Church: History: Trinity (Tulpehocken): Lebanon, Lebanon Co, PA Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Linnea T Miller ltmiller@geocities.com USGENWEB NOTICE: Printing this file by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. ____________________________________________________________ Centennial History of Lebanon Classes of the Reformed Church in the U.S., 1820 - 1920, Compiled by Prof. Thos. S. Stein, Lebanon PA: Sowers Printing Company. Excerpts from Chapter VI: "Sketches of Congregations" Trinity (Tulpehocken), Tulpehocken Charge. Rev. H.J. WELKER, Pastor. The section of the county called Tulpehocken, through which the Tulpehocken creek flows, was a peculiar place in the early history of the church, when this county was settled. It was the meeting place of two emigrations, coming from opposite directions. Hither came from the southeast the Germans who landed at Philadelphia, traveling up the Schuylkill valley, turning in a westward direction into the region of the Tulpehocken. When this colony began to settle in this borderland, another emigration came from the north and west. In 1723, thirty-three families came floating down the Susquehanna and worked their way up the Swatara, to be followed five years later by another band from New York state led by Conrad WEISER. The women and children with their furniture floated down on rafts and the men drove the cattle along the Susquehanna. These two colonies began to fill the Lebanon Valley with a somewhat numerous colony of Germans and soon there was felt a demand for religious services. Among these emigrants were many Reformed families from the Palatinate. Unfortunately, no complete list of the early settlers of Tulpehocken has thus far been ascertained. A partial list of twenty-eight names was found, signed to a petition which was laid before the court at Philadelphia in September, 1727. In this petition, the subscribers request the laying out of a road from the Tulpehocken region to Oley. It bears the following signatures: - Friederich SCHAEFFER, Adam LESCH, Clas NEVS, Niclas RIEM, Martin STEUB, Anthoni SHADT, Jacob KARBELL, Johann Heinrich SCHUCHERT, Niklas SHEFFER, Michael Ernest HERNER, Johannes CHRISTMAN, Steffan WASSERCHEIDT, Adam WALBORN, Jacob KLOPF, George LESCH, Abraham LAUK, Niklas REIELL, Conrad DIEFFENBACH, Peter KLOP, Sebastian FISHER, Lenhart REIT, Caspar REIT, Martin BATDORF, Lenhard FEG, Philip BRAUN, Martin ZERBE, Michael AEMERICH, Johann ENTEFELT. This list of names includes some of those who were among the most earnest workers to establish both the Reformed and Lutheran churches in this country. It was supposed that the Tulpehocken Reformed Church was organized in the year 1747 and its centenary was held in 1847, which was found incorrect from the archives in the Hague, the capital of Holland, which were examined by Rev. Dr. James I. Good. In those records was found a report sent there in 1744 by Rev. John Philip BOEHM, the first Reformed pastor in Pennsylvania, who labored as a missionary at Tulpehocken; the first time from 1737 to 1731. It gives the following facts and statistics. "At this same time, 1727 , a congregation was gathered at Conastoka, which I have been accustomed to call the Hill Church and which is the oldest of the three congregations that have been organized. Likewise another congregation at Dolpehacken, where there are also two congregations at present, six miles apart. These congregations at Conastoka and Dolpehacken called me at the same time, desiring to be organized. This request as granted and the work, namely the exercises of religious services, was introduces among them, in accordance with our constitution. Subsequently the Lord's Supper was celebrated among them and there continued on the 14th of October, 1727, at Conastoka, 59 members and on the 18th of the same month at Dolpehacken, 32 members, the first Reformed Communion at both places." Not much is known of the ministry of Rev. BOEHM t Tulpehocken, except that he visited the distant settlement twice a year to administer the communion. On June 28, 1728, he administered the communion at Tulpehocken to only 27 communicants. There as a decrease at this second communion, which was owing to the fact that it became known that BOEHM was not a regular ordained minister. Many were very much attached to BOEHM and appealed through the ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church at New York to the Classis of Amsterdam to have BOEHM ordained, and accordingly on November 23, 1729, he was led into the holy office at New York. On November 12, 1730, he wrote again to the Classis at Amsterdam, saying, "there is still another congregation, Tulpehocken, which is also anxious to be brought into good order. I shall not neglect to do all I can to place them under the godly supervision of the Reverend Classis, to which end I have arranged to go there on the coming 23rd of November." Soon BOEHM's first ministry at Tulpehocken was concluded. BOEHM was followed by Rev. John Peter MILLER from 1731 to 1734. Here some difficulty again arose, because MILLER was not regularly ordained and performed ministerial acts, which was not in accordance with the order of the church. He applied to the Presbyterians in Philadelphia for ordination, who ordained him in August, 1730. After preaching for a short time in and around Philadelphia, he was called to Tulpehocken. MILLER labored successfully for several years, when he fell under certain fanatical influences, which drew him from the Reformed Church. Conrad BEISSEL, who founded the conventicle or society of monastic life at Ephrata, Pa., was anxious to increase his community and being especially desirous, "that God would place his light upon a candlestick in the dark region of the Tulpehocken" was constrained in 1735 to visit that settlement. Mr. BEISSEL was received in Tulpehocken by the ministers and elders according to his dignity, as a messenger of God and succeeded in confusing several and inducing them to leave the church of their fathers. It is stated that when BEISSEL returned, he as accompanied on his way, about six miles over the mountains, by Rev. MILLER and Conrad WEISER. The result was that on a Sabbath in May, 1735, Rev. MILLER, three elders, the schoolmaster at Tulpehocken, five families and some single persons, who were carried away by the revival, were baptized into the new faith. All this produced great excitement at Tulpehocken. The gains of this movement, as has so often been the case with similar ones, did not prove to be permanent. Only two men, one of whom was Rev. MILLER, and one woman of the number drawn away from Tulpehocken, remained with the community. Conrad WEISER, who was carried away by the fanatical movement, soon realized his error, and returned again to the church of his fathers. Great religious confusion prevailed for a time, the people were bewildered and hardly knew what to believe. When Rev. MILLER could not convince any more of his people of his views, BOEHM says, he gave up his ministry altogether. When MILLER left the Reformed church at Tulpehocken, BOEHM again became their pastor. The exact time of his second pastorate is not definitely known. In October, 1734 he informed the Synods that he hoped soon to restore Tulpehocken to its former order. This was a very important period in the history of the Tulpehocken Reformed Church. The second ministry of BOEHM at Tulpehocken was filled with a great deal of labor and frequent disturbances. He, however, surmounted all difficulties and the congregation grew and prospered to such an extant that it became necessary to divide the congregation. For many years it was not definitely known where the Reformed people at Tulpehocken worshipped. BOEHM himself does not give a satisfactory answer as to the exact place. it seems, however, that from the additional material lately found in the archives at the Hague and Amsterdam in Holland and in the archives of the Moravians at Bethlehem by Prof. William J. HINKE, that without a doubt the first place where the congregation worshipped was in the former Reed's church, one mile east of Stouchsburg, Pa. This fact is established by a letter which Conrad WEISER in 1747 addressed to the Lutheran minister, Peter BRUNHOLTZ in answer to a series of questions, in which he says the following with reference to Tulpehocken: "In 1729, I began to live at this place. A few years previously, the Lutherans had built a little church or meeting house in which Lutherans as well as Reformed people came together and were led by a reader in their divine services." A similar statement is found in SAUER's paper under date, October 16, 1747. "About twenty years ago, the Lutherans built at Dolpehacken a little church and laid out a cemetery, where Lutherans as well as Reformed worshipped, and buried their dead." In this church, without a doubt, the first communion was held in 1727, referred to before. We learn, however, from the report of BOEHM to the Synod of Holland, that there must have been another place at or near the Tulpehocken, where the Reformed worshipped, besides that mentioned by Conrad WEISER. In his report of January 14, 1739, BOEHM says "Tulpehocken is a pretty large place and I went there twice a year to administer the communion." This he did in 1728 on October 22, on which occasion 134 communed at both places. After the year 1738, there were two distinct congregations which are spoken of as the upper and lower Tulpehocken Churches; the one being Host Church in Tulpehocken township, Berks county, and the other, Trinity, Tulpehocken Church in Jackson township, Lebanon county. There was, however, a place of worship at Host before 1738 and it is supposed that there was also such a place of worship at or near where the present Trinity, Tulpehocken Church is located prior to the above date. BOEHM also speaks of a church at Tulpehill. As to the place where this church was located, nothing definite is known. The Tulpehocken Church in Lebanon county received a grant of land of 100 acres from Caspar WISTAR, of Germantown, Philadelphia. The deed was executed by Conrad WEISER, Justice of the Peace appointed by the King of Great Britain in the year 1738. We learn further that BOEHM in 1739 proposed to the Classis to organize Tulpehocken with Quittapahilla and Swatara, (which he reported as congregations of considerable strength) into a regular charge and asked Classis to send them a regular minister. No minister could be secured at the time and BOEHM continued his labors. On February 11, 1740, BOEHM visited the Tulpehocken congregation and secured from the elders and deacons, the pledge that the congregation would pay fifteen pounds and fifty bushels of oats towards a minister's salary. BOEHM, it seems, was very much annoyed and disturbed at this time by ministers who interfered with his work on every side. The people, however, were loyal to BOEHM and urged him to continue. During the year 1742 to 1744, Tulpehocken with a number of other churches, felt the influence of the union movement of Count ZINZENDORF. BOEHM concluded his labors about this time at Tulpehocken on account of the work having become too burdensome. He could only visit them occasionally. During the year 1744, the elders of the two congregations, called then upper and lower Tulpehocken, George UNRUH, Jacob SCHWOB, William ALBERT, Valentine HERCHELROTH, Adam STUMPF and Adam DIEFFENBACH, notified BOEHM that they had written to Europe for a minister and that they had received an answer, promising that one would be sent. This minister arrived in Philadelphia in December, 1744, and was Rev. Caspar Ludwig SCHNORR. This is rather a new name among the ministers at Tulpehocken. He located at Lancaster and preached there, but reserved twelve Sundays in a year to preach at Tulpehocken and other neighboring congregations. His ministry was unfortunately very unsuccessful and lasted only a year. He was called the "fighting parson" and the people soon became tired of him. A brighter day dawned upon the people at Tulpehocken after struggling through almost twenty years under the ministrations of missionaries. This new period was ushered in by Rev. Michael SCHLATTER, who appeared among them the first time, September 25, 1746. This was a most memorable day in the history of the Tulpehocken Reformed congregation, which we learn from SCHLATTER's own words, "On September 24 I left Lancaster in company with WEISS and went a distance of twenty-nine miles to Tulpehocken, where on the 25th I preached with much divine20assistance and not without blessing to a large congregation of more than 600 persons in a wooden church. The congregation listened to the proclamation of God's holy word with great devotion and attention. The ardent desire which they manifested to be edified, to have a regular order established among them and the hope of obtaining a regular minister could be read upon their countenances. They could not conceal their exceeding great joy in seeing three ministers together at one time. The old and the young shed tears of joy. I can truly say, that this day was to me and my brethren a day of great refreshing." It was after this service and communion that SCHLATTER informed the congregation that he had orders from the Fatherland to organize them into a regular congregation and pastoral charge. He also states that the two congregations, about five miles apart, consisting of 500 members, obligated themselves for the support of a pastor. This charge was represented at the first Coetus of our church in Philadelphia, September 29, 1747. In 1748 Rev. Dominicus BARTHOLOMUS received a call to Tulpehocken as their first regular pastor. On October 22, 1748, he entered his first baptismal record. With this ministry, the congregation passed into a new stage of development, that of the Coetus period. The following regular pastors served the congregation besides the missionaries mentioned. 1748 - 1752. Dominicus BARTHOLOMUS was the first regular pastor as stated before. This servant of the Lord was permitted to labor but for a few years. Rev. SCHLATTER mentions him in 1752, saying "he is most of the time sick." At what time he had to lay down his labors, the records do not designate. 1752 - 1756. In July 1752, Rev. William STOY came to this country as a young many and soon after his arrival took charge of the congregation at Tulpehocken. After serving this congregation with several others for a little over three years, he resigned. He died in Lebanon, September 14, 1801, and was buried in his own request at the Host Church in Tulpehocken township, Berks county, Pennsylvania. 1756 - 1758. After Rev. William STOY ceased preaching at Tulpehocken, Rev. John WALDSCHMIDT, served the congregation for two years. He died September 14, 1786, and is buried in the cemetery of the Swamp Church, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. 1758 - 1760. Rev. William OTTERBEIN served the congregation faithfully for two years. Rev. OTTERBEIN was a man of considerable mental ability and undoubted piety. He died October 17, 1813. His remains rest by the side of the Reformed Church, Conway street, Baltimore, Maryland. 1765 - 1767. Rev. John ZUFALL was pastor at Tulpehocken for a few years. There is very little known of his labors in the ministry. 1769 - 1782. Rev. J. William HENDEL, Sr., D.D., served the congregation for a period of thirteen years. Under his faithful pastorate the congregation greatly prospered and a new church was erected taking the place of the log or wooden church. This church was built of limestone in the reign of King George the III of Great Britain in 1771 and 1772. The present parsonage was erected a short time before. 1785 - 1786. Rev. Andrew LORETZ, according to the Coetal minutes served the congregation for one year. 1786 - 1793. Near the close of the year 1786, Rev. Daniel WAGNER transferred his labors to Tulpehocken. He served a number of other congregations with Tulpehocken. His labors were abundantly blessed. His memory is precious. He was an ornament and honor to the church. He died December 17, 1810, and his remains were consigned to their final resting place at York, Pennsylvania. 1793 - 1823. Rev. William HENDEL, Jr., D.D., served the congregation with a number of others for a period of thirty years. He was a devoted and faithful pastor. He took great interest in the cause of missions and the establishment of a Theological Seminary, for which he was violently opposed by some of the members. Dr. HENDEL died at his residence at Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania, where his remains rest on the cemetery by the side of his wife. 1826 - 1864. Rev. Thomas H. LEINBACH served the congregation for a period of thirty-eight years. During his pastorate the present Trinity, Tulpehocken, Reformed Church was erected. His ministrations in holy things were most devoted, laborious and influential. He excelled especially as a catechist. He had a wonderful gift of impressing the truths and doctrines of salvation upon the hearts and minds of his catechumens. He died March 31, 1864. His remains rest in the cemetery adjoining the Trinity Tulpehocken Reformed Church. 1864 - 1883. In June, 1864, Rev. Charles H. LEINBACH, D.D., was elected successor to his sainted brother, Rev. Thomas H. LEINBACH. His pastorate was a laborious, faithful and eventful one. The territory over which he had to travel was extensive, the membership numerous and the labors, among the five congregations composing the charge at that time, abundant. Under his heavy labors and exposure to all kinds of weather, his strong and robust constitution gave way and a general prostration of his system followed. He preached his last sermon Sunday, January 14, 1883. On July 15, 1883, he arose early, looked out upon the scene of a bright Lord's day morning and once more listened to the sweet tones of the church bell. He soon went back to his bedroom and in a short time his spirit took its flight for the realms of eternal peace and rest. 1884 - 1920. Rev. Henry J. WELKER, the present pastor, received a unanimous call from the charge in the Spring of 1884. He accepted the call and entered upon his labors in the large field April 10, 1884. The charge was then composed of five congregations and was soon found too extensive and laborious and was divided in 1891, constituting the Tulpehocken and Kimmerling's Churches, the Tulpehocken charge and the other three then became part of the new Bethel charge. A few years previous to the division of the charge, during his pastorate, St. Paul's Church, Hamlin, was built and the churches at Kimmerling's and Mt. Zion remodeled and renovated. After the division of the charge many improvements were made at Tulpehocken. The present Trinity Tulpehocken Reformed Church was extensively remodeled at a cost of over five thousand dollars and a new large pipe organ installed at a cost of two thousand dollars, one-half of which amount was contributed by the descendants of Caspar WISTAR, of Germantown, Philadelphia. As a token of gratitude and appreciation for the kindness and generosity of said descendants, as white rose is annually tendered them in the month of June by the congregation. The parsonage, built about or shortly before the year 1770 was also very much improved and beautified. During this long pastorate of thirty-six years Rev. WELKER was also greatly instrumental in the building of Grace Reformed Church, Avon, Pennsylvania, in the year 1895, of which he was the first pastor for twelve years and also assisted in preparing the way for the erection of a Reformed Church at Richland, Pennsylvania. H.J.W. -----