HISTORY OF SIMEON’S EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CONGREGATION, GRATZ [Dauphin County], PENNSYLVANIA
Read at the celebration of the Synodical Jubilee and the 75th anniversary of the congregation by the Pastor, The Rev. O. E. Pflueger, 5 December 1897
This congregation was organized by the Rev. J. N. Hemping, the pastor of the Lykens Valley Charge, exclusive of St. John’s congregation, in the year 1822. While some of the original members were drawn from other sources, the young congregation was was most largely the child of St. John’s. The early history is very fragmentary. It is known, however, that the congregation worshiped for a period of ten years in the building which was later converted into a dwelling and is now [1897] occupied by Mr. William S. Boyer, but which was then owned by Mr. Simon Gratz.
The old joint record was neatly started by Father Hemping, and the first baptism on record was entered 30 June 1822. That year, eight baptisms were recorded on the Lutheran side, and the following year, ten. In May 1822, was recorded the first communion, in connection with the confirmation of a class of twenty-three catechumens. The whole number of communicants was fifty-nine. The number of communicants in May 1826 was only fourteen.
The Rev. John Peter Schindel of Sunbury, Pennsylvania, succeeded the Rev. J. N. Hemping as pastor in 1827, and continued until 1943. The record of Father Schindel’s labors is very meager. His first communion, 1827, records 50 guests and his largest record communion, that of 1828, records 105 communicants. The last one of the same pastor’s communions on record, held in 1934, gives the names of 72 participants.
The house of Mr. Simon Gratz, having become inadequate to meet the requirements of the growing congregation, the Lutheran and Reformed congregations decided to unite in the erection of a church building, which was erected in the years 1831-1832, and has been in use to this present time. The cornerstone was laid 14 August 1831. The land for the building an the cemetery was donated by the above named Simon Gratz, who also, although himself an Israelite, presented to the congregations a German copy of the Bible for pulpit use, which has done service till now, and is this day replaced by another copy, the gift of one of the mothers of our congregation.
With the close of the pastorate of Father Schinel, sensational religion under the popular name of “new measures” had been introduced, so that both the Lutheran and Reformed congregations became very much distracted. The choice of the congregation for a successor of Father Schindel lay between Revs. C. S. Stoever and Augustus Bergner, representatives of the two tendencies, and fell on the latter, who was also a pastor of the territory now [1897] comprised of the Line Mountain and Mahanoy Parishes, and served this congregation until his death in the fall of 1860. The “new measure” party, not having been able to elect the Rev. C. F. Stoever as pastor of the congregation, separated from the old congregation, and under the guidance of the Rev. C. F. Stoever, erected the other church in town [Gratz]. The new congregation did not prosper, and after a number of years the property was sold to the Evangelical Association, by whom it is still [in 1897] held. Some of the members also associated themselves with this congregation, and the remainder sensibly returned to their former church home. [On] 9 May 1852, the Rev. Bergner recorded a communion of ninety-two guests. During his pastorate, the church building was improved by the addition of a steeple with a bell and the alteration of the gables.
The Rev. W. L. Haskarl, who succeeded Rev. Berger in his large field, was pastor of this congregation from the spring of 1861 to 1865, when he was succeeded by one August Unkerer, who remained less than a year and left an odious record behind him.
With the succession of the Rev. Jeremiah Schindel to the pastorate of the Lykens Valley Parish in 1865, this congregation, after having been supplied for forty years from the other side of the mountain, was received back again into its mother parish, to which it has belonged from that time to this [1897]. The Rev. Jeremiah Schindel was pastor to the time of his death in March 1870.
The Rev. Thomas Steck was pastor from November 1870 to November 1873, the Rev. R. S. Wagner from October 1874 to 1 June 1881, and the Rev. Joseph Hillpot from 31 July 1874 to 24 April 1889. In the year 1883, the church building was materially improved by the walls being cemented and the wood work being painted within and without, the old steeple being replaced by a new one, and a furnishing with new pews. These improvements were made at a cost of $2,618.06, which amount was realized as follows: from sales of old material, $112.68; offerings at re-consecration, $39.57; subscriptions, $2,465.81. The whole amount was raised by the time the work was competed. The Lutheran members of the committee on repairs were: Simon Hartman, Henry Walburn and John J. Philips.
The writer of this history has been the pastor since 1 July 1889. There are being kept of late years, records of all pastoral acts as well as of all financial matters of the congregation, from which the historian of the future can draw the facts for the future writing of the history of the present. While the present pastorate has not been marked by anything great or striking yet as a mark of the congregation’s prosperity at the close of the first seventy-five years of its history, the following may be recorded. At the first communion of the pastorate, which was the largest of the first two years, there were 128 guests, and at the last communion, which was beyond doubt the largest in the history of the congregation, there were exactly 200 guests. The regular beneficence of the congregation has almost doubled. The last two catechetical classes have been unusually large, each one numbering thirty one. In connection with the Reformed congregation, the members have part in a thriving Union Sunday School, and the young people of the congregation have for two years conducted a Luther League, by which a Lutheran sentiment is awakened and a spirit of church loyalty is fostered. The literature of the church is patronized and there prevails among the members a commendable spirit of harmony and a readiness for every good work.
Now unto Him who has been with us and our fathers for seventy-five years, who has established their labors and ours, unto Him who is our hope for the years to come, and in whom we will continue our labors and our prayers, unto Him be honor and praise, world without end. Amen.
________________________________