Bernville church to celebrate its 125th anniversary
Sep. 17—St. Thomas Church, 536 N. Main St., Bernville, will celebrate its 125th anniversary on Sunday.
Chalk-talk artist Elva Hurst will present a Sunday school program at 9 a.m. The worship service will begin at 10:30, with special music and the Rev. Randy Bond presenting the message. Heritage Hallway will display artifacts from church history.
St. Thomas began in 1897 when members of the Lutheran and Reformed congregations of the Northkill Church (St. John's Union Church) in Bernville decided to build new churches. The Northkill Church dated back to 1745.
In April 1897, the Reading Eagle reported that the ladies of the Union Church were canvassing by subscription for a new church, with 30 subscription books in circulation and promises of between $7,000 and $8,000. There was talk of three new buildings — a Union church, a Lutheran church and a Reformed church. It was reported that "the female church members feel very confident that the money to build is in sight, providing the male members by their vote, decide to build."
The men did decide to build, but only two buildings: the Evangelical Lutheran Friedens Church and the St. Thomas Evangelical Lutheran and Reformed Church (now St. Thomas Church), directly across from each other on Main Street. The St. Thomas cornerstone was laid in 1897. The full cost of the building was $18,000. Women members were not granted voting privileges at St. Thomas until 1920.
The Reading Eagle article about the St. Thomas Church dedication on Sept. 10 and 11, 1898, noted that services were held Saturday afternoon and evening and Sunday morning, afternoon and evening. The Saturday sermons were in English, and the Sunday sermons were in German.
It was estimated that over 3,000 people were in town, with over 500 bicycles and over 1,000 buggies. Several stages brought people from the Robesonia railroad station. The church could seat 1,200, and on Sunday afternoon all the available standing room was also filled, with many more people outside.
On Aug 13, 1903, the Reading Eagle reported that Andrew Carnegie's agent of New York sent a check for $750 to the Rev. T.C. Leinbach toward the payment of one-half of the cost of a new St. Thomas Church organ. Leinbach corresponded with Carnegie's agent and obtained the gift. The organ was to be operated by electricity as soon as the electric plant was in operation.
These and other Reading Eagle news items about Bernville churches were collected by Doyle L. Showers (1927-2013), a longtime Bernville resident. Showers spent many hours researching newspaper articles on microfilm in the Reading Public Library, hand-copying many of them. In 2015, "Two Bernville Churches — The First Collection" was published by the Bernville Heritage and Cultural Society, containing Showers' work, with Reading Eagle articles reprinted with the permission of Reading Eagle Company in July 2007.
