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Historical Memorial 

Celebrating 183 years

St. John's United Church of Christ has a long history of devoted Christian service to the Lewisburg area.  For 183 years, the congregation has affirmed as its own the faith of the historic Church expressed in the ancient creeds and reclaimed in the basic insights of the Protestant Reformers.  The congregation's open spirit is expressed by the phrase:  "In essentials, unity; in the doubtful points, freedom; in all things, love."  The servant congregation supports a caring and community ministry and provides a meeting place for numerous organizations and support groups.

The Historical Memorial Committee in recognition of St John’s 180^th year in 2004  elected to update our last published church’s history from the last published history in 1974.  In preparing for our celebration, scheduled by consistory for October 31^st, we thought we would extract a few parts of our history for your enjoyment.  Over the next 4 issues of Eagles we will publish a few of the highlights which are so thoroughly documented in the 1961 and 1974 compilations of our church history.

Rev. Yost Henry Fries

Our church history begins with the installation of Rev. Yost Henry Fries as minister to the Dreisbach Charge on June 17, 1812.  He served and stayed for 27 years! Rain or shine. Rev. Fries was busy every day, now in this area, then in that, befriending people everywhere.  It wasn’t long before his name was a happy byword from Brush Valley to Selinsgrove.  When Union County was established in 1813, he felt as though it was his parish, excepting that part in the Southern Townships, later Snyder County. No Reformed worship services were held in the new town of Lewisburg until the year 1824 .  By then, Lewisburg was thirty nine years old.  Within those thirty-nine years, its population had grown from zero to 924 people.  The time seemed right to Rev. Fries to begin to hold services in the old log school house, as the Lutherans had been doing for some time, even though he could hold services there only every four weeks.  While there were no overflow attendances, Rev. Fries persevered year after year.  By 1832, eight years after the venture was begun, the Reformed people felt encouraged enough to separate themselves from the “Mother Church” Dreisbach, and to undertake to operate as a congregation in its own right.  Rev. Fries was retained as the pastor, thus becoming the first pastor of this new German Reformed Church of Lewisburg.  He administered the first communion in January, 1933 to 9 members.  The following year, 1834 the Lutherans and those of the Reformed church agreed to build a Union Brick Church right by the German Cemetery, which at that time was where the present brownstone sanctuary of the Lutherans is located.  On May 31, 1835 the handsome new building was dedicated.  That was the first church building which served as the home of the German Reformed congregation.  Rev. Fries continued to serve the Dreisbach and Mifflinburg churches of the former much, much larger charge, until just a few months before his death in 1839.

Rev. Richard A. Fisher 1836 – 1842         

The second pastor of the new German Reformed Church of Lewisburg was Rev. Richard A. Fisher who was serving nearby Sunbury.  For nine years he had been the busy, friendly neighboring pastor.  His charge was a large on, reaching south of Sunbury into the Mahanoy Valley.  When he was asked if he could add Lewisburg to that charge, he could not refuse.  For seven years, from 1836 to 1843, he faithfully preached in the attractive new brick Union Church in Lewisburg, once every four weeks.  Under his kindly leadership, the congregation rapidly increased in membership to nearly 100.

Rev. Samuel H. Reed 1842 – 1843

Rev. Fisher like his predecessor, Reverend Fries, preached in German.  However, he was not averse to English preaching; so he agreed to an experiment of having a younger minister, Rev. Samuel H. Reed associate with him and preach in English every other week.  Unfortunately,  Rev. Reed could not preach in German.  That language, however, still needed to be used to retain the hearty support of the majority of the Church’s members.  Rev. Reed recognized that, and so agreeably offered to resign.  A new pastor had to be sought, one who could speak and preach both German and English.

Rev. Henry Harbaugh, D.D.  1843 – 1850

He preached his first sermon in Lewisburg on the last Sunday of November, 1843.  He was only twenty-six years old.  He was entirely familiar with the ways of the German people; he could easily talk theirn Pennsylvania German dialect, although his German preaching was not as pure as that of his prediecessors.  As for his English, it had such a free flow to it that it just carried his listeners along with him.  The attendance at his services started to increase steadily.  As it increased, the more meetings he was ready to hold for them or with them.  Because it was a Union Church, equal time had to be apportioned between the two denominations sharing it.  Although Rev. Harbaugh served two to three other churches in addition to the one in Lewisburg, still he felt cramped by the restricted style in which was forced to work, particularly in Lewisburg.  …After they (Reformed members) were fully persuaded that the Lutherans were not ready to discontinue the Union Church, they went on record to buy a suitable lot and build a church on it. The site selected was the lot on which the present St John’s UCC stands (Note: this was the “present” site in 1974).  Much more is written about Henry Harbaugh and the personal tragedies he faced in Lewisburg – losing one of his two daughters and his wife to illness.  Upon leaving Lewisburg, Rev. Harbaugh went on to a distinguished career at Lancaster Seminary, Mercersburg Academy and as President of the Eastern Synod of the whole Reformed Church. Pastor Perry Smith muses in his/our 1974 Anniversary history whether the sublime words of “Jesus, I live to Thee” were written by Rev. Harbaugh at Lewisburg, Lancaster or Lebanon.  He expresses however, “the experiences which called them forth, most certainly began at Lewisburg.”

Rev. Daniel Y Heisler D.D. 1850 – 1852

Rev Heisler was almost three years younger than Rev. Harbaugh; he came to Marshall College and Seminary before Harbaugh had graduated.  He was ordained by Mercersburg Classis in 1845 and was called to the Reformed Church at Columbia, Pennsylvania the same year.  From there he went to Lewisburg.  During his brief pastorate, the membership of First Church grew to 160.  Later in life, Rev. and Mrs. Heisler became the first Superintendent and Mother of Bethany Orphans’ Home upon its removal to Womelsdorf from Bridesburg, north east of Philadelphia.

Rev. Benjamin Bausman, D.D. 1853 – 1859

On February 26, 1853, Twenty-nine year old Rev. Bauman Began his ministry – his first pastorate, First Church, Lewisburg, was the place in the very church where his uniquely close friend Rev. Harbach had begun his ministry ten years earlier.  The young minister made a very impressive appearance in the Lewisburg pulpit.  He was tall, and, although a farmer’s son and able farmer himself, he had a natural dignified carriage, which was becoming.

Rev. Bauman went on to lead the congregation to host the meeting of the German Reformed Church of the United States in October, 1854 at Lewisburg.  An avid writer he became editor of the Reformed Church Messenger and after Henry Harbaugh’s death he became editor of Harbaugh’s youth magazine The Guardian.  After leaving Lewisburg In 1859, he became pastor of St Johns Church in Chambersburg and eventually helped to found Bethany Orphan’s Home in Womelsdorf, becoming an early president.

Rev. Charles H. Leinbach, D.D. 1859 – 1864

Rev. Leinbach’s central issue was pastoral.  Prior to coming to Lewisburg, his charge in Perry Co. grew from 250 to 700 communicants and four churches were built in that 17 year period.   A close friend of both Rev. Harbaugh and Rev. Bausman, Rev. Leinbach served the Lewisburg Charge during most of the Civil War.  He was the twenty-fourth child, his father having been married three times and was called from Lewisburg to Tulpehocken Charge at the death of his older brother who was their pastor.

Rev. William M. Reilly, Ph.D., 1864 – 1868

Rev. Reilly entered the ministry in 1864, a son of a widely respected Reformed minister, Rev. James Reilly.  While the four years Rev. Reilly stayed at First Church appear to have been merely holding the status quo, Rev. Reilly went on to two college presidency’s in the Myerstown/Allentown areas.

Rev. U. Henry Heilman, D.D. 1869 – 1873

The ninth pastor of the Lewisburg Church was Rev. U. Henry Heilman.  It is believed that Rev. Heilman and his wife may have had been the first ministerial couple to move into the newly build parsonage(1868).  There are hints that there was some unrest brooding in the congregation when the Heilmans came.  For some reason, it would not disappear, not until it had expressed itself in a request that the minister resign.  Both the consistories of Dreisbach and Lewisburg examined the situation and said the Minister would not be justified in resigning.  Nonetheless, by June 30, 1873, after a pastorate of four years Rev. Heilman did resign.

This concludes a brief summary of our church’s first fifty years in Lewisburg, originally as a congregation of the German Reformed Church.  For more information on St Johns during this period and a brief regional history prior to 1824, refer to the 150^th anniversary “Red Book” edition of our history.

Ministers Serving St. John's United Church of Christ

1824-1836      Rev. Yost Henry Fries  (congregation organized in 1832)

 1836-1842 Rev. Richard A. Fisher

1843     Rev. Samuel H. Reed, Associate Pastor

1850-1852     Rev. D. Y. Heiser

1853-1858     Rev. Bery Bauseman

March 1856 - Rev. Bauseman left for a 15 month trip through Europe, Palestine and Egypt.

1856-1857     Rev. A. G. Dole  & Rev. George Wolfe (Supply Ministers)

1859-1864     Rev. Charles H. Leinbach

1864-1868     Rev. Wm. M. Reily

1868-1873      U. Henry Heilman

1875-1879     Rev. James Crawford

1879-1885     Rev. R. Leighton Gearhart (1st Pastorate)

1886-1890     Rev. John F. Delong

1890-1895 Rev. Irwin W. Hendricks

1895-1899     Rev. Z.A. Yearick

1900-1920     Rev. R. Leighton Gearhart(2nd Pastorate)

1920-1937      Rev. Henry Harbaugh Rupp

1938-1949      Rev. Perry L. Smith

1950-1955      Rev. John Ehrhart

1956-1970 (Jan.)     Rev. Paul C. Jordan

Rev. Beth Clark (Interim)  Feb.-May 1970

1970-1999 (June)     Rev. James E. Johnson

Rev. G. Richard Dulin (Interim) July-August 1999

1999 (October)- 2000 (October) Rev. Matthew Jackson 

2000 (October ) - 2002      Rev. Dr. Gary A. Hackenberg (Interim)  

(Installation) February 16, 2003 - present  Rev. Paula M. Gustafson