Part 2

The Moravian Church in Lancaster has an interesting history. Count Zinzendorf preached in the Court House in Center Square, Lancaster, in 1742, when he was asked by some of his hearers to send a regular preacher to serve them. When Bishop Spangenberg preached in the Court House and advocated a merger of the church denominations, he was pelted with stones. The result was that the Moravians of Lancaster erected a stone church of their own on the corner of Orange and Market streets. It is recorded that the brethren gathered from Warwick to Lancaster to haul stone for the building, fifteen men and eight wagons in two days bringing in 94 large loads of the finest stone.

The ministrations of the Church of England came to the Lancaster County area very early. The rector of St. David’s Episcopal Church is known to have made journeys on the road to Conestoga in 1717 and to have designed to preach there once a month.

St. John’s Church, Pequea, has had an interesting history since 1728.

Probably the oldest inland Episcopal church in America is the Bangor Church of Churchtown, founded by the early Welsh in 1722. The first church built of logs was completed in 1734. This church derived its name from the Bangor Cathedral in Wales. In its burial ground lie soldiers of every war, including the French and Indian. It is said that George Washington worshipped here in 1758 and later during his winter at Valley Forge.

St. James’ is the Pioneer Episcopal church in Lancaster city. The first entry in the record of St. James’ Parish is dated October 3, 1744. Land for the building site was donated by James Hamilton. Thomas Cookson, Lancaster’s first Burgess, raised the money for the building. The church was built in 1754 on the lot still occupied for that purpose, and has been an historic landmark in Lancaster for more than two centuries.

St. John’s Episcopal Church, Lancaster, dates from 1853. It was established by Bishop Bowman and was known as St. John’s Free Church, in which the seats would be free to all who desired to avail themselves of the privileges of God’s house.

The Scotch Irish and the Welsh came to Lancaster County in the second decade of the 18th century, and brought with them the tenets of the Presbyterian church. The Rev. David Evans founded the Upper Octorara Church in 1720 and was at Donegal in the same year. For twenty years the immigration from Ulster averaged 20,000 a year. Donegal in Lancaster County became one of the strong seats of Presbyterianism in America. The Donegal Church became a center of patriotic endeavor, both in the French and Indian War and in the American Revolution. Its story is unique in American church history.

The Pequea Presbyterian Church dates back to the Rev. Adam Boyd who came from Ireland in 1722 and organized a group of churches west of the Octoraro. In 1731 the Pequea Church secured his services every sixth Sabbath.

The first log Pequea Church stood near a large white oak tree, which is still standing and marks the spot where Geo. Whitefield preached.

The Middle Octoraro Presbyterian Church was organized by the Rev. Adam Boyd in 1727. In the lower end of the county the Chestnut Level Church and the Little Britain Church belong to the early colonial period, as does the Leacock Church of 1739.

The First Presbyterian Church of Lancaster began in 1763, when James Hamilton granted Lot No. 19 on East Orange Street, on which a church building was erected in 1767. Services were held in the old Court House in Centre Square while the church was being built with funds secured by a lottery enterprise. This method was frequently used in the 18th century to build churches or construct roads.

The Presbyterian Church of Strasburg was dedicated on Christmas Day, 1833; that of Marietta in 1821; of Mt. Joy, 1840; of Christiana, 1859; Memorial Presbyterian Church of Lancaster, 1871.

Methodist ministers first visited Lancaster County in 1781, and a year later the Lancaster Circuit was formed. Bishop Asbury, who died in 1816, was well known in Lancaster County. He frequently stayed in Strasburg at the Inn of John Funck who painted his portrait on a now famous wooden panel in Washington, D. C. The Methodists erected a church near Willow Street in 1791, and another at Strasburg in 1807.

Fifty-four clergymen are named as having supplied the local Methodist churches of Lancaster County up to the year 1802 when the Soudersburg church was erected. Boehm’s Church, still standing in Pequea township, was a pioneer Methodist institution. Henry Boehm had a great deal to do with the founding of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Lancaster in 1807. The church building was erected in 1809 at the corner of Walnut and Christian streets. In 1840 ground was acquired extending the church lot to Duke street, where a handsome church structure now stands.

St. Paul’s Methodist Church dates from 1849; Broad Street from 1867; Bethel African Methodist Church from 1821. Many Methodist churches are found in southern Lancaster County and in the Octoraro Valley, and in all the Boroughs.

The Church of the United Brethren was the outcome of a meeting held in the Isaac Long barn near Oregon, Lancaster County, in the middle of the 18th century, when leaders of four denominations decided to be Brethren. It was not, however, until 1800 that the new denomination was separately organized. The oldest United Brethren congregation in Lancaster County is Ranck’s in the New Holland Circuit. The congregation met for forty years in a private house until a church was built in 1844.

There are many United Brethren churches in rural Lancaster County. The Otterbein U. B. Church in Lancaster City began in 1902 as a Mission Sunday School and has grown into one of the most vigorous churches in the city.

It is impossible in this space to do more than mention some of the other denominations, some of which are comparatively strong in Lancaster County. There are the United Evangelical churches, the Winebrennerians, or Church of God, members who have been active in the county for more than a century; the German Baptists and the English Baptists; the Church of Christ; the Swedenborgians and the Evangelical Association.

The Quakers crossed the Atlantic with Wm. Penn, and soon found their way into what is now Lancaster County. John Kennerly settled near Christiana in 1691. The first Friends meeting house was erected by Sadsbury Quakers in 1725. The Bart meeting house, erected 100 years later, represented the views of the Hicksite Friends. In 1758 the Penn Hill meeting house was built. The Quaker meeting house at Bird-in-Hand dates from 1749, the same year in which the Lampeter meeting house was built.

The Church of Our Father (Unitarian) was a rather late arriver in Lancaster. It was organized in 1902, and the stone church on West Chestnut Street was dedicated in 1909. The lecture hall in connection with the church was named Emerson Hall.

Independent congregations like the First Baptist, Calvary Independent, Seventh Day Adventists, Church of the Nazarene, Pentecostal Association, Christian Scientists, and Latter Day Saints have substantial church buildings in Lancaster. To this group we may add the Monastic Orders of provincial Ephrata, with their remarkable buildings at the Cloister. These Seventh Day Baptists, with their Prayer Hall, (The Saal), built about 1734, are unique in American history and folklore.

The first Roman Catholic Mission in Lancaster was established in 1741. A log church was built in 1742 on the site of the present St. Mary’s Convent. Father Keenan served St. Mary’s Church for more than half a century. St. Joseph’s and St. Anthony’s followed in the 19th century. St. Peter’s of Elizabethtown was founded in 1752. A number of Catholic churches are to be found in the boroughs of the county, and impressive churches have been erected in the city.

The Jewish faith has been established in Lancaster since 1732. The first organized congregation of Jews in Pennsylvania met at the home of Joseph Simon, a Lancaster merchant. Later they met in a building on the northwest corner of North Queen Street and Centre Square. The first Temple was built in 1866, and the present structure at Duke and James Streets was dedicated in 1896.

In the nature of the case, we must forego reference to most of the individual churches in the Lancaster area, in this brief outline. My purpose in writing this article has been to impress on the public the fact that religion since early colonial and provincial days has been a vital factor in the area of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Folk Art of the Pennsylvania Dutch

By JANE AND JACOB ZOOK _Pennsylvania Dutch Craftsmen, Writers and Decorators._

Hex Signs and Distelfinks, Tulips and Cut Tomatoes, those marvelous motifs of Pennsylvania Dutch Folk Art, form a part of our American cultural background which is second to none as a true folk art. In America there is no equal to this gay, colorful and bold art form of the early settlers of southeast Pennsylvania. The reading and learning of the “whys and ways” of this unique form of art can give not only the satisfaction of knowing, but also of doing, as its simplicity of design and frankness of execution inspires those who are untutored to attempt to create.

As Pennsylvania Dutchmen and craftsmen may we invite you all to join us in sharing this heritage of ours which is compounded of “fun and fancy” and diligent work. Paint our hex signs and distelfinks on your barns and kitchen cupboards; work the designs into your needle point and rugs; and decorate your furniture with hearts and tulips. Let our folk art inspire you to create useful household objects of clay and wood and adorn them with a gay splash of color and a whimsical motif.

We like to feel that the spirit of the Folk Artist did not die out entirely around 1850, as the historians claim, but a tiny spark survives to inspire present day craftsmen. A friend of ours makes beautiful pottery inspired by our early sgraffito dishes and utensils; another cross stitches the “birds and deers” from old samplers onto present day placemats; we paint fruit and flowers on chairs and chests; and all of us are greatly influenced by this marvelous source of design. There’s a Hex Sign Painter around these parts who will do a “rain sign” for you. He did one last summer for a Texan’s barn. Hoping for rain the Texan hung the sign and the next day “the rains came”—so they tell me. So why not let our love of color and a little of our superstition take hold of you, and if you have the patience and diligence of a Pennsylvania Dutchman, get to work and have fun.

Frances Lichten’s wonderful book “Folk Art of Rural Pennsylvania” should be read by anyone who is interested in the source, the nature and the form of this art; and, for the more serious student, John Joseph Stoudt’s beautifully written volume, “Pennsylvania Dutch Folk Art,” will help explain the mystical significance of the design motifs.

Folk Art as such no longer exists in our land, as a true folk art is only found in a homogeneous culture. But a definite trend towards craftsmanship does exist, and too, a definite stirring of pride in producing beautiful and useful things with one’s own hands.

Goot Gluck.

Old Testament Place Names In Lancaster County

By SAMSON A. SHAIN, D.D. _Rabbi, Shaarai Shomayim_

The Founding Fathers of communities in Lancaster County, as the Founding Fathers of our Country at large, cherished the Bible as a guide in their search for equal rights and justice, and especially freedom to worship God as they had learned to worship Him in the privacy of their homes and houses of worship. Giving scriptural names to their home and church communities, accordingly, served to symbolize for them, the attachment they felt for the liberty they were helping to proclaim in all the land.

Hence, one place our county pioneers called _Goshen_, land of plenty to which God had led them. Another place they called _Bethel_, House of God, wherein they could freely pour out their hearts in thanks and praise and petition. Still another they named _Mount Nebo_, mountain peak with an all-embracing view of their new Land of Promise. Another, _Elim_, place of rest in the shade of one’s tree with none to make man afraid. Still another, _Eden_, new garden home of delight planted by them in partnership with God. Yet another, _Ephrata_, shrine of freedom paid for by the labors of pioneer men and women, patriarchs and matriarchs of God’s newly chosen people planted in the New Zion he had appointed for them. In this same spirit, one, John Patton, gave the name _Judea_ to the hill plantation straddling West Hempfield and Manor Townships on the banks of the Susquehanna, between Columbia Borough on the north and Washington Borough on the south, and warranted to him in 1774.

Lancaster County settlers, thus, chose Biblical names for their communities in the spirit of the Pilgrim Fathers before them, as a way of expressing thanks to God for leading them safely to these shores of freedom; as a way of affirming faith that unless God built a house of liberty, they labor in vain that build it, and as a way of making a promise to labor mightily to preserve that freedom and bequeath it unsullied to their descendants.

Mennonite Information Center, Library and Archives

215 Mill Stream Road, Lancaster, Pa. 5 mi. E. on U.S. #30 at Mill Stream Road

The Mennonite Library and Archives Building is one of the recent additions to Lancaster County’s cultural and educational facilities. It houses the church’s official information center which seeks to provide visitors with intelligent and accurate answers to their many questions about the Amish and the Mennonites.

The more than forty thousand volumes of the theological and historical library, with the Archives of the Lancaster Mennonite Conference, provide a wealth of material for the serious researcher in the fields of theology, Anabaptist and related church history, state and local history, and genealogy. All these facilities are open to the public with no admission charge.

Farmers’ Markets

By GERALD S. LESTZ _Lancaster New Era staff writer and columnist; publisher of Baer’s Agricultural Almanac._

Farmers’ Markets in historic Lancaster date back to the very beginning of the community, 1730, and are a delight to today’s visitors, many of whom make a special point of “going to market.”

Lancaster City owns and operates two farmers’ markets—the Central, just off Penn Square, and the Southern, one block away at S. Queen and W. Vine Sts.

The Central is located on land deeded by Andrew and Ann Hamilton, original proprietors, to local officials on May 15, 1730, for use as a market “forever.”

In the early days, farmers brought their produce to this location and sold them in the open. This was a carryover from the European custom, and no cover was provided until 1757. The present building was erected in 1889.

The Southern market-house was built as a private venture in 1888, and was continued in that manner until 1950, when the property was bought by the city.

Stands in the markets are leased on a yearly basis. Most are held by the same families year after year, and many have been occupied by several generations.

Markets open early, and it is advisable to get to them before midmorning if you wish to avoid a crush. Local housewives, and men of the family, regularly come to market armed with sturdy wicker baskets which are quickly filled as they visit their favorite farmers, produce dealers, butchers, bakers and vendors of other foodstuffs.

Cut flowers, potted plants, and farm wives’ handiwork add their own touches of color.

A visit to market is a memorable experience, in which you encounter the favorite foods of an area known for hearty appetites and good cooks.

The farmers who maintain stands at the markets travel in from the countryside surrounding Lancaster early in the day. They park their cars outside the buildings, and carry in all their offerings to start each market day afresh.

In days gone by, when horses and wagons were the main means for travel, the farmers would drive to town the night before and put up at a downtown inn, stabling their horses in buildings connected with the hotels. But by 4 A.M. the farmers were up for the day, preparing their stands for customers.

Modern-day descendants of these earlier generations of farmers carry on the tradition of early rising. You can be sure that when you talk to a farmer at 8 A.M., his cows have been milked, eggs have been gathered, and many other farm chores completed before he drove to town with his fruits and vegetables.

Out-of-town visitors are often disappointed when they come to Lancaster and find that no market is being held that day. Market days for the Central and Southern follow:

Central is open on Tuesdays and Fridays. 6 A.M. to 5 P.M. Best visiting hours: 6 A.M. to 2 P.M. Southern is open Saturdays, 5:30 A.M. to 3 P.M. Best visiting hours: 6 A.M. to 12 Noon.

Shopping bags to carry home your purchases are available at the markets. If you plan to become a “regular,” however, we suggest you buy a stout basket.

State Museums and Properties

By HOWARD E. ROHLIN, B.A., M.A. _Field Museum Curator for the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission_

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission administers three properties in the area covered by this guide. Each one is, in its own way, unique. Cornwall Furnace is a fascinating relic of the earliest days of American industry. The Pennsylvania Farm Museum of Landis Valley recalls the days when horses provided transportation, coal oil provided light and the majority of our citizens lived and worked on farms. The Ephrata Cloister is a monument to the freedom of conscience which since the days of William Penn has been a precious part of the laws of the Commonwealth. The three present a lively and varying picture of the colorful past in old Pennsylvania.

Cornwall Furnace is a monument to the great colonial iron industry which flourished in the Furnace Hills of Lebanon and Lancaster Counties. In the region ore was abundant and so was the timber necessary for the charcoal so voraciously consumed by the old blast methods. Cornwall and the area surrounding constituted one of the most important munition centers of the Revolutionary era.

The Cornwall Ore Banks was the largest open pit iron mining operation in the United States, until the opening of the Mesabi. During its active operation more than twenty million tons of ore were removed. Begun in 1739 by Peter Grubb, the Furnace now stands essentially as it was after renovations of 1845-56, when the water-powered force draft system was replaced by steam. The early machinery is still in place and the plans for restoration include its reactivation.

The village of Cornwall is one of the finest examples of a “company town” in the state; laid out, built and maintained by the corporations which have operated the furnace and mine. The furnace, mine and village are an outstanding memorial to the better side of the paternalistic system so common in nineteenth century industry.

The Pennsylvania Farm Museum of Landis Valley could well be called the Commonwealth’s attic. Begun as a private collection by the brothers George and Henry Landis it has now become one of the country’s richest and most varied collections of materials dealing with rural Americana. If you have ever wondered what happened to this or that gadget that you vaguely remember on grandfather’s farm; stop wondering. It is probably at the Farm Museum.

The Museum has everything from dead fall mouse traps to steam powered tractors. Its collection of early Pennsylvania farm implements and craft tools is outstanding. Its collection of early pistols, rifles and guns is excellent. In its country store and in the restored Landis House the feeling of the gay nineties and the turn of the century Pennsylvania have been recaptured.

The annual Craft Days at the Museum have proven immensely popular. During this two-day event all of the ancient crafts represented in the museum collections flourish again—hand weaving, spinning, potting, furniture and tin painting, candle-making, printing, quilting, braiding, etc. All are demonstrated in appropriate settings. The Conestoga Wagon is again hitched up and steam tractors, charged up, haul wagon-loads of children through the nearby fields.

So extensive are the collections that some part of the display is sure to be of great interest to the visitor.

Today the museum includes many types of structure typical of small rural Pennsylvania communities of the past ... residential and commercial buildings which provide an authentic background for the demonstration of rural arts, crafts and cottage industries.

Ephrata Cloister is the oldest of the properties in this area administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Erected between the years 1730 and 1750 it is a unique monument to a holy experiment that failed.

Here on the banks of the Cocalico, under the leadership of Conrad Beissel, a protestant monastic community was established and for a time flourished. In buildings of a medieval style, reminiscent of their German homeland, the Seventh Day Baptists worked and lived and sought to withdraw themselves from a sinful world. The Saron or Sister House recalls the harsh and primitive conditions under which the nuns of the order lived. The almonry was the center from which the hospitality of the order was extended to all travelers. The printing press of the order, one of Pennsylvania’s oldest, was used in the preparation of the great Mennonite work, the _Martyr’s Mirror_, the preparation of which was the biggest printing job done in colonial America.

Short lived as the community was, it was in its day famed throughout Europe and America. It was too much the personal creation of Beissel to long outlast his death and under his successor, Peter Miller, a period of slow and mellow decline began. The community made its contribution to the American Revolution in caring for the wounded brought to Ephrata from the battlefield at Brandywine; many of the Brothers of Zion joined the dying as victims of the camp fever brought to the Cloister by their patients. The community was forced to burn its great buildings on Zion Hill in order to wipe out the infection.

Since 1941 when the Commonwealth acquired the property a very complete and meticulous restoration has been in progress. The attempt to duplicate in our day the workmanship of the eighteenth century and to capture the other-worldly spirit of the original builders has been a difficult task, but any visitor to the Cloister will be convinced that the result has justified the efforts.