USA > Pennsylvania > Two centuries of the Church of the Brethren in western Pennsylvania, 1751-1950 > Part 18
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1 Blough's history. Page 489.
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a faithful and influential member and had the pleasure of seeing her children follow her example. They had four sons and one daughter. One son, Jacob S., became a minister. He had three sons who became ministers, and three sons who were deacons. But we will let the local historian, Mrs. Daisy Miller Kalp, tell the story of the County Line church.
Elder John Nicholson, Sr., it is thought, was the first min- ister of the Church of the Brethren to reside in the valley, since his son, John Nicholson, Jr., was born here in 1824. John, Senior, is said to have been an elder for thirty-five years. Elder John Berkley, of Somerset County, seems to have cared for the needs of the members and assisted in the love-feast and communion services. No organization existed prior to 1849.
Members of the Church of the Brethren who lived between the Laurel Hill Mountains and Chestnut Ridge were cared for by the Brethren of Somerset County. Services were held in private homes and, when the weather would permit, meetings were sometimes held in barns. The love-feast and communion services, held in barns, were always of great interest. Services began in the morning and continued throughout the day. Large kettles of coffee were made, the people were given dinner, and the horses were fed. In the afternoon there were more services. The love-feast and communion service was always held during the evening hours.
When the Annual Meeting was held at Berlin, Somerset County, in 1849, the Indian Creek congregation was officially established, and the work has grown steadily until this time. A site was immediately selected for a meetinghouse on land owned by Jacob Flack.2 A meetinghouse was built where the Indian Creek road crosses the County Line road, dividing West- moreland and Fayette counties. This forty-by-eighty-foot build- ing was dedicated by J. S. Hauger and James Quinter. In 1859 a deed was secured for the land on which the house was built, and the building was called the County Line house. An organiza- tion was effected with Joseph Berger as the elder.
The congregation extended southeast to the top of and along Laurel Hill, northwest to the top of the Chestnut Ridge, south beyond Con- nellsville, and northeast beyond Ligonier. The deed was recorded in Uniontown in 1877. In 1883 a line was established between the Indian Creek and Jacobs Creek congregations. The line ran between Donegal Township and Mt. Pleasant Township in Westmoreland County, and between Saltlick Township and Bullskin Township in Fayette County.
In 1879 Brother Silas Hoover came into the congregation and held a series of revival meetings. Twenty-nine souls accepted
2 Ellis's History of Fayette County (1882) says, "County line church was built in 1852."
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salvation and were baptized. On March 10, in the Indian Creek, ice was cut from the stream so that the applicants could be bap- tized. Many of them were husbands and wives. Some of these people were the great-grandparents and the grandparents of some of the active members of the County Line church at this time.
Records do not make possible the naming in a chronological order of the ministers and elders who labored in the congregation at its earliest dates. The names of the earliest include Elder Joseph Berger, James M. Thomas, Jacob Myers, John Berkley, Jacob S. Hauger, Tobias Myers, and Samuel Fike. Resident ministers and ministers elected from the congregation are: Elder John Nicholson, Sr., William A. Murray (1850), John M. Nicholson, Jr. (1853), Joseph Berger, Johnathan Horner and James Murray (1858), and David D. Horner (1860). Brother Horner was elected elder of the congregation in 1880 and served in this capacity until 1901. Josiah Berkley (1861), Jacob A. Murray (1862), Jeremiah Miller (1868). Others elected, whose dates are unknown, are William S. Murray, Emanuel Beeghly, D. Flack, Michael Myers, Jacob S. Murray, Samuel Lohr, Samuel Deeds, Amos Christner, Dr. James Bennett,3 Jeremiah Foust, Frederick Murray, Isaiah B. Ferguson (September 3, 1892), and William Bond (May 1, 1894).
When it was felt that a more modern house was needed for meetings, a committee was appointed in 1896. This committee (Elder David D. Horner, James M. Miller, and Lewis Sheets) , with authority to act, secured the Hostetler brothers of Somer- set County to plan and erect the new house. The old building was demolished, and a new and larger building with a basement under a portion of it was erected on the old site. While the new
3 Brother J. M. Bennett was elected to the ministry in 1857, by the Markleysburg- Sandy Creek congregation. See chapter 29, Part II.
County Line Church, 1950
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building was in process of erection, services were held in various local schoolhouses.
When the church was completed in 1897 the following women (girls they were, then) cleaned the house in preparation for the dedication: Mrs. Sadie Sheets Myers and Mrs. Iva Miller Porch, both living and now members of the Mount Joy congregation; Mrs. Katherine Galentine Horner, who died in February 1949, and was still a member of the County Line church.
Brother Silas Hoover was present for the service of dedica- tion in October 1897. He used the story of the dedication of the temple, as related in 1 Kings. He continued services each night the following week. A number of souls sought salvation. The typical Brethren hospitality continued for some years after 1897, and the congregation maintained all-day meetings until 1920. Since that time, regular morning services have been held, with the love-feast and communion service in the evening periodically. The congregation still maintains the old-fashioned love feast of our fathers, serving meat and soup for the supper.
Ministers elected since 1897 are: Robert A. Nedrow and Herman Ritter (November 1897), William M. Knopsnyder (September 21, 1901), Elmer Nedrow and Irvin R. Pletcher (March 31, 1906), J. Lloyd Nedrow (October 7, 1911), and John M. Geary (June 22, 1929). Samuel Solomon was elected on October 7, 1911, but did not accept. Wilbur Beahm was elected on October 25, 1924. Wilbur Kern and Howard Barkley were elected at the same time, but did not accept the call.
When Elder Horner began to feel the weight of years, he called for the ordination of Robert A. Nedrow as elder. This service was held on September 21, 1901. Brother Nedrow served the church as elder until 1909, at which time he moved to other fields of labor. E. K. Hochstetler of Sand Patch, Pennsylvania, was called as presiding elder. Since that time, elders-in-charge have been: R. T. Hull, I. R. Pletcher, J. C. Beahm, H. Q. Rhodes, F. A. Myers, and Galen R. Blough. The latter is serving at the time of this writing.
In 1906 a meetinghouse, which was called Elbethel, was built on Chestnut Ridge, in the western part of the County Line con- gregation. This group was made into a separate congregation on February 24, 1917. In 1907 another building was erected to the east, on Laurel Hill Mountain, and was called Trout Run. The services held in this church took the place of the services in the Mt. Hope schoolhouse, near the Nedrow home. In the fall of 1913, this group was made into a separate congregation.
As nearly as records disclose, the following have served as deacons at the County Line church: Jacob K. Miller, Joseph Berger, Peter Sipe,
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John Flack, John Horner, George Lephart, Daniel Myers, Eli Berger, Samuel Lohr, Michael Berger, Cain Christner, Robert Ferguson, Daniel Sheets, and Samuel Christner. All of these men served prior to 1886. Since 1886 the following have served: James M. Miller, William Beal and James Gallentine (1886); John M. Nedrow and Jacob Eutsey (1896); James Lohr (1901); I. B. Foust, George F. Miller, and J. Lloyd Nedrow (1906); William E. Barnes, Henry Ritenour, Benjamin Keefer (1911); Ralph Saylor (1916); Alva Ritenour (1924); Lloyd Hostetler and Howard Barkley (1929). A number were called to the office of deacon but felt unable to accept the call. Among these were Ezra Myers, Harry Miller (1906), Simon Snyder and Isaac Kalp (1924), and, doubtless, more of whom there is no record.
On May 16 and 17, 1878, the District Meeting was held at the County Line house with thirty delegates present. The moder- ator was C. G. Lint, and the clerk was J. I. Cover. Another District Meeting was held here on April 22, 1908, with thirty- eight delegates present. The moderator of this meeting was S. S. Blough; the writing clerk, J. J. Shaffer; and the reading clerk, M. J. Weaver. The delegates and others came to Mount Pleasant by train, where they were met by the local brethren in buggies and spring wagons. In this way those who had come some distance were transported the thirteen miles between Mount Pleasant and Champion, where the church is located. Free food and lodging were provided by the local congregation for three nights and two days. Two evening services were held, one by J. J. Shaffer and the other by William Howe.
After Robert A. Nedrow and Elmer F. Nedrow moved from the congregation, the Elbethel charge was cared for by William Knopsnyder, and the County Line work was in charge of Irvin R. Pletcher until February 1919, when he moved to Connells- ville. It was then that the congregation secured B. B. Ludwick, of Mount Pleasant, as its first pastor. He served the congregation for six months. J. L. Bowman, who had moved into the com- munity, then served the church for a full year, closing his work on March 1, 1921.
Following Brother Bowman's pastorate, J. C. Beahm of Con- nellsville was secured as pastor. He came every two weeks for morning services, arriving by train in Champion on Saturday evening. Some member took him on Sunday afternoon into Mount Pleasant, so that he could board a trolley and return again to Connellsville. When a parsonage was completed in 1924, Brother Beahm and family moved into the midst of the congregation, and he remained as pastor until October 1, 1931, at which time he moved to Greencastle. John M. Geary served
Interior of County Line Church
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the church from October 1, 1931, until October 1, 1936, when he moved into the Maple Spring congregation.
From October 1, 1936, until January 1, 1940, supply ministers filled the pulpit. The following served, some only one Sunday, and some several Sundays: George Wright of Uniontown; R. T. Hull of Somerset; Harry Meredith of Mount Pleasant; A. J. Beeghly of Somerset; Lemuel Fox of Mount Pleasant; F. A. Myers of Connellsville; J. Ewing Jones of Wooddale. From January 1, 1940, until June 1, 1940, Brother Jones filled the pulpit every Sunday. On June 1, 1940, Boyd Dickey came as a summer pastor. On September 1, 1940, J. H. Wimmer of Shelocta moved into the parsonage and served as pastor until September 1, 1948, at which time he moved to his farm in Indiana County.
During Brother Wimmer's pastorate a goodly number were baptized and a few were received by letter from other congre- gations in the Brotherhood. During his pastorate, a new heating plant was installed, the parsonage and the church were re- roofed, the interior of the church was remodeled, a new ceiling, a new floor, and new pews were placed, and five new Sunday- school rooms were added. The Sunday-school rooms and the vestibule were carpeted, and new pulpit furniture was pur- chased. The building with its new furniture was re-dedicated on September 7, 1947.
After Brother Wimmer moved away, the congregation was without a pastor nearly a year. During this time the pulpit was supplied by the following ministers: Albert Haught, Robert Kneff, Charles Blough, John Fleming, George Detar, and J. L. Bowman.
On June 12, 1949, Elmer Q. Gleim of Philadelphia preached a trial sermon, and the church voted unanimously to call him as pastor. He moved into the parsonage on August 19, 1949, and continues to be our pastor.
The first wedding was held at the church in August 1944 with
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Brother Wimmer officiating, and since that time the church has witnessed several beautiful weddings. Recently the church pur- chased an electric organ.
A one-hundredth anniversary service was held on October 23, 1949. It was a beautiful day, and about three hundred people crowded into the church at the largest of the three serv- ices during the day. Many former members and leaders of by-gone years returned to worship with us on this day. Those who came farthest were Robert A. Nedrow and Elmer F. Ned- row, from New York State.
-Mrs. Daisy Miller Kalp
THE NICELY CHURCH
The first church house in Westmoreland County of which we have any record was located between Ligonier and the Fayette- Westmoreland county line, in what was known as the Indian Creek Valley congregation. The County Line church house had been erected in 1852. This new church was built about ten miles north, for the convenience of those members in that community. In the Christian Family Companion for May 21, 1872, we find the following announcement:
BUILDING OF A MEETING-HOUSE TO BE LET.
Proposals will be received until the first of June. Length, 50 feet; width, 35 feet; height, 15 feet; weather boarding, one inch patent-worked pine; flooring pine, faced; 12 windows; 12 lights, 12 x 18, sash, one and a half inches; a wainscoating all around the inside four feet high, the balance of the wall to be lathed and plastered; 24 seats; platform 6 by 6 feet, 16 inches high with one step; one set of tables to run the whole length of the building or aisle; 3 doors. Roof to extend 20 inches, with boxing, to be covered with ash lap shingles; 2 flues, to run from the ceiling 3 feet above the roof; council room nine feet. Frame, to be of good oak material; joice 2 by 8; studding 2 by 41/2; sills and other material in proportion; stone wall to be 16 inches above ground. Church to be built on Anthony Nicely's land, Westmoreland Co., Pa.
Anthony A. Nicely, James H. Miller, Jacob L. Meyers, Building Committee. Jacob L. Meyers, Treasurer.
We have included this announcement in detail to give our present-day building committees some idea of the changes that have taken place. For example, the question of pews-"24 seats"-or the foundation-"stone wall to be 16 inches above the ground." Could you trust contractors today in this manner?
Elder Jacob M. Thomas, of the Markleysburg-Sandy Creek congregation, under date of December 1, 1874, in the Christian
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Family Companion and Gospel Visitor, gives the following report, "by request":
I arrived at Brother Niceley's, Ligonier Valley, in time for the evening meeting. Brother Jacob Beeghly preached the sermon, and it was the first ever delivered in the meeting house, as it has but recently been completed.
On Sunday, [October] the 4th at 10 o'clock, H. R. Holsinger preached a dedicatory sermon. It was very appropriate to the occasion. The house was so crowded that many persons who came were compelled to remain without. At the close of the meeting, before the people left the house, there was a collection taken up to defray the expense of building the meeting house. After services, Brother Holsinger left to fill an appointment in the County Line meeting house. Myself and Brother Beeghly remained to fill another appointment in the new meeting house. This was our last meeting at this place.
The reader will notice that the "collection" in those days was not made a part of the worship service. Some of our older folks will remember when this change was made.
This quotation is from the Primitive Christian and Pilgrim for October 7, 1879; it was written by Silas Hoover, of Somerset.
According to previous arrangement, we held a few days meeting in Ligonier Valley in the Niceley church, at which time four were baptized. One of them formerly belonged to the Lutheran church. There are only a few members in that arm of the church, but they seem to be active, zealous and enterprising. If we had all such members, more good could be done. I return my sincere thanks to Brother Niceley's for their kindness and Christian courtesy.
And now, without following this country church through its experiences of the next quarter-century, we close its history with a heart-rending paragraph from Sister Daisy Miller Kalp, historian of the County Line church:
Concerning the Nicely House, I personally heard Elder D. D. Horner tell the story at my grandfather's house in 1906, that the head of this church was the father of Joe and David Nicely, who robbed and murdered Mr. Umberger, who lived on what is Route 219 between Jenners and Johnstown. They were identified by a little girl who stayed with the Umbergers. They were hanged in Somerset. Elder Horner said that there was no interest in the church afterwards. This building was torn down many years ago.
What a different story could have been written if these two boys from this Christian home had only followed in the foot- steps of their parents and yielded their young lives to the side of righteousness and the building of Christian character. These two wayward youths not only crushed a fine home, but wrecked a church of the Living God. "No man liveth unto himself" (Romans 14:7).
-W. J. H.
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CHAPTER 10. THE CUMBERLAND LIVING STONE CHURCH
First mission work planned, 1880 Present church work started, 1922 Present church membership, 360
During the century following the close of the Revolutionary War, perhaps more Dunkers passed through the city of Cum- berland, Maryland, and the famous "Narrows," on their way to the "West," than over any other trail, turnpike, or highway. The National Road (now Route 40) largely followed the early Nemacolin Trail, which became Braddock's road much of the way. In 1784 the first Brethren enroute to Fayette County passed through this "Gateway to the West." Others went on to Washington County, Pennsylvania, and some into Ohio and points farther west.
Because of the rugged terrain along this route, we can now under- stand why those seeking farming land did not pause to make their new homes in this vicinity. But there was one occupation, other than farming, which was rather common in our fraternity since the days of Alexander Mack-that of a miller. Just when the first Dunker made his home in the vicinity of Cumberland, the writer is not able to learn, but almost seventy-five years ago Lorenzo D. Rohrer worked in a mill along the highway east of the city, and then came into Cumberland and established his own mill on what is now South George Street, along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, where the Tri-State Mill and Mine Supply Company and the Swift and Armour companies have their plants today.
Brother Rohrer was very eager to have a Church of the Brethren here in the city of Cumberland, and worked to that end. We not only have the information concerning his efforts from those who are still living and who knew him personally, but our church paper, the Brethren
The "Living Stone" Church, Cumberland, Maryland, New Church Auditorium, Erected in 1950
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at Work, in the issue of April 6, 1880, published the report of J. W. Beer of Berlin, Pennsylvania, concerning his labors "from February 13th till March 19th among brethren and friends in Armstrong County." Then he closes the article with the following:
If spared, about April 1st, by appointment of the City Mission Board, I expect to go to Cumberland, Md., to preach and work in the vineyard there for a month. I ask an interest in the prayers of the brethren, that the Lord may enable me to perform my duty fully, and that he may bless the work in that city.
What happened during that month we have not been able to learn, nor whether there were any other members here at that time. Two years later (1882) when Howard Miller published his Record of the Faithful, on page 94 he included three lines as follows:
THE CITY MISSION SERVICE.
This organization was started for work in the cities, as its name indicates. It failed to succeed.
When Brother Rohrer failed to realize his dream of a church of his own denomination in Cumberland, he went to the First Baptist church and became a Sunday-school teacher in that organization. He was still teaching his Bible class there when Brother Wilbur C. Cooper and family came to the city in 1918. Brother Cooper says he was an excellent teacher. He also visited Brother Rohrer in his later illness. The older business and professional men of this city still speak very highly of him as a citizen in the community. He suffered a severe financial loss in 1882; when his flour mill was destroyed by fire. His wife's name was Mary K. Rohrer, and they had two children, a son and a daughter. If the City Mission Service in 1880 had been a success, and a church had been planted here, with such an outstanding businessman as a local leader, what the following forty-two years would have developed is only a matter of conjecture.
The next local church leader residing in the vicinity of Cum- berland, of whom we now have knowledge, was a minister. John Parish came from a church somewhere in Pennsylvania. On November 11, 1902, Brother and Sister Samuel Harden and their family of children moved from Hyndman, Pennsylvania, to Cumberland. Two of the daughters, Susie and Effie, along with their parents, already were members at Hyndman. Brother Parish preached in a schoolhouse in Ridgeley, West Virginia, where the Hardens attended services. His son, Charles Parish, married Susie Harden, who later became an outstanding leader in the Cumberland church.
Sometimes Brother Parish would walk out to the Old Furnace church, West Virginia, a distance of over five miles each way. When John Parish moved across the river into Cumberland is not certain, but we know that he performed the wedding ceremony for Wilbur C. Cooper and Hattie Royce in Cumberland in 1916.
The exact dates when the various families of the Brethren
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moved into this area are difficult to secure. The Amtower family came in 1910; one of their daughters, Marguerite, has served as pianist over a quarter-century. C. Lloyd Snoeberger and Sister Alice came in 1912, and served in various offices. The Shelleys and the Rigglemans came in 1912 and 1914, respectively. The Samuel Burke and George Grady families came in 1916. The W. C. Cooper family came in 1918. The Buckles, Duncans, Has- selroths, Kerns, Royces, and others also arrived during these waiting years.
Just when the first sermon was preached in Cumberland by a Brethren minister is not known today, but Brother Howard Whitacre, when giving reminiscences of his first experiences in Cumberland, told about coming along, as a small boy, with his father, A. J. Whitacre, when he came to Cumberland to preach.
After the re-opening of the Hyndman church in the autumn of 1921, Samuel Harden wrote a letter to the fieldworker of Western Pennsylvania, begging that the Mission Board of that district would consider the possibility of opening up a mission in Cumberland as a part of the Hyndman congregation. This was a natural request as he and his own family held their membership at Hyndman, and Cumberland seemed to be an unoccupied field. Prior to this letter, some of the Brethren had appealed to ministers in the First District of West Virginia, without any permanent response.
A quotation from the minutes of the District Conference of Western Pennsylvania, held in the Scalp Level church, April 2-4, 1923, may be of interest to future historical writers of the Cumberland church:
REPORT OF DISTRICT MISSION BOARD.
CUMBERLAND-The petition of the Cumberland members to our District Mission Board is truly a Macedonian call. For twenty years the Brethren in Cumberland have been trying to get some one interested in the establishing of a Church of the Brethren in that city. The field is white unto harvest, and bids fair to pay large dividends in return for the money and man-power expended there.
A Sunday school was organized on November 5, 1922 and the report for November and December is as follows: Total enrollment, 64. Average attendance, 44. Total offerings, $22.73.
Brother Arthur Scrogum, the pastor at Accident, Md., has been preaching for them since the middle of last October [1922]. He preaches at Accident in the forenoon, then drives to Cumberland, (40 miles), helps in the Sunday school and preaches for them, then returns back to Accident that evening, making 80 miles in the round trip, all voluntarily. He says that he will try to hold on until we can come to his relief. Praise the Lord for such Home Mission enthusiasm! Following is a copy of the Petition signed by 53 mem- bers of the Church of the Brethren living in Cumberland :-
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"Cumberland, Md., November 20, 1922.
"To DISTRICT MISSION BOARD OF WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA;
"Greeting :- We the members of the Church of the Brethren of Cumberland, Maryland, hereby request you to consider the question of opening and maintaining a Mission Church in Cumberland under your supervision .- Signed as indicated above."
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