In a message dated 9/14/2006 5:41:39 AM Eastern Standard Time, geneslady@ec.rr.com writes: "Built circa 1720, this house was the residence of the Geiger (now spelled Kiger) brothers when, from 1744 until the time of the American Revolution, Jesuits from St. Joseph's Church in Philadelphia would come to offer Mass and perform the Sacraments," the first line of the plaque reads. At the time, the practice of the Catholic faith was forbidden in New Jersey and worshipers had to do so in secret. In the early 18th century, Catholic Masses had been outlawed by King George II of England, yet many Belgian and German Catholics had migrated to Salem County to work in the glass houses during his reign. Matthew and Adam Geiger were both employed at the Wistarburg Glass Works in Alloway Township when the two brothers moved into the house in 1744 and began allowing missionaries to secretly conduct Mass in their home. I was present along with two of my KIGER cousins at the lovely ceremony. The house is long overdue for recognition of the role it played in the history of the Catholic Church in NJ. As the Kiger family historian I do have to note a couple errors in the above information though...The Sickler book is the source of the statement about "two GEIGER brothers, Matthias and Adam" but that is inaccurate. Adam was actually the oldest son of Matthias GEIGER and wife Anna Mary HALTER. He was age 7 when the family immigrated to America in 1738 while all of the other surviving children of the couple were born here and were quite a bit younger than Adam -- so it may have seemed to someone not studying the family closely that Adam was a brother--but he wasn't--he was a son of Matthias and is identified as such in Matthias' will of 1759. Also, we have never found any evidence that Adam had any connection to Wistarburgh Glass. He was a farmer and his father, Matthias, was a farmer and carpenter. We have never been sure exactly what connection Matthias had (directly) with the glasshouse but we suspect he may have been involved in building it. He wasn't a glassmaker though. His connection to the glassmaking community was through his wife, Anna Mary HALTER, whose brothers were two of the four master glassblowers commissioned by Wistar to run the glasshouse at Wistarburgh. Joan