Click Here to Return To Milestones
The following I wrote during Centennial Week Celebration about the early years of Christ Lutheran Church with emphasis on the years of the old church and old parsonage. The old church (as you know) was located at 11th Street and 4th Avenue from 1886 until 1929-1930, when it was torn down to make way for the now church which is our present church. The life of the old church was 43 years and the life of the new church (so far) is 57 years.
And then there was an old parsonage. The following are a few of my reflections from a one-time resident of the old parsonage (still standing, after being moved to Third Avenue and Short Tenth Street). My father's years with Christ Lutheran were 1910-1920 - so I can claim that I spent 10 memorable years in the church parsonage as a preacher's daughter.
The Reverend Donald Houser, as a missionary superintendent interested in establishment of new churches said that churches must be planted and home missions should grow and grow as long as babies are born, factories are established, and families move into new territories, and people want to know and have their children know Jesus Christ.
Believing in this thought, a small group of Christian men and women who had the courage and vision but not much money organized Christ Lutheran. They erected a church building, erected a parsonage and sought the aid of missionary pastors, searched for unchurched people, formed a Sunday School and taught children and enlisted laymen for Christian service.
By God's will, these sainted charter members (24 of them live on in our memories). We (a 100 years later) are reaping their sincere efforts to have a church organization.
We do not always remember, as we should, what we have inherited from passing generations. I have chosen to review briefly the pastorates of those ministers who served in the old church and lived in the old parsonage.
As I read and reread summary reports which I have of the early years of Christ Lutheran Church, I note the following:
(a.) that the Rev. Myers stayed two years
(b.) that Josua Delo served New Brighton
and
Beaver Falls three years
(c.) that Jonathon Sarver stayed long enough
to
build a parsonage two years
(d.) that J.C. Park three years - long enough to be confronted with a faction of his parishioners who thought the parsonage was costing too much ($1800.00) and should be sold. Others of the congregation did not agree. The building of the parsonage continued and was completed
(e.) Rev. Park was followed by Rev. Theodore
Benze who stayed one year.
Five pastors in eleven years. Do you agree with me that Christ
Lutheran
began as a mission and needed plenty of
boosting to get going on a firm foundation?
(f.) In 1898, the Rev. John Zundel was called and for six years, he helped to put the church on a firmer foundation. He came as a bachelor and married one of the young ladies of Christ Lutheran - Sophia Richter (a sister of Frank Richter, who later attended the seminary and became Rev. Frank Richter (a son of the cogregation). After almost six years Rev. and Mrs. Zundel and their three children (Ruth, Paul and John) went to a parish in Fargo, North Dakota. Rev. Zundel died in Fargo. Mrs Zundel and her children returned to Beaver Falls and later to Greenville and Thiel College I believe the Dorcas Society was begun when the Zundels were in Beaver Falls.
(Mrs. Virginia Driver of our congregation is a niece of Mrs. Zundel).
(g.) Rev. Leonard Fischer was called in 1902, serving for six years. When Rev. Fischer and his family moved into the parsonage it did not have the comforts and conveniences that it had when he left. The house sat on the ground and what was supposed to be a cellar was so shallow that one could not stand erect Through the planning by Rev. Fischer and the church council, the parsonage was raised and a dry cellar resulted. The third floor (or attic) was finished and a hot water furnace was installed. The ground around the parsonage was filled in - a nice lawn resulted - and a retaining wall (still standing between 409-411 Eleventh Street) was built.
The Synodical record says that Rev. Fischer introduced a churchly form of worship while pastor of Beaver Falls.
Rev. and Mrs. Fischer had three daughters and a little son named Edmund who died of typhoid fever while in Beaver Falls. Mrs. Zimmerman, one of the Fischer daughters now lives in Greenville.
(h.) My father, Rev. Frank P. Cook followed Rev. Fischer. He and my mother came from a parish in Jewett, Ohio which he had served seventeen years. The country and Beaver Falls was still suffering from the 1907 depression. With the slump in the economy of the country and the indebtedness occurring from the improvements of the parsonage of Christ Lutheran, the congregation was faced with a debt. This debt was paid. Rev. Cook and the church council continued improvements - not to the parsonage - but rather needed improvements in the church proper. An eye-sore was a pot-bellied furnace with its spreading pipe in the center of the Sunday School room on the ground floor of the church. A first project was to improve (excavate) the cellar beneath the Sunday School room and place adequate sewer, electric, water connections and install a new heating system. The removal of the furnace to the basement made possible a room with a more churchly atmosphere for Sunday church school and for weekly organization meeting - the Ladies Auxiliary, the Dorcas Society, a Junior and a Senior Luther League, a Wartburg (missionary) Society. All of the above organizations did much for the church.
The financial report (printed in 1919) showed a balance of $84.48 (Wm. J. Steffen, Benevolence Treas.); a balance of $61.54 in the General Fund (George Wolf, Treas.); and in a Special Church debt fund, a balance of $10.25 (George Wolf, Treas.) Pastor Booth in his historical data noted that "during the pastorate of Rev. Cook, the indebtedness was paid in full with money to start a building fund for a new church.
May I quote from the Synodical History - "Rev. Cook began his work in Christ Church Feb. 6,1910 and closed in death Dec. 13,1919. Beloved by all, the work of the Lord prospered in his hands."
(i.) In 1920, the Reverend Charles Tilp was called from Lakewood, Ohio to the vacant parish in Beaver Falls. He and his family moved to the old parsonage. Very soon Rev. Tilp and the church leaders were making plans for a new church. With the hope of a new church the congregation prospered, the membership increased, and each organization was looking forward to a new church plan. After a few years of conscientious labor, Rev. Tilp was stricken with a heart attack. This was a shock to the congregation and to the community. I can report that the Synodical record about Rev. Tilp "Beloved by all, the work of the Lord prospered in his hands."
You ask what happened to the 24 charger members. I am at a loss to report on many of them. I choose to comment with high respect for Mr. and Mrs. W.A. Shanor and nine children - six boys and three girls. Mr. Shanor was a building contractor. It was he who built the old parsonage (with Pastor Sarver in command) - and it is interesting to note that it was Mr. Shanor who was the contractor to build our Beaver Falls Carnegie Library.
Oh! There is so much of people and events of those 43 years of the old church - and my ten years as a preacher's daughter in the parsonage, which I like to remember.
I do keep fond memories of our Sunday evenings with Luther League meetings at 7:00 P.M. and Sunday evening church service at 8:00 P.M. in the church auditorium.
Mr. Shanor is a pleasant memory of the Luther League meetings for he liked to share in the discussions of the meeting.
As an Interlude of History of our Christ Lutheran, I leave the years (57) of pastors Shepfer, Booth, Lundberg, Gahagen and Simmel to you to sing their praises.
A Postlude of Church History will follow in the next 100 years.
P.S. I do want to thank Pastor Simmel, Keith Steffen and each of six different committees, assigned to bring about a most successful Centennial Week. No stone was left unturned.