Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church has been a place of worship in Manheim for 250 years, thanks to a red rose. That's the payment the original landowner requested in exchange for building a church on the site, and the church celebrates the Festival of the Red Rose annually to commemorate the transaction. This year's festivities will take place on Sunday, June 12, at the church, 2 S. Hazel St., Manheim, beginning at 10:30 a.m. with the Rev. James S. Dunlop, bishop of the Lower Susquehanna Synod, preaching.
The church's history can be traced to an agreement between Henry William Stiegel and his second wife, Elizabeth Holz Stiegel, conveying a plot of ground to their fellow Lutherans in 1772, said Linda Keiffer, chair of the festival committee, in exchange for a unique continual payment of one red rose. Keiffer said that it's believed that Henry only received the rose rent twice before he lost his fortune, ended up in debtor's prison and left Manheim upon his release in 1774. Although the red rose tradition could have been lost, the original deed was discovered in the church archives during construction of the present church building in 1891, and in June of 1892, a Stiegel heir received the rose payment for the first time in more than 100 years. The celebration and rose payment, originally known as The Feast of the Roses, became an annual event, and each year on the second Sunday of June, the congregation pays the rent of one red rose to a Stiegel heir.
This year, the church will mark its 250th anniversary, so the festival will feature the presentation of two roses, one representing each familial line from Stiegel's two wives, Keiffer said. One rose will be presented to William Hoyt Demmerly, a ninth-generation descendent of Henry and his first wife, Elizabeth Huber Stiegel. A retired dentist from New Jersey, Demmerly has attended the Festival of the Red Rose since he was a child. The other rose will be presented to John "JT" Trible IV, a 10th-generation descendent of Henry and Elizabeth Holz Stiegel. Trible has spent most of his life in Iowa and is finishing a master's degree in teaching. He will begin a position as an English teacher in Mesa, Ariz., in the fall and hopes to become a published novelist.
Keiffer explained that because the payment of the red rose and the signing of the rent book is a legal transaction, J.D. Young Jr. from the law firm of Young & Young in Manheim will serve as Zion's legal representative during the presentation. For more information on the Festival of the Red Rose, visit http://www.zionmanheim.com or call the church office at 717-665-5880.
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