New Goschenhoppen: America's Oldest Reformed Church Register

The congregation at New Goschenhoppen traces its roots to seventeen twenty-seven, when German Reformed settlers in what is now Montgomery County organized with George Michael Weiss as their first pastor. What sets this congregation apart from the dozens of old German churches scattered across southeastern Pennsylvania is its record book. The parish register here, which begins in seventeen thirty-one, is a handwritten account of baptisms, marriages, and deaths that opens a window into the daily lives of eighteenth-century German immigrants.

The first churchyard, just outside the old sanctuary, holds the graves of many of those pioneer settlers, including ancestors of a Pennsylvania governor. The origin of the name Goschenhoppen is debated, with some tracing it to a Native word and others to the biblical land of Goshen. It is an unassuming landmark that carries the weight of an entire denomination's memory.