A celebration of the Centennial of the Reformed Church was held in 1893 and local Reformed churches in the Lykens Valley area joined together in contributing to the festive event with a picnic on the grounds of the Isaac Daniels home in Lykens Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
The picnic was organized by the Rev. John J. Stauffer who was pastor of the four participating congregations: Salem Reformed Church, Elizabethville; Peace Reformed Church, Berrysburg; Simeon Reformed Church, Gratz; and St. Peter (Hoffman) Reformed Church, Lykens Township.
On 5 August 1893, the Harrisburg Telegraph advertised the event:
The Lykens Valley charge of the Reformed church will hold a joint centennial celebration on the 12th day of August in Isaac Daniel’s grove, midway between Berrysburg and Gratz.
The picture at the top of this post was said to have been taken at this event. However, because Rev. J. J. Stauffer was involved with the Prohibition movement and and annual picnics were held at the same place, the homestead of Isaac Daniels, in the following years at least up through and including 1901. Therefore, the photograph could be misidentified. In any event, a photograph of Rev. John J. Stauffer has not been located in time for this posting and it must be assumed that regardless of when and for what purpose the photograph was taken, that Rev. Stauffer is in the photograph. He would have been about 33 years old at the time of the Centennial and most likely would have been somewhere in the center of the photograph. Since none of the persons in the photograph have been positively identified, a number key is presented below so blog readers can offer suggested names to match the faces.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.
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