Published: May 30, 2008 11:41 pm      

Church’s records survived 1889 Flood

Silt from 1889 Flood mud remains between the pages of two record books retained in the archives of Zion Lutheran Church, Jackson and Locust streets.

The Zion Church of that day was swept away by floodwaters on the afternoon of May 31, 1889, along with the parsonage across Jackson Street, the church school and much of Johnstown.

At least 46 members of the German Lutheran parish perished, along with the pastor and his family.

Pastor Philip Lichtenberg had come to Johnstown only about three weeks before the flood. It is believed he was at work in the church office when the flood struck. His wife, Anna Blandner Lichtenberg, and their four children may have been in the parsonage.

The bodies of Lichtenberg and his wife were found some time later in the area of the Sandyvale Cemetery, about a mile from the church site.

Clutched in the minister’s arms were two church record books, containing lists of baptisms and marriages. Other books containing names and dates of confirmations and deaths were lost.

“He was holding them in his hands,” said Mary Blough, administrative secretary at Zion, who prizes the books highly.

She pointed out one place in the one book in which the silt left a stain that, with a little imagination and faith, could be interpreted as the image of Jesus on the cross, with arms outstretched, head hanging low over his chest and rib cage.

One can touch the silt stains that radiate from the center binding, and feel dust.

At one time, the Rev. Wilbert Boerstler, who served Zion as an interim pastor in 2002, got a bit of the flood mud dust in his right eye and it became infected. He said he treated it himself and the eye healed.

“We have here the original 1889 flood silt,” Boerstler said.

The record books are written in old German and are difficult to read, even for modern German language scholars.

Though the writing is fanciful, it is possible to read some of the names the books contain.

For instance, the first baptism recorded was that of Dorothea Amanda Zimmerman, daughter of Karl Zimmerman, Dec. 27, 1852. Descendants of the Zimmermans still live in Johnstown, Blough said, but not by that name.

The last baptism recorded in the book was that of Bertha Kuckuck. Lichtenberg performed that baptism May 22, 1889, just eight days before the flood.

“When the new church was built, they never excavated the basement,” Boerstler said. “It is still the same as the flooded ground. The flood silt remains undisturbed.”

“We call it (the basement) the catacombs,” Blough said. She added that it is not believed that any undiscovered bodies remain there, but the old foundations and pillars help support the present church.

Pastor Lichtenberg and his family were buried in Sandyvale Cemetery. Some time later, family members in Philadelphia had the bodies exhumed and reinterred there.

One of the church bells was swept away and was found later in Cambria City, where a policeman saw some children pounding on it and recognized the bell. Although the bell was recovered and is in use today, it required a court action for the church to get it back.

Zion’s congregation refused to give up despite the devastation. Within a month of the flood, three church council meetings were held to plan for rebuilding. Karl Bader was president of the council and Adam Rhode was secretary.

Zion Church had an interesting beginning.

Although German settlers had held services there earlier, the actual congregation was formed by the Rev. Theobald G. Kleis, a German who had attended seminary in Switzerland and came to America to establish a German Evangelical Lutheran presence in Texas in 1850, including in San Antonio.

Kleis apparently contracted malaria in Texas and left there for a colder climate, originally headed for Minnesota. On the way, he somehow heard of the spiritual needs of German settlers in Johnstown and came here, instead, in September 1852.

A congregation was organized and an old English Brethren Church at Jackson and Main streets was rented until a new church could be erected on a lot purchased at Jackson and Locust. Pastor Kleis laid the cornerstone on June 26, 1853.

The climate here did not prove a cure for the minister’s malaria. He died Oct. 7, 1853, at age 27. He was buried in the old Levergood Cemetery along Vine Street, but his body was moved to the first lot inside the entrance to Sandyvale Cemetery.

Zion Lutheran Church now has a membership list of nearly 700, with about 400 active members. The pastor is the Rev. Michael A. VanDyke.