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| Notes for John Casper Stoever II | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dabringhausen is a parish in Rheinland, Germany. Luedorff is presumably the village. From "German Lutheran and Reformed Churches in the Pennsylvania Field, 1717-1793" by Charles Glatfelter: John Casper Stoever the younger. Lutheran. According to his autobiography, was born December 21, 1707, at Luedorff, Berg, Lower Palatinate. Son of John Casper Stoever the elder. Studied Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French and theology under a succession of private teachers, including his father and four pastors, one of whom was Valentine Kraft. Arrived in Philadelphia September 11, 1728, in company with his father. After one signature to the required oaths, there is the abbreviation "Miss.," while after the other there is "S.S. Theol. Stud." They arrived just thirty days after the death of Anthony Jacob Henkel. In his autobiography, Stoever wrote that, during the voyage down the Rhine and across the ocean, he had preached on Sundays and that, upon his arrival in Pennsylvania, he had continued to do so. Taken literally, these words mean that there was no break in this activity on his part, and that Stoever became a preacher in the Pennsylvania field--if not a pastor--in September 1728. Given the recent death of Henkel, there was a pressing need (and it was also a growing need) for both preaching and administration of the sacraments. Probably Stoever did not begin his private or personal register of baptisms and marriages, in the form in which we now have it, until after 1740, about the time he began opening registers for several of his congregations. The earliest baptism he entered--though not necessarily the first which he performed--was dated November 19, 1729. Between then and December 1731 he performed fifty-nine which appear in the register. The earliest marriage entered--though again not necessarily the first performed--was dated March 18, 1730. He recorded ten marriages performed in that year and an equal number in 1731. There are no lists of communicants and confirmands in his private record. It is possible that he did not begin administering communion and confirming until after he was ordained, but the heading of his marriage register demonstrates the position he believed he held in the spring of 1730: "Record of persons united in Matrimony by me, John Casper Stoever, Evangelical Lutheran Minister in Pennsylvania, Anno 1730." Sought to regularize his ministry by receiving ordination. The Swedish Lutheran clergy refused him, arguing that they had no authority from their church in Europe for such an act. Nor did they offer to seek the necessary permission to examine and ordain him, as they might well have done. Stoever next turned to Daniel Falckner, pastor in New Jersey, who in 1731 listened to him preach a sermon and then also refused his request. Shortly before this, and after an irregular ministry of three years, Philip Boehm had secured the assistance of Dutch Reformed pastors in New York in obtaining his ordination in 1729 according to established Reformed procedures. Probably Stoever knew that there was no possibility of similar help for him from the Lutheran pastor in New York, William Christopher Berkenmeyer, to whom an unordained man performing pastoral acts in places to which he was not regularly called was anathema. About this time there is an unexplained gap in the entries in Stoever's register. No baptisms were recorded between March 1732 and January 1733, and no marriages between May 1732 and April 1733. By the time the entries resumed at the normal level later in the year, Stoever had achieved his objective. On April 8, 1733 Christian Schulz, who had arrived in Philadelphia about six months earlier, ordained both Stoevers, father and son, to the ministry. The ceremony took place in the barn at Providence in which the congregation was worshiping at the time. The father, whose whereabouts between 1728 and 1733 are still not entirely accounted for, then returned to his Virginia congregation. The younger Stoever may have promised Schulz to serve his three congregations until his return from a trip to Europe in search of financial and other help. Married April 8, 1733, on the day of his ordination, Maria Catharine Merkel (1715-1795). They had eleven children. Schulz's departure for Europe in 1733 and his failure to return left Stoever the only ordained German Lutheran pastor in Pennsylvania until the arrival in August 1742 of his former teacher, Valentine Kraft. "At the present time," wrote the representatives of Schulz's congregations in 1739, "there is not one German Lutheran preacher in the whole land except Casper Stoever, who is now sixty English miles distant from Philadelphia." Schulz's three congregations, which united to send him to Europe in 1733, were Philadelphia, New Hanover, and Providence. Stoever served them for two years. For Philadelphia he began two registers in 1733. His last recorded communion in the provincial capital occurred in June 1735. Sometime after he cast his private register into its present form, Stoever added to the record by entering the name of a place (not necessarily an organized congregation) with which he identified the recipients of his pastoral acts. Among the places named for the years before he withdrew from the three congregations were Germantown, Goshenhoppen, Maxatawny, Manatawny, Colebrookdale, Oley, and Moselem. In or about 1735 Stoever moved the center of his activity into the Conestoga settlement. On March 7 of that year (1734 by the Old Style calendar), the proprietors granted him a warrant for 200 acres on a branch of Mill creek in Lancaster county. The survey made on May 10, 1736 enclosed a tract of 295 acres, for which Stoever secured a patent deed on November 11, 1741. (Lancaster Warrant S-85; Copied Survey C-182, p. 186; Patent A-9, p. 474, BLR). This land was located a short distance south and west of the present Lutheran church in New Holland. Stoever's pastoral activity in Conestoga began as early as 1730. He was instrumental in organizing four congregations in the settlement at some time between 1730 and 1743. These were, with the approximate period of his pastorate in each case, Muddy Creek (c. 1733-1759), Earl township (c. 1733-1744), Lancaster (c. 1733-1742), and Warwick (c. 1743-1754). The beginnings of Stoever's labors here coincided roughly with those of the Reformed Conrad Templeman, who explained to the Holland fathers in 1733 how the Reformed in the Conestoga settlement had begun meeting for worship in 1725, how Philip Boehm came to administer the sacraments, and how the steady growth of the settlement had led to the formation of six preaching places, or congregations. Stoever may have assisted in a similar development among the Lutherans in the Conestoga settlement. Along with eight other residents of Lancaster county, Stoever was naturalized by the act of March 29, 1735 and thus acquired "all rights, privileges and advantages of natural-born subjects" of the province of Pennsylvania. In 1740 Parliament passed a law making it possible for provincial courts to grant British citizenship to foreigners. John Casper Stoever of Lancaster county took advantage of this statute and was naturalized on September 24, 1741. (NFP, p. 17) While living in Conestoga, Stoever also preached in the Tulpehocken settlement, where his activity at Reed's church had begun about 1735. His work there was characterized by frequent contention and several resorts to the civil authorities by both friends and foes. His supporters withdrew from Reed's in 1742 and began building Christ, Tulpehocken. Before the church was completed, however, they quarreled with their pastor and dismissed him. Nevertheless, Stoever's presence and influence in and near this settlement continued to the end of his life. At one time or another he was pastor at Little Tulpehocken (1742-1760s, 1774-1779), Northkill, Blue Mountain, and Atolheo (1746-1757). As early as 1735, Stoever began crossing the Susquehanna river to perform pastoral acts in the Kreutz Creek and Codorus settlements. He began a register for the Codorus Lutherans in 1741 and entered about 200 baptisms before withdrawing two years later. Beginning in 1735, prompted in all probability by his father's absence from his Virginia parish, he extended his visits west of the river to include the Conewago and Monocacy settlements as well as Hebron and other places in Virginia. During the next seven years he followed this route abut twice annually, and extended his ministrations to non-Germans. For example, in 1735 and 1737 he baptized five children of Thomas Cresap, an agent of the Maryland proprietors who figured prominently in the Maryland-Pennsylvania border conflicts then raging in York county. A second important move for Stoever took place in or about 1743. On June 6 of that year he sold the property on Mill Creek. (Lancaster County Deed N, p. 448). On March 6, 1744 (1743 by the Old Style calendar) the proprietors granted him a warrant for 300 acres in Lebanon township, now in Lebanon county. On October 2, 1745 they issued a second warrant for 100 acres for "an addition to his other Land Situate in Lebanon Township." The interest and quitrent for the land covered by the first warrant were scheduled to begin in 1737, which means that either Stoever or someone else had begun to improve it about that time. The survey made on April 2, 1745 for both warrants included 376 acres 104 perches along the Quitopahilla creek, for which Stoever secured a patent deed on December 22, 1752. (Lancaster Warrants S-353 and S-450; Copied Survey A-1, p. 282; Patent A-17, p. 224, BLR) This land was located in the Quitopahilla settlement, between Annville and Lebanon, and about twenty-five miles northwest of his first farm. Stoever's Reformed colleague and friend in Conestoga, Conrad Templeman, took up land and moved into the area at about the same time. While Stoever continued to serve some of his congregations in Conestoga and Tulpehocken, the move into the Quitopahilla settlement meant an eventual, significant rearragement in his parish. Probably about 1740, Stoever had organized the Lutherans in a union church at Quitopahilla and about 1752 he organized Bindnagel's both of which congregations he was serving when he died in 1779. If there was a Lutheran church at Swatara, he was undoubtedly its pastor. In any event, he did serve two congregations which were successors to Swatara: Fredericksburg (c. 1766-c.1774) and Jonestown (c.1765-1779). There may have been a third such congregation: Ziegel, which he served from about 1765 to about 1774. Beginning about 1750, there was a church named Grubben, near Lebanon, of which he was the Lutheran pastor. When the town of Lebanon was laid out and settled, he became pastor of the Lutheran congregation there. Although he continued to serve it from its organization until his death, there was almost continuous division among the members, and Stoever often had to share the pulpit with other pastors. There is evidence that in the 1730s and 1740s Stoever had a conception of and concern for a developing Lutheran church in Pennsylvania. The wide extent of his activity is such evidence. In addition, he did try to interest at least one religious leader in Europe, John Philip Fresenius, in sending ministers and other forms of help for the Pennsylvania field. After the death of Casper Leitbecker in 1738, he may have had a part in trying to persuade Bernard van Dieren to come to Tulpehocken. For a few years after Valentine Kraft came into Pennsylvania in 1742, he and Stoever tried to cooperate with each other and several other ministers in a joint effort to improve conditions, but they accomplished little. Kraft and Stoever probably ordained David Candler for the work west of the Susquehanna river, but unfortunately the latter died the next year. Clearly, Stoever was not as successful as Philip Boehm who, once he secured regular ordination, worked indefatigably against heavy odds to interest a European church in committing substantial aid to the Pennsylvania Reformed, and who kept at it until such aid was forthcoming. The man who brought substantial help to the Lutherans was Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, who arrived in late 1742 with a regular call to the three congregations in the Philadelphia area which Stoever had left seven years before. The two men, who were about the same age, developed an immediate dislike for each other. As early as January 1743, Muhlenberg wrote in his journals that "a certain man, named Stoever, who calls himself a pastor, slandered Mr. Zigenhagen and me to one of our deacons." (MJ 1:84) Four years later, for reasons unknown, Muhlenberg wrote Stoever a most presumptuous letter, stating that "it has been my desire that Your Reverence might be a useful tool in our church in Pennsylvania," but for that to happen, "by means of a real, inner conversion of heart," he would have to "repair the manifold evils which you have introduced among the unconverted, distracted youth, partly on account of incompetence for your high and important office." He hoped that Stoever would "proceed honestly to acknowledge the countless mass of sins which you have heaped up, partly in your own person and partly in connection with the office which you have assumed, and you will repent of them as sins." Following repentence, he promised "we shall offer Your Reverence our assistance in every possible way and acknowledge and receive you as our brother and colleague." Muhlenberg also proposed that Stoever undertake an extensive course of reading in theology and church history, offering to lend him the necessary books, some of whose titles he included in his letter. (Quoted in Lutheran Church Quarterly 21(1948)::180-182) Apparently the Hallensians were not satisfied with the progress of Stoever's rehabilitation by the time of the first ministerium in 1748, at which one of the topics discussed was "why other so-called preachers, as Stoever, Streiter, Andreae, and Wagner were not invited." (DH, p. 11) Two years later, partly because of the advice given him by his father-in-law, Conrad Weiser, who was well-acquainted with Stoever, Muhlenberg was ready to invite him to the forthcoming meeting. But, if we can believe his journals at this point, his colleagues insisted that the invitation must be for an informal conference after the meeting, an arrangement which Stoever understandably rejected. In recounting these events in his journals, Muhlenberg came about as close as he ever did to showing an appreciation for the pioneer work of his colleague. "Mr. Stoever, in the first years of his ministry, before there was any other preacher here, devoted a great deal of diligence and labor to his ministry," he wrote, "consequently his honorable life in the early years and his dishonorable life in recent years up here and farther down in the country are almost balanced in the eyes of the simple country people." (MJ 1:243) The doubts were not all on one side. In 1753 Fresenius informed Gotthilf August Francke that Stoever had written to him several times, asking whether he and Tobias Wagner "should connect themselves with the men sent out from Halle," since "the people called the Halle men Pietists and Moravians" and they themselves had questions about their orthodoxy." (Quoted in Lutheran Church Review 12 (1893):187-188). When, after a hiatus of six years, the ministerium was revived in 1760, and Wagner had returned to Europe, Stoever put in an appearance at the meeting as an uninvited guest--a clear indication of his dissatisfaction with an independent ministry. Finally, in 1763 his name was placed on the roll. Between 1763 and 1773, when he last attended, Stoever was present for six of the seven ministerium meetings for which minutes or other records have been preserved. Relations between him and the Hallensians appeared at last to have become genuinely warm. When Muhlenberg visited him near Lebanon in 1769, he said he was "entertained in Christian and hospitable fashion," even though he arrive late at night and had to rouse the Stoevers out of bed. After examining his host's library, Muhlenberg marveled at finding "a collection of theological books, both new and old, such as I had not expected to find in a remote country district." (MJ 2:421) Yet, when Muhlenberg prepared a lengthy letter to Halle in 1778, describing the conditions of the Halle missionaries and the other pastors then associated with them in the ministerium, he ignored Stoever entirely. Strange as it seems, there is simply no mention of his name. Muhlenberg summed up what may well have been his conviction all along when he wrote in 1780, after Stoever's death, that "as long as the old preacher, Mr. Stoever, was living, he was prejudiced against the Halle Ministerium." (MJ 3:377) After joining the ministerium, Stoever continued to make changes in his parish. From about 1763 to 1765 he served Heidelbergtown or Schaefferstown. In 1768, at the request of the ministerium, he took over four congregations previously served by Theophilus Engelland (Bishop's, Hill or Maxe, Hummelstown, and Middletown) and served until other arrangements could be made for them in 1770. Even in the last years of his life, he was called back to congregations which he had prevously served: to Little Tulpehocken (1774-1779), Hill or Maxe (1776-1779) and Warwick (1777-1779). In addition to his extensive and continuing pastoral activity, Stoever was also a farmer, miller, town proprietor, and man of substance. One of the things Muhlenberg noted in his journal that he had learned about Stoever in the year 1749-1750 was that he was "in a position to serve [congregations] without necessary support because he has considerable means of his own." (MJ 1:243) When the original promoters of the new town of Lebanon went bankrupt and the sheriff sold the rights in 1763, Stoever became one of the new proprietors. In 1771 young Frederick Muhlenberg, who was then serving country congregations in the vicinity, called on Stoever in Lebanon, only to find him in a small house, collecting ground rent. They talked at some length. "While we were still engaged in conversation," Frederick wrote, "the master of the house returned and brought some money. The conversation between them now turned to acceptance and rejection, the giving of notes, etc., which I did not understand." (Quoted in Lutheran Church Review 25(1906)::348) For forty-five years, Stoever was the senior German Lutheran pastor in the Pennsylvania field. In his rugged way, he continued to minister year after year. Up to the end, there was usually a party favoring him and another in opposition, a situation to which he must long since have grown accustomed, and perhaps one which he relished. On May 13, 1779 he was fatally stricken while conducting a confirmation service. Two days later he was buried at the Quitopahilla church. The news spread rapidly. On May 16 someone informed Muhlenberg in Philadelphia of what had happened. "Old Pastor Stoeber fell down and gave up the ghost last Ascension Day in the church at Libanon," he wrote in his journal, "just as he was about to examine and confirm a group of young people." (MJ 3:242) Stoever made his will on the day before he died, abundantly endowning his wife and surviving sons and sons-in-law with farms, ground rents, and money. The inventory taken on June 8 showed that his library consisted of at least 170 books, a total which may not have included the German books which were to be divided among his children and the "school Books of different Tongues" which were bequeathed to "the Seminaries at Philadelphia." Ironically, it was eventually decided that the closest thing to "the Seminaries at Philadelphia" was the St. Michael's and Zion's congregation, the citadel which the Hallensians had occupied since 1742. From "The Pennsylvania-German Society": The congregation of Trinity Lutheran Church, Lancaster, PA, was organized as early as 1733. ... Among its pastors have been Rev. John Casper Stoever, Dr. Helmuth, Dr. Henry Ernest Muhlenberg, the eminent botanist; Dr. Krotel and Dr. E. Greenwald. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Notes for Maria Catarina (Spouse 1) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Information from the LDS Library family files gives her name as Anna Catherina Merckling. It also (erroneously) gives the place of her marriage to John Caspar Stoever as Lambsheim. We know that happened in Pennsylvania, the same day he was ordained. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last Modified New | Created 30 Apr 2001 by Alan J. Kimmerling |