USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > History of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 35
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Harrold church was founded by the German Reformed people at least as. early as August, 1772, for on that date the schoolmaster, Balthazer Meyer, officiated and baptised a child named Peter Walter. He was the schoolmaster who held the services in place of a preacher whom the members at that time felt themselves too poor to support. This he continued for a period of ten years, until the organization had increased enough to call a minister. At that time, 1782, Rev. John William Weber was sent here perhaps on trial, but most likely as a missionary. At all events he remained with them for thirty-eight years. He had four charges, viz .: Harrold's and Brush Creek, in Hempfield township, and Kintig's in Mt. Pleasant township, and Ridge church, south of Pleasant Unity, in Unity township. He had also a small charge in Pittsburgh to. whom he preached occasionally, and he traveled a great deal over Ligonier Val- ley and over all other parts of the county where he thought he might start new organizations. Many places where he went for perhaps but one member, have- now large congregations. Two other ministers who followed him to this county were Rev. Henry Harbison and William Winel. These ministers and their people were under the Old Synod of the United States. The first Classis was composed of all ministers west of Bedford county, and was called the Western Pennsylvania Classis. In 1836 it was joined to the Ohio Synod, and in 1842
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it was changed into the Westmoreland Classis. It remained with the Ohio Synod till 1870, when, on the formation of the Pittsburgh Synod, it became a part of it.
Rev. John William Weber, the first pastor of this church in our county, was born in Germany, March 4, 1735. He was early in life a school teacher, and came to America about 1764. Shortly after his arrival here he was li- censed to preach, and preached first in Monroe county. A German traveler be- fore quoted, named Schoepf, who passed through that section of Pennsylvania in 1782, speaks of passing several fine farms owned and managed by Germans, and of finally coming to a rude log church which had been built by the Ger- man Reformed and Lutheran people under the ministry of Rev. Weber. In a document written by Weber himself, he says he came to this country in 1782. and that his salary was 116 pounds, 100 bushels of wheat, free house rent, and free firewood all the year. The traveler Schoepf met him in Pittsburgh again the same year. He says there was no church there then, but that there was a German preacher who ministers to believing persons of different confessions. These were doubtless organized by Rev. Weber into a congregation. He preached and rode a great deal, and always catechised the young on his visits among his members. He was an able man, and well suited to lay the founda- tion of a church in a new country. In personal appearance he was a fine look- ing portly man, of great physical strength, and thus enabled to endure the great labor and hardships incident to the missionary work of a new country. All his life he was noted for boldly denouncing the wrongs of the community ; for preaching strong, forcible sermons which could not be misunderstood. He preached occasionally in Pittsburgh as late as 1812, and died in 1816, aged eighty-two years. A more extended review of his life is given in Harbaugh's "Fathers of the Reformed Church."
One of the greatest men the Reformed Church ever had in Westmoreland county was Rev. Nicholas P. Hacke, D. D., who began to preach here when the county was a wilderness, and continued in the work till his death, August 26, 1878. He was born in Baltimore, and sent to Germany for his early edu- cation. He studied theology in his native city under a Reformed minister and came to Greensburg in 1819. At that time he took charge of the German Re- formed Church of Greensburg, Harrold's and Brush Creek. His first sermons here were preached in the court house, for they were then building a new church on South Main street, and until it was finished they used the Temple of Justice as a house of worship. He also during his long ministry had at various times, charge of Ridge, Ligonier, Youngstown, Hills, Seanors and Manor congregations, but only for a year or so at each place, when they were without regular pastors.
He was closely associated with the prominent men of the county who were outside of the church or in other churches. There were few young men in professional life who did not seek his acquaintance. He was intellectually far above even the average ministers of his church. His wit, his learning and his
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excellent judgment of human nature drew around him men like Judge Burrell, Dr. King and Senator Cowan, who were all unusually bright men, but not members of his church. Their friendships were therefore purely intellectual. The preacher was more than an average preacher. He was a Christian phii- osopher who in any age of the world would have occupied a prominent place among his fellowmen. But he, like Henry Ward Beecher, though great in many lines of human thought, was greatest in the pulpit. For fifty-eight years he sustained himself here in Greensburg, and did so mainly by sheer force of his intellectual power. He was an omniverous reader, and was always well informed on the scientific and political questions of the day. After a popular wave in morals, politics, or religion passed over the country, his friends not infrequently waited to hear Dr. Hacke's opinion of it before taking sides. It was always an opinion based on a good understanding of the subject, and on sound judgment.
He had great difficulty with his people in effecting a change from the Ger- man to the English language. The old members wanted to adhere to the Ger- man tongue, because they knew but little about the English language, while the young people knew and spoke the English language well but knew very little of the German. He knew that the change must come in all English speaking communities like ours. For himself, he spoke or wrote equally well in either language, but saw the advantage of the young people being taught thoroughly in the predominant language of the country. His diplomacy was shown in the fact that he managed the transition without disrupting the church ; his liberality is shown in his leaning towards the English language, because its adoption would greatly benefit the rising generation, though he himself was of pure Saxon blood, with no trace of the English in his make up. When he died he was sadly missed by all who knew him, without respect to their re- ligious beliefs. On the day of his funeral all stores and business houses in Greensburg were closed out of respect to his memory. He was buried in the old German burying ground in Greensburg.
The Greensburg Seminary was established by the Reformed Church. The resolution authorizing its founding was passed by the trustees of the Literary Institutions of the Pittsburgh Synod, March 3, 1874. Rev. Lucian Court was placed at its head. Under supervision the grounds were purchased and the necessary buildings were soon under process of construction. The location is a beautiful one overlooking the town of Greensburg and the surrounding country. The building is of brick, and is arranged for boarding and rooming pupils. for recitations, and public educational meetings. It was formally opened April 7, 1875, less than a year after the ground was purchased. At first it was exclusively an institution for the education of young women, but in 1878 a system of co-education was introduced and this has proved a great advantage to both the institution and the community. The Seminary was largely patronized by both the Reformed and the Lutheran churches and by all other denominations in the community. Its greatest patronage probably
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came from the Lutheran church, which was particularly strong in this vicinity.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church, commonly called the Lutheran Church, is a very strong organization in Westmoreland county. They are Protestants who hold the doctrines of theology as taught by Martin Luther and as con- tained in the Augsburg Confession. This was written by Philip Melanchton, and was read in the presence of Charles V, Emperor of Germany, at the Diet of Augsburg, on June 25, 1530. The Confession has since obtained a per- manent place in the literature of the Christian world, having been translated into every modern language. It is now the guiding star in religion of millions of people in the United States.
The first Lutherans in Westmoreland county were nearly all Germans, or people of German extraction. Their early records were written in the German language almost exclusively. Fifty or seventy-five years later these records fell into the hands of English speaking people who were not able to translate them, and who therefore unfortunately did not preserve them. The early work of the church is accordingly largely a matter of tradition. That there were many Lutherans here before the county was formed in 1773, is undoubted, for their presence is well proved by our early records. The Detars, the Rughs, the Gongawares, the Millers, the Harrolds, the Altmans, the Longs, all were originally Lutherans and had taken up land in Hempfield township between 1760 and 1770. There were also Lutherans in other sections of the county in that period, so that it can safely be said that the Lutheran church in West- moreland began with its early settlement shortly after the construction of the Forbes road. Like all other early churches, they met at first in private houses, and, when they were without ministers, such services were performed by the school teacher. The schoolmaster had perhaps no special claim in the per- formances of these offices except that he could read, and many of the early settlers could not. At these from house-to-house meetings they read the Bible, had prayers and singing, and sometimes the teacher read a sermon or per- haps oftener made some remarks which took the place and partook of the na- ture of a sermon. The ceremony of baptism was performed by laymen as well as by schoolmasters. This was the case for several years at Harrold's Church, the Lutheran branch of whose worshipers were called "Zion's Church." The records made by Balthazer Meyer indicates that he baptized children of Luth- eran as well as of the Reformed Church, from 1772 to 1782, and that the Lutheran Church was also without a pastor for all these years. The same was done at Brush Creek, a congregation organized a few. years after the Harrold congregation.
The first Lutheran preacher who settled in Westmoreland county was Rev. A. U. Litie. He had been born and educated in Germany, and came to Har- rold Church in 1782. He preached there about ten years and accomplished a great deal for the church organization. The first church at Harrold's was built of logs, and had a puncheon floor. It had no pews, but rough benches without backs, and all its arrangements were made in the same primitive style.
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It was Rev. Lütje who secured the land for the church organizations at Har- rold's, that is, for the German Reformed and the Lutheran churches. This tract of land contained about seventy acres, and was held in common by the two congregations. Rev. Lütje also preached to the congregation of Brush Creek and many other places in the county, though these (Harrold's and Brush Creek) were undoubtedly the fields of his greatest labors.
In 1791 Rev. Jolin M. Steck came from the eastern part of Pennsylvania and settled in Greensburg. He was born in Germany, and when he succeeded Rev. Lütje was thirty-five years old. Here he continued in the ministry till his death, July 14, 1830, a period of thirty-eight years. He was an energetic worker, and accomplished much for his church. At his death he left a son, Rev. Michael J. Steck, who succeeded him as pastor of the Greensburg con- gregation.
Rev. John M. Steck is probably entitled to first rank among the Lutheran ministers of our county. He did not come here, it is true, until ten years after Rev. Lütje had begun his work here, but he came, nevertheless, when the or- ganization of Lutheran congregations all over the county were in progress and forming. He moreover, by his energy, organized most of the older churches now existing in the county. He organized the first German congregation in Greensburg, and preached to them for many years in the German language. In 1809 he organized the Manor church, and a few years later organized St. James and Hankey's congregations in the northern part of the county. Still later came St. John's, Swope's, Ridge, Youngstown, and other congregations near Greensburg. For many long and weary years he served all these people, and rode on horseback from one preaching place to another. He was assisted somewhat in his later years by young men and by his son, Rev. Michael J. Steck, but the bulk of this work for at least thirty years fell on him. Rev. Jonas Mechling assisted him somewhat, and in 1820 was added to the pas- toral force of the large fields. Rev. Mechling had charge of St. James' and Hankey's churches, in the northern part of the county, and of the West New- ton and Barren Run churches, and also of the Donegal Church and the Dutch meeting house in Ligonier Valley. All the rest of the county was ministered to almost entirely and alone by Rev. Steck as long as he lived. Many of the above charges were small ones. The main ones in the county were the First German Church at Greensburg, Harrold's, Brush Creek and Manor. Their early existence and the influence they exerted over other churches in the county dur- ing this formative period gives them special interest to the student of our early church history.
As we have said, the German Lutheran Church of Greensburg was estab- lished by Rev. Steck shortly after he arrived here. There is a record of bap- tisms performed by him in 1792, but there is no record of any communion being held for several years after, nor can the date of its general organization be fixed. It is most likely that it grew and waxed strong without special organi- zation. A log church was built by them late in the century, perhaps about 20
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1796, and the tradition is that it was built after the style of the Harrold church. It stood until 1815, when the second church was built, which was completed in 1819. For more than fifty years services were conducted in the German language. In 1848 this question of language brought about a division of the church, and Zion's Church was formed, wherein the English language was used entirely in all services.
Brush Creek Church had a log house, too, no doubt very like the others, and it lasted them till 1820, when a second structure of brick was built. The Manor congregation, founded in 1809, built at first a rude log house, and a second church in 1815. These were four of the leading Lutheran churches,
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BRUSH CREEK CHURCH.
and were ministered to by three preachers for a period of seventy-seven years. These ministers, as will be remembered from the above, were Rev. John M. Steck, the founder ; Rev. Michael J. Steck, his son ; and Rev. Jonas Mechling. The elder Steck, commonly called Father Steck, because of his age, preached here from 1791 till 1830; his son, Rev. Michael J. Steck, from 1828 till 1848, and Rev. Jonas Mechling from 1848 till the time of his death, in 1868. The Greensburg charge, under Rev. John M. Steck, had charge of all the churches in the county. He was bishop of the county of Westmoreland. During his son's pastorate, St. James', Hankey's, Seanor's and other small points were
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
connected with this charge, and during the pastorate of Rev. Jonas Mechling his charges were reduced to the four above named, viz. : Greensburg, Harrold, Brush Creek and Manor. Since his death these charges have been still further divided, so that each church now supports a pastor of its own. In 1841 Rev. Jacob Zimmerman took charge of the Lutheran congregation in the northern part of the county.
Michael J. Steck was a son of John M. Steck, and was born in Greensburg in 1793. He was one of the founders of the Pittsburgh Synod, was its first president and was elected consecutively for five years. For many years he was regarded as the ablest preacher of the Lutheran faith in the county. He was more liberally educated than his father had been. In his youth he studied theology with his father, and with Rev. Scharle, of Pittsburgh. He was li- censed to preach in June, 1816, but had already done considerable ministerial work by way of assisting his father. The same year he accepted a call in Lan- caster, Ohio, then in the backwoods of the church development. He was very successful in his work there for twelve years. When his father grew too old to attend without assistance to his duties as pastor in Westmoreland work, he returned to Greensburg to assist him. This was in 1828, and two years after- ward, when his father died, the son succeeded him in the Westmoreland work. Here the son labored with great energy and success till his death, in 1848. During the greater part of his ministry in this county he preached regularly to eleven congregations. He often preached four times in a day, and rode many miles on horseback in order to do so. He preached about eight thousand ser- mons in his thirty-two years of ministry, and baptized about five thousand children. He received into the church about two thousand people by confirma- tion. Like his father, he was a man of high character and standing in the community, and many regarded him as the ablest man in the church in western Pennsylvania. He, like Dr. Hacke, saw that the German language was on the wane, and that it was of vast importance to introduce the English language in all church services, so that the young people might grow up with a knowledge of the language they would be expected to use mostly throughout their lives. . He therefore advocated the formation of an English Lutheran congregation in Greensburg, and its establishment was largely due to him. He was a man of fine appearance, and had a splendid voice and a clear enunciation. He was an abler man than his father, and had received a more liberal education in his youth. Had his ministry been prolonged for a half a century he would un- doubtedly have attained a much higher degree of eminence in the church than that of his father. He died in Greensburg, in September, 1848, aged fifty-five years.
Jonas Mechling was born in Hempfield township, near Greensburg, August 14, 1798. He studied theology under Rev. Schnee, of Pittsburgh, and later under the elder Rev. Steck, in Greensburg. He began the regular ministry in 1820 as assistant to Rev. Steck. His work at first lay all over Westmoreland county, particularly in the northern part and in Ligonier Valley. In 1827 he was given
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charge of Ridge and Youngstown congregations, where he preached till 1848, when, on the death of Rev. M. J. Steck, he came to Greensburg. Unlike the Stecks, his whole life's work was here in Westmoreland county. The last twenty years of his life he devoted to the German congregation and to the English congregation in Greensburg and to Harrold's, Brush Creek, and Manor congregations. He was a man of simple manners, amiable disposition, and of high social culture. He preached here forty-eight years, and in that time de- livered six thousand three hundred and twenty-seven sermons, not including funeral sermons. He baptized six thousand two hundred and eighty-six . people, confirmed two thousand and thirty-nine as members of the church, and performed nine hundred and ninety marriages.
In a pamphlet written by the venerable Judge Thomas Mellon, in 1880, on the Sunday question, are found some interesting observations on the early con- dition of religion in Franklin township, where he was brought up. The period of which he writes is between 1825 and 1830. He says:
"Rev. Father Wynal, of the Lutheran persuasion, was nursing an embryo con- gregation among the Germans. He resided near Saltsburg, but came over and preached to them every fourth Sunday, holding services in the dwelling of our nearest neighbor, Peter Hill. The congregation has since developed into that now worshiping in a comfortable brick edifice known as Hill's Church. Well, at the time to which I refer, when Mr. Wynal was the pastor, old Peter Hill, as honest a man and good a neighbor as need be, was the contributor, treasurer, trustee and entire session. The Sunday on which preaching was to be at Peter's was regarded as a holiday, indeed, by the surrounding German population. They gathered from all quarters. The services lasted from nine till twelve a. m., when Peter's wife Hetty, (for he was married twice and had in all twenty-five children), with the as- sistance of her neighbor women, would have an ample dinner cooked, which was not only free but welcome to all who had come to meeting. The dinner being over, the younger men would spend the afternoon in games of corner ball and pitching quoits on the green in front of the house, whilst Mr. Wynal and Peter and the old men sat smoking their pipes on the porch, looking on at the sport with marked satisfaction. Evidently it occurred to neither pastor nor people that there was anything wrong or sinful in the performance. Times change, however, and religious observances, as well as other habits, change according to the prevailing fashion, for the same congregation would not now spend Sunday in that way.
"At the same time we, of Scotch Presbyterian proclivities, had a similar gath- ering every third Sunday at Duff's Tent. Duff's Tent was a place in the woods, with benches made of split logs, and an eight-by-ten box-shaped structure, boarded up and roofed, for a pulpit. For a pastor we had Rev. Hugh Kirkland, a fresh graduate from the Theological School at Glasgow, and zealous in the strictest ideas of the Scotch kirk. He regarded the merits of Rouse's Version of David's Psalms and the enormity of Sabbath breaking as of vital importance. He preached on few topics except 'To prove the Roman Catholic Church to be the antichrist and whore of Babylon.' or 'The desecration of the Sabbath by the Lutherans,' or 'The damnable heresies of the Methodists in defying the doctrines of innate depravity and predestination and persisting in singing choral songs instead of the Psalms of David.'
"This kind of preaching, however, did not bring forth good fruit, even in the
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Scotch Presbyterian soil in which it was sown. My father allowed the Methodists the use of a vacant house on his place to hold their meetings, and several of the flock attended a Methodist meeting on one occasion to hear the Rev. Bascom and some of the leading men. Mr. Humes joined in the singing. This the reverend gentleman regarded as an indignity to his teaching, and in his next sermon he took occasion to animadvert severely on the conduct of those who, after being washed from their sins, had, like the sow, again betaken themselves to wallowing in the mire. He was as pointed as to nearly designate the delinquents by name, and this raised a row. But the straw that broke the camel's back was the starting of a Sabbath-school. George and Michael Haymaher and some other young people of this flock undertook to open a Sabbath-school in the schoolhouse at Newlans- burg, nearby. This was too great a sacrilege for the good man to bear. He could not brook the desecration of the Sabbath-day by such worldly employment as school teaching, and, as a majority of his flock inclined to favor the Sabbath- school, he shook the dust from his feet and departed."
THE MENNONITES.
In writing the history of the Mennonites at Scottdale, it is necessary to make a division of two periods; the first period dating from the time of the first settlement to 1893, the year of the organization of the Mennonite Church of Scottdale: the second period from that time on to the present.
Among the first Mennonite people in this section were the Stauffers and Sherricks, who came here from Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in 1790. The Louckses and Frettses followed in 1800, from Bucks county. Other families who came with these and later on are the Tinsmans. Overholts, Stoners, Funks, Rists, Rosenbergers, Strohms, Dillingers, Foxes, Shellenbergers, Basslers, Stricklers, Ruths, Myers, Durstines, Lanes, Shupes, Mumaws, Shellys, Bares, Landises, and Bachtels.
Of the early congregational worship of these settlers, little is known. During the first few years they evidently held their services in the homes. Just when the congregation was organized cannot he learned. The first meet- ing house, a log structure, was built near Pennsville, Fayette county, about the year 1800. A few years later a log meeting house was built near Stonerville (now Alverton), Westmoreland county. The Stonerville church was replaced by a brick building in 1841, and also the Pennsville church in 1852. Neither of these buildings are now standing. Though there were two places of worship. the church existed as a single congregation, services being held every two weeks at each place. The first ministers of this congregation were Abram Stauffer, Joseph Sherrick, and David Funk. Abram Stauffer was born Sep- tember 3, 1752, and died September 3, 1826. He came here from Lancaster county in 1790. He was great-great-grandfather of Aaron Loucks, now bishop in this district.
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