauty serve as a token and type of the land of reunion with the sainted dead, where are found perpetual bloom and eternal life.
It was on a perfect day of this maiden month of sum- mer that the writer, pushing away the tall grasses, wended his way from grave to grave of the past worthies that sleep in this Reformed "city of the dead," and with reverent heart and by the aid of well- worn epitaph, communed with the generations that have passed. Here he found the graves of Pastor Lupp and his wife, during whose energetic ministry the pres- ent stone church edifice was erected in 1792-6. He learned elsewhere that this man of God was a native of Germany, and that for a while after coming to this country he taught school, and conducted devo-
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tional services in private houses, before assuming the duties of the ministry. He had served a charge in and surrounding Manheim, and was instrumental in found- ing the first Reformed church at Harrisburg, before removing to Lebanon, where he busily pursued the labors of his holy office, in season and out of season, for a period of about twelve years. That he was gen- erally beloved is evidenced from the fact that the Lutheran pastor, Rev. Mr. Kurtz, assisted the Rev. William Hendel, of the Reformed Church, in the funeral services, by preaching a second sermon, and by the witness of the Moravian Hebron Diary, whose pastor records various instances of fraternal intercourse with lıim. Describing one of Rev. Lupp's confirma- tion and communion services, which said pastor at- tended by invitation, he adds : "There was at these solemn services, which continued six hours, a general loud weeping in the church, and the young hearts were quite carried away." He was doubtless the author of the responsive service which the children of this parish rendered on the dedication day of the church, to which allusion has already been made, and which is a model for propriety and churchliness. It is a service in which the leader, the children and the choir respectively take part, and the program is entitled : "Zum Knæbchen Fest." Pastor Lupp was buried here in this delightful month of June, almost a century ago, according to the following humble marker that still distinguislies his grave :
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FACE TO FACE WITH PAST WORTHIES.
Hier ruhet ein grauer Haupt
LUDWIG LUPP,
12 Jahr Prediger in Libanon Gebohren den 7 Januar, 1733 Gestorben den 28 Juni, 1798. Alt 65 Jahr, 5 Mon. 21 Tagen.
Es war mein Beruf und Amt in deiser Welt Zu lehren was meinem Gott und Jesu wohlge- fällt.
Zu predigen das Evengelium rein und treu Den Sündern rufen zur Bus und Reu;
Nun adieu ! Fruende, folget meiner Lehr und Wort
So werden wir einander wieder sehn in jener Himmelspfort !
Not far away sleeps his wife and companion, with a similar sandstone marker.
We find here the grave also of even an earlier pastor, and one who must have been beloved by his flock with extraordinary affection. It is the Rev. Johann Conrad Bucher, serving this flock an equally long period of a dozen years, beginning with 1768. He was a noted man in his day for his service both in the Church and State. Born in Switzerland, his father, intending him for the ministry, gave him a thorough academic educa- tion at the Universities of St. Gall, Basle, and Got- tingen, where he gathered into an autograph album, still extant, the autographs of his celebrated teachers, Wagelin, Zollikoffer, J. L. Mosheim, the great church
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historian, and others. At the age of twenty-five he came to America. He was soon enlisted into the con- flict that was being waged between the English Colonies and the combined forces of French and Indians. Par- liament, after the defeat of Braddock and the subse- quent year of disaster, passed an "act providing for the appointment of German, Swiss and Dutch Protestants as officers," in order to enlist the greater sympathy of these classes of immigrants to the English cause. Ac- cordingly, Bucher was appointed as Second Lieutenant in the First Battalion, Pennsylvania Regiment, and after the fall of Fort Du Quesne, he rose to First Lieu- tenant, April 19, 1760, and was stationed at Fort Louther (Carlisle) to defend the frontier against Indian raids. He participated in Bouquet's expedition in 1763 for the relief of Fort Pitt, which had been assailed in Pontiac's Conspiracy, in which march the famous battle of Bushy Run was fought. Mr. Bucher was gradually promoted for his brave services, until he rose to a Cap- taincy in Colonel John Penn's Regiment.
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