Civil War Blog

Resource type: ebook (.pdf file)

Title: Lykens Valley Parish Record (1889-1895)

Author: Rev. O. E. Pflueger

Original date of publication: 1889-1895, 1902 (compilation)

Summary: During his time of service, Rev. Pflueger was a avid record keeper and established The Parish Record, which in the early years was an annual report of his activities and pastoral acts as well as a summary of the events of the year in the parish (his parish had five congregations in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania:  Simeon’s Lutheran Church in Gratz; St. John’s Lutheran Church (also known as the Hill Church) in Mifflin Township, near Berrysburg; Salem Lutheran Church, Elizabethville; Zion Lutheran Church in Rife and St. Jacob’s Lutheran Church in Jackson Township).  After the split of St. John’s from the parish around 1895, it appears that The Parish Record was only published in the year of Rev. Pflueger’s departure, 1902, but is a summary of all the pastoral acts of the years 1895-1902.  In 1902, as a commemoration of Rev. Pflueger’s service and as a souvenir of his service to the parish, the Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsylvania re-published all the numbers of The Parish Record in one bound, hardcover edition. The combined edition available here contains the years 1889-1895, but does not include the 1902 edition.

Usefulness to Civil War Researchers: The Parish Record provides valuable information on the deaths, births, and marriages during the time period covered (1890-1895). Much of this information is otherwise impossible to find due to a lack of availability of local newspapers and other resources from the time period.

PDF File Links:

Combined Lykens Parish Record,  (1889-1895)

Lykens Valley Parish Record 1 (1890)

Lykens Valley Parish Record 2 (1891)

Lykens Valley Parish Record 3 (1892)

Lykens Valley Parish Record 4 (1893)

Lykens Valley Parish Record 5 (1895)

Scanned Pdfs courtesy of Trexler Library, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA, which holds the original publication.  Special thanks to Barbara E. Starrett (Topeka, KS) for her efforts in making this resource available.

Norman Gasbarro’s blog post on Rev. Pflueger.