Rev. Johnson R. Groff served as pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church, Lykens, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, from 1901-1904. He died on December 30, 1904, and the Lykens Standard published his obituary on January 6, 1905.
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Death of Rev. J. R. Groff
Rev. J. R. Groff, late pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church of this place, died on the morning of December 30th [1904], at about 8 o’clock, at Doylestown, Pennsylvania, in the 73rd year of his age. Notwithstanding his age, Rev. Groff enjoyed excellent health up to within about four months previous to his death, when he was afflicted with a severe attack of cystitis, which finally resulted fatally.
Rev. Johnson R. Groff was born February 7, 1832, at Lebanon. He was the son of Rudolph Groff and Mary A. [Carpenter] Groff. In his early boyhood he was bereft of his father, thus delaying his education somewhat, as he was compelled to assist i the support of his mother and younger members of the family. At 26 years of age he entered Gettysburg, graduating from the Theological Seminary in 1861, and the same year became pastor at Mechanicsburg, and St. John’s Lutheran Church at Shiremanstown, the two congregations then consisting of a charge.
During the period covering 43 years of active service rev. Groff was the faithful and successful pastor of the following charges: Mechanicsburg, Trinity, and St. John’s, 1862-1872; First Church, Erie, 1872-1874; St. John’s, Easton, 1874-1881; St. John’s, Danville, 1881; St. John’s, Doylestown, at St. John’s, Lykens, 1901-1904.
His career as a pastor can be very fittingly summed up in the language of one of his first parishioners at Shiremanstown, where his body was peacefully laid away on Monday, January 2, [1905], at 1 o’clock. This good brother, now bent with age, very feelingly remarked to the writer of this sketch as we were about to turn away from that newly-made grave: “No one has a better right to slumber here that he. He came among us when we were boys. The congregation was small and we had only the old church to worship in. During the ten years he was with us he built the new church, very much of it with his own hands; he laid out this cemetery; he more than doubled the membership of the congregation, and he left us without an enemy.”
We thought as we turned away from the grave of this beloved friend and patriarch in the church, Heaven alone will reveal the great deeds what were done by him in secret….
Those attending the funeral from this place were Rev. L. M. Fetterolf, pastor Christ Reformed Church. Rev. E. E. Seger, pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church; N. E. Snyder, John I. Gonder, John S. Welker, Miss Bertha Weineck, Mrs. Thomas Chaundy, Mrs. Ed Keiser. From Wiconisco, Miss Jennie Byerly.
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Obituary from Newspapers.com.
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