While the Plain People were among the earliest and most unique settlers in Lancaster County, they were soon followed in large numbers by the so-called church people of Europe: the Lutherans, the Reformed, the Moravians, the members of the Church of England and the Church of Scotland, whose descendants today constitute a large majority of the inhabitants of this county.
The Lutherans who probably outnumber the members of any other religious denomination in Lancaster County, were among the earliest settlers having been associated with New Sweden as early as 1643. Many of their churches were founded in the county in the second quarter of the 18th century. The New Holland Trinity Church dates from 1730. The old Warwick Church at Brickerville records baptisms from 1731. St. Michael’s in Strasburg has a similar entry on May 1, 1730. Then there is the story of Old Trinity in Lancaster, with its beginning in 1729, the year in which Lancaster County was established. Its church building and school house were commenced in 1734.
The German Reformed Church people, coming from the Palatinate, were in the Conestoga Valley before 1725. For the next few years religious meetings were conducted in private houses by Conrad Tempelmann. On October 15, 1727 the first Reformed communion service was held in what is now known as Heller’s Church in Upper Leacock Township. When Lancaster became a Townstead, there were Reformed congregations at Lancaster, Cocalico and Zeltenreich.
Among the churches that branched from Heller’s Church was the First Reformed congregation in Lancaster. Its log church was built and dedicated in 1734 on a plot of ground given by James Hamilton.
Among the 18th century Reformed congregations in Lancaster County are Maytown, Muddy Creek, Bethany near Ephrata, Zion’s at Brickerville; Christ Church, Elizabethtown; St. Stephens, New Holland; Zeltenreich, near New Holland; Zion, New Providence; Swamp, West Cocalico; St. Paul’s, Manheim.
Lancaster County is one of the centres of the Moravian Church in America. The Lititz congregation was organized soon after 1742, following the visit of Count Zinzendorf. The original Gemeinhaus was dedicated a few years later. Trombones were substituted for French horns in the church orchestra in 1770.
TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH
The Moravian Church in Lancaster has an interesting history. Count Zinzendorf preached in the Court House in Center Square, Lancaster, in 1742, when he was asked by some of his hearers to send a regular preacher to serve them. When Bishop Spangenberg preached in the Court House and advocated a merger of the church denominations, he was pelted with stones. The result was that the Moravians of Lancaster erected a stone church of their own on the corner of Orange and Market streets. It is recorded that the brethren gathered from Warwick to Lancaster to haul stone for the building, fifteen men and eight wagons in two days bringing in 94 large loads of the finest stone.
The ministrations of the Church of England came to the Lancaster County area very early. The rector of St. David’s Episcopal Church is known to have made journeys on the road to Conestoga in 1717 and to have designed to preach there once a month.