October disappeared while I was looking the other way, it seems. Even without touching on the election or its results, the back half of 2024 has been frankly dizzying for me. I sure am happy to not be getting any more spam texts, though.
Of particular note, for the last several days the mountain behind my house has been on fire. It's far enough away (about five miles) that I haven't been in any danger, but it's been a big enough issue that we have at least a dozen fire companies, all or nearly all volunteers, working together to fight the blaze. It's burned just under 600 acres of woodland, though they do believe they have it contained now. The community has rallied around our firefighters - seriously, I'm so proud of everyone for contributing water and snacks and supplies, to the point that the local fire company had to ask people to stop bringing donations because they have no more space to store it all. If you would like to contribute to the effort, what Lehigh Township's fire company needs now is money to replace equipment and things like that, so they do accept donations via Squaresite at this link. (The fire is situated in Lehigh Township, so they've been leading the operation.) Alternately, consider contributing to your own local fire company, because I'm sure they can always use more support.
At the very least, please pay attention to burn bans. It's believed this was all started by a campfire, which no one had any business building when the entire commonwealth is in a severe drought. (We haven't had any measurable rainfall in my area since the middle of September!)
Meanwhile, I'm trying to keep on top of the blog in between all the other madness. It's not easy, but I dearly love my blogs so it's important to me. So let's kick off November with a trip to scenic Monroe County, to a spot where a church is believed to have once stood.
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| The marker sits off of River Road, along the banks of the Shawnee River |
Smithfield Township, which was named for early settler John Smith, was established in 1748. But by that point, the church we're examining already existed. It was the Dutch Reformed Church, also remembered as the Old Log Church, and as with many early churches the services were quite possibly held in someone's home. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, retains a hybrid language copy of the Kerckenboeck van de Gemeynte van Smithsfield - in English, Records of the Dutch Reformed Church of Smithfield. (That's not a typo, by the way. The Dutch version calls it Smithsfield, the English calls it Smithfield.) This manuscript gives a foundation date for the congregation of 1741, and has records of baptisms, weddings, and funerals until 1814. However, the Monroe County Historical Society gives the founding year for the Old Log Church as 1737; for the first few years of the congregation, presumably there either were no records to maintain or they have been lost.
I also don't know where the congregation buried their dead. The manuscript notes details about funerals, but I couldn't actually look at the contents of the pages because I'm not a member of the HSP, so I don't know if they included the information about the exact burial locations. (Accessing the records wouldn't have done me much good anyway, since I can't read Dutch.)
Other than the church records themselves, not much seems to have been preserved about the Old Log Church. Meanwhile, in 1753, a group of settlers including Nicholas DePuy (mentor and father-in-law of Jacob Stroud) established the Presbyterian Meeting House, also known as the Old Stone Church. They opened their doors to all those of Protestant faith, including not just Presbyterians but also Baptists, Lutherans, and Reformers. To judge by the records of the Old Log Church, its members abandoned their original house of worship and joined the Old Stone Church in 1814. What became of the log structure along the river seems to be as unknown as its precise location.
As for the Old Stone Church, the building lasted until 1853, by which point it had become dilapidated and ill-suited to the needs of the congregation. It was torn down, but the foundation was preserved, and survives to this day; the names of the building committee members can still be seen. A new church was built on the same spot, and Ann DePuy Erb, Nicholas's great-granddaughter, laid the cornerstone. It has since been renamed Shawnee Presbyterian Church, and is home to the oldest churchyard in Monroe County. Interested history lovers can receive a guided tour of the graves, some of which date back as far as the construction of the original stone church.
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