As we wind down the 275th
celebration of the Township of Derry, we have yet to explore many areas of
the Township which are steeped in history. One such place is a
little town located between Hershey and Middletown known today as
Stoverdale.
The history of Stoverdale takes
us as far back as 1872. Our 1875 map of Derry Township shows a "U B
(United Brethren) Camp Ground" situated along the Swatara Creek and that a
church had been established in the same area. The church and a
nearby school stand on a crossroads which appears to have been a major
thoroughfare of that era.
In 1872, the area would become
known as Stoverdale. The little village got its name from Edward and
Mary Shenk Stover, who built the United Brethren Church, the campgrounds
and the school in honor of their son, Edward Jr. who died in 1870 at 21
years of age. The picturesque, white country church is next to the
burial grounds where the young man is buried. Although the school
and the campgrounds have ceased to operate many years ago, the church,
known today as the Stoverdale United Methodist Church, is still active.
The Stover family homestead, built in 1825, still stands along the
Middletown Road.
Both the church and the school
are located at the intersection of Wood Road and Middletown Road. In
1891, the Hummelstown Sun reported that the school building had
been completely renovated, and that new seats, desks, and other furniture
were provided. The school closed in 1925 when the students were
moved to the Derry Township Consolidated School. Some residents may
remember that the building was used as a voting location during the 1960s.
The school building has been well preserved and stands as a reminder of
the rural school era.
As with many small communities in
earlier times, the nucleus of daily life centered around their churches.
For two weeks every summer, thousands of members of the United Brethren
Church flocked to the Camp Meeting Grounds situated along the banks of the
Swatara Creek. Small cottages and a large boarding house served as
housing for the attendants, while some families lived in tents for the two
week session at the camp.
Pastors of the United Brethren
Churches in nearby communities assisted with the services, which, for the
most part, were held outdoors and began at 6 a.m. A daily 2 p.m.
service was customarily given in German in the very early years of the
camp. Evening services were said to be "good old-time prayer
meetings" followed by a sermon in a building known as the English Chapel.
Special prayer services and activities were provided for children and
teenagers.
Early newspaper reports of the
Camp Meeting days report that different modes of transportation to the
camp meeting grounds were available. Some came on the Middletown and
Hummelstown Railroad, others by a ferry that crossed the Swatara Creek.
People who came by train or who walked along the railroad from Hummelstown
crossed a footbridge to get to the campground.
(Next week we will discuss the
demise of the Camp Meeting Grounds and the headaches it created for the
Township.)
The annual Trolley Tour sponsored
by the Derry Township Historical Society will visit Stoverdale this year,
hoping to find some vestiges of camp life and other Stoverdale
attractions. Tickets for the tour on Sunday, October 3, are
available at the Society.
The Villages of Derry
Township -- Part V
by Millie Landis-Coyle
The richness of its history
compels us to revisit Stoverdale, founded in 1872 during a period of great
progress and expansion in America. It was a time when miles of new
roads, railroad tracks and canals were constructed to transport manmade
materials across the continent more rapidly than ever before. Great
moguls came into their wealth and prosperity. There were fortunes to
be made.
Edward Stover, Sr. (1823 - 1903)
a prominent businessman in the Harrisburg area, was one of the
entrepreneurs who seemed destined to a great future in the business world.
But, when his young son died unexpectedly in 1870, Stover gave up his
pursuit of materialism and directed his life toward religious and
charitable works. One of Stover's most successful ventures in
spreading the Gospel was the founding of the Church Camp Meeting Grounds
located along the banks of the Swatara Creek between Hummelstown and
Middletown.
An 1878 copy of The Stoverdale
Daily Camp Journal exists which describes the daily life in the
campgrounds during a full two weeks session. The Journal
provides the schedule for the day and other useful information for those
in attendance at that particular two-week session. It also contains
some daily news of the area, and advertisements for the businesses in the
Hummelstown/Middletown area which were of service to the camp goers, such
as train schedules and boarding needs. The National Hotel with E.M.
Hoffer as proprietor was offering omnibus service to the Campground every
fifteen minutes.
He was also prepared for
"Stabling for 125 horses."
In 1892, the Mt. Gretna Bible
Conference who shared the Stoverdale Camp Meeting grounds decided to move
from the Stoverdale site to establish its own meeting grounds in Mt.
Gretna.
An interesting article regarding
the cottages at the camp grounds appeared in the Patriot's Metro East on
August 27, 1974 stating that the cottages had been previously used at the
campgrounds had become permanent residents. The article also states
that the Derry Township supervisors were concerned that the housing
conditions of the cottages did not meet the specifications of the
township.
The supervisors argued that if
they gave the residents assistance of any kind it would set a precedence
for others in the township that need help. Although no records show
that anything was done about the situation, it was pointed out that the
problem "underscores the lack of low-income housing in Derry Township."
As though life wasn't tough
enough for the cottage residents, on August 4, 2004, a tornado struck the
area and did further damage to the homes. At present a Dauphin
County Relief Fund has offered assistance to those affected by the
tornado.
What an interesting path the
cottages of the Stoverdale United Brethren Campmeeting Grounds have
traversed! We hope that this exceptionally historic campground will
be respected and preserved as part of the rich history of Derry Township.
Our thanks to the late Donald
Koons for making the above information available to us. Thanks to
Donald's many years of clipping newspaper articles and mounting them on
his used stationary, we have much history that would have been lost to the
ages.
