History of York County, Pennsylvania : from the earliest period to the present time, divided into general, special, township and borough histories, with a biographical department appended, Part 54

Author: Gibson, John, Editor
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: F.A. Battey Publishing Co., Chicago
Number of Pages: 1104

USA > Pennsylvania > York County > History of York County, Pennsylvania : from the earliest period to the present time, divided into general, special, township and borough histories, with a biographical department appended > Part 54

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He was the folk recording scribe, And Solon of the hearth ; And O! what nervous pains he took To enter in the Sacred Book, A marriage, death, or birth ; And how all stood, with hated breath While he recorded Mother's death.

He wrote the annual interest notes. And kept the book accounts ;

He framed the solemn covenants, Presided at the settlements And verified accounts ; He sat as umpire in disputes, And saved the fees and costs of suits.

I often see him as I sit And muse upon the past ; Or dream I see him there again, With ink-horn, knife and quill, as plain As when I saw him last- That very same old snow-white quill, With which he wrote my father's will.

If, in addition to delicacy of health, or a disinclination to labor (the latter being some- times easily mistaken for the former) a farmer's son was habitually sedate, thoughtful, mel- ancholy or morose ; or if, even without these

latter qualities, he was talkative, witty, of ready repartee ; and above all, if he was much inclined to read, not much difference what, his parents and friends were ever only too ready to conclude that he was providen- tially designed for the ministry, in their own rude parlance, "ausg'schnitte for en Parre," (cut out for a preacher). Such, how- ever, were exceptional cases, for the great body of Pennsylvania German clergymen was, and is composed of men of undoubted ability and fair scholarship ; and many of those already named not only so, but men of great ability, scholarship and, piety. Such were the Mühlenbergs and the celebrated Michael Schlatter, Zinzen- dorf, Heckewelder, Bishops Nischman, Cam- merhoff, Spangenberg and others, bold and fearless pioneers in the work of the Lord, and who laid the foundations of the Luther- an, German Reformed and Moravian Church- es, deep and strong in America, yea, in Penn- sylvania, when it was as yet almost a howling wilderness ; nobly aided in their arduous work by the intrepid German-English -Indian interpreter, Conrad Weiser, and the fearless little band of Moravian missionaries, headed by Ranch, Mack, Senseman and Ziesberg. And such were the noble army of Christian soldiers, the Kurtzes, Bagers, Schmuckers, Krauths, Schaums, Hoshours, Hochheimers, Rauses, Hornells, Goerings, Oswalds and Loch- mans; Lischies, Wirtzes, Otterbeins, Wagners, Stocks, Droldeniers, Geistweits, Mayers, Rei- ly, Cares and Harbaugh, Friaufs, Dobers, and a host of others, through whose labors the (originally), German churches so founded, have been built up and extended until, as from "a grain of mustard seed " planted in eastern Pennsylvania a century and a half ago, a mighty tree has grown, spreading its branches, not only into all the States of this great Union, but, through a great foreign missionary work, back to heathen lands, far beyond those from which our fathers came.

Time and space will not admit of any extended notice of other German branches of the church and its Pennsylvania German ministry ; such as the United Brethren in Christ, the Evangelical, and the various sects of Baptists. As for the Roman Catholic and its numerous lay membership of the very best class of Pennsylvania Germans, they are not omitted from any feeling of sectarian predjudice, but from the fact that Pennsylvania Germans are not usually found among the clergy.

Altogether, the Pennsylvania Germans, like their Palatinate and Swiss ancestors, are a decidedly religious people - sound in

THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS.

269

faith and doctrine, however many of them, like their weak and erring brethren of other nationalities, may come short in practice. In all the counties named and some others, there are numerous churches in which the Gospel has been from their beginning, and still is, preached, and indeed, all the accompanying services conducted in the German language, True it is that the Pennsylvania Germans do not pay their preachers big salaries, and, as is the case among other Christian people, there are and ever have been individual in- stances of niggardly meanness in the matter

own vernacular, "for was fallt"; that is, for whatever should happen to be contributed. And, inasmuch as these contributions were often made in the shape of provisions, so, as tradition has it, an unsophisticated rustic bridegroom once assumed that the preacher might be willing to take his marriage fee "in trade," also; and accordingly .went provided with a bushel of schnitz, which, as soon as the ceremony had been performed, he offered the worthy parson in payment as a modus, or commutation for the cash, telling him how much he would gain by the swelling of the

EXTERIOR OF AN OLD-TIME CHURCH.

of contributions or stipends; yet generally their'ministers are enabled to live comfortably with their families (which nearly all have) on their regular salaries and marriage fees, together with the numerous gifts and dona- tions of provisions they, according to a time- honored German custom, are accustomed to receive. As for marriage fees, no particular amount or charge has ever been fixed; and time was (and perhaps is) where even the amount of salary, or what should be paid in lieu thereof, was left equally uncertain; the pastor, after a more primitive practice, trust- ing to Providence or the generosity of his parishioners, or to both, agreed to render his services for what they chose to give him, or could raise; or, as it was expressed in their

schnitz in boiling. But the minister, not be- ing able to see it, declined the generous offer. Whereupon, the verdant youth inquired how much it was; "well, wie fiel isch's?" and, on being told that he had no price-"ich hab ke' Preiss," the thrice happy bridegroom thanked him for his kindness and went on his way re- joicing, with his bride, his money, and his schnitz. His conduct admits of several con- structions; and those who know least of the true Pennsylvania German character will, of course, make the worst of it; but, "evil to him who evil thinks." Similar conduct on the part of Irishmen or the Scotch-Irish, so far from being considered as an evidence of ig- norance or meanness, has ever been regarded as the highest proof of wit and shrewdness.

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY.

Nor does the comparatively meager compen- sation, given by the Pennsylvania Germans to their pastors, necessarily prove them avarici- ous, unjust or ungenerous. It must be remem- bered that they are not, generally speaking, rich people, and usually live in all respects, strictly within their means. To pride and show, ostentation and extravagance, especially in matters pertaining to the church and divine worship, they are and ever have been relig- iously opposed. Economy, neatness, plain- ness, but solidity in all things, have always been among their marked characteristics. They are not insensible to the beautiful, but as for the church and all her ceremonies they believe that

"loveliness

Needs not the foreign aid of ornament, But is, when unadorned, adorned the most."

The expression of their peculiar ideas in these respects not unfrequently became the occasion for jolly joke and jest, as well as rasping repartee. In the olden time, when Big John Herbach,* who was somewhat of a wit, and fond of cracking his jokes at other people's expense, had lately received a jus- tice's commission, one of the old German ministers, then resident in York, was riding on horseback past the new squire's residence, when Herbach thus accosted him, in the vernacular: "Herr Parre, ich möcht ihn doch emol was frooge-mer leest in der Schrift das unser Heiland en Esel geritte hot, un in alter Zeit hen die Parre ah Esel geritte, jetz reite sie die schönschte Gäul; wie kummt sel? To which the preacher promptly re plied: " Das kan ich ihm gleich sagen. Zu dieser Zeit sein die Esel ein wenig rahr, und ist hie und da einer zu finden, so macht der Gouvernor schon bald ein Juschtes von ihm," and immediately rode on. All of which, he- ing interpreted, is this-Herbach said to the preacher: " I would like to ask you a ques- tion; we read in the Scripture that our Saviour rode on an ass, and so did the preachers in former times; now, I see, they ride fine horses; why is it?" To which the preacher instantly replied: "That I can tell you at once; in these days asses are a little scarce, and should here and there one be found, the governor immediately commissions him a justice of the peace."

The hit, was a capital one, and well- deserved, but unfortunately for the preacher he told it to a friend, who informed him that Herbach was a notorious wag, and could make up a good story without a moment's

reflection. So, on a subsequent occasion, the preacher met him again, and after a short conversation, just as the former was about to pass on, he turned and asked the squire whether he wouldn't be good enough to tell him a good story quickly, and if it should be a lie. The squire promptly replied, "No, in- deed, I haven't time, my neighbor,

across here, fell off the barn and broke his leg, and I must first do some work that can't be postponed, and then I must go over and see him. By theby, it would not he much out of your way to call there yourself; he would no doubt be glad to see you." The preacher expressed surprise at the painful news, and hurried on to call on the man with the broken leg. When he arrived there, and in all seri- ousness inquired of the man's wife how he was, she said he was out in the field plowing, and if he was particular about seeing him she would blow the horn for him. But the preacher, finding that the squire had got even with him, evasively turned about and went his way. He never told that joke, but Herbach did.

One more instance illustrative of this pecu- liar (pecuniary) relation between pastor and people may be excusable. Some years ago, a minister in Brush Valley, who was preach- ing " for was fallt," became greatly dissatis- fied with his compensation, and especially with the very meager contributions of a num- ber of the richer members of his congregation, who, to avoid being personal, shall be named Smith. After having made the usual pungent appeals to his people to pay up bet- ter, but without success, he concluded to dis- solve the tender relation existing between him and his flock, and seek richer pastures. Accordingly he announced his abscheid Pre- dig (farewell sermon), at which there was a large attendance and an unusually big turn- out of the Smiths. The text and the gen- eral discourse were, of course, admirably suited to the occasion; all apparently favor- able scripture passages that could be found and by any means tortured into denunciations for not paying the preacher better, were quoted, but apparently without effect. To use the language of Burke, "his enthusiasm kindled as he advanced, and when he arrived at his peroration, it was in full blaze." That peroration was short, sharp and to the point: "Geld regiert die Welt, un Dummheit die Brush Valley; un de Schmidte kann mer's im a'gsicht leese. Als Kelwer hawich sie a'genomme, als Ochse muss ich sie ferlosse! in Gottes Namen, Amen!"

The English of which is: "Money rules the world, and ignorance rules Brush Valley;

* Family tradition say he was at least six-feet-six, and well proportioned, and lived at what is now Small's Mill in Spring- garden Township.

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271

INTERIOR OF AN OLD-TIME CHURCH.

as for the Smiths, you can read it in their faces. As calves I received them, and as oxen I leave them; in God's name, Amen ?"

On one occasion this same plain-spoken old preacher,* whose eyesight was somewhat impaired, presided during a meeting of classis, at which one of his clerical brethren, old Mr. Gerhart, as also his good wife. whom he always took with him (as lay delegate prob- ably), were in attendance. The president, who supposed (and no doubt correctly), that this was one among Gerhart's notoriously economical habits, had determined to avail

himself of the first good opportunity of giv- ing brother Gerhart a " dig in the rib" about it. So, one morning when classis had met and enjoyed the usual preliminary devotions, and was apparently ready to proceed to busi- ness, it was observed that the president ap- peared to be somewhat abstracted; when one of the brethren rose and called his attention to the fact that classis was waiting his good pleasure to proceed. Whereupon the presi- dent looked inquiringly about the room, and then said, "Well, is Mrs. Gerhart here, too? If she is, we will proceed to business; the clark will bleas call the roll."

"Old Mr. Fries.

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY.

A vast majority of Pennsylvania German Christians are members either of the Lutheran or (German) Reformed denomination. Their church edifices, especially in the rural dis- tricts are, usually very plain and simple, but neat and substantial, and like those of other denominations, much more comfortable than in former times. The old goblet-shaped pulpits with their over-hanging sounding- boards, the long side galleries, high, stiff- backed pews, brick, or tile floors, and huge, unsightly box-stoves (for burning cord sticks), the "fore-singer's," latticed nook, and the Klingelsacks (or black velvet collection bags with great black tassels, deftly concealing the little silver-plated bell, carried by the deacons at the end of long poles), have all disappeared, and been succeeded by more modern and fashionable conveniences. Brick churches are gradualy taking the place of wooden ones, and in many instances they are surmounted by neat belfries and spires, and now, even in the country, the stillness of the Sabbath morning and evening is broken by the sweet sounds of the church-going bells, reverberating through the glens and dales, and the remnant of the fast-falling forests where the fathers of these people, little more than a century ago, worshipped in log huts, guarded by their shot-guns and their rifles against the tomahawk and the scalping-knife of lurk- ing and ever-threatning Indian foes.

In almost every such Pennsylvania German congregation there is a well-organized, well- attended and well-regulated Sunday-school, in which all the exercises are successfully conducted by teachers. male and female, of Pennsylvania German parentage, in the Eng- lish language. A special feature of these (as well as of other Sunday-schools) is the singing by the children; the deep interest taken by their teachers in teaching them vocal music; and in very many even of these humble little churches, the singing both at regular service and Sunday school is accompanied with instrumental music-organ or melodeon. Another remarkable feature is the almost incredible number of English Scripture verses which many of these little Pennsylvania "Dutch" boys and girls memorize from Sab- bath to Sabbath, and the ease and grace with which they recite them. And still another remarkable feature of these country Sunday- schools is found in the fact that many of the children and teachers who do these things are members of families in which the Penn- sylvania dialect is spoken almost exclusively; and, although owing to severity of weather and badness of roads, the schools are necessar- ily suspended during the winter months, they

annually revive, and the children return with the spring as naturally and as joyfully, aye, and as freely and beautifully, as the birds and the flowers.

Young women of Pennsylvania German descent are, largely, the pride and the hope of the race. There can be no doubt that the habits and customs, yea, and the costumes of modern fashionable life, are rapidly under- mining the moral and physical health of society. Happily the young woman, whose home and employments are in the country, is far less exposed to these influences and temptations than she who lives and labors (if. indeed, she does labor) in a large town or city. The daughters, like the sons among these people, are naturally, as well as by training. inclined to active employment, and they seek it and find it either at home or abroad. Much is said nowadays about respectable employment. In the estimation of Pennsylvania Germans, perhaps more peculiarly than of any other class of people, almost any honest employment is more re- spectable than idleness or ignoble ease. Even Solomon's glowing, poetic descriptions of a virtnous woman, would hardly be too strong to be sung of many a noble mother or daughter of our goodly land. " Her price is above rubies; the heart of her husband doth safely trust in her; she will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands. She girdeth her loins with strength and strengtheneth her arms. She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. She maketh fine linen and selleth it, and delivereth girdles unto the merchant. Strength and honor are her clothing, and she shall rejoice in time to come; and her children shall rise up and call her blessed." Thousands of the best wives and mothers that ever thus blessed a family were Pennsylvania German women who have gone to their reward, and tens of thousands such there are now living in this great Commonwealth, who though they may never have traveled beyond its limits, or figured in fashionable society, or been with- in the walls of a theater, are nevertheless the Marys, who have chosen that better part which renders their worth above the price of rubies. And thousands of them were at one time poor hired girls doing general house- work at low wages, who, when the day's work was done, instead of folding their hands in idleness, or wasting their time in useless or hurtful amusements, however pop- ulur, were busied with the needle or the dis- taff, providing for themselves the handsome

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THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS.

quilt, the fleecy coverlet, the snow-white linen and other needful things against the day of their own marriage, and the furnishing of their own house and home. Not only so, but in hundreds of instances they have been known to contribute, for years, of their meager earnings toward the support of indi- gent, aged and enfeebled parents. Nor are they all married to farmers or mechanics, living in rural obscurity. Who does not know, however some would fain conceal it, that many, very many, who once were just such noble-hearted, hale, hardy, industrious country-girls, are now the honored wives of ministers, lawyers, doctors, editors, mer- chants, bankers, and the mothers of some of the fairest and best of our youth ? The world cannot yet afford to ridicule and contemn such wives, mothers and daughters, merely because they are Pennsylvania Germans, have not been abroad, and are not "smart." May that time never come, nor the day when men or women shall be ashamed of honest labor, or seek to conceal the fact of their German ori- gin by changing the manner of spelling their names.

But no insinuation could be farther from the truth than that Pennsylvania Germans, as a rule, do not go abroad, but spend their lives where they were born. Every day's observation on all the lines of local travel and on all trains between eastern Pennsyl- vania and all parts of the great West, proves the contrary; and of some twelve or fifteen residents of York County, mostly from the borough of York, who have traveled abroad (in foreign lands) within as many years, at least ten were Pennsylvania Germans.

Pennsylvania Germans are not opposed to education, nor are they generally prejudiced against the English, or opposed to their children learning to speak, read and write the national language. The very avarice of which they are accused, would seem to con- tradict such an assertion, for how otherwise could they successfully deal with only Eng- lish-speaking people? A careful examina- tion of the subscription lists of the York Daily and York Weekly newspapers reveals the fact that at least seventy per cent of the regu- lar issues of these papers go into Pennsyl- vania German families. An examination of the subscription lists to this history shows that at least sixty per cent of the subscrib- ers are Pennsylvania Germans.

A similar state of things, doubtless, exists throughout all sections of our country occu- pied by these people, and it is simply due to our admirable system of common school education, to the large circulation of English

literature among them, and their disposition to avail themselves of the uses, benefits and advantages of these things, that the large body of Pennsylvania German-speaking peo- ple, speak and write English about as well as their very respectable and intelligent neigh- bors of other nationalities.

There is hardly a family in which a family Bible containing a family record of marriages, births and deaths, and at least a limited number of standard religious and historical works are not found; besides in many families more or less of the current Sunday - school literature of the day; and it is no un- common thing now, in passing these quiet, peaceful Christian homes at twilight, or on the Sabbath, to hear the voices of the young people mingle in sacred song with the solemn melodies of the cottage or the cabinet organ. Such exercises, together with social readings, spelling-bees, Sunday-school picnics, and surprise parties, have, let us hope, for the better, taken the place of the ruder, though in their day, equally enjoyable customs and amusements, of the huskings, the apple-butter- boilings, the country-dances, the singing- schools, the quiltings and the carpet-rag parties of the gay and goodly olden times.

It is conceded that while Pennsylvania Germans have not been opposed to education, they have been, and probably are, generally speaking, so far indifferent to the education of their children in the higher branches (in which they formerly included everything be- yond reading, writing and arithmetic), an, virtually, to amount to opposition. And is some of the more thoroughly German localities this feeling of opposition-rather, however, to being taxed for the supposed superfluous education of other people's children-mani- fested itself with considerable stubbornness at the time of the proposed adoption, or ac- ceptance of the provisions of the law estab- lishing a system of common school education. And although the arguments against it were not without plausibility, if not soundness, there is probably not a district remaining in the State to-day that has not accepted those provisions; and far indeed would the traveler have to go now, before he would find even a childless tax payer who would presume to utter a word against it.

And the encouraging fact is worthy of mention, just here, that one sect even of the Tunkers-" The Brethren," have advanced so far in the matter of education as to establish an institution of learning (called, it is believed, a Normal College), at Huntingdon, conducted on the general plan of other

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY.

similar schools, and which is under the exclusive supervision and control of men of that particular faith. Elder James Quinter is its president, who together with H. B. Brumbaugh, Dr. A. B. Brumbaugh, J. F. Oller and J. B. Brumbaugh, constitute the board of trustees, and W. J. Swigart treas- urer; all Pennsylvania Germans, except per- haps, Elder Quinter. The number of students during the year just closed was 205 (107 males and 9S females). At the recent annual commencement exercises "the college chapel was beautifully and profusely decorated with flowers and evergreens; the attendance was large. The exercises consisted of essays, orations, declamations, etc., by members of the graduating class. interspersed with music by the Normal Choir, the Donizetti Club, and a vocal trio. Degrees were conferred upon the members of the graduating class by the president of the college."

During a series of similar exercises at Mühlenberg College, at Allentown, in a grad- uating class of fourteen young men, fully one-half were Pennsylvania Germans; and at a like recent occasion at the Keystone Normal School, at Kutztown, (Berks County ) out of twenty-nine male and female graduates, more than half were Pennsylvania Germans.

Indeed, it is hardly conceivable that a people forming, confessedly, so large a pro- portion of the entire population of a great commonwealth, and having free access to all the advantages of a system of education, the value of whose school property approximates $30,000,000, embraces nearly 20,000 free schools, with over 21,000 "teachers, many of whom have been trained in the (fourteen) Normal schools; the annual expenditures of all which amount to about $9,000,000, with a school-going population of nearly 2,000,- 000, and an average daily attendance of near- ly 700,000, could be an ignorant people. And when it is considered that there are, in addition to all these, some twenty-eight col- leges, seventeen theological seminaries, a law department in one of the universities, and tive medical colleges, besides hundreds of private classical and select schools, it is not surprising that the percentage of illiterate persons, over ten years of age, in Pennsylva- nia, should compare quite favorably with that of her great and intelligent sister common- wealth of Ohio, and even of New York; that of Ohio being 4, of New York 4.8, and that of Pennsylvania 5.8. Connected with each of these colleges and seminaries, there are of course extensive and valuable libraries. Besides, there are numerous public libraries in various parts of the State, of these it

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History of York County, Pennsylvania : from the earliest period to the present time, divided into general, special, township and borough histories, with a biographical department appended, Part 54

Author: Gibson, John, Editor Publication date: 1886 Publisher: F.A. Battey Publishing Co., Chicago Number of Pages: 1104

Author: Gibson, John, Editor
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: F.A. Battey Publishing Co., Chicago
Number of Pages: 1104