45 Cemetery Rd
New Ringgold
Schuylkill County
Pennsylvania USA
Postal Code: 17960
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Cemetery notes and/or description:
45 Cemetery Rd
New Ringgold, PA 17960
(570) 386-5111
Zion Stone Church is located in West Penn Township., Schuylkill county, about seven miles south of Tamaqua and about a quarter mile west of Route 309 on Cemetery Road. The church was organized in 1790 when a group of people withdrew from Friedens Church, New Ringgold. The first church building, built in 1790, was made of logs. An application for 100 acres of land to be used by the united congregations - Evangelical Lutheran and German Reformed - was made by John Michael Hoppes on June 2, 1768. On Januarey 21, 1773, the Right, Title, Claim and Demand was conveyed to Trustees George Gilbert, Adam Zanger, Jacob Mertz and George Schellhamer in trust for the use of both congregations. Mr. Hoppes was a member of the Lutheran Church. Some records indicate that a Mr. Miller of the Reformed Church also donated some of the land. The congregation was organized by Rev. Herman Jacob Schellhart who had held services in schools, barns, and private homes for 13 years prior to the building of the church and he continued to serve the congregation until 1807.
In 1846 the old wooden church was torn down and in its place was erected a stone building. The church was dedicated on October 11 and 12 of the same year. A constitution governing both the Lutheran and Reformed congregations was drawn up in 1846 and in 1850 a schoolhouse and dwelling house were constructed by the members of Zion Church, with the stone hauled from the Blue Mountain by wagon. In 1866, the first church organ was installed and in 1878, sheds for the horses were constructed by memebers. Theses sheds stood until 1943 when the last of them was torn down. The Church steeple was erected in 1883. |
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