Johannes Jacob Giering

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John Jacob Giering The hand-written caption on the back indicates "John Jacob Giering first organist"	Grave Marker for Daughter Emma

OBITUARY:The following appeared in a newspaper serving the town of Emmaus. Both the name of the newspaper and the date of publication have been lost. It is assumed to have been published on his death in 1894.

LYING AT REST IN EMAUS

BURIAL OF LATE JOHN JACOB GIERING YESTERDAY

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Prominent Moravian Nonagenarian and Famous Watch Maker--Sketch of the Giering Family from the Time Andrew Guehring Came to This Country in 1751.

      Yesterday afternoon, in the presence of a large throng of sorrowing relatives and a multitude of people, the remains of John Jacob Giering, the Moravian nonagenarian, were laid at rest at Emaus. Brief services were held at the old homestead, after which they were continued and conducted in the Moravian Church in Emaus. The Rev. P. F. Rommel, pastor of the congregation officiated.

      The services were of a solemn, impressive, and affecting nature. Pastor Rommel alluded affectionately to the departed as a patriarch in the Moravian congregation. He spoke of his well rounded life now ended, his sweet, lovely, Christian traits of character, his love toward his fellow men, his usefulness as a citizen, and his exemplary devotion and valuable services to the Moravian congregation rendered almost continuously during his long and eventful lifetime. He exorted the living to follow the example of the good old patriarch new gone to his well earned and eternal rest.

      His text was taken from Jeremiah xxix, 11: "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of Evil, to give you an expected end." At the close of the sermon an interesting obituary of the departed was read to the large assemblage. The surviving children are Florin Franklin Giering, of Nazareth; Mary Ann Amanda Ritter, of Coopersburg, and Rosina Josephine Yobst, of Emaus. The union of Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Giering (m. n. Doll, who preceded her husband to the grave eighteen years ago,) also represented 41 grand children, 36 of whom are living, and 42 great grand children, 33 of whom are living.

      J. Frederick Wolle, organist of the Moravian Church at Bethlehem, presided at the organ and during the services rendered a requiem very beautifully in memory of the departed, who was organist of the church continually for 40 years. The Moravian trombone choir and members of the church choir of the Moravian Church of Bethlehem were present and took the places of the Emaus choir of trombonists and church choir, who all are relatives of the deceased. When the cortege started for the cemetery a sheaf of wheat emblematical of a ripe old age was placed on the casket. The following Moravians of Emaus acted as pall bearers: Thomas Smoyer, Silas Biary, James McElroy, Charles Bieber, William Gangewere and Oscar Reinsmith.

      At the grave the simple yet sublime litany for the dead, according to the Moravian Church ritual, was read by Pastor Rommel. The casket was lowered while the trombone choir rendered an appropriate anthem. Large delegations of relatives and friends of the departed from Venango County, Philadelphia, Nazareth, Easton, the Bethlehems, and Coopersberg attended the funeral. Among the grand children present wore L. F. Giering, of Bethlehem, John F. Giering, of Nazareth; Miss Clara and Millie Giering of Nazareth and Charles J. Giering, of Middletown, N. Y. The deceased was always a staunch democrat, casting his first vote in 1824 for John Quincy Adams and his last vote for President Cleveland in 1892. Among his life long and cherished friends, who by his presence paid a tribute of respect to the departed and who were at his grave yesterday was the Hon. William H. Sowden, of Allentown.

      The following are interesting records in relation to the family and descendants of Andrew Guehring (now spelt Giering): Just twenty-five years before the birth of this great republic a few Moravian brethren settled at Emaus. Among the earliest were Sebastian Knauss, Jacob Arenhard, and Andrew Guehring, who were leaders among the plain, simple and God fearing band who there assembled.

      The land now covered by the town plan, which extends over some seventy acres, was given by Brothers Knauss and Arenhard to the people, while Brother Guehring gave an equivalent in money, viz., $66.66, which money since that day has accumulated and still remains on interest. The land has been cut into town lots and many of them have been sold, and from these sources the Emaus Moravian Congregation has a sustaining fund of between $7000 and $8000, besides the lots yet remaining (many of them since sold) and valued at more than $15,000.

      Andrew Guehring, whose donation to the congregation is doing good work today, was born in the year 1729 (just three years before George Washington) in the town of Boll, Hertzogthum, Wurtemberg, and there was baptized. His father, John Guehring, was a citizen of Boll and a shoe maker by trade. He came to America in 1751, landing in this country on the 8th of May. Three years afterward, in the year 1754, he was married at Bethlehem to Catherine Knauss, by 'Squire Horsefield, and immediately took up his permanent residence at Emaus. He was then 25 years old and he lived a useful life in the little community for forty-nine years, when, at the advanced age of 74, he was carried to his grave in 1803.

      He lived through the great and exciting times of the American Revolution and the troubles which in this neighorhood followed it. He lived to see the country of his adoption shake herself free from the chains that bound her, and to sound the keynote of liberty, which yet echoes through the world. In the year 1783 he saw the independence of the United States acknowledged, and in 1789, when his pilgrimage was drawing to a close, he joined in the thanksgiving and rejoicing which accompanied the declaration of George Washington as the first president of the United States.

      The news he heard from the old country was strange and startling, nothing but wars and revolutions, which were shaking upp all Europe. He lived when Washington and Adams were again inaugurated. He heard of the execution of Robespierre, in Paris, and the end of the "reign of terror." He lived when John Adams was inaugurated as president with Thomas Jefferson as vice-president of the United States and Gen. Washington as commander-in-chief of the army. On that day of sorrow and woe to the nation, Dec. 14, 1799, he mourned for the great and good Washington, and four years later, when Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr were president and vice-president, and when Samuel Adams was dying old Andrew Guehring dies at Emaus.

      How many, how wonderful, and how great are the changes which one man's life time sees! And his son, the late John Jacob Giering, lived through all the wonderful changes in this country since the death of his grand father Andrew.

      Andrew Guehring (or Giering) left one son, John Guehring, who was baptized on the day of his birth, Sept. 15, 1769, by the Rev. Mr. Lindermayer. John Giering died in the year 1818, leaving four sons-- Wilhelm, Thomas, Lewis ?., and John J. Giering--all of whom have been called home. On a November day not many years ago those four men assembled at the house of S. ?. Giering, in Emaus, and partook of a dinner and had a family reunion. Their combined ages at that time was 289 years. Three of the brothers were old citizens of Emaus, the exception was Lewis Giering, who resided in Venango County, Pa. These interesting extracts show how the private history of one family carries us back to the great scenes and wonderous events of the early history of this country.