New Goshenhoppen Reformed Church, East Greenville, Montgomery County

We're kicking off the fifth month of the year, and thus far I've managed to do a marker from a different county every week. This is the last week I'll be able to say that, but it's still kind of exciting!

Speaking of exciting, if you haven't already heard, the big news I promised last week has been unveiled on social media and in the monthly newsletter. This month marks the blog's fifth birthday! To celebrate the "fiveaversary," as I've dubbed it, I've launched a virtual scavenger hunt. You don't have to go anywhere or hunt down any physical objects; you just have to go through the blog and find the answers to questions about the people featured on markers or in the stories behind them. There's some silliness and some shameless self-promotion and some great prizes too! Head over to this page to read all the guidelines and find out how to get started. Good luck!

Meanwhile, for today's quest, my bff Andrea and I took a drive down to Montgomery County last week to grab a couple of markers, since I hadn't done anything there in quite a while. We found this beautiful church tucked out of the way in East Greenville, and if I'd been alone I probably would have spent an hour or two looking through their old churchyard at the 18th century headstones. 

The marker stands at the entrance to the church property
at the intersection of Church Road and New
Goshenhoppen Church Road

I first encountered the word "Goshenhoppen" (sometimes spelled Goschenhoppen) when I was doing the research for the historical marker in Bally, Berks County, which was originally founded under that name. The word goshenhoppen, I was amused to learn while researching this one, apparently means "wonderful tubers" (tubers being a kind of potato). Goshenhoppen was actually the name given to the entirety of what today is known as the Perkiomen Valley, which was purchased directly from the Lenape chief Tammany by William Penn himself. 

I didn't have to look very hard for information about this marker, because the church website maintains a very extensive history of the congregation and its origins; most of what I'm sharing here is basically a distillation of their excellent work, plus a few extra bits thrown in for flavor.

The native Lenape people moved out of the Perkiomen Valley about a quarter century after Penn bought the land, mostly because of the continuing influx of European immigrants. The Goshenhoppen region was generally recognized as being broken into two parts, Old Goshenhoppen and New Goshenhoppen, with the 'old' area being closer to Philadelphia and the 'new' part being farther north. Given how close Berks and Montgomery Counties are to one another, I suspect that the community of Goshenhoppen that was the subject of my earlier post was at one time part of the New Goshenhoppen region; however, I didn't come across anything which explicitly says as much. In any case, the church we're discussing here definitely was part of New Goshenhoppen. The land where the church sits was a generous donation by a landowner named John Henry Sproegel. He provided a tract of fifty acres of land, and this was broken into three plots; one each was given to the Lutherans, the Mennonites, and the Calvinists, so that they could build churches for each of their faiths. However, for whatever reason, the Lutherans and Mennonites ended up transferring their shares to the Calvinists, or Reformed, and the church remains on that tract of fifty acres to this day.

The German inscription over the main door of the current church building states that the congregation constructed its first church building on the site between 1680 and 1700, but the exact date is unknown. What is known, and treated as the official date of their founding, is that on October 23, 1727, the Rev. George Michael Weiss led the congregation in the Lord's Supper; the tablet seen at left is on the current building beside the main entrance, honoring this historic moment. Weiss was the first recognized pastor of the congregation, and had previously preached in Old Goshenhoppen; he is remembered as the first mission superintendent of the Reformed Church in America. Following his death in 1761, he was interred under the church's pulpit. By that time the original church building had been torn down and replaced by the second, which was crafted of stone.

The third church building, which is the one still in use today, was erected in 1857 during the pastorate of Rev. Daniel Weiser. (If that name sounds familiar, it's because he was a direct descendant of Conrad Weiser, the noted colonial ambassador to the Native Americans and friend of Count Zinzendorf.) The church still has several items which were part of the second building. Among these are pieces of the church's organ, which was installed by David Tannenberg - that's right, they had a Tannenberg organ in the second church, and while it no longer functions, they incorporated pieces of it into the design of the third building. They only have one relic from the original church, which is the wooden tablet that marked the grave of Rev. Weiss in the pulpit; it can be viewed at the top of the stairs upon entering the church.

At the time the third building was completed, it was described as being "one of the largest and most beautiful in the rural area," which I do find completely believable. Its cemetery is also worth mention. The oldest part is directly in front of the church itself, and includes the final resting places of 36 soldiers who served in the Revolutionary War. A few graves sit immediately in front of the church's main entrance; these include the relocated graves of Rev. Weiss, who as I said was originally buried under the second church's pulpit, and Rev. John Theobald Faber, Sr., who collapsed while preaching and was originally buried under the chancel of the second church. Although many stones are unmarked, or have had their inscriptions lost to time, the church maintains a diligent record of those stones which can still be read, and many descendants of the original settlers still worship there today. John Fisher, who was once governor of Pennsylvania, was a descendant of some of those original settlers and even gave a speech at the congregation's 200th anniversary celebration in 1927. Newer graves are found in the larger walled cemetery to the west of the church building, as seen at right.

The church is still thriving as it approaches its 300th anniversary. In 2005 they welcomed their first female senior pastor, and in 2007 they began conducting mission trips to places in need. The congregation has joined the Montgomery County Land Preservation program by helping to protect nearly 74 acres of open space, and in 2012 it increased its accessibility to the community by installing an elevator and wheelchair-accessible restrooms. The congregation is now part of the United Church of Christ, and is known as "New Gosh UCC." Sunday services are offered via livestream for those who are unable to attend in person.

New Gosh has the oldest existing register of Reformed Churches in the United States, and is one of the oldest enduring congregations in the commonwealth. I'm curious to see what they come up with for their next three hundred years.

---

Sources and Further Reading:

Official website of New Goshenhoppen UCC

Hinke, Rev. William John, Ph.D., D.D. A History of the Goshenhoppen Reformed Church in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Part XXIX of a Narrative and Critical History prepared at the request of the Pennsylvania-German Society. Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1920.

New Goshenhoppen cemetery at FindAGrave.com

The Historical Society of Montgomery County

New Goshenhoppen Reformed Church at the Historical Marker Database

---

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.