The Lititz Square Crèche

 

The crèche that is installed every year at the fountain in Lititz Square is a beloved tradition for many. Its appearance is a welcome herald of the holiday season. For anyone driving through town during December, it’s nearly impossible to miss. But some may wonder ~ there it is in the middle of the busy intersection of two state highways. Isn’t there a constitutional issue with an installation on public land that celebrates just a single religion? If it’s there, shouldn’t symbols of other religions be included, too?

I wondered this myself soon after I moved to Lititz. I worried that, when the inevitable challenge came, it would cause considerable distress, anger, and turmoil in our community. In fact, in casual conversation with Barbara Tshudy during the time when her husband Clyde was serving on Borough Council, I suggested that it might be a good plan for the council to take preemptive action and relocate the crèche to a nearby privately-owned location before anyone made a formal complaint. Whether or not the idea was considered is unknown. In any case, no action was taken.

Friendship or Assistance?

 

        In 1758, while struggling to build the town of Lititz, town regulations were read publicly for the first time. The regulations covered everything pertaining to community and personal life. Homes were being built, families begun, and commerce established. One particular subject had been forgotten though, so in 1765 the new Fire Safety bulletin was posted.  Brothers Grosh and Thomas were appointed fire inspectors. Fire protection became a priority in the new community and specific directions were given and insisted upon in the building of houses and shops.  The placement of bake ovens and fireplaces was specified in detail. Proper procedures for sweeping and burning out chimneys were noted. Live coals had to be carried in a covered pot when taken from house to house. The smoking of ‘segars’ in the street was not tolerated. 

      Twenty some years later it was decided that the town should invest in a pumping engine to further support fire suppression endeavors. The order for parts for the pumper was placed in September 1791, from John Grossman in Neuweid, Germany. Metal parts were made by “Brother Schmuz.” Shipping, being the problem of the day, hindered arrival of these parts until February 1793 when notice came from the docks in Philadelphia. These items were then sent to Lititz.

      Peter Getz of Lancaster manufactured the wooden parts needed to complete the project and made final assembly. By this time a year had passed. (Patience, patience, please.) The assembled fire engine was brought to Lititz where it was immediately determined to be too heavy. Keep in mind, this apparatus was pulled by manpower. Martin Shreiner was consigned to rebuild the thing, and it finally went into service in 1795.

Lititz During World War II

The first direct impact World War II had on the small community of Lititz occurred on October 16, 1941. On that date the schools were closed so young men could register for the draft of the U.S. Government Armed Forces. 663 men were registered by school personnel who felt obligated to their former pupils. All men between the ages of 21 and 36 had to register or face the penalty of five years in prison and $10,000 fine (roughly $210,000 in 2024 dollars).

Woodstream Corporation (then Animal Trap Company) was the first local manufacturer to devote its entire work force for war supplies. Belt buckles for soldiers’ uniforms and munitions of all types were now on the assembly lines. Woodstream received a commendation from the State of Pennsylvania for its war efforts. In 1943, Lititz led Lancaster County in the sale of War Bonds. Residents bought $23,000 worth in the first two weeks of sale.

 PHOTO: 1943 - Animal Trap Company accepting the Army-Navy E Award for their Excellence in production of war equipment (photo provided by the author)

Housewives donated more than a half ton of aluminum pots and pans, which were stacked in the lobby of The Lititz Post Office. The aluminum was melted down for war materials as was scrap metal and rubber. Hundreds of gloves, scarves, and afghans were knitted by local women and Girl Scouts to be sent overseas to the American GIs. Volunteers set up an airplane spotter post in the Village of Lexington in anticipation of enemy aircraft. The post was manned twenty-four hours a day by civic-minded men.

The Lutz Family of Lititz

 Note: This article was originally written in preparation for the Lititz 250^th celebration in 2006.

Musical dynasties are not uncommon in European history. One thinks immediately of the Bach family in Germany, and the Strausses of Vienna. Lititz can boast of five generations of Lutz family members who were and remain active in the musical life of the community.

A butcher by trade, Benjamin Fry “Benny” Lutz was the patriarch of the assembly. As early as 1913 he formed the Lutz Family Quintette, consisting of himself, daughter Ruth, son Benjamin, and nephew Winfield Wilson on cornet, and son John playing the baritone horn. For several years the group played for church and community gatherings and fairs throughout the county, gaining a wide reputation for their entertainment skills. Then tragedy struck; daughter Ruth succumbed in the great influenza pandemic of 1918, dying at the youthful age of 17. Benny’s wife Mary never quite recovered from the loss of her only daughter, but Benny continued for decades to encourage the youth of the community in both musical and athletic endeavors. Reconstituted as The Lutz Family Band, he and his descendants brightened lives in such venues as church picnics, Conestoga View, area fairs and farm shows, and the county jail.

As director of the Sunday School orchestra at the Lititz Moravian Church, Benny was a familiar figure to many. He was also a prolific hymn tune composer, setting the texts of a number of different writers.  Collections of his hymns were published in Lititz in 1942 and 1943. These booklets include “I Love Jesus” with words by Ella Buch, which bears the notation “This song was first sung in the Moravian Church, at Lititz Pa. by the infant class on Christmas 1907.” The song “Closer to Jesus,” to a text of the Rev. H. J. Heydt of the School of the Bible in Lancaster, was included in Tabernacle Hymns No. 4, becoming the first hymn written in Lititz in more than a century to find its way into a nationally distributed hymnal.

History of the Pilgerhaus

     George Klein’s farm encompassed most of what is now Lititz. Inspired by the Moravian settlements at Bethlehem and Nazareth, and by the preaching of Count Zinzendorf, George Klein offered the Moravian Church his 491-acre farm in 1753 for a settlement in Warwick Township. He was a member of the Lutheran church, but so strongly was he impressed by the preaching of Count Zinzendorf that he at once ceased his antagonism toward Moravian church activities. He ultimately became of the Moravian faith, and finally transferred to that church the whole of the land he owned in Lancaster county.

In 1754, he built a two-story stone house at 127 East Main Street, which became the “Pilgerhaus,” or “Pilgrim’s House.” This was the first house in Lititz.  This house was built by Mr. Klein before the transfer of land from him to the Moravian Church. He built it without having any definite purpose in mind for it.  This house afterwards gave the direction to the main street of the village, and accounts for the fact that it does not run due East and West. It was used as a dwelling for ministers, congregational meetings, and even as a house for refugees fleeing Indian raids. Bro. George Nixdorf, of Lancaster, was the first occupant.  It was in this building that the first settlers of Zinzendorf’s Congregation village, three families from Donegal and four from Bethel, found refuge when they fled here to escape Indian raids. A portion of the wall of this first house was left standing when the building was removed in 1866, and now forms part of the rear wall of the present three-story brick building which stands on its site at 125 to 129 East Main Street.

The Lititz Post Office

 

The Lititz Post Office was established in February of 1806, fifty years after the founding of the Moravian community. Christian Hall, who arrived in Lititz from Bethlehem, Pa., was the first postmaster.  Hall’s post office was located in a small area of the Zum Anker Inn (now the Lititz Springs Inn). When the first post office was established, the town was named Litiz, as the majority of the citizens were of German descent.

In 1830 Frederick Zitzman, son-in-law of Johannes Mueller, the town dyer, added a wood-frame structure to Mueller’s house and used it as a post office. This replaced the one at the Zum Anker. Zitzman remained in this position until 1849.

TRAGEDY AND RESTORATION: A Fire and a Small Bell

Now, read the story of a bell — A most special bell — A quite Moravian bell. A bell which arrived on Church Square in Lititz way back in the very middle of the 19th century, fell from its honored position atop the church 107 years later and, instead of being discarded, was made over into many miniature bells which today continue to ring their way into hearts and homes of those eager for a bit of historic Moraviana.

In July of 1850, a prominent Lititz merchant and Moravian churchman — once a member of the state legislature — died. Samuel Grosh was his name. He lived on the northwest corner of Church Square, having built the splendid red brick house, now a church rental property. His oil portrait and that of his wife hang in the congregation's museum and are fine examples of early 19th-centry American primitive portraiture.

Brother Grosh's will left a sum of $100 to be applied toward the purchase of a new, larger bell for the church belfry, that elegant piece designed in 1786 by the noted 18th-century Lititz Moravian organ builder, Brother David Tannenberg. The 1850 diary of Bishop Peter Wolle, pastor of the Lititz congregation at that time, notes that on August 21, Gemeinrath (Church Council) authorized the purchase of a 600 pound bell from the Meneely Bell Foundry in West Troy, New York. Wolle records that the bell came to Lititz and "was brought to its place on the steeple" on October 14; and on Sunday, October 20, "the new bell was rang at its proper place." Here, it tolled the hours daily while its smaller, older companion rang the quarters.