News: Forney-Bittinger Chapel, 1912, Hanover, York County, PA

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CHAPEL IN MOUNT OLIVET

Contract Given Out For Construction Of Forney-Bittinger Memorial

Will Be in the Form of a Cross – Stone Will Be Taken From the Bittinger Quarry 
and the Timber Cut on Original Homestead Farm.

The contract for the erection of the Forney-Bittinger Memorial Chapel in Mount 
Olivet cemetery has been awarded to John W. Coulson & Bro., of this place, and 
work will be begun at once.  It will be remembered that the Cemetery managers 
granted a site for the memorial building some months ago, at the request of Miss 
Lucy Forney Bittinger, of Sewickley, Pa., who planned and is having erected the 
chapel.

The ground place will be in the form of a cross, the extreme dimensions of the 
building being 32x45 feet, its height 22 feet.  The central part will be square, 
with a pyramidal roof, surmounted by a copper cross, while extension will be 
projected on the four sides, each with a gable slightly lower than the central 
roof.  The side extensions will each have an arched window with memorial stained 
glass, while in the chancel at the rear will be the altar, above which will be a 
large stained glass window.

At the front will extend a porte cochere, into which will open the entrance 
doorway.

The edifice will be of the most substantial and durable character.  The material 
will be limestone from the well-known quarries on the Bittinger homestead, at 
Bittinger station, in Berwick Township, three miles northwest of Hanover.  The 
roof will be of slate.  The lumber will be cut from the oaken timbers of an aged 
building standing on the farm of Reuben Altland, near Abbottstown, formerly the 
Geiselman and later the Samuel Nagle farm, and part of the original homestead 
farm in Berwick township, granted in 1753 by the heirs of Wm. Penn to Nicholas 
Budinger, head of the Bittinger family, a German emigrant who located in this 
section about 170 years ago.

The floor will be of brick, and the ceiling of paneled oak.

Miss Lucy Forney Bittinger is the only child of Rev. Dr. Joseph Baugher 
Bittinger, and his wife Catharine Nace Forney, whose remains are interred in 
Mount Olivet cemetery, near the site of the proposed chapel.  Rev. Dr. Bittinger 
(1823-1885) was a Presbyterian minister an educator, pastor of churches in 
Cleveland, Ohio, and Sewickley, Pa., and interested all his life in humanitarian 
and reform movements.

The architect, George Baum, of Philadelphia, is a descendant of the Bittinger 
family, in the seventh generation, being a great-great-grandson of Elizabeth, 
granddaughter of the original Adam Budinger.

The chapel will occupy the most elevated and commanding site within the cemetery 
enclosure and will be a most unique and appropriate family memorial.  It will, 
it is hoped, stand for ages to commemorate a family, among the member of which 
are to be found enrolled the names of many patriots, soldiers, clergymen, 
teachers, lawyers and physicians, as well as those of energetic and successful 
business men, farmers and mechanics – a family that thus represents all that is 
best in our American manhood.

The Hanover Herald – Saturday, August 17, 1912
 
  


MEMORIAL TABLETS

Will Be Placed in Forney-Bittinger Chapel in Mt. Olivet

Since the publication of the article on the Forney-Bittinger memorial chapel, to 
be erected in Mount Olivet cemetery, we have learned the following additional 
facts:

There will be four bronze memorial tablets in the chapel, to the memory of 
prominent members of the Forney and Bittinger families, as follows:

Adam Forney, who was probably the first permanent white settler in this 
vicinity, and who owned the farm of which the cemetery, containing the memorial 
chapel, is a part.

Colonel Henry Slagle, who fought in the Revolutionary War, ancestor of Miss 
Bittinger, the donor of the chapel.

Captain Nicholas Bittinger, head of the Bittinger family.

Pastor John George Baugher, who was one of the earliest Lutheran missionaries in 
this section.

The farm near Abbottstown, owned by Reuben Altland, was not a part of the Adam 
Budinger homestead, but was the homestead of his son Nicholas, head of the 
Bittinger family of this section.  He was a distinguished citizen, active in the 
cause of the Revolution; served in the Flying Camp as a captain, was badly 
wounded and captured in the assault on Fort Washington, near New York, and for 
months suffered the horrors of the prison ships in that city.

A daughter of Rev. John George Baugher (then spelled Bager) was the mother of 
Dr. Joseph Baugher Bittinger, father of Miss Lucy F. Bittinger.

The Hanover Herald – Saturday, August 24, 1912