When the Swedes could no longer secure a supply of ministers from their own country, they decided to enter into full communion and fellowship with the Anglican Church

I am researching George Boone III, ancestral immigrant of a family whose descendants include Daniel Boone. George Boone III, a Quaker, arrives in Philadelphia in 1717 and he and his large family settle in the area. His son Benjamin, seventh in a family of eight, settles in Morlatton Village, two thirds of the way between Philadelphia and Reading, Pennsylvania.

Morlatton was a Swedish settlement from 1701. Morlatton later became known as Douglasville.

What is fascinating is the religious history in the region. We know America as a refuge for the religious of all stripes and a rich breeding ground of sects and schisms. And yet, in the early centuries, the infrastructure in terms of available ministers as well as churches, were thin on the ground. Before the days of cars and roads, religion was a matter of practice and belief rather than attendance at church. And while the skeins of particular belief systems were many and tangled, they appear to, in some places, given way to the simpler need of ecumenical religious community given the parsity of ministers and churches.

Such appears to be the case of Benjamin Boone. His younger children were baptized in St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church. I look to see whether it is still extant and find a rich history. The current St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church is a stone church built in 1801 and so the immediate answer is no. But their website has the religious history of this frontier village.

St. Gabriel's church, founded in the year 1720 by the Swedish Lutherans, is the oldest congregation in Berks County. Located in Douglassville, Pennsylvania, formerly known as Morlatton, services were first held in 1708 by the Reverend Andrew Sandel. When the Swedes could no longer secure a supply of ministers from their own country, they decided to enter into full communion and fellowship with the Anglican Church rather than keep up a separate organization. This they accordingly did and were henceforth provided with priests of the Church of England.

Except for the years 1752-1755 when John A. Lidenius was resident here, no priest was available to serve the congregation full time. (The oldest records present at St. Gabriel's were kept by this pastor.) Because of the distance from Wicaco (present day Gloria Dei Church in Philadelphia), it was difficult for priests to visit the congregation on a regular basis and the church was often supplied by the German Lutheran Pastor, Henry Melchior Mulhenberg, from Trappe, Pennsylvania.

For some years there was no other English service held within a circuit of eight miles except for the meetings of the Society of Friends (Quakers) in Exeter and Pottstown. Hence, English-speaking people from neighboring places and the surrounding country attended divine service at Morlatton. Worshippers came from the townships of Amity, Exeter, Robeson, and Union. By the 1760's the congregation listed 17 households with 45 members, only 27 of who could understand Swedish.

In 1762, Rev. Doctor Alexander Murray, a missionary of the venerable society "for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts" (which society is connected with the Church of England and is the oldest missionary body in the Protestant World), began his ministry at St. Gabriel's. Dr. Murray stabilized the congregation and assured those who wanted Swedish services that the Pastors of Gloria Dei could still serve them when available. During the Revolution, however, his usefulness was much impaired because of his supposed sympathy with the British Government. He petitioned the Executive Council of the State for permission to retire to Britain during the war and returned home upon the approval of his petition.

He returned to the United States in 1790, after the war, and brought with him from England a small but valuable library of theological works as a gift from the Propagation Society to the Church for use by the minister. Each book had an engraving of the Society's seal on the inside cover. He died of yellow fever in 1793. Dr. Murray's services were of great importance to the Church, as is witnessed by the many entries of baptisms, marriages, and burials carefully recorded in the Register.

St. Gabriel's Church was one of the eight founding parishes for the Diocese of Pennsylvania. It had deputies at the convention that elected Dr. William White to be the first Bishop of Pennsylvania and it helped to form the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America.

The ancient Swedish church, which stood near the east center of the cemetery, was built in 1736 from logs hewn from the neighboring woods. It contained an iron stove and seating for 120 people. It continued in use as a house of prayer for 65 years until 1801 when a new stone edifice was erected, which is known today as St. Gabriel's 1801 Chapel. The old log church continued to serve as a school until the winter of 1831-1832 when it was destroyed by fire.

Multiple peoples with different cultural traditions, different languages, different religions, merging together in pragmatic ways to serve their religious needs on the frontier of emerging America. Fascinating.