USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > Hempfield > History of old Zion Evangelical Lutheran church in Hempfield Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Near Harrold's > Part 4
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During Rev. Luetge's pastorate, there were probably four or five schoolmasters in the parish. Balthasar Meyer continued
2This old Pulpit has been traced and found by the aid of H. M. Zundel and Nicholaus Long. It is now restored and kept in the church. 3Ulery Hist. Southern Conference.
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to teach and baptize children. Karl Scheibeler taught in Greensburg and at Harrold's; because the list of baptisms be- ginning 1784 are entered by his hand in the Church register. John Michael Zundel and George Bushyager taught at Brush Creek and John Michael Zundel taught at Herold's from about 1810 to 1828.
Rev. Luetge was called to Schippensburg, Cumberland County, in 1789 and was reported from that field in 1791.
Quaint Old Pulpit from Old Log Church
Note on Old Pulpit.
This is the original pulpit of the old log church, built about 1782 : It was elevated on a log three feet in diameter and three feet long, set upright, crude steps, four in number, led up to it. There was a small seat on the side opposite the entrance. The pulpit proper, shown in the cut, is the original, but the base and steps have been supplied in its rebuilding. This pulpit was used in the old log church until 1830.
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When the new stone church was built the old pulpit was given to the Muelheisen Church. The elder Tobias Long and Philip Muelheisen were largely influential in the founding of the "Milliron" Church: Tobias Long the son of the elder Tobias Long named above who is now (May 1922) still living at the age of 88 years, says. "As a boy. but a few years after the old pulpit was brought to the "Milliron" Church, I often heard father and others speak of its early history, how it had for years been used in the old log church and then, after building the old stone church was brought here."
Comrade Nicholas Long, a veteran of the Civil War, also recalls the tradition of the old Pulpit. He says that many times he has heard the venerable Rev. H. E. F. Voight preach from the pulpit.
Mrs. Reuben Miller, nee Sarah Gangaware, daughter of Joseph Gangaware, who attended the Herold Church, deserves great credit for preserving the old pulpit for the present generation. When repairs were made to the "Milliron" Church, many years ago, the old pulpit was discarded. She could not bear to see it desecrated, so she had it hauled to her home on a sled. First it was placed at the end of an old fashioned cider press. Then it was next stored in her cellar. When the home was remodeled it was then stored under the porch, where it was found by Nicholaus Long, H. M. Zundel and Jacob E. Wincman, as the author had suggested. The pulpit is now preserved as a precious treasure of its early history in Old Zion's Church. It is probably the oldest pulpit west of the Allegheny mountains.
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CHAPTER V
Frontier Conditions
The march of civilization westward is shown by the erec- tion of counties. In 1682 Penn found Philadelphia, Bucks, and Chester Counties. Then followed, westward, Lancaster County in 1729, York County in 1749, Cumberland County in 1750, Bedford in 1772, and Westmoreland, beyond the mountains in 1773. This county embraced nearly all of Pennsylvania west of the mountains.
The first officers were appointed by Governor Richard Penn.
The scramble of politicians for office and salaried posi- tions was as keen then as now. The Scotch-Irish take to politics as keenly as the German takes to a farm. Indeed, it was fortunate that there were Scotch-Irish and English to take the offices, else, so far as the Germans were concerned, Westmoreland would have been as unfortunate as German- town was in 1703. Pastorius wrote to William Penn com- plaining of the difficulty in getting his people to serve as public officers, and expressing the hope that the arrival of new immigrants might relieve the situation.
"Fines and importations becoming necessary to secure officeholders, seems an embarrassment almost inconceivable to later generations of men, yet this historical fact emphasizes a trait often exhibited by the Germans in the United States." "December 1, 1694, Paul Wulff was elected clerk, but declining
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without good cause, he was fined three pounds by the General Court."1
Under the distracted conditions of a "border" settlement, it would be ridiculous to assert that the appointive and elec- tive officers were always representative of the best men on the border. Politics was then more potent than now, since the Proprietaries lived at a distance and were necessarily out of immediate touch with actual conditions. Some of the bar- barous penalties surely did not reflect credit upon the early courts. The election of the notorious murderer Williamson and some of his pals to office in Washington County outraged the decency even of "border" life. The conduct of some of the commanding officers in the west during these times was of such a nature as to bring the rebuke of state officials and frequent removals by the commander-in-chief. While the savage was scalping the helpless settlers, some of these com- manders were playing politics for position.
The trustees to locate and erect the public buildings, appointed by the State, were Robert Hanna, Joseph Erwin, John Cavett, George Wilson, and Samuel Sloan. Now Hanna, Erwin, and Sloan stood together and decided that Hanna's house should be the county seat and Erwin should keep the tavern at Hannastown. What Sloan got out of the deal we are not told.
For many years, the settlement at Germantown did not have a jail, nor did they need one. From this place also went out the first protest, on American soil, against negro slavery; but the rigor and majesty of English law, "the ac- cumlated wisdom of the ages," as administered by such judges as Hanna, Lochry, Sloan, and Cavett, required all the in- strumentalities of torture used at the time.
"John Smith, charged with stealing and pleaded guilty, was sentenced to receive thirty-nine lashes on the bare back,
1Faust, Vol. 1059.
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well laid on, and his ears were then to be cut off and nailed to the pillory, and he was to stand one hour in the pillory." "In January, 1774, William Howard suffered one hour in the pillory, after having received thirty lashes on the bare back, well laid on."
"In October, 1775, Elizabeth Smith was ordered to re- ceive fifteen lashes on the bare back, well laid on."2
Three kinds of bond servants were brought to Westmore- land County-negro slaves, indentured servants, and redemp- tioners. The indentured servant could be bound for life or a period of years. It ranged.in severity all the way from a voluntary act to involuntary slavery: The redemptioners were those who "indentured" themselves for a period of years, in return for the expense of ship passage to America. They redeemed themselves by a term of service to their creditor.
This "bondage" servant system sometimes brought unde- sirable people to the frontier, but in the main, it brought good workers whose only failing was the misfortune to be poor.
The "undesirables" of the frontier were largely the rowdies and criminals of the more settled sections of the east, who sought refuge on the frontier; thus it has been even to this day on the frontier in America.
In 1774 began what is known as Dunmore's War. Lord Dunmore was governor of Virginia. As the southern border of Pennsylvania was not then extended west of the mountains, Virginia and Pennsylvania both laid claim to the territory of the Ohio, Monongahela, and Youghiogheny valleys. At this time, Dunmore sent John Connolly to Pittsburgh. In January, 1774, he took the city, raised an army and called the place Fort Dunmore. He called the militia together ostensi- bly to fight the Indians, but really to fight for Virginia. St.
2 Boucher History of Westmoreland County.
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Clair, who had charge of Pennsylvania's interest, had Connol- ly arrested. He gave bail and went to Virginia, where Dun- more appointed him a justice. Returning to the west, he ar- rived at Hanna's town and refused to permit the Pennsylvania court to meet. He arrested the judges and sent them to Virginia. This naturally aroused the people, not only because they would thus lose title to their lands, but because of a threatened Indian attack. It appears, however, that the Indian attack threatened only the Virginians, but our people did not know this, and it would be easy for a scalping party to mis- take a Pennsylvanian for a Virginian.
Connolly had called out the militia but had mobilized it at Kitanning, hence the settlers were left defenseless. In- dignation meetings were held at many places and petitions sent to the Governor. An indignation meeting was held at Fort Allen and a petition was sent to Governor Penn, signed by the following persons. Doubtless other well known men were in the militia at Kitanning.
"Wendel Oury, Christopher Trubee, Frantz Raupp, Nich- olas Scheuer, John Lafferty, John Bendeary, Conrad Houck, James Waterms, John Redeck, Adam George, Nicholas Al- limang, Adam Uhrig, Stofel Urich, John Golden, Peter Urich, Martin Hunts, Michael Konel, Heinrich Kleyn, Conrad Hister, Hans Gunckee, Peter Kassner, Peter Uber, John Krausher, Heinrich Schmit Jacob Schmit, Jacob Kuemel, John Moffey, Adam Bricker, Peter Wannemacher, Philip Klingelschmit, Peter Klingelschmit, Peter Altman, Anthony Altman, Joseph Paukkek, Brent Reis, Baltzer Mayer, Jacob Hauser, Peter Altmann, Christian Baum, George Crier, Peter Rosch, Joseph Kutz, Adam Meire, Daniel Wilers, Thomas Williams, Michael Hatz, George. Mondarf, William Hanson, William. Altman, Marx Breinig, Johannes Breinig, Samuel Lewisch, Anthony Walter, Jacob Welcker, George Bender, Nicholas Junt, Michael Hann, David Marshall, Heinrich Sil, Richard Archbold, Con-
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rad Linck, Friedrich Marschal, Hannes Breinig, Kasper Mickendorf, Jacob Schraber, Daniel Matiss, Heinrich Schram, Peter Schelhammer, Jacob Meylin, Dewalt Macklin, Hannes Kostwitz, Jacob Schram, Ludwig Aterman, Hans Sil, Jacob Stroh, Christopher Herolt, Gerhart Tames."3
On June 12, 1774, St. Clair writes to Governor Penn: "An idle report of Indians having been seen within the Partys, has drove them every one into some little fort or other-and many hundreds out of the country altogether. This has obliged me to call in the Partys from where they were posted, and have stationed them, twenty men at Turtle Creek, twenty at Proctor's, and twenty at Ligonier, as these places are now the Frontier toward the Allegheny, all that great Country, between that road and the river, being totally abandoned, except by a few who are associated with the people who murdered the Indian. (Wipey a friendly Indian). And are shut up in a small Fort on Conymack, equally afraid of the Indians and the officers of justice."4
Dunmore's war lasted until 1775, when it was ended by the Continental Congress, and the boundary line was fixed in 1780 as it is today.5
It was during or prior to Dunmore's War that Fort Allen was built.
The Revolution
Notwithstanding the distractions of Indian wars and Dunmore's war, the people west of the Alleghenies were alive to the issues of the Colonies and the Mother country. The news of the battle of Lexington traveled fast, but we doubt if the news had reached Westmoreland, before the call went out for a general meeting at Hannastown for May 16, 1775. Here, a year before the Declaration of Independence, the fol- lowing resolutions were adopted :
3Burgess History of the Pittsburgh Synod, General Synod.
4Frontier Forts.
"Frontier Forts, page 189.
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"Meeting of the inhabitants of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. At a general meeting of the inhabitants of the County of Westmoreland, held at Hanna's town the 16th day of May, 1775, for taking into consideration the very alarming situation of the country, occasioned by the dispute with Great Britain :"6
"Resolved unanimously, That the Parliament of Great Britain, by several late acts, have declared the inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay to be in rebellion; and the Ministry, by endeavoring to enforce these acts, have attempted to reduce the said inhabitants to a more wretched state of slavery than ever before existed in any state or country. Not content with violating their Constitutional and Chartered privileges, they would strip them of the rights of humanity, exposing lives to the wanton and unpunishable sport of licentious soldiery, and depriving them of the very means of sustenance.
"Resolved unanimously that there is no reason to doubt but the same system of tyranny and oppression will, should it meet with success in Massachusetts Bay, be extended to every other part of America: it is, therefore, become the indispensable duty of every American, of every man who has any public virtue or love of his country, or for posterity, by every means which God has put in his power, to resist and oppose the execution of it; that for us, we will be ready to oppose it with our lives, and fortunes, and the better to enable us to accomplish it, we will immediately form ourselves into a military body, to consist of companies to be made up out of the several townships under the following association, which is declared to be the Association of Westmoreland County.
"We declare to the world, that we do not mean by this Association to deviate from that loyalty which we hold it our bounded duty to observe; but, animated with the love of
6Frontier Forts.
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liberty, it is no less our duty to maintain and defend our just rights, which with sorrow we have seen of late wantonly violated in many instances by a wicked Ministry and a corrupt Parliament, and transmit them entire to our posterity, for which purpose we do agree and associate together.
"Possessed with the most unshaken loyalty and fidelity to His Majesty, King George the Third, whom we acknowledge to be our lawful and rightful King, and who we wish may long be the beloved sovereign of a free and happy people throughout the whole British Empire; we declare to the world that we do not mean by this association to deviate from that loyalty which we hold it to be our bounden duty to observe; but, animated with the love of liberty, it is no less our duty to maintain and defend our just rights (which with sorrow, we have seen of late wantonly violated in many instances by a wicked Ministry and a corrupt Parliament) and transmit them entire to our posterity, for which purposes we do agree and associate together.
"1. To arm and form ourselves into a regiment or regi- ments, and choose officers to command us.
2. We will with alacrity, endeavor to make ourselves masters of the manuel exercise, and such evolutions as shall be necessary to enable us to act in a body with concert; and to that end we will meet at such times and places as shall be appointed, either for the companies or regiment, by the offi- cers commanding each when chosen.
3. That should our country be invaded by a foreign enemy, or should troops be sent from Great Britain to en- force the late arbitrary acts of Parliament, we will cheerfully submit to a military discipline, and to the utmost of our power, resist and oppose them, or either of them, and will coincide with any plan that may be formed for the defense of America in general or Pennsylvania in particular.
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4. That we do not desire any innovation, but only that things may be restored to, and go on in the same way as be- fore the era of the Stamp Act, when Boston grew great and America was happy. As a proof of this disposition, we will quietly submit to the laws by which we have been accustomed to be governed before that period, and will, in our several or associate capacities, be ready when called on to assist the civil magistrates in carrying the same into execution.
5. That when the British Parliament shall have re- pealed their late obnoxious statutes, and shall recede from their claim to tax us, and make laws for us in every instance, or when some general plan of union or reconciliation has been formed and accepted by America, this, our association, shall be dissolved; but till then, it shall remain in full force; and to the observation of it we bind ourselves by everything dear and sacred amongst men. No licensed murder; no famine introduced by law.
Resolved, That on Wednesday, the 24th instant, the town- ship meet to accede to the said association and choose their officers."7
Some investigators have denied the authenticity of these resolutions, but there is nothing in them that need disturb the equanimity of the historian. It is clear, from the docu- ment itself, that the "meeting" had no news of the battle of Lexington. The phrases "No licensed murder" refers to the Boston massacre, and "No famine introduced by law" refers to the closing of the Port of Boston. This meeting and reso- lutions are the result of the work of the "Committees of Correspondence" with headquarters, doubtless, at Boston. It seems that the "Committee of Correspondence" had sent about the same request and information to many other places throughout the land. A similar meeting was called at Pitts- burg on the same day, May 16, 1775.8 "At Hanover, Pa., the
7Boucher, page 124.
8 Border Warfare in Pennsylvania, page 43.
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Scotch-Irish and German borderers resolved among other things 'that in the event of Great Britain attempting to force unjust laws upon us by the strength of arms, our cause we leave to Heaven and our Rifles'."
On June 16, 1774, a meeting took place at Woodstock, Va., Rev. Peter Muehlenberg, Lutheran pastor, presided and afterwards was Chairman of the Committee on Resolutions. "Rev. Muehlenberg was an intimate friend of Patrick Henry and Colonel George Washington. With the former he laid deep plans of sedition; with the latter he shot bucks in the Blue Ridge Mountains."
The following extracts show the spirit pervading the resolutions.
"That we will pay due submission to such acts of govern- ment as His Majesty has a right by law to exercise over his subjects, and to such only.
That it is the inherent right of British subjects to be governed and taxed by representatives chosen by them- selves only, and that every act of the British Parliament respecting the internal policy of American is a dangerous and unconstitutional invasion of our rights and privileges.
That the enforcing the execution of said acts of Parlia- ment by a military power will have a necessary tendency to cause a civil war, thereby dissolving that union, which has so long happily subsisted between the mother country and her colonies ; and that we will most heartily and unanimously concur with our suffering brethren in Boston and every other part of North America, who are the immediate victims of tyranny, in promoting all proper measures to avert such dreadful calamities, to procure redress of our grievances, and to secure our common liberties."9
The Committee of safety and correspondence appointed for the county consisted of Peter Muehlenberg, Chairman,
"Faust, page 292.
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Francis Slaughter, Abraham Bird, T. Beale, J. Tipton, and Abraham Bowman.
Similar resolutions were adopted in Virginia as follows: Fredericksburg, June 1. Prince William County, June 8, 1775.
"The Mecklenburg, North Carolina, Declaration of Inde- pendence, so called, was written May 20 and adopted May 31, 1775. This declaration is said not to imply complete inde- pendence of Great Britain."10
The militia raised by means of these Associations was called "Associators." Doubtless the Minute Men of Lexing- ton and Concord belonged to the same general organization as the Associators. Hence, we see that the Hanna'stown meet- ing was but a part of the work of the Committee of Corres- pondence and part of a widespread movement. Nor does the Hanna'stown document go as far and express the funda- mental issues as clearly, as the Woodstock document.
Who wrote the Hanna'stown Resolutions is not known. Some have claimed that St. Clair wrote them, but his corres- pondence denies that fact and shows him rather cynical and unsympathetic.
In a letter to Joseph Shippen, Jr., from Ligonier, May 18, 1775, he says, "Yesterday, we had a county meeting and have come to resolutions to arm and discipline, and have formed an Association, which I suppose you will soon see in the pa- pers. God grant an end may be speedily put to any necessity to such proceedings. I doubt their utility, and am almost as much afraid of success in this contest as of being van- quished."11
To Governor Penn, May 25th, 1775, he writes, "We have nothing but musters and committees all over the country, and everything seems to be running into the wildest confusion. If
10Standard Encyclopedia.
11Frontier Forts,
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some conciliating plan is not adopted by the Congress, Ameri- ca has seen her golden days; they may return, but will be pre- ceded by scenes of horror. An Association is formed in this country for defense of American Liberty. I got a clause ad- ded, by which they bind themselves to assist the civil magis- trates in the execution of the laws they have been accustomed to be governed by."12
St. Clair was the representative of the Proprietors in this county and he evidently feared a reaction against the Penns as well as against the mother country. At least, he safeguarded his employer's interests.
When the war was actually begun, Westmoreland men enlisted in the first and second Battalions of Pennsylvania troops, in the Third Pennsylvania Regiment, in the Pennsyl- vania Rifle Regiment, in the Second Pennsylvania Regiment, and the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment.13 This last Regiment was mustered at Pittsburg, 1776, for the defense of the border against the Indians, but was later marched to New Jersey to aid Washington. There were ten companies which numbered 681 soldiers in all. Captain David Kilgore's company had 58 men; Captain Samuel Miller's had 85; Captain Van Swearin- gen's had 74; Captain Joseph Piggott's had 59; Captain Wen- del Ourry's had 59; Captain Andrew Mann's 62; Captain James Montgomery's 59; Captain Michael Huffnagle's 74; Captain John Finley's 79; and Captain Basil Prather's 73.14
After more than a year's service in the east, the Eighth Regiment was sent back to Pittsburgh to defend the border.15 Westmoreland men served in nearly all the campaigns from Quebec to Georgia. Wherever, during the Revolution, we read of "Riflemen," there we may expect to find the Ger- man and Swiss, for the rifle was a weapon introduced into
12Frontier Forts.
13 Boucher, Vol. I, page 139.
14Boucher, Vol. I, page 138.
15 Boucher, Vol. I, page 138.
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America by them and none ever surpassed these hardy pio- neers in the accuracy of its use.
There are several interesting features of the Revolution- ary War that we should know. The first is that Washington's bodyguard was made up of Germans. There had been sus- pects in the first bodyguard and plots to seize the person of the Commander-in-chief. On the advice of Washington's pri- vate secretary and adjutant, Reed, who was of German descent, a troop was formed consisting entirely of Germans, called the Independent Troop of Horse, and placed under the command of Major Barth. Van Heer, a Prussian, who had served as cavalry Lieutenant under Frederick the Great in the Seven Year's. War. Van Heer recruited most of his men in the Pennsylvania German counties, Berks and Lancaster. They began to serve in the spring of 1778, and were honorably dis- charged at the end of the war, twelve of them serving longer than any other American soldiers, having the honor of escort- ing the Commander-in-Chief to his home at Mount Vernon. These twelve men each received presents of arms, accoutre- ments, and a horse, as we learn from a written record in the possession of the family of one of the twelve, Ludwig Boyer (or Beyer). In the pension lists of 1828, a number of names of soldiers belonging to Van Heer's troop (fourteen officers and fifty-three men) are given. Boyer was granted a pension, one hundred pounds annually ; Jacob Fox (Fuchs), who had lost his discharge, brought as witness two former comrades, Burckhardt and Trischer, who swore that they had belonged to Van Heer's corps and that that troop was the bodyguard of Washington.
Colonel John Johnson, by birth an Irishman, president of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio and per- sonal friend of Washington, said that not a single officer or soldier of this troop understood a word of English and that it
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was commanded by Major Van Heer, a Prussian.16 The descendents of Ludwig Boyer lived in Piqua, Ohio, and he doubtless came west after the war. The Boyers and Fuchs were familiar names in our settlement.
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