Christ Little Tulpehocken Church, Bernville, Berks County

I'm very excited because as soon as this post goes live and I take care of a few other details related to it, like updating the Facebook page, I'll be heading out on a long-expected road trip. It's my best friend Andrea's birthday, and to celebrate, she and I are making a trek to York County to visit our friends who operate Moon Family Studios - we haven't seen them in nearly two years because of the pandemic. Naturally, the plan is for me to collect some markers while we're in the vicinity, because all of my travel now has an ulterior motive.

Before we get into the actual quest, which takes us back to Berks County for the first time since last summer, I want to direct your attention elsewhere in the same county. I'm a member of the Berks History Buffs group on Facebook, and I was asked to share this with my readers in hopes of giving the matter a wider audience. The historic Kemp Family Burial Grounds is being threatened by a developer, who wants to put a warehouse on the land where some of Berks County's earliest settlers are buried. Their plan is to disinter the remains and transfer them to another cemetery, but the people buried there have descendants in the area still and these descendants are not happy about this. The Berks History Center has put out a call for help with the struggle to come to a mutually satisfying agreement with the developer; you can read the details here. You can learn about the burial grounds and the people interred there by visiting the official website, where you will also find links to the petition and a donation page, as well as photographs of the grounds.

Meanwhile, in a different part of Berks County, I was able to capture a couple of markers on a recent run, and this is one of them. Here's what I can tell you about a lovely church on a rolling hillside, which as of this writing is still covered in snow.

The marker is found at the intersection of Groff and
Christmas Village Roads, near the entrance to the
church property

The church's history is directly tied to that of its founder, so that's where we need to start the story. Eastern Pennsylvania, as my readers are probably aware, has long been the home of German immigrants - it's how Pennsylvania Dutch became a thing, after all. Many of these immigrants came from a region of southwestern Germany known as the Palatinate; this area is known for its fertile vineyards, lush forests, and medieval frame houses. In the first half of the 18th century, be it for reasons of religion or simply in hopes of finding better prospects, many Palatinate natives made their way across the sea to William Penn's colony. Among these was a young man named John Caspar Stoever, Jr.

John was born on December 21, 1707, the only son of John Stoever, Sr. and the former Gertraude Friesse. Gertraude died in Germany in 1728, which may be why that was the year in which John Jr., his father, and his younger sister Anna all voyaged to the New World and docked in Philadelphia. John Jr. had already received some private theological training back in Germany, and in Philadelphia he was ordained in the Lutheran faith. John Sr., meanwhile, became a schoolteacher, but passed away in 1738. That same year, John Jr. presided over the marriage of his sister Anna to Johannes Kuntz; they eventually relocated to Virginia.

John Jr. lived in Lancaster County for almost a decade before moving to Lebanon County, which he called home for the rest of his life. He didn't stay put very much, however. Although he and his wife, the former Maria Catharina Merkling, settled in Lebanon County and raised eleven children, John spent a lot of his time going out into the world to minister to other Lutheran immigrants. Pastors in those days were somewhat few and far between, so there was a great need for religious leaders to perform baptisms, marriages, and funerals, as well as lead regular worship services. John eventually joined Henry Melchior Muhlenberg's ministerium, but nevertheless remained an independent pastor, serving whomever needed him out in the Pennsylvania wilderness. He kept diligent records which indicate that he performed more than 2,000 baptisms and 1,400 marriages - and those are just the ones he did on his own, as there were many others he entered into congregational registers rather than his own personal lists. He was a little controversial for the time, being strong-willed and stubborn, but he performed a deeply vital service in the early days of the colonies and his work was appreciated. 

Now, getting into the meat of the quest, one of the things that John did for the people of colonial Pennsylvania was to establish churches. One of the earliest congregations he assembled was in what was then northern Lancaster County, but today is Berks County. Bernville is a gentle and unassuming community, named by early Swiss immigrants for the town of Bern, Switzerland, and it's here that John laid the groundwork for what became Christ Little Tulpehocken Church. This was prior to his move to Lebanon County, as the congregation dates to 1729, and John's own record keeping for it begins in 1730. The first church building, a log construction, was built sometime between 1730 and 1749; it stood until 1809, when it was dismantled and replaced with a stone church which still stands today, as seen at left. The church has been used continuously since its founding, though it has shifted from Lutheran (or Lutheran and Reformed) to its current non-denominational Christianity.

As part of the church's property, there are two cemeteries. The older burial grounds (shown at right) are surrounded by an iron fence, and situated near the bottom of the road leading up to the church. Exactly when it was first used is unknown, but the first recorded burial was for Andreas Beyer in 1768. There are more than 400 tombstones currently standing in the old cemetery, but it's likely that there are additional unmarked graves; evidence has been found of some very old tombstones which broke off at their bases, and no record survives to indicate whose they might be. The last burial took place in the old cemetery in 1962, when Isabelle Lengel died at the age of 97. Since 1893, burials have been performed in the newer cemetery, which is situated up on the hill closer to the church.

As for the good reverend who started the church, John Stoever continued to minister to Lutherans - and anyone else who needed a shepherd - all throughout Pennsylvania and even as far south as Virginia for many years. He established a number of other churches in the course of his career; one of these was Hill Church, which has been a center of worship in Lebanon County since 1733, and which seems to have become his home congregation. After serving more than sixty years in the roving pulpit, John tragically collapsed while performing a confirmation ceremony. He died on May 13, 1779, and is buried in the cemetery of Hill Church. His widow, who outlived him by more than fifteen years, never remarried and is buried beside him. Their original headstones, inscribed in German, have been preserved within a brick wall, along with English translations of each.

It was a cold and somewhat cloudy day when I drove up the hill to have a look at Christ Little Tulpehocken Church. It was a weekday; no one was around to ask the lady with the camera what she was doing, so I had a good look at the exterior. The stone building is somewhat square, with simple stained glass windows and a pleasant welcoming sign over the door. A modern extension has been added to the rear of the building sometime in the last few decades, probably giving it a fellowship hall and some Sunday School classrooms. Due to the pandemic, in-person worship has been curtailed (a common story), but signage invites members and visitors alike to visit the church website and download the weekly virtual sermons of the past year. "The Little Church with a Big Heart" survives even in these trying times, and no doubt looks forward to their 300th anniversary in a few years.

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Sources and Further Reading:

Official website of Christ Little Tulpehocken Church

Facebook page of Christ Little Tulpehocken Church

Christ Little Tulpehocken Cemetery and Rev. John Caspar Stoever, Jr. at FindAGrave.com

Rev. John Caspar Stoever, Jr. at the Lutheran Historical Society

Christ Little Tulpehocken Church at the Historical Marker Database

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Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.