December den 25ten, 1834. Wir, die unterschriebenen zu dieser subscription, versprechen zu bezahlen an Christian Shank, Jacob Miller, und Johannes Strite oder an einer von den oben benahmten oder au ihre Verordnete die Sum oder Sumen zu unsere Namen gezeiget wie unden folget, zur Abstattung der unkosten vom Bau einem Mennonischen Gemeinhaus welches gebaut werden soll in Washington County nahe bei Leitersburg auf ein Stuck Land vorhin zu Jacob Miller und hetz dass Eigenthum von der oben gemeldete Gemeinde. Martin Bachtel, John Strite, Christian Shank, Jacob Miller, John Eshleman, Abraham Stouffer, Peter Newcomer, Andrew Shank, Jacob Shank, Andrew and Jacob Newcomer, Daniel Shank, Christian Stouffer, Abraham Stouffer, Jr., John Newcomer, Christian Newcomer, Benjamin Garver, Lewis Ziegler, Jonas Shank, Samuel Strite, Henry Snively, George H. Lambert, John Lesher, Jacob Barr, Henry Funk, John Byer, John Snively, George Poe, Jacob Funk, Samuel Bachtel, Joseph Strite,. John Hoover, Andrew Shank, Samuel Lantz, Jacob Bell, The German may be translated as follows: We, the undersigned to this subscription, promise to pay to Christian Shank, Jacob Miller, and John Strite or any one of them or to their order the sum or sums marked opposite our names as follows below, to pay the cost of building a Mennonite meeting house which shall be built in Washington County near to Leitersburg upon a piece of ground at Jacob Miller's and to be the exclusive property of the above mentioned congregation. On the 25th of March, 1835, Christian Shank, Jacob Miller, and John Strite entered into a contract with Joseph Cookston for the erection of "a stone meeting house on Jacob Miller's farm." It was specified that the building should be forty feet long and thirty feet wide, "laid off in three different apartments," with two chimneys, "a sufficient number of doors, windows, tables, benches," etc.; that Cookston should "procure at his own proper expense all the necessary materials and of a good quality" and finish the building by the 1st of July; and that he should receive the sum of $510. The contract was duly executed and the building thus erected constitutes the main part of the present place of worship. In 1888 an addition of twenty feet was built under the supervision of a committee composed of John Strite, Joseph Eshleman, and David Strite. The present building is therefore sixty feet in length. The church grounds originally comprised half an acre, the deed for which was executed on the 4th of April, 1835. An additional purchase of 125 perches was made in 1869 and one of seventeen perches in 1889. The first trustees were Christian Shank, John Strite, and Jacob Miller. The following is a list of their successors: Christian Strite, elected August 9, 1845, vice John Strite, deceased; Christian Horst, elected May 1, 1856, vice Christian Shank, deceased; Joseph Eshleman and Frederick Shank, elected December 6, 1862, vice Christian Strite, deceased, and Christian Horst, who had removed out of the bounds of the congregation; Joseph Strite, elected January 30, 1864, vice Frederick Shank, deceased; John Miller, elected December 26, 1868, vice John Miller, deceased; John S. Strite, elected November 27, 1890, vice Joseph Eshleman, deceased; Jacob Eshleman, elected October 25, 1891, vice Joseph Strite, deceased; Christian Eshleman, elected June 9, 1893, vice John Miller, deceased. The present trustees are Jacob Eshleman, John S. Strite, and Christian Eshleman. Among the first ministers who preached at this church were Peter Eshleman, Christian Newcomer, John Welty, Christian Strite, John Martin, and Jacob Oberholtzer. The present ministers are Adam Baer, Henry Baer, and John C. Miller. The first bishop who officiated at Miller's church was Abraham Roth, of Mummasburg, Adams County, Pa., whose suc cessors have been Peter Eshleman and Michael Horst. Bishop Horst's jurisdiction embraces all the Mennonite Churches in Washington County. The Sunday school was organized in 1893 with Adam Baer as the first superintendent. John C. Miller held this office in 1894-96, and Adam Baer in 1897. LONGMEADOWS GERMAN BAPTIST CHURCH. The Longmeadows or Rowland's German Baptist Church is not an individual organization, but an integral part of the Beaver Creek congregation. The membership of this communion residing north of Hagerstown, having a long distance to travel to attend the services of their church at Beaver Creek, met occasionally for worship at Paradise school house and also at private houses. Jonas Rowland was among those who realized the importance of having a permanent place of worship, and in 1853 he erected at his own expense a brick church building. He burned the brick on his own farm, from which the church site was also donated. After the completion of the building he was partially reimbursed by his fellow-members. This building was forty feet long and thirty-five feet wide, and occupied the site of the present structure. In 1881 it was removed, when the present place of worship was erected. This also is a brick building, of which the respective dimensions are forty and seventy feet. It was erected under the supervision of a building committee composed of George W. Petre, Andrew J. Boward, and Daniel N. Scheller. In 1896 a frame dwelling house was built adjacent to the church for the occupancy of the sexton. The membership of the German Baptist Church in this locality in 1853 included George Petre, Jonas Rowland and wife, David Rowland, Daniel Rowland, George W. Petre, Amy Petre, Margaret Petre, Henry Shank and wife, Mrs. Crumb, Joseph Wolf and wife, Mrs. Philip Warfield, David Anthony and wife, George Poe, Samuel Trovinger, Andrew Boward, Sr., and wife, and others. The first ministers were Joseph Wolf, Henry Koons, Jacob Hilbarger, and Joseph Emmert, who were succeeded by Leonard Emmert, Andrew Cost, Daniel F. Stouffer, Barton Shoup, Frederick D. Anthony, Abram Rowland, and John Rowland, of whom Elders Shoup, Abram Rowland, and John Rowland are the present ministers. The bishop in 1853 was Henry Koons, who was succeeded by Andrew Cost and Daniel F. Stouffer. In the board of trustees for the Beaver Creek congregation Longmeadows is represented by Daniel N. Scheller and George W. Petre. By the will of Henry Shank of Antrim Township, who died in 1875, the sum of $500 was bequeathed to this congregation. The Sunday school at Rowland's was organized in 1893. A union Sunday school had previously been conducted at Paradise school house, of which the school at Rowland's may be regarded as a continuation, as it is also a union school. Elder John Rowland was superintendent in 1893 and 1894. In 1895 the school was not organized. The superintendent in 1896 and 1897 was John Rowe. REFORMED MENNONITE. For more than half a century Reformed Mennonite services have been regularly held at intervals of two months at Paradise school house. The ministers of the Waynesboro congregation usually preach here, with others from Chambersburg and elsewhere. RIVER BRETHREN. Daniel Jacobs, who located near the terminus of the Marsh turnpike, was a member of the River Brethren Church, and public worship was regularly held for many years at his house and that of his son-in-law, Jacob Hykes. Among the ministers who conducted these services were Henry Myers, Martin Stoner, John Hawbecker, Christopher Hoover, John Hoover, and Christopher Breckbill. UNITED BRETHREN CHURCH, LEITERSBURG. This organization had its origin in religious services at the house of Peter Stotler, on the Little Antietam near Leitersburg and now the property of Joseph and John B. Barkdoll. Here prayer and class meetings were regularly held, with preaching at intervals by the itinerant ministers of the denomination. Among the first members were Peter Stotler, Henry Yesler, John Miller, Jacob Dayhoff, Adam Bovey, and their families, who were suc ceeded at a later date by Henry Boertner, John D. Eakle, John and Peter Yesler, and John Dayhoff. About the year 1835 a church edifice was built at Leitersburg; a parsonage was also secured and for some years the church prospered. Its membership was gradually reduced by death and removal, however, and finally the church building was sold and the congregation disbanded. METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, LEITERSBURG. Among the leading members of this church were Edward Smith, who afterwards entered the ministry, John Johnson, the local class-leader, Jonathan Humphreys, and John Brown. The village school house was their first place of worship, and about the year 1841 a brick church was built by Alexander Hamilton and Henry Smith of Waynesboro, Pa. It is now the residence of Mrs. Ida Leather. The pastors of the Waynesboro circuit preached here until 1857, after which services were occasionally conducted by Rev. Henry Stonehouse of that place until the society disbanded. CEMETERIES. One of the earliest places of interment in Washington County was the burial ground adjacent to Antietam church. Interments were made here as early as 1763. There are a number of private burial grounds in Leitersburg District, and here many of the pioneers sleep their last sleep. The earliest mortuary inscription that the writer has discovered appears on a stone in a private burial ground on the farm of Joseph Martin. It reads as follows: "1781. Hier liegt Eva Lambert und ihre Tochter. War alt 59 Jahr." A short distance from the Greencastle road on a slope toward the Antietam there is a burial ground inclosed by a substantial brick wall erected by J. F. Leiter and L. Z. Leiter in 1896. Andrew Leiter, the founder of Leitersburg, Jacob Leiter, his father, who died in 1814, and other early members of the Leiter family are interred here. It is not improbable that this is also the burial place of the first Jacob Leiter, who died in 1764. Southwest of Leitersburg on the farm of George F. Ziegler is the Ziegler burial ground, where some of the early representatives of the Lantz, Ziegler, and other families |