Organ Church & Cemetary Date(s): March 12, 2011. Album by Reid Heilig. 1 - 24 of 29 Total. 1184 Visits.
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3 Zion Lutheran Church, the mother church of Lutherans in the Carolinas, founded in 1789 (the Heiligs were Charter members) came to be called Organ by everyone because it had the first Organ in our area. A founding member built it from local materials.
4 This stone building was completed in 1794. It had a wine-glass raised pulpit and the floor was flag stone. The windows and the doors are solid black walnut that in the last few years have been painted.
5 The building to the left of the orginal stone church was added after the Civil War for Sunday School Classes.
6 The church tower is an addition from later years.
7 This church was not a Union Church. The previous church (what became Lower Stone Reformed) was a union church but the Lutherans decided they needed their own church and in 1774 built a log building here. The Rev. Karl August Gottlieb Storch came over from the Helmstadt Lutherans and really formed Zion (Organ) when 70-odd Germans agreed to pay him a salary on Jan. 1, 1789. He started the meticulous record keeping that saved our early history.
8 These rough hand hewn very large granite blocks used in the cemetary wall were cut out of the Earnhardt quarry nearby. I am descended from this family also.
9 An interesting piece of history: as the old headstones, most in German, broke and fell down, they were put into voids in the wall. George Michael's original headstone was put into the wall and as time, frost, rain, sun, and moss have done their duty these stones and the information they contained have been lost.
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13 Heilig graves are in the center of this picture. The very tall monument just to the right of the center is the grave marker of George Heilig. son of George Michael. He was the gold mine owner. His family says that his name in the family bible which seems to have disappearred was George Michael and to make matters more confusing his younger brother was also named George Michael but called Michael. Other researchers do not accept that George (as his name appears on his marker and with no middle name) was named George Michael. There are no records of his baptism that have been found.
14 The tombstone in the lower left side is the George Michael Heilig marker supplied by Pennsylvania in the 1920s to replace the old stone that was inscribed in German but as so many others were falling down and breaking.
15 Opa Reid Heilig and grandson Matthew Reid Heilig at George Michael's grave. He fought in the Pennsylvania Militia during the Revolutionary War.George Michael came down from Upper Hanover Township, Goshenhoppen area of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania in the early 1780s. He married Catherine Roseman. He wrote his will in German prior to dying in 1828. The family and their many slaves spoke German for 2 more generations. A copy of the translation will be added in this section. He was very sucessful.
16 There is a Federal shield here which has inside this: Geo M Heilig---Pa Mil---Rev War
17 After considerable scrubbing and using Clorax we were able to get somewhat better pictures of the headstone.
18 George Michael Heilig was the grandson of Johan Henrich Heilig who came to America in 1720 along with other family members-at least one brother Johan Jurg and possible another who tradition has went to Oley and disappears and either a sister or neice Anna Ursula Heilig who was baptized in Sigmaringen, Germany in 1714.
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20 The house that George Michael was born in was built by his grandfather prior to 1750 in what is now Pennsburg, Pa but was previously named Heiligville until the 1840s. It is now owned by the Hoch family who have maintained the house as the treasure it is since they bought it in the 1860s. The present owner Clyde Hoch is very nice and allows most to visit this house. There is a local tale that the house was used as a hospital for George Washington's sick troops.
21 On at least one occasion this cemetary has had people in cataloging burials and some say that it was done back in the 1930s also. This stone on the left side of George Michael has never been identified . We scrubbed it and used Clorax and were able to make out Cath--- Hei--g, the name of George Michael's wife. Her birth date is barely readable but it appears to be 1-11-1761 which can either be Jan. 11, 1761 or if they used the reverse of our present system Nov. 1, 1761. Then there are missing 2 lines and then 1837, something not readable and then clearly 6 mos. and 20 days and if the dating system is month-day-year as I believe, her death would have been on July 1, 1837. This headstone has something I have never seen before----what appears in the lower right hand corner as W. L. White, evidently the man who carved the tombstone and was proud enough to sign it.
22 Catherine Roseman Heilig, wife of George Michael Heilig.
23 Monument to the 2 Germans sent over from the Hannover Consistory to lead the church and educate the people.
Your Heilig History is fascinating. My husband is a descendant of the Heiligs (father was Robert Heilig Karraker, son of Pearl Heilig Karraker, daughter of Daniel Warren Heilig, son of Michael Nelson Heilig, son of Henry Heilig, son of George Michael Heilig, son of George Heilig, son of Hendrick Heilig and Susannah Rittenhouse). I am adding your information about the Heilig Hoch house to my children's family roots book that I am putting together. Thank you for all your information. Cindy Karraker - Cynthia Karraker, Thu, 19 Jun 2014 10:56PM
