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Note - This Special Web Page has been especially prepared for families and friends of the Air Hill Church who do not receive a copy of the monthly church newsletter known as the AIR HILL BREEZES. I decided to put this story on the Internet as part of the SIX BILLION web pages on the Internet. These three pages of Information are posted as of March 20, 2004. To send these three pages to other families and friends of the Air Hill Church, the special webpage address is - http://www.innernet.net/hlrotz/churchhistory.html or a page LINK is connected to my website - http://www.innernet.net/hlrotz (See the bottom of Pages 2 or 3 of this story for Innernet Webpage connections.)  Almost 100 years ago was the beginning of the AIR HILL SUNDAY SCHOOL located near Chambersburg, Pa.. We have been doing a few interviews with those who can tell us what the services were like in those early years. This information is especially prepared for the AIR HILL BREEZES, the monthly newsletter for the church as received from an interview with two cousins who grew up in the Air Hill Church. Bertha Sollenberger/Crider/Heisey (now residing at Menno Haven, Chambersburg, Pa.) and Pearl Rife/Eberly/Lehman/Musser, (now married to Rev. Avery Musser and residing at Messiah Village, Mechanicsburg, Pa.) have given us some interesting information from the past. Avery Sollenberger, father of Bertha, built some of the homes in the village of Culbertson about a mile from the church and later had the Sollenberger Silo business. Pearl always came to Air Hill Church as their farm was located across from Letterkenny Army Depot Gate 5. The buildings are now torn down along what is now Sunset Pike. Bertha & Pearl are cousins and often played together as children. Avery Zook, church historian, reports that the North Franklin District built its first meetinghouse (Air Hill) in the summer and fall of 1881 on the site adjacent to the Kryder Cemetery. The architectural style was patterned after the houses and barns found on their homesteads. The Air Hill church, for a time also known as Brechbill Meetinghouse, was a 40' x 60' limestone and brick structure. It was completed and the first service was conducted on November 13, 1881. The total cost of the meetinghouse was $3,241.26. By this time Rev. Martin H. Oberholser was serving as the bishop and John Gayman, Martin Oberholser, and Henry Wingert were elected to serve as trustees. The Sunday School was started in 1906, first as a part-time program which operated weekly from April through September, and then expanded to nine months of the year and, in 1932, to twelve months of the year. Families seemed enthuiastic about attending Sunday School every Sunday of the year. Everyone attending Sunday School every Sunday of the year received a special diploma or a seal at the end of the year. For each additional year of perfect attendance, a colored seal was given to be pasted on the diploma. It was the desire of most people to get that diploma filled with seals. Even if a child was sick, they did not want to miss Sunday School. It was always announced at the end of the year, the names of persons having perfect attendance throughout the year. That was an honor to have perfect attendance. Bertha Sollenberger/Crider/Heisey was 3
years
old when her parents, Avery & Frances Sollenberger, moved to
Culbertson
and started coming to Air Hill Church. They were the parents of
three
children, Chester, Bertha, and Avery, Jr. – two little brothers were
deceased.
Frances Sollenberger was the teacher of the little Sunday School class
called the Nursery in the front corner near where our attic steps are
now.
If you look at pictures of the early church, you will note that the
little
ANTEROOM was torn off the church with the 1949-1950 remodeling
program.
Mothers always took the infants to that little room for nursing,
changing
diapers or to use the potty but it was also used as a Sunday School
classroom
for small children. Avery Sollenberger would always come up to the
church
on Saturday evenings to build the fire for heat in the church for
Sunday
services. Avery would build the fire with wood or coal in the big
potbelly furnace in the basement and the heat would come up through a
large
floor register into the middle of the church. People enjoyed
standing
near the register to feel the heat on cold mornings. Avery
usually
needed to stay long enough on Saturday night to make sure the fire was
burning well to have the church warm on Sunday. Bertha, Chester,
and Avery Jr. would do things such as put the hymn books in Avery Sollenberger was also
Superintendent of
the Sunday School for many years. Bertha remembers some Sunday School
teachers
– especially Mrs. Harry Nye and Mrs. Clarence Musser, Sr.-- who really
won the hearts of the girls. Rhoda Wengert, taught the high
school age class and later the older ladies class; If Rev. Avery Musser taught a special “Air Hill-Mt. Rock Evangelical Preliminary Teacher Training Class” and gave a graduation diploma in a special program on March 18, 1951. The Assistant Teacher was Carl Myers. Students were Charlotte Hile, Ethel Myers, Donald Thrush, Nancy Thrush, Samuel Thrush, Jr., Ruth Wenger, Bertha Wingert, Mrs. Mary Wingert, and Harvey Zook, Jr. Avery still treasures the large book given to him as a gift from the class, entitled “Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible.” This book consisted of possibly 6 small books.
There were usually 3 preachers in the church services but it was often decided after they came to church, which one was going to preach or sometimes a deacon would preach. Ministers from the three churches often took turns at preaching. There were a lot of folding chairs at the front of the church and often ushers had to line up chairs back all the aisles and put benches in the back of the church for the overflow crowds at some special services. The Wednesday evening prayer meetings were held in homes. In some homes the rooms were full and some children had to sit on stair steps. The families used chairs from the church for the cottage prayer meetings. You usually went to one of three churches on Sunday nights, either at Air Hill, Mt. Rock or Chambersburg Church, called the Mission. Men wore the plain suits and a big black hat. Bertha's father (Avery Sollenberger) wore a necktie before coming to Air Hill and it was hard for him to take off the tie -- but later when people started wearing a necktie, he did not want to go through that change again and never would wear the tie again. Some people would go to Lancaster to get the plain clothes & hats. Bertha still remembers some of the messages from those ministers who were not paid. Some of those ministers were Aaron Oberholtzer, John Musser (a brother to Ben Musser, a deacon and known as “Uncle Ben”), Charlie Byers, Harvey Musser, and others. Bertha still remembers a sermon by Charlie Byers entitled “Living on the Peripheral” – meaning “Living on the Outer Edge of the Christian Life”, and easy to fall off. Bertha was drawn closer to the Lord from hearing that message. Two deacons usually made an annual visit to each home. Bertha often felt uneasy when she knew the deacons were coming to ask about any church problems and suggestions. Rev. Harvey Musser was our Pastor for 19 years. Harvey and Anna Musser had a farm at Scotland and raised 6 children but at that time a pastor was not paid for preaching; however some people may have given them some gifts. Note – Now, we invite you to read the rest of this story on Page 2 |
place and clean paper off the wooden floor. They would also pump
water from the well and fill some pitchers with water. The
pitchers
of water and some glasses were put on some windowsills for preachers or
people who might need a drink of water during the services. While Avery
was working with the fire, if there was snow, the three children
enjoyed
being outside in the snow. They would take the big coal or snow
shovels
and while sitting in the scoop and holding onto the handle of the
shovel,
they enjoyed sliding down the banks of snow on the big hill now facing
Letterkenny Army Depot. The church did not always have services
in
the winter months because many people were snowed in and could not get
to the church. 
we listed all the many teachers who gave much time to preparation of
the
Sunday School lesson each week, we’d have quite a list. Because
of
a shortage of classrooms, most of the S.S. classes were scattered
around
in the sanctuary, either in the front of the church, in the middle of
the
church, or in the back of the church. Some classes had a large
screen
set up to give the class a bit of privacy. Men and ladies had
separate
classes…boys and girls had separate classes. Back in the early
years
of the church, husbands, wives or families did not sit together in the
services. You entered the church from the side of the cemetery
which
is now a parking lot and entrance to the church office. Ladies
entered
one door and sat on the right side of the church. Men entered the
other door and sat on the left side of the church. There were
some
rocking chairs at the front of the church usually occupied by some of
the
older ladies of the church. 
There
was no Route 997 highway near the church in those early days.
Many
of the 
A road from the Culbertson area inside the present Letterkenny
Army
Depot did connect near the church and continued into the Letterkenny
area
and also connected to the concrete road near Pleasant Hall. There
was a hitching rail around parts of the cemetery for those coming to
the
services in a horse and buggy. There were two outside toilets
along
the cemetery fence beyond the end of the church.