A pre-1946 photograph of the Ebenezer Evangelical Church, southeast corner of Main and Buttonwood Streets, Elizabethville, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. The building was erected in 1886. The congregation united with the Trinity United Brethren Church in Elizabethville in 1946 to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church and sold the smaller of the two buildings, that of Ebenezer Evangelical Church, to Edward T. Romberger. Romberger then sold the church building in 1948 to Immanuel Wesleyan Church in Lykens Township, west of Gratz. The building was cut into sections and moved to Lykens Township where it still stands today, though substantially remodeled and with additions.
The Immanuel Wesleyan Church is pictured (above) as seen in a 2008 street-view from GoogleMaps.
After the Ebenezer church building was removed from the southeast corner of Main and Buttonwood Streets in Elizabethville, the empty lot remained vacant, and still is vacant today.
Above, the corner of Main and Buttonwood Streets, as seen from a 2021 street-view, Google Maps.
The following history of the Ebenezer Evangelical Church was presented in the Souvenir Book for the Elizabethville Sesquicentennial, 1967:
EBENEZER EVANGELICAL CHURCH
The congregation of this church was organized on Saturday, June 13, 1885. A brief account of the first pastor, Rev. G. B. Fisher, dated June 20, 1886, said:
For several years the necessity of an Evangelical Church in Elizabethville was felt and at times money was subscribed but then no further effort was made. When I came to this charge in the Spring of ’85 a class was formed and catechetical instructions commenced. About 1st August a camp meeting was held a mile below Elizabethville, and to the Spring of ’86 the brethren Cyrus Romberger, Samuel Romberger, and John Romberger said, “We must have a church” and immediately commenced operations according to our church discipline.
A fundraising campaign to finance a church building was started and papers for signatures of pledgers were circulated throughout the town and surrounding area. Over 200 residents subscribed, of which about 50 were members of the church. Donations ranged from $1.00 to $300 for a total of $1925. Cyrus Romberger, Samuel B. Romberger, and John A. Romberger served as a building committee, and on Sunday June 20, 1886, the cornerstone was laid with appropriate services conducted by the pastor Rev. G. B. Fisher. The sermon was presented in German by Rev. H. D. Shultz of Millersburg in what was then known as the German Reformed Church.
Ebenezer Church was a frame building situated on the southeast corner of Main Street and Buttonwood Avenue. Building operations were completed by the early fall of 1886; dedication services were held Sunday, November 14, 1886, and the dedicatory sermon was delivered by Rev. B. J. Stoner, Presiding Elder of the East Pennsylvania Conference. Pastor Fisher records that “at 10 o’clock the new bell rang for the first time to announce the dedicatory services. In the afternoon of that day the Sunday School was organized with ten members.”
Worship services were held in this church for sixty years. The small congregation although constant in numbers throughout most of that time, began to diminish during the last decade of its existence until the usual church activities became difficult to perform and the financing burdensome to the point where it seemed practical that the congregation be disbanded. In 1946 an invitation was extended to them by Trinity United Brethren Church of town to join with them. Being the smaller of the two congregations the members of Ebenezer Evangelical Church residing in Elizabethville agreed to unite. On Friday November 15, 1946 at an assemblage in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, the two congregations were united to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church. The final worship service in Ebenezer Church was on Sunday, December 29, 1946, with the pastor, Rev. C. E. Sthohl in the pulpit. Members of the former Evangelical Church residing in Elizabethville were formally received into membership of the Evangelical United Brethren Church on Friday, June 6, 1947.
The following year the Evangelical Church building was sold to Edward T. Romberger, a grandson of John A. Romberger, for $5000. Payment was made in two checks, one of $2500 payable to Trinity Evangelical United Brethren Church of Elizabethville and the other one of $2500 payable to the Evangelical United Brethren Conference. A memorial window depicting “The Shepherd and the Lost Sheep” was removed from the building and presented by Edward Romberger to Trinity Church where it was placed in the south end of the sanctuary. In 1948 Mr. Romberger sold the building to Immanuel Wesleyan Church for $4000. It was then dismantled in sections and moved to the north side of highway Route #25 about one mile west of Gratz where it stands today.
Pastors serving Ebenezer Evangelical Church were:
- 1885-1887 – Rev. G. B. Fisher
- 1887-1890 – Rev. H. M. Wingert
- 1890-1892 – Rev. D. S. Manning
- 1892-1895 – Rev. C. N. Roth
- 1895-1898 – Rev. C. C. Moyer
- 1898-1900 – Rev. A. S. Kresge
- 1900-1904 – Rev. C. N. Wolfe
- 1904-1907 – Rev. D. A. Brown
- 1907-1911 – Rev. O. T. Moyer
- 1911-1914 – Rev. J. S. Farnsworth
- 1914-1916 – Rev. James Beam
- 1916-1917 – Rev. C. N. Eagle
- 1917-1922 – Rev. M. S. Mumma
- 1922-1929 – Rev. F. V. Kuhn
- 1929-1935 – Rev. E. M. Moyer
- 1935-1939 – Rev. P. A. Gottschalk
- 1939-1942 – Rev. L. R. Helt
- 1942-1946 – Rev. C. N. Kindt
- 1946-1947 – Rev. C. E. Strohl
As a postscript to the Ebenezer Evangelical Church story, the following article appeared in the Elizabethville Echo, November 18, 1948:
CONVENTION IN GRATZ CHURCH
A convention of the Emmanuel Association will be held in the Emmanuel Wesleyan Church, near Gratz, November 22-28 [1948]. Ministers and delegates from a number of states will attend. Rev. A. E. Yoder is pastor of the church.
Emmanuel Church was formerly Ebenezer Evangelical Church, Elizabethville, which was razed and moved to its new site about a mile west of Gratz following purchase of the church building by the Emmanuel congregation.
The rebuilt church will be dedicated at services Sunday, November 28 at 2:30 P. M., when Rev. P. G. Finch, of Vineland, New Jersey, President of the Emmanuel Association, will deliver the sermon.
Revival services began in the Gratz Church Sunday evening and will be held nightly through November 28.
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News article from Newspapers..com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.