History of Berks county in Pennsylvania, Part 64

Author: Montgomery, Morton L. (Morton Luther), b. 1846
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts, Peck & Richards
Number of Pages: 1418

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1 Schlatter, Boehm and Weis.

2 I think these two churches were the " Host " and the " Hain ;" the preaching upon this occasion having been in the " Host."

$ Schlatter's Journal; and see Rupp's " History of Berks County," pp. 443 and 444.

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.

360

HISTORY OF BERKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

In 1748 Rev. Bartholomew took charge of This may seem strange when we consider their the congregation at Tulpehocken.

Historical sketches of the several Reformed Churches throughout the county appear in the districts in which they are situated.

In 1840 it was estimated that there were in the county about thirty-five Reformed Churches ; and the ministers then were L. C. Herman, A. L. Herman, J. Sassaman Herman, Philip Moyer, David Hassinger, David Bossler, Chas. Schultz, Thomas H. Leinbach, Charles G. Herman, William Pauli, Augustus Pauli, John Conrad Bucher, Isaac Miesse, William Hendel.

In 1874, the congregations and total member- ship of the Reformed denomination in the county were as follows : 1

First Reformed at Reading, Rev. Henry Mosser. Second Reformed at Reading, Rev. C. F. McCauley. St. Paul's at Reiding, Rev. Benjamin Bausman. St. John's at Reading, Rev. John W. Steinmetz. Schwartzwald charge, eight congregations. Bernville charge, five congregations.

Tulpehocken charge, five congregations. Sinking Spring charge, four congregations. Allegheny charge, three congregations. Shartlesville charge, three congregations.

Kutztown charge, four congregations. Zion charge, six congregations.

Lenhartsville charge, four congregations.

Friedensburg charge, four congregations.

Hamburg and Leesport charge, three congregations. Bernville charge, one congregation.

Congregations, 54; membership, 10,330; communi- cants, 9034.

FRIENDS .- The Friends were the third sect of people who settled in the county, the Swedes and Germans having anteceded them. The Swedes were the first to erect a meeting-house at Molatton 2 about 1720 ; but the Friends were the next, having erected a meeting-house in 1726 near the Monocacy, along the western line of the Swedes' settlement, then called Amity township. Within the next score of years they erected two more meeting-houses, one in Maiden- creek township and the other in Robeson town- ship. They built a fourth at Reading, supposed in 1751, three years after the town had been laid out and just as the building improvements began to be active. They had four meeting- houses before 1752, when the county was erected. But they did not get beyond this number.

intelligence, earnestness and enterprise ; but it is not so strange when we consider the wonderful influx of Germans, who spoke, lived, thought and acted differently from them.

The encouragement of the Germans to emi- grate and settle in Pennsylvania was certainly a wise policy on the part of Penn and his sons, on account of their industrious and economic habits, and their skill and energy as farmers and mechanics. It has shown itself to have been also vastly beneficial. But the enconragement of this nationality acted against the interests and developments and influence of their own class. It would seem that they were most active about the time when the county was erected and for a score of years afterward. They then exerted the most political influence through the proprie- tary government, which was in the hands of Friends. And their religious influence was large and wide in their several communities. But they remained where they first settled. They did not extend beyond Oley and Exeter, along the Manatawny and Monocacy Creeks, Maiden-creek and Richmond along the Onte- launee, and Robeson along the Hay and Allegheny Creeks. And yet their families were numerous and their population was considerable. In this time it was estimated that they num- bered about two thousand.3 Their principles were superior and their habits admirable. Simple, unostentatious, earnest and clever, witlı good education and large means, they possessed a foundation adapted for development and per- manency. But what were these compared with a class which then numbered at least twenty thousand, which had a fair education and con- siderable means and which was possessed of similar habits and virtues. The conditions were not equal in respect to strength, though they were in respect to quality. It was there- fore natural for the former not to maintain their hold upon the community which they had when the county was erected and continued to have till the Revolution. Hence their churches did not increase in number, their people did not ex- tend into adjoining townships.

1 B. and S. Journal, January 31, 1874.

2 Now at Douglassville.

8 Rupp's " History of Berks County," p. 422.

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RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.

Some of the most eminent ministers who preached to the Friends in the county before 1800 were the following : Samuel Hugh, Ellis Hugh, Job Hugh, Enos Ellis, Abel Thomas, Moses Embree, James Iddings, Amos Lee, Peter Thomas and Judah Thomas.

BAPTISTS.1-The major part of the early Bap- tists who settled in Pennsylvania were Welsh- men. The principles which William Penn pro- claimed as the basis of his intended colony were such as to attract all pious people who were persecuted on account of their religion. This was the case in Wales, where dissenters of all shades of opinion were to be found, but they were chiefly Baptists and Friends. Among the first settlers in the counties of Philadelphia, Bucks and Chester were large colonies of Welsh- men, who purchased immense tracts of land, and when townships were formed they gave to many the names of the places from which they had emigrated. Among these may be named Radnor, Haverford, Merion, Gwynedd, Uwch- lan, Tredyffrin, Caernarvon, Cumru and Breck- nock, these last three being now included in Berks County, although they were formerly in Lancaster County.

The first Baptist Church in the colony was formed in the year 1688 at Pennypack, now called Lower Dublin, and it still has a vigorous existence. This was followed by the Great Val- ley, in Tredyffrin township, Centre County, in 1711, Brandywine in 1715 and Montgomery in 1717. The services were frequently and for many years conducted in the Welsh language. This was also the case among the Welsh Friends, and also members of the Church of England who had settled in Radnor and found- ed St. David's Church. Bishop William S. Perry, in his work entitled " Papers Relating to the History of the Church of Pennsylvania," 2 says the Rev. Evan Evans wrote to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel that the Welsh at Radnor and Merioneth had addressed a letter to the Bishop of London for a minister

who understands the British language, and that a hundred persons had signed the letter.

Until the year 1738 no other regular Baptist Church was organized west of the Great Valley Church in Pennsylvania, but in that year the following persons removed from the Valley and the Montgomery Church and settled near the banks of the Tulpehocken Creek, in what is now Berks County, and founded the Tulpehocken Baptist Church, viz .: Thomas and. Martha Jones, David Evans and wife, James James and wife, Evan Lloyd and wife, George Rees and wife, John Davis and wife, Thomas Nicholas and wife, James Edwards and wife, Rees Thomas and wife, Henry Harry, David Lewis and Thomas Lloyd. This organization took place August 19, 1738, and in 1740 Thomas Jones was ordained the pastor. The church had two meeting-houses. The first was built in 1740 on a lot of three acres, the gift of Hugh Morris, Evan Lloyd and Evan Price, in the township of Cumru.3 The house was only twenty-six feet by sixteen. Another house" of the same size, about three miles west from the first, was built the same year on a lot of one acre, the gift of Thomas Bartholomew and Hannaniah Pugh. Both were near Reading, and of course the preaching was in Welsh, and so it was not likely that the Germans who began to settle Berks would attend worship at the Baptist Churches. The records of the Philadelphia Baptist Associ- ation, called The Century Minutes, show that the church with Mr. Jones as pastor reported annually until 1774, when its name disappears. About that time Mr. Jones removed to Chester County, either to Tredyffrin or Willistown township, where his son Griffith lived, and the few Welsh Baptists of the Tulpehocken Church were as sheep without a shepherd, and, if they desired Baptist preaching, were compelled to go to the Great Valley Church, where Mr. Jones was called to officiate when the regular pastor

1 The author is indebted to Horatio Gates Jones, Esq., of Philadelphia, for this article on the Baptists, prepared for this history.

2 See Stevens Papers, 35-36.

$ This was on Wyomissing, about three miles from its outlet. A burying-ground was appurtenant to it.

+ This was at a point on the "Old Tulpehocken Road." very near the "Sinking Spring." The building is still standing. It is built of brick, octagonal in shape. A grave-yard lies at the rear of the building with a number of graves marked by head-stones, now illegible.

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HISTORY OF BERKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

was absent. The Lutheran and Church of Eng- land ministers had become by that time very active in Berks County. In 1763 Rev. Alex- ander Murray, the Episcopal minister at Read- ing, says that his people then numbered about forty-eight souls, of whom twelve were under seven years of age, and there were twenty un- baptized " Anabaptists " in town, who now and then made up a part of his congregation, and he had baptized four of them the previous Easter. In 1764 he says he had eighteen families, and of the new members some were Presbyterians, Baptists and Quakers, and of the latter two de- nominations he had christened thirteen on the last Christmas Day. In June, 1765, he writes that since Jauuary 24, 1764, he had baptized thirty-nine children and three adults, besides an attorney-at-law here with his children, who were bred among the Baptists and Quakers. He then adds that the Baptists were in 1764 supplied by their former preacher, who thought it advisable to return to them, when he saw them generally disposed to conform to the church, whose service he punctually observed at the times they invited him. As their preacher was an old man, it was probable, upon his death or removal, that all the younger people would readily unite with his church. No doubt Mr. Murray refers to Rev. Thomas Jones, but he was not then over sixty-four years of age.

Of Rev. Thomas Jones I have been able to gather some facts which may prove of interest to those who are fond of reading about the early settlers. He was born at Tre' newydd y Notais (in English, Newton Notage), in the vale of Glamorganshire, Wales, about the year 1701, and married Martha Morris and began to preach when quite young. In 1737 he emi- grated with his family to Pennsylvania and in the following year settled on or near the Tulpe- hocken Creek.

A letter from him, in Welsh, is dated Heidelberg, October 6, 1742. It is now in my collection and in it he says :

" Myself, wife and children are all well and com- fortable. By the mercy of God we make a good living, if we could exclude home-sickness. We have five sons and two daughters. I hope my dear mother is still alive. I finally consented to be ordained agaiu

in order to show my willingness to comply with the opinion of others. I am very thankful for the book you sent me, although the Welsh is not of much use here. Concerning the Cydgordiad (the Concordance of the Scriptures by Rev. Abel Morgan), I intend to send some over as soon as I can. . . . I am under great obligation to you for your kindness, but I have nothing to send you unless I send wheat or black walnut boards. I have probably two hundred bushels of the first, and about two thousand feet of boards. The wheat is selling for three shillings a busbel, and is likely to be lower still."

After removing to Chester County he did not become pastor of any church, but during the Revolution, lived in the parsonage of the Great Valley and while there, the British army, after the battle of Brandywine, stole the communion service. Mr. Jones died Marclı 22, 1788, in his eighty-seventh year, and was buried in the grave-yard of the Great Valley Church. His widow died June 9, 1799, at the age of ninety-three years. Mr. Jones by all accounts was a very pious and eminent Christian and hore through life a most amiable aud ex- emplary character, dying, as he had lived, with a hope full of immortality. He left a number of children ; among them, a son Samuel, who, in 1762 was graduated at the College of Phila- delphia, and became pastor of the Baptist Church of Lower Dublin. He was a sound divine, a good preacher and a learned man. He was, with Rev. Morgan Edwards, one of the organizers of Rhode Island College, now called Brown University. In 1786 the honor- ary degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by Brown University, and in 1788 the University of Pennsylvania conferred the same honor.

Another son of Rev. Thomas Jones, bearing his name, remained in Berks County and left a number of descendants, now representing some of the most prominent families in the county.

The grave-yards attached to the meeting- houses of this Tulpehocken Baptist Church are still in existence, and some of the tomb-stones have Welsh inscriptions on them. The rest of the land was sold by authority of an act of Assem- bly passed March 28, 1799, and amended on January 30, 1801. The preamble states, that by deaths and removals, the membership of the church had been reduced to a single person,

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RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. .

viz., Thomas Jones, a son of the first pastor. The minutes of the trustees of the Philadelphia Association for October 8, 1801, show that the lots were sold, and that the money received, clear of all expenses, amounted to two hundred dollars, which was paid to the treasurer of the Association.

From this time onward, till now, no church organization of this denomination has been in existence in the county, outside of Reading. A congregation was formed in Reading in 1828. Its history appears in the chapter relating to the churches of Reading.

DUNKARDS.1 - A religious denomination known as the " Dunkards" existed at an early day in the county. This class was also called "The Brethren," and sometimes "German Baptists. " Certain persons of this denomination emigrated from Germany in 1719. They were numerous in Oley from 1730 to 1745. In 1724, October 24, they held a large general convention in this district ; and upon that occasion they took sac- rament. Thence they proceeded to " their re- cently baptized brethren at the Schuylkill," took sacrament and baptized two persons.

Another convention was held in Oley in 1742, which was attended by " four priests of the con- gregation at Ephrata." A meeting-bouse of this denomination was erected in Ruscomb-man- or (at Pricetown), and another in Bethel (north of Millersburg), before 1752.

The first persons of this denomination in the county were settled in Oley township. Amongst them were Ritters, Shilberts, Blaushes and Planks; Elder Martin Gauby, Elder John Yoder, Elder Conrad Price, David Price, David Kinsey, Jacob Becker, Christian Kinsey, Dan- iel Klein, and their wives, Peter Klein, Eliza Ellis, Margaret Harpine and Catharine Plank. The elders named were the first local preachers About the year 1730 they effected an organi- ization through the assistance of Elder Peter Becker, of Germantown, and shortly afterward erected a church. For about ten years it was in a flourishing condition ; then many of the

members left for other settlements, and the congregation was almost abandoned.

Another congregation was formed in the northwestern section of the county, and com- prised settlers in Bethel and Tulpehocken townships. They erected a church in the for- mer township, along a branch of the Little Swatara Creek, about the year 1745. The families of George Boeshore, Michael Frantz, John Frantz and Peter Heckman were some of the active members who cansed the meeting- house to be erected. And with theni were also the following named persons : Jacob Heckman, Nicholas Gerst, Jacob Moyer, David Merkey, Simon Menich, Christian Frantz, Jacob Smith, Philip Ziegler, Jacob Breneiser, David Klein, Leonard Seabalt, Jacob Deal, Hans Stoeler, Ja- cob Boeshore, and their wives; Adam Heinrichı, John Grove, Rose Schnable, Eliza Kenzel, Widow Cyders, Widow Benedict, Elizabeth Benedict, and Sophia Kish. These persons were baptized by Elder George Klein, of New Jer- sey. They associated together and increased their number till 1857, when they were formally organized into a congregation by the elder men- tioned, and had the Lord's Supper administered to them. Then Peter Heckman was ordained as an elder, having prievously been an exhorter.

There was also a third congregation in Bern and Upper Tulpehocken townships, along the Northkill, several miles above the confluence of this stream with the Tulpehocken. A churchı was erected in 1748 ; and in that year the Lord's Supper was administered by Elder Michael Pfautz, of Lancaster County. In 1750 Elder George Klein came from New Jersey and set- tled amongst the members. Through his energy the congregation flourished for twenty years. Then settlements in the western part of the State influenced most of the members to withdraw from the church and move away. This left the congregation without sufficient support, and it naturally ceased to exist. In 1770 it had only eleven resideut members, prominent among them being Elder Klein,3 John Stohner, Val- entine Long and their wives.

1 The author is indebted to Rev. Abrm. H. Cassell, of Harleysville, Pa., for information relating to this denomi- nation.

2 They stopped here on their way to "Conestoga." I cannot locate the place on the Schuylkill, in Berks County.

$ Elder George Klein was born at Zwey Brücken, Germany, on October 9, 1715. He emigrated to America in 1738, and settled near Amwell, in Hunterdon County,

364

HISTORY OF BERKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

MORAVIANS .- The Moravians were among the early settlers of the county. This peculiar sect was represented here by Count Zinzendorf, who came to Pennsylvania in 1741. In February, 1742, he conducted a synod in Oley, and in August following he visited the inhabit- ants of Tulpehocken. Shortly after this visit a congregation of Moravians was organized in Bethel township.1 Between 1742 and 1750 two churches of this denomination were erected in Heidelberg and one in Oley.

In 1741, Count Zinzendorf came to Pennsyl- vania for the purpose of seeing the success of the Brethren of the Moravians in effecting es- tablishments here, and of observing the fruits of their labor among the heathen.2

In February, 1742, he visited Oley, where he held a synod. The following account is given of this meeting :

" The 11th of February was the day appointed for thissolemn act; 3 and it was a day never to be forgotten in the annals of missions. The awful presence of Him who has promised to meet with His own, was power- fully felt; the greatest solemnity prevailed. The Spirit of God was sensibly felt during the morning exercises -these consisting of prayer and praise. Here, as in days of yore-when the sons of God met-Satan was also present, especially in his devoted servants, for, whilst the humble believers were engaged in prepar- atory exercises to baptize the contrite Indians, some ill-disposed people came from the neighborhood and raised such a disturbance that the whole company was upon the point of dispersing and postponing this trans- action for the present. Peace was restored and there was held a solemn meeting in the afternoon, in which Rauch and Buettner were ordained deacons by the two Bishops, David Nitchman and Count Zinzendorf. After this act, preparations were made in a barn be- longing to De Tirck. There was then no church in

New Jersey, where he became acquainted with the Breth- ren and was baptized in their faith in 1739. He was soon afterward chosen an assistant in the ministry , having been ordained by Elders Pfantz and Martin Urner, He went to Northkill, Berks County, in 1750, and was resident elder there for twenty years, when the congregation be- came too weak to support him and he left. He continned to preach for some years afterward, and died at an ad- vanced age. He was regarded as an influential minister in this denomination. He was married to Dorothea Reh- man.and had seven children. Several of his grandsons are now worthy elders of the Brethren.

1 Their church Bethel was erected ahont 1740.

2 Indians.

3 The haptism of the Indians who had received the Gospel.

Oley ; * and in this barn the Indians (Shabash, Seim and Kiop) were baptized by Rauch, a missionary. The whole assembly having met, these three cate- chumens were placed in the midst, and with fervent prayer and supplication devoted to Lord Jesus Christ as His eternal property. Rauch tben, with great emo- tion, baptized these three firstlings of the North Amer- ican Indians into the death of Jesus, and called them Abraham for Shabash, Isaac for Seim and Jacob for Kiop. The powerful sensation of the grace of God, which prevailed during this sacred transaction, filled all present with awe and joy, and the effect produced in the baptized Indians astonished every one. Their hearts were filled with such rapture that they could not keep silence, but made known to all the white people who came into their hut, what great favor had been bestowed upon them. They preached a whole night to a party of Delaware Indians, who were in the neighborhood, and by the providence of God were just at that time led to return back to Oley. When one ceased the other began, and their animated testi- mony of Jesus filled their hearers with admiration. Soon after this they set out with Rauch and arrived at Bethlehem, where they spent some days with their brethren for mutual edification, and then proceeded on their journey in the company of their beloved teacher, full of spiritual life. When they arrived home, they testified to all their relations and friends of the grace bestowed upon them ; and their words made an abiding impression upon the minds of the heathen." 5

In September, 1742, Zinzendorf visited Shamokin 6 with the company of Conrad Weiser, who, it is said, co-operated with the Moravians for several years. Whilst there an interesting event occurred, which nearly resulted in Zin- zendorf's death.

" Zinzendorf and his little company pitched their tent a short distance below Shamokin, on the banks of the Susquehanna. This caused no small degree of alarm among the Indians. They assembled a council of their chiefs and considered his declared purpose. To these unlettered children of the wilderness it ap- peared altogether improbable that a stranger should brave the dangers of a boisterous sea for the sole pur- pose of instructing them in the means of obtaining happiness after death, and that, too, without requiring any compensation for his trouble and expense. And as they had observed the anxiety of the white people to purchase lands of the Indians, they naturally con- cluded that his real object was either to procure the

4 I think the Oley Church was then in existence.

5 2 Loskiel's " Hist. Miss.," 21; also Rupp's "History of Berks and Lebanon Counties," pp. 236, 237, 238.

6 Now Sunbury, having proceeded thither from Tulpe- hocken.

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RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.

lands of Wyoming for his own use or to search for hidden treasures, or to examine the country with a view to future conquest. They therefore resolved to assas- sinate him privately, lest a knowledge of the affair should produce war with the English, who were set- tling the country below the mountain.

" Zinzendorf was alone in his tent, seated upon a bundle of dry weeds, when the assassins approached to execute their bloody mission. This was in the night-time, and the cool air of September had made a small fire necessary for his comfort and convenience. A blanket hung upon pins was stretched across the entrance to his tent. The heat of his small fire had invited a rattlesnake which lay in the weeds not far away. In crawling slowly into the tent, it passed over one of his legs unobserved. Outside all was quiet, save the gentle murmer of the rapids in the river a mile helow. Just then these Indians approached the tent and drew the curtain slightly aside. There they observed Zinzendorf deeply engaged in reflec- tion, so much indeed as not to notice either their ap- proach or the snake, which lay extended before him. The sight turned their hearts and they shrank from committing the deed which they had set out to per- forni. They turned away from the tent, hastened to their settlement and informed their tribe that the Great Spirit protected the white man, for they had found him in a tent with only a blanket for a door and they had seen a large rattlesnake crawl over his legs without even attempting to injure him. This circumstance changed their suspicion and revenge into confidence and friendship. He remained twenty days, and then returned to Bethlehem." 1

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History of Berks county in Pennsylvania, Part 64

Author: Montgomery, Morton L. (Morton Luther), b. 1846 Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts, Peck & Richards Number of Pages: 1418

Author: Montgomery, Morton L. (Morton Luther), b. 1846
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts, Peck & Richards
Number of Pages: 1418