Falkner Swamp Reformed Church
New Hanover Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
The nations' oldest originally German Reformed Congregation in continuous existence was established here. The first Communion was celebrated October 15, 1725, with the Rev. John Philip Boehm, founder of the German Reformed Church in America, officiating. The present building was constructed in 1790. Since 1961 it has been affiliated with the United Church of Christ.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
In the rolling farmland of colonial Pennsylvania, German immigrants fleeing the religious wars and hardships of the Palatinate built new lives — and new congregations. Falkner Swamp took root here in 1725, when the Rev. John Philip Boehm, the founding figure of German Reformed worship in America, led the community's first Communion. The stone meetinghouse standing since 1790 has watched over generations of the same faithful, making it the oldest continuously active German Reformed congregation in the country.
Why it matters
It embodies the religious freedom that drew waves of German settlers to William Penn's colony, and the enduring immigrant faith communities that shaped the culture of the American mid-Atlantic.
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Related people
- · Rev. John Philip Boehm
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
New Hanover Lutheran Church
New Hanover Township, PA · est. 1950
Founded around 1700 by Daniel Falckner, this congregation is remembered as the first German Lutheran church in America, planted among the early waves of German settlers in Pennsylvania. From 1742 to 1761 it was served by Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the patriarch who organized Lutheranism across the colonies. The present church building, a short walk northeast, was raised in 1767.
Enos Benner (1799-1860)
Marlborough Township, PA · est. 2014
From his print shop in Marlborough Township, Enos Benner served the region's large Pennsylvania German population as teacher, author, editor, and printer. His weekly newspaper, Der Bauern Freund (The Farmer's Friend), ran from 1828 to 1858 and survives complete—an unusually rich record of political and social life in the Jacksonian era as seen through German-speaking eyes. Benner and his descendants kept the shop running for a century.
Goshenhoppen
Bally, PA · est. 1947
In 1743 the Jesuit priest Theodore Schneider established a Catholic mission at Goshenhoppen, founding the third Catholic mission and the first Catholic school in colonial Pennsylvania—remarkable in an era when public Catholic worship was banned in most of British America. The community later took the name Bally to honor Father Augustin Bally, a long-serving pastor. William Penn's promise of religious tolerance made such a foothold possible here.
New Goschenhoppen Reformed Church
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Organized as a congregation in 1727 with George Michael Weiss as its first pastor, New Goschenhoppen Reformed Church served the wave of German Palatine immigrants who were pouring into colonial Pennsylvania. Among the Reformed churches in the United States, it keeps the oldest existing congregational register — a priceless record of that pioneer community. Generations of early settlers, including ancestors of Governor John S. Fisher, lie in its first churchyard.