Descendants of Simon Groce - follow up to letter I wrote to you about the 250th Anniversary of the church Simon Groce was one of 5 founders of Groce/Grose/Gross Cousins, Thought you might like to hear about the 250th Anniversary celebration of White Oak Evangelical Lutheran Church (now St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran) that Simon was one of 5 founders of. It was a really wonderful weekend of events even with the incredible heat. Jed Kensinger who had organized the search for descendants and found Simon's land etc. was just fantastic. His enthusiasm and zeal for history and the people of the area and his church matched our own for Simon and his family (or at least mine!). He was just as interested as we were in researching Simon and will be continuing to try to unearth anything he can. However nothing "new" was discovered - James D. Groce who has researched and paid professional researchers for 30 years has found everything I think that there is to be found. The one "new" thing is the patent for the church with Simon's name on it (I brought back 5 extra copies of this) and seeing Simon's name - spelled Simon Groce even there in the early PA years (I had thought that it was after they came south that the name started to be spelled this way) - And seeing his name on the monument where the original White Oak church stood was exciting. Oddly enough Simon's brother Theobald who remained in PA and his descendants all spell their name with the original Gross from the German S set or double S. We visited Simon's land purchased in 1751 in Rapho Twp. Pinch Pond Campground and a shooting range are on the land now and we got the folks to stop shooting long enough to let us walk down to the remains of the springhouse which was near where Simon's home was located. The owner of the land said that the house was made of stone and was 2 stories tall - It is no longer there and the remains of it were plowed under by the Sportsman's Club - a shame.... Many of the homes in the area that are also 250 years old or so are also stone houses like this so you can get an "idea" of what it may have been like. It was very very hot - well over 100 degrees in the sun while we were out there on his land - it is sloping, hilly land and back then it had been cleared for farming - now trees have grown back and cover much of the land. It was great to stand there,especially down by the spring - where you knew Simon and his family had also stood all those years ago and perhaps had a cool drink on a hot day after the incredible work of clearing and farming that land. From there we went to Lancaster City to see the Holy Trinity Lutheran church where Simon had several of his children baptised, sponsored his brother's children's baptism's and where he married Veronica Mayer his second wife, after Dorothea's death. The church dates back to 1732 and is colonial in style, much like Brunton Parish church in Williamsburg. After lunch we went to the Lancaster Co. Historical Society library which I joined. We had just a couple of hours to skim through some things - not enough time - I wanted to look for Veronica's parents so got some information on various Mayer, Meyer, Meir, Maier and Myer families in the area at the time - nothing conclusive yet. For me also my Hendricks ancestors were the first frontier pioneers to this same area in the 1600s and there was quite a bit of information on them and on the Linvilles - my Henry Hendricks married Ann Linville sister of the William Linville who was killed by the Cherokees in the NC mountains and for whom Linville Falls was named. I have quite a few Lancaster Co. families so it was well worth my while to join for $30 since I would have had to pay $5 anyway to get in that day to use the library. We went back to the hotel in Lititz, which by the way was a lovely little Moravian town - very pretty and quaint - old Moravian style homes - actually older than our own (here in Winston-Salem, NC) Salem Moravian homes. The farming panorama of the area is almost breathtakingly beautiful - the Amish and Mennonite farms, horses and buggies - it is all really wonderful. I lived in Chambersburg PA just a county or so away, for 5 years - 18 years ago and have always enjoyed the area. That evening we went to the homecoming church picnic where there was live band music and delicious chicken corn chowder - from a recipe almost as old as the church - this is where they sold the patent copies of the church's founding and I bought 6 along with a copy of "Das Kuchbuch" which has pictures and history of the church and of Penryn, the name of the town where the church, now called St. Paul's Lutheran is today. Back then the church and the "town" were known as White Oak. The Reformed church that shared the building, land and cemetery with the Lutherans has become Jerusalem United Church of Christ and is just down the road. Simon was one of three Lutheran founders - the other two founders were Reformed. As you may know Veronica was listed as Reformed on the marraige record at Trinity Lutheran when she married Simon. The Lutheran founders other than Simon were Daniel Huber and Anthony Fishburn, the Reformed were Adam Keener and Daniel Schneider. Sunday morning was the church service in the old country church (of course unairconditioned ) - the sweat literally dripped off of us. They recognized the 5 founders and used the Old Lutheran order of service - long....afterwards we viewed the history and pictures gathered for the occasion and had a nice lunch in the air conditioned!! fellowship hall which used to be the old Fire Hall next door to the church. They had slides and videos of past events and folks from the church that was fun to see even though we knew almost none of the people. Here they recognized the decedants of the founders - Simon Groce was the only one of the 5 who had people attend - all of us from NC....I was proud of us and also grateful and still amazed at what Jed had accomplished in finding us and in the small part I played in gathering Groce cousins to attend. Faye Byrd, her daughter and grandson had had to leave that morning to drive back to Wilkesboro, NC because of the grandson who was just 12 and rther bored by the activities. Victor Seiders and his wife Wanda who is the Groce descendant were there from Yadkinville. Daniel Grose came from Cornelius down near Charlotte and is not only a Groce cousin of mine but his Isaac Groce married my great-grandfather Charles Craver's sister Lucy - so he is my 3rd cousin through the Cravers. Only one person that I thought was coming from DC area didn't come. Jed had been able to contact descendants of two of the other founders - Fishburn and Keener I think but none of them were able to attend - the others he couldn't even find anyone researching them. I had gathered all my material and brought it up there with me - the Groce family treemaker file printed out to 289 pages!!! Since it took an entire binder by itself I made up a separate binder with all the documents I've been able to accumulate on Simon and pictures of Groce descendants that various folks from around the country have sent to me along with my ancestor who comes to closest in my line back to Simon - my great-grandmother Betty Gough who married Charles Craver - and her Aunt Mandy Shore - my line is through Simon's son Theobald, his daughter Anna Margaretha "Peggy" who married John Shore, their son Isaac who married Elizabeth Steelman, their daughter Mary Ann who married Franklin Gough - Betty Gough's parents. Victor had gotten maps of Rapho Township land grants from the 1700s with Simon's land on it and he superimposed it on a topographical map so you can see the topograph of the area - and he made copies for everyone with the 5 founders land shown on the map. Simon's land was furthest away from the church. Jed will be writing a book on the history of the church and I imagine - since he is now very interested in our "search for more on Simon" that he will include what he can on him in the book. He works for the local newspaper in Lancaster City and he is a real treasure to his church, his community, and to us. None of this would have happened without him and his determination and dedication to uncovering his church's history. It was all in all - just a wonderful trip - long drive (8 hrs. each way), hot dry weather but such fun to be with other Groces, with Jed and his interesting stories and wealth of knowledge of local history, the nice folks at the church and the beauty of Lancaster county around us. Was just great - I was grateful to be a part of it all. Susan Gall Winston-Salem, NC