BeeLines - October 19, 2017
By Marybelle Beigh, Westfield Town & Village Historian
Searching for the Records of St. Peter’s German Evangelical & Reformed Church
In both my historian role as well as a former historian of Westfield NY’s St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, I have received a number of requests for records of former members of another St. Peter’s Church that was in Westfield between approximately 1858 and 1947. Presently I am doing research for a client about that church and those records.
In a recent email, the client requested information about “…the German Lutheran Church that existed in Westfield…in the early 1900s. It was called "St. Peter's Evangelical Church" at the time of my great grandmother and her brother's confirmations, in 1915 and 1914 respectively. The minister at the time was Lewis Miller.” The client also wondered “if there was any history or even records of marriages, baptisms, burials, and so forth remaining, as well as when the church was no longer a church. Also mentioned was having some literature about the 50th anniversary of the church in 1912. This booklet was found in photocopied form in Patterson Library files.
Since, as my faithful readers know, I love researching “history mysteries,” such research was pursued, thinking the information would soon be located – like within a few days. However, a month later, records have yet to be found. However, much history has been discovered as described below. Meanwhile, if any readers DO know what became of these records, please contact Marybelle Beigh, Westfield Historian via Facebook Messenger on her Westfield Historian Facebook page, or cell phone (716) 397-9254, or email: westfieldhistorian@fairpoint.net.
The church was originally organized as the German Evangelical St. Peter’s Church at Westfield NY by pioneer German or Prussian immigrants, including August Rorig, who built and ran a Brewery nearby. They first met at the home of August Rorig (starting about 1858), and in 1863, purchased the land and met in the building there that had been District School No. 7, on Chestnut Street. In 1877, the schoolhouse was removed and a church building built by hand by the trustees who were August Rorig, John Swartz, Christopher Menkerchen, Andrew Wonnenwiths, and Chris Lagerman. The St. Peter’s Kirche held a 50th Anniversary in August 1912 and published a booklet about this written in both English & German.
For most of its years, it was familiarly known as the old German Church; in the Westfield Republican newspapers it was usually identified as St. Peter’s Evangelical Church. Later writers assumed it was Lutheran so often added that to the name, possibly because in 1936, for about a year, there was another German Lutheran church congregation that attempted to form in Westfield, first meeting at 40 Academy Street, and later at the Grange Hall on Main Street, but was not successful in continuing in 1937 or beyond.
In October of 1944, a newspaper article noted that the bell of St. Peter’s Reformed Church on Chestnut Street had been “taking it easy” for some time (probably since 1940 when the last published service notice was found in the Westfield Republican), but that it would ring again on Sunday 10-8-1944 when the Assembly of God congregation would occupy the church building on Wednesdays and Sundays.
Another Westfield Historian article written in the early 1960s series “Westfield Past and Present” (the 62nd) contains the comment that the Corporate name was St. Peters’ United German Evangelical Lutheran Church when purchased by the Christian Science Society of Westfield. (I’m still looking for documentation of that event, particularly the name, but suspect that the writer was using a combination of what she thought it was – Lutheran) and the actual names it had been known by – German, Evangelical. Based on the “United” in the name given, the writer also possibly knew that this particular church organization had merged in 1934 with the Reformed Church in the US to form the Evangelical and Reformed Church; and then in 1957, merged with the Congregational Christian Churches denomination to create the United Church of Christ.
Research of the digitized Westfield Republicans from 1896 through 1927, and the microfilmed papers in 1934-35, and 1939-40 have found notices for services at the St. Peter’s Evangelical (German) church on Chestnut in all those years except none after Easter 1940. In the December 15,1926 WR, an article “Former Pastor of Westfield Buried” describes the death of Rev. C.F. Fleck who was the last resident pastor of St. Peter’s Evangelical Church in Westfield. A memorial service was performed at the Westfield church by Rev. Carl G. Haas of St. John’s Evangelical church of Dunkirk.
It is noteworthy that Dunkirk’s St. John’s Evangelical church, and some German Evangelical churches in Erie PA, provided pastors for the Westfield church services from
1924 through 1940. The last pastor provided by St. John’s Dunkirk was Rev. Carl Zimmerman.
Another interesting note from March 1920, is that “Mr. and Mrs. Charles Keopka announce the engagement of their daughter Lena Kathryn, to the Rev. Berthold Erick Schalow, pastor of St. Peter’s Evangelical Church.” Soon after this (June 1920), Rev. Schalow and his new wife were called to the Evangelical Martin Luther Church in Detroit, Michigan. His successor at St. Peter’s Evangelical in Westfield was Rev. Fleck, who, after four years was said to be called to another St. Peter’s Church in Detroit MI. Oddly, Rev. Fleck’s obituary states that after retiring from St. Peter’s in Westfield, he moved with his wife and family to Baltimore, as he was suffering from a severe illness that lead to his death.
After attempting to locate records in the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and failing to do so because St. Peter’s German Evangelical in Westfield was NOT Lutheran, research was done to locate the information described above regarding the merging of the German Evangelical Church through several “incarnations” culminating in the United Church of Christ (UCC) church. At present, several requests for further information have gone out to St. John’s UCC in Dunkirk, as well as Eden Theological Seminary Archives for the Evangelical Synod of North America under which the Westfield German Church was first organized, and the Evangelical Reformed Historical Society at Lancaster Theological Seminary. Negative results were obtained from the last two, but St. John’s UCC Dunkirk has not yet responded.
Meanwhile, the Patterson Library Archives has provided some photos of confirmation classes with names of confirmands, from 1892-3 and 1905. It is hoped that some of these names may be recognized by descendants and possibly some of these may know what happened to the records of St. Peter’s Evangelical (German) Church of Westfield NY.