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Sunday Afternoon, August 21
Final Entry of the Celebration
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Four busses were waiting for those who signed up for the historical tour of the previous church buildings our congregation used to own. The bus drivers knew to leave about 10 minutes apart.
I am going to mix some church history into this post to help you understand how this fit into the celebration of our congregation.
If you have done the math, you know that our congregation was established in 1772. That was before we had church buildings, so it was common to meet in barns, houses, schoolhouses and other available buildings.
While studying the history of our congregation, I learned that they were already meeting in the early 1730s. There was no church building until 1859. I imagine those meetings were precious to those who wanted to grow in the Lord and worship with those of similar faith.
Our congregation tried a barn service in 2011 for a Harvest Meeting service. It is difficult to imagine what it would have been like in the mid1700s, because we traveled by car – some from a distance – and had comfortable lawn chairs.
Our first bus stop was at the former Graybill Meetinghouse. The exterior looks about the same as when we used it.
However, it did look a bit different when it was built in 1861 (during the Civil War).
The original building remained but was enlarged in 1948.
Before I go too far, I want to explain why we once owned all these church buildings. Back in horse and buggy days you went to the church building closest to your house. We were all part of the same congregation, and all heard the same preachers but did not always worship with the same people until cars came on the scene. It took several years until everyone in our congregation owned a car. Horse sheds were part of early church properties.
The interior of Graybill’s is quite different than we remember. When I went to this church building as a girl the benches faced the windows on the right.
Back then the benches looked similar to those at the Kreider Meetinghouse (where we worshiped on Saturday evening.) We would have appreciated padded chairs. 🙂
It was difficult to imagine how things were placed when we worshiped here. I tried to find the spot where I stood to make a decision to follow Christ.
There are new rooms and a hallway toward the back of the building. That’s the current pastor at the other end of the hallway. I think he had as much fun showing us the building as we did exploring it. 🙂
Several walked to the cemetery because many family members are buried here.
My Grandpa and Grandma Hersheys, parents, many aunts and uncles and even a young grandson’s gravesites are here.
Thank you to Trinity Baptist Church for taking care of this building and using it wisely.
The last time we used this building was October 1981.
Our second stop was the former Longenecker Meetinghouse near Lititz. The bus you see is bus #3 which was preparing to leave.
The first building on this location was built in 1859. We think this was our second church building. Kreider’s was built the same year, but every now and then we read that Kreider’s was used first.
The building was taken down and this one was built in 1912 – on the same spot. This is how I remember the building. We had our last morning service here in 1968 due to congregation size. There were Sunday School classes and evening services here until it was sold in 1981.
Today it is updated with a ramp and an exit/entry building.
Seeing chairs instead of benches makes the interior look more modern. However, they are facing the same direction, probably because there is a light slope to the floor. Front doors looked familiar. The pulpit area is to the right with choir chairs where our pulpit had been.
From the pulpit area. There is now a nursery in the back right.
The minister (suit) enjoyed telling us about the building. This is now a Ukranian/Russian fellowship.
This also includes a cemetery which our congregation still owns.
It was good to see that this building is loved and used well by the Evangelical Christian Baptist Church.
Our next drive-by was supposed to be the Kreider Meetinghouse where we were on Saturday evening, but since everyone on our bus had just been there on Saturday evening, we opted to eliminate that from the tour.
This was built in 1859 and enlarged by 20′ some years later. Other than that, much of this building is original. We use this building for historical reasons and have several hymn sings here each summer.
This one also has a cemetery.
We also opted to skip driving by this building because we could not get inside. This is the Manheim Meetinghouse – the largest of the original five and where we attended until 1981.
The first church built on this lot was facing High Street in Manheim. That was 1892. It was remodeled in 1908. Then in 1949 it was moved to the other end of the lot – facing Linden Street.
Most of my childhood memories of church meetings are from inside this church.
It’s the church where Cerwin and I were married 59 years ago. My Uncle Ken Hershey and Grandpa Hershey were part of our ceremony.
When we moved to our current building on Penryn Road, this was sold to another church fellowship. Years later they sold it to the Masonic Lodge – the reason it wasn’t open for us.
This was our third stop, the former White Oak Meetinghouse, now owned by White Oak Mennonite Church.
This is how I remember the White Oak Church. It was built in 1915. History tells us that my Great Grandpa Hershey was on the building committee and that my Grandpa Hershey (who was 20 in 1915) helped with the construction.
It was soon too small for the entire congregation. We had our last morning service here in 1956 and last evening service in 1966. It was sold to a Mennonite Fellowship in 1967, who continue to love and care for it.
It has been enlarged but doesn’t look as different as some of the others.
They share a love for history and enjoyed bringing one of our old benches into the auditorium. I think someone said it was in their attic.
When our congregation owned it, the back of the church was behind the last bench.
Thank you, White Oak Mennonite for taking care of the building, enlarging it and using it wisely.
Our last stop was at the location of the former Gibble Meetinghouse. Most of our people didn’t even know there was a Gibble Meetinghouse. We learned a lot in searching for the history but would have liked to learn a lot more and even find a picture of it.
We think it was built somewhere in the open area above. There are signs that a building was here, but we can’t be sure. It was built in 1872 (when our congregation was 100 years old) and taken down in 1915 when it was decided to build a new church a short distance away. The one we just visited. The one now owned by the Mennonites.
Many took advantage of the hike to the Gibble Cemetery which cannot be reached by bus. Notice some are walking away from me, and others are coming toward me. There were some from each busload who walked to the cemetery. I think it was something like four-tenth of a mile. You had to walk back this lane, then take a sharp right (Marv Shenk was there to give directions), walk in front of someone’s house, go through a woodlot, turn left and walk up a grassy area (next to a cornfield) to get to it. 🙂
This is what it looks like as you walk in the grass next to the cornfield. (I drove back in our car several weeks earlier.)
Sue Shenk (who has Gibble relatives buried here) was there to explain the cemetery.
The area where the church once stood is now owned by Ruhl’s United Methodist Church. Thanks for taking good care of this property.
It appeared that a church or family event was being held there on the day our busses visited.
Since we were the last group, our bus continued back to the church and another one came for us and all the others who were walking back from the cemetery.
Though we treasure our godly heritage, it was good to be back at the church we call home since 1981.
We also have a cemetery at this location. This is where Cerwin and I will one day be buried. Our spot is on the other side of the driveway about the middle of the picture.
So many people have asked me if I am glad the celebration is over. In some ways I am, but I LOVED working on the history and helping create the displays. I will treasure the memory of the weekend and everything I learned in the past five months. It felt like I took a college course in church history.
Most of the display items will remain until after morning worship tomorrow. Those who gave contributions are supposed to take their things home after church.
Cerwin and I will put the rest of the history into boxes on Monday. I hope some of those things will be helpful when our congregation celebrates 300 years in 2072.
Thank you for the historical tour. I’ve enjoyed these posts. I remember being in the Manheim, Longenecker, Graybill and of course the current buildings. Never been in the Kreider or White Oak buildings, and I never knew about the Gibble building until reading this. A lot of valuable research and documentation that should be cherished by future generations. Thanks again for the initial research and for taking the time for these posts. Bill
Thanks, Bill.
How fascinating to see the progression of buldings housing the congregation as it grew. I’m not familiar with the area — ow far apart are the various buildings?
Some are five miles apart, others a bit farther.
I attended mostly Graybills at Elm. Thank you for the history. Lots of work.
I thought you may have been to Graybill’s.
Interesting! Cerwin & Doris! You did a very good job as far as I can tell. I really enjoyed the photos and reading and explaining to Noah.
If I recall, didn’t Cerwins parents(my Uncle Elvins)attend Longenecker’s at one time. I am thinking years ago, we went to church with them for whatever reason. Maybe Aunt Ella invited us for lunch on ahead when in the area from Delaware as we often would stop by and see Aunt Ella at Bombergers Store for a short visit.
Of course, we remember being in White Oak Meetinghouse at various times over the years.
Also Ruhls Grove where the Wilmington V-S 1-W reunions were held. My memory of the look of the actual grove is vague though I may have photos in album years back or possibly in a V-S 1-W book that was written and is somewhere on our bookshelves.
I only recall your current church building from the outside, so maybe was not ever in it!
Enjoyed your tour and documentation immensely! Thanks for sharing! Gloria & Noah Raber
Cerwin’s parents went to Erb Mennonite. Interesting that you were at the Ruhl’s Grove.
So interesting, thank you ! I am anxious to show this to Daddy, He appreciates his time in the Brethren church and misses it since he moved away. He now at 87 enjoys your service on the call-to-listen line.
Thanks for telling me that he listens online.
So very interesting! Thanks, Doris Jean, for posting this for us!
Glad you enjoyed it.
I just “happened” onto this site while doing a little more research today on my family, the Longenecker family. I so greatly appreciate the awesome job you did of writing about your recent bus visits to the locations of your congregation’s various meetinghouses, the history of the White Oak congregation development, along with the beautiful photos you attached.
I have a special interest in your work, in that my direct ancestor was Rev. Christian Longenecker (1731-1808), the first elder of White Oak congregation. At that time, he served the entire area from Shaefferstown to Marietta PA. He also owned and farmed the land along Temperance Hill Road, Lititz, that was passed down to his son, Solomon (1757-1812), then down to Rev. Christian (1791-1855), who was also ordained a preacher for White Oak. I am assuming that all those years, White Oak congregants worshiped in their homes or barns before the first church buildings were erected in 1859. I believe it was Solomon Longenecker who designated that some of his homestead be set aside for White Oak to build a meetinghouse and establish an adjoining cemetery. However, it wasn’t until several years after his son, Rev. Christian’s death that Longenecker’s Meetinghouse was built on land owned and farmed by these three generations of Longeneckers.
Rev. Christian’s 11 grandson was another man in my line who served in the ministry for White Oak — my gr-grandfather, Linn B. Longenecker (1852-1927). who was elected to the ministry in the Manheim Meetinghouse in 1906. Several years later, he was made elder. Rev. Linn loved to sing and especially enjoyed when he preached at the Kreider building, since it had such wonderful acoustics for singing. (I have attended several of your hymnsings there and totally agree). In addition, Linn had also dated and married Ellen Jane Sellers, a daughter of miller Peter Sellers at Sellers Crossing about a mile away from Kreiders. Sometimes White Oak held baptisms in the stream behind the Sellers house; other times, baptisms were held in the stream that ran through the meadow behind Linn’s farm on what is now identified as Woodcrest Avenue, Lititz. But, in addition to feeling close ties to the Longenecker Meetinghouse/cemetery where almost all my Longenecker ancestors and descendants are buried, and the Kreider Meetinghouse/ where my Sellers ancestors are buried, I have ties with the Graybill Cemetery. My grandpa, a son of Linn and Ellen Jane, married Barbara Graybill Wolgemuth, the granddaughter of two generations of Samuel Graybills, who donated the land where Graybill Meetinghouse was built and who were both ordained as preachers for White Oak. Both of these men and their families are buried in that cemetery.
I was most blessed by a strong Christian heritage. It saddens me greatly that in the last thirty years, the Church of the Brethren has been wandering so far from the beliefs and values on which it was founded — liberal leanings that have resulted with the White Oak congregation, as well as several other congregations, to withdraw from the brotherhood. I admire your churches, as well as the other congregations to remain true to your theological beliefs by deciding to make new beginnings. Blessings! Sylvia Longenecker Weaver
This was incredibly interesting.. Thanks for sharing.
We have been back to that cemetery along the woodlot and by the cornfield. I believe this is the graveyard where Mathias Gisch, our immigrant ancestor who came from Germany to PA nearly 300 years ago would be buried.
We don’t live far from the cemetery and while doing this study was the first time we drove to the cemetery.