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ANCIENT

AND

HISTORIC LANDMARKS

IN THE

Lebanon Valley.

rev. f\ C. CROLL.

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PHILADELPHIA:

LUTHERAN PUBLICATION SOCIETY.

1895.

302736

by the

LUTHERAN PUBLICATION SOCIETY

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CONTENTS

PAGE

Preface 7

Introduction, by Rev. W. H. Dunbar, D. D 9

CHAPTER I.

A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE LEBANON VALLEY.

An imaginary excursion— Motive — First settlement — Weekly
trips — A bird's-eye view of territory — Beauty and richness of
Valley — A goodly remnant of historic relics in the form of
churches, graveyards, Indian forts, mills and homesteads . 13-17

CHAPTER II.

CONRAD WEISER'S HOMESTEAD AND GRAVE.

Exploration begun — A sacred shrine — The Weiser home and pres-
ent ownership — A noted marriage — The Weiser burial plot —
Its illustrious visitors — Brief sketch of Weiser 18-25

CHAPTER II r.

MIDDLETOWN, ALIAS WOMELSDORF.

Location and founding— Old streets and buildings — Its churches
and schools — Old business center — Its graveyards— Worthy
old families 26-37

CHAPTER IV.

THE FIRST CHURCH IN THE VALLEY.
Location of this historic shrine— Old landmarks en route— A cen-
tury and three-quarters of local church history — Old graves. 3S-49

CHAPTER V.

THE SECOND 1ULFEHOCKEN CHURCH.

Church controversy — A new congregation — History of this flock —

An ancient graveyard 50-57

CHAPTER VI.

AN INTERESTING OLD MANSE.
One hundred and fifty years of pastoral family history — Revs.

Wagner, Kurtz, Schultze, Ulrich, Eggers, Mayser and Long. 58-65

CHAPTER VII.
A WELL-PRESERVED INDIAN FORT.
Location and erection — A glimpse of Colonial times — The fort's

history — Present ownership 66-72

(iii)

iy CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAPTER VIII.

AN ANTIQUATED VILLAGE.

A burg of the ancient times — Old trades and houses — Brief his-
tory of village— Some good fruit 73 - 8o

CHAPTER IX.

AN OLD INDIAN TRAIL.

A tramp with Indians — A mountain "Klu/V — Wealth at base and
on top — An eagle's eyrie — Famous Lutheran pioneers here
gathered 81-88

CHAPTER X.

CRADLE OF RELIGIOUS SECTS.
The Mill Creek Valley — The birth of various denominations— An

historic hamlet — Indian relics 89-97

CHAPTER XL

A DOUBLE FOUNTAIN HEAD.

Rise of two streams — The "Albright's" Denomination — Memor-
ial church — Grave of a bishop — Other graves 98-107

CHAPTER XII.

THE COUNTY'S OLDEST TOWN.

Founding of Schaefferstown— Early history — A graveyard as ob-
servatory — Landscape— Old roads — First public water works
in United States 108-115

CHAPTER XIII.

AMONG OLD GRAVES AND BUILDINGS.

Old graves and quaint tomb-stones — Homes of the early peas-
antry — Old times in vogue — Interesting local church his-
tory 116-127

CHAPTER XIV.

THE TULPEHOCKEN REFORMED CHURCH.

Back to the Tulpehocken — The early Reformed settlers — Church

history — Record of pastors — Colonial heroes — Old graves. 128-136

CHAPTER XV.

AN HOUR WITH REFORMED PASTORS.

A personal review— Sketches of the Tulpehocken pastors — The

Leinbachs 137-148

CHAPTER XVI.

A STROLL ALONG THE TULPEHOCKEN.
Angling — Old homesteads — The Breittenbach Indian Fort . . 149-155

CONTENTS. V

PAGE

CHAPTER XVII.

TULPEHOCKENTOWN, ALIAS MYERSTOWN.

Naming towns — Sketch of Myers, the founder — Old relics — For-
mer famous citizens — A future Governor — Local history 156-165

CHAPTER XVIII.

A \VAI,K OVER HISTORIC GROUND.

Planting of new churches — Old families — Where Gov. Shultze
found a wife — Fine old homestead, once a retreat of Wash-
ington's — Other old homes 166-177

CHAPTER XIX.

ENCAMPED NEAR LEBANON.

A halt of excursionists — Historic ground— Family history— His-
tory of a canal — Historic highways 178-186

CHAPTER XX.

THE HEBRON MORAVIAN CHURCH.

Scripture nomenclature — Mission work and planting of churches —
History of a church — Valuable records — A Revolutionary
Prison 187-199

CHAPTER XXI.

A WALK ABOUT STEITZTOWN.

Early homes about Lebanon — Moravian headquarters — Old burial
plot — Light's Fort — Other old homesteads — Poem of local
history 200-213

CHAPTER XXII.

MT. TABOR REFORMED CHURCH.

Local history ecclesiastically enshrined — Familiar local names —

Zealous church workers — Record of pastors ...... 214-225

CHAPTER XXIII.

FACE TO FACE WITH PAST WORTHIES.

Graveyard reflections in June— Sketches of pastors and influen-
tial lay-members sleeping side by side 226-237

CHAPTER XXIV.

A HALT ON MARKET SQUARE.

Lebanon's busy mart — Local Revolutionary history — Old home-
steads lining Square — Family history 238-250

VI CONTEXTS.

PAGE

CHAPTER XXV.

A HALT OX MARKET SQUARE, CONTINUED.

More historic homes — Famous men and visits — Local history and

genealogy * 251-261

CHAPTER XXVI.

SALEM LUTHERAN CHURCH AND GRAVEYARD.
Early Lutheran history — Local church leaders— Old church rel-
ics — Record of pastors — Old graves 262-276

CHAPTER XXVII.

OUR EXIT VIA OLD CUMBERLAND ST. TO GLONIGER'S FORT.

Interesting local history on every hand — Where was Steitz's

house?— Gloninger's Fort — A famous family 277-289

CHAPTER XXVIII.

A VALUABLE LIBRARY HISTORICALLY HOUSED.

Charms of a library— A collection of rare old books— Historic

quarters .... 290-299

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE REV. JOHN CASPER STOEVER HOMESTEAD.

Location and erection — Biographical sketch — Interesting events

here transpired — Present ownership 300-307

CHAPTER XXX.

A VISIT TO THE HILL CHURCH.

History of congregation — Her pastors — An old rural "God's

acre" — Grave of Pastor Stoever— Other graves 308-315

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE STOEVER MONUMENT.
A memorial shaft erected — Unveiling— "Memorial poem . . . 316-322

CHAPTER XXXIL

A GLIMPSE OF ANNVILLE.

The Gem of the Valley — Local history— Dark pages— Old home-
steads — Leading names — Church work — A final leave-
taking 323-334

PREFACE.

The author desires to say to his gentle reader that
when he began to pen the contents of this volume he
had no desire to write a book. Seeing a volume of
interesting local history lie at his feet, he began to open
it and read. Then he became inclined to impart the
information gained unto others, and hence chose as his
vehicle one of the daily papers of his own city. In The
Daily Report appeared, for seven months, from January
to August, 1894, in consecutive order, under the nom
de plume of " Kristofer Kolumbo," these weekly con-
tributions. They soon attracted attention, and wher-
ever among readers the author's name became known,
he was besought to gather the material into permanent
and convenient form. He has therefore no apology to
make for its appearance in this way. He has but
yielded to a general local demand to preserve what his-
toric matter these fugitive sketches may contain.

To aid the general reader now undertaking this im-
aginary historical pilgrimage, a number of illustrations
have been secured for these pages. The letters the author
prefers to stand substantially as they were first written,
asking simply that the reader bear in mind that they are

(vii)

VI 11 PREFACE.

"Letters." If they should induce any one to make an
actual pilgrimage to this ancient settlement, to see for
himself these landmarks and study them "face to face,"
the writer entertains no fear of ever hearing any regrets
from such an one for the undertaking.

The article on Womelsdorf is here inserted in its
proper place, though it was last written, and this ac-
counts for its midsummer flavor, the season when these
contributions were brought to their termination.

We hope new readers may find something to please
and instruct.

Lebanon, Pa., March, 189$-

INTRODUCTION.

This book commends itself. Its publication is in
response to a demand. Its contents were first published
in a series of articles in a Lebanon daily paper. The
reading of these articles created much interest, and
resulted in a general desire to have the material in
more permanent form. It was the expression of this
desire, mainly, that led the modest author to the idea
of the book.

The book will be read with more than ordinary
interest. It is the story of the early settlement of
central Pennsylvania. The story is told in a sprightly
way that makes it attractive. The material was gath-
ered with much labor, and substantiated by personal
investigation. It contains many incidents in the early
history of this section, both in its secular affairs and in
its church work, not elsewhere to be found.

The book will be valuable as a reference. The sec-
tion of territory which it covers was the scene of some
of the most important events in the early settlement of
the State. Associated with them is the name of Conrad
Weiser. If the life and deeds of this man were properly
known, his name would scarcely stand second to any in

2 (ix)

X INTRODUCTION.

the roll of worthies of the Commonwealth. He was the
valued associate and adviser of men high in authority
in affairs civil and ecclesiastical. Many of these events
have no record. They exist simply in traditions handed
down from generation to generation. With the lapse
of time these are becoming dim and indistinct. It is
important that they should have a record in permanent
form.

The book can not fail to be of interest, not only to
those now living in this section, but also to those who
have eon e forth from it to settle other sections. The

descendants of the people who took part in these scenes
are to be found in every part of the country. They fill
all ranks of life. Many of them have inherited and
carried with them the spirit of their earnest and daring
ancestors, and have become leaders in thought and life
and enterprise in their chosen communities. This
book ought to be in the hands of every man and woman
who traces back ancestrv to the earlv settlers of central
Pennsylvania.

The book opens a field that is rich in material and
that ought to be developed. Its publication is timely.
The Lutheran Publication Society is to be commended
for giving it to the general public. The Pennsylvania
German has been altogether too modest. Conservative
almost to a fault, he has not cared to herald his deeds
to fame. By reason of this same conservatism, he has
furnished to our social, civil and ecclesiastical life, an
element of stability and strength. We have the record

INTRODUCTION. XI

in detail of the history of the New England settle-
ments. We rejoice in it as a common heritage of
glory. The New Englander is properly proud of his
Puritan ancestry. When once the record of our Penn-
sylvania settlements shall be given in detail, we will

* O 7

have reason to be equally proud of our German ances-
try.

We rejoice in the organization of the "Pennsylvania
German Society." It has a history back of it which
ought to inspire the most devout enthusiasm. It has a
high and holy duty to perform in creating new interest
in that history. We commend this book to the mem-
bers of this society. Its contents will be an impetus to
more extended research. Its reading ought to lead
some gifted historian to take up and follow the lines
here laid down, and to put in permanent and systematic
form the records of the deeds of these brave and devoted
people to whom we owe so much.

To those interested in the history of the Lutheran
Church in this country these sketches will be of special
value. Directly or indirectly, the events are very closely
identified or connected with the church-life of the time.
It is interesting to note how one of the first acts of the
German settlers was to establish a church. It is signifi-
cant to note how that church became the center of the
life of the settlement. There are many facts here re-
corded of very great interest in the annals of our early
church history.

The peculiar value of the book consists in the fact

XI 1 INTRODUCTION.

that it gives us glimpses of the inner home-life and
church-life of the time. We see the godly pastor mak-
ing his way among the scattered settlements, visiting
the widely separated homes, sitting with the family
gathered around the unpretentious board. "We see the
congregation gathering from their distant homes, as-
sembling in the plain and comfortless, yet to them none
the less sacred structures, to worship God and to listen
in reverent attention to the preached truth. Now and
then there comes a revelation of the devout spirit and
the sturdy piety and the rugged faith of these people.
It will do us good to recall and study these times, to
catch some of the spirit of earnestness and simplicity in

life and devotion.

W. H. Dcnbar.
Baltimore, March, 18C5.

ANCIENT AND HISTORICAL

Landmarks in the Lebanon Valley.

CHAPTER I.

A bird's-eye view of the valley.

I propose to lead my readers in a leisurely conducted
excursion through the rich and well-cultivated valley,
which furnishes a general and, we trust, a happy home
to most of them. The object of these rambles shall be
to lead to the historic and the antique, in which this
locality abounds, if indeed anything may be called an-
cient in this our western country, save its rocks and
hills, its forests and its water-ways.

Although it is less than two centuries since our
present blooming valley was still the exclusive do-
minion of the Indians and their sometimes less savage
neighbors, the wild beasts, and only since that time that
the foot of the white settler first stepped upon its soil,
yet we are wont to speak of the rude relics left us by
these first settlers — our ancestors — as ancient. Their
primitive structures — whether they be houses or barns,
churches or forts, mills or furnaces — over which a hun-

(r 3 )

14 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

dred and fifty years or more of varied weather has beaten
down, many of which have clustering about them in-
teresting and important facts of history, while some
bid fair to defy the gnawing tooth of time for another
equally lengthy period — these ancient relics hold for us
an enticing charm, and it is in quest of them that we
shall undertake our pilgrimage.

We shall take our weekly strolls on successive Satur-
days, partly because it furnishes a half-holiday to many
toilers, whom we would fain have accompany us, and
because it enables the rising generation, our school
children, for whose especial benefit these excursions
are taken, to join the party. For we shall take these
rambles now, while the schools are in session, in the
hope that when vacation comes it may lead some
bands of bright historians or juvenile "Old Mortalitys 7 '
to visit these spots in reality, and retrace anew the fad-
ing epitaphs upon the moss- covered sandstones that
mark the resting places of our earliest local pioneers.
Therefore, as our present trip is taken in imagination's
chariot, we shall allow no interruptions to interfere with
this weekly trip, though l '01d Prob." should decree to
take vengeance upon us and impede our way with snow-
banks or howling blizzards before the wintry season be
o'er. Our flying Pegasus must carry us over all these.
Only the touch of Providence upon the hand of the guide
can stay his pencil, which shall serve as our wand.

Before we undertake the journey, however, we will
take a bird's-eye glimpse of the territory we are about to

A bird's-eye view. 15

traverse. It is possible that most of our readers have
before gone up and down our Lebanon Valley from Read-
ing to Harrisburg. Perhaps they took their trip in pri-
vate conveyance, or stage-coach, or old-fashioned "tally-
ho," over the well-kept turnpike, that has for 78 years
conducted visitors in rumbling coaches through the very
heart of this district. Perhaps they have taken a trip
on some canal-boat that formerly plied its way along the
circuitous route of the Union canal, the first to be oper-
ated in America, and abandoned only in 1884. Many,
I know, have employed that more modern and speedy
and comfortable mode of locomotion, the Philadelphia
and Reading express train, and have been whirled
through this garden land of our State. It is possible
that some have taken this trip afoot, and others still
have wheeled through it on a Victor or a Columbia.
Future travelers will doubtless make the journey by
electricity, perhaps at no distant day on wheels, when
the Lebanon and Annville street railway shall extend its
lines to either terminus, or on wings, when Mr. Edison
shall have completed his electrical flying-machine.

But to-day we shall soar upwards with the eagle.
Having: no balloon at hand larQ;c enough to accommo-
date my many passengers, I shall ask each one grace-
fully to spread the pinions of his fancy while we soar
away to the height of a few hundred yards, and look
down upon our bustling valley as the swallows and the
eagles do in summer. And we shall imagine it to be
summer, to see the country clothed in its harvest riches

l6 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

and glory, as the writer saw it some years since, from
one of the highest peaks that hem it in on the south.

And now look to the east and west, to the north and
south! What a magnificent country lies beneath you!
Above the din of its noises let the valley's enrapturing
beauty and boundless magnificence transport your soul!
Let the extensive picture daguerreotype itself upon your
mind and heart! What an empire of fertile farms! On
and on the billowy fields are rolling, clad in the wealth
of emerald beauty! On and on the terrestrial billows of
this sea are flowing, one farm lashing against another,
until ten miles to the north it strikes against its Blue
Mountain promontory, while to the south this agricul-
tural sea breaks itself up in green undulations of wood-
land against the spurs of our South Mountain range.
Between the Schuylkill on the east and the Susque-
hanna on the west there is no break or limit to our
vision. Bevond these borders, even, the eve can discern
mountain ranges in the hazy distance.

But what do we see in this broad expanse beneath our
feet? Immediately beneath us lies the queen of the val-
ley, the proud young city of Lebanon itself, with a girdle
of industries around her waist, alas ! now in part idle,
and a crown of copper and iron upon her Cornwallian
brow, alas ! now so poorly burnished ! Around this en-
throned queen, on every hand, extending far as the eye
can see, lie the rich and improved acres of our people,
the best legacy which our German sires have left their
sons and descendant heirs. The log cabins of the first

a bird's-eye view. 17

settlers have in most instances been displaced by com-
modious farm-houses, many of them palatial structures
of stone or brick, whose domestic comfort and attraction
lure the most fastidious. And what barns ! No com-
munity on earth can boast of finer and larger barns than
these "Switzers" of our Lebanon valley Pennsylvania-
German georgic princes. Yet such is the skill of this
king of farmers, the Pennsylvania-German, that even
these gigantic storehouses are often known to overflow
with farm products, and rows of hive-shaped stacks of
hay and grain have to be set near by, as so many senti-
nels to o-uard the rich farm treasures.

Studding this vallev, from the east to the west, are
still preserved a sufficient number of significant land-
marks to make our pilgrimage interesting. These are
in the form of old churches and cemeteries, Indian forts
and ancient dwellings, battlefields and illustrious graves,
which we shall visit with sacred veneration, and by the
aid of our magic wand call up the dead from their graves,
re-people the old dwellings, and, in short, rehabilitate
the old scenes with actors and environments of a genera-
tion that has passed away long ago. We shall cover es-
pecially that district now included in the limits of
Lebanon countv or bordering close thereto. So, if vou
will join the party, gentle reader, be ready for our first
tramp just a week from now. Until then, and in the
hope of your landing upon terra firma from your aerial
flight, more safely than did the famous Darius Green with
his flying machine, we will separate for a brief season.

CHAPTER II.

CONRAD WEISER'S HOMESTEAD AND GRAVE.

Well, here we meet again ! Our flying steed has
been restlessly pawing up the air for a week, eager to
make the first trip of exploration promised in my former
communication. So, if all my passengers are ready, I
shall give the word to start. Therefore, all aboard, and
we'll be off.

Inasmuch as we shall confine our excursions, for the
present at least, as nearly as is practicable, to the terri-
tory covered by our present county limits, we will take
our first trip eastward, and begin our research just be-
yond the county-line, and from thence work upward
and westward toward home. I shall, therefore, to-day
lead my readers to the almost sacred shrine of the pre-
sent resting-place and former home of that famous,
heroic, and many-sided and gifted pioneer of this val-
ley, whose name deserves easily to stand first among
the illustrious ancestors of this later generation, Conrad
Weiser. Were due justice given this German hero and
patriot, his name would doubtless stand among the first
which our State has chosen to blazon upon her scroll of
honor.

Our best way to reach this historic spot is by taking

(18)

CONRAD WEISER'S HOMESTEAD AND GRAVE. 19

the well-kept pike and keeping on, until 14 miles to the
East, we come to Womelsdorf, one of the first built
towns of this valley, and about fifty years ago a most
prosperous place of business, its stores then rivaling
those of Reading. Passing through this borough and a
quarter of a mile beyond, we come to a lane leading to
the right, where, just across a meadow-field, cluster the
capacious farm dwellings of the Weiser Homestead, now

»-""■■ ■■■■■

■■' — ■■■ ■■ ■

CONRAD WEISER'S HOMESTEAD.

in the possession and occupancy of Mr. John Marshall.
This courteous gentleman will be glad to show us what
is of such intense interest here. First he will show us
the old stone dwelling, which Weiser built early in the

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

last century, but still kept intact. Although it is kept
as a wash and slaughter-house, and for general storage
purposes, yet we wander through it with bated breath.
Curiosity holds sway over us as we travel from garret to
basement, whither these early Tulpehocken settlers fled

ANOTHER VIEW OF THECON'RAD WEISER HOMESTEAD.

for refuge, and where we find a huge Queen Anne
mantel-piece of solid oak, still as in the days when Maria
Weiser (Conrad's eldest daughter, who later became the
wife of that patriarch of the American Lutheran Church,
Heinrich Melchoir Muhlenberg), there kindled the fires.
We look at the quaint old structure with its low door,

CONRAD WEISER'S HOMESTEAD AND GRAVE. 21

and almost imagine this illustrious pair coming forth as
bride and groom on that day in 1745, when they went
to the Tulpehocken Lutheran parsonage, to be united
in the sacred bonds of matrimony, by the pastor, Rev.
Tobias Wagner.

We repair to the present farm house, and are glad,
among other relics, to look at a parchment deed or pat-
ent of land given the original settler bv the Penu heirs
John, Richard and Thomas Penn. Then we walk to
the sacred spot that holds the dust of the illustrious and
pious German pioneer of this valley. A plain sandstone
is the only marker this grave has, though we are glad
to say that an effort is now on foot by the public schools
of Berks county, headed by its energetic Superintendent,
Prof. W. M. Zechman, to put up at an early day a suit-
able monument to Weiser's honor in the city of Read-
ing. This movement has been seconded by the Board
of Trade of Reading, and by the Pennsylvania-German
Society at its last annual meeting. It thus bids fair
soon to be realized.

The Weiser burial plot is a patch of ground about
forty feet square, not more than fifty yards removed
from the old house, on a slight elevation of ground in
the midst of a thriving orchard of apple trees. Here lie
buried possibly a dozen different members of the Weiser
family, together with a few Indians. Only the tomb-
stone of Conrad and his wife (rather that of the wife of
a sou by the same name, as dates do not correspond with
the marriage of the elder Conrad with his Anna Eva,

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY

whom tradition will make out to have been a squaw)
are found remaining. Other graves are marked by
broken or well-nigh buried lime-stone slabs. The epi-

COXRA.D WEISER'S GRAVE.

taph on Mr. Weiser's tombstone, recently retraced from
its fading indistinctness under the ravages of Father
Time's influences for nearly a century and a half, reads
follows:

CONRAD WEISER'S HOMESTEAD AND GRAVE. 23

Dieses ist

die Rube Staette

des weyl Ebren

Geachten M. CON-

RADI WEISERS. Der-

selbige GebohreN

1696 D. 2 November

in ASTAET im Amt

HerreNBerg, in Wit-

tenberger LANDE.

Und Gestorben

1760 D. 13 Jnlius.

Ist Alt Worden

64 Jabr 3 M. 3 W. 6 T.

This grave has been visited by many men and women
since that eminent man was buried here, 134 years ago.
Hither the illustrious families of Weiser and Muhlen-
berg and Shulze (including the once Governor of Penn-
sylvania) and other descendants of fame have made their
pilgrimages in respect to a worthy sire. But perhaps
the most illustrious personage that ever visited the spot
was President George Washington, who, during his
second term of office, visited Womelsdorf and this
grave, coining from Philadelphia. It was on November
13 and 14, 1793, spending the intervening night in Wom-
elsdorf, where he was serenaded by the citizens on the
evening of the 13th. The reply to this greeting of the
citizens is still preserved, and can be found in Rupp's
history. The visit to Conrad Weiser's grave was made
on the morning of the 14th, we think, and doubtless
with due thought of, perhaps in company with the

24 LANDMARKS OF THE LEBANON VALLEY.

illustrious grandson of Weiser, General Peter Muhlen-
berg, who, in various battles of the Revolution gave
such gallant and signal service to the great leader of
the colonial forces.

It would be interesting to lead the reader into the very
interesting sketch of this Pennsylvania German leader in
church and civil affairs, but we are rather interested now
in historic landmarks than in biography. Besides, the
general reader knows the honored role this man played.
Let it suffice to say that our State furnished no character,
not even the illustrious Franklin excepted, with whom
he was frequently associated in public service, who, in
that colonial period of our history, did so much for the
amicable settlement of land disputes with the aboriginal
Indians as Weiser did. Where Penn made one famous
treaty, this man made scores, only alas ! for the poor
German's future reputation, they were never blazoned
so conspicuously on the pages of our histories. In every
significant dispute or settlement of lands with the In-
dians from Albany, N. Y. , to Richmond, Va. , between
1732 and 1760, it is safe in assuming that Conrad Weiser
played a prominent part. Now we find him with Benja-
min Franklin, at Albany, N. Y., attending the first con-
ference for Colonial Federation ; now with Governor
Dinwiddie, of Virginia, settling a dispute and acting as
Indian interpreter. Again we see him settling church
disputes and healing factions in his own Tulpehocken
Lutheran field ; and then he travels with Count Zinzen-
dorf to Shamokin (now Sunbury) and aids in the estab-

CONRAD WEISER 1 S HOMESTEAD AND GRAVE. 25

lishment of a Christian mission there among the Indians.
At one time he is at the head of a regiment of German
farmers, armed with flint-locks, pitch-forks, etc., march-
ing against the invading French and Indian foes, and
leading them all through the length of our valley from
Reading to the Susquehanna. At another time he is in
correspondence with Governor Morris for state aid and
protection. Now he is a plain farmer in his Heidelberg
homestead, which was a landmark already in 1740, and
known on old maps simply as ' l Weisers ;" then we find
him as merchant or jurist in the city of Reading, or else
assisting in laying out its streets.

So, while we turn away from this grave, w T e know we
have stood above the dust of a truly great man, for
whose life our German people especially, and all the
State as well, should ever feel a profound respect and
grateful indebtedness.

In the next chapter we shall pay a visit to the ancient
town of Womelsdorf, founded by a relative of Weiser,
and located on the edge of Weiser' s original farm.

CHAPTER III.

MIDDLETOWN ALIAS WOMELSDORF.

Less than half a mile to the west of Conrad Weiser's
homestead and grave, situated on part of this pioneer's
original farm of one thousand acres, and on the Berks
and Dauphin turnpike, well shaded by an abundance of
lindens and other copiously foliaged trees, nestles the
healthy and handsome little town of Womelsdorf,
formerly known as Middletown, because situated mid-
way between the early advancing and out-striding towns
of Reading and Lebanon. It is laid out on rolling
ground, thus enabling the slightest rain to carry off
everv vestige of filth and decav from its streets into a
streamlet of purest spring-water that flows by its base,
and because of which superior surface drainage, it enjoys
the reputation of being one of the healthiest towns in
Eastern Pennsvlvania. Its streets are resailarlv laid out,
and the chief of them are lined with comfortable, and
in a few instances, with elegant and palatial residences.
These qualities, together with its quiet and its beautiful
rural scenery and its close proximity to the mountains,
(a spur of the South Mountain Ridge), and its many
springs of excellent water, have made it a rendezvous in
summer months for a considerable number of former

(26)

MIDDLETOWN ALIAS WOMELSDORF. 2J

residents and their friends, who, when the dog-days
drive them from their sweltering city homes, hie away
to its cool abodes and shady streets. Thus it comes that
modern Womelsdorf is quite a summer resort, and that
every year a certain increasing number of pilgrims (the
scions of old residents here), wend their pilgrimage to-
wards this Mecca, and enroll themselves among its mid-
summer guests. Nor have these anv cause to regret
their choice, based upon any inferiority in the social or
intellectual qualities of its present citizens.

So much for modern Womelsdorf. But we seek to
explore the olden village of Middletown, and must,
therefore, enter its ancient highway and walk along its
original thoroughfares. An old map shows that one of
the first roads of this portion of the county led from the
Schuylkill Ford (where Reading now is located) to
Weiser's, and past his residence on beyond the Blue
Mountains, by way of Rehrersburg on to Sunbury. This
road led past the Conrad Weiser home, just one field's
breadth south of the present pike, and entered the town,
as now built, through the corner lot of Mrs. Rev. Chas.
Leinbach, obliquely across the pike where Mr. Fogel-
man's residence is now located, past an old hostelry
that used to stand on the fine lot of Mr. Harry Fidler,
on across present building lots to wmere the present
Rehrersburg road branches off from Franklin or "Blue"
street. From this main thoroughfare two streets ran
north and south, known by the suggestive names of

Schmalz-gass" and "Gnocken-strose. " Along these

i. t

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY

old streets are found to-day the oldest architectural
landmarks in the shape of low, one-roomed, one-storied
log cabins. Some of them have been repaired and re-
modelled into convenient and more modern looking
homes, while a few have been left undisturbed under
the ravaging" influence of time and weather since their

SCHMALZ-GASS, WOMELSDORF.

first erection, more than a century and a quarter ago.
One of the best specimens of this latter class is the di-
lapidated log-hut at the corner of Franklin street and
Rehrersburg road, at present owned and occupied by
Mrs. Williams, a soldier's widow, and another widow

MIDDLETOWN ALIAS WOMFXSDORF.

2 9

woman by the name of McDonough. The most inter-
esting historic association attached to this old building
is the fact that the same is pointed out as the place
where the celebrated Baron Henry W. Stiegel, of Man-
heim fame, when reduced in his worldly circumstances,
ended his days in poverty, teaching an old-time school.

THE STIEGEI, SCHOOL HOUSE, WOMELSDORF.

It is said that the Rev. John Nicholas Kurtz, of Tulpe-
hocken, knowing the worth of the man, secured him
this position. It is known also that this once wealthy
and philanthrophic Baronial prince served as clerk, and
either with, or before, or for Mr. Ege, carried on the
Charming Forge (on the Tulpehocken) and the Reading

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY

Furnace (now the Robesonia Furnace). The Baron
sleeps his last sleep in an unmarked grave of the Corner
(Eck) church, north of Robesonia, while Mr. Ege rests
in the Womelsdorf cemetery, with a humble stone
marking the spot.

Another old landmark is the stone house next the

THE SELTZER HOUSE, WOMELSDORF.

Lauck's mill in the eastern end of town, now occupied
and owned by Mr. Isaac S. Bechtold. It was built in
1756. Another is the Seltzer House, one of the few
hotels of the place. It is built of solid limestone, origi-
nally but two stories high, but since enlarged, and
occupies a conspicuous place along its main street at

MIDDLETOWX ALIAS WOMELSDORF. 3 1

the head of a diamond-shaped town square. It is said
to be the oldest bnilt house of the town, and claims to
have lodged General Washington on one of his visits to
this place. Certain it is that President Washington
lodged here on the night of November 13, 1793, but two
other hotels make rival claims for the honor of having
furnished this shelter, viz., the Central Hotel, a public
house at present kept by Mr. Isaac Y. Kintzer, and a
former log hostelry known as the Middletown Hotel,
occupying the lot on which now stands Mr. H. P. Fid-
ler's handsome residence. It is quite probable that the
illustrious General made several stoppages here, and
that more than one of these old hotels had the honor of
entertaining this distinguished guest. It is certain that
in 1838 President Martin Van Buren, passing through
town, breakfasted at the Seltzer House.

The town itself was laid out about 1767 by John
Womelsdorf, who was either a son-in-law or grand-son-
in-law of Conrad Weiser. There are old persons still
living, among others Mr. and Mrs. Michael Kalbach,
octogenarians and life-long residents here (she being a
daughter of Peter W T omelsdorf, Esq., a soldier in the
war of 1812-15, and a grand-daughter of the founder of
the town), who claim the former, but investigation into
Conrad Weiser's family record disputes this claim and
confirms the latter opinion. These aged informants
recently helped the writer on the track of finding the
original manuscript autobiography of Conrad Weiser,
which contains most valuable historic and genealogical

32 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

information, and from which a careful transcript was
made. This account places the matter of John Womels-
dorf marrying a daughter of Conrad Weiser in great
doubt, and therefore almost settles the question of his
marriage to a orand-daug-hter.

This being part of the Tulpehocken settlement, all
its first residents worshiped either at the Reed or the
other Tulpehocken churches, or else later at the Heidel-
berg or Bck's church, until the year 1793, when the
first church of the town was erected. After this date
most of the surrounding community worshiped here
and buried their dead on the first graveyard here laid
out. Hence, we find many of the old settlers here
sleeping their last long sleep. The original walls of
the Union (Lutheran and Reformed) church edifice are
still standing, the building itself having undergone
several remodelings. Last year the united congrega-
tions celebrated the centennial of its erection and pub-
lished a brief historical sketch, from which it appears
that this church was served from 1793-1809, on the
Lutheran side by Rev. C. Emanuel Schultze, for a few
years assisted by his son, J. Andrew, afterwards Gover-
nor of the State.

Other Lutheran pastors :

Rev. \Ym. Baetes 1810-1811

Rev. Daniel Ulrich 1811-1851

Rev. Thomas T. Yaeger 1851-1855

Rev. Aug. Theo. Geissenhainer 1855-1856

Rev. Lewis G. Eggers 1856- (?)

MIDDLETOWX ALIAS WOMELSDORF. 33

Rev. Jeff. M. Dietzler (?) -1865

Rev. Aaron Finfrock 1865-1891

Rev. W. W. Kramlich 1892-date

The Reformed pastors were the following :

Rev. Wilhelm Hendel, D. D 1 793-1829

Rev. Frederick A Herman 1829-1834

Rev. Charles A. Pauli 1834-1855

Rev. Jacob D. Zehring 1 855-1860

Rev. George Wolf, D. D 1S61-1S79

Rev. David U. Wolf . . . . 1879-1881

Rev. Lewis D. Steckel 1881-1883

Rev. Levi D. Stambaugh 1884-date

Of all these pastors, the body of Dr. Hendel is the
only one bnried here. He sleeps near the church door
bv the side of his wife, suitable stones marking the
spot. He was quite a power in the pulpit, and in the
ranks of the Reformed ministry, in his day. The sec-
ond Reformed pastor was a native of Germantown, and
one of five brothers in the Reformed ministry. They
were long independent of Synodical ties, but formed
with others a sort of "Free Synod. " To this pastor
the common remark, indicative of correct preaching
but somewhat inconsistent living, is traced as author,
viz.: "Folget meinen Worten und nicht meinen
Werken."

A stroll over the old cemetery shows us the names of
old residents, long passed away, chiseled in fading epi-
taphs on crumbling sandstone or erasive marble, and
the experience is somewhat like turning the pages of an

34 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

album containing the pictures of old-time friends.
Among these names are such as Fidler, Laucks, Leben-
guth, Sallade, Buck, Moore, Tryon, Seibert, Kalbach,
Bennethum, Schultze, Leiss, Ritschhart (Richard),
Rieth (Reed), Ege, Ulrich, Stouch, Eckert, Ermen-
trout, Weiser, Womelsdorf, Stites, etc. We found here
the graves of a few children of Governor Shulze, who at
one time resided in town, and also that of his brother
Frederick, for years a successful merchant of this town.
We arrange here a number of the oldest tomb-stone
records, abbreviated, as it may serve some genealogical
purpose some day, and be convenient for reference :

i. W. S., 1728, U. S., 1799.

2. Robert Woods [M. D.], B. 1765, D. [810.

3. Jabetz Weiser, B. 1753, D. 1S29. He was blind last years of

life. His wife, Marialis Weiser, a born Wengert, B. 1754,
D. 1835.

4. Anna Catharine Saleade, wife of Nicholas, B. 1727, D. 1806.

5. Christofer Ermentrout, B. 1754, D. 1S25. Also Daniel Er-

mentrout, B. 179S, D. 1836, and Samnel (son of Samuel and
Maria Ermentrout,) B. 1835, D. 1838, and Maria Magdalena,
born Moyer, wife of Johannes Ermentrout, B. 1774, D. 1846.

6. George Ege, B. 1748, D. 1829. His wife Elizabeth, born Uber-

feld, B. 1746, D. 1831. Also a son, Michael Ege, and his wife,

A. M. Margaret. She was a daughter of Frederick A. Shultze.
Another daughter of Shultze, Harriet, was married to John
Ermentrout, of Reading, whose daughter, an invalid, is deeply
interested in history and genealogical lore.

7. Magdela Ritschard (Richard), a born Reber, wife of John R.,

B. 1765, D. 1829.

8. Peter B. Eckert, son of Peter and Susanna E., B. 1805, D.

MIDDLETOWN ALIAS WOMELSDORF. 35

1824. David Eckert, sou of Peter and Susanna E., B. 1795,

D. 1825.

9. Frederick A. Shui/tze, son of Rev. Emanuel S., B. 1777, D.
1836. Maria R. Shultze, his wife, a born Hiester. Catharine

E. Shultze, his sister, daughter of Rev. Emanuel S., B. 1782,
D. 1845. Elizabeth Shultze, daughter of (S. M.). Andreas
Shultze, B. 1802, D. 1802.

10. Jacob Sei/tzer, B. 1732, D. 1788.

11. Elizabeth Weiser, daughter of Benj. and Cath. Weiser, B.

1801, D. 1803.

12. John Bennethum. B. 1765, D 1828, and wife, Maria Barbara, a

born Minnig, and son George.

13. Peter Womeesdorf (son of John), B. 1787, D. 1843.

14. Rev. Wm. Hendee, D. D., oldest son of Rev. John William and

Elizabeth H., a born DeRoy, B. 1768, preached 50 years, D.
1846. Revs. J. C. Bucher and Thos. Leinbach officiated.

Here also is the burial place of Conrad Stouch, born
1757, died 1840, who with Calder, of Harrisburg, owned
the old-time stage line between Reading and Harris-
burg, for whom Peter Kahl, of Lebanon, was a long
familiar stage driver. He used to be proprietor of the
Central Hotel.

Other old congregations of town were the Presbyter-
ian, Universalist, New Lutheran and Evangelical, all of
which are now defunct, save the last named. The most
prominent adherents of the Universalist church were
the Longeneckers, the Manderbachs (then keeping a
hotel and summer resort at the Springs, where now the
Bethany Orphans' Home is located), the Von Neidas,
and others. Its first pastor, Rev. Mr. Longenecker, lies
buried on the Union cemetery. The church, which was

36 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

a branch of the one at Reading, never prospered, and
after some years the congregation was obliged to dis-
band. So have the other churches disbanded and
merged their membership with the two or three now
existing congregations.

The town enjoyed the distinction of being a far-famed
business place at the end of the first quarter of this cen-
tury. This was the case immediately after the opening
of the Union canal, and for a decade or two afterwards
it rivalled Reading itself as a business centre. Not less
than ten flourishing stores were then found here, which
drew their custom for many miles around. These were
kept by the Moores, the Eckerts, Fred. A. Schultze,
Hirsch, etc. The Ermentrouts (ancestors of the Judge
of Berks county, and the other Reading Ermentrouts),
and other parties here carried on a flourishing business
in hat-making.

YVomelsdorf has also been noted for its eminent medi-
cal men. The Tryons of several generations, and the
Livingoods of at least three generations, the first of
whom was a student and married the daughter of Dr.
Michael Tryon (whose wife was Elizabeth Seltzer, and
is buried here), the father of Drs. James C. and Louis A.
Eivingood, have given this town a reputation for its
prominence in the medical science for a century past.
Other doctors have been here to add to this reputation,
such as Drs. Wood and Moore and Sallade and others.

At present, and for some time past, the chief industry
here is cigar manufacturing, which has flourished in

MIDDLETOWN ALIAS WOMELSDORF. 37

such hands as those of the well-known firms of A. S.
Valentine & Son, Harry Fidler, Messrs. Balsley, Shaff-
ner, Hackman, etc. When all these manufactories run
full they employ several hundred hands, and furnish a
self-sustaining revenue for these people and this town.

CHAPTER IV.

THE FIRST CHURCH IN THE VALLEY.

To-day I mean to take you to the site of the first
church built within the valley. While the Scotch-Irish
of Lancaster county founded a settlement north of the
South Mountain ridge early in the last century, and
soon established churches at Derry, Paxtang, etc., yet
there is not any doubt that the Germans, who settled
along the Tulpehocken, in the eastern portion of this
valley, preceded these Presbyterians in the planting
of their first church, and that therefore the first church
ever erected in the valley, between the Schuylkill and
the Susquehanna, was the original Tulpehocken church
of the Lutherans, built in 1727, now known as the
Reed's church. Though this first edifice has long since
given place to another, and this to a third, yet we shall
visit the interesting spot and look into the remarkable
life and history of this first local Christian congregation.

From Womelsdorf we can travel up the turnpike
until we have crossed the bridge that spans the Tulpe-
hocken creek and the old Union canal, just a little east
of Stouchsburg, and then turn to our right, where, a
quarter of a mile to the north, on a slight eminence,
stands the present church, a plain stone building bear-

(38)

THE FIRST CHURCH IN THE VALLEY.

ing in its western wall a stone with the lollowing in-
scription: "Die Zion's Kirche Erbaut im Jahr, 1837."
A better and more historic highway would be to take
the narrow country road that skirts the Tulpehocken,
and as this is the way the first settlers traveled, we shall
choose it and accompany them to church. Hence, tak-

VIEW OF THE TULPEHOCKEN.

ing the Rehrersburg road at Steigel's famous school-
house, and following it for half a mile to the northwest,
we catch the first glimpse of the historic creek, along
whose banks the events of this early settlement were
enacted. Crossing this stream we turn to the left and
follow the ancient road running parallel to this water-

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

course. The second farm-house is the old Losch home-
stead, where lived an old Moravian family, by whom
the early Moravian bishops and missionaries were often
entertained while riding over this circuit. The house
was erected by Johannes Jacob Losch in 1754, and his
son or brother, George, was a leader in the Hebron
Moravian church for manv vears.

iipiiiiH

i * n Ai tiiiitiiuiii ki I ILL 11 J

THE EOSCH HOMESTEAD.

A little farther up the road is the Reed homestead,
which remains substantially the same internally as when
erected in 1723, by Lolnhardt Rieth, the douor of the
eight acres of ground upon which the church was built in
1727. The seventh lineal descendant, Mr. Franklin B.
Reed still occupies this ancient homestead, and has gath-

THE FIRST CHURCH IN THE VALLEY

ered into it many valuable local church documents, some

family bric-a-brac, and a large collection of Indian relics.

A short distance from this latter house stands the old

Reed Church. Its location on a small knoll is alluded

THE REED HOMESTEAD.

to in the following lines, from the pen of Mr. L. A.
Wollenweber :

u Do droben uf dem rutide Berg,
Do stent die alte Riethe-Kerch ;
Drin hot der Parre Stoever schon
Vor hunnert Jahr manch Predigt thun ;
Gepredigt zu de arme, deitsche Leit
In seller, ach ! so harten Zeit.

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

Auch wor die Kerch'n gute Fort
Gegeri der Indianer wilde Hort —
Un scbliefeu drin gar manche Nacht,
Die arme Settlers wo hen bewacht."

FIRST TULPEHOCKEN (REEl: i LUTHERAN CHURCH.

The history of the erection of this first church, and
the checkered story of its congregational life, to the
present time is very interesting. It was in 1723 that
about 60 families of German Lutherans immigrated

THE FIRST CHURCH IN THE VALLEY. 43

hither from the Schoharie Valley of New York, where
they had taken up a temporary abode in their flight
from French Jesuitical persecutions in the Fatherland.
Queen Anne of England proved to them a benefactress
in sheltering them first of all in London, and then
gratuitously transporting them to these new colonies of
her realm. But the English money sharks up the Hud-
son took the advantage of these innocent Germans, and
soon beat them out of their possessions, when many of
them came to this Tulpehocken country, and once more
planted their humble huts in the wild forests among the
Indians. They reached these parts by following the
Susquehanna, until they came to the mouth of the Swa-
tara creek, where now is situated Middletown; thence
up this latter creek and across the divide, where they
found this rich valley along the Tulpehocken. They
were followed in 1729 by another exodus from Scho-
harie, among whom was Conrad Weiser and his family.
But scarcely had the first party arrived, and built for
themselves humble sheltering homes, when they con-
templated the erection of a house of worship. Accord-
ingly a public meeting was called in 1727, to which
they invited all the settlers in a circumference of twenty
miles. This convention was held in a log house or
Indian fort, standing on the banks of the Millcreek,
near Newmanstown, which fort had been erected for
protection and defence against the Indians. It gave
place in 1745 to a stone-fort still standing, and to which
I propose to lead my readers in a later excursion.

44 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

At this called meeting the widely scattered German
settlers were well represented. It is generally supposed
that there was present also the Rev. Johann Casper
Stoever, who afterward resided at Conestoga, Lancaster
county, and in 1737 took up his abode in what is now
Lebanon county, (two miles west of Lebanon, along the
Quittapahilla), and lies buried at the Hill church on
Lebanon county soil. But that statement is a mistake,
for he did not land at Philadelphia from the Fatherland
until September n, 1728, or over a year after the above
event. He did, however, soon after his arrival, become
intimately associated with this church enterprise. But
the erection of this first house of worship was wholly
the work of the laity, and the credit belongs to such
pious leaders among them as the Reith (Reed) brethren,
Adam and Leonhardt, the former of whom is said to
have presided at this meeting, and the latter to have
donated sufficient land for church, school-house and
burial purposes, over eight acres in all. One George
Scholl is said to have made the motion to erect a house
of worship, which was unanimously carried. Other
leading lights in this convention were Michael Reith,
Frederick and Michael Schaeffer, and Christopher
Lechner, upon whom fell the choice of the superinten-
dence of the erection of the building. It is asserted
that in the devotions conducted at this meeting, Lu-
ther's famous battle-hymn ''Kin Feste Burg," was
sung. If it was not as well rendered as it was at the
"Luther Entertainment" at the Fisher opera house

THE FIRST CHURCH IN THE VALLEY. 45

recently by the hundred of Miss Munshower's trained
singers, it must have been equally appropriate and just
as thrilling.

Under Mr. Lechner's superintendence, and by the
assistance of men and women helpers, this first Tulpe-
hocken church was completed in five months and dedi-
cated in October of the same year (1727). It is not
likely that any pastor was present at this dedication
service, though it is generally claimed that Rev. Stoever
officiated. If this, indeed, be true, then the church
was not consecrated until a year after its completion.
But as the parochial teacher stood next to the minister
in official rank in those days, and as we know one was
long employed to conduct religious worship in absence
of a pastor, and that the parochial school was estab-
lished here from the beginning, it is possible that the
first teacher, whose name was Jacob Hannmer, a native
of Manheim, Germany, officiated at the dedication of
this first church.

The building consisted of hewn logs, with roof of
thatch or tiles. The pews were made of the same ma-
terial (logs with a hewn side for seats), while the pulpit
was made of rough boards. An ordinary walnut table,
34x48 inches in dimensions, donated by one of the
Reiths, was used as altar and communion table, which
identical table is still intact, the property of Aaron
Snyder, Esq., a lineal descendant of donor, living at
Mt. iEtua, Berks county, Pa. — a relic of 167 years.

The question of employing a regularly ordained Lu-

46 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

theran minister as pastor became the most puzzling
problem to these early worshipers. There were then
but very few German Lutheran pastors in the entire
country, and probably not a single one within the limits
of the State, as J. Casper Stoever is said to have been
the first German Lutheran pastor in Pennsylvania. A
few Swedish and Dutch pastors had preceded him. So
these people had to be content with lay preaching, and
were thus liable to be often imposed upon. Now the
Moravians, in the name and garb of Lutheran pastors,
supplied their spiritual wants; now a parochial teacher,
falsely claiming to have been ordained, assumed the
office of the minister, until the congregation was thus
thrown into almost hopeless confusion and into different
factions. The troubles continued for a period of 10 or
12 years, in which it was necessarv to call in the officers
of the law and the advice of church authorities in the
Fatherland, and the German court preacher at London,
Dr. Ziegenhagen. This dispute is described minutely
ill the "Halle Reports" (Hallischeu Nachrichteii) —
being the preserved correspondence of these early Luth-
erans with the mission school at Halle, Germany.

The nearest justice of the peace was Win. Webb, of
Kennett, Chester county, who was lawful attorney for
John Page, of London, the proprietor of these Tulpe-
hocken lands under the title of the Manor of Plumpton.
A document drawn up by this Mr. Webb, giving ex-
clusive rights to church property to the Leibbecker
party — one of the factions of this early dispute — and

THE FIRST CHURCH IN THE VALLEY. 47

bearing date of January 22, 1735, is still kept as a relic
by Mr. Franklin B. Reed, the seventh lineal descendant
of the Leonhardt Reith who donated the church
grounds, and whose old homestead, a quarter of a mile
east of the church, we have described. Upon the death
of Leibbecker, teacher and pastor, the Moravians made
their appearance and offered to supply the pulpit with-
out remuneration. Thus through Count Zinzendorf's
supervision pastors of his appointment preached to one
party of Lutherans for about eight years. But though
these claimed to be Lutherans, it only widened the
breach within the congregation, and led in 1742 to the
founding of a new church, purely Lutheran, which
erected its building about a mile west of the former
edifice, and named itself Christ Lutheran church. This
church, now generally known as the Tulpehocken Lu-
theran church, has prospered very much more than the
first from its very beginning, and will form the subject
of our next sketch.

Reed's church was brought back to the Lutheran fold
through the influence of Conrad Weiser and his son-in-
law, Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg, in September, 1747,
and has remained loyal to its first foundation ever since.
The pastors who have served it since that time are Rev.
J. Nicholas Kurtz, 1748-1770; Rev. Christopher E.
Schultze, 1770-1809; Rev. Daniel Ulrich, 1811-1851;
Rev. L. G. Eggers, 1852-1853; Rev. Thomas T. Jaeger,
1853-1865; Rev. Aaron Finfrock, 1865-1886; Rev. E.
S. Brownmiller, 1886-date.

4 8

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY

In the graveyard adjoining this ancient church are
many old graves and quaintly engraved tombstones.
It is well worth a visit to see the first Macpelah of these
devout pioneers. The lessons one can learn of primi-
tive art, orthography and genealogy, as he passes from
one crumbling and moss-covered sandstone to another,
will repay him for his trouble. Though they be but
humble monuments, almost every old stone marks the
resting-place of a hero, who has faced persecution,
exile, poverty, and the cruel barbarisms of the red-man.
We will give the inscriptions — minus the quaint art
embellishments — of but two in closing this chapter.
The one is that of the donor of the land — the other that
one of Conrad Weiser's sons. They read as follows:

1747

HR LIGD BE-

GRABEX OHAN

EOEXHARD RITH

ER 1ST GEBOHREN

1 69 1 VND GESTORBEX

1747

ER HAT MIT SEIXER

HAVS FRAY ANA

EISA CATHARIXA

GEZEVGT 8 KIXDER

65 OEXKELEIX

THE FIRST CHURCH IN THE VALLEY.

Engraved on both sides:

UND IN
SOECHER ZEIT
ERZEVGTE ER KIN-
DER AES 3 SOEHNE
UND I TOCHTERLEIN

OVON DAS

TOECHTEREEIN WIE-

DER GESTORBEN

UND 3 SOEHNE

SIND NOCH AM

EEBEN

DIESES

1ST DIE RUHE

STATTE DES WEYEAND

EHRSAMEN PHIEIP

WEISERS. DERSEEBE WARE

GEBOHREN IM IAHR

1722

DEN 7 SEPTEMBER UND

GESTORBEN ANNO

1761
dEN 27 MERTZ SEI-
NES AETERS 38 IAHR
5 MONAT VXD 4
TAG VND HATTE IN DER EHE
GELEBET 12 IAHR 4 MONAT

CHAPTER V.

THE SECOND TULPEHOCKEX CHURCH.

We noticed in the last chapter that in consequence
of the division and confusion of the original Tulpe-
hocken congregation in its early history, a very large
portion of the same withdrew in 1743, and erected
a church of their own. We will to-day follow these
seceders to the spot they then chose upon which to
build their new church, and, while walking over these
historic and sacred grounds, take a peep into the history
of 150 years of local church -life.

The faction withdrawing from Reed's church was by
far the stronger of the two in numbers and influence.
Though deprived of the use of the church edifice by the
legal document alluded to in our last, they were the
pure Lutherans in doctrine and practice, and were con-
tending at that early period of American Lutheranism
for the Reine Lehre of their ecclesiastical faith.

Accordingly thev were willing to make sacrifices and
begin anew the building of a church and the develop-
ment of true religion as confessed by their Church.
There was, therefore, drawn up a document setting
forth the principles upon which this new church should
be founded — which carefully guards against their ad-
mixture with any sects and errorists, by whom they had

(50)

THE SECOND TULPEHOCKEN CHURCH.

5 1

formerly been deceived. The same was signed by 166
adherents, and the original copy placed in the corner-
stone of the church, which was laid in May, 1743.

TULPEHOCKEN (CHRIST) LUTHERAN CHURCH AND CEMETERY.

Another copy of the same paper has ever since been
carefully kept with the church archives, and was trans-
lated into English and embodied, together with the
names of the signers, in an historical address by the

52 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

Rev. F. J. F. Schantz, of Myerstown, which address was
delivered at the sesqui-eentennial services held last Sep-
tember. We trust this very important address may
some day be given the public in pamphlet form.*

This second Tulpehocken church received the name
of Christ Lutheran church, but has for years been
known as the Tulpehocken Lutheran church. It
stands about a mile west of the Reed church, just
outside the western limits of Stouchsburg, and a few
hundred yards south of the Berks and Dauphin turn-
pike. The original building, which was probably of
logs, and the foundation stones of which can still
be seen, was replaced by a second one in 1786. This
structure was of stone, and is still standing, a vener-
able pile of solid masonry. Parts of the building
have been renewed and remodeled, but the walls re-
main intact, and bid fair to defy the ravages of time
and the elements for another hundred years and more.
The building was dreadfully shaken up by a dynamite
explosion which occurred in the vicinity November
6, 1884, and had all its woodwork destroyed by fire,
caused by lightning, August 1, 1887, yet the origi-
nal walls are as solid, and stand as plumb, as when
they were first finished. At its last remodeling, in
1887, a marble slab was placed in its western side,
showing to all visitors the following engraved record
of pastorates:

-:•:-

It has since been so published.

THE SECOND TULPEHOCKEN CHURCH. 53

PASTORS OF CHRIST'S TULPEHOCKEN EUTHERAN CHURCH.

Rev. Tobias Wagner, 1 743-1 746.

Rev. John Nicholas Kurtz, 1 748-1 770.

Rev. Christopher Emanuel Schultze, 1 770-1809.

Rev. Daniel Ulrich, 1811-1851.

Rev. Louis E. Eggers, 1852-1867.

Rev. Frederick P. Mayser, 1868-1873.

Rev. A. Johnson Dong, 1874-

The time and place of the decease of such pastors, as
have died, are appended to the above record.

The interior of the church is modern in style and
convenient in arrangement. With a basement for
Sunday-school purposes, and an audience room on the
second floor surrounded by a half-moon gallery, the
church within is a thin^ of beauty as a rural edifice.
Here worship regularly several hundred of the sturdy
descendants of an even sturdier ancestry.

Here have preached some of the most scholarly and
eloquent ministers of the Lutheran church. Pastor
Kurtz was a godly man, and a power in his day. From
him have descended the family of Kurtzes, who in the
ministry and the laity have been famous for a century
in this branch of the American church. And seldom
has a congregation the privilege of enjoying such intel-
lectually strong and spiritual pastoral services as were
rendered during the two long- continued pastorates of
Revs. Schultze and Ulrich, the former the father of ex-
Governor John Andreas Schultze, (now Shulze) of
Pennsylvania, and the latter the father of a highly
respected progeny still largely represented in this com-

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

TUEPEHOCKEN LUTHERAN GRAVEYARD.

munity and throughout this valley. The bodies of both
these godly men sleep within the old graveyard adjoin-

ing.

The epitaph of the former reads as follows:

Hier Ruhet

Christoph Immauuel

Schultze, Prediger.

war geboren den

25 December 1740

Saatfeld in Sachsen.

Er kam in das

Abend land 1765

Im Ehestand lebte

Er mit seiner Ehefrau

Eva Elizabeth 43 Jahr

Als Prediger stand er

5 Jahr in Philadelphia

und 38 Jahr in Tulpehocken.

Hiuterlies 9 Kinder

und starb den 11 Martz 1809

Alt 68 Jahr, 2 Mori at 2 Wochen

THE SECOND TULPEHOCKEN CHURCH.

By the side of Pastor Schultze sleeps his wife, who
was a daughter of Rev. Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg,
the Lutheran Patriarch, 'and a grand-daughter of Conrad
Weiser, and the mother of Gov. Schultze.

The epitaph of Rev. Ulrich is in English, and reads
as follows:

Memory of

REV. DANIEL ULRICH,

Born

near Annville, Lebanon Co., Pa., Aug.

10, 1789.

He early dedicated his life to his

God, and entered the ministry in 1809.

He became the pastor of the United

congregations of Tulpehocken, Rehr-

ersburg, Heidelberg and others, whom

he faithfully served from the year 181 1,

to the 3*ear 185 1.

Died June 2nd, 1855, while on a visit
to Pittsburg, Pa.

Aged 65 y, 9 m, and 22 days.

The ancient cemetery contains many other old graves,
which must have a meaning to the descendants, in
many instances famous to-day in Church or State. We
will mention but a few. For instance, the writer was
astonished to find here the graves of Philip Breitenbach
and his wife Elizabeth, evidently the ancestors of the
family by that name at Gettysburg, who in a pastoral or

LANDMARKS OF THE LEBANON VALLEY.

professional capacity have served the Church for years.
Here also lived and are buried the first and second
generations of the ancestry (on the mother's side) of our
U. S. Senator, Hon. J. Donald Cameron. The Senator's
mother — wife of the late Hon. Simon Cameron — was a
Brua, a Lutheran in faith, and a daughter of Peter
Brua, who as a lay delegate from Tulpehocken helped
to organize the General Synod of the Lutheran Church
in 1820, and whose father, Peter Brua, was one of the
early German settlers at' Tulpehocken. His grave and
that of his wife~are side by side in this graveyard, and
the inscriptions on their tomb-stones read as follows:

Hier Ruhet

Peter Brua

war gebohren

den 2 Feber 1729

und starb
den 1 October 1S0S

war alt
79 Jahre 8 Monat

Hier Ruhet

Maria Brua

Ehefrau von

Peter Brua

Gebohren

1731

Gestorben

1804

73 Jahre 6 Monat

But the spot in this city of last century's dead that
holds the most charm for the visitor, if indeed a grave-
yard can have charms, is that which, though unmarked
by memorial stones, is pointed out as the resting place
of the famed Hartman family, so cruelly murdered by
the Indians, and whose captive daughter, Regina, and

THE SECOND TULPEHOCKEN CHURCH. 57

her surviving mother, form the principal characters in
Rev. Dr. Reuben Weiser's interesting book, entitled
"Regina, the German Captive." It is said that Regina
herself sleeps here her last long sleep, and the spot of
earth covering her dust is pointed out by the sexton,
though not a marker is there to help the visitor, unat-
tended by one who knows, to find the place. Let us
now turn away from these sacred surroundings, with
their hallowed and historic associations, deferring, until
the next chapter, a sketch of our visit to the more than
interesting parsonage that stands within the shadow of
this church.

CHAPTER VI.

AN INTERESTING OLD MANSE.

WE shall to-day visit the Tulpehocken Lutheran par-
sonage. And standing upon the threshold of this anti-
quated ministerial abode, I shall ask my fellow-explorers
to step lightly and reverently on entering a door that has

THE TUEPEHOCKEN LUTHERAN PARSONAGE.

swung on its hinges for one hundred and fifty years to
give entrance and exit, not only to the long line of its

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AN INTERESTING OLD MANSE. 59

pious and honored inmates, but to hundreds, yea thou-
sands, besides. In addition to the usual social and parish
visits made here in its long history, this is the door that
has opened to many a hundred couple of young lovers
who came hither to have nuptial knots tied by the
dominie in charge. Here many another hundred calls
were made to announce the death of some parishioner
and engage the pastor's services for the funeral. Hither
many an infant was borne by loving parents — though
probably more to the church itself — to have the rite of
holy baptism administered. While not all these official
acts may have been performed in the parsonage, it ap-
pears from an historical address delivered by Rev.
Schantz at the sesqui-centennial celebration of the
church, that there are records preserved showing that
for a part of this period, covering a very large parish,
the various pastors residing here officiated at 6,934 bap-
tisms, 3,829 marriages, and 2,518 funerals. Of course
the record is incomplete in every one item, as for pe-
riods of years together one or the other class of entries
was discontinued.

Beyond a doubt, the most interesting wedding that
ever occurred here was that of the Rev. Henry Melchoir
Muhlenberg, the eminent patriarch of the Lutheran
Church in America, then resident in Philadelphia, to
Miss Annie Marie Weiser, a daughter of the celebrated
Conrad Weiser. It was solemnized by the first pastor',
Rev. Tobias Wagner, in 1745, and forms a most con-
spicuous entry in the intensely interesting Church Re-

60 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

cord begun by him, and still preserved and continued.
If, indeed, this illustrious pair were not married in this
identical house, which seems to have been built a year
or two later, it was yet solemnized on this spot, in a
house adjoining, which as a part of a mill property,
was then used as the pastor's residence, and which is
still standing and in possession of the congregation.

A book of accounts is kept at the parsonage to this
day, as one of the congregation's most valuable historic
relics, showing, in Pastor Kurtz's handwriting, an ac-
count of receipts and expenditures in pounds, shillings
and pence, contributed and disbursed during the building
of this house. The erection of this building occurred
during the first years of this pastor's official service
here. He was called in 1746, and served as catechist
until 1748, when at the first meeting of the oldest
Synod of the Lutheran Church in America (the Minis-
terium of Pennsylvania and Adjacent States), convened
in St. Michael's Church of Philadelphia, he was or-
dained as the first American Lutheran minister so set
apart by order and act of an organized ecclesiastical
body. It was, therefore, in the newly completed and
occupied parsonage that he prepared himself for this
Synodic examination. Whatever stress may have been
laid by this young candidate for the ministry in his
previous study upon purely theological points, the fol-
lowing practical questions were some that w 7 ere laid
before him for answer, by the Committee, viz. : What
are the evidences of conversion ? What is meant by the

AN INTERESTING OLD MANSE. 6 1

influence and blessings of the Holy Spirit f How do you
prove that Christ zcas not only a teacher, but that He
made an atonement for the sins of man? etc. At his
ordination, Rev. Hartwig preached from the words,
"His blood will I require at thy hand." It may have
been some impression made upon his mind by this ser-
mon, that made this pastor of Tulpehocken such a
faithful and earnest preacher and worker for souls. In
all these perilous years (when in his home or on his
journeys he was constantly exposing his life to danger
from the attacks of the Indians, who frequently invaded
the territory of his parish and tomahawked or scalped
entire families, many of whom he was called upon to
bury *) he kept faithfully at his post, never neglecting
his work as pastor and preacher.

It was while residing in this parsonage that his large
family of children were born, consisting of nine sons and
three daughters. The baptism of at least eight of them
is recorded in the Church Record kept here. One of
these is that of John Daniel, who himself became an
eminent minister, and spent a few years of his life as
assistant to his father, then residing at York, and later
as assistant pastor to, and soon as successor of Rev. Goe-
rock, of Baltimore. He was pastor of the first Lutheran
church of that city for 46 years, when he retired, living

*In a letter to Dr. Muhlenberg, in 1757, he says, that "on one day
not less than seven members of the congregation were brought to the
church for burial, having been murdered by the Indians the day
before."

62 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

to the extraordinary age of 93. He at one time refused
a call from Salem Lutheran church of Lebanon.

Another son of pastor John Nicholas Kurtz, of Tul-
pehocken, was long the parochial teacher of the York
Lutherans. He was the father of the Rev. Dr. Benj.
Kurtz — one of the most eminent men the Lutheran
Church of America ever produced, who as preacher,
author, editor of the Lutheran Observer, and one of the
chief founders of the institutions of classical and theo-
logical learning at Gettysburg and Selinsgrove, and of
the Evangelical Alliance, and as traveller abroad, has
acquired a reputation as wide as the Church.

A daughter of this Tulpehocken Pastor Kurtz, and
born in this manse, afterwards became the wife of Rev.
Jacob Goering, of York, concerning whom a church
historian said, at the time of his death, "many genera-
tions must pass away before the world will look upon
his equal." Through the marriage of a grand-daugh-
ter (the daughter of Rev. John Daniel Kurtz) this family
also became connected with that of the gifted Lutheran
divines, the SchaefTers, and their two children became
famous, the one being Rev. Dr. Charles F. Schaeffer,
long a professor at the Theological Seminary at Gettys-
burg, and the other the wife of the Rev. Dr. Demme, of
Philadelphia, one of the most learned men of this cen-
tury.

We see, therefore, what a celebrated progeny came
from the family which occupied this parsonage for the
first twentv vears after its erection.

AN INTERESTING OLD MANSE. 63

That Pastor Kurtz, the senior, was himself a man of
eminent literary attainments, is inferred by the respect
accorded him by so renowned a literary institution as
the College of New Jersey, whose Faculty regularly
sent him special invitations to attend their annual Com-
mencements, though Tulpehocken was considerably
distant from Princeton.

But other prominent families succeeded that of Pastor
Kurtz as occupants of this manse. His immediate suc-
cessor was Rev. Christoph Emanuel Schultze, for several
years previous the assistant pastor to Dr. H. M. Muhlen-
berg, of Philadelphia. He was a native of Saxony,
Germany, and a graduate of the institutions at Halle.
He arrived in this country in 1765 newly ordained to
the ministry, and as associate of Dr. Muhlenberg served
both the St. Michael's and Zion's churches of Philadel-
phia. The latter was founded during his ministry
there, and was, at the time, regarded as the handsomest
church edifice in this country. It was to this church that
Congress repaired in a body to express thanksgiving to
God for the victory of the Revolutionary army and the
restoration of peace on the surrender of Cornwallis at
Yorktown. The same edifice had also been used as a
hospital by the British during their occupancy of Phila-
delphia. But Pastor Schultze had left Philadelphia
long before this occurred, although he was strongly
urged by this flock to return. He took up his abode at
Tulpehocken in 1770, having previously married Eva
Elizabeth, daughter of Patriarch Muhlenberg. Here he

64 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

labored, occupying this manse, for thirty-eight years,
with the house again, as in the case of Pastor Kurtz,
filling up with children. There were nine children in
all, of whom the most conspicuous was John Andrew,
born here, who, after a short ministerial career, entered
secular life and served this State for two terms as Gov-
ernor. His administration is still conspicuously re-
membered for its justice and intelligence; and Lebanon
enjoys the proud distinction of having numbered him
as one of her residents when his fellow citizens of the
State elevated him to this high office.

The maiiv arduous and fatiguing labors of Pastor
vSchultze so enfeebled his body, that during the last
year of his life he had often to be assisted to the pulpit.
The Sunday preceding his death he was too weak to
leave the house, so he summoned the congregation to
the parsonage, where he preached his last sermon. The
following Saturday, March n, 1809, he fell asleep in
Christ, following his lamented wife, who had a few
months previously preceded him to the bosom of a lov-
ing Saviour. Rev. Dr. Lochmau, of Lebanon, preached
his funeral sermon the following Wednesdav, from the
words : "If any man serve me, let him follow me ; and
where I am, there shall also my servant be.'' A por-
tion of Pastor Schultze's valuable library was after-
wards presented to Pennsylvania College.

All the successors in this historic parsonage have
helped to make the abode famous by long residence and
noble deeds. Here the well-remembered Rev. Daniel

AN INTERESTING OLD MANSE. 65

Ulrich, a native of Lebanon county, resided for forty
years. He was followed by the families of Parsons
Eggers, Mayser and Long, the last of whom is now the
genial occupant, who, with his accomplished wife, has in
training a small family of children, whose noble deeds,
we trust, will keep up the good repute this abode has
gained by the high character of those who have dwelt
here or gone out from hence.

CHAPTER VII.

A WELL-PRESERVED INDIAN FORT.

To-day we shall turn away from the pious and peace-
ful scenes of churches, graveyards and parsonages, and
visit a relic that speaks to us of the perils and trials of
Indian warfare. It is well worth our study to know
what our forefathers endured in those early days in con-
sequence of their treacherous and oft barbaric neighbors
— the red -skinned savages. For this purpose let the
mute monuments of heroic defense and protection, still
found here and there throughout our valley in the shape
of strongly-built Indian forts, be our teachers. We turn
away, therefore, from the long-honored and historic
abode of five generations of preachers to one of the best
preserved houses of refuge and defense against these
savage hordes. As this is still keeping its vigil in this
valley, and is close at hand, let me lead the way to it.

Striking right across the country from Stouchsburg to
the south, past Sheridan station on the Lebanon Valley
railroad, we keep on the Mill Creek road, due south, for
another half mile, when we come to the Zeller home-
stead, and here we find, on the banks of the Mill Creek,
this interesting relic of those ancient and trying- times.
It is commonly known as the Zeller Indian fort, because

(66)

A WELL-PRESERVED INDIAN FORT. 6j

originally built by a Zeller, and since the land, upon
which it was erected, is claimed never to have gone out
of Zeller hands to the present time.

The fort is a well-sized and well-proportioned stone
structure, a story and a half high, built with a capacious
cellar, half under ground, from which flows a strong
and beautiful stream of clear water, having its rise here

ZEW<ER INDIAN FORT, BUII/f IN 1745.

in a perennial spring. It was erected by Heinrich Zel-
ler, in 1745, as is shown from an engraved headstone
within the wall. It is kept in good repair, used mostly
for a farmer's storage house at present, but until the
present generation had long been occupied as a weaver's
shop. About fifty feet away, the place is pointed out
where Heinrich Zeller, in 1723, built the first house of
logs, which it is claimed was the first meeting place of
those early Schoharie settlers for worship and defence

68 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

and mutual conference. Here it was where action was
taken to erect the first house of worship in 1727, which
led to the erection of the original Tulpehocken Church,
already described. This house was displaced, in 1745,
by the stone fort in question. The name of Henry
Zeller frequently occurs in the Colonial Records of that
day, principally in connection with correspondence con-
cerning the title to his lands. It seems there was con-
siderable difficulty in gaining a good title, as we find it
was 1743, or twenty years after settlement here, that he
obtained legal papers. These documents are parchment
deeds, or land patents, bearing the signature of the
Penn heirs, John, Thomas and Richard Perm, and are
still preserved among the family archives.

Thus this permanent building was not erected until a
good deed had been secured for the land upon which
this original settler had squatted, and which he had
meanwhile improved, and possibly later satisfactorily
paid for to the proper owners.

The occasion for building the house in the form of a
citadel, or refuge fortification, was constantly at hand.
Many were the cruel depredations of the red men in
that period. Frequently the Indian war-whoop was
heard, and the tomahawk and scalping-knife were flour-
ished by these savage foes. Many an unw r ary white
traveler or tiller of the soil was dispatched, and fre-
quently whole families were scalped and butchered.
These houses of refuge were therefore erected in differ-
ent parts of the settlement, to afford the settlers of each

A WELL-PRESERVED INDIAN FORT. 69

locality a safe rendezvous, whither the community could
flee for safety at the first signal of peril. Thus we find
a considerable number of buildings still standing
throughout our valley that were used for this purpose.
This one was among the first to be erected, and most
centrally situated for the earliest settlement.

The building itself is a curiosity. Its walls are two
feet thick, and laid up with many large and well-dressed
stones. Its door-posts, about five and a half feet high,
and the lintel, fully three feet long, are single sand-
stones, with some attempts at carved ornamentation
upon them. The head-stone over the door, and the
slab bearing name and date, have rather elaborate fig-
ures and lines carved upon them. The door is broken
into two, like ordinary stable doors, and consists of
double inch boards pegged together with wooden pins.
An iron catch, or staple, on the inside, soldered with
lead into the stone door-post, catches the heavy iron
latch that closes the door. All the windows were ori^i-
nally but small square port-holes in the wall ; but three
of these have since been enlarged into the size of ordi-
nary windows, for the accommodation of the cloth
weaver who plied his craft here a generation or two
ago. The rest remain intact. So does the building
throughout. Its main floor, over the cellar, is arched
below and leveled with stone and earth. A huge and
quaint Queen Anne fireplace, twelve feet wide, graces
the kitchen part of the house. In the wall, forming
the chimney, is a crack or mark, which tradition says

JO LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

was made by a cannon ball shot through one of the
port-holes during the Colonial struggles with the
French and Indians. The writer has seen both the
break in the wall and the cannon ball, which is pre-
served here, but he is not prepared to authenticate the
story. It is an historical fact, however, that in 1755
these hostile forces crossed the Susquehanna from the
west, and invaded this eastern territory. It was at this
time when Col. Conrad Weiser wrote his rousing let-
ters to the proprietary Quaker government of the State,
with headquarters at Philadelphia, urging speedy efforts
at defense of its citizens. At the same time he himself
summoned together the farmers of this communitv, and
at this very house (if, indeed, the claim made by a cer-
tain writer be correct, that this was then the residence
of Benjamin Spycher, which, however, is gravely
doubtful,) organized a company of over three hundred
men, who, after summoning Pastor Kurtz to address
them and offer a prayer in their behalf, marched up the
valley towards the Susquehanna, with their weapons of
pitchforks and flintlocks, to repel the foe.

An interesting story is told, on what seems reliable
traditionary evidence, of how the heroic wife of Hein-
rich Zeller, Christine by name, one day, while all alone
in the house, decapitated, with a broad-ax, three prowl-
ing and plundering Indians at the cellar loop-hole.
This hole is on the side on which the water flows out
from the spring within, and is shown in the foregoing
cut. Seeing the plunderers stealthily approach this

A WELL-PRESERVED INDIAN FORT. 7 1

spot, sneaking up the little streamlet, she is said to have
quickly descended the cellar 'steps from within, and
stationed herself alongside this opening with weapon
upraised. Presently the head of the first Indian pro-
truded through the hole, when down came her weapon
with a heavy blow. It had its desired effect. Promptly
dragging the trunk through the hole, she, in a disguised
Indian tongue, gave notice for the other two to follow,
as all was right within. Presently the second victim
followed, whom she dispatched in the same bloody man-
ner — likewise the third ; glorying on the return of her
husband at night, like Deborah of old over her conquest
of their treacherous Gentile foes.

The Zeller homestead, consisting of a farm of over
200 acres of rich land, upon which are erected a large
and inviting stone mansion and all the necessary farm-
buildings in proper proportions and style, near which
this ancient fort is keeping its watch, is now the prop-
erty of Mr. Monroe P. Zeller, the eighth lineal descend-
ant of the original Heinrich. He is a brother-in-law of
Rev. Bach man, the Reformed minister of Schaeffers-
town. He is himself talented and cultured. A graduate
of Franklin and Marshall college and of several musical
conservatories, he made a small fortune in giving in-
structions in music in Louisville, Ky., with which
money he has purchased and improved the old home.
He has travelled abroad and brought with him vines
and shrubbery from many an interesting shrine or
locality of Great Britain, Germany and Scandinavia.

~2 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

When the writer first visited the place, a few years ago,
the spacious yard abounded with evergreens and choice
vines from different countries of Europe, while the east
end of the *' fort " itself was spun over with a luxurious
growth of Scotch ivy, brought directly from Holyrood
Castle. The old homestead has manv charms, and is
well worth a visit some summer day, by any one in love
with nature, art or history.

CHAPTER VIII.

AN ANTIQUATED VILLAGE.

If my readers will follow me one-half mile to the
southeast, from the Indian fort last visited, I will bring
them to one of the oldest villages in the valley. In
appearance it has perhaps changed least of any of the
first dorfs reared by these early settlers. It is the vil-
lage of Newmanstown, situated in the northeast cor-
ner of Millcreek township, Lebanon county, and at
the intersection of the Schaefferstown and Womelsdorf
road with the Sheridan and Lancaster county road,
which leads through the South Mountain gap or pass.
It formed an early trade and home center for the first
settlers of this community. Let us together take a
walk through its one long street.

There is nothing to indicate that its first land-owner
and founder was not a full-blooded German except its
name. We feel confident that were some weary traveler
of Germany, some scissors-grinder or Jewish peddler or
other tramp, to fall asleep some night after a day's
weary march from village to village in one of the rustic
hamlets in the heart of Germany, and during his slum-
bers be transferred to the village now in question and
awaken here, he would scarcely discover that he was

(73)

74 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

not in Germany still, so genuinely Fatherlandish is
everything in the architecture and manners of this
well-preserved hamlet of a century and a half ago.

We will not have gone a dozen yards in our ramble

before pictures of German village life, as it existed at

the beginning of the last century, impress themselves

upon our view on every hand. We will discover that

whatever specimens of foreign village scenes were

shown the visitors of Midway Plaisance at the World's

Fair last year, the best type of a German village is

found here at Newmanstown. The street is wide and

well graded, but the pavements have received little

attention. There may be attempts at paving here and

there by the use of irregular pieces of flagging or

patches of coppery-greenish brick w 7 alks, but generally

the spaces before the little one-storied huts are covered

over with grass, while narrow, well-beaten footpaths

lead through the same. Curbstones are generally miss-

insf. One is obliged to make sudden rises and descents

in walking along, like unto the varying cadences in

music, so uneven is the grading. Fully half the houses

along its main street, which is "close unto a mile" in

length, are the originally low, one-storied log cabins,

some receiving more recently tight-fitting bodices of

weather-boards. Our city (Lebanon) has specimens of

these early dwellings in the older portions of Chestnut

and Walnut streets, and a few excellent types on North

Sixth street. Some of these Newmanstown homes still

wear their original covers of straw or tiling, their roofs

AN ANTIQUATED VILLAGE. 75

so low that the pedestrian sauntering along might
almost touch the eaves. One of these houses may be
on a slight elevation of ground, while its next door
neighbor seems to be anxious to hide itself in its own
cellar. The needful but unexpected slopes or steps that
accommodate the saunterer on its streets to these rises
and deflections are what are doing the mischief to his
unaccustomed feet, leading the strange wayfarer into
many a stumble or misstep.

The wiser way of getting along here is to follow the
custom of its own citizens and exchange pavement for
street. And this we will do. It may result in making
us a trifle more conspicuous, but then the chances are
we will be stared at nevertheless, not for any novelty in
this respect, but because of our own expressions of sur-
prise and wonderment, and because the windows of
these one or two-roomed huts have been made to front
on the street and to look out by. But this walk
through the middle of the street will bring us right to
the antiquated well, found in the central spot, where for
a century and a half these pleasant villagers have been
drawing their water. It is a pity that the old sweep
has been exchanged for the more modern pump-handle
with which to bring up the cooling draught. That
would complete the picture of rusticity and antiquity.
For the cackling goose, and the village gossip, and the
cow or horse watering at its trough, are seldom missing
to give the picture reality.

Along this street we see among these first dwellings

j6 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

and their more modern and pretentious neighbors now
studding the village on every hand, the old-time artisan
shops, in line with these homes and fronting on the
street. Here half a dozen generations of honest and
busy mechanics have plied their honest crafts and eked
out an humble living. The lively ring of the tempered
steel upon the anvil gives notice that we are approach-
ing a brawny smith's establishment. The leather chips
on the sidewalk betray that we have reached a cobbler's
or saddler's headquarters, while another window may
give us a glimpse of the tailor, as he sits cross-legged on
his table. So we will pass the lock or gunsmith shop,
the broom-maker's shanty, the cooper's establishment,
the turner's, weaver's or tinner's workshop or ware-
room — likewise the factory of that more modern crafts-
man, the cigar-maker. But here all trades are upon the
same level — the level of the street; and all craftsmen
put on the same bold front — the frontage on the street.
Even a few offensive barnyards have not in these 150
years been relegated, by this simple peasantry, whither
they deserved to be put, on the back of the lot, or
" into innocuous desuetude."

As we pass along we see here an octogenarian on his
portico, resting the weight of his body and years upon
his tottering cane. Now we pass a rosy-faced matron
down on her knees at the front stoop, scrubbing the
door-step with a determination as if the salvation of her
soul depended upon it. Perhaps it does. At least she
does not allow any externals to interfere with her task

AN ANTIQUATED VILLAGE. JJ

of working it out with a good deal of shaking, if not of
fear and trembling. Now the cripple upon his crutch
passes us, and then that ubiquitious unfortunate of every
old town, the demented, meets our eye, whose vacant
stare and incoherent utterances tell the character, if
not the story, of his affliction. The dogs recognize us
as strangers, and vociferously chide us for our mental
criticism of their goodly province.

Having finally completed our stroll, I must take time
to tell you of the village's history, and give you an ac-
count of its more modern imorovements. Instead of
being founded by a German, it was an Irish immigrant
who first planted his home here, and, securing posses-
sion of the land, began to lay it out in village building
lots. This person was a Mr. Walter Newman, who
purchased of the proprietors of the Province of Pennsyl-
vania, October 30, 1741, a tract of 234 acres of land.
Lots were at once sold on the "ground rent" plan, and
the earliest name given the village was Newbury. In-
dentures are still on record which describe the lots
disposed of, and on what terms sales were made at that
early day. Much of this tract remained, by transfer
from father to son, in the Newman family unto the end
of the last century, by which time "Newman's Town"
is described by a certain Lancaster document as being
"on the Great Road leading to Reading." To this
very day almost the entire town is under the curse of
that system of taxation, adopted and made forever obli-
gatory by its founder, of leasing lots for the consider-

78 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

ation of a yearly rent. Even a large portion of the
surrounding country was for some time under this feu-
dal system.

Let no one imagine, however, from the foregoing
account, that the inhabitants of this ancient hamlet are
fossilized. Although there are many antiquated relics
in the shape of dwellings, yet there have been rising up
during the last decades many lovely and imposing
structures, used as homes or business places. The
streets leading out of it in everv direction are models
for grading, piking and good-keeping generally. There
is much less mud there in a square mile of roadway
than in one block of Lebanon's highways. Nor does
the old pump any longer serve as chief supply to the
villagers of the crvstal beverage, inasmuch as a few
years since the coldest and clearest of mountain water
was introduced from the Gold Springs of the South
Mountain "Kluft." It is said when the trenches were
dug to lay the main pipe of this water supply that a
rare old relic was found imbedded in the earth. This
was a clay or stone Indian pipe, in the shape of a toma-
hawk, bearing the name of William Penn upon its
bowl. I cannot vouch for the correctness of the rumor,
but heard it at the time it was said to have been found,
and from men of the community. Neither could I give
any relic-hunter direction as to where this rare speci-
men is now kept.

Xor has this village failed to furnish its due quota of
progressive and useful men. From its citizens have

AN ANTIQUATED VILLAGE.

come a number of men who have graced all the learned
professions and nobler walks of life. Perhaps the most
conspicuous illustration of this truth, however, was in
the person of Prof. Lawreuce J. Ibach, but recently
deceased. A native of Allentown, Pa., he moved hither
with his parents at the age of 19. He was by trade a

STREET SCENE IN NEWMANSTOWN, PA.

skillet and ladle-maker, which trade he here followed,
and never wholly forsook to the day of his death, though
higher honors and more important labors were heaped
upon him. Through business relations with a Mr.
Seidle, from whom he had for a few years rented a forge
near Reading, he became acquainted with the latter's

8o LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

uncle, Mr. Charles F. Engleman, who was at that time
quite a noted astronomer. This acquaintance rekindled
a boyish love for mathematics and astronomy, and
brought Ibach into special favor with this scientist. x\t
the latter's death, in i860, he left his unfinished publi-
cations to Ibach to finish, who, falling heir to all neces-
sary books and charts, returned to Newmanstowji to
become an astronomer. From this place, for almost
30 years, he sent out his astronomical calculations
and almanacs to many firms in our country and to a
number in Cuba, South America, and other foreign
countries. He furnished his publications in four differ-
ent languages, French, English, Spanish and German.
A simple, unpretending frame house in this village
constituted his home. In the rear of this was the phil-
osopher's workshop, where were found all the appurte-
nances of such a scientist. Maps and charts upon the
walls, mounted globes, telescopes, stacks of books, many
of them rare and important, recounting astronomical
observations of thousands of vears asro, and o-ivin°-
reminiscences of the Ptolemies, Thales and Meton, or
the opinions of Kepler, La Caille, Lambert, Huygens,
Galileo and others, stocked well this study. From this
room, and the master brain that ruled here, this humble
village has for three decades had the distinction of
catching a strange light from the sun, the moon, the
planets and all the stars, and reflecting the same to all
the quarters of our globe.

" Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear."

CHAPTER IX.

AN OLD INDIAN TRAIL.

Having in my last left my company in the heart of
the antiquated hamlet of Newmanstown, reflecting upon
the philosophic genius who here, "far from the mad-
ding crowd's ignoble strife," for so many years kept the
noiseless, though not fameless, tenor of his way, I will
start the inarch to-dav on an old Indian trail that led
right through this territory. As w 7 e are in search of
ancient landmarks, we shall not pass by one that nature
herself has built and in point of age and durability shall
outlive the grandest monument reared by the hand of
man. I want to ooint out the ineffaceable relic of bar-
baric America, when the elements, the wild beasts and
the red men held exclusive sway over this valley. In-
deed, this landmark is older than man or beast. It
points to primitive time. It is the gap in the South
Mountain, just south of the village last visited, through
which pass, or "Kluft" (as the villagers prefer to call
it), led the old trail of the savages from their village or
settlement on the forks of the Susquehanna, where
Sunbury is now located, to the Penn treaty grounds
on the banks of the Delaware.

When the first settlers came to this valley from Scho-

(81)

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

harie County, N. Y., in 1723, there were Indian villages
or traces of them all through this valley. But the most
significant local settlement or centre of the aborigines
then was beyond the Kittatinny at Shamokin, now Sun-
bury, from whence led this trail in an almost direct line
to the settlement of the peaceful Quaker and his friendly

THE "KLUFT" NEAR NEWMANSTOWN.

neighbors, these red-skinned brethren. This trail led
through the Kittatinny or Blue Mountain range, at the
Swatara gap, and from thence in a direct line to the
South Mountain pass or gap.

Along this route, almost identical with the pipe-line
which the Standard Oil Trust has since drawn trans-

AN OLD INDIAN TRAIL. 83

versely across our valley, carrying another kind of fire
and in liquid form — that representing the civilization of
our day — the journeys on foot or on the backs of Indian
ponies, were taken to and fro by these first monarchs of
our then measureless forests. What an army of unlet-
tered barbarians passed up and down this grand old
mountain pass! What generations of unprogressive free-
men here preceded us! What restless hordes prowled
about this old landmark of nature when the day of civili-
zation dawned upon this western hemisphere, as so many
owls and bats flutter to their holes, or so many prowling
panthers to their cavernous lairs at the approach of day!
Over it they travelled with reluctant and oft defying
feet, in search of other hunting grounds. Let us climb
this pass together in recollection of all these events.

We need not be apprehensive of any danger, although
the way seem weird and the inhabitants but few. We
will be in no peril. The war-whoop of the last fighting-
savage has long since died away with a succession of
echoes that have reverberated among the rocky moun-
tain sides that hem us in. It may be that an occasional
wild-cat and some stray fox may sometimes venture out
of their hiding place to look for prey or to see what use
their once exclusive domain is put to, yet these will not
do any harm to innocent students of history. So let us
proceed on our tramp unmolested.

From Newmanstown we go directly south, along one
mile of the best piece of road of which this county can
boast. It is as straight as a stretched line, having good

84 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

post fences on either side, and wide as a Chicago boule-
vard. It is well-graded and kept in first-class repair.
We think much credit must be due the Messrs. Long,
who own most of the property along this rural avenue,
and have lived for many years in wealth and luxury at
the base of the mountain. Not long ago the senior
brother died in his palatial home located here.

Besides being a farmer and stock-raiser, he was a
wholesale commission merchant, with stores in New
York City, where he usually spent his winters. Large
ice houses are located here, in which are stored during
the summer immense quantities of eggs and butter for
winter sale. This business has made this man a mil-
lionaire, which large fortune has been partly spent in
valuable local improvements of the character described.

Having reached the foot of the mountain, we here
find a little peasant hut standing guard on the entrance
of this Alpine-like pass. In front of it is a watering
trough, into which a boisterous brooklet dashingly
pours its crystal beverage. All along the up-grade of
our winding roadway, we hear the babblings of a tur-
bulent mountain brooklet, sending its waters in haste
over its rocky bed, until it foams and murmurs like a
panting thing of life driven by some deadly foe. Now
it leaps in broken sprays over a steep precipice, then it
dashes against some rocky barrier that completely turns
its course. But on and on it flows, taking no time to
rest on its way or to parley with its occasional visitors,
only in the language of Tennyson's famous brook,
keeping up its song :

AN OLD INDIAN TRAIL. 85

" Men may come and men may go
But I flow on forever."

On either side of our rustic up-way are found small
springs to feed this streamlet. The largest and most
famous of these is what is called the "Gold Spring,"
which is about halfway up the gap on the right-hand
side of the road. It is worth a trip from any part of the
country to dip one's cup into its placid depths and quaff
the sparkling ice-cold draught, that has just bubbled up,
through golden sands, from its subterranean fountain,
whence all springs flow. Doubtless the Indian and the
deer often slaked their thirst at this spring. At present
it supplies the dam from which Newmanstown draws its
water. Oh ! for such a waterhead for Lebanon and
some one to lead it into our homes !

As we ascend let us take notice of the formation of
the hills about us. On the right hand a gigantic prom-
ontory frowns down upon us. For hundreds of feet the
crest rises almost perpendicularly from this gap, and
early in the afternoon casts its shadow into the cleft
below. One of the prettiest sights in nature is to see
this hill outline itself on an afternoon in charming
elongations of its shadow upon the opposite hillside. It
may be seen any sunny afternoon and for miles away.

The left-hand side of the hill has exhibitions of vio-
lent convulsions of nature in the formative period of the
earth. Monstrous forces must have had free play here,
judging from the way the mountains of bowlders are
piled together. Rocks, many of them larger than

86 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

houses, are here rolled up on ledges that form the steps
of a giant's staircase up to its brow. To this summit
we may climb to find a little platform of huge rocks
higher than any other point, and known as Eagle's
Peak, where will be afforded us one of the most ex-
quisite views of this valley. Hundreds of people visit
this spot every summer and here take observations of
one of the most extensive and transporting realms of
rural and scenic beautv and agricultural wealth visible
in our state. He who climbs these heights some pleas-
ant morning will always know what a vision Moses
must have had from Mt. Nebo's heights when he took
his first and only gaze into the Promised Land. Our
illustration shows a view too distant to do justice to
its nearer grandeur.

And this peak is itself an historic landmark. Hither
climbed, on March 22, 1751, "to view the landscape
o'er,' the venerable patriarch of the American Luth-
eran Church, Rev. Dr. Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg, in
company with Rev. P. Brunnholtz, honored pastor of the
Lutheran congregations at Philadelphia and German-
town ; Rev. J. C. Hartwig, on and out of whose large
real estate in Otsego Co., X. Y., was later established
the first Lutheran Theological Seminary in this coun-
try ; Conrad Weiser, whose guests these were, and
others. The occasion was the pastoral conference, called
by Muhlenberg, and held at Weiser's house, to consider
the pastoral call which Muhlenberg had shortly before
received from the Dutch Lutheran congregation of New

AN OLD INDIAN TRAIL. 87

York City, and to investigate the trouble between Pas-
tor Handschuh and his flock at Lancaster. These men
met at Reading a few days before, and proceeded to-
gether to Weiser's home at Tulpehocken. Dr. Mann
in his "Life and Times of Muhlenberg," based upon
such authoritative data as the patriarch's own diary,
alludes to this event, on page 264 of his book, as follows:
"The following day the travellers arrived at Tulpe-
hocken, and on March 22d, for bodily exercise, they,
with some of the friends, ascended the highest point of
the South Mountain, three miles distant from Weiser's
residence, where a splendid panorama for a distance of
thirty miles extended before them, limited to the west
and the southw T est by the Blue Mountain chain. The
sun was shining, the sky was clear. Large rocks formed
a protection against the March winds. Three eagles,
probably having their nests in the lonely neighborhood,
wheeled in circles above the heads of the strange visitors,
rising higher and higher in the air until in the golden
hues of the sunbeams they finally disappeared. This
beautiful picture brought strange feelings to the hearts
of the brethren, lor it recalled to them the symbolic pic-
ture of the eagle couching in front of the wide-spreading
golden rays of the sun on the Orphan-House at Halle.
Many a Bible quotation having more or less bearing
upon the occasion and the surroundings was then given,
and some old German church-hymns were intoned on
this lofty height, and carried the praises of God to His
throne. They all felt it was good to be there. Un-

SS LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

willingly they left their grand elevation to climb down
again into the valley over rock and precipice, and to
resume the cares and troubles of a world of labor."
What a grand spot this to hold, some summer day, the
biggest reunion of Lutherans ever held in this country !
Who knows but the Luther Leagues of Pennsylvania and
New York, the two states then rivaling each other for
Muhlenberg's services, may some day effect this !

Having now reached the top of our mountain road,
through its environment of rocky, glen-cut mountain
slopes, we reach a large table-land, or plateau, on the
very top of the South Mountain. It extends for several
miles in each direction. On this elevation is found the
celebrated Texter farm, where its late proprietor and
owner died recently, and concerning whose will and
bequests there is now pending in the Lebanon County
courts a somewhat interesting litigation suit. This
farm at one time contained 1,900 acres, and though
somewhat reduced, is still an immense plantation. On
these heights, until recently, the last owner, Mr. Joel
Texter, rivaled Mr. S. S. Long, at the base of the hill,
in the raising of fine blooded stock. Bach gained an
extensive reputation and considerable wealth. But now
both have departed to "the undiscovered country from
whose bourn no traveler returns." With a better use
made of their time and possessions, we trust, than their
former savage owners, w T hose ancient highway led
through both their tracts, they have gone to answer the
summons of that Great Spirit, who gives to all of us,
for a little while, power and opportunity.

CHAPTER X.

A CRADLE OF RELIGIOUS SECTS.

Coming down the "Delectable Mountains," from
which we took our last enchanting view of the valley,
by the same "Kluft" roadway we took in ascent, we
will to-day wind our way westward along the meander-
ings of the Mill Creek — the stream that waters this sec-
tion of the country and gives a name to the township.
We will have a stretch of about five miles to go till we
come to the fountain-head of this stream and the border
line of Heidelberg township, the next adjoining. This
little vale is a poem for natural beauty and improved
cultivation. It deserves to be immortalized in song and
history. To the writer's eye it has the appearance of a
huge cradle, fashioned thus by nature and employed by
providence in which to rock the infant life (on this con-
tinent) of no less than half a dozen of our Protestant
religious denominations.

Let us first take our walk through this lovely vale,
and then give the history of the foundings of these
sects. The valley stretches in a westerly or south-
westerly course from Newmanstown in the direction
towards SchaefFerstowu. On our left, the towering
South Mountain hems us in, which being so close at
7 (89)

90 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

hand clearly shows its every rocky rib, in the afternoon
sun, like some ill-fed, petrified mastodon. It also gives
a sense of warmth and protection to the dwellers that
cosily nestle in the rich vale at its feet, which helps the
imagination in seeing: the cradle-likeness of this terri-
tory. On our west, a small ridge rises that, though
broken more or less, continues on to Schaefferstown,
and is parallel with the southern border hills. By a
slight pressure upon either barrier, methinks, and a little
stretch of the imagination, one can see this cradle rock.
It is covered during most of the year with ope of Dame
Nature's homespun spreads of emerald hue, and reminds
one of the famous Tyrol valleys. Here many first set-
tlers of the Lebanon valley planted their homes. They
came from different parts of Germany, and by different
routes, but arrived here about simultaneously, whether
by way of Schoharie, N. Y., or of Philadelphia, Ger-
mantown, and Conestoga. The rich quality of the land,
the abundance of water in springs and stream, and the
beauty of scenery, justify their sharpened wit in dis-
criminating choice.

Following the little mountain brooklet, that is born
of a hundred springs in the mountain sides of the Indian
Pass last described, until this empties into the Mill
Creek, we pass two old grist mills that serve as land-
marks in this part of the vale in question. The first is
what is now generally known as the Cherrington Mill,
built in 1800, by Philip Kalbach, and for many years in
the proprietorship of the Cherringtons, Ezekiel, John

A CRADLE OF RELIGIOUS SECTS. 9 1

F. , and James E. , respectively, father, son, and grand-
son. The other mill is the Zimmerman mill, situated
on the same mountain stream, but is not as old as the
former. A short distance to the right is the Zeller fort,
already described, where the German Lutherans had
their beginning in American church life. Likewise
the Reformed, a little beyond at Tulpehocken. On
reaching the Mill Creek proper, we have but a mile to
the hamlet known as Mill Creek Center, but by older
citizens still spoken of as Muehlbach, the German for
Mill Creek. Here also is located a mill, the oldest of
all in the township, and this spot claims to have wit-
nessed the very first settlement in these parts. Let us
stop long enough in our ramble to visit the few points
of interest.

First we will visit the church and graveyard. Here
as early as 1747 the records show a joint Lutheran and
Reformed church to have been erected. Before this
time these settlers worshipped at Tulpehocken. This
was the first church in all this Mill Creek Valley. It
was a rude log meeting house, followed by a frame
church, which in 1790 gave place to the present stone
structure, situated on a slight elevation of ground. This
latter building was remodeled a few years ago, during the
centennial year of its erection, when by the expenditure
of several thousand dollars it was changed into a beautiful
modern church building in its exterior appearance and
interior style and arrangements. A marble slab over
the entrance door gives the above-named facts epito-

9 2

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

mized. Until recently a very old German Bible was
here used in services. The church has generally been
served by the Tulpehocken pastors on the Lutheran
side, and by the SchaefTerstown pastors on the Re-
formed side. The graveyard surrounding the church
shows in its tombstone records the names of the sur-
rounding citizens and the story of their constant gather-
ing into this silent "city of the dead." One of the
oldest graves it contains that is marked by a legible
stone is that of Anderes Saltzgeber, of which the fol-
lowing is a fac-simile :

vO*

l»»

minim

"a,.

j 1 1 ii 1 1 sN

^£

Ik*

'mini.

HIER RUHET
ANDERES SAETZ-
GEBER 1ST GEBOHREN
DEN 26 DEC I708
GESTORBEN 1769
SEINES ALTERS 6l
IAHR SEINE EHFR-
AV WAR ANN MA-
RIA EINE GEBOH-
RNE ZEEERN. IN DE-
R EH GEEEBT 41 IAHR

-iiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiir

A CRADLE OF RELIGIOUS SECTS. 93

But while this is the only church in this hamlet, it
was not the first religious worship which its erection
witnessed here. It is claimed that fully two decades or
more before this time, Conrad Beissel and a few associ-
ate German Baptists, or Dunkards, arrived from Ger-
many and settled here, doubtless conducting worship in
the house this leader is said to have erected. It is
evident that they here found water enough to accommo-
date them in their immersion practices. As no history
of the erection of a Dunkard meeting-house or of a sep-
arate local congregation is extant, it is probable that
this nucleus formed a part of the Conestoga First Day
Dunkards. It was not long, however, before Mr. Beis-
sel "fell out" with his brethren on a number of points
of doctrine, principally that concerning the Sabbath
observation, he claiming the Seventh day as the proper
one to be kept. He published a tract as early as 1725,
fully setting forth his views, and withdrew from fellow-
ship with his brethren. He had quite a following, and
thus was born the Seventh Day Baptist Sect or Society,
which, led by their zealous leader, removed to Bphrata,
Lancaster county, where they promulgated their mystic
views, erected a convent, and made for themselves a
quaint but somewhat conspicuous history among the
denominations of our land. In education and publica-
tion this new center was leading the German population
of this section of the state for a quarter of a century.

This hamlet contains another interesting landmark
that we must visit ere we pass on. It is the old mill,

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

whose grist has fed man and fattened beast for almost a
century and a quarter.

A carved stone in the face of the wall, evidently pro-
vided with a receptacle for deposits of a documentary
character, like the corner-stones of churches, gives date
and name of builder as follows :

The house is a very fine and substantially built struc-
ture with wall of native red-sandstone and limestone,
dressed and trimmed, with broken or hipped Dutch roof,
and finished in massive style and in hard wood. The
stairway and hand-rail are of solid oak and still a thing
of beauty. The quaint and massive Queen Anne man-
telpiece is likewise of solid oak, as pretty as any quar-
tered oak now in use. The doors and patent locks of
long ago still add charm to a landmark which is as well
kept and as cheerful a home as that of Mt. Vernon on
the banks of the Potomac. It is now the property of
Mr. E. R. Illig, whose family have occupied it for a
number of years. Tradition connects the romance of
an illicit love affair and escapade with the builder and
first proprietor. Rumor says that he fell in love with

A CRADLE OF RELIGIOUS SECTS.

his servant girl, and after some remonstrances against
this intimacv by his wife — the Maria Catharine of the
above engraved stone — Mr. Miiler eloped with his para-
mour to Virginia, leaving the property to his upbraid-
ing wife and her family.

THE II/UG HOME AND MUX IN MILE CREEK CENTRE.

It was presumably a sou of this first couple, and his
wife, who erected in 1784 the mill property that is at-
tached to this old stone mansion. It is also of stone, in
the same style of architecture as the house, and has a
date-stone in the face of the wall exposed to the road-
side, which reads as follows:

9 6

LANDMARKS IX THE LEBANON VALLEY.

GOTT ALEIN DEEN

MICHAEL MILLER
MEEISABET MILLER

There is some poetry and piety in the thought that a

mill should serve God alone. Dedicated thus to God, it

has served Him and man, we suppose, for a century and

a decade of time. As far as we know, it has always

ground its grist in peace and blessing, and we trust it

may never grind out the wrath of Jehovah, or be made

to prove that

"The mills of the gods grind slowly,
But they grind exceeding fine."

It was on the large farm in connection with this
ancient mill property, that the enterprising and intelli-
gent Illig family was reared, two of whom are the cele-
brated proprietors of a large dry goods store in Reading,
while the farm has been divided among three others,
whose lovely homesteads front on this Mill Creek road
just outside of the village. The one is that of Mr. K.
R. Illig, already described ; next comes the house and
farm of Capt. Batdorf, whose wife was an Illig ; and the
third, the original homestead, is that of Mr. Hiram L.
Illig, who is renowned as being, without doubt, the
possessor of the largest collection of Indian relics, (spear-
heads, lance-heads, scalping knives, scrapers, mortars,
pestles and rude utensils and ornaments) in the county.

A CRADLE OF RELIGIOUS SECTS.

The arrangement of these relics is orderly and system-
atic according to the various strata of rock formation
from which they were constructed. Concerning this
branch of archaeology their possessor is a master, and
altogether this family is far above the average in rural
intelligence. They would be leaders in, and a credit to
any community.

A SECTION OF HIRAM L. IELIG'S INDIAN REEICS.

But we must close this chapter and defer to the next
one an account of the founding and earliest beginnings
of the Evangelical Association, which took place in this
valley, and the interesting landmarks concerning which
are still found here.

CHAPTER XL

A DOUBLE FOUNTAIN-HEAD.

I AM now ready to lead my readers to a two-fold
fountain-head, the spot being the source both of the
somewhat historic Mill Creek, along which we have been
rambling in our last jaunt, and also of the Evangelical
Association, which as a religious denomination has al-
most completed its first century of rather remarkable
and checkered life. The same spring that gives birth
to the above-named stream marks the spot also that
brought into organic being this branch of the Protestant
Church; for over this spring was built a house in which
the organization was effected. It is a remarkable
coincidence that another spring, feeding this same
creek, farther down its current, marks the place where
Elder Peter Becker, of the Dunkard persuasion, im-
mersed Conrad Beissel, the rather illustrious founder of
the Seventh Da)' Baptist sect, which spring is known
in the denominational history of this church as the
"Dunkard Spring;" while still further down this same
stream is the Zeller house or fort, also built over a spring
and emptying into the Mill Creek, where the German
Lutherans of this country had their organic beginning.

Having left my readers at Mr. H. L. Illig's Bazar of

(98)

A DOUBLE FOUNTAIN-HEAD.

Aboriginal Archaeology, or Indian Relics, we are but
two miles from the fountain head we want now to
visit. But these are two miles fraught with intensely
interesting history. And although the current of his-
tory, like that of water, should be followed from its
source downward and onward, it suits us best to go up

THE BECKER HOMESTEAD, MILE CREEK.

the streams of both, because along this way lies the
chosen course of our historical excursion. Hence we
come first to the Becker house, where the first annual
conference of the Evangelical Association was held in
1807. This house is still standing on the next estate lo
Illig's, on the right-hand side of the road going to

302738

IOO LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

Kleinfeltersville, and is more than a mile northeast of
the other Becker homestead, where, in 1803, Bishop
Albright called his followers together for mutual con-
ference about separation from former church affiliations
and organization into a new sect, by the adoption of
rules and regulations, which led to the present discipline
of this church and its entire mode of denominational
life and polity. We will pick up the scraps of historic
interest that lie along the way to this historic spot.
The Beck er estate originally consisted of 1,500 acres of
land, the property of a Miss or Mrs. Jane Fenn, of Ches-
ter County, who leased it to parties resident here, and
whose relatives would visit it in summer and fish along
the creek that flowed through the plantation. There
are still legal papers in the hands of the Becker family,
showing the transfer of the property to a Mr. Becker,
when the Fenns found it did not pay them. Then the
plantation was cut into smaller farms, and the different
farm houses were built thereon. The one alluded to as
the house in which the first annual conference of Al-
bright's church was held, is a large, commodious, farm
dwelling-house, built of regularly dressed sandstone of
reddish tint that is quarried near by, and was erected,
according to a date-stone in its wall, in 1770. Some
alterations have been made since that first conference,
but the large room, or rooms, in which the sessions of
this historic gathering were held are intact and are still
pointed out to the visitor. It was atteuded by five
itinerant and three local preachers and twenty official

A DOUBLE FOUNTAIN-HEAD. IOI

lay members, and was continued for two days, Novem-
ber 15 and 16, 1807. At this meeting Albright was
elected superintendent or first bishop of the society and
instructed to formulate rules of discipline, which latter
duty he was prevented from accomplishing by decline
of health and an early, untimely death. In this house
met also the third and fourth annual conferences of this
association, and here were licensed a number of the
first preachers of the body, who afterwards figured
prominently in this church. The large yard and gar-
den of this homestead has the noteworthy distinction of
being so well fenced in that 127 years of frost and
tempest have not shaken this original construction of
shelter and protection. The posts are solid sandstone,
of the same quality used in the walls of the house, are
about one foot square, and stand four feet above ground.
Into these are drilled holes, in which rest the rails.
The one on which the gate swings has the following
figure engraved on it, which is still quite legible:

The initials stand for George Becker, the builder.

Had the church here founded been as securely envi-
roned by a fence, strong enough to keep out pride and
sin and foreign ideas, there would not be the sad litiga-

102 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

tions that now divide this once influential portion of
Christ's body.

Leaving this place and still going on towards Klein-
feltersville, we pass the private burial place of several
generations of this family, a Dunkard meeting-house,
the fine home and farm of Rev. George Bucher, the
Dunkard preacher of this district; and, crossing the line
of Heidelberg township, we soon come to the fountain
head of this creek, and the place where Albright's re-
liorious societv was formed and where bv a singular
providence he died, May 18, 1808. This was the home
of John George Becker, a son of the George Becker al-
ready alluded to, I think. The house in which he
lived was also a sandstone dwelling, reared over the
spring in question, and was originally provided with
mere port-holes for windows, and used as a house of
refuge from the Indians. It has recentlv been torn
down and replaced by a double-story frame dwelling,
where now lives Mr. Wm. Hoffman, who is married to
a granddaughter of this friend of Albright's, a daughter
of Rev. John Kleinfelter, who was married to John G.
Becker's daughter.

Mr. Becker, being an early disciple of Albright's,
opened his house for services and for the exercise of
Christian hospitality towards these itinerants. Thus it
came that in this house were witnessed on November 3,
1803, the birth of this society and the licensure of Rev.
Albright, later the marriage of one of its daughters to
Rev. Kleinfelter, one of these itinerant preachers and

A DOUBLE FOUNTAIN-HEAD. 103

afterwards a presiding elder, and on May 18, 1808, the
death of the first bishop, Rev. Albright.

Mr. Albright was a native of Montgomery, and dur-
his ministry and at the time of his death was a resident
of Lancaster County. He was returning from a quar-
terly conference held on Easter, 1808, in Albany, Berks
county, suffering from a pulmonary affection, when,
completely prostrated, he was compelled to stop on his
way home at the house of Brother Becker, where he
took his bed, and died a few weeks after. A few days
after, May 20th, he was buried in the private burial plot
of this Becker family, which plot was afterward erected
into a church burial ground. His grave here is marked
by a simple stone, of which the following is the
epitaph:

Zum Gedachtnis

des

Ev. Pr. Jacob Albrecht

wurde geboren

den 1 ten May 1759

starb
den 18 ten May 1S07

alt

49 Jahre u. 17 Tage.

Unter diesen Stein ruhen sein

Gebein.

Der Todt seiner Heiligen ist

"Werth gehalten fur dem Herrn.

Psalm 116, v. 15.

io4

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

After Rev. Kleinfelter married Mr. Becker's daughter
and came into possession of much of his property, he
laid out the village of Kleinfeltersville, donated ground
for an Evangelical church and graveyard, and was
largely instrumental in having the East Pennsylvania
Conference build a memorial church at this place in

ALBRIGHT MEMORIAL CHURCH.

honor of the energetic bishop, who died and lay buried
here. Accordingly, in 1850, kept by the Evangelical
Association as a year of jubilee, this church was erected.
The conference appointed Revs. J. P. L,eib, J. M. Saylor
and F. Sanner to supervise the work. It is a very
modest structure of red sandstone, of rather small

A DOUBLE FOUNTAIN-HEAD.

I05

dimensions, after the simple style adopted by this
denomination in that day of extreme simplicity. It is
surmounted by a small cupola, in which swings a little
bell. On its front a marble slab tells the following
story :

ADBRECHT'S KIRCHE

Errichtet

Zum Andenkeu des verewigten

JACOB ALBRECHT

Stifter der Evangelischen Gemeinschaft

in Nord America

Im 5oten Jahre der Gemeinschaft

ANNO 1850.
Ganz neu aufgebaut im Jahr i860

Few people worship here at present and fewer still are
the visits to the adjoining graveyard, though there
would be for a Gray another Elegy here.

After devoting about twelve years to the itinerancy
and the office of presiding elder, with a district stretch-
ing from Philadelphia to the Ohio River, Rev. Klein-
felter retired and carried on a mercantile business at
this place and in the neighboring village of Flickinger,
Lancaster county, the remainder of his life. He lies
buried in the same rustic graveyard, not far from
Albright's grave; and his wife, who as a child must
have ministered to the dying bishop, sleeps by his side.
Their tombstones are more pretentious, and the epitaphs

read as follows :
8

io6

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

REV. JOHN KLEINFELTER
Born May 5, 179 c
Died April 16, 1863.
Aged 71 years 11 Mo. 11 da.

He became an active and influential
member of the Evangelical denom-
ination at the early age of 20 years,
when that Church was yet struggling
in its Infancy, and by his Christian
life he became a Power, felt through-
out the entire Brotherhood. Filling
the various positions of circuit Preach-
er, Elder, &c. Thus improving every
opportunity to do good, and become

good.

J. E. D.

OUR N/IOTHER.

CATHARINE

WIFE OF

REV. JOHN R. KLEINFELTER

Daughter of

George and Maria Becker.

Born April 1, 1796.

DIED

June 13, 1883.

AGED

87 Years 2 Mo. 1 2 Days.
Text 2 Timothy 4: 7-8.

H. I. D.

Her father also lies buried here. His grave stone is :

A DOUBLE FOUNTAIN-HEAD. 107

In memory of

John George Becker,

Born Sept. 29, 1767,

Died Nov. 16, 1855,

etc., etc.

And here at this humble graveyard, where sleep these
early and pious workers of a denomination that has
wielded an extensive influence in the first century of its
existence, we must part company for a short time.

CHAPTER XII.

THE COUNTY'S OLDEST TOWN.

To-day I want to take my readers, whither a kind
friend has recently taken me, to the oldest town within
the limits of Lebanon county, if not of this valley.
About the same time (perhaps a year or two before) the
Schoharie Germans settled in this valley, the wave of
German immigrants, which flowed by way of Philadel-
phia and the lower counties of Montgomery, Chester
and Lancaster, began to break over the border hills
that separate the Lebanon and East Peim valleys from
the Lancaster valley, and poured down this barrier's
northern slope into the narrow vales that lie betwixt
the foot-hills of this South Mountain range. Thus as
early as 1720 the log cabins of these first settlers began
to rise in the wild forests of these foot-hills. Soon one
wave of immigration followed another and before two
decades had passed, quite a flood of German colonists
had poured over the Suabian hills into our south-eastern
county borders and spread itself out in the present south-
ernmost townships of Mill Creek, Heidelberg, South
Lebanon, Cornwall and Londonderry. Heidelberg, the
settlement, assumed the first town-nucleus, and accord-
ingly Heidelberg-town, or what for the past century has

(108)

THE COUNTY'S OLDEST TOWN. 109

been known, by the name of its founder, as Schaeffers-
town, justly claims the distinction of being the first
town "laid out" and built up within the county. It is
located but two miles west or southwest from where I
took leave of my readers in the last chapter.

Whatever clusters of houses and settlements may have
been formed before, the town was regularly laid out by
Alexander SchaerTer in 1744. He had first taken up
his abode in the foot-hills already alluded to, where at
a recent date his log cabin, built about 1738, was still
standing. From thence he removed to the site of the
present town, where he had bought a large tract of
land, which he immediately proceeded to lay out into a
town plot after the present plan of a central market
square and four principal streets leading out thence.

Here he raised his family, the descendants of which
are still found hereabouts. One great-grand-daughter
is married to William Dissinger of town, and another,
the daughter of Abraham Rex, long a successful
local merchant, is the widowed wife of the late Wm.
M. Weigley, Esq., whose magnificent brown-stone man-
sion graces the streets of this ancient burg, conspicuously
towering over its lines of humble dwellings.

The body of SchaefFer lies buried in the portion of
the cemetery where the Reformed buried their dead,
and about him are buried his family. The hands of
considerate descendants have since marked these graves
with becoming tombstones. That of the founder him-
self contains the following epitaph :

LANDMARKS IX THE LEBANON VALLEY.

Hier ruth

Im Herrn der Leib des

ALEXANDER SCHEFFER

Ift gebobren den 8ten

Janvarivs 1712

Ift geftorben den ioten

April 1786

Alt worden 74 Iabr

5 Monath & Zwey tage

Amen.

Schaefferstown is a rich field for the antiquarian. It
is built on more hills than the Eternal City, and, but
for the lack of that city's charming Tiber, might have
rivaled Rome itself. In scenic beauty of mountain and
farm-land, and in the fascinating romance of its inter-
esting history, it lacks nothing to rival any town of
more pretentions boast.

Let me take my readers to the crest of the highest
hill and point out objects of historic interest. As we
desire in these trips to dwell among the ancient and
the past, it is fitting that we take this position, for
here is located the resting place of these worthy de-
parted ones, hundreds upon hundreds of whom have
been gathered on this northern hill-side to sleep side by
side, like so many children, who, wearied of play, have
fallen asleep in a mother's arms, and by her been
gently tucked into their little beds for the night.

THE COUNTY'S OLDEST TOWN. Ill

What a melancholy spot is an ancient graveyard!
What food for sober and solemn meditation here ! If it
afford at the same time, as does this one, an outlook over
the farms and work shops, where the sleepers beneath
the sod once toiled, what an observatory for the spirit
of man to take bearings of life — its past, present, and
future ! One need not read the solemn exhortations
engraved upon the tombstones to feel serious ; all the
atmosphere is solemnly hortatory, and a host of earnest
spirits arise to admonish a reflecting mind to think of
life soberly and to live it wisely and well.

Before we walk among the dead, however, and read
their epitomized biographies, preserved in engraven
epitaphs, let us look out upon the scenes of activity,
where this brave and gallant peasantry — fugitives from
tyranny, persecution and bigotry — laid the foundations
of this valley's present day prosperity. To the east
stretches the beautiful valley of the Miihlbach with its
rich farms — to the south the rolling hills covered with
tilled fields break like waves of the sea against the
South Mountain ridge. To the west, bordered on the
south by the Cornwall hills, roll the farms, one against
the other, till they are lost in the hazy distance; and
from the northwest, in the direction of Lebanon, to the
northeast, in the direction of Richland, there is afforded
an extensive sweep of the very paradise of agricultural
richness and beauty. At our feet lies the ancient vil-
lage, where are still preserved a very large proportion
of the primitive habitations in which dwelt the humble-

112 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

minded forefathers that now sleep beneath our feet.
Altogether the scenery is intensely beautiful, sufficiently
wild and varied to give it a charm not possessed by a
tame, monotonous stretch of landscape, yet sufficiently
tamed and enriched by the hands of thrifty German
husbandmen — the peaceful monarchs of our valley — to
make most of it as pretty as a finished picture, or as
lovely as a garden.

From the south leads the Lancaster road, passing
through such old towns as Lititz and Brickerville and
by the celebrated Elizabeth furnaces, about three miles
away, which were erected about 1755 by one John
Huber, but later purchased by Baron Henry W. von
Stiegel, of Manheiin, Pa., a wealthy native of Manheim,
Germany, who here made shot and shell, and cast guns
for the Provincial army during Revolutionary times.
Stiegel conducted this industrial plant for about
eighteen years, manufacturing the old-fashioned jamb
stoves, said to have borne the following legendary in-
scription:

" Baron Stiegel ist der Mann
Der die Ofen giesen Kann."

While engaged in this business he built a residence
and tower in Schaefferstown, and laid out the southern
portion, now known as "Canada." The first hill one-
fourth of a mile south of the town center marks the spot
where this castle tower or Thurnt stood, and from it
received the name of Thurm-berg or "Tower-hill."

THE COUNTY'S OLDEST TOWN. 113

The tower has gone into decav, but old citizens remem-
ber it, and relate that in it the Baron himself taught
school in later days, when his fortune had taken wings.
One of his sons removed to the Shenandoah Valley,
Virginia, and there married, had issue and became
wealthy. There are still descendants living in those
parts who have in recent years visited these scenes
made famous by their illustrious sire. It is doubtless
through this southern connection that many of the
blooded Virginia and Maryland horses came to be tried
in the once celebrated race-tracks located about two
miles south of the town, giving this settlement noto-
riety a century before this sport did the same for New
Jersey politicians.

The u Tower-hill" marks also two other spots of his-
toric interest. The one is the Jewish cemetery on its
southern slope, where were buried the first colonists of
this community, who were Jews, and w r ho were at one
time strong enough to have a synagogue and maintain
worship. While the spot of the "Jewish church" and
graveyard can still be identified, it is a shame that there
should here be found such inconsiderate vandalism as to
lay its unholy hands upon the walled enclosure of this
sacred spot, and reduce to the common level of a field or
orchard what should have been kept as holy ground
and been most jealously guarded as an historic relic.
The other spot of interest on Tower-hill is the spring
which has for nearly 150 years supplied this town with
water. It is located on the northern slope of this hill

ii4

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

just on the edge of town, is walled over into a reservoir
and shaded by giant oaks and maples, through whose
out-spreading branches the spring winds still whistle
songs of "the forest primeval." An artificial park
is slowly forming about the same, with seats and band-
stand to entice, on summer nights, the villagers to
its cooling retreat. This best of water supplies has

A SCHAEFFERSTOWN WATERING TROUGH.

been utilized since 1753 as a public water works, so
deeded by the founder of the town and his wife to ap-
pointed trustees for the use of inhabitants of Market
Square and street. It claims to be the first public water
works established in the United States. Two public
fountains have poured their clear, sparkling and never-

THE COUNTY'S OLDEST TOWN. 115

failing contents into immense watering troughs for 141
years to gladden man and beast.

Down by this Lancaster roadway, past the furnace,
race track, Jewish cemetery, baronial castle and "lead-
ing spring" of Schaeffer's, the Lancaster and Womels-
dorf postman, for many a year before the close of the
last century, drove into town with his tally-ho and
freight of passengers, parcels and post, announcing his
arrival into town by the sounding of his bugle-horn.
We will let an imaginary blast of this trumpet interrupt
our observations and call us from our heights into the
town below, where we shall gather additional facts of
history. But for this we must wait, inasmuch as the
limit of this chapter has already been reached.

CHAPTER XIII.

AMONG OLD GRAVES AND BUILDINGS.

The bugle-blast of the old-time postman interrupted
our historic search in the last chapter. It summoned us
while on the sacred hillside of Schaefferstown, where
the community has buried half a dozen generations of
sturdy peasantry and noble yeomanry together. Before
we take leave of this spot let us take a look at the
stones that mark their sepulture. What a field of
moldering bones and bleaching marble is this "God's
acre!" The stately shaft of granite or marble is found
side by side with the low and crumbling limestone
marker or the lichen-covered sandstone, as the bones of
those interred underneath commingle into a common
dust. Here are found the graves of nearly all who have
lived in this vicinity for a sesqui-centennium. Here,
indeed, meet together the rich and poor of the Lord,
who is the Maker of them all!

After passing the graves of the Moyers and Rexes,
and the fine Weigley monument of granite, surmounted
by a womanly figure in marble showering flowers from
her hand, we come into the older portion of the burial
ground, where the Schaeffers and Wolfersbergers and
ErpfTs are buried. We take especial interest in the

(116)

AMONG OLD GRAVES AND BUILDINGS. 117

tombs of the last-named family, consisting of parents
and one daughter, deceased in childhood, because of the
elaborate tombstone erected over this child's grave, and
because of the story of the life and good will of the
parents. According to the account of an aged in-
formant, Mrs. Jere. Steinmetz {nee Mock), whose uncle
was a beneficiary of this benevolent pair, Mr. and Mrs.
Philip Erpff (Erb?) emigrated to this country as redemp-
tioners, and served their years of bondage ("bound
out") along the Miihlbach. By industry and perse-
verance they gained a competency and became the pos-
sessors of a profitable farm near town. After the death
of their only child they made a will, bequeathing, after
death, the sum of fifty pounds sterling to all of their
god-children, and the residue of their estate to the Luth-
eran church of the town, of which they were members.
It is said, however, that after the wife's death, which
occurred first, outsiders interfered with the husband,
and, either by an alteration in the will or crookedness
in the estate's settlement, the church was deprived of
this intended legacy. It is a pity that to prevent this
specious form of embezzlement, all benevolently dis-
posed men and women have not yet learned how to be-
come their own executors ! The following are fac-
similes of the tombstones of Mr. ErpfFaud his daughter,
the wife's being similar to his. We ask the readers to
notice the artistic elaboration expended upon this pet
child's memorial stone, and consider the age in which it
was erected :

Il8 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

Hier

Ruhen die gebeine von

PHILIP JACOB ERPFF

Gebohren zu Geyfzengen

im Hertzogthum

Wurtemberg den 2oten

October A. D. 1724

Gestorben den 3oten

Ianuarius A. D. 1803

Sein Alter 78 Iahr

3 Monateu und 10 tage

The child's grave is marked by a sandstone fully
seven inches thick and about three and a half feet high.
The sculptor of that day must have here done his best
to please the living and properly honor the dead. Here
is a sample of his art. It seems to represent life and
death, as the head of the tomb-stone is to represent a
living face, and at the bottom of it death is pictured in
the skull and cross-bones. We desire also to call the
attention of the reader at the ancient sign of the dupli-
cation of a letter as found in the words "Erpf, "
"Susana' and "Ano." Many similar specimens of
this common usage of duplication abound in the old
grave-yards visited. But the roof-like shape of the top
of stone is something rare. It is seldom found. We
present in the following cut a fair representation of this
elaborate and unique ancient memorial stone :

AMONG OLD GRAVES AND BUILDINGS.

II 9

HIER RUHET

UNSER LIEBE TOCHTER

MARIA ELISABETHA ERPFIN

DES _

PHILIP ERPF & SUSANA MAG.

DALEHNA EHELICHE TOCHTR

1ST GEBOHREN ANO 1 756

FEBRU. 2 TAG GESTORBEX

ANO 1769 JANU. 13 TAG AI/T

WORDEN 12 JAHR II MONHTA

VND 8 TAG

Now passing the graves of Peter Sheetz and Philip
Wolfersberger, who with others in this community used
to be the owners of negro slaves before their freedom
was legally granted in our state, let us descend into the
ancient town lying at our feet.

120 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

With the exception of a few additions in the form of
handsome and costly homes, in modern styles of archi-
tecture, such as the Weigley mansion, the residence of
Dr. Zerbe and others, and a new Reformed church edi-
fice and a remodeled Lutheran church building, we
will find the town very much as it was fifty years ago.
The language, customs and habits of the people have
not changed. To one who comes from the current of
our busy, whirring life of steam and electricity and
steam-harnessed machinery, everything here seems new
and strange because it is so tame and antiquated. But
this does not necessarily make against the place. It
only furnishes us with a specimen of life in the genera-
tions when honesty was a virtue and common brother-
hood an established and realized fact, and a man's word
as good as a bond or seal. Hence about the best way
for our Pennsylvania German folk to go back in history
a few generations and pay a visit to their honest and in-
dustrious forefathers, and look in upon their quiet and
peaceful mode of life, is to spend a while in the Schaef-
ferstown of to-day. Here they will find a simplicity of
living undisturbed by such modern concomitants of
civilization as labor strikes and commonweal armies
and all that ferment of discontent among the laboring
classes now sending its scummy ebullitions to the sur-
face elsewhere. The master and the servant have here
not yet exchanged places. The capitalist carries on
whatever humble industry he has planned and set on
foot, without fear of having a band of jealous ruffians

AMONG OLD GRAVES AND BUILDINGS. 121

and insolent vagrants shut up its doors. Wagons are
built here as strong and reliable as when they were used
to carry the surplus grain from the surrounding acres
to Philadelphia.

The shoemaker has not yet learned to make his pro-
duct out of shavings, but still makes shoes out of leather
intended to be worn and not to increase the sale. And
the school teacher — blessed paradise for this much-
abused and law-circumscribed benefactor — can here
wield his birch, if occasion demand it, without that
mark of his patrons' appreciation which gives the peda-
gogue elsewhere an unsolicited course in law for giving
his pupils an inevitable "course in sprouts." So lives
Schaefferstown to-day, and so lived our fathers every-
where many years ago.

Coming down from our cemetery heights to see it, we
take the street or lane that brings us to the Lutheran
church and parochial school house of long ago — two of
the oldest structures in the town. Both are built of
limestone, and were erected in 1765, as is shown by an
arched stone that was the head-stone of the main en-
trance to the church before its recent remodeling, where
it was left to tell its story of antiquity when these en-
trance doors beneath it were walled out. The school-
house has for many years past been used for Sunday-
school and mid-week devotional purposes.

This church has quite a history. As early as 1720,
there are evidences of official burial services having
been conducted here by missionary pastors. Frag-
9

122

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

meiitary records prove that Rev. F. A. C. Muhlenberg at
one time (1770-73) exercised pastoral functions here.
Doubtless a I02; or frame church edifice must have ex-

SCHAEFFERSTOWN LUTHERAN CHURCH.

isted before the present stone structure. While the
present building was erected, the congregation formed
a part of the Tulpehocken pastorate, and Rev. John

AMONG OLD GRAVES AND BUILDINGS. 1 23

Nicholas Kurtz was pastor. He was succeeded by Rev.
C. Emanuel Shultze, from 1770 to 1809, who was as-
sisted by his brother-in-law from 1770 to 1773 as stated.
Shultze was succeeded by the Rev. Wm. Baetes, from
1810 to 1836 ; by Rev. Jonathan Ruthrauff, from 1837
to 1849 '■> by Rev. J. M. Dietzler, from 1850 to 1865 ;
by Rev. U. Graves, from 1865 to I 866 ; by Rev. G. J.
Martz, from 1867 to 1878 ; and by Rev. M. Fernsler,
from 1879 t° the present time. The congregation has
been part of four or five separate pastoral charges. In
1865 it celebrated the centennial of the church erection,
when addresses were delivered by such well-known di-
vines as Drs. E. Huber, Daniel Schindler, Revs. J. M.
Dietzler, E. S. Henry, and U. Graves. In 1884, the
church was completely remodeled at considerable ex-
pense, the old steeple taken down from its west end
and built up at the east end, while sixteen feet were
added to its length on the west. While the same solid
masonry stands and constitutes the wall, the building
has lost its antique appearance, and has assumed a mod-
ern style of architecture within and without. A very
old pipe organ is still in use here. The old communion
service bears this inscription: "Michael Weber und
seine Ehefrau Anna Barbara haben die Communion
Kantheu, in die Evangelish-Lutherische Kirche in
Heidelberg, Linkester Amt gestisset, 1764."

The bell which used to swing in the old steeple,
and whose silvery tone for many years called this com-
munity to worship, is said to have had the following in-

124 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

scription: "Pack and Chapman, of London, Fecit 1773.
For the Lutheran church, Heidelbergtown, Lancaster
county." Similar ones were made by the same firm
and at the same time for the Trinity Lutheran church
of Lancaster city, and Salem Lutheran church, Leb-
anon. They were doubtless ordered by Rev. F. A. C.
Muhlenberg, who was then the pastor in charge.

Contemporaneously with the Lutheran church, the
Reformed congregation of town grew up. Their first
church was a frame structure. Another of stone super-
seded this in 1796, which has in turn been displaced, in
1858, by a beautiful and imposing brick edifice, fronting
on the Main street.

We are indebted to Dr. Egle's history of Dauphin
and Lebanon county for the specimen lottery ticket, giv-
ing us an idea of how the second edifice and that of the
old Reformed church, Lebanon, were paid for; a com-
mon resort for revenue in public enterprises of that day:

No. 1547.

LOTTERY.

Authorized by Law of the State of Pennsyl-
vania, for defraying the expenses of erecting
the Churches lately built by the German Re-
formed Congregations respectively, in the
Borough of Lebanon and in the Town of
Heidelberg, in the County of Dauphin.

ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS.
This Ticket will entitle the Bearer to such
Prize, as may be drawn to its Number, if de-
manded within twelve Months after drawing.
Subject to a deduction of twenty per cent.
i> Peb. 19, 1800.

HENRY SCHAEFFER

AMONG OLD GRAVES AND BUILDINGS. 1 25

The known pastors of the Reformed church have been
Revs. J. B. Rieger, Thomas Leinbach, Sr. , Samuel S.
and Thomas C. Leinbach, Jr., S. S. Sweitzer, J. A.
Shultz, A. H. Leisse, and A. J. Bachman, the present
incumbent.

In walking along these ancient streets one still sees
a large number of the first peasant abodes, mere huts,
whose low roofs can be touched with one's hand from
the sidewalk. Most of these abodes are still occupied,
but some are going into decay. Many are covered with
tiles, and in view of these tokens of age, the town re-
minds one of Newmanstown.

The town center contains a spacious square or market
place, along which are old buildings. One especially
claims our attention. It is the old stone hostelry,
erected in 1752 by the founder of the town. In ante-
Revolutionary times it had a royal name, "King
George," and sheltered many an aristocratic guest.
After the Revolution, the sign portrait was changed
from King George to that of George Washington. The
most remarkable feature about this old landmark prob-
bably is its elaborately and well-built cellar. Its ceil-
ing consists of a series of well-walled and cemented
arches, receding from a common center. It is known
to have on several occasions sheltered the inhabitants
of the community from the depredations of the savages
in the first and second decades after its erection.

Bidding adieu to this ancient town, we will take our
way across the country towards Myerstown. Leading

126

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

through the very paradise of Lebanon county farms, we
will pass the palatial country residence and improved
farms of Mr. Isaac Long, a brother and partner in the
New York wholesale commission business of the late

KING GEORGE HOTEE, SCHAEFFERSTOWN.

S. S. Long, of Newmanstown. This summer residence
is located at the corner where Mill Creek, Heidelberg
and Jackson townships meet. A little nearer Myers-
town we pass an ancient house, now occupied by Mr.
Ezra Spangler, which has not gone out of the family
hands since its erection. Though having signs of age
upon it, it is in a good state of repair, and its fine lime-

AMONG OLD GRAVES AND BUILDINGS. 12/

stone walls are as substantial as when it was first built.
It bears in its front elevation a sandstone with the fol-
lowing quaint inscription, the quotation of which som-
ber, semi-religious, orthographically-faulty sentiment
will close this chapter :

GOTT - GESEGNE - DIESEE - HAVS - VND

WER - DA - GETT - EIN - VND AVS - ICH GE

AVS - ODER - EIN - SO - STET - DER - DOTT

VXD - WARTET - MEIN . \ 1 7 - 82.

JACOB - SPENDER &E-S-B-S-P-R-N

CHAPTER XIV.

THE TULPEHOCKEN REFORMED CHURCH.

Having worked our way back to the Berks and
Dauphin turnpike — fortunately for our jaunts, when
such snows visit this region in the middle of April as
the one that blocked up travel by steam, electricity,
bicycle or foot last week — let us go down this ever pass-
able highway to where we left it almost two months ago
for our "round-about " excursion, and let us from this
point work our way westward toward Lebanon, picking
up along the way the scattered leaves of unwritten his-
tory. So we will go about three miles east of Myers-
town to the oldest and one of the most important
churches of the Reformed denomination in all this
valley. It is known as the Tulpehocken Reformed
church, and has a long and intensely interesting history.
Because of its having been served by the two Leinbach
brethren, Thomas H. and Charles, for over half a cen-
tury, it is commonly spoken of as the "Leinbach
Kirche."

It is located just west of the Tulpehocken Lutheran
church, about a mile and a half west of Stouchsburg,
along the turnpike, near a little village that has grown
up recently under the name of Cocena. It is situated

(128)

THE TULPEHOCKEN REFORMED CHURCH. I2Q,

on rising ground, like that of the Lutheran church near
by, along a bend of the Tulpehocken creek, while the
two historic and venerable sites, with their sacred
temples and burial grounds and ancient parsonages,
frown at or greet one another (as the heart of the ob-

TULPEHOCKEN REFORMED CHURCH.

server is filled with bigotry or fraternity) from their
opposing hill-sides, .like the ancient mountains of Ebal
and Gerizim. We trust they have both been "mounts
of blessing " during all the hundred and fifty years of
gospel light that crown them. It would seem at least

130 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

as if the earliest settlers that worshiped here desired that
these sacred spots might prove Gerizims and not Ebals,
where many of them built their houses even with a
version of the promised Mosaic blessing (Deut. xxviii.
6) engraved upon them, " Gott gesegne dieses Haus, und
wer da gehet ein und aus. "

With no fear of having curses heaped upon us, let us
repair to the spacious, stone manse that stands a little
off the roadway, to the south. Although the present
genial dominie, Rev. H. J. Welker, has a little farm of
thirty acres to superintend, beside his parish work, we
will find him none too busy to give us a little time and
lead us into the very interesting past and present of all
this sacred and historic landmark. The pastors here
have been busy men from time immemorial, some of
them having served as many as sixteen widely scattered
congregations at one time, besides managing a mill
property and the farm, which were then parts of the pas-
toral estate. The "church mill" has in recent years
been disposed of and now turns its grist for another than
the pastor. But a famous stone quarry on the premises
still yields a handsome royalty as a revenue for the
church.

The parsonage is a fine stone structure, commodious
and kept in good repair. The wide hall-way and the
cheerful rooms on either side bespeak welcome and
comfort. They have done so to many thousand visi-
tors during the more than a century of the manse's ex-
istence. Perhaps the most distinguished guest it ever

THE TULPEHOCKEN REFORMED CHURCH. 13 1

sheltered was the late Dr. Philip Schaff, a native of
Switzerland. His great learning early gave him a trans-
continental reputation, and in 1844 he was called by the
German Reformed church, of America, to fill a professor-
ship in the institutions at Mercersburg, Pa. He landed in
New York in July of that year, and taking up a leisurely
journey towards the place of destination, he passed
through Eastern Pennsylvania, stopping at Kutztown,
Reading, and at Tulpehocken with Dr. Thomas H.
Leinbach, the pastor. He probably spent a few days at
this hospitable Reformed manse. He said of it a year
before his death, at a meeting of the Reformed Synod
in Reading, October, 1892, which he attended, that
u the manners and customs of the people and the Penn-
sylvania-German dialect were exceedingly interesting"
to him. This visit occurred the first day of August,
1844, nearly fifty years ago, and he arrived at Mercers-
burg August 1 2th, after stopping with Judge Bucher
at Harrisburg, where, at a convention of Dutch and
German Reformed delegates, he first met Dr. J. W.
Nevin, with whom he was thenceforward to be so inti-
mately connected as a colleague. It must be a source
of just pride to every member of this flock that loves
and knows how to appreciate the intellectually great,
and especially for the pastor, to remember that this
their pastoral abode once sheltered such a prince of
theologians and church historians.

In the parsonage are found minute and extensive
records of the labors of its pastors and the transactions

132

LANDMARKS IX THE LEBANON VALLEY

- eon o-reeation. Thev cover three or four large
volumes, but the oldest and most valuable of all has
been lost Still quite a full history of the church life
here can be constructed from the records at hand.

There have been three churches since the beginning
in 1744. The hrs: one was a log building, and stood in
the southeast corner of the old cemetery. The second
church was built of stone, and stood opposite the road
from the present site, at the northwest corner of the or-
:l:a: v.ween the pike and the parsonage. The

-resent edifice is a large two-story massive structure.
built of nicely dressed limestone. It bears in its front
elevation a marble slab containing the following en-
graving :

REBUILT A. D. 1853.
rHIS IS NONE OTHER THAN
THE HOI-: F GOD."
THOMAS H. LEIXBACH. MINISTER.

I • >i RF OF TRUSTEES :

Thomas Bassler. President,
-reward. I). Mosser,

m. Tice. J. Tiee. H. Haack and M. Haaek.
BUILDING COMMITTEE :

George Diehl, Jonathan Klopp

and Eli Klopp.
S. McAlister, Master Carpenter.

Although the building is not antiquated in its exterior
or interior arrangements, vet the congregation has

1 — ' - 00

THE TULPEHOCKEN REFORMED CHURCH. 133

already decided to spend about $5,000 in its remodeling
in the near future. (This was executed in 1894. J

The following pastors have served this church : Prior
to 1747, it was served for some little time by certain
itinerant or missionary pastors, with an occasional ser-
mon by Revs. Rieger, Boehm and George Michael
Weiss, at intervals of six and twelve weeks. After
1747, the church had settled pastors, as follows:

Rev. D. Bartholmaeus, 1747-1750; Rev. H. W. Stoy,
1 752-1755; Rev. YValdschrnidt, 1757-1758; Rev. Otter-
bein, 1758-1764; Rev. John J. Zufall, 1765-1769; Rev.
J. William Hendel, Sr. , 1 769-1 782 ; Rev. Andrew
Loretz, 17S5-17S6; Rev. D. Wagner, 1 787-1 793; Rev.
William Hendel, D. D., 1 793-1823; Rev. Thomas H.
Leinbach, 1826-1864 ; Rev. Charles H. Leinbach,
D. D., 1S64-1883; Rev. Henry J. Welker, 1S84 .

Of these pastors, as far as we could learn, but two
are buried here, viz., the Leinbach brothers, a visit to
whose graves we will mention in the next chapter.
There are a few graves among the many hundreds of our
German folk, who sleep in the two large and well-kept
Qravevards here, that claim our attention to-dav. In the
old cemetery, south of the pike, close by where the first
church stood, are buried the Spychers, who were histori-
cal characters in the first half and middle of the last
century. Benjamin, at whose house Col. Conrad Weiser
gathered his regiment of 300 German farmers to repel
the invading savages, already alluded to, was the illus-
trious ancestor of the Decherts and Xeads of this valley

134 LANDMARKS OF THE LEBANON VALLEY.

and that of the Cumberland. He was the son of John
Peter Spycher, and emigrated to America from the
Palatinate in 1738, settling in this neighborhood. In
1744 he was licensed as an Indian trader. He served as
an officer in the Provincial army during the French and
Indian war, and at the beginning of the Revolution
assisted in organizing the Berks county militia. He
was a member of the Provincial Conference of June 8,
1776, and of the Constitutional Convention of July 15,
1776. His grave is supposed to be among the Spycher
tombs found here, but the epitaph time has obliterated.
The grave of Peter Spycher, doubtless a brother of
Benjamin, is marked by a granite slab that is evidently
more recent than his death and, therefore, still quite
legible. He was among the men who figured promi-
nentlv in arousing the Provincial Government to make
efforts of defense against the depredations of the Indians
in his dav. A letter is still extant which he wrote
November 16, 1755, to Col. Conrad Weiser, then in
Philadelphia on public business, in which he describes
the recent depredations and butcheries among their
brethren by the Indians, including the slaughter of the
watch and many others, at Diedrich Six's (back of Mil-
lersburg). The letter closes as follows :

"I have this account from those above named, and from Peter An-
spach, John Caderman, Christopher Noacre, Leonard Walborn, George
Dollinger and Adam Dieffenbach.

" We are, at present, in imminent danger to lose our lives or estates.
Pray, therefore, for help, or else whole Tulpehocken will be laid
waste, by the Indians, in a very short time, — all the buildings will be

THE TULPKHOCKEX REFORMED CHURCH. 135

burned, the people scalped. Do, therefore, lose no time to get us as-
sistance. The Assembly may learn from this nvrk, what kind and
fine friends the Indians are ! We hope members of the Assembly will
get their eyes opened and manifest tender hearts towards us ; and the
Governor the same. They are, it is hoped, true subjects to our King
George II, of Great Britain, or are they willing to deliver us into the
hands of these cruel and merciless creatures?

" I am your friend, PETER Spycher."

From a German paper, printed by C. Sauer, of Ger-
mantown, July, 1757, this Peter Spycher is mentioned
as one of the three persons to whom any free-will con-
tributions might be sent to aid in the better defense of
the Tulpehocken and Bethel inhabitants against the
savages, for which this paper then sent out a strong ap-
peal to the German brethren, scattered all over the older
portion of the province.

This Peter Spycher lived near Stouchsburg, and is
buried in this old Reformed burial ground. His tomb-
stone has the following inscription :

Zum Gedachtnifs

von PETER SPUCKER

Esqr

Gebohren Den 27 October

171 1. Gestorben Den 13

Juli 1789

Ift alt worden 77 Jahr 8 Mo.

v ein halben

136 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

Among the oldest legible tombstone inscriptions we
found the following, showing that the dead were buried
here already in 1745 :

«*"» "

Jllllll****' ^ ^ '"lIMIIL

r HIR BEGRABEN =

= IOHANNES KIDZ |

1 MILLER 1ST GE I

= BOHREX 1692 I

= DEN 2 FEBRV I

= AR11GEST =

m m

§ ORBEN 1745 l

riiiiiinii^iiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniir

Here are also buried the founders of Myerstown and
other leaders of long ago, of whom we will speak
later.

CHAPTER XV.

AN HOUR WITH REFORMED PASTORS.

Having taken a general survey of the grounds and
buildings and the past history of the Tulpehocken Re-
formed church, let us take our seat on the front portico
of the historic parsonage, and in company with the hos-
pitable dominie in charge, call up the long line of the
sainted pastors who labored here in the past century and
a half, and look them one by one into the face. The
spring sun is genial, the zephyrs breathe gently through
the boughs of the apple orchard, fast budding into leaf
and blossom about us, and the crocuses and daffodils are
near by to illustrate our faith in the first resurrection of
the pious dead, while robins and song-sparrows help to
lure us into an hour of memorial reverie and review.
By the aid of some magic wand let us then call up the
slumbering prophets, and while they may look in upon
our latter life of modern improvements, we will catch,
we trust, a sense of their piety and self-denial, while we
gaze for an hour into their once familiar countenances:

The first that must be called up are those earliest
supply-pastors, or missionaries, who preached the Gos-
pel here before the first synodical organization of this
denomination was effected in this country. These were
10 (137)

*3*

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

the Revs. Rieger, Boehm and Weiss, names that stand
high in the earliest annals of the Reformed church in
America. They were the very earliest pastors of this
church, and did much pioneer work for this denomina-
tion in Pennsylvania. Boehm began to preach in 1726,
before he was formally licensed. He took up his home

THE TUI.PEHOCKEN REFORMED PARSONAGE.

in Whitpain township, then Philadelphia county, about
sixteen miles north of that city, from whence he sup-
plied surrounding places, even Philadelphia. At this
place (Whitpain) he built up a flourishing church that
still bears his name. Weiss located at Skippach, Mont-

AN HOUR WITH REFORMED PASTORS. 1 39

gomery county, after arriving in this country with fifty
families of native Palatines, September 21, 1727, hav-
ing been sent hither as the first ordained pastor of the
Reformed church in Pennsylvania, by l 'the upper con-
sistory, or classis, of the Palatinate." He served all the
older congregations of the upper end of Montgomery
county, such as Old and New Goschenhoppen, Gross-
Schwam, etc. He also visited the Fatherland, with one
Reif, in the interests of the struggling Reformed congre-
gations of Pennsylvania, and for a brief period preached
at Rhinebeck, N. Y. Reiger arrived in this country in
September, 1731. He settled at Lancaster, and supplied
the surrounding congregations with preaching, namely,
Conestoga, Schaefferstown, etc. These three men have
a number of things in common, viz., 1, they united in
September 29, 1747, with the Rev. Mr. Schlatter in the
establishment, in Philadelphia, of the first ecclesiastical
organization, known then by the name of Ccetus, now
as Synod; 2, they founded the first churches in the
localities where they settled; 3, they all accumulated
considerable wealth ; 4, they all lie buried in the churches
which they respectively founded; and 5, they were all
among the first supplies of the Tulpehocken congrega-
tion. Would we visit their respective graves, we should
find Weiss buried at the south-east corner of the New
Goschenhoppen church, the grave marked by a wooden
slab on which is painted the barest fact of his resting
there. While he died childless, he owned about twenty
slaves, all of whom and their offspring he baptized,

140 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

some of whose descendants still linger about Goschen-
hoppen. The grave of Boehm is likewise in the south-
east corner of the church he built at Whitpain, having
died suddenly, May 1, 1749, a ^ ter a tr ^P to Egypt,
Lehigh county, where on the previous day he had ad-
ministered the communion to that flock. He left a
number of children, among whom was long preserved,
as a relic, an iron chest filled with this pioneer's most
important church papers and correspondence with the
church judicatories of Holland and Germany, but which
valuable historic treasures were, after oft handling, finally
but most unfortunately given to the flames. Reiger
lies buried in the First Reformed church of Lancaster,
a horizontal stone, with an elaborate epitaph, marking
the spot, and noting his death as occurring in 1769,
March the nth.

When the Rev. Michael Schlatter, the great leader
and organizer of the German Reformed church of
America (sent by the Reformed Classes of Holland, and
commissioned to consolidate the scattered Reformed
congregations upon the basis of their denominational
order, doctrines and worship] arrived in this country,
these three named pastors at one time accompanied
him to this congregation at the Tulpehocken. The
illustrious patriarch visited here on several other
occasions, but perhaps the most memorable visit of all
is that occasioned by the introduction and installation
of the first regular pastor, in the person of the Rev.
Dominicus Bartholomaeus, whom, with Rev. Hoch-

AN HOUR WITH REFORMED PASTORS. 141

reutner, he was instrumental in inducing to come to
America from Switzerland for the important fields at
Tulpehocken and Lancaster, respectively.

Rev. Bartholomaeus took charge at Tulpehocken,
September, 1748, but was not permitted to labor for
any length of time. Almost from the very beginning
of his ministry his health was precarious, causing him
to cease from its active labors here in 1752, and being
relieved of his bodily infirmities by death in 1759. The
writer does not know his place of burial. Rev. Dr.
William Stoy, who succeeded this first pastor at Tul-
pehocken, was born in Herborn, Germany, March 14,
1726, where he was educated for the ministry, and
accompanied Rev. Mr. Schlatter to America, one of six
pastors, whom this leader induced, in a visit to the
Fatherland in 1752, to accompany him to America to
serve the church here. He was appointed as successor
to Mr. Bartholomaeus, when failing health debilitated
the latter. He remained but three years, when the
severity of the climate induced him to resign. After
health improved he accepted a call to Lancaster, and
from thence came back to the Lebanon Valley, settling
in Lebanon and operating up and down this valley as a
physician and minister. He preached here and at Host
church in Berks county for some time longer, at which
latter place he was buried, according to his own ante-
mortem request. A memorial stone with suitable in-
scription marks his resting place. He died in Lebanon,
September 14, 1801. Whatever may have been the

142 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

influence of his gospel teachings, his medical skill was
admitted, and from his saddle-bags he oft took cures for
the body. We know not the result of his offers of the
water of eternal life. Among his remedies was a popu-
lar preparation known as "Stoy's Drops" and an effect-
ual cure for hydrophobia.

Rev 7 . John Waldschmidt, who served Tulpehocken
from 1757 to 1758, was also a native of Germany, and
one of the six pastors whom Mr. Schlatter induced to
labor in the American field. He was first stationed in
Lancaster county, and from thence supplied this church
for nearly two years. He died in September, 1786, and
lies buried in the Swamp (Lancaster county) church
yard, a stone fittingly inscribed marking the spot.

Rev. Wm. Otterbein, another German, succeeded Mr.
Waldschmidt in this charge in 1758. He likewise was
one of Rev. Mr. Schlatter's six apostles, induced by his
appeal to leave home and native land in the interests of
the Reformed Zion in America. He, with the other
five, was ordained to the gospel ministry at the Hague
and accompanied their earnest leader across the mighty
deep in 1752. He was a youth of 26 when he arrived,
and at once entered into an agreement with the Lan-
caster congregation to serve them for five years. He
established order and discipline in the church, intro-
ducing the time-honored custom of each communicant's
personal interview with the pastor (Anmeldung) a day
or two prior to the communion. The original paper,
drawn up by him and signed by 80 members of his

AN HOUR WITH REFORMED PASTORS. 1 43

flock, is preserved in the archives of the Lancaster
church. He was successful in giving strength and sta-
bility to this congregation — inducing them to erect
during his ministrv a massive stone church edifice,
which stood almost a century before it was displaced by
the present brick structure. He resigned in 1758 and
assumed charge at Tulpehocken, only as temporary
supply at first, which continued, however, for several
years. From Tulpehocken Mr. Otterbein went to
Frederick, Md., and from thence to Baltimore. Here
he labored for almost 40 years, until his death, being,
however, meanwhile instrumental in giving form and
shape to a new sect or denomination, the United Breth-
ren in Christ. Later he seems to have come back to
his first love, taking a deep interest in the Reformed
church and dying within her fold, one of the most
highly gifted preachers and intensely ardent workers ot
this denomination. He died October 17, 1813, in Bal-
timore, where the venerable Dr. Kurtz, of the Lutheran
church, ministered to him in his dying hours and
preached his German funeral sermon. He lies buried
near the then Reformed church, now United Breth-
ren, in Conway street of that city. Bishop Asbury,
first bishop of the M. E. church, whom the former
assisted to consecrate to the bishopric, and whose inti-
mate friendship he enjoyed, spoke a special eulogium to
his memory in the Conway street church from Rev. iii.
io-ii. Mr. Otterbein's tomb is well preserved and
marked by a marble entablature, bearing the data of a
brief memorial.

144 landmarks ix THE LEBANON VALLEY.

Rev. John J. Zttfall succeeded Mr. Otterbeiri at
Tulpehocken, and served this charge from 1765 to [769.
There is not much recorded concerning this pastor's
work 01 career from which the writer could trace a life

sketch.

Rev. William Elendel, Sr., served Tulpehocken from
[769 to 1782. He arrived in this country from his
native Palatinate in 1704, and assumed charge at Lan-
caster. From thence he came to Tulpehocken, labor-
ing here during the Revolutionary war period. After
.-in efficient ministry of thirteen years, he returned to
Lancaster. In 1794, he accepted acall to Philadelphia,
laboring there during that period of trial occasioned by
the pestilence, which plague finally made him its
victim, ending in death September 28, 1798. He Is
buried by the side of many of his ministerial brethren,
iii Franklin Square, Philadelphia. Dr. Helmuth, of
the Lutheran church, his warm and faithful friend,
preached at his obsequies, from the text 2 Samuel i.
26. Dr. Harbaugh called Hendel "the St. John of the

Reformed ("hureh." A friend composed a. special
hymn on his death, which, however, we have not space

to quote.

Rev. Andrew Loretz, the next pastor, was a sort of
Unaccountable personage in the annals of the Re-formed
Church — a mysterious, Melehizedck kind of prophet,

whose parentage and general history is hidden. A

native of Switzerland, lie came to America in 1784, and

th'- next year settled at Tulpehocken, where he served

AN HOUR WITH REFORMED PASTORS. 145

this church and those at Swatara, Heidelbergtown,
Lebanon and Hill. His Swiss dialect is said to have
interfered with his usefulness here, and he, therefore,
soon returned to Europe, leaving this charge again
vacant in 1786.

Rev. Daniel Wagner succeeded him in 1787. He
was born in the duchy of Nassau, Germany, but came
with his parents to this country when two years of age,
settling temporarily in Chester county, but after a few
years taking up their permanent abode in Bern town-
ship, Berks county, Pa. He labored in the ministry in
York county for fifteen years before assuming charge at
Tulpehocken, where he remained four years, when he
again returned to York, remaining nine years longer,
when he settled at Frederick, Md. After a few more
years' labor here he became disabled, removing back to
York in 1810, only to die and be buried there, which
occurred in December of the same year. There many
of his descendants still reside.

Rev. Dr. Wm. Hendel, Jr., eldest son of the senior
Hendel, succeeded Rev. Wagner. In youth he was un-
der the tutelage of the celebrated Lutheran divines, Drs.
Kunze and Helm nth, graduating later from Columbia
college, N. Y., and from the New Brunswick Theolog-
ical Seminary. He was ordained in 1793, and at once
assumed charge at Tulpehocken, remaining thirty
years. He was a progressive man, much in advance of
his brethren of that day in point of liberal thought.
For his advocacy of missions and the establishment of a

146 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

Theological Seminary of his church he was violently
persecuted. It was by his casting vote, as President of
Synod, that the first Theological Seminary of the Re-
formed church was established. In 1823 he resigned
several of his churches and removed to Womelsdorf,
where he continued to preach six years longer, when he
retired from the sacred office, only preaching occa-
sionally after that date as supply for his brethren. He
died at Womelsdorf on July 11, 1846, and there was
buried. (See chapter on Womelsdorf.)

At his funeral the Rev. John C. Bucher, of Reading,
who was one of the officiating clergymen, made the
startling statement at the request of deceased, that he
(the deceased) had lived and preached all his years with
a mere theoretical knowledge of the religion and the
grace of God, and that he had never enjoyed the favor
and pardon of God in its fullest and experimental sense
before impending death opened his eyes to his dreadful
situation. He then called on God and found peace.
By request, this statement was to be made at his funeral,
to warn other pastors against a false trust or hope, and
to urge his own members to seek the Lord's pardon and
experimental grace while it was yet day. The ''Evan-
gelical Association," or some members of it, made stock
of this confession, and gave it publicity by means of a
printed tract which they circulated.

The Leinbach brethren, Thomas and Charles, in turn
succeeded Dr. Hendel at Tulpehocken, and served the
charge for more than fifty years. They were both well

AN HOUR WITH REFORMED PASTORS. 1 47

adapted for this field, and under the ministry of the
former some of the greatest improvements of the church
were made — such as the building of the present church
edifice, and the celebration of the centennial of the
church in 1847, a ^ °f which helped to strengthen the
cause of the congregation. He also succeeded in divid-
ing the large membership into two congregations, and
thus establishing the Reformed congregation at Myers-
town, and building that edifice. He died at Millers-
burg, Berks county, on Thursday, March 31, 1864,
having there been seized with violent sickness, while
officiating on the preceding Sunday. His funeral was
a solemn occasion, attended by a large concourse of
people, when several sermons were preached, the prin-
cipal one by Dr. J. S. Dubbs, of Allentown, who was a
classmate of his, and a mutual friend throughout life —
each having officiated at the marriage of the other. Mr.
Leinbach was the first person buried in the new cemetery
at Tulpehocken, and a marble monument marks the
site of his resting place, close to its entrance near the
church. The following inscription is engraved thereon :

In Memory of
Rev. Thomas H. Leinbach,
Pastor of this Con-
gregation for 38 years.
Commenced
in March, 1826,

Ended

in March, 1864.

"I am the Resurrection and the Life, &c."

148 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

His brother Charles succeeded him, and served the
church for 20 years. He lies buried near his brother,
and a granite shaft tells this story:

Rev. Charles H. Leinbach, D. D.,

Born

Nov. 7, 1 Si 5,

Died

July 15, 1883.

"He Giveth His Beloved Sleep."

Pastor Tulpehocken Charge, May 1, 1863, to July, 1883.

Since 1884 Pastor Welker has done good work here,
and continues his successful labors. But we cannot
tarry any longer. Therefore, dismissing this distin-
guished array of divines, and breaking up our happy
conference with the living and dead abruptly, let us be
off after the many landmarks that still abide in this his-
torically rich valley. To the departed, ^Requiescant in
pace!" To the only living pastoral toiler and his
helpers, ^Dominus Vobiscum /"

CHAPTER XVI.

A STROLL ALONG THE TULPEHOCKEN.

The genial spring sun has made angling seasonable.
The very allusion to this boyhood sport, combines with
the climate to awaken fondest memories. A flood of
delightful recollections, like unto the brooks at spring-
time, all whose fountain-heads have been let loose and
whose banks run full to overflowing, is started and
flows through the channels of our souk at the very sight
of a stream of water in spring time. Being on the
banks of a gamey stream, how would it be if we'd spend
a day in fishing up the historic Tulpehocken? All my
readers being agreed, this will we do to-day. Only we
shall not angle for the finny tribe, but will endeavor to
land a few big fish in the line of facts of antique inter-
est, that sport unknown or almost forgotten in the
stream of historic events that courses along the banks
of this familiar creek.

Therefore, leaving the comfortable and ancient old
manse of the Reformed by the Tulpehocken, we will
go up its waters, along which our forefathers made the
first settlement in this valley. First, then, we come to
the old mill property, known for over a century as the
" Church Mill," because until recently it was owned by

(i49)

150 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

the congregation and turned out one grist for the tem-
poral support of the church and another to furnish the
supporting staff of the temporal life of its membership.
Thence, going up the windings of this stream, there is
not an old homestead from here to its source, five miles
west, that has not a story of earnest struggle and
anxious fear, because of the many depredations of the
savages, hid away in its early history. Here the land
was first occupied by the earliest settlers, because of the
water convenience. Here the Schoharie fugitives first
squatted and developed their plantations, for which
most of them afterwards paid. Along this stream, the
Alillbach and the Swatara, the very first homes in the
valley were founded. Many of these homesteads have
come into other hands, but until recently many were
still in the possession of the direct descendants of the
original owners.

If we would take our stroll up the turnpike, just a
quarter of a mile at most places north of this creek, and
running in the main parallel to it, we could the better
point out these old settlements, because this excellent
highway is on higher ground. And thither let us re-
pair to gain the best point of view. Our line — a line of
vision, however — will still be long enough to let the
baited hook drop into this stream to our south, and also
into the "Owl Creek," that rises in the hillsides to our
north and flows in a westerly and southwesterly course,
emptying into the Tulpehocken just east of Myerstown.

Along the Tulpehocken are the Haack and Kreitzer

A STROLL ALONG THE TULPEHOCKEX. 151

and Briddebach (Breitenbach) estates and others. Along
the Owl creek are the homesteads of the original An-
spachs, Walborns, Lauers, Noackres, Lenne, and so forth.
The whole of this territory to the north and south, and
even more than is included in this described district,
lying east of Myerstown, situated in what is now Jack-
son township, was originally taken up by one Casper
Wister, who is described in all ancient documents as
" the brass-button maker of Philadelphia." The writer
was recently shown, by the present owner of the Brei-
tenbach farm, Mr. Richard Miller, of Myerstown, an
old parchment deed, dated August 7, 1754, which
legally conveyed the small tract of about four acres
from Martin Noacker and wife to Philip Breitenbach,
for the sum of 35 pounds, 8 shillings and 6 pence. Said
tract was a portion of a farm which Martin Noacker
bought of John Noacker in 1750, who had purchased it
from Casper Wister, "the brass-button maker of Phila-
delphia,' 1 who had received, November 10, 1738, by in-
denture from the proprietaries, the amount of 1,724
acres, at an annual quit rental of one red rose for 10,000
acres. On this four-acre tract an Indian fort was
erected by Philip Breitenbach, to which the neighbor-
ing inhabitants were wont to flee in cases of emergency
during the war period with the Indians. We are told
that the great-hearted Breitenbach "was wont, on
many occasions of alarm, to take his drum and beat it
on an eminence near his house, to collect the neighbors
from work, into the fort. On one occasion the Indians

152

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

pursued them close to the house, when one of the in-
mates took up a gun and shot the Indian dead on the
spot." — Rupp* s History of Berks and Lebanon Counties.
On this "eminence " of Breitenbach, evidently east
of his home, where we find it as of old, let us take our
stand and " view the landscape o'er." We are just half
a mile east of Myerstown. Our feet now rest on truly

THE BREITENBACH INDIAN FORT HOMESTEAD, EAST OF MYERSTOWN.

historic ground. Facing the west, before us lies the
Breitenbach homestead, on the south of the pike. The
headstone on barn (second building) bears date of 1802.
By it, at the base of the brow of this historic u emi-

A STROLL ALONG THE TULPEHOCKEN. 1 53

nence," flows the "Owl Creek," in which, tradition
says, General Washington watered his horse on one of
his visits to or journeys through this valley. To the
left, but a little over a stone's throw from the pike,
stands an old stone residence, with arched cellar, seven-
teen steps deep, for safe refuge from the savages, which
may be the Indian fort which Breitenbach built, though
another spot near the Owl creek is pointed out as the
place where, until recently, the ruins could be seen.
This old relic, still standing, but fast going into decay
because no longer occupied, is now the property of Mr.
Harry Kreitzer, of Philadelphia, who, just a little east
of our observation point, has a comfortable residence for
his summer quarters. Near this place, on the Kreitzer
estate, is the stone crusher — long since idle, after a
futile attempt at gold mining. To our right, on the
north side of the pike, almost near enough to touch the
roofs of the buildings, is the present Tice homestead,
but for a long time used as a hotel, and built by Peter
Len, in 1777. It is a large and well-kept limestone
country house, surrounded by ample grounds as yard.
A special stone in the side of the house facing the road-
way, bears the somewhat common legend found on old
homes in this district, namely:

GOTT

. GESEGNE

. DIE-

SES . HAVS .

WER DA GET

EIN .

VND

. AVS

• 1777-

PETR .

LEN

. EFA

LENIN

154 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

As a door-step, a broken milestone has done service
for many years. It bears the following information to
the wayfarer that may chance to try the knocker of this
hospitable home, and who casts his eyes downward
while awaiting a response:

*-._.">
W

t— 1

Over this door-step have walked the Tice family, as
they took leave of the old home — some of whom have
since gone out to their long home. One son has used
it as a stepping-stone from a peaceful and quiet home-
life into the prominence and usefulness of a professor's
life, and is now employed in some institution in Mont-
gomery county.

A little north of the Tice homestead is the Xoacker
farm, with its imposing farm dwellings, settled early, as
we have already seen, on a portion of the "brass-button
maker's" tract. Beyond this place is the Lauer home,
where the greatest benefactor (?) to the bibulous of old
Berks and of East Pennsylvania generally, was reared —
the noted beer-brewer of Reading, Mr. Frederick Lauer.

Between the Tice homestead and the Noacker farm,
the grading of the land still shows where the old road
wound around the steep "eminence" of Breitenbach,
before the Berks and Dauphin turnpike was located
right over it. It crossed the Owl creek at about the
same place the pike does, and took a westerly and

A STROLL ALONG THE TULPEHOCKEN. 155

southwesterly course from thence to the Tulpehocken,
south of Myerstown, where still stands the residence of
this town's founder, Mr. Isaac Myers.

And right here, in front of the old Breitenbach home,
where this pioneer parted this life, we will part com-
pany for the day. Let me only add that Mr. and Mrs.
Breitenbach lie buried side by side on the Christ Tulpe-
hocken Lutheran graveyard, and their graves are
marked by fitting stones. The following is a specimen
of their tombstones, the wife's (Elizabeth) being similar
to his :

Hier Ruhet

PHILIP BREITENBACH

War gebohren

den 6 October 1725

und starb
den 26 October 1790

War alt
65 Jahr und 20 Tage.

CHAPTER XVII.

TULPEHOCKENTOWN, ALIAS MYERSTOWN.

It may not be generally known, even to the inhabi-
tants of the town itself, that Myerstown — the place we
are about to "do" historically to-day — was originally
called Tulpehockentown. It is a question whether all
the Lebanon county towns had not better kept their first
names and thus carried out the evident wishes of their
modest founders, who stood as sponsors when these local
communities were originally christened. There certainly
seems more beauty and taste in such names as Newburg,
Heidelbergtown, Nassau, Williamburg and Tulpe-
hockentown, than such bold appellations of ownership
as a later generation attributed and expressed in the
present sobriquets of Newmanstown, Schaefferstown,
Stumpstown, Jonestown, and Myerstown. Lebanon
has done wisely in dropping the assumed name of its
founder and adopting instead the euphonious Scriptural
name first given to the township in which it was
located. Think of such a city as Lebanon being called
by the German jawbreaker, Steitztown!

But what is there in a name? Well, in the instance
of most of our country towns, it preserves a fact in the
history of their founding. And since they teach us his-

(156)

TULPEHOCKENTOWN, ALIAS MYERSTOWN. 1 57

tory, we shall let them stand. Only what I have to say
concerning first names is history also, and therefore I
insist on being heard when I recall to the minds of my
readers what is evinced from old documents, that the
original name given to Myerstown was Tulpehocken-
town. It does not require any extensive search, or any
stretch of the imagination, to find a reason for this. The
town was located on the banks of this stream, close to
which stood, and still stands, the house of its founder,
Mr. Isaac Myers. Let me therefore lead my readers to
this landmark, from which to take bearings.

Leaving the Breitenbach "eminence," just east of
town, the old road was identical with the pike, from the
east about a square into town, from whence its course
branched off this present main thoroughfare of the
borough to the southwest, till it reached the Tulpe-
hocken, at where the Mvers residence is still found,
about a quarter of a mile due south of the town center.
There is an old log house — now encased in weather-
boards — that still stands at this junction of the pike with
the old road, which faced this original highway and
stands therefore at an angle to the pike, which it also
attempts to front. When Isaac Myers in 1768 laid out
the village, this old highway still led through a dense
forest, and within it were planted, as the first scattered
homes of the new settlement, the houses of Christian
Maurer, Henry Brill, Nicolas Gast, Messrs. Haussegger,
Schumacher, Hoffman, Schnell, etc., most of them
honest German artisans. As early as 1738 a tract of

158

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

321 acres was conveyed by "the brass-button maker of
Philadelphia " (Casper Wister), to Henry Bassler, whose
descendants of the fifth generation still "hold the fort"
in the western end of town. This family has been

THE ISAAC MEIER HOMESTEAD, MYERSTOWN.

prominent in the annals of the town. The grandfather
of the present John H. Bassler, who attained a reputa-
tion for brilliant services in the late rebellion, Simon
Bassler, Sr. , "was detailed as one of the company called
upon to guard the captured Hessians imprisoned for a
time at Hebron."

Mr. Isaac Myers, the founder, was a native of this val-
ley. He built his home on the banks of the Tulpehocken

TULPEHOCKENTOWN, ALIAS MYERSTOWN. 1 59

about the middle of last century. Here he reared his
family, some of whose descendants have made their
mark in life. Among them are such names as the
Hiesters and Reilys and Woods — families into which his
daughters were married. Both Captain John Reily and
Col. Joseph Wood, two sons-in-law, achieved notoriety
during the revolution. The late Prof. Win. M. Reily,
Ph. D., long at the head of Palatinate College* (Re-
formed) located here, was a descendant.

The old house has passed out of the family hand and
name, and is now the property of Dr. W. C. Kline, the
enterprising druggist of town. It is quite a relic of
antiquity. Its walls are three feet thick, it having often
sheltered the neighbors from the attacks of the Indians.
The present owner has carefully kept in their original
condition the garret rooms, which were once occupied
by the colored slaves of its first, likewise their owner
and master.

The manner in which so conspicuous and enterprising
a career as that of the founder of Myerstown came to an
end is worthy of note. Being elected to the office of
magistrate, there were public acts of his to be performed
which incurred the enmity of some persons. Hence a
snare was set for taking vengeance on him. Being sum-
moned away from home one night on the ostensible pur-
pose of transacting business at some wayside inn, Mr.
Myers answered the call, and here fell a victim into the

*This school is now (1895) the Albright Collegiate Institute of the
United Evangelical Church.

i6o

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

hands of his secret foes. Sitting with his back to a
window, he was fatally shot from the outside. He lived
long enough to be taken to his home, however, whither
he summoned a few friends with whom he held an
interview, after which he requested his wife never to
search for his murderers nor prosecute them if discovered,
as their guilty conscience would be punishment enough
for them. He then died in the bosom of his family.
We found his grave in the old Tulpehocken Reformed
graveyard marked by a large, flat stone, about 2^2 by 6
ft., covering his entire grave. The following inscrip-
tion is still quite legible :

•

HIER LIGT IN

GOTT SELICH

ENTSCHLAFEN

ISACK . MEIER

1ST GEBOHREN

1730 DE 4TE

IANVARI. 1ST

GESTORBEN

1770 DEN 5TE

IVLL SO WAR

SHIN GANZES

ALTER 40 IA-

HR V. 6 MONAT

SKIN LEIGEN

TEXT STET

IN DER ERSTEN

EPI. PETRI

IM 5TE C H.

IM 8. V. 9. VE.

«<

TULPEHOCKENTOWN, ALIAS MYERSTOWN. l6l

Dr. Kline is also the owner and occupant of another
noted landmark of this town. This is the residence of
the late Governor J. Andreas Shultze. It is a well
known fact that after this illustrious son of the pious

THE SHULTZE HOUSE, MYERSTOWN.

Lutheran pastor at Tulpehocken had himself studied for
the ministry and made an attempt of its arduous labors,
finding himself physicially incapacitated for its trials
and hardships in that day, relinquished the sacred call-
ing and entered secular life. He settled in Myerstown,
and for a number of years carried on the mercantile
business here. This place is somewhat centrally located

l62

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

on the north side of its main street. It has been used
for the past sixteen years as the site of the town postofHce,
and only abandoned as such recently at a change of the
complexion of our National administration. Since 1879
this old store stand and home has been the property of
Dr. Kline, whose family occupies the domestic portion
of the historic edifice, while the doctor's drug-store fills
the newer portion of the building, not used by the post-
office, which latter is a room of about 30 by 25 feet in
dimensions, now vacant since the ex-postmaster, Mr.
Milton Myers, was obliged to hand his keys and com-
mission over to his Democratic successor. The stone
barn erected on the rear of the lot still bears the date of
its erection and the initials of the once illustrious owner
and dweller here, through whose veins flowed at suc-
cessive stages of his life the blood of theology, business
and statesmanship. The following is a fac-simile of
this date stone :

It would seem as if ownership or occupancy of this
Shultze house brought distinction in its course, for there
has not been a possessor of it since, who has not grown

TULPEHOCKKNTOWN, ALIAS MYERSTOWN. 1 63

into some degree of local fame. From Shultze the prop-
erty passed into the hands of Daniel Stine, esq., who
was afterwards elected to the legislature. He trans-
ferred it to Mr. Joseph Coover, whoj was elected associ-
ate judge of the count} 7 in 1866. So likewise it was
owned by Mr. Burkholder, who attained some promi-
nence; and by W. M. Ulrich, who rose in the rebellion
to the distinction of General, and who has since the late
war founded an independent settlement in Virginia,
about 20 miles south of Washington, D. C. , which he
has named u Mt. Herndon," and where he resides in af-
fluence and honor. The writer gives this timely notice
to the present owner to prepare himself for the "light-
ning" of greatness which has been accustomed to take
this old building as a favorite conductor. "Some men
are born great, some achieve greatness, but some have
greatness thrust upon them."

By going a few hundred yards to the west of this
Shultze house, we come to the spot where until recently
stood, to the south of the pike or main street, an old
landmark of historic interest. This was the old school
house of ante-revolutionary founding. The site is now
occupied by a modern frame house owned by a Mrs.
Dundore. The writer was recently shown a parchment
deed by ex-Judge Coover, dated Sept. 12, 1765, wherein
Simon Bassler and his wife, Eva Maria, conveyed to
Nicholas Swingle, jr., and Nicholas Hauseker, trustees,
a certain tract of land or lot described as bordering on
lands of Isaac Myers, &c, for the sum of one pound

164 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

and 10 shilling's for school purposes forever. This was
acknowledged before the noted J. P. DeHaas, esq., and
recorded at Lancaster by Edward Shippen, recorder.
On this lot a school house was erected, which was as a
11 city set on a hill " to enlighten four or five generations
of Myerstown's young Americans. When finally these
subscription or parochial schools were superseded by
our free schools, this old friend gradually grew into dis-
favor until the building alone was left to tell its story of
former blessedness. When Mr. Daniel Stine represented
this district in our state legislature he was authorized
by an act of assembly to vacate or sell the property and
with the money to buy a burial ground, where the com-
munity for "six miles around " might mid the right of
sepulture, Messrs. Bassler and Mosser being trustees.
In this deed, to which are affixed quaint seals, the town
is named u Tulpehockintown."

Another old school house, octagonal in shape, still
stands at the eastern end of town, but is now used as a
blacksmith shop.

On the old cemetery (Lutheran and Reformed) located
in the western portion of the town, next to the Frieden's
Lutheran church, are found the graves of the old sires
and settlers of this community. Such names as the
Leys, Valentines, Spanglers, Batdorfs, Grohs, Mossers,
Stoevers, Burkholders, Koppenhavers, Basslers, Zart-
mans, etc., are among the oldest. Close to the church
walls are two graves that meant more to me than others,
because here we know stood the ex-Governor Shultze

TULPEHOCKENTOWN, ALIAS MYERSTOWN. 1 65

when their enclosed remains were solemnly laid aside.
They are the graves of Mr. and Mrs. J v eonard Immel,
the parents-in-law of this noted governor. The follow-
ing epitaph marks the resting place of this sturdy
illustrious farmer, whose rural home to the southwest of
town the young, ambitious preacher-merchant entered
to carry away as prize an accomplished and winsome
daughter :

Denckmal
Der Liebe Fur

IvEONHARD iMMEIv

Sohn von

Johatm und Barbara Immel.

Er erblickte das Licht dieser Welt auf

den I4ten Tag October 1747

und starb

den 2ten Tag Juny A. D. 1839.

Brachte seine irdische Walfarth auf

91 Jahre, 7 Monate

und 20 Tag.

Leichentext die 2 Epistle St. Paull an
Timotheum, das 4 Capital,
Der 7 u 8 vers.

The wife's tombstone is similar in form and its
inscription akin in substance to his. And here where
these illustrious kindred parted company for life we will
end this chapter.

CHAPTER XVIII.

A WALK OVER HISTORIC GROUND.

Having parted company with my readers in the
shadow of the Myerstown Lutheran and Reformed
churches, which lift up their tall spires towards the
skies as memorials of the piety of the generations that
have passed away, as constant indices pointing to and
reminding one of a protecting and beneficient divine
Ruler, and as so many marks of grace and ornament to
the thriving borough that has spread itself about their
base, let us prepare to take a walk to-day of several
miles up the pike, which leads through truly historic
ground. Casting our eves to the north and south — es-
pecially to the south, where flows the story-laden Tulpe-
hocken — we shall pass not a single old homestead that
is not linked by a chainwork of interesting events to the
earliest days of this valley's settlement.

Before leaving, however, this long-time meeting place
of these honored German ancestors and this final gather-
ing place of their bones, where most of the illustrious
sires sleep, whose once thriving homes we shall visit to-
day, let us take a brief look into the history of these
churches. Thus we learn that originally this locality
worshipped at the Tulpehocken churches, as few others

(166)

A WALK OVER HISTORIC GROUND. 167

besides Lutherans and Reformed had settled here.
In course of time, however, distance and the increase of
population in this vicinity suggested the planting of
churches at Myerstown. Accordingly as early as 181 1,
steps were taken towards organizing the Lutheran church
by the westernmost members of the Tulpehocken flock.
At the original meeting, held June 23, 1811, it was
resolved to build a church, and as a building committee
the following persons were chosen, viz. : Christian Ley,
Leonard Immel, Leonard Rambler, Jacob Laehn,
Christopher Liess, Christian Artz and Martin Moyer.
We have already learned that Messrs. Michael Mosser
and Simon Bassler donated a lot for building and burial
purposes — the latter common to Lutherans and Re-
formed alike — to all "living within a radius of six
miles." All of these leaders named lie buried on this
ancient gravevard, and into most of their homes we shall
have occasion to peep to-day. The first trustees were
Michael Ley, Leonard Immel and J. Andreas Shulze,
the future governor.

In 1812 the church was built and consecrated. It was
a stone structure, and was of sufficient dimensions for
the time (55x36 ft.,) and at once equipped with a bell
and soon with a pipe organ. In 1857 tne present impos-
ing brick edifice was erected. The following pastors
have served the same :

Rev. William Baetes 1812-1824

Rev. W. G. Brnst, D. D 1824-1849

Rev. G. F. Krotel, D. D 1849-1852

•

1 68 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

Rev. T. T. Jaeger 1852-1855

Rev. L. G. Eggers 1855-1866

Rev. F. J. F. Schantz, D. D 1867-date

The Reformed did not withdraw from the mother
(Tulpehocken) church until i860, when 250 members,
who had been for some time previously served as a
branch congregation, separated and organized the church
and erected the large and commodious limestone struc-
ture now gracing this end of town. The Mossers,
Diehls, Basslers, Sherks, Looses, Spanglers, Muths,
Baneys, Tices and others have been the leading families
of this flock, now about 500 strong. Only Rev. Dr.
George Wolff and his son, David, have preceded the
present pastor, Rev. Mr. Gonser, in the sacred office
here. The latter assumed the charge only about two
years ago.

There are other churches of town, such as the United
Brethren and the Evangelical, which have doubtless ex-
erted their healthful influence upon the community, but
they do not stand so much in the line of the ancient and
the historic, and therefore we shall not enter into their
records, but bid this ancient " Tulpehockentown " a re-
luctant good-bye, and begin our march up the valley to
where many of the earliest noted actors of this com-
munity first planted their American homes.

Turning to the south from West Myerstown, the first
plantation west of Myers' is that of Heinrich Bassler,
who in 1738 purchased of "the brass-button maker of
Philadelphia" a tract of over 300 acres and reared his

A WALK OVER HISTORIC GROUND. 1 69

home on the banks of the Tulpehocken. Here he raised
a family that has continued to this day of the fifth or
sixth generation to hand down the mantle of this pio-
neer's energy and far-sightedness. These have kept the
name untarnished, some of them adding to its celebrity
for valor and patriotism. They have also kept the old
homestead in the family name and hands. The
present owner is Mrs. Sallie Bassler.

The next western neighbor, settled even before Mr.
Bassler and also on the Tulpehocken, was Leonhard
Ramler. The original buildings have all been super-
seded by second buildings, though these are quite old.
The present owner is Mr. John Gockley. There hangs
about this place the story, so common throughout this
valley, of shelter against Indian depredations. All
along this valley, in truth, the tomahawk and scalping
knife were used. (It should have been said in connec-
tion with the first long-historic German school-house of
Myerstown, 'that tradition reports the massacre of seven
white persons there by the Indians.) From this home
wended the first funeral procession to the Myerstown
cemetery, when Mrs. Anna Barbara Ramler, at the age
of 78 years, was borne hence for burial there.

Going still westward along the banks of this stream,

we come next to the Immel homestead, originally one

plantation, but later subdivided into two farms. The

easternmost house, which may have been the first, so

inferred on account of traces of an old road near it and

the story of fortifications here, has yielded to the exac-
12

170 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

tions of time, and been displaced about twenty-two
years ago by a new structure of frame. It is now owned
by the Donges Bros, of the Myerstown mercantile firm,
and the farm is in present charge of Mr. Dechert. But
the westernmost homestead is quite ancient. It has all

r—

•Z "***

^-* is* ^^Hoit^WflK!

* V *&*&

» '• t.». - - 'S?

THE IMMEL HOMESTEAD.

the characteristics of age, such as its broken front door,
its wall closets, its fifteen-inch wide oak flooring, its
large and wide Queen Anne mantel and fire place, and
its solid masonry, well preserved. Only the tiles have
given place to shingles, the former stored beside the
home, which if they were old-fashioned German waffles
— a thing they much resemble — should have been de-

A WALK OVER HISTORIC GROUND. 171

voured long ago. We should think they would " take "
as relics among the descendants of the Immels and
Governor Shulze, quite as well as such hot-cakes. For
here it was that the future Governor of our State visited
when a youth, and in his best suit and smiles.

There was a charming daughter in this home in his
day, then presided over by Leonhard Immel, who had
completely captivated this young aspirant's heart. Was
she a member of his father's choir at Tulpehocken,
famous and enchanting for her singing, or only a meek
and modest member of the flock, winsome for her piety
or her blushing beauty? The writer cannot tell. But
the charm went forth from her life that landed Cupid's
dart, and left it quivering in the heart of the pastor's
noble son, which made him doubtless repair once a week
to this ancient fireside for healing. W T e took interest in
finding the identical room in which this courtship was
held, unchanged by any modernization whatever. The
interior arrangement of this house might well serve as a
model, so well is the space utilized. The stairway is
convenient to every apartment and yet out of the way.
The rooms communicate and are accessible from the
hall, in which is a large fire-place and Queen Anne
oak mantel, that speaks of the charms and poetry of
rural life in wunter. The farm is now the property
of Mrs. Capt. John H. Bassler, a sister of Rev. Dr.
Mosser, of Reading. The following inscription we
found on a sandstone still preserved in the front eleva-
tion:

I 7 2

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

HANNES
IMMEL

ANNA
BARBARA.

This "Hannes Immel" was the father of Leonhard
Immel, whose name has already been alluded to and his
tombstone transcribed in our last chapter, who was the
father of Mrs. Gov. Shulze, and the progenitor of the
Immels still found in this community, one of whom fills
the honorable position of banker at Myerstown. Mr.
Zartman is farming the plantation where these illustrious
ancestors raised their earlier crops.

Next west to Immels is the Spangler home. This
original homestead is now also divided into two farms.
The westernmost home is the site of the first dwellings,
and those now standing are considerably over a century
old. The barn contains a stone bearing date of 1782,
with initials of " G. Sp." and " B. Sp." This farm is
now owned by Miss Cora Kilmer, while the east half is
the property of Mr. Henry Hauck.

A WALK OVER HISTORIC GROUND.

Next we come to the most historic and wealthy
ancient homestead of them all. It is the reputed Ley
(Lei) homestead and is located at the source of the Tul-
pehocken, about two miles west of Myerstowu. Here
from among limestone rocks springs forth the Tulpe-

the ancient eei (eey) homestead, modernized by mr. samuel. urich,

(present owner).

hocken, like Minerva from the head of Jove, a full-
grown stream and daughter of the mighty deep. Here
the Indians had reared a village of wigwams and buried
their dead, many of whose bones and relics have been
disinterred during the making: of recent excavations.

J 74

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

Here the wealtl y German emigrant Lei pitched his
tent and took up iooo acres of land. In 1769 he, or his
son, built the second house which is still standing, re-
modeled and enlarged by its present owner, Mr. Samuel
Urich, into one of the most palatial abodes of the county.
Bnt even in the days of its erection it was already a
mansion. It has a lovely site on a hillock fronting the
south. Its walls, now ivy-covered in part, are of regular
dressed limestone, with sandstone trimmings. Two
sandstones in its front elevation read as follows :

O MENSCH

GEDE®
DER LE

) NCK

EN STUN

EVA MAGDALE

NA LEI . IN

GOTT . GESEGNE
DIESES . HAUS . UND
ALLES . WAS . DA . GED
EIN OD

MICHAEL

Hither General Washington came with some of his
staff officers, such as Generals Hiester, Keim and Brmen-
trout of Berks county, and others, for a few days' hunt

A WALK OVER HISTORIC GROUND. 1 75

and recreation. It is supposed this happened in 1777,
when Washington's army occupied Valley Forge, inas-
much as a letter extant — addressed by Washington to
Gen. Wayne, from Reading Furnace, September 17,
1777 — shows him to have been in this valley then. It
may also have been in November, 1793, when President
of the United States, inasmuch as he spent the night of
the 13th of that month and year in Womelsdorf, where
the Ermentrouts then lived. Tradition has the follow-
ing story of this visit. One day about half a dozen
riders reined up their horses in front of this hospitable
abode, then still comparatively surrounded by a forest.
It chanced that Mrs. Lei and a "redemptioner" woman
by the name of Sherk — ancestor of the present Sherk
family of this valley — who served here, were washing
clothes at the wash-house in their bare feet and scant
loose habits. Their attention was called by these
strange yeomanry-soldiers amid great embarrassment
and confusion. The strangers presently made known
their names and purposes, whereupon the men folks
were summoned from the fields, who soon responded
to speak and act the words and deeds of welcome.
Soon plans were consummated for a two or three days'
fishing and hunting sport, for all of which the guests
were prepared and the host was soon ready. In the
southwest room, known as the Blue Room, of this
ancient hospitable abode, the host, who was a Revo-
lutionary Captain, spent the evenings with his illus-
trious visitors, while the southeast room on the second

176 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

floor is still pointed out as the bed-room of the great
General. This latter was always the private sleeping
room of the late Rev. Isaac K. Loose, of Bethlehem,
when he visited his old home, the property having fallen
into the Loose hands after it slipped out of those of
this original owner and his descendants, which oc-
curred through heavy losses in coal speculation in the
time of Christian, a son or grandson. Many other
noteworthy incidents cluster about this place which
would be interesting to the average reader, but space
forbids their mention.

Both the original Michael and Eva M. Lei are buried
at the L'nion gravevard at Mverstown, in the shadow of
Frieden's Lutheran church, herein described. He died
in 1824 (born 1739), and she in 1815 (born 1744). Here
also lies buried their son Christian, who was born in
1762 and died in 1832, having been, as we have seen, a
member of the building committee of the church. His
wife, Anna Catharine (Coppenhoffer), died by accidental
poisoning January nth, 1822, and lies buried by his
side. Their son, Christian, died a few years ago at
Pinegrove, a nonegenarian.

But we must go on in our westward march. By
going a mile up the pike from this place and turning
north an eighth of a mile at Mr. Cyrus Baney's palatial
residence, we will reach the farm of Mr. Henry Tice of
West Mverstown. There are stones in the large house
showing that it was erected by Philip and Eve Tice in
1821, who were descendants of the first settlers here,

A WALK OVER HISTORIC GROUND. 1 77

whose original house contains an anvil-shaped stone in
its gable, reading thus :

WL. T.

1744.

This is the house from which was taken the richly-
finished walnut door now on exhibition in Mr. George
M. Stanley's store of Lebanon. It consists of 356 pieces,
inlaid and carved. Not a nail is used in its construc-
tion. Here it swung on its curious wrought-irou
hinges for a century and a half, letting in and out suc-
cessive generations of Tices. We will let an imaginary
swing of this door bring to an abrupt close the wander-
ings over historic territory we have taken in this chapter.

CHAPTER XIX.

ENCAMPED NEAR LEBANON.

For the past four months I have conducted my army
of explorers through the historic field lying east of Leb-
anon, and have been making constant approaches to-
wards this desired haven. In these weekly marches I
have taken my army, like Coxey did his, through slush
and snow. But as Coxey finally ended his notorious
march towards Washington by his arrival in the Na-
tion's capitol, so I can now announce having at last
reached the confines of this Queen City of our lovely
and interesting valley, and that for to-day we have
encamped just east of Lebanon county's capital. Whilst
we propose to "take the city" also, it is not for any
hearing not already gained nor for the righting of any
wrong that I plead, except it be to arouse from its long,
non-appreciative slumber this latter generation of noble
Germans, to do greater honor and remember more
kindly the bravery, industry, energy and heroic endur-
ance, which its first American ancestors have here
manifested.

Having come as far as Avon, where the soaking
rains during this week suggested shelter in side-tracked
box-cars or in the engine and tender that here a year ago,

(178)

ENCAMPED NEAR LEBANON. 1 79

long kept flying to and fro, like a weaver's shuttle,
keeping the Annville and Myerstown street railway
from crossing the P. & R. R. R. tracks, let us from
this camp reach out to a few historic spots lying near
by, and take time to reflect on the stream of earnest
activity and travel that has surged about this place even
as the angered Quittapahilla, having its rise near by,
has this week lashed its swollen waves over cultivated
fields and much-travelled highwavs.

Directly to the south of our halting place (Avon) lies
the Stager homestead, which has a history of struggle
and early peril worthy of note, and still contains an
ancient landmark in the shape of an old house.

The following account will be of interest : In 1746
Frederick (?) Stager, (rather John Barnhard,) here took
up 500 acres of land purchased from the proprietors for
five pound sterling. He reared a small log house upon
it, presumably the same year or the one following,
which is still standing. It has marks of antiquity and
interest to the curious in its outside stairwav leading to
the loft, its old-fashioned doors and quaint wrought-iron
hinges, its fire place and its 14-inch wide oak planks for
flooring. One of his descendants, probably his son,
Adam Stager, in 1782 reared the large stone farm-house
that now constitutes the farm dwelling place. It is
large and commodious — a specimen and token of the
growing wealth of these first families. Among the old
deeds still preserved among the family archives, is one
of parchment, given by Michael Tice and Rudolph

i8o

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

Kelker, executors of said Adam Stager, conveying 200
acres of this farm to Frederick Stager. This deed was
given June 5, 1818, and is recorded in our county courts,
as is attested by this document in the handwriting of
the ex-Gov. J. Andrew Shulze, who was then recorder

LEBANON VALLEY FARMER.

of the county. The original farm was thus divided and
now is part of four farms, some of which — the western-
most portion — is however still in the Stager name of the
fifth or sixth generation.

The old homestead is the possession of Mr. Joseph
Heilman, a descendant of the Heilmans of Heilman-
dale. This gentleman holds a relic of gold that is truly

ENCAMPED NEAR LEBANON. l8l

worth more than its weight in that metal, inasmuch as
he has refused a very handsome offer by some others of
the family. It is a solid gold ring with a setting of
some amber-colored, precious stone. This has been
handed down from generation to generation from the
first American ancestor of this family, Hans Adam
(John i\dam) Heilman, who received it as pay, in lieu
of cash, from a neighbor in about 1738 or '39 for two
months' labor, namely, grubbing away the scrub-oak
and alder-bushes that grew as the first crop on what is
now a part of the paradisaical valley of the Heilmans,
northwest of Lebanon. This Hans Adam "was a man
of stirring energy, and he not only made his arm felt in
the clearing of the forest, but he took a prominent part
in the religious and social affairs, and was one of the
founders of the old Hill Church, and an elder of the
same as early as 1745." The first house erected by him
is still said to stand on the premises of his great-grand-
child in Heilmandale. He married Maria Catharine
Stager, and this shows the connection and how the
Stager homestead is in part in Heilman hands. These
early Heilman ancestors are buried at the Hill church.
The Stagers, disinterred some twelve years ago from a
private burial plot, now sleep at Kimmerling's grave-
yard. Mr. Joseph Heilman also found here recently an
old copper penny bearing the image and superscription,
not of Csesar, but of another tyrant, viz. : King George
the Third of England. The coin has on one side the
face of this monarch with the name "Georgius III

1 82 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

Rex ;" on the obverse a harp and crown with the date

"1782."

This old Stager homestead was the scene of a fierce
skirmish between the Indians and the white settlers
during the French and Indian war period, when one
white man was wounded and two Indians are said to
have been killed.

But being detained here for a while, let us look into
the malarious basin and checkered history of the once
busy but now idle and defunct Union Canal, leading by
our temporary encampment. This once enterprising
internal state water-way has an interesting history.
As long as the "great ditch" remains open, a relic of
the past, the present should be concerned to keep alive
the data of its construction and usage.

It seems that already in 1760, by authority of the
Provincial Assembly, a survey was made through this
vallev to construct an internal water-wav to connect
Philadelphia with Pittsburg, or the Delaware with the
Ohio. The route selected was up the Schuylkill to
Reading, and thence by the course of the Tulpehocken
and Swatara Creeks to Harris' Ferry, whence the West
Branch of the Susquehanna should afford a route
towards the western destination — a distance of 582 miles
from Philadelphia. The Revolutionary war put an end
to this movement. After the settlement of the struggle
for independence by the Colonies, other States moved
in the direction of canal building, and Pennsylvania
was likewise stirred from its slumber on this question,

ENCAMPED NEAR LEBANON. 1 83

when on September 29, 1791, the legislature took action
incorporating a company to connect the Schuylkill
with the Susquehanna by a canal. Such men as Robert
Morris, the financier of the Revolution, David Ritten-
house, the astronomer, Dr. Win. Smith, Provost of the
University of Pennsylvania, and Tench Francis, were
among its commissioners. Accordingly work was
commenced on lands lying between Lebanon and Myers-
town as early as the spring of 1794 — just 100 years ago.
Had my army of explorers been halted in their march
a century ago, where I have made them pitch their
tents to-day, they might have seen the first shovelfuls
of earth thrown out of the ditch that still stretches
throughout the length of our valley. They might also
have seen such distinguished men as those named above
make surveys in these parts. Let us therefore step
softly, for any spot of earth pressed by the feet of such
men as Rittenhouse, Morris or Dr. Smith, must be to
the historian and student of any kind regarded as holy
ground.

But alas ! the enterprise failed, at least temporarily.
After the expenditure of several hundred thousands of
dollars operations were suspended in consequence of
public remonstrances against the powerful corporation,
until in 181 1 this company, with another company
known as the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal Company,
reorganized into what became the Union Canal Com-
pany, which new organization pushed this old dream of
internal State navigation into a reality. The State

1 84 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

continued to grant aid by "a guarantee of interest and
a monopoly of the lottery privilege." Hence by 182 1
operations could be continued because of financial en-
couragement received. Six years later the project was
completed, and in 1827 the fi rst boat passed up this
waterway, past Lebanon. This was the "Alpha of
Tulpehocken." Not far from two millions of money
had been expended in the construction of the canal —
the first constructed canal in America. It is doubtless
due to this "maritime highway" that the valley and
county of Lebanon have attained to the wealth and
commercial standing that characterize them to-dav.

But another highway passes our temporary quarters
here. It is the Berks and Dauphin turnpike, along
which we have been slowly approaching this point, and
which was constructed even before the canal was com-
pleted, viz. : in 1816 and 1817. It was also liberally
aided by the State making large subscriptions to its
stock. It is said to have cost an average of $3,800 per
mile. Let us look into the faces of its travelers for the
past seventy-five years. Before the day of railroads it
was the one chief thoroughfare between Lebanon and
Reading and between Lebanon and Harrisburg. It
leads through the heart of the valley, and is known to
have conducted in their travels such national characters
as Presidents Van Buren in 1836, and William Henry
Harrison in 1840, during their respective presidential
campaigns — the former travelling east and the latter
westward — going in opposite directions, as their politics

ENCAMPED NEAR LEBANON. 185

lay in opposite courses, yet both landing in the same
White House at last. There are men still living who
recall these campaign jaunts, and how a party of Whigs
accompanied Harrison from Myerstown in a tally-ho
coach, shouting themselves hoarse for old ''Tippecanoe
and Tyler too." The same year that Harrison traveled
over this route his Democratic Vice-Presidential oppo-
nent (Col. Richard M. Johnson) also passed over this
highway. His admirers made the welkin ring all along
the route for this man, who, in the celebrated hand-to-
hand battle with Tecumseh, had the nerve to ride up
to the famous red-skinned chief and shoot him down
at his horse's head, though in the terrible scrimmage
about the dying chief he himself received severe
wounds.

But who shall call up the armies of great and small
men that have been carried over the Philadelphia &
Reading R. R. branch, stretching parallel with the pike
throughout the length of our valley, and sweeping by
our to-day's imaginary camping ground? What an
array of Presidents and would-be Presidents, of Gov-
ernors and legislators and politicians, great and small ;
of learned doctors, and gifted ministers, and actors of
repute, and statesmen, and base ball clubs, and excur-
sionists, and business men, and immigrants, and visitors
generally; what travelers for sight-seeing and for health
and for pleasure it has swept by this spot ! Much of the
American world has gone over this line, and many a
foreigner, too — even the Liberty Bell preferred this
13

1 86 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

route home from the World's Fair last year — but no
one ever traveled through a finer country or a more
prosperous community for agricultural and honest
thrift. Hence, having reached the acme of reflection
and in thought capped the climax of this valley's past
prosperity, we will break up our camp and prepare to
march into Lebanon by another week or two.

CHAPTER XX.

. THE HEBRON MORAVIAN CHURCH.

Just midway between our camping grounds of last
week and the heart of the city of Lebanon, located on
the pike, nestles the ancient village of Hebron. It was
so named by the Moravian missionaries, who here
founded a congregation as long as a hundred and fifty
years ago; and the name was of course taken from
Scripture, as this denomination, so full of the knowl-
edge and spirit of Scripture, wove religious names and
sentiments into their daily life in this new world, and
especially the names of Bible localities into their settle-
ments and congregational life. It is this very pretty
custom of this church that has given us in eastern
Pennsylvania such Bible-named communities as Bethle-
hem, Nazareth, Emaus, Hebron, Bethel and Lebanon,
and such piously-dubbed settlements as Gnadenhiitten,
Friedens, and so forth.

The town of Hebron is older than Lebanon itself, and
the first nucleus of houses here, together with its
" Gemeinlein" (little congregation), of the United
Brethren of the Moravians, is first of all spoken of in the
early annals of this church as "on the Quitopehille."
Here quite a colony of Germans had settled before 1742,

(■87)

1 88 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

the year in which a hundred and twenty of the Mo-
ravians of the Bethlehem church, just founded, resolved,
in their glowing- zeal for the Master, to divide them-
selves into two halves, one portion of which should be
sent forth as missionaries two by two, while the other
half should abide and work for the former's support.
Accordingly the province of Pennsylvania, and especi-
ally the frontier line, where mostly the Germans had
settled, was selected as missionarv ground. These
disciples started on their evangelistic tours with a five
weeks' circuit before them. The result of this enter-
prise was the establishment of their congregations at
Lititz, Lancaster, Donegal, Bethel of Swatara, Hebron,
"on the Quitopehille," Heidelberg, Tulpehocken, Oley,
Emaus, Gnadenhiitten, etc. — some of which have since
become extinct, or else reverted to the Lutherans and
Reformed, from among which denominations most of
these early converts were made.

It would seem as if the names of the Apostles and
other Bible characters had been given to these itinerant
brethren, as we have them spoken of as Brothers John
and Peter and Matthew and Joseph, etc., in the early
annals of this church. It is quite likely, however, that
they were simply known by their Christian names, in-
asmuch as " Brothers Joseph and John" — so frequently
mentioned in the Diary of the Hebron church, the evi-
dent founders of this congregation — were doubtless the
same as Brothers Joseph Powell and John Hagan, the
missionaries, whose evangelistic tour led them to these

THE HEBRON MORAVIAN CHURCH. 1 89

parts. We find these same brethren a few years later
active among the Indian mission at Shamokin (now
Sunbury) founded in September, 1742, by the instru-
mentalities of such men as Count Zinzendorf, Bishop
Boehler, Conrad Weiser (interpreter and leader), Henry
Leinbach, and by John Martin Mack and wife, and
Anna Nitschman.

The preaching of these missionary brethren, doubtless
because of its pungency and its warm breath of Gospel
life and because of a great lack of preaching by their
own denominational pastors of these German Lutherans
and Reformed, caused many of the most pious and
earnest of them to fall in with this heroic movement
for the dissemination of the Gospel. The thought of
proselytism or denominational propagandism did not
enter the minds of these unsuspecting men, thirsty
for the water of life. Hence it comes that such leading
Lutherans as Conrad Weiser and Peter Kucher, and
such Reformed as Heinrich Xanders and others, be-
came early identified with this church, many of whom
remained loyal to the church of their adoption unto
death, while some, as Conrad Weiser, returned to their
first love, their mother church.

The history of the Hebron Church is a long and
checkered one, full of interest to everv student of his-
tory. We feel confident in saying that there is not a
congregation within the county that has a more mi-
nutely written history than this one. The happy cus-
tom of the Moravian Church of requesting its resident

190

LANDMARKS IX THE LEBANON VALLEY.

pastors to keep faithfully a full diary of events trans-
piring within the congregation, or occurring within the
community or country at large, has here preserved a
record of local and national events that is one of the

THE HEBRON MORAVIAN CHURCH.

richest treasures to the historian and antiquarian any-
where to be found throughout all this valley. The
writer was recently shown a pile of old journals — almost
as high as the publications that confronted Luther at
the Diet of Worms — which is simply a library of ten or
twelve large volumes of manuscript church records and
memorabilia of this Hebron Gemeinlein in the hand-

THE HEBRON MORAVIAN CHURCH. 191

writing of its successive pastors. As this church,
erected in 1750, and in part still standing on property
now owned by Mr. David Fulmer (but alas! this portion
of a once sacred structure, hallowed alike for its associa-
tions with church and state, is now used as a cow
stable!) was used during the Revolutionary War as a
place of incarceration for several hundred of Hessian
prisoners, this diary is of intense interest during this
period. The church was then in pastoral charge of
Brother Bader, who is found, in the style of Caesar in
his Commentaries, to speak of his untoward experi-
ences at this time. He commits to the safe keeping
of his Daily Journal, a great many complaints and
murmurings over the misbehavior of his rude prisoners
and the none too exemplary conduct of their guards.
Now it is their noise, then their carousals and sprees,
that he complains of. Their filthy persons and habits
form the occasion of still further criticisms. Again he
has a tirade against the injustice of dumping the Luth-
eran Church prisoners upon him, when he was about
getting rid of his supply.

But there are other things besides complaints in
these journals. They speak familiarly of the trying
events of the war as it progressed through its eight
years of peril and hardship. It gives us the names of
local leaders, such as Cols. Peter Grubb and J. P.
De Haas, and others, and the accounts of their depart-
ure with their companies to the front of battle. It
records the significant event of the surrender of Corn-

192 LANDMARKS OF THE LEBANON VALLEY.

wallis, when that circumstance was first remarked
abroad, and while, but as an unconfirmed rumor, it
stirred all the land with intense excitement. To this
important bit of news, this "Brother" later adds the
significant postscript : " War wahrf" — " 'Twas true ! "

As the present pastor of this church, Rev. E. S.
Hagen, of Lebanon, has recently furnished a translation
of these important annals to the Secretary of our State
Historical Society, Mr. Jordan, of Harrisburg, we trust
the public will some day be able to read all these inter-
esting data of daily events in those trying times in
their own vernacular. It would be a noble service to
our community if the same were given for publication
to some of our local public prints.

The writer was particularly interested in recently
looking over this pile of ancient diaries, church-records,
correspondence, and other ecclesiastical documents.
One of these, an early, if not the original draft of the
church building, gives the ground plan of this old
edifice, which shows it to have been divided into a
double house of a kitchen and two living rooms each,
while the second storv was the "Saal" or Praver
House, or "Oratorium," as it was styled in an inscrip-
tion we understand to have been upon its wall.

Another record that was quite full of interest to us is
the Communion Record, most carefully kept. The first
volume contains those for the first 26 years of the con-
gregation's independent life. It has the following in-
troduction or preface, which I give in a free translation:

THE HEBRON MORAVIAN CHURCH. 193

"Inasmuch as a small congregation has been organ-
ized by means of the efforts of the United Brethren, (in-
dependent since July, 1749), in the vicinity of Lebanon
on the Quitopehille, in Lancaster county, and this con-
gregation has been affiliated with that of Warwick until
the close of 1749, and participated in the communions of
that sister congregation, we resolved from the year 1750
to begin holding separate communions with this Leba-
non congregation. Here it has been held since 1748, in
the Lutheran church, (where in January a Brethren's
Synod was held) until our own church should be com-
pleted, in which it has since been celebrated and con-
tinued according to the following Conspectu (Record)."

The first celebration, therefore, held here took place
January 1st, 1750. The communicants numbered 23,
and it was administered by Rev. Christian Rauch. The
second communion was held March 1st, 1750, and was
administered by Bishop Frederick Cammerhoff. The
9th communion was celebrated September 22, 1751, and
in connection with Synod, according to this record.

This record mentions names, clerical and lay, in
which we have become interested. The first pastors,
beginning with 1750, were Christian Rauch, Christ.
Herr, George Neitzer, Philip Mener, Richard Utley,
Fred. Boehler and "Brother Bader."

There is an interesting narrative still preserved at
Bethlehem, giving in the form of a diary a detailed
account of the experiences of Bishop Cammerhoff in a
visit he made to Shamokin in the winter of 1748. He

194 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

was accompanied by Brother Joseph Powell, and the
first day (January 6th) arrived at Macungie. Thus
by regular stages, and at the peril of their lives,
in the crossing of unbridged streams and trackless
snow-covered pathways, they made their journey on
horseback to and from their destination on the Susque-
hanna. The diary takes account of their stoppages at
Maxatawny, Ontelaunee, Heidelberg, Tulpehocken,
Hebron, etc. In Tulpehocken they called on George
Loesch and his family, who were among the Schoharie
settlers and later im migrants to Pennsvlvania, who
united with the Moravians in 1747. The same journey
brought the Bishop and his companion also to the
houses of Peter Kucher and Heinrich Xander, two
leading members of the Hebron church. The com-
munion record shows all of these to have been faithful
and consistent communicant members of the flock.
The Bishop in this journey took some provisions and
provender from these farmers to the Shamokin mission.
Concerning the personalities of these men, we learn
from the minute records of this church and other
sources that George Loesch was born near Worms in
1699. Immigrated with the Palatinates to America, and
settled in Schoharie, N. Y., in 1710; removed thence
to Tulpehocken in 1723, where he took up his resi-
dence just a mile northwest of Womelsdorf, already de-
scribed, and where the land is still in the hands of his
descendants and some of the old buildings are still
standing. He became identified with the Moravian

THE HEBRON MORAVIAN CHURCH. 195

Church in 1747, and remained in connection with the

same until his death, which occurred in Nazareth, Pa.,
1790.

Peter Kucher, or John Peter Kucher as he sometimes
wrote his full name, was a native of Germany, and im-
migrated to America in 1732. He sailed in the ship
"Loyal Judith," arriving in September of said year.
He took up his residence just east of Lebanon. He was
a Lutheran Christian and was connected with the Tul-
pehocken church, as appears from the list of 166 names
of members, w 7 ho in 1743 resolved to build a second
church and declared to build up their congregation on
true Lutheran principles. This declaration of princi-
ples and list of names is still preserved (given in Dr.
Schantz's historical address recently published in pam-
phlet form) and contains among its signers the names
of Peter Kucher and George Steitz, and others from
these parts. The Moravian documents, however, show,
in a carefully-kept register of its members, that he was
converted to this faith in 1749, and communed with
this Gemeinlein for the first time February 2, 1749.
He was born according to this account in Waldau, Bran-
denburg, in the province of Saxony. His parents were
George Peter and Barbara Kucher. He was in religion
a Lutheran, in profession a blacksmith and farmer, re-
ceived into the "brethren fellowship" during brothers
John and Joseph's "land visitation," i. e., missionary
tour in Heidelberg, Feb. 2, 1749, was married Oct. 6,
1735, and had a family of ten children, whose names
are given in order in this church record. In 1750 he

196 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

donated sufficient land for building and burial purposes,
so that in many respects he was a father to this Hebron
church. The house which he built in 1761 (possibly
the second one) we found still standing. It is a com-
modious two-and-a-half-story stone structure (a mansion
in those days) with wide middle hall- way and capacious,

THE PETER KUCHER HOMESTEAD.

easy central staircase of hard wood. Although it has
not been occupied for some time and stands like a non-
animated corporal, great in its weird and forsaken soli-
tude, alongside the Quittapahilla and its old race-
course just two squares north of "Sweet Home,' it yet
is a relic that is quite attractive to the student of his-

THE HEBRON MORAVIAN CHURCH.

*97

tory, in view of the knowledge of its once renowned
owner, and the hospitable entertainment it furnished
pastors and bishops and others. When it had life and
soul this now hollow and ghost-harboring building
must have been a home as fine as Mt. Vernon's man-
sion. What a hubbub there must have been in it,
when the illustrious owner of that Southern mansion, as
the General-in-chief of the Colonial army in revolt, sent
a quota of 270 Hessian prisoners from Princeton and
Trenton to the sacred house of prayer, where the occu-
pants of this house statedly worshipped! The writer
has recently visited this old relic when he accidentally
discovered that it was the Kucher house. Seeing the
sandstones in the second story front, the inscription
upon which was illegible from a position on the
ground, he clambered up an old rickety portico, from
the roof of which he clearly read the following:

lllllI'Mlli

Jllllll^

'nihil

n 11 hi 1 1 ii 1 1 1 11 111 11 111 11 11 inn 1 11 mir

198 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

o.u..."...-"..,,,,,

jiiiiuv** ''mini.

17 X / 61

= M.PETER =

§ KVC HER. §

= BARBARA =

™ —

= KVCHERIN E

niiiiiiiii-siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiir

After my descent from this portico roof, I tried the
front-door latch and found it open, but nothing beyond
an echo and a weird, hollow strangeness greeted us from
within — not even the ghost of the energetic old pioneer
came to bid us welcome. We felt that if there was a re-
lative of his still living, the same was committing an
unpardonable sin for letting such a valuable prop-
erty go to ruins, and for allowing the walls of this his-
toric homestead, resonant with the voices and foot-falls
of these pious ancestors, to fall into decay, when they
should be hung with the pictures and facts that tell its
story of piety and hospitality.

The record of He in rich Xander is as follows : " Born
Nov. 16, 1702. From Rimlange, out of the Zurich
province in Switzerland. Religion : Reformed. His

THE HEBRON MORAVIAN CHURCH.

I 99

trade, a smith and mill-wright (Miiller-Bauer). Re-
ceived into the church (Moravian) Whit-Monday, 1749,
the §f May, at a congregational day in Bethlehem.
Took his first communion Oct. if, 1749, in Warwick."
This record was made in 1755, three years after the
change from the old style to the new style of reckoning
dates. Hence the fractional form in dates gives both
reckonings — the numerator being the old style, the de-
nominator the new style. Mr. Xander lived "five
miles west of Kucher," according to Bishop Cammer-
hoff's diary. Here visiting bishops and brethren were
generally entertained. His grave we found on the
Moravian cemetery (Hutberg) near the old church in
Hebron, south of the pike. The following inscription
is found on his tombstone, lying flat upon the grave
after the Moravian fashion:

No. 80.

Heinrich Xander.

Gebohren Den i6ten

November 1703 in
Der Schweitz. Ver
schied Den 17 Octo-
ber 1772. Ai/r 69JAHR
11 Monath.

.//

The graves of other leading members of this flock,

200 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

raanv of whose birth dates back to the end of the seven-
teenth or beginning of the last century, are found here,
but their names and other data are fast being obliterated
from their memorial stones by the abrasions of time and
weather. Yet we could discern the names of Johann
Adam Kettering, born in Alsace, Germany, in 1698;
George Hederich, born in Zweibriicken, 1706; Catharine
Orth, born Kucher (daughter of Peter), born January
12, 1738; and the Buehlers, and Hains, and Bombergers,
and Koehlers, and Graeffs, and Imhofs, and Schotts,
and Uhlers, and others, who all sleep here their last
sleep. But we must close this chapter. We trust it
has stirred up a general desire soon to see much of the
well-preserved local history kept here in print.

CHAPTER XXL

A WALK ABOUT STEITZTOWN.

Every one of my readers knows, or should know,
that Lebanon was founded by Mr. George Steitz. He
was a German, who before 1738 (according to a deed of
that date mentioning his name and location here) set-
tled here along the Quittapahilla on a tract of over 365
acres, covering the old part of the city, for which he
received a patent from the Proprietaries of the province,
dated May 22, 1753. Though there probably had been
some town lots sold before Steitz laid out a part of his
farm into building lots about the year 1750, this "lay-
ing out of the town" and sale of lots was the begin-
ning of Lebanon. The enterprising German gave his
town the beautiful Scripture name it now bears, possi-
bly borrowed from or suggested by his Moravian breth-
ren, whose Scriptural nomenclature stamped itself upon
several of the townships of this county. It is more
likely, however, that the township had been changed
from Quittapahilla to Lebanon before the Moravians lo-
cated here, and that the town's name was suggested by
that of the township. Be that as it may, it is certain
that, in spite of this naming, for a long time the village
was known by the name of its founder, and that for
14 ( 201 )

202 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

half a century after its beginning, the surrounding
community did its shopping and frolicking and horse-
racing and fighting in " Steitze-town."

We want to-day to take a walk around this old burg
and see its outlying homes and other landmarks that
guarded the old place before ever this century was born,
or the village of Steitz had grown into the since enter-
prising maiden city of Lebanon. After this historic
circumnavigation, we trust the walls, like those of
Jericho, will fall, or the gates open, to let my army of
explorers enter and behold the treasures of historic
wealth buried within.

Having in my last letter led my readers to peep into
the Peter Kucher house, who must have been Steitz's
nearest eastern neighbor, we will go northward from
here and surround the place by constant turns to our
left. The old town-plots show John Light (Licht) to
have owned the land north of Kucher, or east and north
of the present city limits. We presume that the origi-
nal deed of this property finds the name of Casper
Wister, "the brass-button maker of Philadelphia," to
have been the "party of the first part," inasmuch as it
is known that he had first taken up from the Proprie-
taries the land immediately north of the Quittapahilla,
the land that long separated Steitztown from North
Lebanon, which latter village, at the opening of the
L'nion Canal, rivaled its southern neighbor in business
thrift and growth, and for some time bade fair to excel
it in its strides towards a municipality. It seems not

A WALK ABOUT STEITZTOWN. 203

yet to have forgiven its rival for stealing the march on
it, inasmuch as it prefers to remain "independent,"
though the growing " Steitze" has stretched itself in
well-graded streets, lined with homes, to its very doors.
Whether John Light had a house east of the city, or
whether there were two John Light homesteads on the
confines of this town, the writer cannot tell. He
knows of the old Light home, northwest of town, and
will presently lead his readers thither. But it would
seem that one family of Lights had resided east of our
city, as the old family burial-plot is found here, which
seems more distant than was common from the house,
if indeed the " Light Fort" was the first and onlv
Light homestead.* At all events, it is in the eastern
portion of the farm where the Lights buried their dead.
The family plot is found between Weidman and Leh-
man streets, east of Third, near to or part of what used
to be the old Fair Grounds. It is, however, stripped
of every vestige of fence or ornamentation. Only a
number of old gravestones, several of them broken,
mark the sepulture of this pious ancestry of our large
family of Lights. The question has come up to the
writer, whether these ancestors have deserved nothing
better at the hands of their present generation of pros-
perous descendants, than to be treated with the gross
neglect and forgetfulness apparent in these neglected

*The author has recently learned that there was another Light
homestead, east of Lebanon, last the property of Felix Light, a de-
scendant, before it was replaced by the Penn'a Bolt and Nut Works

204 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

•graves. Surely some simple mark of respect is due the
memory of these early pioneers, who paved the way to
the success and prosperity a later generation is reaping.
A little blooming shrubbery were more becoming than
a heap of rocks and debris ; an enclosure of paling more
fitting than a "commons" of stumps, and a few flowers
on Decoration Day more appropriate than a decoration
of cast-awav tin cans and other rubbish bv the desecrat-
ing neighbors. Oh ! when will all men learn that
veneration and self-respect that shows itself in keeping
green the graves of the beloved dead, and step softly
over the mouldering bones of their ancestors ? Oh !
when will Lebanon, as a municipality, gain authority
enough to prevent the theft and vandalism that discour-
ages such suggested improvements that would other-
wise oft be prompted by grateful hearts ! *

Our visit discovered here half a dozen barelv leg-
ibly inscribed tombstones. A few of them are broken
off and defaced. It is a wonder anything is left of them
after a century's exposure to time, weather and vandal-

* Scarcely had the above wish found a voice in this weekly corres-
pondence before one of many descendants of these Light ancestors, a
faithful and venerating scion, Mr. Asaph S. Light, editor of the Leb-
anon Courier, and the present postmaster of Lebanon, instituted
measures to have the mouldering bones of these ancestors taken up
from these uninviting surroundings and reverently reinterred in the
Ebeuezer cemetery, about a mile to the northwest of town. Hence a
week after this chapter was originally written this old burial plot
was no more.

A WALK ABOUT STEITZTOWN.

205

ism. The following are fac-similes of a few, in which
of the spelling and doubling letters and figures are pecu-
liar, the latter indicated by a horizontal line over the
letter to be doubled. The first is of red sandstone,
others limestone or marble :

jiiiniiiin* 1 * "'#/uiiu =

E Hier Ruhet E

E Johannes Licht, ift ge- E

5 bohren den 6 december E

E 1720. Er ift ein Sohn des E

E Johannes und Maria E

E Licht, ist gestorbeu E

E 6ten abril 1798. fein E

= alder war 7 Jahr =

= 4 monat. =

-1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ■ 1 1 ( 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 i 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 r 1 1 :: 1 1 1 imiir

inder Ehe 48 Jahr

11 Monat. Gebohren

1 1 Kinder Wo von

noch 9 am leben 6 Sonne

3 Tochter. Gestorben

4 May 1798 Ihr

alter war 67 Jahr

6 Monat 3 Wochen

2 Tage.

2o6 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

Hier Ruhet im tod

IOHANNES LICHT

Er war gebohreu im Iahr

1726 den 2iten Febr. Lebte

mit seiner frav Anna inder

Eh. 48 Iahr 11 Monat. Zevgte

11 Kinder Wovon noch 9

Leben 6 Sohn v. 3 tochter

Starb den 11 ten Martz 1806

1st alt worden 80 Iahr

2 woehe & 3 Tage.

Liebe die Mich wird erweekeu
Avs dem grab der sterbliehkeit
Liebe die mich wird bedecken
Mit der Kron der herliehkeit
Liebe dir ergeb ich mieh
Dein zu bleiben ewiglieh.

There is another stone, with an epitaph to the mem-
ory of still another Jo/i an Lickf, born 29th of December,
1767, died 10th of January, 1814. The relationship is
very likely that of son to the Johannes Liclit of stones
No. 3 and No. 2, who, from the agreement in length of
married life and the number of children, must have
been man and wife. The one of stone No. 1 must
have been a brother of same name or, possibly a
cousin to the one of No. 3. Did one live east of town
near this burial plot and the other northwest of town ?
The writer can not tell, only in the early history of

A WALK ABOUT STEITZTOWN.

207

Steitztown the land east and north of the borough was
marked as the farm of John Light. We know that one
of these lived a little west of the corner of Tenth and
Maple streets, where the old hip-roofed stone fort, con-
stituting his abode, and erected in 1742, is still stand-

ing.

We shall £0 to see it now.

THE JOHN LIGHT INDIAN FORT.

On our way to this landmark, however, let us take a
peep into the old Lutheran parochial school-house,
which formerly stood at the northeast corner of the
Salem Lutheran cemetery, on Eighth street, until
about fifty years ago. Its use having been displaced by
the public school system, it was removed hither by a

208 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

Mr. John Harris, who turned it into a dwelling house.
It is a log building, now weather-boarded and slightly
changed. It is the present property of Mr. Charles
Swope, and is located on Canal street, alongside of the
stone quarry at the east end, and is at present unoccu-
pied. The rear door — double, like a shutter — is the
same that gave entrance and exit to the young Luth-
eran urchins of seventy-five vears aoo. It bears the
marks of their jack-knives to this very day. If it could
speak, what a story of woe and hardship it doubtless
could relate, as one generation after another of young
Germans were there graduated in their ^ 'ga ($'$,
Psalters, Catechisms, and hickory birches.

But we repair to the Light Fort. Few of our citizens
may know or remember that there is such an historic
landmark so near. It is hid away from sight by other
buildings as you go out Tenth street. You want to turn
west on Maple at this point, and then it will soon appear
to view, just across the canal to the south. In 1738,
"the brass-button maker " sold to John Light several
hundred acres of land, who erected upon it, in 1742, the
stone dwelling and fortification here alluded to. It is
the best specimen near town of the style of roofing
adopted in those days for larger buildings. The custom
is Hollandish, and the style of roof generally termed the
Dutch hipped- or broken-roof. This is quite a massive
structure, and has a checkered history of refuge from
the savages, of the worship of God, of domestic toil and
struggle, and of liquor distilling.

A WALK ABOUT STEITZTOWN. 200,

The first owner, Mr. Light, was a Mennonite in re-
ligion, who opened his house for religious services, and
it was so employed once a month for a long period.
This community must have abounded with Mennonites
in that early day, as quite a congregation is said to have
assembled here. But the house was also built as a forti-
fication against the Indian savages. It is provided with
a deep, arched cellar, into which subterranean refuge a
flight of stone steps still leads the way from the inside.
Hither the neighbors were often compelled to repair, to
find shelter from their enraged, insatiable foes. Sixty
families took refuge in it at one time. Because of these
retreats for safety, it received the name it has borne ever
since, that of "Old Fort." We recently visited the
building, but found the older part of the house rifled
and deserted by all except a flock of English sparrows,
a saucy-looking goat, and a family of colored folks, the
last of whom occupy a few dreary-looking rooms. The
writer has strong suspicions that during the best days of
canal navigation this building was used as a warehouse.

The attacks made upon the whites by the Indians
remind us of a record made in the Hebron Diary con-
cerning a cruel murder of one of that flock, which
occurred in Bethel, May, 1757. The mangled body
was brought to Hebron for burial, and had we then
stood where I have led my army of explorers in this
chapter, in the north of town, we might have seen the
funeral procession, a large throng, pass this place on
their way to burial. The following record is preserved

2IO LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

in the church annals of the Hebron Moravians : "May
the 16th, 1757, John Spittler, Jr., was attacked and
killed by murderous Indians, not far from his house at
the Swatara. He was in the 38th year of his age, and
settled the preceding year, in April, at the Swatara.
His greatly mangled corpse was brought hither on the
17th of May, and accompanied by a large concourse of
people, was buried here on our graveyard." Mr.
Spittler was son-in-law to Mr. Jacob Meylin, whose
relatives are still abounding in the county.

But we must hasten on and complete our circumfer-
ence of the old town. Of course, we are only after the
ancient, and are oroing- in imagination "in ve olden
time." Hence we have no trouble with cinder-banks
and furnaces and canal-ditches and planing-mills and
engirdling railroads; we can just take our walk across
John Light's meadow and some grassy fields, past
the fine old farm houses of Martin and Barbara Funck
(who now sleep, side by side with his parents, in a pri-
vate burial-plot near by, within an environment of cin-
der banks, stone quarries, smoking furnaces and puffing
engines, he born Dec. 22, 1766, and died Feb. 17, 1838;
she born Dec. 10, 1773, and died Jan. 15, 1853; while
his parents' tombs show Martin Funck, Sr. , to have
been born Jan'y 30, 1732, and died Dec. 19, 1796, and
his wife, Judith Funckin, to have been born Jan'y 19,
1732 and died March 4, 1812) still standing, the one
erected in 1810, and the other in 1824. Soon after pass-
ing these landmarks we cross the Ouittapahilla on the

A WALK ABOUT STEITZTOWN. 211

west of town, to where George Gloninger's old home
has long kept its watch on this stream — which historic
homestead we shall visit at length in a later trip — and
from here wheel to the south and be ready to take a
glance at the spot where, before the middle of the last
century, was already found a church in common use by
the Lutherans and Reformed — known as the "Grubben
Church." This spot is about two miles south of the
town-center, on property owned by Mr. Jacob Brubaker,
But we have not time to abide here, where Revs. Con-
rad Templeman and J. Casper Stoever first dispensed
the Holy Gospel of the Son of God to their pioneer
flocks of German Reformed and Lutherans respectively.
We must bring our inarch to a close, and prepare by
another intermission of a week's rest and waiting to en-
ter the city from the same direction the rebels invaded
our Keystone state in 1863 and 1864 — from the south.
We prefer to enter the old town of Steitz from this di-
rection, along the Cornwall pike— once a plank road —
because from this point of the compass and along this
celebrated and well-kept highway came the man who,
more than any other one man, changed Steitztown into
Lebanon — Mr. Robert H. Coleman. We will close this
chapter by quoting a poem that was written and read by
one of our most gifted and energetic citizens at a ban-
quet, given some years since in honor of this second
builder of our city, who did more for Lebanon in pro-
moting its second growth than George Steitz ever did
iu laying its foundations:

212 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

LEBANON : PAST AND PRESENT.

BY J. H. R.

There was a German gentleman whose name was Yorick Steitz,
He came across the ocean from a canton in the Schweitz ;
'Tis many years ago, you know, a hundred years and more,
Since this old German gentleman first landed on our shore.
He came with pluck and energy, with brains and money, too,
Just as the immigrants those times were always wont to do.
'Twas ere the foreign governments, to get rid of their scamps,
Dumped on our shores their anarchists, their nihilists and tramps.
For if they then had sent such scum across the raging main,
We'd hanged them higher than a kite or sent them back again.
He traveled inland from the sea, and when he reached this spot,
'Twas here that he resolved to stay, at which we wonder not,
For the valley stretched before him and the brooks went murm'-

ring by,
'Twas charming to the senses, and most, pleasing to the eye ;
And here he founded Lebanon, since grown to some renown.
But his neighbors, out of jealousy, called it old Steitz's town,
A name it bore for many years, two score of years or so,
Till Time, at length, with ruthless hand, laid Steitz's neighbors low.
And as it was to good George Steitz, so 'tis to us to-day,
A place not to remove from, but one in which to stay.
He builded better than he knew, for north, hid in the hills,
Lay coal to feed our furnace fires, our forges and our mills,
While southward rose an iron mount, awaiting, as we've seen,
The magic touch of master hand and sight of vision keen.
Between these mounts of coal and iron stretched valley, hill and

wood,
A fertile land on which to raise the grain to give us food.
Here, too, were raised, as well you know, brave men of brawn and

brain,
Who marched with Washington and Greene, with Lafayette and

Wayne.

A WALK ABOUT STEITZTOWN. 213

In eighteen twelve, and later still, in time of direst need,

They fought with Grant in Richmond's front, at Gettysburg with

Meade.
But time moved on and changes came; the town it grew, of course,
And Peter Kahl's old stage gave way to Reading's iron horse.
We had our shops and factories and churches, schools and scholars,
Our stores were lit with gas at night, our bank-vaults filled with

dollars.
So thus in peace we moved along, content to have it known,
That every decade showed our town had somewhat larger grown.
But suddenly there came a change, as if magician's hand
Had touched the town, and upward sprang new buildings tall and

grand.
But I must not prolong this tale, and yet I fain would tell
How Colebrook furnaces came first, and then the C. & L. ;
How then the business boom came on, and how we got our freights,
From north and south, from east and w T est, at low competing rates.
And then came forges, bolt works, mills, whose fires are burning

bright,
Bank buildings and the new depot, and then the electric light.
And yet we'll name Mt. Gretna Park in Conewago's hills,
With pleasant paths and cooling shade, its lake and rippling rills.
And so where once a village stood when good George Steitz held

sway,
A modern city upward rose and proudly stands to-day.
For this we've met in Banquet Hall — friends, you know all the rest,
How much is due to him who is to night our Honored Guest.

CHAPTER XXII.

TABOR REFORMED CHURCH.

As we have decided to enter Steitz's town from the
south, we w T ill come in on the old plank road of the
Colemans, whose last and illustrious scion, Robert H.,
has turned the sleepy village into a bustling city, and
the rickety old highway of planks into a well-graded
pike. This brings us into town on what is now Tenth
street, and accordingly the first ancient landmark that
meets our eye is the old Tabor church and school house.
It is what is generallv known as the First Reformed
Church of our city — or, as a stone in its w T all would in-
dicate, the " Hoch Deutsche Reformirte Kirche. " The
present building was erected in 1792, and the school-
house, it is believed, about thirty-six years previous to
that date. From a succinct history of the church pub-
lished two years ago by its present pastor, Dr. Klopp,
we are enabled to cull many important data of its long,
historic and beneficent life.

This declares the congregation to have been organ-
ized in 1760. The first deed, indentured June 10, 1760,
whereby George Stites conveys to Frederick Steindorf,
Felix Miller and Jacob Sollinger, "Deacons of the
Dutch Presbyterian Church," and in trust for said

(214)

TABOR REFORMED CHURCH. 215

Church, the greater portion of the ground lying east
of the present church and constituting the old burial
ground, is still extant. It cost the original sum of five
shillings and the yearly rent of "one Red Rose in the
Month of June forever, if lawfully demanded." How
often this yearly rental has been paid since, the writer
can not tell. As the date has just passed (10th of June),
it is possible that the congregation feels it has dis-
charged its debt after having brought loads of roses
and other flowers to church in its annual Children's
Day Festival, celebrated last Sabbath — the anniversary
of this legal agreement. It might prove a worthy task,
but more difficult than last Sunday's service, to find
the grave of this generous promoter of "true religion
and piety" and deck it year by year with these choice
blossoms of June. This seems to be an unknown spot.
It is believed that he rests near his offspring and
relatives in Salem Lutheran graveyard. The writer
found the tomb of Mrs. Samuel Stites (Anna) in the
Womelsdorf graveyard, but knows not whether her
husband was a relative of George or not. This lady
was born March 3, 1817, and died March 28, 1846. A
similar requirement of the yearly rental of one red rose
binds also the Salem Lutheran Church of our city to
Mr. Steitz, and the Zion Lutheran Church, of Man-
heim, to the quaint Colonial founder and benefactor of
that town, Baron H. W. Stiegel. This last-named
flock celebrated last Sabbath the yearly Festival of
Roses, amid a jubilee of song and addresses, and in the

2l6 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

presence of relatives and lineal descendants from Ger-
many, Virginia, Xew York, and Harrisburg. They
are raising a fund to place memorial chimes in their
spire in honor of this kindly and long enterprising, at
last impoverished Baron.

Whatever generosity George Steitz may have mani-
fested towards the early religious denominations of his
dav and town, it would seem as if the sheriff of the
county a few years later seized his property, including
this donated portion of his farm or town plot, consisting
of lot numbered 136, and sold it, inasmuch as we find
this same Reformed Church lot was sold by the sheriff
and re-purchased by said congregation but three years
after its very considerate sale by Steitz. At this time
John Hay was sheriff of the county (Lancaster), and
the purchasers of the tract, including these church lots,
were Rev. John Casper Stoever, Christopher Wegman,
Philip Greenawalt, Casper Schnebele, George Hock,
Christian Gish, and John Ulrich Schnebele. These
again sold in 1765 the church lots (upon which a log
church had already been erected in 1762, situated on
the northeast corner of the old graveyard,) to John
Huber, John Rohrer, Jacob Smith, and Abraham Wide-
man, in trust for the "German Presbyterian Church."
They paid five pounds in their second purchase to get
back their improved property. This second transfer
was made August 5, 1765.

Before the establishment of this church, the Re-
formed of this community worshiped for a generation

TABOR REFORMED CHURCH. 217

at the H;> church, northwest of Lebanon, and at the
" Grubben " or " Kruppen " church. The log house
in which Rev. Conrad Tem pieman, the earliest pastor
of these Reformed churches, lived, is still standing at
Templeman's Hill, a mile east of Cornwall. It is in a
dilapidated condition, and was found empty and for-
saken by the writer in a recent visit thither. The asso-
ciations of this energetic and faithful man of God, who
spent the latter years of his life here in total blindness
and suffering, wdiile yet often ministering to his flock
in holy things, should arouse an interest to keep this
landmark from total decay.

According to an account of the event preserved by
the Moravian pastor in the Hebron Diary, the first Re-
formed church was dedicated 0:1 the 18th of July, 1762.
The name of Tabor was given it, evidently from the
Mt. Tabor of Scripture. In this building the congrega-
tion worshiped regularly until June 12th, 1792, when
the present stone edifice was erected. There was an
interim of several vears between the razing of the old
church and the completion of the new, when the right
of worship in their church edifice was kindly accorded
this flock by the Salem Lutherans.

Improvements to the property have constantly been
made since the beginning. In 1772 the church lots
were enclosed by a dry stone wall, at a nominal expense
of about $130, because of the very reasonable rates of
labor and material at that day. On March 8, 1780, an
adjoining property — the lot on which the present church

2l8 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

[

■• i

MT. TABOR REFORMED CHURCH AND CEMETERY, LEBANON, PA.

stands, and on which was then already standing the
stone house, now used as a sexton's house, but for many
years as a congregational or parochial school-house —

TABOR REFORMED CHURCH. 219

was bought of Philip Greeiiawalt and wife, for the sum
of thirty pounds, or about $146. When this purchase
was made, Gottfried Hichelbrener, Michael Krebs and
Rudolph Kelker were the trustees. In the deed trans-
ferring this property, the school is mentioned, which
was built some twenty years previous to this date, and
is still here as a witness to the value set upon instruc-
tion by our early German ancestors. A parsonage was
purchased by a committee representing the different
congregations constituting this pastorate at that day,
viz., the Lebanon, Hill and Jonestown churches. They
were Gottfried Eichelbrener, Nicholas Weiss, Jacob
Lausher, Henry Dubs, John Tetweiler and John
Bickel. This house stood many years on the site of the
present handsome parsonage, corner of Chestnut and
Spring streets. Formerly the services were all in Ger-
man, and preaching but once in two weeks. Since
1828 English preaching has been regularly continued,
though in constantly increasing proportions, until at
present the German is limited to two Sabbath mornings
a month.

The present building was erected in 1792-96. It was
originally about 42x62 feet in dimensions. The corner-
stone was laid June 26, 1792, under Rev. I/tidwig
Lupp's pastorate, when the Rev. William Hendel
preached a sermon from Gen. xxviii. 12. The building
committee consisted of Philip Greenawalt, John Glon-
inger, Anthony Kelker, Gottfried .Eichelbrener, George
Bowman, and Martin Imhoff.

220 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

An interesting Children's Service was held in con-
nection with the laying of the corner-stone but a day or
two previous, showing that such a thing as "Children's
Day" in our churches is no new thing, and that
Bishop Vincent, of the Methodist Church, can not boast
being the founder of this now popular novelty. The
fact is, all the good things in the Church of to-dav
are found in their prime and purity in the German
Reformation churches, and were rocked into life by
the Protestant Reformation of Luther, Melanchthon,
Zwingli, Calvin, and others. From an old hymn or
programme of exercises used on this occasion, over a
hundred years ago, still extant, and a copy of which is
in the hands of the Hon. Rudolph Kelker, of Harris-
burg, whose grandfather was then Treasurer of this
church, it would appear that they far excelled much of
the modern namby-pamby stuff dished up with flowers
and singing canaries on our "Children's Days."

The church was dedicated May 8th, 1796. We can-
not account for the length of time consumed in build-
ing this structure, except, like the grinding of some
sleepy mills situated along shallow and well-nigh dried
up streams, the propelling power did not flow in faster.
But the character of the structure does not suggest
poverty. It is known to have cost about $6,500, and
has upon it superior workmanship. There has been
some extra expenditure to make it churchly in appear-
ance. Over the windows of the west side, facing Tenth
street, appropriate Scripture passages have been en-
graven. Beginning at the north they read as follows :

TABOR REFORMED CHURCH. 221

ist. " Lasset uns ihn lieben denn Er hat uus zuerst geliebet." —
I John 4 : 19.

2d. "Der verniinftige Mensch leruet Gottes Wort gern, und wer
die Weisheit lieb hat horet gern."

3d. "Dieser Eckstein dieser Kirche ist gelegt worden, den 26ten
Juni 1792.

" Herr lass deine Augen ofFen sein ueber dieses Haus Tag und
Nacht. Hoere das Gebet deines Volkes." — II Chron. 6: 20-21.

4th. "Das Gesetz deines Mundes ist mir lieber denn viel Tausend
stuck Gold und Silber." — Ps. 119: 72.

5th. "Thut Busze und glaubet an das Evangelium." — Mark 1 : 15.

At its dedication Revs. Becker, Pauli and Hendel
officiated. But even still after a new church was se-
cured, improvements were continued. In 1809 a pipe
organ was purchased, at a cost of $1,500. The present
wall surrounding the graveyard was built in 1816 ; the
steeple erected in 1827, an ^ part of the cemetery, oppo-
site the church, on Tenth street, bought in 1847, with
an additional part in 1848. The entire church was re-
modeled in 1844 at considerable expense, when the
vestibule end at the north was added. In 1845 the
church was incorporated, in which charter the follow-
ing persons are named as Trustees, viz. : Jacob Arndt,
Iveonhard Greenawalt, Christopher Reigert, Philip
Shaak, Sr., and John W. Gloninger ; and the docu-
ment is signed by Governor F. R. Shunk and by
Speakers William P. Wilcox of the Senate, and Find-
ley Patterson of the House. At the ratification meet-
ing of the congregation, accepting this charter, held
May 24, 1845, a number of important resolutions were

222 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

adopted, relative to the spiritual care, the temporary
support and the nurture of the youth of the church.
The pew system was then adopted at English services,
and other provisions pertaining to burial rights adopted.
In 1857, John W. Gloninger and wife conveyed a lot of
ground for burial purposes, situated west of town along
the pike.

In i860, sixty-eight members were dismissed to found
St. John's Reformed Church of this city, of which the
Rev. Dr. Henry Harbaugh, the celebrated author and
Pennsylvania German poet, was first pastor.

In 1864, the Reformed Lebanon Classis, convened at
Annville, divided and changed the pastorates in this
community so as to constitute the Tabor Church in a
separate pastoral charge. This necessitated the pay-
ment of $600.00 to the Hill Church for its interest in
the parsonage, which was at once accomplished, the
collections being over this amount, leaving the church
treasury a handsome surplus of $206.76 from this effort.
In 1869, the pastor's salary was fixed at $1,200.00 per
annum. In 1872, the Lecture Room of the church was
changed and Tabor Chapel built, which was enlarged
and altered in 1890, thus adding an Infant Room and
Pastor's Bible Class Room.

In 1877, at the establishment of St. Paul's Reformed
Church of Bismarck, this church again lent a willing
hand, and at its regular organization dismissed no less
than eighty-six members from her fold. Another child
coming out of the bosom of this mother church is the

TABOR REFORMED CHURCH. 223

St. Mark's Reformed Church, in the northern part of
the city. It came to organized life in 1887, which
again cost 166 of the living stones of the old church,
and quite a number besides since that date. Temple-
man's Chapel, at Cornwall, cost the mother church
another thirty of her members. Thus it is seen what a
blessed "mother" this First or Tabor Church has been,
and how she lives in her children, into whose youthful
energies she poured of her best blood. Though vener-
able with hoary years and many deeds of beneficence,
she is still bearing fruit in her old age, and strong
enough to vie with any of her younger sisters or
daughters in the work for God and humanity. She is
well equipped with officers and working societies, and is.
one of the strongest churches in numbers and activities
of this city. The handsome parsonage, which in 1890
took the place of the old historic manse on the corner
of Spring and Chestnut streets, is a model of beauty
and modern domestic convenience, and is alike a credit
to the congregation and its pastor, under whom it was
built, and a pioof that this "mother" is not as yet
going into decrepitude or decline. May she long live
to bless mankind, and breathe among our younger
churches and generations of citizens the earnest and
godly spirit of her pious and sainted founders and earli-
est promoters!

The following pastors have served her:

After the pioneer services, preparatory to the found-
ing of Reformed churches in this vicinity by Rev. Con-

224 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

rad Templeman, from 1727 to 1760, this local church
was served bv

Rev. Frederick Miller, from 1762 to 1763.

Rev. William Stoy, from 1763 to 1768.

Rev. John Conrad Bucher, from 1768 to 1780.

Rev. John William Runkle, from 1780 to 1784.

Rev. Andrew Lorentz, supplied from 1785 to 1786.

Rev. Ludwig Lupp, from 1786 to 1798.

Rev. William Hiester, from 1800 to 1828.

Rev. Henry Kroh, from 1828 to 1835.

Rev. Henry Wagner, from 1835 to 185 1.

Rev. F. W. Kremer, D. D., from 1S51 to 1889.

Rev. D. E. Klopp, D. D., from 1889 to date.

From the Tabor News we learn that the following;
persons constitute the present

CHURCH OFFICERS.

Pastor — Rev. D. Earnest Klopp, D. D.

Elders— B. F. Gingrich, William H. Boyer, William F. Spayd, Wil-
liam M. Snyder, J. Adam Becker, J. H. Witenmoyer.

Deacons — Frank Z. Miller, J. V. Smith, F. E. Bomberger, D. 0.
Mader, John A. Kleiser, Alvirj H. Royer, Edward Brandt, George M.
Snyder.

Trustees — Andrew J. Meredith, John H. Michael, Joseph L. Lem-
berger, Daniel P. Witmeyer, Jacob Brubaker.

Treasurer — William D. Rauch.

SUNDAY-SCHOOL ORGANIZATION.

Superintendent — Joseph L. Lemberger.

Assistant Superintendents — Dr. E. P. Kremer, Miss Annie Matthes.

Secretary — Daniel G. Miller.

Assistant Secretary — John Shank.

Treasurer — Jacob B. Karch.

Librarian — Jacob B. Karch.

TABOR REFORMED CHURCH. 225

Assistant Librarians — Daniel M. Sharp, Frank Gleim, John Shank.
Teacher of Adult Bible Class— Dr. E. P. Kremer. .
Organist — Walter Garrett.

Junior Department.

Superintendent — William F. Spayd. '

Assistant Superintendents — William M. Snyder, Miss Savilla Wit-
meyer.

Secretaries or Librarians — Mrs. Jennie Shaak, Mrs. D. G. Miller,
Miss Millie Gleim.

Chorister— Mrs. D. G. Miller.

Organist — Miss Nora Light.

Infant Department.
Teachers— Miss Ella Ebur and Mrs C. G. Rauch.
Assistants — Miss Sallie Schram and Miss Gertie Reigel.

In the next chapter we shall stroll into the adjoining
graveyards, and here come face to face with a large
number of Lebanon's past worthies in the sacred and
in secular callings.

CHAPTER XXIII.

FACE TO FACE WITH PAST WORTHIES.

Before leaving - the ancient shrine of Lebanon's first
Reformed worshippers, let us spend an hour in com-
pany with the noble men and women who have been
"gathered unto their fathers," and sleep their last long
sleep in the shadow of the very church in which they
worshiped and taught, or were taught, the way to
heaven. The ancient burial ground that lies to the
east of this historic church, contains the sacred ashes of
not a few of Lebanon's most distinguished citizens of
"ye olden time." In fact, this and Salem's Lutheran
burial grounds contain almost all the dead of the first
six or eight decades of this city's life. The Hebron
Moravian cemetery contains a few, but its dead are
mostly from the outlying country. The Reformed
hold in sacred keeping a generous share of the ancient
dead, and they keep their trust faithfully by looking
well to the proper order of this last resting place of
their dead.

June, the month of roses and robins — when every
bush of the former glows with hundreds of bursting
buds of beauty and fragrance, and every nest of the
latter is ready to hold commencement-day and send

(226)

FACE TO FACE WITH PAST WORTHIES. 227

forth from its seminary of young bird -life its full-fledged
trio of red-breasted songsters — what a month of beauty
and bloom, of flowers and fragrance, of life and love!
Just the month in which to visit a graveyard! The
chirp of the sparrow, the sweet song of the robin and
the thrush, and the exciting chatter of a score of swal-
lows, which, as evening approaches, take their winged
chariot races through the air — each racer urging on his
feathery steed with noisy ado — combine their notes and
noises to overcome the otherwise painful silence of a
lonely burial ground. And so the waving grasses, and
the blooming and budding life on every shrub, help to
mellow the otherwise too sombre consciousness of being
in the presence of decay and death. Moreover, these
natural evidences of life and beauty serve as a token
and type of the land of reunion with the sainted dead,
where are found perpetual bloom and eternal life.

It was on a perfect day of this maiden month of sum-
mer that the writer, pushing away the tall grasses,
wended his way from grave to grave of the past
worthies that sleep in this Reformed "city of the
dead," and with reverent heart and by the aid of well-
worn epitaph, communed with the generations that
have passed. Here he found the graves of Pastor Lupp
and his wife, during whose energetic ministry the pres-
ent stone church edifice was erected in 1792-6. He
learned elsewhere that this man of God was a native
of Germany, and that for a while after coming to
this country he taught school, and conducted devo-

228 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

tional services in private houses, before assuming the
duties of the ministry. He had served a charge in and
surrounding Manheim, and was instrumental in found-
ing the first Reformed church at Harrisburg, before
removing to Lebanon, where he busily pursued the
labors of his holy office, in season and out of season,
for a period of about twelve years. That he was gen-
erally beloved is evidenced from the fact that the
Lutheran pastor, Rev. Mr. Kurtz, assisted the Rev.
William Hendel, of the Reformed Church, in the
funeral services, by preaching a second sermon, and by
the witness of the Moravian Hebron Diary, whose
pastor records various instances of fraternal intercourse
with him. Describing one of Rev. Lupp's confirma-
tion and communion services, which said pastor at-
tended by invitation, he adds: "There was at these
solemn services, which continued six hours, a general
loud weeping in the church, and the young hearts were
quite carried away." He was doubtless the author of
the responsive service which the children of this parish
rendered on the dedication day of the church, to which
allusion has already been made, and which is a model for
propriety and churchliness. It is a service in which the
leader, the children and the choir respectively take part,
and the program is entitled : "Zum Knaebchen Fest. "
Pastor Lupp was buried here in this delightful month of
June, almost a century ago, according to the following
humble marker that still distinguishes his grave :

FACE TO FACE WITH PAST WORTHIES. 229

111 t«»if»» ,,,,, ". ,, "" ,m, """.„ l| ,,
uu^^tet ruliet em grauer a^" »„„„

I LUDWIG LUPP, =

E 12 Jahr Prediger in Libanon E

E Gebohren den 7 Januar, 1733 E

E Gestorben den 28 Juni, 1798 E

E Alt 65 Jahr, 5 Mon. 21 Tagen. E

E Es war mein Beruf und Amt in deiser Welt
E Zu lehren was meinem Gott und Jesu wohlge- E
= fallt. 1

E Zu predigen das Evengelium rein und treu E
z Den Siindern rufen zur Bus und Reu ; =

E Nun adieu ! Fruende, folget meiner Lehr und E
E Wort I

E So werden wir einander wieder sehn in jenerE
= Himmelspfort ! E

niiiiniiniiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimir

Not far away sleeps his wife and companion, with a
similar sandstone marker.

We find here the grave also of even an earlier pastor,
and one who must have been beloved by his flock with
extraordinary affection. It is the Rev. Johann Conrad
Bucher, serving this flock an equally long period of a
dozen years, beginning with 1768. He was a noted
man in his day for his service both in the Church and
State. Born in Switzerland, his father, intending him
for the ministry, gave him a thorough academic educa-
tion at the Universities of St. Gall, Basle, and Gcet-
tingen, where he gathered into an autograph album,
still extant, the autographs of his celebrated teachers,
Wagelin, Zollikoffer, J. L. Mosheim, the great church

230 LANDMARKS IX THE LEBANON VALLEY.

historian, and others. At the age of twenty-five he
came to America. He was soon enlisted into the con-
flict that was being waged between the English Colonies
and the combined forces of French and Indians. Par-
liament, after the defeat of Braddock and the subse-
quent year of disaster, passed an "act providing for the
appointment of German, Swiss and Dutch Protestants
as officers," in order to enlist the greater sympathy of
these classes of immigrants to the English cause. Ac-
cordingly, Bucher was appointed as Second Lieutenant
in the First Battalion, Pennsylvania Regiment, and
after the fall of Fort Du Quesne, he rose to First Lieu-
tenant, April 19, 1760, and was stationed at Fort
Louther (Carlisle) to defend the frontier against Indian
raids. He participated in Bouquet's expedition in 1763
for the relief of Fort Pitt, which had been assailed in
Pontiac's Conspiracy, in which march the famous battle
of Bushy Run was fought. Mr. Bucher was gradually
promoted for his brave services, until he rose to a Cap-
taincy in Colonel John Penn's Regiment.

In 1765 he again participated in an expedition against
the incursive Ohio Indians under General Bouquet,
when the celebrated capture was made of the captive
white men, women and children these enemies had in
former years carried off; among whom was the noted
Regina Hartman, who sleeps- in one of the "God's
acres" of our valley. While on their return from this
expedition, and while encamped at Fort Bedford, an
association was formed bv the officers of these Peunsvl-

FACE TO FACE WITH PAST WORTHIES. 23 1

vania Regiments to ask the Proprietaries to make a
new purchase of land from the Indians and grant to
each of them a reasonably large and commodious tract
as a plantation. Their efforts succeeded, and thus there
was ceded to Captain Bucher, in 1769, no less than 616
acres in the Buffalo Valley (Union county), and 570
acres in the Bald Eagle Valley (Center county). Feb-
ruary 26, 1760, Lieutenant Bucher married Mary Mag-
delena, daughter of George Hoak, of York, and three
sons survived him to perpetuate his name and fame in
Dauphin and Huntingdon counties. During 1765-68
he resided at Carlisle and began the service of the Re-
formed Church as minister, officiating in churches at
Falling Spring, Hagerstown, Sharpsborough, Fred-
erickstown, Middletown, Hummelstown, Quittapahilla,
and Lebanon, as well as Carlisle. In 1768 he accepted
a call from Lebanon, and removed hither in the spring
of 1769, his field extending over large parts of what are
now Lebanon and Lancaster counties. Such exposures
and trying services, however, tell on any constitution.
The strain was too much for the soldier-priest, Bucher,
and he succumbed to heart-disease on the 15th of
August, 1780, while officiating at a marriage ceremony
in the family of one Killinger, on the Quittapahilla,
near Millerstown (now Annville). So esteemed was he
that, though a hearse was awaiting to carry his body
back to Lebanon, his friends would not consent to it,
but carried the dead pastor on their shoulders to his
home — a distance of five miles. He lies buried among

232 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

the honored and loving flock he shepherded so faith-
fully. A sandstone marks his tomb, with the following
inscription :

■■> *"* JrJEkiL '""" t

fW/VVVW*

: Hier ruhet im Tod der Leib =

§ CONRAD BUCHER 1

= . Prediger 12 Jahr in Libanon =

= Gebohreu D. 10 Juny 1730 jj

= Mit seiner Ehe frau Magdelena §

= lebte 20 Jahr. Zeigte 8 Kinder §

E 4 sein in die ewigkeit voran E

= gegangen. Gestorben D. 15 Aug. E

z 17S0. Seines Ruhen vollen E

= Alters 50 Jahr 2 Mon. 5 Tag. §

riii 1111 mini 111 11 111 11 11 1 muni iiiiiiiiiiii im Minn Milium 1 11 1 ir

One might here find enough material for somber
reverie and meditation. The grave of a learned scholar,
a brave and honored soldier and a beloved pastor! Yet
here he sleeps in a bed as humble as the lowliest.
Truly

" The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beaut}-, all that wealth, e'er gave,
Await alike the inevitable hour ;
The paths of glory lead but to the grave."

Two other pastors of this flock lie buried on these
Reformed graveyards, old and new. In the old, near
the church, is the tomb of Rev. William Hiester. A
large flat stone marks his resting place, which is in-
scribed as follows :

FACE TO FACE WITH PAST WORTHIES.

233

Zum Audenken

des

EHRW. WILHELM HIESTER

Prediger 28 Jahr in

Libanon und den umliegen-

den Reformirten Gemeinden.

Gebohren den

11 November 1770

Zeugte 11 Kinder 7 Sohne

und 4 Tochter.

Starb den 8ten Feby 1828

Alt 57 Jahr 2 Monath

und 28 Tage.

[Here follows a long rhythmic appeal
to the flock to be faithful and meet their
pastor on high.]

The Hebron Diary has many complimentary things
to say of him also. Rev. William Hendel preached his
funeral sermon, February 11, from the text, Deut.
xxi. 16.

In the new cemetery, opposite the church, on Tenth
street, a beautiful monument marks the resting place of
the congregation's pastor who gave it the longest unin-
terrupted term of service (a little over 38 years) of any
of her many shepherds, viz., Rev. Dr. F. W. Kremer.
From all accounts he was an ideal pastor, much be-
loved by his people. He had but one other charge be-
sides — that of Grindstone Hill, near Chambersburg, Pa.
16

234

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

"While conducting the funeral cortege of Mrs. Samuel
Heilman to the Hill church, he was suddenly translated
to his reward in heaven, on the morning of June 14,
1889, his horse and carriage being struck by a fast ex-
press on the Lebanon Valley R. R. at a crossing near
the Hill church. . . His name and life have found
lasting place in the hearts of those who so long enjoyed
his faithful ministry." The following epitaph tells the
brief story of his services and death:

REV. F. W. KREMER, D. D.

Pastor of First Reformed Church
from April 1, 1851, to the day of
his death, June 14, 18S9.
Killed by a railroad train while
on his way to the burial of one
of his members.

AGED
72 Years, 6 Months, 28 Days.

"And he was not, for God took him."

Besides these pastors, these ancient graveyards con-

FACE TO FACE WITH PAST WORTHIES. 235

tain the sacred ashes also of Mrs. Rev. Stoy, Mrs. Rev.
Hiester, Mrs. Rev. H. Wagner and Mrs. Rev. Kremer.
Rev. Philip Gloninger, a Reformed minister, also sleeps
here amid the large family of kin, but we shall have oc-
casion to refer to this rather illustrious old family in an-
other chapter, and therefore omit further allusion here.
Other notable graves are those of the Eckerts, Marks,
Heisters, Hubers, Pfeiffers, Dr. John B. Mish's, Karchs,
Moores, Elliotts, a long row of Greenawalt graves, in
some of which sleep Revolutionary sires ; the Kelkers,
including that of Anthony, treasurer of the church
when the present edifice was erected ; and the Gottfried
Eichelberner of that day, and Esq. (Peter Lineaweaver
and wife, and many others. We think we found also
the long-lost grave of George Steitz, the founder of this
city and donor of this church lot. Now we would not
be guilty of putting the bones of even such an old
worthy as Steitz into another man's grave. We read in
Scripture that such an hasty and promiscuous burial
once took place, where the bod} 7 of a certain dead man
came in contact with the bones of the buried Prophet
Elisha, and it had the effect of stirring the newly-
extinct body into life and new animation. We neither
care to produce a sensation nor to call back any
one that has passed from life, but we have strong sus-
picions that by some amateur "Old Mortality" the
tomb of George Steitz has been made to read George
Stein. I will offer my argument, and let the curious
either prove or disprove the same. In the center of

236 LANDMARKS IX THE LEBANON VALLEY.

this old burial ground, east of the church, is an old-
fashioned tombstone, north of a fenced-in lot, on which
is found a considerable amount of artistic ornamenta-
tion. It shows the marks of the sculptor's chisel since
originally placed — evidently to retrace a part of the in-
scription that was becoming indistinct. It left half of
this epitaph intact, because still legible, but found the
stone so hardened and coarse-grained as to make it im-
possible to engrave the fine text of the other half that
was fading, and so the vanishing phraseology was capi-
talized. Thus what now reads "Zum Andenken des
George STEIX ' was certainly at first "Stein" if not
" Steitz " with the "tz" so faded that this employed
artist of a few decades ago guessed the surname of one
more common. This is the theory. The partial alter-
ation, with the other half untouched, becomes at once
evident to any one visiting the spot. The dates of
birth and death seem to be "1717" and "1787" re-
spectively, but are almost faded. We invite the curious
to examine the case for themselves, and let every
"Stein" of this communitv or elsewhere, having here
buried an old ancestor, now speak, or the coming Steitz
monument might be by mistake here erected over the
remains of the wrong man.

There is but one more grave that we shall visit, and
then take a reluctant leave from a charming spot and
an interesting old companionship. This is the grave of
Mr. Curtis Grubb. By his side sleeps his son, who
died when a vouth of seventeen, and two large flat

FACE TO FACE WITH PAST WORTHIES.

237

stones, lying side by side, mark their resting places.
Mr. Grubb was a brother of Captain Peter Grnbb, who
figured prominently in Revolutionary times. He had
charge of the Cornwall Furnace, which was then cast-
ing cannon for the Colonial armies. Curtis was equally
enthusiastic for liberty, and exerted himself for its pro-
motion at home, while his brother gave his energies to
the cause in the field. Thus we find him creating
sentiment among his neighbors, serving on various
committees, and taking a leading part in this com-
munity for liberty. It is said that he, with his family,
were regular attendants of this -church, though living
in the Cornwall Hills. The following epitaph records
his life and demise :

In Memory of

CURTIS GRUBB, ESQR.,

of Cornwall Furnace.

Who departed this Life

the Twenty- second Day of

January, One Thousand

Seven Hundred and Eighty -

nine.

Aged Fifty-eight Years.

Stop Wanderer,
Come, learn how vain this life below,

How swift thy days pass by,
More swift than any stream they flow

On to Eternity.

CHAPTER XXIV.

A HALT OX MARKET SQUARE.

We turn away to-day from the lovely and ancient
"God' " s-acres' 1 of the Reformed, where peacefully sleep
so many of Lebanon's past worthies, and from the
church thev built and in which several generations
have worshiped, where we have spent our time in the
past two outings, to visit the similarly historic house of
God and old graveyard of the Lutherans at the corner
of Eighth and Willow streets. But this walk leads us
across the Central or Market Square of our city, and so
we must make a halt here before going on, and mingle,
in this chapter, with the living rather than the dead. For
here there is no resemblance to the place we last visited
and the one we are next bound for. This is a scene of
stirring life, and few that move about this center of our
city every day do ever think that they are only a few
blocks from the cemetery — that the distance from busy
life to tranquil death is so short, that from noon to
evening is but a brief span, that Central Square lies so
near Cemetery block. But we will not look too gloomily
upon this stirring scene, and will therefore shake off for
to-day the grave-clothes from our spirits. W T e are be-
tween two cemeteries ; but we are now in neither. We

(238)

A HALT ON MARKET SQUARE. 239

are in Lebanon's Market Square. Only it is a square
without the market — "Hamlet" with Hamlet left out.

" Es waer ken leichte Sach zu tnir

Wans Marik-House muesst dort week,
Mei Herzt kaengt dra, as wie 'n Klett
Es macht tnich krank, ich muss ins Bett !

Ich schlupp mich in 'n Eck !
O move sell Marik-Haus nimmermehr
Eweck fon sellem Center-Schquare !

* ■* * * *

"Sel Schquare war g'macht for'n Marik-Haus nei,
Der William Penn hot's g'sad,
Er hot die Insching g'frogd dafor —
Sie hens gegrant forevermore,
Un 's muss ah nau dort sei :
Was waer's dan for 'n Marik-Haus Schquare,
Wan's net for sel alt Marik-Haus waer ? "

But, alas! Even William Penn, George Steitz, and
H. L. Fisher, the York poet, combined, could not keep
the old "Marik Hans" in the Lebanon Square. It
had to go with the other relics of the olden time before
the march of improvement which was ushered in when
the second growth came to Lebanon, about a dozen
years ago. But most of my readers will recollect the
old market sheds. Some of the oldest of them will re-
member the Fourth of Tulv morning: when old Dr.
Lineaweaver's gig graced the roof, though the Doctor
had carefully locked his shed the preceding night to
prevent the patriotism of the young Americans of that
day from manifesting itself in such and other similar

240

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

demonstrations. And while it stood, on either side of
Cumberland street, what fine specimens of Lebanon
county produce, in men and maidens, in cheese and
cabbages, in radishes and red-beets, in sausages and
sauer-kraut, it presented once or twice a week ! Since
men live on country produce and settle into aggrega-

CENTRAL SQUARE, EEBANON, PA.

tions of towns and cities, market places have been a
necessity and they have always given the world true
phases of life.

But we are not here with provision basket in hand
to make purchases. We have come with the chron-
icler's pencil to take a few notes of the historic land-

A HALT ON MARKET SQUARE.

241

marks, in the shape of old homes that still surround
this market-square of Steitz's town-plan. Coming from
the south, we begin with the first old house that faces
it on the west corner, and find it a pre-Revolutionary

MARKET SOUARE, LEBANON, PA.

(Looking South.)

Showing Filbert's Store, The Mish House, and "American House " in the distance

at off-set.

relic. It is now a public hostelry and known as the
American House. Its fine stone front elevation still
bears two stones which tell much of the story of its
erection. The inscriptions of religious sentiment, fol-

242

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY

lowing a custom of certain German provinces, here
read as follows :

GOTT . SEGENE . DISES

HAUS . UND . AIJvES . WAS

DA . GEHT . EIN . UND . AUS

CASPAR & SAWINA

SCHNEBELY . A O . 1 77 1.

MAURER

. IN LEBANON

c«5 • i

*=3* *-fr

^1^

^^RlCH RE^^

itf

1771

•lI

As far as we know the house has a good name. We
can speak from personal experience that it sets a good
table, but we have a strong suspicion that some other
spirit than the one invoked in this date-stone has some-
times "blessed" some who "here go in and out," since

A HALT OX MARKET SQUARE. 243

the private residence has been changed into a public
house, with license for the sale of "fire-water." It is
now the property of Mrs. Kleiser, and the stopping-
place of the country mail coaches. In 1855 it was the
property of Dr. John W. Gloniuger, who added a third
story to it.

From here, past a few business houses, whose his-
tories are a checkered story of transfers, we come to the
stuccoed and yellow-painted stone house of Mr. John
W. Mish. This is another old property, the main part
of it having been built, as near as can be remembered,
and as a stone in the wall, but under the plaster, says,
in 1762. It is the old Krause house, built, it is be-
lieved, by John Krause, the great-grandfather of Mrs.
Mish, who was a daughter of a younger John Krause,
who was the son of David Krause, who was the son of
John, Sr., who was married to a daughter of Adam Orth
(Regina), whose wife in turn was a daughter of Peter
Kucher. All the connections here are prominent, the
Kuchers, Orths, Krauses on Mrs. Mish's side, and the
Mishes and Weidmans and Bickels, of the county, mix-
ing their blood in Mr. Mish's veins. Their family of
children promises fairly to carry the name and honor of
a worthy ancestry into the time and generations com-
ing, into whatever clime or country they may chance to
wander. The house is large and commodious. It has
served various purposes. In the beginning of this cen-
tury it was a hotel or restaurant. There is still an old
inside shutter swinging: in the northern room which

244 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

records the bill of 12 segars against ex-President James
Buchanan as due Andrew Huber, and having been pur-
chased on a Sunday, September 15. We know this
noted character, when an aspiring young lawyer, used
to practice at Lebanon county courts. During Mr. David
Krause's occupancy, and at the first establishment of
the county, the main front room of this house was used
by him as Prothonotary's office. This Mr. Krause was
born in this township in 1750, and was a farmer by
occupation. In the back yard of this old mansion
there used to be a large Swiss barn, where were
stored the products of a portion of the original Peter
Kucher's large farm, into the possession of which he
came bv the marriage of Retina Orth, the grand-
daughter of this celebrated Moravian leader. Part of
the same farm is still in possession of the family, and
improved by the lovely country residence of Mr. Mish,
just a mile south of the town center, and at present
occupied by their son Robert. The Revolutionary war
spirit fired the blood of young Krause, and, leaving his
farm in other hands, he associated himself with those
striking for the cause of freedom from a foreign yoke,
and became conspicuous as a commanding officer of a
local company, and as Commissary in Colonel Greena-
walt's Battalion.

Among the many family relics still kept here is Com-
missary Krause's Book of Accounts, in which are found
his receipts and expenditures as a Governmental officer.
Among other entries, the writer was interested to find
the following :

A HALT OX MARKET SQUARE. 245

"August, 27, 1777. Cash paid to Coin. Adam Orth,
for 3 corts of wood, to be delivered to the Hessian pris-
oners, at 12 sh. a cort. "

There is found here also Mr. Krause's Docket as Jus-
tice of the Peace, which is most carefully kept. It
shows that on one occasion he imposed the fine of 7
shillings and 2 pence upon a certain man for swearing.
We have thought if every similar offense were now fol-
lowed by the same penalty, Lebanon would soon have a
revenue that would be able to bring us the best street
paving, a sufficient number of electric lights, and an
adequate supply of the best water.

After the Revolutionary War, Mr. Krause served in
the State Assembly from this county (then Dauphin)
before and after the adoption of the State Constitution,
in 1790. For two years he served this county also as a
Commissioner. After the establishment of the county
of Lebanon, Governor Snyder appointed him one of the
Associate Judges of the county, which position he held
at the time of his death, in 1822. His sons, born here,
added honor to the name — the youngest, David, gaining
a very fair reputation as Private Secretary of Governor
Shulze, Deputy Attorney General of his county, as-
sociate editor with General Simon Cameron of the
Pennsylvania Intelligencer, editor of State Journal, and
as Judge of the Montgomery and Bucks Judicial Dis-
trict, while John, father of Mrs. Mish, served as At-
torney General of Pennsylvania. The present head of
this old homestead, Mr. Mish, is well known for his

246 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

business ability, having served in important positions
and filling now the office of Secretary and Treasurer of
the Lebanon Gas Company.

Xext we come to the corner building, at present
(1894) undergoing extensive improvements, in being
changed in form and purposes from an ordinary corner
store-stand into the imposing wholesale liquor house of
Mr. Filbert. This house also is historic. It is the cele-
brated Philip Greenawalt's old home, or rather the site
is the same; for when Colonel Greenawalt lived here the
building was a double-story frame hostelry, which was
later changed into a store and occupied by Mr. Frantz,
from whose hands it passed into Jefferson Sherk's and
thence into Mr. Diller's and now into Mr. Filbert's.
But as we are walking in the olden time, we see none
of these later changes and only note the brave and
doughty old Colonel as he goes in and out here, loaded
down with honors and a multiplicity of years. A native
of Germany, he came to America in 1749 and located
first in what is now Lancaster county, but later came to
this side of the South Mountain ridge. At the outbreak
of the Revolution, he was commissioned Colonel of the
first battalion of Lancaster county. He was associated
with Washington in the New Jersey campaign of 1776
at Trenton and Princeton, and at the Brandy wine he
received the commendation of his commander-in-chief
for efficiency of service. He was appointed by his state
as one of the commissioners to take subscriptions for the
continental loan, December 16, 1777, and during the

A HALT ON MARKET SQUARE. 247

war's darkest period he did noble service in collecting
food, forage and clothing for the suffering soldiers at
Valley Forge, for most of which he is said never to have
been recompensed. His regiment was composed of local
companies, commanded by such then well-known cap-
tains as (1) Casper Stoever, (2) William Paine, (3) Philip
Weiser, (4) George Null, (5) Michael Holderbaum, (6)
Leonard Immel, (7) Valentine Shoufler, (8) Henry
Schaeffer, (9) Daniel Oldenbruck. These names often
occur in local history. Colonel Greenawalt died in this
place, in 1802, at the good old age of jj years, highly
honored and respected by his fellow citizens. He sleeps
in the old Reformed cemetery, and around him have
been gathered many of the scions of his large family.

But we must go on. Crossing Cumberland street, we
come to the Gloninger homestead — for several genera-
tions past the property of this distinguished medical
family. Although none but Gloningers have gone in
and out of this fine old habitation as occupants for the
century that is past, still the building was not erected
by any of them, but according to deeds in hand — and
the family hold a chest full of these parchment docu-
ments, and many precious heirlooms besides — was built
by Gen. J. Philip DeHaas. The original sale of this
corner town-lot, bv Steitz, was made to this historic
character shortly after the town was laid out, and the
character of the house to be erected upon it was
specified in the deed. So it is from this corner that
this Revolutionary warrior went forth, and to this

248 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

identical house that he came back as his home.
Arriving in this country with his father, from Holland,
in the year 1739, as a mere child, they settled near this
place. He had already given conspicuous service to his
adopted country in the French and Indian war. He
shared in the officers' land-grants along the West
Branch of the Susquehanna at the close of this period,
upon which lands in Clinton and Center counties his
descendants settled and are still abounding. For ten
years — 1765-1775 — he was one of the King's justices of
the peace, residing in this house. There are some very
interesting resolutions extant, which were adopted at a
meeting of the citizens of Lebanon after the arbitrary
measures of the Crown, closing the port in Boston, as
early in the Revolutionary agitation as June, 1774,
which resolutions bear his name as chairman, and
which meeting was held in the house of Captain
Greenawalt. The following are the resolutions as
copied from Dr. Egle's history:

"At a meeting of the inhabitants of Lebanon and the adjoining
townships on Saturday, 25th of June, 1774, holden at the house of
Capt. Greenawalt, whereof Major John Philip DeHaas was chairman,
to take into serious consideration the state of public affairs, it was
unanimously declared and resolved:

1. That the late act of the British parliament, by w 7 hich the port of
Boston is shut up, is an act oppressive to the people of that city and
subversive of the rights of the inhabitants of America.

2. That while we profess to be loyal subjects of Great Britain, we
shall not submit to unjust and iniquitous laws, as we are not slaves,
but freemen.

A HALT ON MARKET SQUARE. 249

3. That we are in favor of a Congress of Deputies, who shall act in
behalf of the people for obtaining a redress of grievances.

4. That we will unite with the inhabitants of other portions of our
Country in such measures as will preserve to us our rights and our
Liberties.

5. That our countrymen of the city of Boston have our siucerest
sympathy, that their cause is the common cause of America.

6. That Messrs. Philip Greenawalt, Thomas Clark, Michael Ley,
Killian Long and Curtis Grubb be a committee to collect contribu-
tions for our suffering brethren.

J. P. DeHAAS, Chairman.
John Light, Secretary:''

This document shows what spirit of patriotism heaved
the bosoms of these gallant citizens, most of them of
German ancestry, against whom the false charge has
sometimes been made that they were indifferent to
the cause of freedom, or totally lacking in patriotism.
The Revolution formally opening, we find DeHaas,
speedily chosen colonel by Congress to command the
First Pennsylvania Battalion. He set the gunsmiths of
Lebanon to work to make the muskets for his regiment.
His battalion merged into the Second Penn'a Batallion,
after his Canada campaign in 1776, which he hence-
forth commanded, until he was promoted to a brigadier-
generalship, in which capacity he served until 1779.
That year he removed to Philadelphia, where he died
in June, 1786, "leaving his property here to his wife,
Elenor, and sou, John Philip, as the executors of his es-
tate." And thus this house came to be purchased by
the Gloningers, who have held it ever since.

But reserving for another chapter the history of this
17

250 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

family, when we reach the original homestead of the
first Gloninger immigrant on the banks of the Quittapa-
hilla, we will pass on to the next homestead, commonly
known as the "Weidman House,' but now owned and
occupied by Dr. Joseph L. Eemberger and family.

This house is a model of preservation, and well shows
the character of the old kind of masonry. The date of
erection is not quite certain; some claim it to have'^been
built bv the DeHaas heirs, and that it is more than a
century old. It was long occupied by Edward Godwin,
Esq., a native of England, and for a long period a lead-
ing legal light of this town. He was the associate of
such prominent attorneys of our state as James Bu-
chanan, Jenkins, Montgomery, etc., of Lancaster, and
the Elders, Fosters, Auricks, etc., of Dauphin counties,
who often must have stepped across the threshold of
this historic house. Then it became the residence of
Air. J. Andreas Shultze, and was occupied by him when
elected to the gubernatorial office of our state. From
Governor Shultze it passed into the hands of "Gen.
John Weidman, and because of which fact it is often
called the Weidman house." From Weidman it came
into possession of 'Sir. Joseph L. Lemberger,' whose
family now occupies the mansion, with one room~re-
served for the prosecution of the well-known Central
Square drug business. The house is still good enough
to shelter another governor, but whether it shall occur,
will depend on the present occupant or his»successors.
We have no objections to have it take place now.

CHAPTER XXV.

A HALT ON MARKET SQUARE, CONTINUED.

Our walk about the old Market Square of Lebanon
was interrupted just as we came to the fine stone
mansion of Mr. Lemberger's, whence stepped out, in
1823, Andreas Shultze, to fill the Gubernatorial chair
of our State, after having held a number of other official
positions of the county and the State. It would be
pleasant to dwell a little while in company with this
cultured and popular Governor of our State, whose elec-
tion to a second term of this high office, in 1826, was
unprecedented in point of majority, he receiving not
much less than 75,000 votes, while his opponent, John
Sergeant, received but about 1,000 votes. But we must
hasten on, so as to complete our walk about this old
town square, which is lined with historic landmarks,
leaving the relatives of the Governor in the enjoyment
of the honor reflected upon them by this illustrious kin.

Before leaving, however, the residence whose historic
walls are still lighted up by the brilliant fame of this
once renowned owner and occupant, we must recall,
with a certain degree of patriotic and race pride, at this
season of Independence Day reminders of Revolutionary
sires and leaders, that when that illustrious French

(25O

252 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

patriot and ally of our American colonists struggling for
freedom— General Lafayette — revisited our country in
1824-25, it was this same Governor Shultze who
officially welcomed him to Pennsylvania State soil amid
great pomp and civic display, at Morrisville, on the
west bank of the Delaware, opposite Trenton, X. J. It
should stir our present citizens with local pride at this
Fourth of July season, that in a parsonage of this valley
was born the child (the great-grandson of the most
distinguished German pioneer of this State — Conrad
Weiser), who in this valley grew to manhood, here for
a time preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then fol-
lowed here a mercantile business, afterwards holding
offices of public trust and honor, and later marched out
of this identical stone mansion to fill the highest office
in the gift of our Commonwealth, and as such had the
honor to ride in that brilliant pageant of State officials,
of mounted field and staff officers, of bands of music, of
processions of artillery and infantry, of Revolutionary
heroes, of artisans and farmers, of gaily dressed
riflemen, in which he - the son of our valley and the
distinguished citizen of our own Lebanon town — was
the State's representative and spokesman. Riding in a
barouche drawn by four brown horses, he followed
next the distinguished visitor — Lafayette — who, with
the famous Judge Richard Peters, of the Revolution,
the friend of Washington, was drawn by six cream-
colored horses, with outriders in livery, mounted on
horses of the same color — and was followed by another

A HALT ON MARKET SQUARE.

2 53

barouche similar to his, containing Governor William-
son, of New Jersey — on that proud day in September
(28), 1824, niore than seventy years ago, when this
magnificent pageant came from Trenton and entered
our City of Brotherly Love by the Delaware.

But we are far from home and must hasten back, and

CENTRAL OR MARKET SQUARE, LEBANON, PA.

(Looking North.)
Showing the Gloninger Residence, the " Weidman House," etc.

must complete our historic pilgrimage about Lebanon's
old square, even if attended by less of pageantry and
honor than was so largely shared by one of its quondam
residents. The house next north of this "Guberna-
torial Mansion" is the present property of Grant Weid-

254 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

man, Esq., who purchased it from William Stoever, of
West Myerstown — a lineal descendant of Rev. Johann
Casper Stoever — who, as executor of his father Jacob's
estate, made the transfer about twenty-five or thirty
years ago. Jacob Stoever here carried on the printing
business, and from this place shone forth over the terri-
tory of the county, at least once a week, for about thirty
years, the first and long the only newspaper enlightener
of the place — Der Libanon Morten-Stern. Jacob
Stoever was a son of Frederick Stoever, the squire, and
he w r as the youngest son of pastor J. Casper Stoever.
Who had possession of this property before Stoever, we
could not learn; but the place suffers not by comparison
with others in reckoning up the good influences that
have gone out thence. The Stoevers and Weidmans
both being Lutherans, the early members of these
families all sleep in Salem Lutheran burial ground.
The property next north to this, situated on the S.
W. corner of 9th and Spring alley, and now occupied
by offices and as the residence of Mr. J. K. Funck, was
first sold by George Steitz to Anastasius Uhler, March
4th, 1759. There are documents showing that it was
aeain conveyed bv said Uhler to Daniel Strow, who con-
veyed it to Andrew Beistle, at whose death and accord-
ing to the terms of his last will, Messrs. Christopher
Wegman and Jacob Souders, as executors, sold and
transferred the property x\ugust 17, 1782, to Henry
Shaffner. The lot then had a frontage of sixty-four feet
on Market Square. The northern half of same, with

A HALT ON MARKET SQUARE. 255

house, was conveyed, at Mr. Shaffner's demise, by Jacob
Goodhart and Daniel Stitch ter, executors, to Mr. Adam
Grittinger, June 16, 1837, which same property was be-
queathed by Mr. Grittinger to his son, Henry C, the
present owner. The Shaffners we know to have been
inter-married with the Greenawalts and otherwise
highly reputed, while the Grittingers, father and son,
served in various honorable positions, as well as the
present occupant, to give this place a history.

Opposite Spring alley, on the site of the building
now occupied on the first floor by the Post Office, where
cluster other interesting facts of history, let us especi-
allv imagine the former frame building out of which
came to play or go to school in the early decades of
this century the boy Alexander Ramsey, whither his
mother, whose maiden name was Kelker, on becoming a
widow removed with her family from Hummelstown.
Mr. Ramsey as man rose from one station of honor to
another, until he became in 1849 first Territorial Gov-
ernor of Minnesota, holding office four years, and mak-
ing important Indian treaties, and for the United States
Government negotiating large purchases of their lands.
Mayor of St. Paul in 1855, and elected Governor of the
State in 1860-63, he was the latter year elected United
States Senator from Minnesota and served twelve years,
and in 1879 became Secretary of War, and in 1882 a
member of the Utah Commission.

Were we to continue our walk on Ninth street to the
north w r e should find much more buried history to ex-

256 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

htime, but we shall simply lead our excursionists about
the old Market square, and so must here step across
Ninth street to the east side and complete our walk.
The building that here at present forms the northern
offset of this square is the second structure of the Zion
Evangelical Lutheran church, which just has com-
pleted the semi-centennial of its life, an event worthy
of note. The first building erected here in 1844
was a stone edifice and rough cast in plaster.
The lot before this date was the property of Jacob
Shaffner, then residing at Marietta, and the purchase of
it was made by Jacob Stoever, one of the trustees, for
the newly organized congregation coming out of the
mother church (Salem) and led by the pastor, Rev.
Jonathan Ruthrauff, on the score of language, church
discipline and revival measures. The spot has an in-
teresting history, because of its fifty years of eloquent
preaching of the gospel by such men as Rev. Ruthrauff,
Drs. Wedekind, Gotwald, Schindler, Rhodes, Reinmund
and Dunbar ; by the long and successful efforts here
made in the salvation of souls; bv the men it sent into
the ministry ; and by a long list of conventions held of
every description, missionary, Sunday-school, confer-
ence, synodical and General Synodic, of which we have
not time to speak at length.

We come next, on the south, to a property now
occupied by three stores (tea, jewelry, and shoe) pre-
senting a frontage of about 66 feet, and mentioned in
the original town-plot as Lot No. 65. The property

A HALT ON MARKET SQUARE. 257

is owned by Mr. Frank S. Becker, and has been in the
family since 1810, when his grandfather, Jacob Good-
hart, the clock-maker — whose name rivals that of Jacob
Gorgas, in the number of times it appears on the face of
the old-time, high corner-clocks — purchased the ground
with the improvement of a log house, weather-boarded,
for the sum of 426 pounds, "lawful money of Pennsyl-
vania," from John and Catharine Fasnacht, who were
the executors of their father's (Conrad) estate. This
Conrad Fasnacht was a butcher, and evidently here
carried on his business of selling, if not of slaughtering.
Deeds are at hand to show that this property was part
of the original town-plot, purchased at sheriff's sale as
property of Nicholas Henicke, by Peter Kucher,
August 5, 1764, who sold and conveyed it, April 1,
1774, to Adam Orth and Catharine, his w r ife, (Kucher' s
daughter) who in turn conveyed same to John Keller,
October 22, 1785 (whose wife was a daughter of Adam
Orth), who again sold it, May 4, 1792, to said Conrad
Fasnacht. Probably the most noted occupant of the
old homestead that first occupied this central spot, of
whose residence here we are certain, is the long-lived
clock-maker, Mr. Goodhart. On the establishment of
Lebanon county, we find him. representing this district
for several years (1815-16) in the State Legislature.
Upon the acceptable creation of the borough of Leb-
anon, in 182 1, he was elected as the first Chief Burgess,
which office he held for two years. He also served as
County Treasurer from 1826-29 ; was universally recog-

258 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

nized as a reliable surveyor, conveyancer and scrivener ;
and was for more than thirty years a Justice of the
Peace, many times elected by the people and twice ap-
pointed by the Governor for usual terms of several years
each. We find his name also among the first trustees
of the Lebanon Academy, established in 1826. But
whatever good mav have been done by Mr. Goodhart in
all these official positions, we think that his "grand-
father-clocks" will do more to perpetuate the fame of
his honest thrift and skill, in the hundreds of homes
they are to-day brightening, measuring off by musical
ticks the minutes, and by clearly ringing strokes the
hours of the day, than bv any other great deeds this
long familiar German worthy of Market Square per-
formed.

The next house — a relic of the last century — is the
property of our nonagenarian friend Mr. Simeon Guil-
ford. It was part of the John Keller estate when the
above-mentioned transfers of the next adjoining lot
were made. It is very likely that in this same house —
still standing and occupied by Mr. Guilford, Sr. — lived
Mr. Keller, the saddler, at the beginning of this cen-
tury, and we can imagine his children — playing here
with their cousins, among whom was the future illus-
trious statesmen of Indiana — a native of Lebanon —
Godlove S. Orth, who died but twelve years ago, after
having held many of the most imoortant offices in the
gift of his country and adopted state. Mr. Guilford, the
present aged occupant, is a native of Northampton, Mass.,

A HALT ON MARKET SQUARE. 259

and came to town at the opening of the Union Canal in
1823 — an energetic, youthful civil engineer of twenty -
two. The same State improvement or institution
brought to town also another once honored citizen, Mr.
William Lehman, who lived a year in Gov. Shultze's
house after the latter was made Governor, and later at
the Canal (Ninth and Maple). These, together with
the president of the Canal Company (Mr. Mifflin), have
been kindly remembered for their noble deeds to this
town in the work of opening up this internal waterway,
bv having streets in the northern end of our citv named
after them. Mr. Guilford has occupied this home since
1830, here reared a noble family, and from it has gone
out to a long continued career of usefulness in the erec-
tion and operation of Swatara (Schuylkill county), and
Dudley (long known as Donaghmore) furnaces. He
married, May, 1830, Miss Catharine E. Doll, and their
oldest son with his family living in the adjoining
house, a citizen and physician of high repute, keeps the
declining days of an unusually long and prosperous
journev from becoming drearv and dark. In the same
house, or a stone house preceding this, had lived before
him for some time Anthony Kelker, a revolutionary
lieutenant, and a most worthy citizen. To this same
stone house of Guilford's was brought the Hon. William
Henry Harrison, when as a candidate for the United
States Presidency he made his visit to Eastern Pennsyl-
vania. Simeon Guilford, who was an ardent Whig and
enthusiastic advocate of

"The old Tippecanoe, Harrison and Tyler, too,"

260 LANDMARKS OF THE LEBANON VALLEY.

and one of the local Committee of Entertainment, went
all the way to Reading to meet this honorable ex-
soldier, and accompanied the party in a tally-ho to Leb-
anon. Although stopping at what now is the Central
Hotel, then the Buck Hotel, he took the distinguished
citizen and coming President to his own home for a few
hours' social intercourse. All this is history worth re-
membering as clinging to the solid masonry of this old
landmark. [P. S. — Mr. Guilford died in Feb'y, 1895.]

The corner property where now stands the Lebanon
National Bank, is the same where formerly stood a
stone building, in which dwelt, in 1830, Mr. William
Moore, who was instrumental in establishing the first
bank in Lebanon, and became its first president. The
lots of the town plot covering Mr. Guilford's and Mr.
Moore's residences are numbered 66 and 67 respect-
ively. Mr. Moore was a highly honored and leading
ci'tizen, filling various offices in the gift of his towns-
people. He lies buried in the Old Reformed graveyard,
and his grave is marked by a suitable stone. This cor-
ner of Ninth and Cumberland was long occupied by a
mercantile house, where, I think, Oves & Moore car-
ried on the dry goods business for years. The bank
building displaced it about ten or twelve years ago,
when it removed hither from where the dining room of
Eagle Hotel is now located.

The site of the Eagle Hotel, on the opposite cor-
ner, has quite an illustrious history. Here Frederick
Stoever, Esq., the youngest son of the Rev. John Cas-

A HALT ON MARKET SQUARE. 26 1

per Stoever, some time in the latter half of the last cen-
tury, erected a store building and carried on business,
and for some time the office of "a 'squire." Later
Peter Lineaweaver, the third American by that name,
came into possession of it and changed the store into an
old-time hostelry, where stopped more of the old-time
visitors and transient guests than possibly at any other
house in Lebanon. In its halls it was a frequent thing
to hear the voices of the most brilliant legal lights of
East Pennsylvania and the political visitors of that day.
The house has since been rebuilt, and its reputation for
high grade service is known far and wide. We are
hindered for lack of space to enter into any further his-
tory of the house, or the families that have resided here,
or even to give the past occurrences of the old Henry
DeHufF manufactory of copper and silver-ware that
used to occupy the space south of Eagle Hotel, thus
completing the Square. The readers can find Mr.
Stoever's grave on Salem Lutheran burial-ground, and
the Lineaweavers on the Old Reformed. The latter' s
family was intermarried with the Tobys, the Klines,
and the Krauses, all of whom are well known in
Lebanon and its vicinity.

We trust our halt on this Square has convinced my
readers that this heart of Lebanon has coursed with
good blood and sent out to bless the world and fight its
battles a greater array of strong and manly men than
any similar spot of earth, of equal dimensions, in any
city of our land.

CHAPTER XXVI.

SALEM LUTHERAN CHURCH AND GRAVEYARD.

Our halt on Lebanon's Market Square has detained
us longer than we had at first contemplated. Thus
having mingled with scenes of stirring business life in
the past two chapters, let us without much ceremony
bow ourselves out of these surroundings and transfer
ourselves to the corner of Eight and Willow streets,
where we will find a monument of old-time church-love
and a volume of ancient local history in the landmark
of the Salem Lutheran church edifice that shall now
occupy our attention.

This church, as well as the Old Reformed — the only
two congregations of Lebanon that have an age corre-
sponding to or antedating that of the town itself — has
its second local habitation. Before Mr. Steitz had laid
out this town, and an aggregation of dwellers here had
made the beginnings of a village, what few Lutheran
residents were found in this immediate territory wor-
shiped with their brethren of the surrounding country,
either at the Hill church, about 2^ miles to the north-
west, or else at Krupp's (or Grubben) church, about 2 x / 2
miles to the southeast, but mostly with the latter.
Here really Salem Lutheran church was born, probably

(262)

SALEM CHURCH AND GRAVEYARD.

263

as early as 1735, and led through its infantile life.
Rev. J. Casper Stoever was both founder and pastor of

SALEM LUTHERAN CHURCH, LEBANON, PA.

the Lutheran side, and Rev. Conrad Templeman of the
Reformed — for it was a union church. While there are

264 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

still to be found traces of the foundations of this church
edifice and a graveyard to mark the spot, unfortunately
there are no records at hand to tell us aught of its his-
tory. The Hebron Diary makes mention of a Moravian
Synod having been held in the Lutheran church, while
their church (completed in 1750) was being built; and
as there was no town church this allusion must
evidently refer to this church, or else to some temporary
house of worship in the village of Hebron or the cluster
of houses that then served as a nucleus for the future
Lebanon. Mr. Steitz himself having been a Lutheran
may have made early provision for church services in
the town he founded. Be that as it may, with the
growth of Steitz's-town developed also the necessity
and desire for a Lutheran church. And thus we early
find the Grubben church weakened by the loss of the
membership of the town church, into which it gradually
merged — Rev. Stoever being the pastor of both. Rem-
nant official records of this pastor and a few relics, such
as chalice and flagon for communion service, bearing-
dates lt 1757 " and "1760," are the only relics extant of
these early Lutheran church beginnings here. Among
these entries are the marriages of Francis Reynolds to
Catharine Steitz, Feb. 25, 1731 ; George Reynolds to
Eleanor Steitz, Dec. 12, 1738 ; and John Peter Kncher
to Anna Barbara Koppenheffer, Oct. 6, 1735.

The first documentary evidence, however, of a sepa-
rate Lutheran organization in the town limits that is in
hand, is the deed conveying the present corner lot on

SALEM CHURCH AND GRAVEYARD. 265

Eighth and Willow streets to Jacob Bickel, Daniel
Stroh, Philip Fernsler and Michael Reiter, trustees, for
the use of the Lutheran congregation, and this is dated
March 13, 1765. For this piece of ground "the yearly
rent of one red rose in June, in every year forever here-
after, if the same shall be lawfully demanded," was to
be paid. The same year a school-house was erected on
this lot, which was used for worship until the first
church was built, three years later. At this time a
most earnest, even solemn circular of appeal for finan-
cial help was sent out to other Christians, carefully
certified as to its genuineness and authority, by Pastor
Stoever and several civil officers, empowering the
Brethren Frederick Yensel and Christian Fremdlinor to
receive such contributions. In this document allusion
is made to the fact that hitherto "divine and religious
services" had been held with great inconvenience in
private houses. From the help thus received, the con-
gregation was enabled the following year, 1769, to erect
its first house of worship in Lebanon. It stood on the
southwest corner of the present graveyard, facing Wil-
low street. It was a log structure which served well its
purpose for thirty years, until the present massive
church edifice displaced its use in 1798. Among the
relics of this first building are still found the timbers in
what is now "Oswego House" on Cumberland street ;
an iron rooster which graced the old steeple, now in the
possession of Mr. Geo. H. Reinoehl, and several pewter
communion services are kept at the parsonage. The
18

266

LANDMARKS IX THE LEBANON VALLEY.

writer had the pleasure of seeing these recently, to-
gether with an altar-cloth of fine linen, bearing an early
date (1773), and found the tankards beautifully en-

graved thus :

The bread or hostien-plate bears the monogram
"I. CH." which, we presume, stands for u Iesus
Christus." The bell, also used on this building, still
swings in the present steeple.

While the earliest records of even this church are
lost, there is at hand a Church Book of records begun
by the pastor, Rev. F. A. Con. Muhlenberg, in 1773.
From this date entries of official acts are faithfully
made and historical data are well preserved. This pro-
tocol preserves the facts of importance concerning the
building of the present edifice. According to it, the
corner-stone was laid June 8th, • 1796, when Rev.
Emmanuel Shultze, of Tulpehocken, preached in the
forenoon, Rev. Hendel, of the Reformed church, Tul-

SALEM CHURCH AND GRAVEYARD. 267

pehocken, in the afternoon, and the Rev. Schlegel
(probably Moravian) in the evening. The names of the
church officers then were as follows :

Pastor — Rev. George Lochman, A. M.

Trustees — Michael Rieder, Philip Fernsler, Jacob Stieb, and
Samuel Meily.

Elders— Conrad Reinoehl and John Schnee.

Deacons — Peter Shindel, Frederick Embich, and George Schott.

Most of these names are still represented in the pres-
ent membership of the church. We have in hand an
illustrated u L,ife of Washington " in German (a trans-
lation), printed here in 1810— but a decade after the
President's death — which bears the imprint of John
Schnee as publisher. Quite an enterprising literary
venture for a little town of Pennsylvania Germans !
But then Lebanon had patriotic giants in those clays,
some surviving soldiers, who had fought with Washing-
ton the battles of the Revolution.

The second edifice of this church, now lacking but a
few years of completing its first century of service, is
substantially the same, externally, as when first built.

There have been added about fifty years ago (1848),
two vestibule corners to complete, with the originally
appended massive stone steeple, the quadrangular shape
of the structure, while its interior has been wholly re-
modelled. It experienced another general renovation
in 1866. Originally it had the very common style of
church arrangement in olden times, namely, a high
ceiling with steep, bulky galleries, the organ at one end

268 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

and a high goblet-shaped pulpit with 'sounding board at
the other. In the midst stood the altar with banistered
enclosure. An exact model of this original church, the
workmanship of Mr. H. W. Embich, janitor, on North
Eighth street, can now be seen in the latter's home.
We had the pleasure of seeing here some other old relics
of this original building, and learning some data of im-
portance in the special services held in the past century
in this ancient temple of divine worship. The same
church servant has also kindly given us a look into the
towering belfry of this massive edifice, from which one
or the other of two silvery-toned voices has for a cen-
tury been calling its worshippers to service, or else an-
nouncing the death of its members, or else proclaiming
to the city the outbreak of some accidental conflagra-
tion, or the birth of some national holiday.

These bells have a history. The oldest and smallest
one, weighing about 1,000 pounds, was used in the
first building, and was cast in London, England, and
shipped simultaneously with a similar one for Trinity
church, Lancaster, Pa. It bears an inscription as fol-
lows : "For the Lutheran Congregation in Lebanon-
town, Lancaster Co., in the Province of Pennsylvania.
Pack & Chapman, of London, Fecit, 1770." The
larger bell was cast by Jones & Hitchcock, Troy, N. Y.,
in 1854, and weighs over a ton. In a storage place in
this lofty belfry we were shown also a few antique locks,
made for and long used at the doors of the church.
They are immense copper and iron constructions, about

SALEM CHURCH AND GRAVEYARD. 269

8x10 inches in dimensions, and were made, according- to
the inscription on exposed plates, by "John Rohrer,
Locksmith, Lebanon, 1798," and "Jacob Smith, Lock-
smith, Lebanon, 1798," respectively. Besides the latch
they are provided with five bolts or rails, enough to
lock out such foes as heresy, schism, the world, the
flesh and the devil. We here found also a curious look-
ing basket, not much unlike the one of bulrushes in
which the infant Moses was rescued, but having found
quite a different use. We w y ere told that when in 1847
or '48 the steeple was painted, this contrivance was used
in connection with tackle and pulley to prevent the
necessity of building a scaffolding, and that in this in-
vention Messrs. Nagle and (John) Dreher completed
their contract of painting unharmed.

To come back again to the storv of the first bell, it
was less than a decade before this English product was
hung in its place in the first church, when it began,
like the old Liberty Bell of Philadelphia to "proclaim
libertv throughout the land and to all the inhabitants
thereof." Its sound must not have been very musical
to the several hundred Hessian prisoners, who were
quartered here for some time after their capture at the
battle of Trenton, N. j., but it was about this kind
of iro7iy these hateful English allies deserved.

The pastors who have served this congregation since
its foundation are here mentioned. We would like to
give brief sketches of all, but have space only to give
names and dates. The record is as follows :

27O LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

Rev. John Casper Stoever (?) I 735 _I 773

" Fred. Aug. Con. Muhlenberg I773~i775

" John William Kurtz I 775~ I 794

" George Lochman, D. D 1 794-1815

William G. Ernst, D. D 1815-1836

Jonathan Ruthrauff 1836-1844

William G. Ernst, D. D 1844-1849

G. F. Krotel, D. D 1849-1853

John N. Hoffman 1853-1854

Henry S. Miller 1854-1864

E. W. Schmauk 1864-1876

Geo. H. Trabert 1S77-18S3

< <

(<
•<

C B. W. Schmauk . . .
*- Theodore E. Schmauk

} 1883-1895

It would be interesting to enter into an account of the
arduous labors of these servants of God at this place,
but that would require volumes, and is. not the present
purpose of these letters. Suffice it to say that as far as
we know all have given diligent service for the up-
building of this parish, and that the combined labors of
all, together with the cooperation of the congregation,
have resulted in building up one of the strongest and
most influential churches of Lebanon.

Only one of these pastors is buried here, viz. : Dr. W.
G. Ernst, who died in 1849. A small marble monu-
ment near the rear entrance of the church marks his
resting place. Upon it are epitaphs to the memory of
his mother (Elizabeth Ernst, wife of Rev. John Fred-
erick Ernst, born March 22, 1747, died January 31,
1826) and other relatives. His own reads thus :

SALEM CHURCH AND GRAVEYARD.

271

In Memor}- of

REV. WILLIAM G. ERNST, D. D.,

who was born in Sussex Co., N. J.

October 30, 1786.

He preached the Gospel for

34 years, 29 of which he was

Pastor of this Congregation.

Through the merits of his Savior he

entered into his eternal rest

Sept. 1, A. D. 1849.

AGED

62 yrs. 10 months.

"Blessed are the dead which die in
the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith
the Spirit, that they may rest from
their labors : and their works do fol-
low them."

The third pastor, Rev. Kurtz, a younger brother, we
think, of the Rev. John Nicholas Kurtz, of Tulpe-
hocken, also lies buried in the county, but at Jones-
town, being then also a part of this parish.

The list of pastors numbers some of this denomi-
nation's most noted and scholarly ministers. Rev.
Muhlenberg was a son of the distinguished patriarch,
and it is altogether probable that as his father was still
living during this son's pastorship here, he visited
him and thus most likely preached for him ; so that
although without a record stating the fact, we be-
lieve that the illustrious Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg
preached also in this city, and that in Salem's pulpit.

272 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

From this mother church have gone out Zion's in
1844 (from which has branched Seventh Street Luth-
eran,) and Trinity in 1885. Though vast the influence
it exerted for so long a period, the church to-day is
abreast in numbers, influence and activity with the
most active of the city, and does not have any signs of
age, save in the influence it wields and the merited re-
spect it receives from the younger churches of the city.

A step out of the rear door of this ancient structure
and we are in the original cemeteiy, where are sleep-
ing the first few generations of worshipers here.
What a book this is to read ! Familiar names that
were once on every lip, have here been chiseled on cold
marble with the significant "In Memoriam!" The
truth is, despite the somberness, a cemetery has certain
indescribable charms for most of us. It is the place for
deep thought, for silent revery, for next to real com-
munion with our departed friends.

This graveyard has the old enclosure of a stone wall
to keep out the vagrant, the irreverent, the vandal and
the busy world that surges by, with neither time nor in-
clination to check its rushing gait for a thing so utterly
foreign and chilling to its arduous zest as that of a
burial place. It is a pity that this wall has too often
shut out also the presence, the sight and the tender care
of the surviving friends of these departed ones ; for
there is not apparent here the tender care, which the
worth of the departed, the name of this church, and the
conspicuity of this street corner deserve. Could not

SALEM CHURCH AND GRAVEYARD.

273

steps be taken to beautify this spot like Mt. Lebanon,
and a fund be raised to keep it in repair? We should

ANOTHER VIEW OF SAEEM EUTHERAN CHURCH, EEBAXOX, PA.

be glad to give a transcript of many old tombstone in-
scriptions found here, but we have space for but a few.

274 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

Some of the oldest have so faded that they are no longer
legible. It is believed that such an one marks the
grave of Mr. George Steitz ; for upon the most reliable
tradition of his descendants, despite any former supposi-
tion to the contrary, it is generally believed that this
founder of our town, who died in 1769, lies buried here.
His great-great-grand-daughter, Mrs. Allen D. Hoffer,
told the author that she remembers having visited in
her childhood this old graveyard in company with her
grandmother, who used to point out an unmarked grave
near the western wall as the spot where grandfather
Steitz was buried. But even this is only tradition, how-
ever reliable. Can it be that this old German founder of
Lebanon was, like the great leader and lawgiver of Israel,
buried by the angels of God out of human sight, and
shall no one ever know the place of his sepulture? The
graves of his daughter, grand-daughter and other rela-
tives are here, and their epitaphs are quite legible.
There follows that of his grand-daughter, Catharine
Reynolds (Clark), to whom he bequeathed his property
on condition she marry a German. But true love
neither runs smooth nor according to prescribed lines of
nationality, and so this heiress married a Scotch-
Irishman, Thomas Clark, Esqr., and I suppose forfeited
her legacy. After a comparatively long and (we sup-
pose) happy life, they were here gathered side by side,
and the two large flat marble stones covering their
graves give evidence that they were not wholly without
means. Her epitaph reads thus :

SALEM CHURCH AND GRAVEYARD.

2/5

In Memory of

Mrs. CATHARINE CLARK

Consort of

Thomas Clark, Esqr.,

who was born on the 29th day

of September 1756

and departed this life

the 30th day of June 18 17

Aged 60 years 9 months

and 1 day.

"Blest are the dead whose souls are pure,
Their sufferings past, their glory sure. "

The daughter of this couple was the mother of Mr.
David Hammond, who, with his family, is to-day num-
bered among our residents — a direct lineal descent from
Mr. Steitz, of quite a number of generations.

Here sleep also the wife and some children of Rev.
Dr. Iyochman, long the pastor. Likewise the elder
Shindels, Bmbichs, Weidmans, Bickers, Reinoehls,
George and Eleanor Reynolds (he a captain in the Re-
volution, she the only daughter of George Steitz),
Schantzes, Sixes, Uhlers, Stoevers and Yensels, besides
many others. We give in conclusion a fac-simile of two
more epitaphs — those of two children of pastors — the
one the youngest son of the first pastor, and the other a
daughter of the fourth, whose mother sleeps by her side,
having died at 18, when the daughter was a babe of but
a year :

2/6

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY,

Hier Ruhen
Die Gebeinen des

FRIEDERICH STOVER

Esqr. Ward Gebohren in Libanon

Tausp. Am 20 Sept. A. D. 1759

Und starb

Am 24 May 1833

Bracbte Sein alter

Auf 73 la. 8 Mo. 4 Da.

Lei 2 Pet. 1 Ca. 1 v.

Job. L. Stoner Ma.

MEMORY

MARIA REIDENAUR

wife of

Mr. George Reidexaur

and daughter of the

Revd. George Locbman, D. D.,

Died December 7, 1835.

Aged 39 years, 5 mouths and

• 2 days.

CHAPTER XXVII.

OUR EXIT VIA OLD CUMBERLAND STREET TO
GLONINGER'S FORT.

There is enough of the antique left in Lebanon that
has not yet been touched upon in these pages, to keep
us busy here for some time longer. But, whilst it
would be interesting to hunt up every relic of the pre-
ceding century still to be found in the city, it is time
that we shake off the dust that has gathered on our
travel-worn feet since our halt here and again resume
our journey beyond. And so, with thanks for every
favor and encouragement received while the guests of
the city, my army of explorers, like so many Comraon-
wealers, would graciously bow themselves out and con-
tinue their pilgrimage down the lazy windings of the
Quittapahilla.

We shall go out orderly, taking the same way that
the early visitors to Lebanon took, when making their
departure, if their exit was towards the west — up
towards Harris' Ferry, later Harrisburg. For let it be
remembered that old roads are landmarks as well as old
buildings.

Leaving Salem Lutheran church corner and proceed-
ing south on Eighth street, we pass — at the south-east

(277)

278 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

corner of Eighth and Willow — the home of Mr. John
H. Hoffer, the same building having formerly been
used as a school-house (as well as another old building,
formerly occupying the rear of said lot) in which the
noted Miss Rose Cleveland, sister of the President of
the .United States, formerly taught our Lebanon boys
and girls. A little beyond, at the alley, is the Salem
Lutheran parsonage, in and out of which house, or one
formerly occupying the spot, have gone the Lutheran
pastors of this church since the year 1800. Across the
alley from this parsonage is the fine Roman Catholic
church, built in 1876, but which site was previously oc-
cupied for 60 years by a chapel, where this congrega-
tion worshiped in its infancy. Immediately opposite
is the county Court House — the first erected structure
since the establishment of the county in 1813. This
building was completed in 1818, and ever since that
time our county courts have been held here, where are
kept all the official documents of the same. Some of
the earlier records were supposed to be endangered here
when Lee's army invaded Pennsylvania in 1863, and
were taken to the Schuylkill county court house for
safe keeping, from which they were afterwards re-
turned, and I am told some have not yet been
unpacked from the fugitive packages. Dr. Egle has
published in his history an account of the first court
records, showing that upon the establishment of the
county — the court then held in the fine stone dwelling
on south side of Cumberland street, between 9th and

CUMBERLAND STREET TO GLOXIXGER'S FORT. 279

10 th, now owned by Mrs. Boughter — James Buchanan,
and Edward Godwin, and Thomas Elder, and Jacob B.
Weidman, and the Wrights, and John Marks Biddle,
and Edward Coleman, and John M. Forster, and the
Fishers, and Hopkinses, and Henry Knrts, and Samuel
Laird, and Moses McClain, and William Montgomery,
and Nutz, and Morris, and Geo. B. Porter, and Chas.
Richards, and the Smiths, and Francis R. Shunk, were
among the most prominent attorneys at the bar that
practiced here, and that Walter Franklin was the first
president judge, and John Gloninger and David Krause
were first associate judges.

Diagonally opposite, on the south-east corner of this
street intersection, stands the Central Hotel, formerly
the old "Buck Hotel," in charge of Joseph Reinhard,
where Wm. Henry Harrison stopped during his presi-
dential campaign visit to Lebanon.

Leaving this corner of the city, where the legal busi-
ness of the county centres, and where every half or
quarter of an hour the electric cars of the city meet, let
us go westward on Cumberland street. But we shall not
take time to do more than point out a few more build-
ings of note. And one of these is the Ross house,
where the flourishing Dr. Ross' drug store is located,
noted because this is said to have been the first three-
story house erected in the city. What a contrast with
that early advanced architecture is the fine Nutting
building with its six stories that has recently arisen by
its side ! Another building; which savors of age and

28o LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

has doubtless an interesting history, is the stone build-
ing occupied by Shiffler's green-grocery store.

But we cross again the central square and now come
to the fine stone dwelling house of Mrs. Boughter. It
is very old, but one of the most roomy and hospitably
built old mansions in our city. It has associated with
it a history that decks it with a new garment of inter-
est, viz : That it was used from the erection of Leba-
non county, 1813, until the completion of the court
house in 1818, by the county as a temporary court
house. It was here that those early legal lights of our
court, already mentioned, then practiced law. In its
original construction it was built as a farm house and
had extensive grounds and all the necessary farm out-
buildings. Thus there remained to within a year an
old building used as a pig-sty, corn-crib, etc., which is
said to have secreted and sheltered for a short time, in
the ante-war period, certain fugitive slaves, who, being
here befriended, made their escape hence to Canada in
safety. To add to the justice and judicial reputation of
this old homestead, it might be added that it was the
residence at different periods of several legal lights of
our court, viz: Jacob B. Weidman, Esq., Levi Kline,
Esq., Amos R. Boughter, Esq., and the late Judge of
the county, Hon. John B. McPherson.

Immediately opposite this fine old dwelling, where
the late C. Henry's residence is now situated, used to
stand the public house of Abraham Doebler, where
usually stopped the lawyers from other counties that

CUMBERLAND STREET TO GLONINGER'S FORT. 28 1

practiced here in that early period. The writer recently
learned from one of our best-informed citizens an inci-
dent which helps to bring- to view the old-fashioned
times then lived in this hostlery. The incident was
related by Mr. James Buchanan, who told my informant
how the loquacious and somewhat officious mistress of
this house on one occasion, while he was boarding there,
took him (Mr. Buchanan) to a cheaply-drawn portrait
of her husband, hanging on the parlor wall, and began
to recount the different steps of his successful, self-made
career, following the story with an earnest admonition
to the young aspirant to be good and self-reliant and
persevering in his efforts, and he too might perchance
some day shine as brilliantly as her husband. It is said
that Buchanan never forgot that advice, and the self-
complacent manner in which it was given.

But we must hasten on. The north-east corner of
10th and Cumberland used to contain an old house in
which Dr. Marshall of some local fame used to reside.
On the south-west corner of this street intersection stands
the Farmers' Hotel, which must have been erected
more than a century ago. It was built by one Han
Georg Focht, about a decade before the Revolutionary
war, inasmuch as this pioneer afterwards moved about
four miles east of Lebanon on a farm still in the family's
hands, where the house built, prior to 1770 still stands,
which date marks the erection of an addition to it a few
years later. This Mr. Focht was the great-grandfather
of Mrs. John Reinoehl, of our Lebanon.
19

282

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

But we come now into the very oldest section of the
city, where abound most of the ancient landmarks.
Old Cumberland street, which led the way out of town
before the Berks and Dauphin turnpike chose another
and better way, still contains many of these first build-
ings. They are mostly low, one story log huts — some

OLD CUMBERLAND STREET, LEBANON, PA.
( Looking east )

now encased with boards — whose erection must date
to the days of Steitz himself. One house here has the
tradition of having been used as a church for some
time. It. is the one numbered il ii22," and the shape
of the same much resembles the Hebron Moravian
Church. It is two-storied, with peaked roof and di-

CUMBERLAND STREET TO GLONINGER'S FORT. 283

vided into apartments like the one at Hebron. Was it
here that the local Lutherans and Reformed tempo-
rarily worshipped before the erection of their first
churches in town? Quite likely. For in our last chap-
ter we learned that, because the Lutherans "found the
worship of God in private houses inconvenient" they
made efforts in 1768 to build a church.

But Steitz ! where did he live? There has been
much surmise, but as vet we have found nothing: more
authentic than a tradition that the Uhler residence or
"Meadow Bank" of Mr. Geo. Hayes and his family
marks the spot. There is much of circumstantial evi-
dence to corroborate this story. It was on the banks of
the creek, fronting on the south and east, just the kind
of site we always find these old Germans have selected
for their homes. Besides, we find here a portion of a
very old log building and an arched cellar or cave of
such antiquity as to antedate the childhood of our oldest
citizens. There is also a tradition that there are logs
and beams of a larger building that formerly stood here,
used in the construction of the present brick house,
built years ago by Mr. Uhler, and that these were said
to have been taken from Steitz 1 s old house. Altogether
the story is quite probable, and we shall henceforth
think that Mr. Steitz spent his American life here, and
that a fine meadow along the Quittapahilla stretching
before his house (where now the C. & h. trains go to
and fro) furnished the best hay for his cattle.

The old Cumberland road (now blocked by the C. &

284 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

L. R. R.) used to follow close to the banks of the Ouit-
tapahilla creek, at the base of the knoll now crested by
Mr. Hammond's fine home (through whose occupant's
veins flows the blood of the town's too-mnch-forgotten
and too-little-known founder), and led on through the
Gloninger farm, past the old homestead, on to Sunny-
side and the Stoever mills. Were we to make a call at
Mr. Hammond's palatial residence, we should find it
filled with a collection of rare and invaluable family
heirlooms, descended through both lines of an equally
prominent ancestry.

But we must make a short halt at the Gloninger
home in earlier davs, commonly known as the Glon-
in^er "Fort." The house is still standing on the
south bank of the creek. George Gloninger must have
erected it somewhere in the decade between 1740-50.
Old histories speak of it as having been used as a place
of refuge from the Indians during the period of warfare
and their greatest depredations from 1750-65. It is a
good specimen of the solid architecture of those days,
with its piked roof and original port-holes for windows,
and serves as an interesting landmark, because here the
first American Gloninger immigrants settled, from
whom has descended locally quite an illustrious family.
It seems that the names of the American Gloninger an-
cestors were Peter [Philip(?)] and his wife, Anna Bar-
bara, and that Valentine, John, George and Peter were
among their sons. Of these George may have been the
oldest and remained on the old homestead as farmer.

CUMBERLAND STREET TO GLONINGER'S FORT. 285

The others distinguished themselves in other avenues
of life. John, born in 1758, took an active part in the
Revolutionary war, rose to official rank, held official
positions in his native (then Dauphin) county by ap-
pointment and election, and served a number of vears
as Associate Judge upon the erection of the county of

THE GLONINGER "FORT.

Lebanon. He was married to Catharine Orth, a
daughter of Adam and Catharine (Kucher) Orth.
Their son Philip, born in 1788, was a minister in the
Reformed church, very brilliant, with a promising
future before him, when he was cut down by an un-

286 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

timely death in 1816. He had been stationed at Har-
risburg previous to his death, and had been married to
Eliza Clark, the daughter of Thomas Clark, Esq., and
a great-granddaughter of Mr. George Steitz. His widow
later married Col. Hammond and became the mother
of Col. David Steitz Hammond, who resides in Leb-
anon. Concerning the ability and fine pastoral spirit
of this minister, the following lines written and dedi-
cated by him to his flock and sorrowing friends, a few
days before his death, bear ample testimony :

" Meinen Jesum lass ich rjicht,
Jesus -wird mir helfen siegen
Vor dem letzten zorngericht !

L'nd hier in den letzten zuegen,
Ich weiss, nimmt der Tod mich hin
Dass ich doch bey Jesus bin.

"Wann dich die Last der Leiden drueckt

Schau drum nicht Muthlos nieder ;
Schau frei empor, sprich, mich erquickt

Der Herr doch endlich wieder.
Der Christen hohes Burger-Recht

1st dort im Vaterlande.
Der Christ, der irdisch denkt, denkt schlecht

Und unter seinem Stande.

"Dort ist das rechte Canaan,

Y\~o Lebens Stroeme flieszen ;
Blick oft hiuauf, der Anblick kan

Dein Leidens-Kelch versuesszen.
Dort oben ist des Vaters-Haus

Oott theilt zum Gnaden Lohn

<;n Ueberwindern Cronen aus ;

Kaempf euch um Ruhm und Crone.

CUMBERLAND STREET TO GLOXIXGER\S FORT. 287

"Warm ich auch gleich bald scheiden

Von meinen Freuden soil,
Das, mir und ihn'u bringt Leiden

Doch trostet dies mich wohl
Dass wir in groessern Freuden

Zusammen kommen dort ;
Und bleiben ungescheiden

An eineru bessern ort. "

Another son of John and Catharine Gloninger was
John W. , the physician, whose attainments and skill
gave him early in his long practice a first rank in the
profession. He was a celebrated surgeon and oculist
specialist, with a wide reputation. He was a frequent
contributor to medical journals, and an honored mem-
ber of many medical societies. He left a family of
children, viz. : Eliza, wife of Dr. David B. Marshall, al-
ready alluded to in this chapter ; Matilda, wife of John
Wetherill, of Philadelphia ; Dr. Cyrus D., a noted phy-
sician, whose widow and son, (Dr. Andrew H.), now
occupy the old residence (corner of 9th and Cumber-
land) ; Dr. David Stanley, of Philadelphia, and Alice,
wife of Dr. A. H. Light, of Lebanon.

We have recently seen the portrait painting of this
old Revolutionary Gloninger worthy, which reflects
much of the Saxon honesty, frankness and stern integ-
rity for which he was noted. In the antiquarian collec-
tion of our friend, Mr. E. W. S. Parthemore, of Harris-
burg, we saw also an honorable discharge from militia
duty of a fellow citizen that bears his signature, as
follows :

288

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

The bearer, Henry Meyer, of Cap-
tain Stover's Company of the
Second Battalion of Lancaster
County Militia, having made ap-
pear to me that he is above the age of 53
years, is discharged honorably from all
militia duty, this 19th day of November, 1782.
JOHN GLONINGER, Sec. Lieut,
for Lancaster Militia.

Nearly all the Gloningers that have departed this life
sleep in the First Reformed Cemetery of this city, in
the shadow of the church, which the earliest genera-
tions were so active to establish. There we found the
graves of Valentine, born June n, 1766, died December
24, 1844 ; Peter and Elizabeth, his wife ; John and all
his family. Fitting monuments, or marble slabs, mark
their resting places. Two of these are to the memory
of Dr. John W. and Mary Ann, his wife. Another
monument has its four faces occupied with memorial
inscriptions of the Hon. John, born September 19, 1758,
died January 22, 1836 (on the east) ; his wife, Cathar-
ine, born October 31, 1767, died June 17, 1848 (on the
west) ; his son, Rev. Philip, born February 17, 1788,
died September 10, 1816 (on the north), and his son
Cyrus, born December 25, 1804, died December 22,
1 82 1 (on the south). Suitable epitaphs accompany each.

It is fitting that the memory of such worthy ancestors
be preserved, and we trust that whatever improvements
may chance to be made in the old Gloninger farm in
the hands of the new syndicate, the old homestead may

CUMBERLAND STREET TO GLONINGER'S FORT. 289

be long kept as a relic, and that somewhere a park, or
street, or institution, may preserve the name of its first
white proprietors, as that name is preserved by the far-
famed spring that gushes with clearest water from lime-
stone rocks on the plantation. To this spring let us
now repair, to drink to each other's health as we part
company for another interim.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

A VALUABLE LIBRARY HISTORICALLY HOUSED.

" Tread softly here, as ye would tread
In presence of the honored dead,
With reverent step and low-bowed head.

'* Speak low — as low as ye would speak
Before some saint of grandeur meek
Whose favor ye would humbly seek.

"Within these walls the very air
Seems weighted with a fragrance rare
Like incense burned at evening prayer.

" Here may we sit and converse hold
With those whose names in ages old
Were in the book of fame enrolled.

" Here under poets' power intense
We leave the world of sound and sense,
Where mortals strive with problems dense,

"And mount to realms where fancy free,
Above our poor humanity,
Roams in a joyous ecstasy.

" Or, if through history's maze we tread,
The hero, patriot, long since dead,
Whose great heart for his country bled,
(290)

A VALUABLE LIBRARY HISTORICALLY HOUSED. 29 1

"Seems once again to work and fight
In superstition's darkest night
For God, his fellows, and the right.

"Enough ! mere words can never tell
The influence of the grateful spell
Which seems among these books to dwell."

So wrote Alice C. Sawtelle in the Boston Literary
World sometime since ; and we confess being seized by
something of this same strange spell upon entrance of
any large and well-selected library of books. Of all the
apartments of a house, the library has for us the
greatest charm. We are ready to confess with Frank
Dempster Sherman :

Give me the room whose every nook

Is dedicated to a book:

Two windows will suffice for air

And grant the light admission there ;

One looking to the south, and one

To speed the red departing sun.

The eastern wall from frieze to plinth

Shall be the poet's labyrinth,

Where one may find the lords of rhyme

From Homer's down to Dobson's time ;

And at the northern side a space

Shall show an open chimney-place,

Set round with ancient tiles that tell

Some legend old and weave a spell

About the firedog-guarded seat,

Where one may dream and taste the heat :

Above, the mantel should not lack

For curios and bric-a-brac —

292 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

Not much, but just enough to light
The room up when the fire is bright.
The volumes on this wall should be
All prose and all philosophy,
From Plato down to those who are
The dim reflections of that star ;
And these tomes all should serve to show
How much we write — how little know ;
For since the problem first was set
No one has ever solved it yet.
Upon the shelves toward the west
The scientific books shall rest ;
Beside them, histor}- ; above —
Religion — hope, and faith, and love ;
Lastly, the southern wall should hold
The story-tellers, new and old ;
Haroun al Raschid, who was truth
And happiness to all my youth,
Shall have the honored place of all
That dwell upon this sunny wall,
And with him there shall stand a throng
Of those who help mankind along
More by their fascinating lies
Than all the learning of the wise.

Such be the library ; and take

This motto of a Latin make

To grace the door through which I pass :

Hie habitat Felicitas !

Believing that my readers share with me and others
this subtle charm of the collection of books, we will
spend an hour or more together in looking over the
largest library of rare and antiquarian literature to be
found in this valley. We venture the assertion that

A VALUABLE LIBRARY HISTORICALLY HOUSED. 293

there are not many private collections, and few public
libraries, of greater antiquarian variety in the State,
than that gathered and historically housed bv Mr.
Henry S. Heilman, of Sunny Side, whose residence is

—

^y ' ' \

: , ~- .-'-''".

;.Wa

fpr^ Wagk, ft \ m S :, %
Ww v*^ HUH i mL..

a*.

i**^

Lnjai

lifiiiiill

I I

II I n

ill!

MR. HENRY S. HEILMAN 'S HOMESTEAD.
A VALUABLE LIBRARY.

about two miles west of Lebanon. The house in which
he lives is a lar^e and substantial stone structure a cen-
tury old, and was erected by one of the sons of the
pioneer Lutheran minister of this valley, Rev. John
Casper Stoever. Two inscribed tablets in its front eleva-
tion tell the story and sentiment of its erection as
follows :

294

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

*J5 Gott Bessegne *J5

dieses Haus und

wer geht da em

und aus !

Johannes Stoever
Angenes Stoeverin

17 95

»J$ Friede Sey in *J$

Diesem haus -*-

Und mit Dehnen

Welche Drauss.

Dieses Haus

Erbaut ist

Anno 1795

The Heilmans and Stoevers have been intermarried
and so this commodious house serves as a relic of these
two old families, whose thrift, intelligence and general
cleverness have brought esteem and considerable fame to
both. The present proprietor of this homestead came
into its possession through his father, who died less
than a year ago, and into whose possession it came by
purchase in 1837. The writer has found him quite
hospitable, and so he takes the liberty of ushering his
company of fellow-explorers, without further ceremony,
right into the room that shelters this antiquarian
library, gathered principally by this our host. It is
found in the southern wing of this building, on the
first floor, to which it was found necessary to build an
extension, which reaches back to the very edge of the
historic Quittapahilla.

Here are found a sufficient quantity of easy-chairs
and rockers to rest the most weary of our historic
tramps, while either from a cabinet or a full fledged

A VALUABLE LIBRARY HISTORICALLY HOUSED. 295

pipe-organ, we may have our spirits soothed or re-
freshed with sweet-voiced music ere we begin to
ravish our eyes with the contents of the surround-
ing alcoves of rarest book treasures. All around
the wall, from floor to ceiling, stretch the bursting
book-cases with their antiquarian lore. Here are
gathered some of the oldest and rarest books known to
the bibliophile, from the tiniest specimens to the most
cumbersome tomes. The library is the complement of
Mr. Danner's museum, at Manheim, of rare china and
crockery-ware. That shows the domestic, this the
religious life of our people in colonial times. There are
here found a number of the cunabulae, or cradle books,
and large quantities of the earliest Bibles, and hymn-
books, and almanacs, since the art of printing was
invented. Among early editions or rare copies of books
this library abounds. The Sailers' German Bible of
1743 — first editions of Bibles printed in America and
very rare — is here represented by three copies. The
rarest curios of Franklin's publications here find a place,
more especially such specimens of his books as were pub-
lished for the German people. Among the very rarest
books in this collection is one of Conrad Beisel's works,
and published in 1730 by Benj. Franklin before even this
German Baptist leader could muster strength to have
his own press. It is probable that this volume is the
only one extant, and Prof. Seidenstecher, before his
recent death, had arranged to have the title page of it
photographed. We give here this title-page as follows :

296 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

Mystische
Und sehr geheyme
Sprueche
Welche in der Himmlichen Schule
Des heiligen geistes erlernet
Und den solgens eiuige
Poetische Gedichte

AufFgesetzt
Den liebhabern und schulern
Der Goettlichern und Himmlichen
Weisheit zum dienst.

Vor
Die Saii dieser welt aber
Haben wir keiue spise werden
Ihnen auch wohl ein werschlossener
Garden und versiegelter brunnen bleiben.
Zu Philadelphia Gedrucht

by B. Franklin im Yahr 1740.

Among the many almanacs collected here, are the
Hocli Americanish DeutcJier Kalender, from 1745 to
date, bound in volumes. Two of them were published
by Benj. Franklin and called " Xeu Americanish
Deutscher Kalender. " One in 1752, when in September
eleven days were dropped or cut out, viz: from the 3rd
to 13th inclusive, so as to allow for the difference in
time between the Old Style and the New Style of
reckoning time, is also found here, and is quite rare.
The sum of $100 has been set upon a perfect copy.
The full list of almanacs in Mr. Heil man's possession,
ranging from 1745 to 1894, all printed in Pennsylvania,
is as follows : Those published by Christoph Saur
and Michael Billmyer, of Germantown ; by Benj.

A VALUABLE LIBRARY HISTORICALLY HOUSED. 297

Franklin, Antony Ambruster, David Caeschler, P.
Mueller, Henry Miller, Melchoir Steiner and Carl Cist,
Philadelphia ; by Matthias Bartgis, Francis Bailey,
Johann Albrecht, of Lancaster, etc., also the family il-
lustrated church almanacs, as the Catholic Home, com-
plete; the Catholic Family, from 1871-76; the Reformed,
complete ; Lutheran, incomplete, etc. ; also Webster's,
Phi la. Record's, Phila. Public Ledger^ 's ) the American,
Frank Leslie's, Ayer's American in ten languages.
All of these are bound and in good condition.

We make a hasty and partial list from memory of
other rare and curious volumes we found here, as
follows :

1. Almost a complete list of the more than fifty Ephrata publica-
tions, some of which are original books, while others are reprints of
devotional manuals bearing the imprint of this Seventh Day German
Baptist press, including the "Martyrer Spiegel," Ephrata, 1748,
which is a volume as large as the largest family Bible.

2. Two copies of the "Poor Man's Bible," being nothing else but a
package of slips of German Scripture texts, enclosed in a wooden case
— a rare curiosity.

3. A copy of Arndt's Wahres Christenthum, reprinted for the Ger-
man people of Pennsylvania by Beuj. Franklin, 1751.

4. "Ein Sermo von den Kleiner Brode," by Dr. Martin Luther,
gehalten zu Wittenberg in 1523, and printed then.

5. Man}' of Sauer's publications (Germantown), who was the first
American German printer.

6. A manuscript Memorial Reformation Sermon by Dr. F. H. C.
Helmuth, in a hand of as perfect German script as if printed— the
sermon having been delivered in Philadelphia, Oct. 31, 1817, from
text, Ps. cxviii. 24.

7. A voluminous illustrated German copy of Josephus, bearing the

298 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

imprint of some German publisher, dated 1569 — formerty the posses-
sion of some German Lebanon Valley settler by the name of Bager
Boger, where the celebrated Dr. Demme, Lutheran pastor of Zion
Lutheran church, Philadelphia, found it and borrowed it, keeping the
same for three years, and using it as a copy for his edition (German) of
Josephus, now the one mostly sold to German readers. This old copy
has many annotations and corrections on margins, which Dr. Mann
has recognized as Dr. Demme's handwriting. [It is said that Dr.
Demme and Rev. Ernst were rival candidates for the Lebanon pastor-
ate, but that Dr. Demme's preaching proved too scholarly for these
people and Rev. Ernst was chosen, while Dr. Demme went to Phila-
delphia.]

8. First German Bible printed west of the Alleghenies, at Bedford,
with dozens of other rare and old copies of the Holy Scriptures.

9. A copy of Rev. J. Casper Stoever*s last will, and other family ar-
chives.

This list gives but a faint idea of the treasures that
are here collected and carefully arranged. Thev have
cost their possessor no little time, money and research,
but they must give him immense satisfaction as they
speak to him of the centuries that are past. We can
imagine that the encased spirits, communicating from
these bookshelves of wisdom's lore are often better
companions than many who still wrap flesh and blood
about them. So with a courteous bow for favors
shown, we shall leave our friend to himself and his
mute companions, imagining that we hear him say in
the language of John Fletcher :

Give me
Leave to enjoy myself. That place that does
Contain my books, the best companions, is

A VALUABLE LIBRARY HISTORICALLY HOUSED. 299

To me a glorious court, where hourly I

Converse with the old sages and philosophers ;

And sometimes for variety I confer

With kings and emperors, and weigh their counsels ;

Calling their victories, if unjustly got,

Unto a strict account ; and in my fancy

Deface their ill-placed statues. Can I then

Part with such content pleasures, to embrace

Uncertain vanities ? No : be it your care

To augment a heap of wealth , it shall be mine

To increase in knowledge.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE REV. JOHN CASPER STOEVER HOMESTEAD.

LET us to-day follow the Quittapahilla Creek for half
a mile in its meandering course, from where it washes
by the home of Mr. Heilman, last visited, and it will
lead us to an interesting relic of the first settlement of
this region. It is the old mill-homestead of the Rev.
Johann Casper Stoever, the first German Lutheran min-
ister ordained in Pennsylvania. It is located just an
eighth of a mile south of the village of Cleona, and
about tw r o and a half miles west of Lebanon. It is a
landmark of the olden times that holds for us a fasci-
nating charm.

The building, which is a large and substantial stone
mill-structure — originally provided with a suite of
domestic apartments, and occupied by this pioneer of
Lutheranism as the permanent abode of himself and
family for a period of forty years — was erected in the
years 1737-40. The strong and substantial character of
the building required three years of time to complete it.
It is a massive structure, considering the times and the
meager facilities of building; in dimensions about 40 by
60 feet. Its walls, three feet thick, are most of them as
solid to-day as when first erected, though composed of

(300)

REV. JOHN CASPER STOEVER HOMESTEAD. 301

simple, undressed surface stones, many of them no
larger than a man's fist. The mortar is as firm as
cement, and no pen-knife has yet been found strong
enough to break its cohesive service. The writer has
thought that if all the Lutheran stones that first com-
posed the walls of the spiritual building of this denom-

REV. JOHN CASPER STOEVER HOMESTEAD.

ination in America, had been as firmly cemented as this
good Lutheran pastor bound together the stones of his
earthly abode, this now honored and numerically strong
denomination would much sooner have assumed firm
and conspicuous proportions in this country.

302 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

Whether it was from a generous desire to supply
these early settlers with bread for the body as well as
for the soul, that this pastor built a mill almost simul-
taneously with the church, or whether he saw in it a
chance to grind more cash into his own pockets, we can
not tell and would not wish to insinuate. Suffice it to
sav that for more than a hundred and fiftv rears the
waters of the Quittapahilla have here turned the
machinery that has ground out the one kind of grist
for the customer and the other for the owner. It was
either the grist of this mill, or that of his large parish,
probably both together, that made its first owner com-
paratively wealthy. For at his death Rev. Mr. Stoever
was the possessor, besides this mill-property, of over
five hundred acres of the richest land in the valley,
which, divided into three large farms, were left to three
of his sons, Adam, John Casper (a Captain in the Revo-
lution, whose home we visited last week), and Tobias.

This antiquated pile of masonry, constituting this
pioneer minister's earthly abode, was further provided
with an arched mural fortification, the foundation walls
of which are still visible on the southwest corner of the
building. There was also a stockade, or log-barricade,
used for defense against savage foes when they made
their forays in that period. And here the neighbors
were frequently sheltered, when in all this community
manifold depredations were committed by the red men.

The illustrious builder of this home was a native of
the Electorate of Hesse, now Prussia. There he was

REV. JOHN CASPER STOEVER HOMESTEAD. 303

born, December 21, 1707, the son of honorable and
pious parents. After teaching school for two terms in
the Rhenish Palatinate, he sailed from Rotterdam, with
ninety of his fellow Palatinates, on the ship "James
Goodwill," and landed at Philadelphia September 11,
1728. On the ship's register his name is recorded as
Johann Casper Steover, S. S. (Theol. Stud.), and is dis-
tinguished from another person of the same name, a
near relative, who registered as Missionaire, and settled
as pastor of the Lutherans in Spottsylvania, Va. The
latter died a few years later at sea, on a return trip from
Europe, which he had revisited. The former, after
about a year's temporary abode at the Trappe, then
known as Providence, Montgomery county, Pa., took
up his abode at the Conestoga, near the present town
of New Holland, Lancaster county, Pa. Here he lived
until about 1740, when he moved to his newly-finished
house on the Quittapahilla.

Wherever this young pastor dwelt, he reached out
beyond, visiting his scattered countrymen and organiz-
ing them into congregations. Thus we find him in
charge of supplying the first Lutheran churches in
Montgomery, Berks and Lancaster counties, even be-
fore he was ordained. In 1732, Rev. John Christian
Shultze, a Lutheran minister ordained in Germany, ar-
rived in this country, and took charge of the congrega-
tions at Philadelphia, Providence and New Holland, by
which Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg w r as called ten years
later. Shultze early visited Stoever, and being obliged

304 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

in less than a year to return to England and Germany
to secure ministers and money for the relief of Luth-
erans in Pennsylvania, he ordained Stoever and placed
him over these congregations. This ordination took
place at the Trappe, in a barn, being the only place of
worship this congregation could then afford, and it
claims to be the first solemn setting apart to the holy
office of a German Lutheran on Pennsylvania territory.

Pastor Stoever must have been a prince at organizing
churches. We find his name associated with almost
every Lutheran congregation that was founded during
the fiist decade and a half after his arrival in America,
in what is now Lancaster, Berks, Lebanon and York
counties. At the Trappe, New Holland, Lancaster,
Warwick (Brickerville), Tulpehocken, Xothkill (Bern-
ville), Heidelberg (Schaefferstown), Bethel, at Jordan,
Krupps, the Hill Church (Berg-Kirch), and at York, his
name is associated with the laying of the foundations.
Out of these small beginnings have directly grown
dozens of strong congregations, and indirectly de-
veloped much of the Lutheranism of this State and
beyond. For it is quite certain that eastern Pennsylva-
nia is the cradle of the greater portion of American Lu-
theranism, that to-day numbers its communicants by
many hundred thousands.

The organization of the Hill church in 1733, which,
however, was long designated as "The Church on the
Qui:tapahilla,' ' doubtless led Pastor Stoever to rear his
home near it. Hence, having built' this abode he

REV. JOHN CASPER STOEVER HOMESTEAD. 305

removed hither from the Conestoga in about 1740, and
here raised his family. Here transpired what is of
domestic interest for more than the latter half of the
long life of this enterprising and energetic dominie.

There are two incidents of peculiar interest asso-
ciated with this ancient landmark. The one is the
friendly hospitality shown a fellow pastor and his
family upon their arrival here from the Fatherland.
This family was no less a one than that of the Rev.
John George Eager, the first American progenitor of
the well known Baughers of the Lutheran Church.
When this ancestor, after a brief pastorate in Simmern,
Germanv, arrived with his small familv in Philadel-
phia, October 23, 1752, Pastor Stoever, by previous ar-
rangement we presume, w 7 as there to meet him and
take him to his own home u on the Quittapahilla."
Here the new-comers were hospitably quartered for
eight months. Meanwhile (June 9th, 1753) the third
child was born unto these recent immigrants, which was
named Catharine Margaret, and at whose baptism by
Pastor Stoever, the dominie's wife and hostess stood as
sponsor. Rev. Bager had meantime received and ac-
cepted a call as pastor from the Lutheran church of
Hanover, Pa., which he served for three months before
removing his family from this hospitable abode. It is
worthy of mention in this connection that by a sing-
ular and happy coincidence, two descendants of these
friends and yoke-fellows were afterwards intimately
associated as co-workers in the early history of Penn-

306 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

sylvania College at Gettysburg — the one in the person
of Dr. Henry Louis Baugher as professor of Greek and
as President of the institution for a period of thirty-six
years, and the other, Prof. Martin Luther Stoever,
LL.D., as principal of the preparatory department and
as professor of history and Latin in college for a period
of twenty-eight years.

The other incident alluded to is that connected with
Pastor Stoever's death. Although feeble and sickly for
years prior to his demise, this energetic servant of God
did not unbuckle his gospel harness until the end came.
His debilitated condition, however, sometimes incapaci-
tated him to leave his house, when, if possible, he
sought to minister to his people there. Thus he had
requested his catechetical class of the Hill church to
meet him at his home on Ascension Day (May 13th,
1779), anxious that they be confirmed on that day in
order to be ready to participate with the congregation
in the celebration of the Lord's Supper on the coming
Whitsuntide. Accordingly the class here convened, and
after a lengthy and fatiguing service of review and ex-
amination, concluding with the rite of confirmation, the
pastor, utterly exhausted, fell over and expired in the
presence of his family, some members of his flock and
the class upon whose heads he had just laid the hands of
confirmation. His funeral took place a few days later
at the Hill church, where in the adjoining graveyard his
ashes repose. It is possible that the near future will see
a fitting- monument rise here to do honor to a life so

REV. JOHN CASPER STOEVER HOMESTEAD. 307

abundant in labors and so self-sacrificing and heroic in
its efforts to help and befriend others.

Before taking our leave of this interesting old
mill-manse — now the property of Henry S. Heilman,
who in 1879 purchased it of a Mr. Shenk, and soon
thereafter undertook to make some internal repairs — let
me say that much of the building's interior and exter-
ior is as it was in the days of Stoever. ' Tis true, the
domestic apartments have been torn out or altered, but
the windows, the floors, the walls, all the main frame-
work of the building remains. If the same water-
wheel is not there, the same creek still supplies the
power to carry on the same business. Immense tim-
bers constitute the frame-work. From a heavy poplar
beam that was removed at its remodeling, the writer
has had carved for himself at the Miller Organ Com-
pany, of Lebanon, a beautiful relic in the shape of a
tray and goblets. On a two-inch walnut step was,
until recently, found the name of the builder, together
with the date 1737, evidently burned on with a hot
iron. The hat rack of Pastor Stoever, of walnut frame-
work and pegs, upon which he must have hung his
great-coat or hat a thousand times and more, is still
preserved. So are some of the library and closet-doors
of the old manse, all made of solid walnut. Altogether,
the landmark is well preserved and well worth a visit
by any one interested in what is so fraught with an-
cient and important events.

CHAPTER XXX.

A VISIT TO HILL CHURCH.

Let us take our walk to-day with the pioneer Luth-
eran dominie of this valley, from his mill-manse on the
Quittapahilla last visited, to the church on the hill
("Berg-Kirche"), about a mile to the northwest. As
we walk in the olden time it will not be difficult to
imagine this pious pastor as accompanying us, for this
is a journey he regularly made for nearly forty years
prior to his death, and before the Revolution. There
was not a little danger connected with church-going
here when this first pastor was yet officiating, for we
have records that frequently the people were obliged to
bring their guns along to be ready to defend themselves
against the attacks of the savages.

This church is the mother of all Lutheran and
Reformed congregations in this vicinity. Whether it
was Reformed from the very beginning the writer can-
not positively assert, but we find both branches of these
oft-united portions of the German Protestant church
worshiping here as early as 1744. From a history of
the churches in Lebanon county, given by Dr. Geo.
Loch man in 181 2, we learn that the congregation was
gathered as early as 1733, and is the oldest church in

(308)

A VISIT TO HILX CHURCH.

309

the county. According to its earliest records kept, it
was called the "Church on the Quittapahilla," though
it seems now quite a little distance from this stream.
The first building consisted of a rudely constructed
edifice of logs. There were also hewn logs for seats,

THE HILX CHURCH ("BERG KIRCHE").

and a most primitive construction served as pulpit.
The building had no floor, and there were in it no
stoves for a long time, according to the prevailing cus-
tom of the warmer clime of the native country of these
German worshippers. In the coldest wintry months a
wood-fire of logs was built on the outside of the church,
around which the assembled congregation would sit

310 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

awaiting the arrival of the minister. Even when the
congregation could well afford such a luxury as a wood-
stove, its introduction is said to have met with consid-
able opposition. There was a rack provided for storing
away their guns during worship, though frequently a
few of the members stood as weaponed sentinels at the
church doors while worship was being conducted. The
present brick building was erected in 1837, it being the
third edifice.

The following Lutheran pastors have served this
church :

Rev. John Casper Stoever, 1733-1779-

Rev. Frederick Theodore Melsheimer, 1779-1794.

Rev. George Lochman, D. D., 1794-1815.

Rev. William G. Ernst, D. D., 1815-1836.

Rev. Jonathan Ruthrauff, 1 836-1 849.

Rev. A. C. Wedekind, D. D., 1850-1853.

Rev. J. M. Deitzler, 1856-1860.

Rev. Christian A. Fetzer, 1S60-1863.

Rev. George P. Weaver, 1863-1864.

Rev. J. M. Dietzler,i865-i890.

Rev. W. H. Lewars, 1890-date.

The Reformed pastors have been the same as those
who served the First Reformed Church of Lebanon (see
record), beginning with Rev. Conrad Templeman as
early at least as 1744, if not 1733 ; and after the church
of Lebanon became an independent pastorate, in 1864,
the Hill church was connected with the Annville pas-
torate, and has since been served by Dr. Jonathan E.
Hiester.

A VISIT TO HILL CHURCH. 311

The early Lutheran record, kept by the first pastor, is
quite complete. The book in itself is a curiosity, being
bound in raw-hide and its leaves worm-eaten and greatly
discolored by age. Still the entries are quite legible
and should be published in some form to be preserved.
We give this gentle hint to the present pastor, in whose
hands it is found. There is here also quite an old Bible,
printed in Halle more than a century ago, and bought
by the congregation for the altar service (in which use
it is still found), for 16 shillings and 6 pence. So there
is likewise in possession of the church a very old Com-
munion cup, bearing date 1745.

Being located on high ground there is here afforded a
magnificent view of the rich valley that stretches out
before the visitor, while just beyond the ridge to the
north nestles the lovely vale of the Heilmans, from
which surrounding farms (among the loveliest of this
entire valley) there gathers Sabbath after Sabbath a
goodly congregation and Sunday-school of intelligent
and enterprising farmers to worship God and perpetuate
the work of the church established by their pious and
heroic ancestry, sleeping here in the adjoining "God's

acre."

The graveyard which surrounds the old church
abounds in old graves, whose epitaphs read in our day
like pages of ancient history. Yet in many instances
the same family-names are found on the church record
to-day that are chiseled also on these old tomb-stones.
Here are buried such old families as the Bohrs, Bogers,

312

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

Bensons, Blacks, Bechtels, Barths, Boltzes, Cleimers,
Detweilers, Embichs, Fochts, Fishers, Gingrichs,
Heilmans (a large number), Imbodens, (a branch of
which family drifted to Virginia and was represented
on the Confederate side in the late war by General
Imboden), Killingers, Kellers, Kelkers, Karmanys,
Kurtzs, Kleins, Millers, Matters, Rupps, Reinoehls,
Richerts, Rutters, Stoevers, Schnebeles, Sprechers,
Umbergers, Ulrichs and Xanders.

Among the oldest graves many epitaph inscriptions
have become illegible. That of the first Lutheran
pastor has been retraced by the sculptor's chisel, and is
therefore clearlv discernible. It is somewhat as follows:

■&■*

-4^r

Hier Ruhet
In Seineru Erloser Entschlaffen

JOHANN CASPAR STOEVER
Erster Evangel Luthericher Prediger

in Pensilvanien. ist geboren in

Der under Paflz D. 21 Dec. 1707. Er

zeigte mit seiner Ehe Frau

Maria Catharine 11 Kinder 4 sein

in die ewigkeit voran gegangen,

Er Starb D. 13 Ma}- 1779. Seines Alters

71 y. 4 mon. 3 wo. v. 2 Tag.

A VISIT TO HILL CHURCH. 313

By the pastor's side sleeps his wife, Maria Catharine,
who survived him a number of years; near by rest a
number of their children and later descendants. The
Rev. Henry Wagner, one of the Reformed pastors, was
also buried here in 1869, but a few years since his rela-
tives had his body exhumed and re-interred in the Mt.
Lebanon cemetery.

Here sleep also the American ancestors of the Kelkers
and Heilmans, both prominent and rather numerous
families of the Lebanon Valley. Fitting stones were
erected to mark the spot of their burial as late as 1867,
by devoted and thoughtful descendants of their respect-
ive families. The Hon. Rudolph F. Kelker, of Harris-
burg, a great-grand-son of this early Swiss immigrant,
was instrumental in so fittinglv marking his worth v an-
cestor's grave. The stone, of the Hummelstown red
sandstone quarry, in massive proportions, reads as fol-
lows :

" In Memory of
Henry Kolliker (Kelker),
Born in 1705. Emigrated from Herrliberg, Canton Zurich, Switzer-
land, and settled in Bethel (now Swatara) township, Lebanon county,
in 1743. One of the Elders of the Reformed congregation, Hill Church,
in 1745. Died 1762. Also Regula Braetscheri, his wife."

This worthy descendant has also compiled and pub-
lished an interesting "Family Register," giving a long
and careful genealogy of this family in Switzerland and

America.

The stone that here marks the resting place of the
21

314 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

first American Heilman ancestor is similar in size and
quality to the one just described. It is in memory of
John Adam Heilman, born November 16, 1715, in the
Palatinate, who emigrated to America in 1738, here
married Maria Catharine Steger (of the family then liv-
ing near Avon, as previously alluded to), who became
the progenitors of at least a very large branch of the
Heilman family in Lebanon county. This John Adam
Heilman was in 1745 a fellow-elder with Mr. Kelker on
the Reformed side of this Hill Church, and he died Sep-
tember 25, 1770.

One of the oldest tombstones here is a curiosity for
the elaborate ornamentation of rosettes, skull and cross-
bones upon it and the fact of its being engraved on
both sides, the one containing the obituary quite
minute, and the other several verses of the solemnly
warning German hymn, beginning:

" Komm, Sterblicher betrache mich,
Du lebst, ich lebt auf Erden,
Was du jetzt bist das war auch ich,
Was ich bin wirst du werden."

The name of the person buried is, however, scarcely
legible, but looks like Johann W. Hefs. "1st gestor-
ben im Jahr Christy 1754. 1st gebohren in Jahr 1722
den 27ten Mertz und den 29 darauf getauft worden
auf die Evangelische Lutherische Religion, &c, &c."
The stone is found some distance directly back of the
church.

A VISIT TO HILL CHURCH. 315

The writer thinks that there is history enough here
to deserve its preservation and the perpetuation of the
good influences that have emanated from this spot, bv
the erection of a new church of stone, after some beauti-
ful, artistic model 3 with stained-glass windows to tell,
in legends and pictures, the story of struggle and piety
that associates with this sacred spot. There is wealth
enough in the congregation to build that church now.
There should be enough devotion to religion and
family pride enough to keep this enterprise from a long
delay.

Another thing that this place deserves is a fitting
monument to the memory of now the only, but heroic
pastor who sleeps here — the Rev. J. Casper Stoever. If
the performance of a multiplicity of great and import-
ant labors ever deserved such a mark of reverence and
respect, then truly the self denying labors of this man of
God, laboring for forty-six years in the establishment of .
this, and manv other churches of Pennvslvania, deserve
such distinction. We are happy to note that the pres-
ent Lutheran pastor is making efforts to accomplish
this end, and we trust that these efforts will meet with
a hearty response and be crowned with speedy and
glorious success. [P. S. See next chapter.]

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE STOEVER MONUMENT.

What was hinted at toward the close of the last
chapter has, since its first writing (1894), materialized.
Through the efforts of the pastor, Rev. W. H. Lewars,
considerable interest has been manifested in the matter
of placing a fitting monument over the sacred dust of the
pioneer pastor, who sleeps upon the historic hillock of
the u Berg Kir che" so that, in the near future, the de-
vout wishes of a few local antiquarians are about to be
consummated. Upon next Ascension Day, the anni-
versary of Rev. Stoever's death, is to be unveiled this
beautiful marble shaft. The material of this monument
(which is the finest quality of bluish-tinted marble) was
quarried at the historic Horse-shoe pike, in the heart of
this valley, from the quarry operated by Messrs. J. H.
Black and C. S. Maulfair, themselves chips of the sturdy
block of Lutheran ancestry that settled here in Stoever's
time, and which was spiritually sculptured by his gos-
pel hammer and chisel in that early day. The famous
Lebanon county sculptor, Mr. J. H. Black, of Annville,
has carved the monument, as seen in the accompanying
cut, by which we are enabled, through the courtesy of
Rev. Lewars, to show our readers the design of this

memorial shaft.

(316)

THE STOEVER MONUMENT.

3 1 ?

It is anticipated that an immense throng of people
will congregate here on the day of the unveiling, as this

event has been made to be simultaneous with the Con-
vention of the Lebanon Valley Lutheran Sunday-school
Association and a meeting- of the Lebanon Conference

318 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

of the East Pennsylvania Synod of the Lutheran Church,
under whose auspices the unveiling and dedication will
take place.

The Proeram Committee has asked the author of
these historic sketches to read a poem on this occasion,
which, as the publication of this book will so nearly
coincide with this about to become historic event, he
will here append. Other important addresses will be
delivered by members of Conference and by other cele-
brities of the church.

THE 3TOEVER MEMORIAL.

BY REV. P. C. CROLI,.

The Muse's wand is in my hand,

To use it I've discretion,
Can let its spell on this large band

Work thoughts into expression ;
Or let it wake the preacher dead,
"Who sleeps within yon lowly bed,
In honor of whose pastorate
This congregation now has met.

And so I'll use the poet's Muse

To summon forth this sleeper ;
From Chronicles his text I'll choose ;
His theme — The Grave my Keeper.
And of the past I'll make him preach,
Back o'er a hundred years he'll reach,
To tell us here in simple rhymes
Of Gospel work in pioneer times.

THE STOKVER MONUMENT. 319

So now give ear, the preacher's here,

Arisen from his slumbers ;
He casts his eyes far out and near

Astonished at the numbers
Who came from far to hear him preach,
Who used their great-grandsires to teach
The principles of truth and right
In days that tried men's souls aright.

He looks to see who each can be

Who came to hear his sermon,
But cannot quite himself agree

If you are Hans or Herman.
He sees resemblance to that fold
That worshiped here in days of old,
Yet still his look is straugely wild
Till told you're Hans' great-grandchild.

But now the spell comes o'er him well,

His heart becomes inspired ;
His tongue is glib the tale to tell,

His soul with zeal is fired]
To teach the children of this day,
Who've met in such a vast array,
The hardships of that dreadful day
When men here used to "watch and pray."

His voice is heard, forth flows his word,

'Mid earnest intonation :
" Beloved children in the Lord,

Who form this congregation,
Why meet on this Ascension day
And leave your muskets home, I pray?
Have you not feared the Indians' snare,
The panther's fierceness, nor the bear?

320 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

"And tell me what became of that
First church of logs and sheeting,

Those racks for flint-locks, coat and hat,
Those hewn-log pews for seating ?

Pray, who has torn that pulpit down ?

And who has ripped my cleric-gown ?

And who has lit those coals of fire,

'Stead looking for some warmth up higher?

" Who could not brook the old hymn-book ?

Why don't you sing in German ?
What's given you this English look ?

Who's Anglicized my sermon ?
Since I have laid me down and slept
An English flood has o'er you swept ;
Your blood is mixed, as well your speech —
The Anglo-Saxon stamp's on each !

" And where are now, on hillock's brow,

Those forest trees primeval ?
Who cleared these acres for the plow ?

Who tills them without equal ?
A Rip Van sleep I must have slept
While yonder stone its vigil kept,
And marked my resting-place, 'neath sod,
In this blest acre of our God !

" Then let me tell — all marking well —

My antiquated story,
How, ere your sires to warfare fell

'Gainst Briton and 'gainst Ton*,
The early settlers of these parts,
With Church and Bible near their hearts,
Reared here an altar to their God,
Whilst felling trees and turning sod.

THE STOEVER MONUMENT. 321

" And here the)' swore, those years of vore,

Heart fealty to Jehovah,
Who brought them to this Western shore

In arks secure, like Noah.
And while they drew a breath ou earth,
Themselves, with all their goods and worth,
They gave to God an offering,
Though claimed by George, the English king.

" Across the same great sea I came

And landed in yon city,
That still proclaims, in deed and name,

A brother's love and pity ;
Thence up the Schuykill's boisterous waves,
And w T here the Conestoga laves,
I visited my countrymen
To cheer their German hearts again.

" Soon came a cry from far and nigh,

Like Macedonian pleader,
Our German folk for help did sigh,

For Gospel and for leader.
And thus I journeyed o'er the land,
From Jordan's to Codorus' strand,
Till on the banks of th' " Quitopehille "
I built my house within a mill.

" From that abode for years I rode

In rain and shiny weather,
In seasons when the streams o'erflowed —

My horse swam like a feather —
I brought the story of the cross —
For none then took account of loss —
To those who fled to 'scape the sword,
And settled here to serve the Lord.

322 LANDMARKS OF THE LEBANON VALLEY.

" And now appear around me here

Those heroes' later offspring,
Prepared a monument to rear

In mem'ry of my off 'ring.
I can't rebuke my children dear
For that which must to all appear
A deed that's prompted by the good,
And gives for nobler thoughts some food;

" But I would fain that every name

Of elder and of deacon,
And others working just the same

To light this gospel beacon,
Would stand engraved on yonder stone,
And over all, above, alone,
Old Luther's watchword, so well put :
'Ein feste Btirg ist wiser GottT "

CHAPTER XXXII.

A GLIMPSE OF ANNVILLE.

LET us come down now from the hillock upon which
have worshiped for one hundred and sixty years the
pious German settlers of this portion of the valley that
is watered by the Indian-famed, snake-harboring Ouitta-
pahilla, and let us get a glimpse of the little gem that
adorns this magnificent vale. Like a sparkling diamond
upon the bosom of a king, so the neat little aggregation
of houses, and schools, and churches, and workshops,
and business houses, known as Anuville, formerly as
Millerstown, begems the bosom of this Quittapahilla
valley. From whatever side you approach it, it charms
and glitters. It has inherent beauty as a rural town,
and needs no outside adornments to make it attractive.
Whether viewed from the northern ridge of hills or the
southern valley of its bordering creek, whether you walk
through its streets or approach it from the east or the
west, it is the same "sleeping beauty" — not a Sleepy
Hollow — in this season of the year a veritable bride,
adorned in her virgin summer robes, and decked off to
charm the lover-husband who has espoused her and
made her his own. Its many peaceful looking homes,
lovely in architecture, and surrounded by velvety lawns
and gratefully disposed shade-trees ; its towering church

(323)

324 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

spires and its imposing college buildings, surmounted
with classic-looking cupolas and classic-ringing bells,
and surrounded by an umbrageous campus, combine to
make Annville an ideal town in picturesque beauty
and in all the attractions of rural municipality. A pity
it is that it is not owned by itself, but still belongs to
the surrounding townships. I should think it had
reached its majority, and was able to cut the maternal
apron-string and start out in life independently. If it
does this, and adds a few more tucks to its maiden frock,
it can soon boast of being the prettiest municipal daugh-
ter of all this Lebanon valley, and such a launching out
upon the municipal world would doubtless add to the
list of its devout admirers.

This town was laid out by one Miller shortly after
the middle of the last century, and for a number of
decades was named Annville, but afterward Millerstown
for a long period, when because of its confusion in
postal matters, it was again changed to the first name
about a generation ago. Messrs. Abram Raiguel and
Ulrich have also taken leading parts in the town's early
establishment. Some of the original houses are still
standing on its main and side streets. But there is no
particular history connected with them, save that doubt-
less into them entered that famous impostor — Dr. John
Dady — that sacerdotal wolf-in-sheep's-clothing, who in
the latter portion of last century, here for a while suc-
cessfully practiced a smart game of gulling the sim-
ple, all too credulous German folk and extorting their

A GLIMPSE OF ANNVILLE. 325

hard-earned cash from them. This glib-tongued Hes-
sian — a remnant of those contemptible English Revolu-
tionary hirelings — however, was not sharp enough to
hide, for a long period, his black and greedy heart
under his ministerio-medical coat from the Argus-eyed
officer of the law, who in due time discovered his de-
ception, tore the mask from his face, and sent him to
the penitentiary, where he deservedly pined out his life.
For further data concerning this impostor w T e refer t he-
reader to Rupp's History of Berks and Dauphin
counties.

Another dark page to blot the otherwise fair history
of this fair village is the monstrous deed of infanticide
of u old Showers." This is of such recent date that it
need not be recounted here. The buildings where this
foul deed was committed, and where the murderer
lived, and other scenes connected with the horrible acts
here transacted, are still found in the southern portion
of the town, while murderer and murdered sleep close
together in one of the burial grounds of the town,
awaiting their resurrection and final judgment at the
"last day."

About the oldest landmark of historic account is the
old Ulrich homestead to the northeast of town, almost
opposite the Reading railroad depot. The place is now
the home of Mrs. Commodore P. Steinmetz's family,
suddenly bereft of father and husband not long
ago. Here early in the last century the first Ulrich
immigrant settled, the great-grandfather of Mrs. Stein-

326

LANDMARKS IX THE LEBANON VALLEY.

metz, and in 1751 he built a stone house, part of which
is still standing. It was provided with an arched cellar,
built over a never failing spring, and with air-holes,
being thus furnished with the essentials for life, and
proved a safe place for retreat in case of an attack by the

THE OLD ULRICH HOMESTEAD.

Indians, as happened on several occasions. That these
early inhabitants must have realized their constant and
imminent danger to life from this source is evinced by
the engraving found upon the stone that was used as the
door-sill of the old fort, viz. :

" SO OFT DIE THUR DEN ANGEE WENDT,
O MENSCH, DEIX END BEDENK ! 1751."

A GLIMPSE OF ANNVILLE. 7> 2 7

This stone is still found here, but when the house
was remodeled it became part of a porch-pillar, while a
newly-engraved head-stone preserves the old legend in
more modern and legible form, together with the names
of the builders, Mr. and Mrs. Steinmetz. This old
house was used as a store and trading post with the
Indians by the first Ulrich; and the apple orchard, just
in front of the homestead, is pointed out as an Indian
burial ground, for it is reported that many Indians
made their home for weeks with this first white settler.
One evening this pioneer and his son (the father of the
the late Adam Ulrich) were surprised by an attack of a
murderous gang of red-men, but were fortunate enough
to escape their deadly tomahawks and scalping-knives,
by a hasty retreat to this sheltering refuge-cellar, where-
upon the maddened savages killed all their cattle by
cutting out their tongues. This happened about the
year 1756 or 1757. If we mistake not, this is the place
also where the Rev. Daniel Ulrich, of Tulpehocken
fame, was born and reared to manhood.

Walking through the town, one is struck with the
classic-looking grounds and buildings of the Lebanon
Valley College of the U. B. Church, located here, under
the successful management of Dr. Bierman, president ;
the tasty-looking homes, the fine churches, the well-
built and well-painted public houses or hotels, enter-
prising carriage manufactories of John L. Saylor and
Sons, Barnhart and Beam, T. Loser and Mr. Shenk,
the long-established and reliable marble works of J. H

328 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

Black, the Daisy Shirt Factory, carried on by a stock
company, of which the late Judge Kinports was first
president (present incumbent is not known to the
writer), the lime-stone pulverizing works of John Bach-
man, and the three ancient grist-mills on the banks of
the Quittapahilla. These are now in the proprietorship
of Messrs. John Bachman, David Kreider and Long &
Himmelberger (owned by Mr. Killinger of Lebanon), re-
spectively, commencing on the east and following the
stream in its westward course. The principal stores of
town are in the proprietorship of Messrs. Kinports and
Shay, Beam and Bachman, M. F. Batdorf and John
Shope. The first store kept here was that of the late
Mr. John Shertzer, who came to this village in its in-
fancy from Manheim, and made quite a fortune in his
time. The building used for the prosecution of his
business is now used bv the Annville Fire Insurance
Company, and owned by C. Smith, Esq.

Walking south on White Oak street, one passes a
number of buildings with an interesting local historv.
One of these is the fine stone residence of Mr. William
Biever, ex-County Treasurer. This used to be the
residence of his uncle, Mr. John D. Biever, who was
one of Annville's most liberal and public-spirited men
in his day. Besides the furthering of other laudable
enterprises, he was in a sense the founder and father of
the first Evangelical Lutheran church located on Main
street. Besides donating the ground, he paid about
one-half of the cost of building, presented the church

A GLIMPSE OF ANNVILLE.

329

with a fine two-story brick sexton's house, made pro-
vision (which his widow carried out after his death) of
erecting an elegant and commodious brick parsonage
next to the church, and endowed the church to the

CHURCH BUII/DING, PARSONAGE, AND SEXTON'S HOUSE OF THE FIRST
EVANGEEICAE EUTHERAN CHURCH AT ANNVIEEE, PA.

amount of $3,000. His widow supplemented this
amount by an additional legacy of $2,100, while
the same estate endowed the cemetery by another
$1,000. The present pastor of this church, Rev.
W. H. Lewars, says, concerning these benefac-
tions and this noble-hearted man: "It is but due to
say, that the commendable generosity here recorded
grew out of a life-long Christian character. The piety

330 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

of Mr. Biever was acknowledged by all who knew him.
He assumed a directing and sustaining influence in the
church for half a century, and for forty-nine years was
the superintendent of the Sunday-school." The house
in which Mr. Biever lived was built by his father,
John D. Biever, Sr. , in 1814.

In the year 1804 was erected the substantial stone
church edifice located on this street, on a little elevation
of ground and shaded by a grove of locust trees. It was
originally built as a union church (Reformed and Lu-
theran), and is a child of the Hill church. It has been
exclusively Reformed since 187 1. Its pastor, Rev. Dr.
Hiester, has served it consecutively for forty-two years,
and we are told there is a vigor about his preaching to-
dav that would indicate that not much of his natural
force has as yet abated. The other Reformed pastors
that have served this church were the same as have
preached at the Hill church during this period. The
Lutheran pastors have been Revs. Lochman, Ernst,
Krotel, Miller, Porr, Fetzer, Weaver and Deitz-
ler. The school-house, as is customary, we find near
the church, but since the days of the public school
system it has been remodeled and used as a resi-
dence. It is at present occupied and owned by Mr.
Daniel Seabold. Here such teachers as Messrs. Fisher,
Bachman, Striue and others taught the now gray-
headed citizens of the town and their departed com-
panions during their juvenile years, the Psalters and
their German spelling-books.

A GLIMPSE OF ANNVILLE.

33 l

Strolling on past the old cemetery, we soon come
where the cool and mill-wheel-turning Quittapahilla
flows by the town. A beautiful stone triple-arched
bridge here spans the stream, from which one has a
picturesqueness of view in the new surrounding land-

THE RAIGUEI, MILI,.

scape that is quite charming. Close by is the old mill
of Abram and Elizabeth Raiguel, which, according to
the date-stone in its front elevation, was built A. D.
1797. On a little hillock to the south stands the fine
old Raiguel farm-house, with all its antique appurte-
nances, built four years earlier, a venerable centennial

33*

LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

relic of rural comfort, agricultural prosperity and that
proverbial peace and contentment that attend husbandry.
Here, if we mistake not, the wife of Rev. Dr. A. C.
Wedekind, of San Diego, Cal., and Mrs. Boughter, her
sister, of Lebanon, were raised to womanhood. The
Cassidvs and Shirks have also married into this family.

THE RAIGUEE FARM-HOUSE.

This farm, with its ancient dwellings, is now the
property of Mr. Josiah Kreider, living near the Horse-
shoe pike, while the mill property has been owned
since 1840 by David Kreider and his son, present
proprietor. All of this property, and many acres
besides, was the original possession of Abram Raiguel, a

A GLIMPSE OF ANNVILLE. 333

bachelor uncle of the builder of the mill named, whose
log cabin used to stand where the farm-house now
stands. He was a native of Cougmont, Switzerland,
from whence, after settlement here, he called his nephew
and made him his heir. Other old families are the
Imbodens (one scion the Confederate General from
Virginia), Kreiders, etc., all whose first ancestors are
buried at the Hill church.

Were we to drift down this Indian-named creek
we should soon come to where, in the days of
the Revolution, stood a gun-barrel boring mill, an
adjunct, we suppose, to the very prosperous gun-smith
business which then flourished in and about Lebanon.
Farther down we would find the orist-mill of Mr. Kil-
linger, built long ago by a Mr. Herr, and still farther
on its course the spot where, in 1812, Mr. Hentzleman
and others of Lancaster county, erected, at the enor-
mous expense of $96,000, an extensive cotton and
woolen factory, which failed in due time, according to
Rupp, only because of the "ruinous policy of the non-
protection of American industry."

Were we to drift on in our imaginary course, we
should shortly arrive where this stream mingles
with the waters of the Swatara. And here we can
imagine seeing those other rude rafts, or canoes, on
which were embarked the wives and children of the
sixty families of temporary Schoharie settlers, who, in
the spring of 1723, were passing this point, making
slow progress up this stream towards its headwaters

334 LANDMARKS IN THE LEBANON VALLEY.

and that of the Tulpehocken, their longed-for destina-
tion. What better place than this to close our historic
pilgrimage, and here suffer the streamlet of our ex-
plorations to be engulfed by the mightier tide of our
common history? Therefore, we shall bring our
ancient and historic researches to an end on the banks
of this valley's most conspicuous stream, of which and
whose settlers the gifted Whittier has sung as early as
1836, when he addressed his "Lines" to Governor
Ritner of our State, as follows:

"And that bold hearted yeomanry, honest and true,
Who, haters of fraud, give to labor its due :
Whose fathers of old sang in concert with thine,
On the banks of Swatara, the songs of the Rhine,
The German-born pilgrims, who first dared to brave
The scorn of the proud in the cause of the slave."