UB and EUB early history

Here is a quick summary of the EUB (Evangelical United Brethren) history.

William Penn and Pennsylvania
Elizabeth and Barnabas Hughesfounding Elizabethtown
Irish Presbyterians (Mount Joy, Florin)
German Anabaptists and Brethren churches (Elizabethtown) in homes, barns, etc.
Church of God (1837) meeting house building in 1843.
UB (United Brethren) meeting house building from 1853.

William Penn (1644-1718) was an English writer, religious person and Quaker who acquired the land called Pennsylvania, named after his father, an Admiral and politician, and who was given the land to pay war debts owed to him by England.

William Penn helped found and develop the capital named "Philadelphia" which is Greek for "brotherly love" and a name of one of the seven churches at the beginning of the book of Revelation.

More: Quakers as a Society of Friends

"18 L" means 18 miles to Lancaster.
"7 M" means 7 miles to Middletown.

Elizabeth and Barnabas Hughes
Irish Presbyterians (Mount Joy, Florin)
German Anabaptists (Elizabethtown)

What were called classes were set established to evangelize in nearby areas.

The first American-born Denomination - the Church of the United Brethren in Christ - was organized in the farm barn of Isaac Long in 1767. John Long, father of Isaac, was the original owner and secured the 325 acres from the Penn's (William Penn).

On Whitsuntide, 1767, a "Great Meeting" was held in the Isaac Long barn. Among the ministers present were Martin Boehm of the Mennonite Society and Philip William Otterbein of the German Reformed Church.

1 Corinthians 16:8 But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost. [kjv]

… whit sontyde. [ty]

… Witsuntide. [wy]

In England, going back to before the Middle Ages, "Pentecost" was, and still is, known as "Whitsun" for "White Sunday" when those to be baptized would wear white.

Tyndale: whit sontyde.
Wycliffe: Wituntide.

More: Pentecost: Not just for Jews

Boehm preached the first discourse. When he had finished and before he could take his seat, Otterbein arose, embraced him exclaiming (in German), "Wir sind Bruder" (we are brothers).

The pamphlet does not use the umlaut in the German phrase "Wir sind Brüder" ≈ "We are Brethren". This phrase appears one time in the German Luther Bible.

2 Kings 10:13 Jehu met with the brethren of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, Who are ye? And they answered, We are the brethren of Ahaziah; and we go down to salute the children of the king and the children of the queen. [kjv]

… Wir sind Brüder … [lu]

There was an Otterbein Lodge at Gretna Heights (summer) church camp in Mount Gretna, PA.

2 Kings 10:13

All

KJV: Jehu met with the brethren of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, Who are ye? And they answered, We are the brethren of Ahaziah; and we go down to salute the children of the king and the children of the queen.

Hebrew: ויהוא מצא את אחי אחזיהו מלך יהודה ויאמר מי אתם ויאמרו אחי אחזיהו אנחנו ונרד לשלום בני המלך ובני הגבירה׃

Greek: και ιου ευρεν τους αδελφους οχοζιου βασιλεως ιουδα και ειπεν τινες υμεις και ειπον οι αδελφοι οχοζιου ημεις και κατεβημεν εις ειρηνην των υιων του βασιλεως και των υιων της δυναστευουσης

Luther: Da traf Jehu an die Brüder Ahasjas, des Königs Judas, und sprach: Wer seid ihr? Sie sprachen: Wir sind Brüder Ahasjas und ziehen hinab, zu grüßen des Königs Kinder und der Königin Kinder.

This demonstration of spiritual passion and expression was more than an act. It was a symbol - a symbol that characterized the genesis and the genius of that united brotherhood which when it came to full fruition was called "The Church of the United Brethren in Christ."

References are made in Bishop Newcomer's Journal to the fact that between 1796 and 1810 Boehm took part in services, especially "quarterly meetings" at the home of Christian Hershey, a mile northeast of Lancaster. Christian Hershey’s name first appears on the conference roll in 1807 and in 1814 he was appointed presiding elder of the Lancaster District.

In 1839 a United Brethern class was organized in Springville (now Mount Joy). They met in the home of George Geyer and his wife. In 1842 they built a church, it was the first United Brethren Church in Lancaster county. From this church, classes were developed in Lancaster, Ironville, Manheim, and Elizabethtown.

On February 20, 1846, the Pennsylvania Conference met in the small brick church. Bishop J. T. Glossbrenner presided. He was from Virginia, and there is a church in Churchville, Virginia near Staunton also named for him. English was his only language, and he was somewhat embarrassed because most pastors spoke German in this area. He was pleased that they made him welcome. In 1860 the Conference convened at Springville and appointed a committee to establish a school in Pennsylvania. This resulted in 1867 in the chartering of Lebanon Valley College in Annville.

The congregation outgrew the brick church and a concrete block church was built in 1907 at a cost of $3,500. It was dedicated on December 8, 1907. It also became to small, and an addition was added in 1937 to increase the Sunday School. This addition cost $10,172. J. F. Musselman from this church served as a missionary in Africa. Rev. H. K. Geyer and Rev. H. C. Kottler entered the ministry from Glossbrenner Church. Gary Epler, who is presently a minister in the United Methodist Church was nurtured by this congregation.

Our present church was built in 1960 and dedicated on June 4, 1961, under the leadership of Rev. Charles W. Wolfe.

https://glossbrenner.net/history/ (as of 2025-09-21)

Church groups usually met in the home of one of the members. The Amish still do this today. When the group became too large to meet in one house or barn, they often constructed a separate structure.

Four years later Annual Conference was held at his house and among the twenty- four ministers present were: Christopher Grosh, Christian Hershey and David Gingrich.

Christian Shuemaker, a nephew of Christian Hershey, was a member of the Board of Trustees at Florin from whom a small tract of land was bought in 1842, to build a brick church "on the north side of the pike, in the western limits of the village.". This was the first church constructed in Florin.

Itinerant and lay preachers traveling back and forth between their appointments with the Florin class and Gingrich’s (Hillsdale) class made appointments to preach in and about Elizabethtown.

In the early 1800s, the original plantations granted in this region by William Penn were divided into smaller parcels, after which three main villages emerged. Mountjoy was the eastern section of today’s borough. Richland occupied the western part, and Springville, laid out in 1812, became the Florin Ward.
Mount Joy Historical Society web page.https://www.mountjoyhistory.com/about-2/history-of-mount-joy/. (as of 2025-09-20)

One of the itinerants was the Rev. David Gingrich, Jr. (1802-1874) who lived on a farm about a mile east of Elizabethtown and was a member of the class when it was organized for worship in the village. Joseph Hammaker (1814-1877) was also a member of the Elizabethtown class and served as preacher and elder about 1850.

Preachers were plentiful in those days, there being more than three times as many preachers as there were charges They had to take their turn in serving the available conference appointments. The early work and influence of Bishop Newcomer who in 1797 "preached near Elizabethtown to a numerous congregation" and the later contributions of Gingrich, Hammaker and others, were contributing factors in beginning work at Elizabethtown.

Today, Florin is part of the west side of Mount Joy, about 5 miles from Elizabethtown.

It appears that a Congregational met here in Florin.
Various pastors made trips to Elizabethtown (Gingrich farm)
Eventually, a church building was obtained in Elizabethtown.

The (former) Elizabethtown Church of God was across the street from Truist and the Post Office. The Tom Huffman banner is in front of the Post Office.
The folks at Elizabethtown First Church of God don't know the exact day their church was founded in 1837. Worshipers met in homes and schools for 11 years before organizing the church.

Then it was another six years (1843 ) before they constructed a church, only to have it "pulled out from under them" 10 years later. It seems that the deed for the property had never been recorded, and the original owner sold the land and the building to a United Brethren congregation.

Which church owns and uses this building in 2025?

But within a year, the congregation had constructed a beautiful new church - at its present location. In 1916, that building was razed to make way for a larger church. A large education wing was added in 1962. In the 1930s, following a split in the congregation over fundamental issues, the church lost about 100 people.

https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/elizabethtown-first-church-of-god-celebrates-175-years/article_e4f8e1d1-07ee-5a57-8ded-37706e6e51cd.html (as of 2025-09-20)

St. Monica & St. Augustine Coptic Orthodox Church.

The Church of God congregation dwindled so much that they returned to the Home Church model (of Acts) and sold the building to the Coptic Orthodox Church.

Broad generalization: The Coptic Church is more conservative (using early church fathers) than the Eastern Orthodox Church (using philosophical reasoning).

Coptic is the language of the merged Greek and Egyptian language using a Greek alphabet extended to handle certain Egyptian sounds.

The Rosetta Stone, found by Napoleon's army about 1800, had on it the same inscription text in hieroglyphics, Greek, and Coptic (Egyptian with Greek influence). It took many years, but the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics were eventually deciphered and could be read.