USA > Pennsylvania > Ancient and historic landmarks in the Lebanon Valley > Part 13
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CHAPTER XXV.
A HALT ON MARKET SQUARE, CONTINUED.
OUR walk about the old Market Square of Lebanon was interrupted just as we came to the fine stone mansion of Mr. Lemberger's, whence stepped out, in 1823, Andreas Shultze, to fill the Gubernatorial chair of our State, after having held a number of other official positions of the county and the State. It would be pleasant to dwell a little while in company with this cultured and popular Governor of our State, whose elec- tion to a second term of this high office, in 1826, was unprecedented in point of majority, he receiving not much less than 75,000 votes, while his opponent, John Sergeant, received but about 1,000 votes. But we must hasten on, so as to complete our walk about this old town square, which is lined with historic landmarks, leaving the relatives of the Governor in the enjoyment of the honor reflected upon them by this illustrious kin.
Before leaving, however, the residence whose historic walls are still lighted up by the brilliant fame of this once renowned owner and occupant, we must recall, witli a certain degree of patriotic and race pride, at this season of Independence Day reminders of Revolutionary sires and leaders, that when that illustrious French
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patriot and ally of our American colonists struggling for freedom-General Lafayette-revisited our country in 1824-25, it was this same Governor Shultze who officially welcomed him to Pennsylvania State soil amid great pomp and civic display, at Morrisville, on the west bank of the Delaware, opposite Trenton, N. J. It
should stir our present citizens with local pride at this Fourth of July season, that in a parsonage of this valley was born the child (the great-grandson of the most distinguished German pioneer of this State-Conrad Weiser), who in this valley grew to manhood, here for a time preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then fol- lowed here a mercantile business, afterwards holding offices of public trust and honor, and later marched out of this identical stone mansion to fill the highest office in the gift of our Commonwealth, and as such had the honor to ride in that brilliant pageant of State officials, of mounted field and staff officers, of bands of music, of processions of artillery and infantry, of Revolutionary heroes, of artisans and farmers, of gaily dressed riflemen, in which he- the son of our valley and the distinguished citizen of our own Lebanon town-was the State's representative and spokesman. Riding in a barouche drawn by four brown horses, he followed next the distinguished visitor-Lafayette-who, with the famous Judge Richard Peters, of the Revolution, the friend of Washington, was drawn by six cream- colored horses, with outriders in livery, mounted on horses of the same color-and was followed by another
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barouche similar to his, containing Governor William- son, of New Jersey-on that proud day in September (28), 1824, more than seventy years ago, when this magnificent pageant came from Trenton and entered our City of Brotherly Love by the Delaware.
But we are far from home and must hasten back, and
CENTRAL OR MARKET SQUARE, LEBANON, PA. (Looking North.) Showing the Gloninger Residence, the " Weidman House," etc.
must complete our historic pilgrimage about Lebanon's old square, even if attended by less of pageantry and honor than was so largely shared by one of its quondam residents. The house next north of this "Guberna- torial Mansion" is the present property of Grant Weid-
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man, Esq., who purchased it from William Stoever, of West Myerstown-a lineal descendant of Rev. Johann Casper Stoever-who, as executor of his father Jacob's estate, made the transfer about twenty-five or thirty years ago. Jacob Stoever here carried on the printing business, and from this place shone forth over the terri- tory of the county, at least once a week, for about thirty years, the first and long the only newspaper enlightener of the place - Der Libanon Morgen-Stern. Jacob Stoever was a son of Frederick Stoever, the squire, and he was the youngest son of pastor J. Casper Stoever. Who had possession of this property before Stoever, we could not learn ; but the place suffers not by comparison with others in reckoning up the good influences that have gone out thence. The Stoevers and Weidmans both being Lutherans, the early members of these families all sleep in Salem Lutheran burial ground.
The property next north to this, situated on the S. W. corner of 9th and Spring alley, and now occupied by offices and as the residence of Mr. J. K. Funck, was first sold by George Steitz to Anastasius Uhler, March 4th, 1759. There are documents showing that it was again conveyed by said Uller to Daniel Strow, who con- veyed it to Andrew Beistle, at whose death and accord- ing to the terms of his last will, Messrs. Christopher Wegman and Jacob Souders, as executors, sold and transferred the property August 17, 1782, to Henry Shaffner. The lot then had a frontage of sixty-four feet on Market Square. The northern half of same, with
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house, was conveyed, at Mr. Shaffner's demise, by Jacob Goodhart and Daniel Stitchter, executors, to Mr. Adam Grittinger, June 16, 1837, which same property was be- queathed by Mr. Grittinger to his son, Henry C., the present owner. The Shaffners we know to have been inter-married with the Greenawalts and otherwise highly reputed, while the Grittingers, father and son, served in various honorable positions, as well as the present occupant, to give this place a history.
Opposite Spring alley, on the site of the building now occupied on the first floor by the Post Office, where cluster other interesting facts of history, let us especi- ally imagine the former frame building out of which came to play or go to school in the early decades of this century the boy Alexander Ramsey, whither his mother, whose maiden name was Kelker, on becoming a widow removed with her family from Hummelstown. Mr. Ramsey as man rose from one station of honor to another, until he became in 1849 first Territorial Gov- ernor of Minnesota, holding office four years, and mak- ing important Indian treaties, and for the United States Government negotiating large purchases of their lands. Mayor of St. Paul in 1855, and elected Governor of the State in 1860-63, he was the latter year elected United States Senator from Minnesota and served twelve years, and in 1879 became Secretary of War, and in 1882 a member of the Utah Commission.
Were we to continue our walk on Ninth street to the north we should find much more buried liistory to ex-
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hume, but we shall simply lead our excursionists about the old Market square, and so must here step across Ninth street to the east side and complete our walk. The building that here at present forms the northern offset of this square is the second structure of the Zion Evangelical Lutheran church, which just has com- pleted the semi-centennial of its life, an event worthy of note. The first building erected here in 1844 was a stone edifice and rough cast in plaster. The lot before this date was the property of Jacob Shaffner, then residing at Marietta, and the purchase of it was made by Jacob Stoever, one of the trustees, for the newly organized congregation coming out of the mother church (Salem) and led by the pastor, Rev. Jonathan Ruthırauff, on the score of language, church discipline and revival measures. The spot has an in- teresting history, because of its fifty years of eloquent preaching of the gospel by such men as Rev. Ruthrauff, Drs. Wedekind, Gotwald, Schindler, Rhodes, Reinmund and Dunbar ; by the long and successful efforts here made in the salvation of souls; by the men it sent into the ministry ; and by a long list of conventions held of every description, missionary, Sunday-school, confer- ence, synodical and General Synodic, of which we have 11ot time to speak at length.
We come next, on the south, to a property now occupied by three stores (tea, jewelry, and shoe) pre- senting a frontage of about 66 feet, and mentioned in the original town-plot as Lot No. 65. The property
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is owned by Mr. Frank S. Becker, and has been in the family since 1810, when his grandfather, Jacob Good- hart, the clock-maker-whose name rivals that of Jacob Gorgas, in the number of times it appears on the face of the old time, high corner-clocks-purchased the ground with the improvement of a log house, weather-boarded, for the sum of 426 pounds, "lawful money of Pennsyl- vania," from John and Catharine Fasnacht, who were the executors of their father's (Conrad) estate. This
Conrad Fasnacht was a butcher, and evidently here carried on his business of selling, if not of slaughtering. Deeds are at hand to show that this property was part of the original town-plot, purchased at sheriff's sale as property of Nicholas Henicke, by Peter Kucher, August 5, 1764, who sold and conveyed it, April 1, 1774, to Adam Orth and Catharine, his wife, (Kucher's daughter) who in turn conveyed same to John Keller, October 22, 1785 (whose wife was a daughter of Adam Orth), who again sold it, May 4, 1792, to said Conrad Fasnacht. Probably the most noted occupant of the old homestead that first occupied this central spot, of whose residence here we are certain, is the long-lived clock-inaker, Mr. Goodhart. On the establishment of Lebanon county, we find him representing this district for several years (1815-16) in the State Legislature. Upon the acceptable creation of the borough of Leb- anon, in 1821, he was elected as the first Chief Burgess, which office he held for two years. He also served as County Treasurer from 1826-29 ; was universally recog-
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nized as a reliable surveyor, conveyancer and scrivener ; and was for more than thirty years a Justice of the Peace, many times elected by the people and twice ap- pointed by the Governor for usual terms of several years each. We find his name also among the first trustees of the Lebanon Academy, established in 1826. But whatever good may have been done by Mr. Goodhart in all these official positions, we think that his "grand- father-clocks" will do more to perpetuate the fame of his honest thrift and skill, in the hundreds of homes they are to-day brightening, measuring off by musical ticks the minutes, and by clearly ringing strokes the hours of the day, than by any other great deeds this long familiar German worthy of Market Square per- formed.
The next house-a relic of the last century-is the property of our nonagenarian friend Mr. Simeon Guil- ford. It was part of the John Keller estate when thie above-mentioned transfers of the next adjoining lot were made. It is very likely that in this same house- still standing and occupied by Mr. Guilford, Sr .- lived Mr. Keller, the saddler, at the beginning of this cen- tury, and we can imagine his children-playing here with their cousins, among whom was the future illus- trious statesmen of Indiana-a native of Lebanon- Godlove S. Orth, who died but twelve years ago, after having held many of the most important offices in the gift of his country and adopted state. Mr. Guilford, the present aged occupant, is a native of Northampton, Mass.,
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and came to town at the opening of the Union Canal in 1823-an energetic, youthful civil engineer of twenty- two. The same State improvement or institution brought to town also another once honored citizen, Mr. William Lehman, who lived a year in Gov. Shultze's house after the latter was made Governor, and later at the Canal (Ninth and Maple). These, together with the president of the Canal Company (Mr. Mifflin), have been kindly remembered for their noble deeds to this town in the work of opening up this internal waterway, by having streets in the northern end of our city named after them. Mr. Guilford has occupied this home since 1830, here reared a noble family, and from it has gone out to a long continued career of usefulness in the erec- tion and operation of Swatara (Schuylkill county), and Dudley (long known as Donaghmore) furnaces. He married, May, 1830, Miss Catharine E. Doll, and their oldest son with his family living in the adjoining house, a citizen and physician of high repute, keeps the declining days of an unusually long and prosperous journey from becoming dreary and dark. In the same house, or a stone house preceding this, had lived before him for some time Anthony Kelker, a revolutionary lieutenant, and a miost worthy citizen. To this same stone house of Guilford's was brought the Hon. William Henry Harrison, when as a candidate for the United States Presidency he made his visit to Eastern Pennsyl- vania. Simeon Guilford, who was an ardent Whig and enthusiastic advocate of
"The old Tippecanoe, Harrison and Tyler, too,"
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and one of the local Committee of Entertainment, went all the way to Reading to meet this honorable ex- soldier, and accompanied the party in a tally-ho to Leb. anon. Although stopping at what now is the Central Hotel, then the Buck Hotel, he took the distinguished citizen and coming President to his own home for a few hours' social intercourse. All this is history worth re- inembering as clinging to the solid masonry of this old landmark. [P. S. - Mr. Guilford died in Feb'y, 1895.]
The corner property where now stands the Lebanon National Bank, is the same where formerly stood a stone building, in which dwelt, in 1830, Mr. William Moore, who was instrumental in establishing the first bank in Lebanon, and became its first president. The lots of the town plot covering Mr. Guilford's and Mr. Moore's residences are numbered 66 and 67 respect- ively. Mr. Moore was a highly honored and leading citizen, filling various offices in the gift of his towns- people. He lies buried in the Old Reformed graveyard, and his grave is marked by a suitable stone. This cor- ner of Ninth and Cumberland was long occupied by a mercantile house, where, I think, Oves & Moore car- ried on the dry goods business for years. The bank building displaced it about ten or twelve years ago, when it removed hither from where the dining room of Eagle Hotel is now located.
The site of the Eagle Hotel, on the opposite cor- ner, has quite an illustrious history. Here Frederick Stoever, Esq., the youngest son of the Rev. John Cas-
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per Stoever, some time in the latter half of the last cen- tury, erected a store building and carried on business, and for some time the office of "a 'squire." Later Peter Lineaweaver, the third American by that name, came into possession of it and changed the store into an old-time hostelry, where stopped more of the old-time visitors and transient guests than possibly at any other house in Lebanon. In its halls it was a frequent thing to hear the voices of the most brilliant legal lights of East Pennsylvania and the political visitors of that day. The house lias since been rebuilt, and its reputation for high grade service is known far and wide. We are hindered for lack of space to enter into any further his- tory of the house, or the families that have resided here, or even to give the past occurrences of the old Henry DeHuff inanufactory of copper and silver-ware that used to occupy the space south of Eagle Hotel, thus completing the Square. The readers can find Mr. Stoever's grave on Salem Lutheran burial-ground, and the Lineaweavers on the Old Reformed. The latter's family was intermarried with the Tobys, the Klines, and the Krauses, all of whom are well known in Lebanon and its vicinity.
We trust our halt on this Square has convinced my readers that this heart of Lebanon has coursed with good blood and sent out to bless the world and fight its battles a greater array of strong and manly men than any similar spot of earth, of equal dimensions, in any city of our land.
CHAPTER XXVI.
SALEM LUTHERAN CHURCH AND GRAVEYARD.
OUR halt on Lebanon's Market Square has detained us longer than we had at first contemplated. Thus having mingled with scenes of stirring business life in the past two chapters, let us without much ceremony bow ourselves out of these surroundings and transfer ourselves to the corner of Eight and Willow streets, where we will find a monument of old-time church-love and a volume of ancient local history in the landmark of the Salem Lutheran church edifice that shall now occupy our attention.
This church, as well as the Old Reformed-the only two congregations of Lebanon that have an age corre- sponding to or antedating that of the town itself-las its second local habitation. Before Mr. Steitz had laid out this town, and an aggregation of dwellers here had made the beginnings of a village, what few Lutheran residents were found in this immediate territory wor- shiped with their brethren of the surrounding country, either at the Hill church, about 212 miles to the north- west, or else at Krupp's (or Grubben) church, about 2 1/2 miles to the southeast, but mostly with the latter. Here really Salem Lutheran church was born, probably
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as early as 1735, and led through its infantile life. Rev. J. Casper Stoever was both founder and pastor of
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SALEM LUTHERAN CHURCH, LEBANON, PA.
the Lutheran side, and Rev. Conrad Templeman of the Reformed-for it was a union church. While there are
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still to be found traces of the foundations of this church edifice and a graveyard to mark the spot, unfortunately there are no records at hand to tell us aught of its his- tory. The Hebron Diary makes mention of a Moravian Synod having been held in the Lutheran church, while their church (completed in 1750) was being built; and as there was no town church this allusion must evidently refer to this church, or else to some temporary house of worship in the village of Hebron or tlie cluster of houses that then served as a nucleus for the future Lebanon. Mr. Steitz himself having been a Lutheran may have inade early provision for church services in the town he founded. Be that as it may, with the growth of Steitz's-town developed also the necessity and desire for a Lutheran church. And thus we early find the Grubben church weakened by the loss of the membership of the town church, into which it gradually merged-Rev. Stoever being the pastor of both. Rem- nant official records of this pastor and a few relics, such as chalice and flagon for communion service, bearing dates "1757" and "1760," are the only relics extant of these early Lutheran church beginnings here. Among these entries are the marriages of Francis Reynolds to Catharine Steitz, Feb. 25, 1731 ; George Reynolds to Eleanor Steitz, Dec. 12, 1738; and John Peter Kucher to Anna Barbara Koppenheffer, Oct. 6, 1735.
The first documentary evidence, however, of a sepa- rate Lutheran organization in the town limits that is in hand, is the deed conveying the present corner lot on
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Eighth and Willow streets to Jacob Bickel, Daniel Stroh, Philip Fernsler and Michael Reiter, trustees, for the use of the Lutheran congregation, and this is dated March 13, 1765. For this piece of ground "the yearly rent of one red rose in June, in every year forever here- after, if the same shall be lawfully demanded," was to be paid. The same year a school-house was erected on this lot, which was used for worship until the first church was built, three years later. At this time a most earnest, even solemn circular of appeal for finan- cial help was sent out to other Christians, carefully certified as to its genuineness and authority, by Pastor Stoever and several civil officers, empowering the Brethren Frederick Yensel and Christian Fremdling to receive sucli contributions. In this document allusion is made to the fact that hitherto "divine and religious services " had been held with great inconvenience in private houses. From the help thus received, the con- gregation was enabled the following year, 1769, to erect its first house of worship in Lebanon. It stood on the southwest corner of the present graveyard, facing Wil- low street. It was a log structure which served well its purpose for thirty years, until the present massive church edifice displaced its use in 1798. Among the relics of this first building are still found the timbers in what is now "Oswego House " on Cumberland street ; an iron rooster which graced the old steeple, now in the possession of Mr. Geo. H. Reinoehl, and several pewter communion services are kept at the parsonage. The
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writer had the pleasure of seeing these recently, to- gether with an altar-cloth of fine linen, bearing an early date (1773), and found the tankards beautifully en- graved thus :
HENRICH ANDONIUS DOEWLER
1769
The bread or hostien-plate bears the monogram "I. CH." which, we presume, stands for "Iesus Christus." The bell, also used on this building, still swings in the present steeple.
While the earliest records of even this church are lost, there is at hand a Churchi Book of records begun by the pastor, Rev. F. A. Con. Muhlenberg, in 1773. From this date entries of official acts are faithfully made and historical data are well preserved. This pro- tocol preserves the facts of importance concerning the building of the present edifice. According to it, the corner-stone was laid June 8th, . 1796, when Rev. Emmanuel Shultze, of Tulpehocken, preached in the forenoon, Rev. Hendel, of the Reformed church, Tul-
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pehocken, in the afternoon, and the Rev. Schlegel (probably Moravian) in the evening. The names of the church officers then were as follows :
Pastor-Rev. George Lochman, A. M.
Trustees-Michael Rieder, Philip Fernsler, Jacob Stieb, and Samuel Meily.
Elders-Conrad Reinoehl and John Schnee.
Deacons-Peter Shindel, Frederick Embich, and George Schott.
Most of these names are still represented in the pres- ent membership of the church. We have in hand an illustrated "Life of Washington " in German (a trans- lation), printed here in 1810-but a decade after the President's death-which bears the imprint of John Schnee as publisher. Quite an enterprising literary venture for a little town of Pennsylvania Germans! But then Lebanon had patriotic giants in those days, some surviving soldiers, who had fought with Washing- ton the battles of the Revolution.
The second edifice of this church, now lacking but a few years of completing its first century of service, is substantially the same, externally, as when first built.
There have been added about fifty years ago (1848), two vestibule corners to complete, with the originally appended massive stone steeple, the quadrangular shape of the structure, while its interior has been wholly re- modelled. It experienced anotlier general renovation in 1866. Originally it had the very common style of church arrangement in olden times, namely, a high ceiling with steep, bulky galleries, the organ at one end
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and a high goblet-shaped pulpit with sounding board at the other. In the midst stood the altar with banistered enclosure. An exact model of this original church, the workmanship of Mr. H. W. Embich, janitor, on North Eighth street, can now be seen in the latter's home. We had the pleasure of seeing here some other old relics of this original building, and learning some data of im- portance in the special services held in the past century in this ancient temple of divine worship. The same church servant has also kindly given us a look into the towering belfry of this massive edifice, from which one or the other of two silvery-toned voices has for a cen- tury been calling its worshippers to service, or else an- nouncing the death of its members, or else proclaiming to the city the outbreak of some accidental conflagra- tion, or the birth of some national holiday.
These bells have a history. The oldest and smallest one, weighing about 1,000 pounds, was used in the first building, and was cast in London, England, and shipped simultaneously with a similar one for Trinity church, Lancaster, Pa. It bears an inscription as fol- lows : "For the Lutheran Congregation in Lebanon- town, Lancaster Co., in the Province of Pennsylvania. Pack & Chapman, of London, Fecit, 1770." The larger bell was cast by Jones & Hitchcock, Troy, N. Y., in 1854, and weighs over a ton. In a storage place in this lofty belfry we were shown also a few antique locks, made for and long used at the doors of the church. They are immense copper and iron constructions, about
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8xIo inches in dimensions, and were made, according to the inscription on exposed plates, by "John Rohrer, Locksmith, Lebanon, 1798," and "Jacob Smith, Lock- smith, Lebanon, 1798," respectively. Besides the latch they are provided with five bolts or rails, enough to lock out such foes as lieresy, schism, the world, the flesh and the devil. We here found also a curious look- ing basket, not mnuch unlike the one of bulruslies in which the infant Moses was rescued, but having found quite a different use. We were told that when in 1847 or '48 the steeple was painted, this contrivance was used in connection with tackle and pulley to prevent the necessity of building a scaffolding, and that in this in- vention Messrs. Nagle and (John) Dreher completed their contract of painting unharmed.
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