The Church of God in Goldsboro has a unique claim: the church congregation pre-dates the town. Before 1850 when Goldsboro was founded, there was a small community of farmers, houses, at least one small store and a grist mill. These people had kids that needed schooling, and also a needed a place where they could meet for other gatherings. That building would become known as the River Meeting House.
The River Meeting House
According to the 1886 History of York County by John Gibson: “a few hundred yards north of Goldsboro, for half a century, stood a frame building known far and wide as the “River Meeting House“, used for school purposes, and for religious services, by different denominations… In it William Chandlee and Asa Johnson each taught school for a number of years.“
I’ve searched off and on for years, trying to find other references to the River Meeting House, like in newspapers, but the above John Gibson reference is the oldest reference that I can find. In Prowell’s History of York County from 1907 there is a bit more detail, but not much.
The meeting house was built around 1810. By the time Goldsboro was established as a town in 1850, it was located a few hundred yards north. I don’t know if that means from the town square? or from the edge of town? One thing is clear though, is that is was on the Kister land. So my two educated guesses are that it was near the present Kister Burial Ground (Goldsboro Cemetery) or it was up by the Daniel Shelley Farm in Shelley’s Riverview, which was later owned by Jacob Kister.
The River Meeting House became noted for its great revival meetings. One of the most noted events of its history occurred in November, 1825, when the famous Rev. Lorenzo Dow preached to an immense audience in this building, shortly after his European tour, when the nobility of England paid admission to hear that “singular, yet wonderful genius.” His autobiography at one time was the second best-selling book in the United States, only being out sold by the Bible. Lorenzo Dow also preached in Lewisberry on the same tour.
In the year 1832, Rev. John Winebrenner began a series of revival meetings in the River Meeting house. At that time the religious thought and sentiment was quiet until Winebrenner came, due to the Friends that worshipped in the community nearby. Little is known as to the results of the Winebrenner meetings, but the “seed sown bore fruitage in later years.”
Under the auspices of the Church of God. Rev. John Winebrenner, the founder of this denomination, himself preached in it on many occasions, as well as Revs. Maxwell, Mullenix, Kister, Weishampel and other fathers of the church.
In 1841, the Rev. Wm. McFadden, an elder in the Church of God, baptized two new members into church fellowship: George W. Kister and Susan Kister. They were the son and daughter of Rev. Jacob G Kister. A few years later, Susan would become the wife of Isaac Frazer.
Then in 1842, in the same meeting house, Rev. Jacob G. Kister organized the Church of God congregation in what would become Goldsboro.
The church of the meeting house grew steadily during the years that followed under the ministry of several rotating leaders from the 1842-1857 period: Jacob G. Kister, Israel Brady, William McElroy, Willam McFadden, J. Shock, D. Kyle and Carlton Price.
The Sunday School grew to about 150 pupils and teachers, and some of its superintendents were Ross W. Kugan, Samuel Bierbrower and George W. Kister.
The River Meeting House was torn down around 1860, and Michael Shelley, Henry Drorbaugh and Rev. Jacob Kister were the last trustees of it. One of the reasons it was torn down was because the church that met there no longer needed that building,
Building a new Church
The cost for the construction of the new church building was $2000, with Mr Isaac Frazer being the major contributor, including lumber from his saw mill. Construction began in 1857.
The wooden church had a brownstone foundation and included a bell tower.
I had to look up what Whit-Sunday (or White Sunday) was. It’s Pentacost, or basically 7 Sundays after Easter. It was a large affair, with Rev. Winebrenner giving the dedicatory sermon. Apparently so many came that not everyone was able to make it inside.
The church is very fortunate to still have a few of their old record books. They include marriages, baptisms, church membership, some statistics and pastoral reports.
The church record books we have weren’t written until the late 1870s, however many of the original members of the church were still living at that time, and were listed in records that included when they were baptized or received into the church. The first dozen names would have been a part of the original members that met in the River Meeting House.
During the Civil War the congregation continued to grow. It was up to over 200 members. One of the most notable events of that period was a funeral sermon delivered in 1865 in memory of Abraham Lincoln by Rev. James Charlton.
The church was placed right at the top end of town, welcoming people as they came over the hill into the borough.
During this time, the Goldsboro church was on a circuit, which meant that the pastor had 3-5 churches under his charge. Goldsboro was on the East York Circuit, which typically consisted of Goldsboro, Smoketown, Newberrytown and Yocumtown, and for a time Crossroads church up in Frogtown was also a part of the circuit.
Every year the Church of God would have regional conventions where they would discuss and assign pastors to different circuits or stations. In 1859, Goldsboro got to host the greater East Pennsylvania Eldership with it’s 30th annual session, in the new church building.
I’ve done a lot of research, and here is a list of the pastors who served Goldsboro’s circuit period from 1857-1908: Carlton Price, Jones, J. Keller, James Charleton, John C Seabrooks, W.O. Owens, Jeremiah Meixel, Jeremiah Carvell, G.W. Coulter, J.E. Arnold, Joseph Fleegal, William Grissinger, Cyrus Behney, Orville Houston, Hansen Reever, William Schaner, H. Whitaker, G.R. Gano and Marion Lovejoy.
So, for many years the Goldsboro Church was a part of the East York Circuit, but in 1908 Goldsboro became a station, meaning it didn’t have to share it’s pastor anymore. Rev. Cyrus Behney was the first pastor with this new status.
Back in the 1870s and 80s, Pastors were able to stay in a house, rent free, that was owned by Isaac Frazer on York St. In 1886, Mr. Frazer ran into financial trouble after some business failures. As a result he had to sell a number of his properties. One of those was the house used as the parsonage. During Rev. Behney’s first pastorate (from 1885 to 1887), Behney suggested that the church buy that house. He got a number of people to pitch in and they purchased it for a little over $450.
During Rev. Behney’s second pastorate in 1909, they decided to build a new parsonage next to the church. So they sold the York St. parsonage for $700, then built a new brick house right next to the church for a little over $3000.
The wooden church building had served the congregation for about 57 years, but in 1914 it was time for an upgrade.
A New Stone Building
In 1914 the original frame building was razed to give place to the new modern structure under the pastorate of the Rev. Winfield Sturgen. It was a big decision, because when Rev. Sturgen first arrived there was still a debt on the new parsonage. So to take on yet another larger debt of building a new building completely was a bit of a stretch for the small congregation.
The Rev. Winfield Scott Sturgen did a lot during his time as the Pastor of Goldsboro Church.
He and his family were previously at the Steelton Church of God, where he was very popular. One day a baby was abandoned on a doorstep in their neighborhood. When Rev. Sturgen learned about it, they took it in and adopted it.
They named him Paul, and he would then grow up in Goldsboro as they were living in the new parsonage that had been built by their predecessor.
The church moved forward with plans for constructing a new church building. But first, the old building needed to come down. They held the last service in the wooden church on August 9, 1914, which coincidentally was exact same day that the original cornerstone had been laid (August 9, 1857).
So the old building was razed in August of 1914. Just one month later in September, they were laying the cornerstone for the new building. There was another large crowd, and we are fortunate to actually have a photo of it.
About three months after the laying of the cornerstone, the building was ready to be dedicated. It was made of brownstone (and not graystone like reported in this next article).
The church took on a debt of $10,000. It would take years to pay off, but the new stone structure was an upgrade to the town.
It was probably a combination of a number of things, but by the next year the congregation had nearly doubled. And again, Goldsboro was host to the annual Church of God Eldership Convention, in the new stone building.
The Community
By 1898, there were two churches in Goldsboro, so about half the town or so went to one or the other. But the Church of God was certainly a big part of the social activities of the borough, on Sunday but also for community events.
Typically once a year, the Goldsboro church would hold a special baptism service. These were almost always in the summer, because baptisms would be done in the Susquehanna River. Baptisms could be anywhere from 5 to 15 or so people on average, depending on the year. According to church records, on June 13,1915, twenty people were baptized in the river on a warm summer morning.
During the early 1900s, Goldsboro was a vacation place for travelers looking to have a quick getaway. As a result, the local shops would stock postcards, including ones of the church.
In addition to the normal church service and Sunday School, throughout the years they would have other groups that people would participate in, from youth groups or young peoples society, to the choir.
The years keep passing and life continued. Some people pass away, but the next generation of people would continue to be baptized and married.
A lot of people from Goldsboro were married here, including Paul and Harriet (Zeigler) Reeser in 1947, and Lee and Dorothy (Zeigler) Fishel in 1951. You can see both of them on the same page from the church records.
In 1957 the church celebrated its 100th Anniversary, which was actually the 100th anniversary of when the first building was built on that spot. The church would celebrate a number of anniversaries, sometimes picking the 1857 date to celebrate, or the 1914 date. It just depended on how round of a number it was, or how long it’s been since the last time an anniversary was celebrated.
The times change. From generation to generation people keep attending the church and getting married.
In 1976 for the nation’s bicentennial, Goldsboro had a number of community events, and the people from the church were involved in all of them. For one event, people dressed up in period costumes. These clothes might not have been too different from the clothes that people use to wear back when the met at the River Meeting House.
During the March 1979 partial meltdown of Three Mile Island, it was a scary time for all the Goldsboro residents, not to mention all of central PA and the nation. But soon after, the church did open its doors again.
The church would often do special services for Christmas and Easter. Christmas Eve would usually get a few more visitors than the sunrise service on Easter.
Remember Rev. Winfield Sturgen from earlier? The pastor that decided to adopt an abandoned baby? They named him Paul, and he grew up in the area, and had a family. Paul had a daughter, and they named her Olivia.
Fast forward a bit, Olivia was married in the same church, had a full life, and was still attending Goldsboro church up through 2024. Quite a testament for adoption.
One time, a few decided to do a crucifixion re-enactment on Good Friday, and it certainly got the attention of people driving through town. They did it on the grass next to the parsonage, just up the hill from the church building.
I spent some more time researching the church archives, and here are some of the pastors that have served the church since it’s been a station 1910, which is basically a couple years longer than it’s been the stone building: C.I. Behney, W.S. Sturgen, G.W. Harper, F.W. McGuire, E.T. Sheets, C.W. Peters, A.M. Rhine, J.C. Witmer, H.S. Hershey, A.E. Siple, E.R. Yoder, S.E. Vance, H.E. Wagner, B.F. Keekler, C.H Weigle, R.E. Deardorff, E. Taylor, L. Noaker, P.S. Edwards, W. Gosnell, J. Pugh, W. Smith, and most recently Charles Yost, Dylan Smith and Julie Dibble and several other supply ministers.
The Bell Tower
In 2023, I decided to to climb up into the bell tower to see if I could find a date on the bell. The bell is rung still every Sunday morning, but I don’t know how long it’s been since someone was up there. You need to bring in a ladder into the foyer in order to get up there.
Once you’re up in the tower and out of the foyer, the bell is protected by this other rickety ladder that goes up to the next room.
The heavy duty bell seemed to be in good shape. From what I could tell, the mount and everything seemed to be in solid condition. The wooden parts I would guess were replaced in 1914, having been outside since 1857, but the iron parts were likely the original.
Looking closely at the bell it was ingraved: Meneely’s – West Troy, N.Y. 1858
1858 makes sense, even though the cornerstone says 1857. The cornerstone was placed in 1857 when they began construction. After the church was completed, it was dedicated in 1858. I wonder if the bell was placed in the church before it was dedicated in 1858.
The Church today
in 2022, it was 180 years since the church was first established by Rev. Jacob Kister. Many who attend the church now come from other towns, with only a small handful being from Goldsboro. Like most churches, a lot of the people prefer to sit in the back.
Although they don’t happen as often as they did in the past, the church is still host to the occasional wedding.
The church building also is the place where the Goldsboro Historical Association has their meetings for sharing photos and stories. We don’t always draw this big of a crowd, so I made sure to take a photo of the group this one time.
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