Part one - Published in the Parish News - October 2010
This article marks the first of a series of articles that will
appear in the Parish News over the next two years. As we anticipate this
celebration in 2012, I will share a little something with you about our history
each month.
The Reverend S. Charles Hoover wrote “A Review of the History of St. Mary’s
Reformed Church” to celebrate our 150th anniversary. He was our pastor in 1912
at the time of our 150th anniversary. I will draw from his writings, from
memories of mine and others from years past, and from stories handed down from
earlier generations.
The early days of our church read like an American History book, our heritage
goes back to Germany. The area around Silver Run was settled predominantly by
Germans who made their way across the Atlantic Ocean to Philadelphia and then
south to the rich fertile land of this vicinity. Here they built their homes,
started their farms and raised their families. There are still families in our
congregation whose roots go back to these early residents of the Silver Run area
in the mid 1700’s.
St. Mary’s Lutheran and Reformed Churches were organized at the same time
under one constitution which was adopted May 31, 1762. Jacob Lischy was the
founding pastor of the Reformed Church (our original denomination) and served
from 1762 until 1773. He was born in the Alsace- Loraine section of Germany and
came to the “colonies” in 1742. While there is very little in the way of
records that we have from these early years, we know it was customary for rural
churches to be supplied by itinerant pastors who came to the communities
periodically on horseback.
The German heritage in our church is strong. All the early records and documents
were written in German. Services were conducted strictly in German until about
1876 and the use of German was not entirely discontinued until the mid 1890’s.
The inscription above our altar – “Allein Zu Gottes Ehre”, roughly
translated --- All to the Glory of God, reflects that heritage.
Rev. Hoover wrote, “It would be … too much to say that the small group of
earnest men and women in 1762 had any appreciable consciousness of what the
result of their small beginning would be.... Today we reap those results which
have become our blessings through the faithfulness and zeal of them and their
successors.”