Old First Reformed Church Records, 1741-1976

(104 boxes including 246 vols., 42 lin. feet )

Collection 3010

© The Historical Society of Pennsylvania
1300 Locust Street * Philadelphia, PA 19107
 The Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Table of contents
Abstract
The Old First Reformed Church of Philadelphia was founded as the German Reformed Church of Philadelphia in 1727. Its records document over two hundred years of one of Philadelphia's oldest congregations. The collection includes administrative, financial, pastoral, membership, and Sunday school records. Also included are materials from other church organizations and projects, church services and events, higher church bodies and related congregations, and the congregation's documentation and interpretation of its own history.

Background note
The German Reformed Church began as a branch of Calvinist Protestant Christianity doctrinally based on the Heidelberg Catechism, which was published in Germany in 1563. During the eighteenth century, many German Reformed adherents emigrated to Pennsylvania and neighboring colonies from Germany and Switzerland, often to escape wars in Europe. In the early years, they relied on lay leaders and met in private homes.

On September 21, 1727, the Rev. George Michael Weiss and 400 members of the German Reformed Church arrived in Philadelphia from the Palatinate region of western Germany. They settled in a neighborhood east of Broad Street and north of Market Street. Weiss, the first ordained German Reformed minister in North America, began holding services soon after his arrival. The congregation he organized in 1727 became Philadelphia's Old First Reformed Church.

For two decades after its founding, the Philadelphia German Reformed congregation did not have a church building. They worshipped in the home of a member, then in a small frame house on Arch Street that they shared with Philadelphia's Lutheran congregation. In 1741, the German Reformed congregation purchased a lot on the southeast corner of Fourth and Sassafras (now Race) streets. The first church building, a hexagonal structure, was completed in December 1747. The Pennsylvania Coetus of the German Reformed Church held its first meeting at the Philadelphia church that same year. (A coetus is a council of churches that is dependent on a foreign synod, or governing body.) In 1765, the Philadelphia congregation received a charter from John Penn, recognizing it as a corporation entitled to own property and receive income, among other rights.

The German Reformed congregation grew steadily during the eighteenth century, and its members became more prosperous. In 1774, the congregation replaced the hexagonal church with a new and larger building to accommodate the growing number of worshippers. The revivalist Charles Finney, who preached a series of sermons at the German Reformed Church in 1828, wrote that this second building was the largest church in Philadelphia and could seat 3,000 people.

In addition to being a place of worship, the new church was also used by non-congregants in a variety of ways both welcome and unwelcome. During the American Revolution, the British Army that occupied Philadelphia used the church as a hospital and later as a stable. The congregation's pastor, Rev. Casper Weyberg, was briefly imprisoned by the British for preaching to the Hessian soldiers and advocating U.S. independence. After the war, many citizens of Philadelphia outside the congregation contributed to repairs on the church. The new University of Pennsylvania held its commencement exercises there, and the Society of Cincinnati held a memorial service for George Washington in the church in 1800, shortly after Washington's death the previous year.

In the 1830s, deterioration of the church building and growing traffic noise on Race Street caused the congregation to build a third church, which opened in 1837. This building had the same dimensions as the second church, but was rotated 180 degrees and set back farther from the street, in an effort to reduce the impact of street noise. Although it has not been in continuous use as a house of worship, this church is the one used by the congregation today.

From the beginning, the church's administrative structure rested on the congregation, which elected the minister, elders, deacons, and trustees. The elders were responsible for spiritual oversight of the church, maintaining order, and comforting the sick; the deacons for gathering and distributing alms and paying the minister's salary; and the trustees for oversight of church property and monies. These officers, together with the minister, constituted the governing body, which was originally known as the Corporation, later the Board of Corporation, and finally the Official Board. Originally, the minister, elders, and deacons also constituted the Consistory, which oversaw the church's spiritual interests. The 1911 constitution replaced the Consistory with a Spiritual Council consisting of the minister and elders only.

Language became a major focus of conflict within the congregation in the early 1800s. Throughout the eighteenth century, services were conducted in German and the majority of records were kept in German. In 1806, after failing in an attempt to establish English-language services, a group of congregants broke away and formed the Crown Street Dutch Reformed Church, which later faded out of existence. The Dutch Reformed Church, although doctrinally similar to the German Reformed Church, was much more anglicized. By 1817, advocates of English had gained ground, and this time it was those who wanted services strictly in German who seceded to form their own congregation, the Salem Reformed Church. A petition by First Reformed congregation members the following year urged that school pupils be taught in English, and in 1819 church officials began keeping minutes and financial records in English. For a time, English and German were used alternately in services, but after 1830 English was used exclusively in worship and in most records. As late as the 1850s, however, many reports from domestic missionaries were written in German.

The German Reformed Church was one of many churches to provide basic education in the era before public schools. The Race Street congregation established a Parochial School in 1745 and built a schoolhouse behind the church in 1753. The Parochial School was also (especially later) called the Charity School, because it included a number of pupils whose families could not afford to pay tuition and whose education was subsidized by the church. The Charity School operated until about 1887. For some years, the congregation also ran a second weekday school, in the village of Kensington (now part of Philadelphia), which closed in 1827.

In 1806, the congregation established a Sunday school, the denomination's first in the United States. Founded in the midst of the language controversy, the Sunday School was set up partly to strengthen the use of German among young people. The Sunday School has continued long after the weekday Parochial School closed, and by the twentieth century oversaw several adult Bible classes as well as classes for young people at all grade levels.

In addition to the schools, the congregation maintained a cemetery on the northeast corner of Franklin Square (bounded by 8th and 7th streets and Race and Vine streets) from 1741 until 1835, when the city reclaimed the land for use as a park. At that time, some of the bodies were moved to a new graveyard at 16th and Cherry streets, while the gravestones for others were laid flat and covered over. The congregation later replaced the Cherry Street graveyard with a lot in West Laurel Hill Cemetery, which it purchased with the help of money awarded by the city.

During the nineteenth century, the area around the church became increasingly industrial and commercial, displacing many members who had lived nearby. The congregation sold the Race Street properties and bought a site at the corner of Tenth and Wallace streets (below Fairmount Avenue). A newly constructed fourth church building opened there in 1882. In 1916, declining numbers and migration by congregants once again caused the congregation to move. This time the church chose West Philadelphia, an area where Reformed missionaries had attracted a number of worshippers but no congregation had yet been established. The cornerstone of a fifth church building, at 50th and Locust streets, was laid in 1917. Services and other church activities were held in the basement until the rest of the church was completed in 1925.

In 1935, Old First Reformed Church merged with St. John's Reformed Church, located at 40th and Spring Garden streets. Founded in 1865, St. John's was known for a time as the Reformed Church of the Strangers. A decline in the number of congregants in its neighborhood led St. John's to seek a merger with Old First. The merger increased the membership in Old First Reformed Church from 593 to 689. Over the following two decades, congregation size leveled off at about 600.

Members of the Old First congregation supported and participated in a variety of projects. Charity work was conducted by a number of church organizations: the Society for Support of the Poor in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the Committee on Systematic Benevolence in the mid-nineteenth century, the Ladies' Aid Society (later renamed Local Service Group) in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Board of Domestic Missions, based at the Race Street Church but also affiliated with the larger Synod, sponsored missionaries in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and Kentucky in the mid-nineteenth century. Missionary work was later overseen by other bodies, including the Woman's Missionary Society, which in the twentieth century sponsored missionaries in China, Japan, Africa, and Mexico, as well as among American Indians in Wisconsin and European immigrants at Ellis Island. Other church organizations, such as Men of Old First and the Young People's Association, organized social gatherings and entertainment to help strengthen the local congregation.

In the 1960s, faced with declining membership in their West Philadelphia location, the Reformed congregation began an effort to return to their original site on Race Street. After buying back the property, they began restoring the 1837 church building, which had been used as a paint factory. The building was rededicated in 1969. Over the decade following the move, the congregation grew from about 100 to almost 300 members.

The Old First Reformed Church has gone through several changes in denominational affiliation. Originally, all German Reformed congregations in North America were supervised by the Dutch Reformed Church in Holland. The Synod of the German Reformed Church in the United States of America, a body independent from the European church, was formed in 1793. In 1863, it changed its name to the Reformed Church in the United States. (This denomination was distinct from the Reformed Church in America, descendent of the Dutch Reformed Church.) In 1934, most of the Reformed Church in the United States merged with the Evangelical Synod of North America, another denomination founded by German Protestants, to form the Evangelical and Reformed Church. In 1957, the Evangelical and Reformed Church merged with the Congregational Christian Churches to form the United Church of Christ (UCC).

Largely reflecting this denominational evolution, the name of the Old First Reformed Church has changed repeatedly. Originally it was known as the German Reformed Congregation or German Reformed Church, less commonly as High German Reformed Church, High German Evangelical Reformed Church, or Calvinist Congregation. Later the congregation took the name First Reformed Church. In 1876, Rev. David Van Horne wrote that it was sometimes called the Race Street Reformed Church. After the 1934 merger with the Evangelical Synod, it became the Old First Church, Evangelical and Reformed (sometimes referred to as the First Evangelical and Reformed Church). After the UCC came into being in 1957, the congregation's official name became Old First Reformed Church, United Church of Christ.


Scope and content
The records of the Old First Reformed Church document over two hundred years in the history of one of Philadelphia's oldest Protestant congregations. The church began as a community defined not only by religious belief and practices but also by German nationality and language, and much of the collection traces this community's gradual acculturation and Americanization. A pivotal stage of this process took place between 1800 and 1830, when the church shifted from German to English as its primary language of worship and record keeping. The language issue bitterly divided the congregation for much of this period. Although advocates of German-language services were defeated, the church maintained ties to its ethnic heritage, notably in its support of German-language missionaries in Pennsylvania and neighboring states in the 1850s and 1860s. Meeting minutes and correspondence in the Administrative series and missionary records in the Church Organizations and Projects series document the language issue in detail.

The collection provides extensive information about who belonged to the Old First Reformed Church and those who took part in its activities over most of its history. Lists of members, baptisms, communions, marriages, and deaths in the Pastoral and Membership series offer rich possibilities for research on genealogy and family history as well as demographic studies. The same may be said of school enrollment books in the Church Schools series and pew rental books, member contribution lists, and burial records in the Financial series, and of the counterparts to these records in the St. John's Reformed Church series. Of note is a near-complete set of Old First Reformed Church burial records from 1775 to 1879, including burial records during the yellow fever epidemics, which in 1793 and 1798 took the lives of two pastors in succession from the German Reformed congregation. Of note also is a 1957 "self-study report" of the Old First congregation and of its West Philadelphia neighborhood, in the Administrative series.

Both demographic and architectural changes are reflected in the congregation's use of five church buildings on three different sites. Among the records that trace these construction projects and moves are subscription books for building the second Race Street church in the 1770s and the fourth church at 10th and Wallace streets in 1882, a building committee daybook and minutes from 1836-1837 (all in the Financial series) and several blueprints for the fifth (West Philadelphia) church, completed in 1925 (in the Administrative series). However, the collection does not document the church's most recent move, in the 1960s, back to its third church building on the Race Street site.

The Church Schools and Church Organizations and Projects series document a number of projects sponsored by the Old First Reformed Church, particularly its educational, missionary, and charitable work, as well as church groups that sponsored social events. Particularly extensive are records of the Sunday School, which was founded in 1806 and is the oldest German Reformed Sunday school in the United States. These include administrative, financial, and enrollment records for the school and records for several adult Bible classes. The Services and Events series includes numerous programs from Sunday services, church anniversaries, and other special events, primarily from the twentieth century, and detailed "Outlines of Worship" from services during World War II. Related materials, including a number of nineteenth-century programs and sermons, can be found in the OFRC History Scrapbook in the Historical Documentation and Interpretation series.

While the Sunday School and church services and events mainly served members of the congregation, other church projects focused on outreach to non-members locally, nationally, and internationally. Such projects included charitable work by the Society for Support of the Poor and the Ladies' Aid Society (later called Local Service Group), and missionary work by the Board of Domestic Missions and Woman's Missionary Society. Other aspects of the congregation's relations with the larger community are represented in various ways, such as the 1765 charter from John Penn expressing official endorsement of the German Reformed congregation, the church's early nineteenth-century dispute with the city government over use of the Franklin Square graveyard, and letters of support and sympathy to and from other congregations during the yellow fever epidemics of the 1790s, all located in the Administrative series.

The relations between Old First and other congregations, as well as the workings of the larger Reformed Church in the United States and its successor, the Evangelical and Reformed Church, are documented in the Higher Church Bodies and Other Congregations series and the St. John's Reformed Church series.

The congregation's linguistic history is reflected in the records themselves. Before 1819, the majority of records are in German, particularly internal records such as meeting minutes and account books, as opposed to receipts and some of the correspondence, which involved more interaction with the English-speaking community. Beginning in 1819, meeting minutes and financial records were recorded in English. After 1830, nearly all records are in English, except for the majority of missionaries' reports to the Board of Domestic Missions, as well as the records of St. Paul's Church (German Evangelical-Lutheran Congregation), which are in German. Most German-language records from 1830 or earlier are in the old German script and may be largely indecipherable to readers unfamiliar with such writing. Translations of some early letters and documents are in the Historical Documentation and Interpretation series. In the inventory, asterisks are used to note the presence of German-language material in a folder or volume.

There is considerable thematic overlap between the series for various reasons. Like items were sometimes filed in different places, some volumes were used for more than one purpose, and some items are inherently related to more than one series. For example, treasurer's reports are sometimes interfiled with meeting minutes in the Administrative series, a Charity School account book in the Church Schools series also includes records of rents on church-owned properties, and pew rental and burial records include information about membership and pastoral records but are in the Financial series because they also recorded church income. Such overlaps are noted at the end of each section in the series description.

Most series contain both volumes and unbound papers. For most of the congregation's history the most important records were kept in volumes. Within each series, volumes are listed first. Series 1 (Administrative) and 3 (Financial) contain oversized materials, which are located either in Box 104 or in flat file storage.

Arrangement
Series I Administrative Boxes 1-18
Series II Pastoral and Membership Boxes 19-32
Series III Financial Boxes 33-65
Series IV Church Schools Boxes 66-81
Series V Church Organizations and Projects Boxes 82-89
Series VI Services and Events Box 90
Series VII St. John's Reformed Church Boxes 91-96
Series VIII Higher Church Bodies and Other Congregations Boxes 97-101
Series IX Historical Documentation and Interpretation Boxes 102-103


Administrative information
Restrictions on use
The collection is open for research.

Preferred citation
Cite as: [Indicate cited item or series here], Old First Reformed Church Records (Collection 3010), The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Provenance
Gift of the Old First Reformed Church, 1997.

Accession number: 970825.11

Processing notes
Processed by: Matthew Lyons

Processing Completed: December 2001

This collection was largely unorganized when it arrived at HSP. Portions that were arranged or at least grouped together before processing included many of the pre-1850 administrative and financial records, twentieth-century correspondence and minutes, anniversary materials, and Sunday School records. In processing, related materials were interfiled with or added to these materials and additional categories were created to reflect functions and organizational subdivisions within the church.

A few items were cleaned for mold in October 2001 and February 2002. These items are indicated in the inventory and on the folders and boxes.


Additional information
Related material
Other works at HSP related to the Old First Reformed Church include the following:

The 1727 Society. Newsletter of the 1727 Society of the Old First Reformed Church, UCC. Vols. 1-6 (1996-2001).

Bomberger, J. H. A. Five Years' Ministry in the German Reformed Church, in Race Street, Below Fourth, Philadelphia: An Anniversary Sermon, Preached January 8, 1860. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1860.

Early Marriage Records of Pennsylvania Churches: German Reformed Church, Philadelphia. Miami, FL: The Pennsylvania Traveler, 1965. Reprinted from the 2nd series of The Pennsylvania archives, published in 1878. Compiled by Richard T. Williams and Mildred C. Williams.

"First Reformed Church of Philadelphia." Vols. 1-4A. Collections of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, vols. 75-78 (1903-1908). Handwritten copy of Old First Reformed Church records, with German and Latin entries translated into English. Vol. 1: baptisms 1748-1785; a history of the church; William J. Hinke, "The First Fifty Years of the First Reformed Church of Philadelphia, 1727-1777" (1902); maps and discussion of Franklin Square burial ground. Vol. 2: baptisms, 1785-1813. Vol. 3: baptisms 1813-1852, marriages 1748-1852. Vol. 3A: burials 1748-1809, communicants 1768-1829. Vols. 4 and 4A: index.

First Reformed Church (Philadelphia). The Gleaner. Newsletter. Vol. 1, nos. 1-3 (1902).

Reformed Church in the United States. Minutes and Letters of the Coetus of the German Reformed Congregations in Pennsylvania, 1747-1792, Together with Three Preliminary Reports of the Rev. John Philip Boehm, 1734-1744. Philadelphia, Pa: Reformed Church Publication Board, 1903.

"Reformed Church Records of Eastern Pennsylvania." Copied by William J. Hinke. Filmed by the Genealogical Society, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1947. Part 8 includes Philadelphia First Reformed Church records transcribed by William J. Hinke, ca. 1920-1940. Pastoral records: Vol. 1, 1748-1785; Vol. 2, 1774-1789; Vol. 3, 1786-1799; Vol. 4, 1797-1805. Consistory records: Vol. 1, 1747-1753; Vol. 2, 1763-1800. In German and English. Microfilm.

Reformed German Church. Charter of the Evangelical Reformed Congregation, of the City and Vicinity of Philadelphia. Philadelphia, 1830. Rogers, William. The Prayer, Delivered on Saturday the 22d of February, 1800, in the German Reformed Church, Philadelphia, Before the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati. Philadelphia : Printed by John Ormrod, 1800.

Schaeffer, Charles Edward. History of the Classis of Philadelphia of the Reformed Church in the United States. Philadelphia, Pa.?: Classis of Philadelphia, 1944. Includes a brief discussion of the Old First Reformed Church.

Van Horne, David. A History of the Reformed Church in Philadelphia. Philadelphia, PA: Reformed Church Publication Board; Grant, Faires & Rogers, 1876.

Language(s) represented
English.

Bibliography
A Brief History of the Old First Church, Evangelical and Reformed. Booklet. Philadelphia, PA: Old First Church, 1947.

Kerschner, Harold B. "The First Sunday School of the Reformed Church in the U.S." Heidelberg Teacher, v. 52, n. 6 (June 1925), pp. 303-304.

Nolt, Steven M. "Liberty, Tyranny, and Ethnicity: The German Reformed 'Free Synod' Schism (1819-1823) and the Americanization of an Ethnic Church." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 125, nos. 1/2 (January/April 2001), pp. 35-60.

"Old First Reformed Church...Then and Now." Old First Reformed Church website.

O'Malley, Therese. Architectural History of Old First Reformed Church. Booklet. Philadelphia, PA: Old First Reformed Church, 1977.

Richards, George W. "Pioneer Ministers and Congregations of the Reformed Church in the United States." Heidelberg Teacher, v. 52, n. 6 (June 1925), pp. 299-301.

Self-Study Report. Philadelphia, PA: First Evangelical & Reformed Church (United Church of Christ), 1957.

"A Short Course in UCC History." United Church of Christ website.

Van Horne, David. A History of the Reformed Church in Philadelphia. Philadelphia, PA: Reformed Church Publication Board; Grant, Faires & Rogers, 1876.

Added entries
Subjects
  • Church records and registers-Pennsylvania-Philadelphia
  • Evangelical and Reformed Church-History-Sources
  • German Americans- History-Sources
  • German Americans-Pennsylvania-Philadelphia
  • German Reformed Church-History-Sources
  • German Reformed Congregation (Philadelphia, Pa.)- Records and correspondence
  • German Reformed Congregation (Philadelphia, Pa.)-History-Sources
  • German Reformed Congregation (Philadelphia, Pa.)-Registers
  • Marriage records-Pennsylvania-Philadelphia
  • Old First Reformed Church (Philadelphia, Pa.)-History-Sources
  • Old First Reformed Church (Philadelphia, Pa.)-Records and correspondence
  • Old First Reformed Church (Philadelphia, Pa.)-Registers
  • Philadelphia (Pa.)-Church history
  • Reformed Church in the United States-History-Sources
  • Reformed Church of the Stranger (Philadelphia, Pa.)- Records and correspondence
  • Reformed Church of the Stranger (Philadelphia, Pa.)-History-Sources
  • Reformed Church of the Stranger (Philadelphia, Pa.)-Registers
  • Registers of births, etc.-Pennsylvania-Philadelphia
  • St. John's Reformed Church (Philadelphia, Pa.)-History-Sources
  • St. John's Reformed Church (Philadelphia, Pa.)-Records and correspondence
  • St. John's Reformed Church (Philadelphia, Pa.)-Registers
  • United Church of Christ-History-Sources

    • Contact information

    The Historical Society of Pennsylvania
    [http://www.hsp.org/]
    1300 Locust Street
    Philadelphia, PA 19107

    ©2002

    Collection overview

    Series 1. Administrative
    1741-1960
    Box (Boxes 1-18)

    This series includes administrative records for the Old First Reformed Church as a whole, but not those for the church schools or organizations, or for St. John's Reformed Church before its merger with Old First. Materials include minutes, correspondence, documents concerning the graveyard in Franklin Square, and church property records.

    Minutes record meetings of the congregation and its governing bodies: the Consistory (the minister, elders, and deacons) and the Corporation (members of the Consistory plus the trustees). The Corporation was later renamed the Board of Corporation, and, in the twentieth century, the Official Board. Sets of minutes are incomplete but extensive. Those for the congregational meetings and the Corporation cover large portions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, while Consistory minutes span the years 1747-1910. Interfiled with the minutes, or copied into them, are budgets, letters, and reports from officers, committees, and church organizations. The minutes record the election of church officers and the appointment of committees, financial statements and decisions, changes in the charter and church policy, relations with the Synod and interfaith organizations, and other matters.

    The correspondence includes both incoming and outgoing letters, as well as letters to and from the pastor, the church secretary, other church officers, committees, and organizations. Most of the correspondence is arranged chronologically, except for the years 1909-1939, which are arranged alphabetically (by name of individual, organization, or, occasionally, topic) for the whole thirty-year period. Up until 1840, a few other church documents were interfiled with correspondence, such as receipts, extracts from minutes, and petitions. The correspondence documents the congregation's relations with the Synod, other churches, and a variety of other religious, community, and charitable organizations; legal opinions regarding church elections and other disputes; the appointment and resignation of church employees, including the pastor; invitations to visiting pastors to preach at the church; insurance, upkeep, purchase, and sale of church property; expressions of sympathy to sick or bereaved congregation members; and many other matters.

    Both the minutes and correspondence from about 1800 to 1830 document the debate over whether to use German, English, or both in church services and in school classes.

    Papers concerning the Franklin Square graveyard include survey maps, indentures, correspondence, and legal opinions. These records document creation of the graveyard and the congregation's protracted discussions with the state and city governments, the latter's eventual decision to reclaim the land for use as a park, and the state law granting the congregation a new lot for burial purposes.

    Most of the property records concern church-owned lands in Luzerne County, which the State of Pennsylvania awarded to the German Reformed Congregation as compensation for educating "charity" students. The church believed the land to be of little value and tried to sell it, eventually losing title for failure to pay the taxes. These records include a survey map, powers of attorney for men empowered by the congregation to sell the land, and their reports on the land's condition and the prospects for selling it.

    In addition, Series 1 also includes several editions of the church's constitution and bylaws, opinions of counsel regarding church elections, statistical reports about the church from the 1940s and 1950s, and a few official government documents, notably a 1763 statement of permission from the governor to raise money for a new church building. A copy of the congregation's 1765 charter is included in the volume of Minutes of the Consistory and receipts (1741-1808) in Box 1.

    Related materials in other series:

    William J. Hinke's translations and transcriptions of approximately 100 early (1755-1835) congregation letters and documents are in Series 9 (Historical Documentation and Interpretation). The Old First Reformed Church scrapbook, also in Series 9, contains further excerpts and translations from several congregation documents (1734-1795), as well as the congregation's 1847 by-laws.




    Series 2. Pastoral and Membership
    1747-1964
    Box (Boxes 19-32)

    Pastoral records include records of baptisms, confirmations, communions, marriages, and deaths. These records are incomplete but extensive for the years 1748-1955. Membership records in this series include handwritten lists, membership certificates, and letters of transfer and dismission, and cover most of the years 1759-1789 and 1833-1950. There are also several printed directories published between 1933 and 1951.

    Pastoral records often record not only a person's name but also address and other information. Baptismal records include names of the parents and date of birth. Early marriage records sometimes list occupation, whether a person was a widow or widower, and whether a bride was a "youngwoman" (literal translation of Jungfrau, i.e., a virgin). Death records may list dates of birth and death, the cemetery where the person is buried, and names of survivors.

    Related materials in other series:

    Records of pew rents and member contributions, subscription lists for specific funds, and wills and bequests are all filed in Series 3 (Financial) because they chiefly concern church income. Burial records, the majority of which list payments for graves, are also located in Series 3, except for burial information in general volumes of pastoral records. Church School roll books (in Series 5, Church Organizations and Projects) also provide membership information. Pastoral and membership records for St. John's Reformed Church before its merger with Old First Reformed Church are in Series 8 (St. John's Reformed Church). Some letters of transfer and dismission, and some letters concerning execution of wills, are included in the correspondence files in Series 1 (Administrative). Family history notes, clippings, and photographs on several families that may have included congregation members are in Series 9 (Historical Documentation and Interpretation).




    Series 3. Financial
    1752-1963
    Box (Boxes 33-65)

    This series includes financial records of the church as a whole, but not those of the church schools or organizations. The records are divided into three categories: income, expenses, and combined accounts that list both income and expenses. Combined accounts cover most of the years 1781-1926 and 1953-1962 and include cash books, ledgers, treasurer's reports and summaries, as well as accounts for specific funds, such as construction of a new church building or schoolhouse.

    The most extensive income records are pew rents (1771-1889) and contributions of members (1911-1963), both of which are nearly complete for the years indicated. Other income records list plate collections, rent from church-owned properties, burial payments, bonds (loans to the church), wills and bequests, and subscriptions for specific funds. Burial records often note whether the person buried is a child or infant. A large proportion of them were.

    Expense records include bills and receipts, orders drawn on the treasurer, lists of payments, contractors' estimates, and checkbook stubs, and represent most years between 1761 and 1958.

    Related materials in other series:

    Series 3 does not include financial records for the Church School, church organizations, or St. John's Reformed Church before its merger with Old First Reformed Church. These records are in Series 4, 5, and 7, respectively. In addition, most treasurer's reports and budgets are interfiled with the minutes in Series 1 (Administrative). A few early receipts and other financial documents are included among the translated and transcribed documents in Series 9 (Historical Documentation and Interpretation)




    Series 4. Church Schools
    1801-1967
    Box (Boxes 66-81)

    This series documents the schools and classes sponsored by the Old First Reformed Church. A weekday school known as the Parochial School or Charity School operated from 1745 until about 1887. A Sunday school, referred to also in the records as the Sabbath School or, in the twentieth century, simply as the Church School, was founded in 1806 and continues to this day. In the twentieth century, several adult Bible classes, including the Crusaders men's class, the Good Samaritans, and the Servae Regis class, functioned as semi-autonomous organizations under the auspices of the Sunday School.

    The records for the Parochial School include several volumes labeled Charity School account books, covering most of the years 1801-1887, and a register of children for the years 1808-1819. (No records from the Kensington weekday school have been preserved, although it is mentioned in Corporation minutes.)

    The Sunday School records include minutes of the governing body, financial records, and enrollment and attendance records. The school's governing body, formed in 1849, was known by several names: Sabbath School Association, Sunday School Association, Teachers Association, Church School Association, and, after 1948, the Committee on Christian Education. This body oversaw the curriculum, school budget, enrollment and promotion of students, school library, and special events such as sending students to youth conferences. The minutes of this body cover the years 1849-1931 and 1944-1959; reports of school-related activities are interfiled with the minutes. Financial records span the years 1878-1958 and include daybooks, ledgers, treasurer's reports, receipts, bank statements, and check stubs. Some treasurer's reports are also interfiled with the minutes. Enrollment and attendance records represent the years 1889-1926 and 1949-1965. Some of these records also list contributions collected from students.

    Records for the adult classes include Crusaders Class minutes, reports, correspondence, and financial records, mostly from the years 1919-1967, and Good Samaritan Class minutes and reports from 1904-1908 and 1938-1958. Both of these classes organized social gatherings in addition to their study sessions; the Crusaders, at least, also chose their own teacher and took some interest in public affairs, as indicated by a 1919 letter to the governor on Prohibition.

    The series also includes one box of pamphlets and flyers that make up a "Superintendent's Kit" produced by the Board of Christian Education of the Evangelical and Reformed Church, ca. 1950. The kit provides suggestions to church schools on training, organization, curriculum design, and other areas.

    Related materials in other series:

    One copy of the Reformed Church's educational periodical, Heidelberg Teacher, is in Series 8 (Higher Church Bodies and Other Congregations). Some programs for Sunday School events are in the Old First Reformed Church scrapbook in Series 9 (Historical Documentation and Interpretation).




    Series 5. Church Organizations and Projects
    1792-1961
    Box (Boxes 82-89)

    This series documents the work of a range of organizations and projects affiliated with Old First Reformed Church from the 1790s to the mid-twentieth century. Volumes and papers are each arranged alphabetically by name of organization or project, and for each group may include constitution and bylaws, minutes, reports, correspondence, member lists, and financial records. The principal groups represented are: Board of Domestic Missions, Woman's Missionary Society, Society for Support of the Poor, Ladies' Aid Society, Young People's Association, and Men Of Old First.

    The Board of Domestic Missions was headquartered at Old First Reformed Church, although it also had ties with the larger Synod. Its records (1852-1865) include reports from missionaries in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and Kentucky. Many of the reports are in German, reflecting the denomination's continuing focus on German-speaking communities a generation after the Philadelphia congregation had fully embraced English. Filed after the Board's papers are a few related records of late nineteenth-century missionary work. The Woman's Missionary Society supported missionary work both in the United States and abroad. Its files (1898-1942) include letters from missionaries in rural Mexico and British East Africa, at girls' schools in Japan and China, with Winnebago Indians in Wisconsin, and with European immigrants on Ellis Island, New York, and in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

    The records of the Society for Support of the Poor (1792-1822) include a printed set of regulations and lists of monthly payments and the poor families receiving them. One century later, the Ladies' Aid Society conducted fundraising, provided charitable gifts to poor people and orphans, and visited the sick. The Society was renamed the Local Service Group in approximately 1942. Its records span the years 1897-1946.

    The Young People's Association also did some charity work as well as fundraising for various church projects, but concentrated more on social events such as parties, picnics, and trips. Founded in 1919, it changed its name in 1931 to the Good Fellowship Club and disbanded in 1942 when World War II caused attendance to fall. Papers in its files, however, span 1917-1954. Men Of Old First, whose records cover 1949-1961, concentrated on organizing social events such as dances and concerts.

    Related materials in other series:

    Some reports by organizations to the Congregation or the governing board are filed in the minutes and reports section of Series 1 (Administrative). Some letters between church organizations and the pastor or other church officers are filed in the correspondence section of Series 1. Some programs for events sponsored by the Ladies' Aid Society, the Missionary Society, and the Woman's Missionary Society are in the Old First Reformed Church scrapbook in Series 9 (Historical Documentation and Interpretation). Records of the Woman's Missionary Society of St. John's Church, before the latter's merger with Old First, are in Series 7 (St. John's Reformed Church). Records of the Philadelphia Classis Woman's Missionary Society and the national and regional Evangelical and Reformed Church Women's Guilds are in Series 8 (Higher Church Bodies and Other Congregations). (A classis is a church district or council below the level of a synod.)




    Series 6. Services and Events
    1877-1976
    Box (Box 90)

    This series contains notes for worship services from the years 1939-1943, service programs from 1888 to 1952, and programs, correspondence, and other items documenting a number of Old First Reformed Church's major anniversary celebrations between 1877 and 1952. Of particular note are the 1939-1943 "outlines of worship," a detailed compilation of themes, litanies, hymns, and prayers. Themes addressed in this World War II-era document include racial reconciliation, world peace, and the four freedoms. There are also a few copies of the congregation's monthly bulletins The Gleaner (1902-1923) and The Restorator (1976).

    Related materials in other series:

    A few service and anniversary programs are interfiled with minutes and reports in Series 1 (Administrative). Records of events sponsored by church organizations, such as dinners, are filed under the name of the organization in Series 6 (Church Organizations and Projects). Some programs for events are in the Old First Reformed Church scrapbook in Series 9 (Historical Documentation and Interpretation).




    Series 7. St. John's Reformed Church
    1865-1938
    Box (Boxes 91-96)

    In 1935, Old First Reformed Church merged with St. John's Reformed Church, located at 40th and Spring Garden streets. Founded in 1865, St. John's was known for a time as the Reformed Church of the Strangers. The series includes a complete set of Consistory minutes for the period of St. John's existence, as well as shorter runs of minutes for meetings of the Congregation and the Board of Trustees. There is also correspondence; pastoral, membership, and financial records; a treasurer's book from the congregation's Woman's Missionary Society; and papers documenting the merger with Old First Reformed Church.

    Related materials in other series:

    Some correspondence between St. John's and First Church before the merger, as well as the merger agreement itself, is filed under St. John's Church in the correspondence files in Series 1 (Administrative).




    Series 8. Higher Church Bodies and Other Congregations
    1863-1960
    Box (Boxes 97-101)

    This series contains magazines, newspapers, yearbooks, reports and proceedings, minutes, pamphlets, newsletters, and correspondence. There are several issues of the Reformed Church's general periodical, The Messenger (1874-1927), and one 1925 issue of its educational periodical, Heidelberg Teacher. There are annual meeting proceedings from the Evangelical and Reformed Church's Philadelphia synod and national and regional Women's Guilds, all from the 1950s, reports from the Reformed Church's Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (1884) and the Woman's Missionary Society for the Philadelphia Classis, or district council (1934-1935), Evangelical and Reformed Church stewardship pamphlets from the 1940s, and a few other regional and national Reformed Church publications.

    There is an 1833 report from the Philadelphia City Mission, an interdenominational body.

    The series also contains publications and records of other congregations. There are minutes, reports, programs, letters, and other items from the German Evangelical-Lutheran Congregation of St. Paul's Church (1908-1951, mostly in German). There are anniversary programs and other brief printed materials from the Heidelberg Evangelical and Reformed Church, and St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church, both of Philadelphia, as well as Central Schwenkfelder Church (Worcester, PA), Christ Church, Evangelical and Reformed (Alexandria, PA), Christ Evangelical & Reformed Church at Indian Creek, and Falkner Swamp Reformed Church. (St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church building was originally used by former members of Old First Reformed Church who founded a separate, short-lived congregation in 1763.)

    Within this series, items from the Reformed Church and the Evangelical and Reformed Church precede items from other church denominations and follow this order: national church general publications, specialized national church bodies, regional bodies, synod bodies, classis bodies.

    Related materials in other series:

    Correspondence with higher church bodies and with other congregations is included in Series 1 (Administrative). There is a separate series (Series 7) for materials from St. John's Reformed Church, which merged with Old First Reformed Church in 1935.




    Series 9. Historic Documentation and Interpretation
    1820-1959
    Box (Boxes 102-103)

    This series contains items related to efforts by the Old First Reformed Church and others to document and interpret the history of the congregation, Philadelphia, and individual families. Materials include correspondence, lists, typescripts, pamphlets, notes, newspaper clippings, invitations, programs, and photographs.

    Between the 1920s and 1940s, Dr. William J. Hinke transcribed many older congregation records, translating some of those that were in German. Typed copies of approximately 100 of these translations and transcriptions, from 1755 to 1835, are included in this series. These items are included in a list of 165 documents that Dr. Hinke compiled in 1924, spanning the years 1755-1886. A handwritten original and a typed copy of the list are included in this series. The series also includes a list of Old First Reformed Church records compiled for the Civil Works Administration (a federal agency that existed from 1933 to 1935), as well as correspondence regarding the copying and preserving of old congregation records.

    The Old First Reformed Church scrapbook, which has been disbound, contains a variety of material from 1837-1913 (bulk 1863-1888), most of which are not found elsewhere in the collection. Items are mostly printed and include church by-laws (including the 1847 by-laws), programs for services and events, news clippings, invitations, pamphlets, fundraising appeals, several printed sermons by Rev. David Van Horne from the 1880s, and excerpts and translations from congregation documents, 1734-1795. Events sponsored by the Sunday School, Missionary Society, Woman's Missionary Society, and Ladies' Aid Society are well represented. The arrangement of items is not chronological.

    Interpretive writings about the congregation's history include a sermon by Rev. David Van Horne on the history of the Sunday School and a 1947 booklet entitled A Brief History of Old First Church, commissioned by the congregation for its 220th anniversary.

    This series also includes a scrapbook of newspaper clippings (1820-1919) on Philadelphia history and other topics. Of note is a series of clippings on the history of Philadelphia religious denominations, including the Reformed Church (pp. 55-58).

    Other materials include a few pamphlets and articles on Pennsylvania German communities, notes and clippings on the Seal, Baily, Daniel, Lohmire, and Hayes families, and photographic copies of old photographs of members of the Seal, Hayes, and other families.




    Collection inventory

     

    Series I. Administrative


    Volumes


    Minutes of the Consistory (1763-1808) and receipts (1741-66)**
    1741-1808
    Vol. 1

    Minutes of the Consistory (1747-53) and ledger (1760-1802)**
    1747-1802
    Vol. 2

    Minutes of the Consistory (1792-1809) and treasurer's accounts (1793)**
    1792-1809
    Vol. 2

    Minutes of the Consistory**
    1808-1818
    Vol. 3

    Minutes of the Consistory
    1852-1906
    Vol. 3

    Minutes of the Consistory
    1909-1910
    Vol. 4

    Minutes of the Corporation*
    1818-1835
    Vol. 4

    Minutes of the Corporation
    1835-1861
    Vol. 5

    Minutes of the Corporation and Board of Corporation
    1861-1903
    Vol. 6

    Minutes of the Board of Corporation
    1903-1919
    Vol. 7

    Minutes of the Board of Corporation
    1920-1929
    Vol. 8

    Minutes of the Board of Corporation
    1930-1941
    Vol. 9

    Minutes of the Board of Corporation
    1942-1951
    Vol. 10

    Register of miscellaneous writings
    1741-1817
    Vol. 11

    Letter book* [fragile]
    1751-1883
    Vol. 11

    Register of letters*
    1773-1813
    Vol. 11

    Vestry memorandum book
    1784-1789
    Vol. 11

    b. Files


    Constitutions and bylaws
    1837-1911
    5 items
    Box 12: 1

    Congregational meetings - minutes, elections, reports*
    1832-1882
    13 items
    Box 12: 2

    Congregational meetings - minutes, elections, reports
    1888-1892, n. d.
    11 items
    Box 12: 3

    Congregational meetings - minutes, annual reports
    1919-1923
    2 items
    Box 12: 4

    Budgets (printed cards)
    1930-1942
    5 items
    Box 12: 5

    Congregational meetings - minutes, annual reports
    1933-1937
    56 items
    Box 12: 6

    Congregational meetings - minutes, annual reports
    1938-1940
    60 items
    Box 12: 7

    Congregational meetings - resolutions, reports
    1941-1946
    11 items
    Box 12: 8

    Treasurer's annual reports
    1945-1948
    4 items
    Box 12: 9

    Congregation - annual reports, budgets
    1949-1953
    18 items
    Box 12: 10

    Congregational meetings - minutes, annual reports, budgets
    1954-1957
    7 items
    Box 12: 11

    Congregational meetings - minutes, annual reports, budgets
    1958
    24 items
    Box 12: 12

    Congregational meetings - annual reports, budgets
    1959-1960
    9 items
    Box 12: 13

    Corporation - resolutions, reports
    1834-1871, n. d.
    14 items
    Box 12: 14

    Board of Corporation - minutes, reports
    1888-1892
    18 items
    Box 12: 15

    Board of Corporation - minutes, reports
    1917-1921
    2 items
    Box 12: 16

    Official Board and committees - lists of members
    1932-1946, n. d.
    13 items
    Box 12 : 17

    Official Board - resolutions, officers' and committee reports
    1940-1949
    49 items
    Box 12: 18

    Official Board - officers' and committee reports
    1950-1951, n. d.
    13 items
    Box 12: 19

    Official Board - officers' and committee reports
    Jan.-June 1952
    38 items
    Box 13: 1

    Official Board - officers' and committee reports
    July-Dec. 1952
    50 items
    Box 13: 2

    Official Board - officers' and committee reports
    1953
    4 items
    Box 13: 3

    Official Board minutes, officers' and committee reports
    1954
    98 items
    Box 13: 4

    Official Board minutes, officers' and committee reports
    1955
    88 items
    Box 13: 5

    Official Board minutes, officers' and committee reports
    1956
    79 items
    Box 13: 6

    Official Board minutes, officers' and committee reports
    1957
    79 items
    Box 13: 7

    Official Board minutes, officers' and committee reports
    Jan.-Aug. 1958
    49 items
    Box 13: 8

    Official Board minutes, officers' and committee reports
    Aug.-Dec. 1958
    29 items
    Box 13: 9

    Official Board minutes, officers' and committee reports
    1959
    79 items
    Box 13: 10

    Official Board - treasurer's monthly reports
    May 1951-Jan. 1959
    100 items
    Box 14: 1

    Official Board - officers' and committee reports
    n. d. (ca. 1950s)
    2 items
    Box 14: 2

    Correspondence and documents**
    1759-1789
    9 items
    Box 14: 3

    Conrad Rush and Martin Thomas indenture
    1771
    1 item
    Box 104:

    Correspondence and documents**
    1791-1799
    6 items
    Box 14: 4

    Correspondence and documents**
    1801-1805
    10 items
    Box 14: 5

    Correspondence and documents**
    1806-1808
    10 items
    Box 14: 6

    Correspondence and documents**
    1811-1815
    10 items
    Box 14: 7

    Correspondence and documents**
    1816-1817
    8 items
    Box 14: 8

    Correspondence and documents*
    1818-1820
    12 items
    Box 14: 9

    Correspondence and documents*
    1821-1829
    12 items
    Box 14: 10

    Correspondence and documents
    Jan.-May 1830
    7 items
    Box 14: 11

    Correspondence and documents*
    June-Oct. 1830
    8 items
    Box 14: 12

    Correspondence and documents (English language)
    n. d., ca. 1770-1830
    7 items
    Box 14: 13

    Correspondence and documents (German language)**
    n. d., ca. 1770-1830
    9 items
    Box 14: 14

    Correspondence and documents
    1831-1840
    10 items
    Box 14: 15

    Correspondence
    1841-1869
    27 items
    Box 14: 16

    Correspondence
    1870-1890
    19 items
    Box 15: 1

    Correspondence
    1891-1898
    10 items
    Box 15: 2

    Correspondence - A
    1913-1933
    18 items
    Box 15: 3

    Correspondence - Ba-Be
    1913-1934
    21 items
    Box 15: 4

    Correspondence - Bo
    1913-1934
    32 items
    Box 15: 5

    Correspondence - Br-Bz
    1913-1934
    45 items
    Box 15: 6

    Correspondence - Ca-Ch
    1909-1937
    20 items
    Box 15: 7

    Correspondence - Cl-Cz
    1909-1937, n. d.
    35 items
    Box 15: 8

    Correspondence - D
    1910-1936, n. d.
    35 items
    Box 15: 9

    Correspondence - E
    1913-1935
    30 items
    Box 15: 10

    Correspondence - F
    1919-1938
    17 items
    Box 15: 11

    Correspondence - G
    1914-1933
    42 items
    Box 15: 12

    Correspondence - H
    1914-1939, n. d.
    49 items
    Box 15: 13

    Correspondence - I-J
    1911-1933
    24 items
    Box 15: 14

    Correspondence - Ka-Ke
    1915-1939
    34 items
    Box 15: 15

    Correspondence - Kl-Kz
    1923-1939
    13 items
    Box 15: 16

    Correspondence - L
    1909-1939
    28 items
    Box 15: 17

    Correspondence - M
    1914-1937
    35 items
    Box 16: 1

    Correspondence - N-O
    1922-1939, n. d.
    29 items
    Box 16: 2

    Correspondence - Pa-Ph
    1918-1939, n. d.
    44 items
    Box 16: 3

    Correspondence - Pl-Q
    1916-1934
    20 items
    Box 16: 4

    Correspondence - R
    1913-1939
    44 items
    Box 16: 5

    Correspondence - Sa-Se
    1909-1939
    37 items
    Box 16: 6

    Correspondence - Sh-Sz
    1909-1939
    38 items
    Box 16: 7

    Correspondence - T-V
    1918-1936
    10 items
    Box 16: 8

    Correspondence - W-Z
    1913-1937
    44 items
    Box 16: 9

    Correspondence - form letters
    1913-1938
    11 items
    Box 16: 10

    Correspondence
    1940
    33 items
    Box 16: 11

    Correspondence
    1941
    23 items
    Box 16: 12

    Correspondence
    1942
    21 items
    Box 16: 13

    Correspondence
    1943
    12 items
    Box 16: 14

    Correspondence
    1944
    44 items
    Box 16: 15

    Correspondence
    1945
    27 items
    Box 16: 16

    Correspondence
    1946
    45 items
    Box 16: 17

    Correspondence
    1947-1955
    8 items
    Box 16: 18

    Official Board and Secretary - correspondence
    1956
    37 items
    Box 16: 19

    Official Board - correspondence
    1957, n. d.
    14 items
    Box 16: 20

    Official Board - correspondence
    1958
    26 items
    Box 16: 21

    Graveyard in Franklin Square [cleaned for mold 2/02]
    1741-1797
    10 items
    Box 17: 1

    Graveyard in Franklin Square
    1801
    11 items
    Box 17: 2

    Petition concerning new burial ground, 17th Street and Cherry
    12 January 1801
    1 item
    Box 17: 3

    Graveyard in Franklin Square
    1805-1819
    9 items
    Box 17: 4

    Graveyard in Franklin Square
    1821-1830
    8 items
    Box 17: 5

    Graveyard in Franklin Square
    1831-1834
    8 items
    Box 17: 6

    Graveyard in Franklin Square
    1835
    7 items
    Box 17: 7

    Graveyard in Franklin Square
    Feb.-Mar. 1836
    9 items
    Box 17: 8

    Graveyard in Franklin Square
    Apr. 1836-1837
    5 items
    Box 17: 9

    Graveyard in Franklin Square
    n. d.
    9 items
    Box 17: 10

    Luzerne County lands*
    1789-1801
    8 items
    Box 17: 11

    Luzerne County lands*
    1813-1820
    6 items
    Box 17: 12

    Luzerne County lands
    1821-1826
    11 items
    Box 17: 13

    Luzerne County lands
    1829-1838
    12 items
    Box 17: 14

    Luzerne County lands
    1839-1840
    10 items
    Box 17: 15

    Luzerne County lands - letter to Charles Schreiner
    1840
    1 item
    Box 104:

    Luzerne County lands
    1841-1843
    15 items
    Box 17: 16

    Luzerne County lands
    1844-1855
    11 items
    Box 17: 17

    Luzerne County lands**
    n. d.
    1 item
    Box 17: 18

    Luzerne County lands - survey map
    n. d.
    1 item
    Box 104:

    Permission by Governor for Rothenbuhler, Jacob Roth, and Conrad Alster to collect £1500 for a new church
    1 June 1763
    1 item
    Box Flat file:

    Permission by Governor for Rothenbuhler, Jacob Roth, and Conrad Alster to collect £1500 for a new church (transcription)
    1 June 1763
    1 item
    Box 18: 1

    Registration of congregation name with Pennsylvania Department of State
    1968
    6 items
    Box 18: 2

    Opinions of counsel on various questions relating to elections affecting the Corporation
    1804-1847
    14 items
    Box 18: 3