SALEM UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

2705 West Canal Road

Dover, PA

 

Salem church, which is one of the oldest in the county, was one of the five congregations forming the Paradise Charge, which included Paradise or Holtzschwamm, Trinity or Pigeon Hill, Wolf’s and Neiman’s.  The church was also knows as the Dover Church and Strayer’s.  It was founded eleven years after Zion’s Church; seven years before the founding of Dover, and sixteen years after the laying out of York.

 

On a slightly elevated spot about three-fourths of a mile southwest of the borough of Dover, stands Salem, familiarly knows as Strayer’s Church.  Here for 150 years the inhabitants of this fertile country have met in solemn worship.  The present building is the third that has been erected since the formation of the congregation.  This church stands in the centre of Dover Township.  The first German settlers took up the surrounding lands about 1736.  On the 30^th of May 1759, the following twenty-eight members of the German Lutheran and German Reformed denominations entered into an agreement for the purpose of founding a church:

 

Peter Streher                            Hans George Stauch

Jacob Hoffman                         Dietrich Danner

Martin Reisinger                       Valentine Flohr

George Kochener                     Christopher Kobler

George Kann                            Leonard Shetrone,

Nicholas Hermann                    John Zinn

Hans Adam Bartmess               Henry Shetrone

Joseph Klepper                        George Harbold

Philip Jacobs                            Jacob Bupp

Michael Spaar                          Andrew Gross

Jacob Kirstler                           Barnhart Mueller

Jacob Meyer                            Michael Bunslob

Jacob Kimmel                          Jacob Lambert

George Spaar                           Henry Rahauser

 

The first building of logs stood in the old graveyard, west of the present church.  The land upon which it was built was purchased from “die ecke,” the corners of the plantations of Peter Streher, Jacob Lenhart and Jacob Upp.  George Spaar and Peter Streher were first elders; Hans Adam Bartmess and Nicholas Hoffman, trustees; Carl Albert, Wendell Gross and Matthew Swartz, deacons.  Some of the articles for sacramental service and for other purposes in 1767, were one black altar cloth, bought by congregation, cost three pounds, English currency; one round altar table, two white cloths for communion, presented by Henry Sharon; three towels, one bought from Philip Jacob Julius, by Window Rah user; one pewter baptismal font, I5s; one great can and cup for communion, one box of wafers, one small plate and two pewter plates and one bell.

 

A “klingel beutel” is a small bag fixed to the end of a pole to be passed along the pews to take up the collection.  The old custom of taking up a collection by two of the “vor stehers” standing at the door and holding in their hands a receptacle for the contributions of the congregation as they passed out of the church, was superseded by this “klingel beutel” or “kingle seckly” as the Pennsylvania German called it.  It received this name from the fact that the dropping of the coin into it would cause them to clink.

 

Lutheran missionaries conducted services in the locality at an early period, among them Schaum and Raus of York, Candler and Bager, of Hanover and Reverend Jacob Lischy, the German Reformed missionary.

 

In 1763, Lucas Raus organized the Lutheran congregation and Jacob Lischy, the Reformed, with the above named elders and deacons.  The original Lutheran church book was written in German, from which much of the information herein given was found.  The title page of this book contains the following inscription in German:

 

“Church book of the Evangelical Lutheran Congregation in Dover Township over the Susquehanna in Pennsylvania was bought in 1763 by me, Lucas Raus.”

 

First births of congregation recorded, John, son of John and Susanna Lenhardt, born February 18, 1762

Susanna daughter of Casper and Anna Barbara Danner, born April 8, 1762

John William Grim born June 1762

 

Ten births were recorded for the same year and about twenty each for the following years to 1766.

 

The church burial ground is one of the oldest and most interesting in this part of the county.  The first death recorded in the church ledger was that of George Frederick Scheatle (Shettle), who died of apoplexy, May 20, 1763, aged fifty years, buried on Whit-Sunday, in the new church yard.  His was the first funeral to be held in the “New Kirke” and his burial the first in the new cemetery. The second person was a child of John Peter Streher, July 5, 1763, aged five years.

 

The old headstones are weather-beaten, and many of the inscriptions are illegible.  But the grounds are well kept and the atmosphere is that of a typical rural churchyard of a bygone day.

 

First marriage recorded, George Adam Diehl and Christine Spangler were married May 30, 1758

Matthew Mayer (widower) and Christine Dorothea Mueller were married November 19, 1758.

 

The first confirmation services were held November 7, 1762.  The persons confirmed were George Adam Oberdier, seventeen years old; Susanna Oberdier, fifteen years; Margaret Gensart, Mary Barbara  Gensart and Catrina Burgart.  On Ascension Day, 1765, there were twenty-eight parsons confirmed, most of them children, and new settlers.  April 13, 1766, there were twenty-two confirmations; many of them from “Peter Wolf’s Church in Manchester Township.”  April 26, 1767 there were thirty-six confirmations.  Confirmation services were held once every two years.  John Peter Sparr and Andreas Gross, young men, were confirmed 1767.

 

The following is a copy of a legal record: I, Peter Streher, of Dover Township, in the county of York, and Province of Pennsylvania, farmer, in consideration of the esteem and affection I bear toward the German Lutheran and German Reformed Congregations of said township, for the sum of five shillings paid by George Stouch and Adam Bartmess, trustees and representatives of the Lutheran congregation, Jacob May and Jacob Meyer, trustees and representatives of the German Reformed congregation, do convey unto them and their successors forever in trust for said church congregations, 3 acres of land.

 

The deed of the three acres as a site for a church and burying ground was dated January 5, 1765.

 

Upon the death of Peter Streher, his two sons, who inherited the property, had the church land surveyed and in accordance with letters patent on May 8, 1797, executed another deed in trust for the same tract of land to John Overdier and Jacob Stouch, trustees of the Lutheran congregation,  Peter Upp and Jacob Lauer, trustees of the Reformed congregation.  The second indenture was made in order to make the title to the church property good after the surrounding land was patented.

 

A charter of incorporation was granted to the two denominations that worship in Salem Church, of May 29, 1824.  The persons named in the charter were: Peter Streher, Frederick Stouch, Peter Lecron, John Shefer, elders; Nicholas Hoffman and John Hantz, wardens of the Lutheran congregation; John Lauer, Jacob Zinn, Christian Hamm, William Caldwell, elders; Jacob March and Jacob Kann, wardens of the Reformed congregations.

 

The pastors of the Lutheran congregation were: Lucas Raus from organization to 1776;  Jacob Goehring from 1776-1783; Nicholas Kurtz and John Groop; A. G. Deininger, for fifty-two years consecutively until his death in 1880, aged eighty-five years; Daniel Sell, Charles W. Baker, J. C. Mumma, J. M. Deitzler and A. C. Fastnacht.

 

The Reformed congregation as nearly as can be determined, was served by pastors Vandersloot, Charles Helenstein, Daniel Zeigler, D. D. for twenty-seven years; Jacob Kehm, four years; Jacob Ziegler, eight years; I. S. Weisz, D. D. and O. P. Schellhamer.

 

Jacob Fink died in Dover in 1882; aged ninety-two years; he and his wife Elizabeth had been married sixty-seven years at the time of his death.  Near the centre of the burying ground adjoining the Dover Church, rest the remains of John G. Quickel; who died November 7, 1870, aged one hundred years.  In this graveyard two acres in area, there were about 3,000 interments from 1763 to 1883.  A cemetery was laid off by Dr. Lenhart, a short distance southeast of the church.  The first interment was the remains of Elizabeth Neiman, who died September 6, 1870.  There are now many fine monuments in this cemetery.  Daniel Hamme, who died in 1874, aged ninety-five years, was here interred.

 

In 1912 the pastor’s salary was increased by $50.00 and in 1913 another $50.00; also, was increased $25.00 by Calvary Church.  (At the beginning the salary was $500.00 a year.)  During this time, steam heat was introduced into Salem Church; also electric lights in 1912; the individual communion cups, and the orderly manner of gathering the offerings in the church.  On April 6, 1913 the Duplex Envelopes were introduced by both congregations.

 

On September 12, 1954 was the ground breaking ceremony to add the Sunday school addition to the church and to add five more rows of pews. The corner stone for the addition was laid on March 20, 1955.  The newly renovated church and new Sunday school annex were dedicated D4cember 11-18, 1955.

 

As of 2003 there are four cemeteries relating to this church.  The one to the West of the Church is the original Strayer’s Cemetery.  Beyond Strayer’s Cemetery is the Dover Salem Cemetery.  Across the road from the church is Lenhart-Gerber Cemetery and beyond this is the Dover Union Cemetery.