Location: Geeseytown, Frankstown Township, Blair, Pennsylvania, United States
Surnames/tags: Geesey Etter

Contents 1 The history and people of Geeseytown 1.1 Geeseytown Lutheran Church 1.2 Geeseytown Cemetery 1.3 Sources

The history and people of Geeseytown

Geeseytown is a hamlet of about two dozen houses and has no industry. There is a Lutheran Church near the center of the village and a antique shop on the east end of town. The village lies in Frankstown Township. It never had a Post Officeof its own and received mail from an R. D. Route from Hollidaysburg. On the east side of the village there is a fire house which serves almost all of Frankstown township. Frankstown Townshipis a rather large township in Blair County.
The village of Geeseytown would have been in the Bedford County tax rolls prior to the formation of Huntingdon County in 1787. It became part of Blair County when our county was formed in 1846. Geeseytown was built along state route 22 and all but three houses are on that route. Beyond the third house off the road, it becomes Dutch Bottom which is a series of rural properties, not connected to Geeseytown. ^[1]

Geeseytown Lutheran Church

[Website https://www.gnlutheran.org/]

The Congregation of the Geeseytown Evangelical Lutheran Church is adding yet another anniversary to its long and varied history. One hundred years ago, on August 19, 1883, the cornerstone was laid for its second and present church. As part of the year-long centennial celebration, a model of its first building (a long structure known locally as the "Old Frankstown Lutheran Church of Geeseytown" has been constructed by Mr. Ollie Pottmeyer of Duncansville and is now on display in the sanctuary of the Geeseytown Lutheran Church.^[2]

During the last quarter of the Eighteenth Century, there was an influx of German Lutherans to the area around Water Street and slightly west. Most had followed the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers while others arrived by way of Forbes Road north to Fort Louden to Fort Littleton and on into what was then the Frankstown region. Almost immediately they began to hold divine services in their homes, the initiative being assumed by laymen. When and by whom these first services were conducted is not known, but it is recorded that pastors admitted into the Pennsylvania Ministerium arrived about 1803and began to administer Communion, baptize children, and perform other ministerial duties. It is likely that two pastors -Ilgon of Aaronsburg and Walter of Middleburg-were the first clergymen sent west to visit the Lutheran settlers about twice a year. A third pastor arriving in the area about this time was the Rev. Frederick Hass-was granted a catechist's license and recommended to Huntingdon as a field in 1804- 1815. Hass proceeded to missionize throughout an area that was remarkable considering all the hardship, difficulties, and dangers involved. There exist a few records of his wok in Sinking Valley at the home of George Fleck, at Salem (Antis) in the home of George Dornr, at Cassville, Woodcock Valley, Water street, Spruce Creek, Half Moon, Gatesburg, Allegheny Furnance, Williamsburg, Clover Creek, somewhere near Allenville, and in the Village of Frankstown. The exact date of the organization of a congregation at Frankstown is not known, such statistics were either lost or never kept by the early pastors and laymen preachers. More definite, however, is the building of the first church. It is recorded that some years after the congregation was established a lot of ground about one-half mile east of the village of Frankstown in what is now Geeseytown was deeded, on June 6, 1813 by "Michael Hileman and wife to Jacob Walter and Henry Leamer, Sr., trustees for the Frankstown German Presbyterian (Reformed Church) and Lutheran congregations." as per deed filed in the Huntingdon County Court House. Christian Gast also gave a lot of ground on the south side of the old roadway for a cemetery. John Leamer was the first person buried in it.<br< In the same year, 1813, the congregation built a two-story log church about thirty feet square and furnished it with a slab seats and a small table for a pulpit desk. In this this condition, the Lutheran congregation, and apparently others, worshipped until 1825 or 1826., when finally, it was completed. Located next to the cemetery on the upper north side of the highway at the west end of Geeseytown, the long church long remained a religious center for parishioners many from remote places who found it necessary to journey several miles on horseback in adverse conditions of travel. In time its popular name became the "OLD LOG CHURCH."
Pastor Rev. Peter Schindel, Sr. was pastor from 1816 to 1823, received his catechist's license 1823. In 1824 Rev. George A. Reichert, was granted permission to serve the Frankstown Church July 1, 1824. He served through 1825. Other pastors served the Old Log Church, Ryder, Martin, Anstadt, Knight, Shindler, Ehrenfelt, and Schmick.^[3]

Geeseytown Cemetery

The Geeseytown Cemetery (aka Frankstown Cemetery) lies along both sides of US highway 22 to the Southwest of Geeseytown. The oldest tombstones date from the early 1820s. ^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ Letter from the Blair County Historical Society, March 16, 1987, Sylva L. Emerson Secretary and Curator
2. ↑ THE MANSION, Publication of the Blair County Historical Society, Allegheny Furnance, Altoona, PA., 16603 (Phone 814 942-3916), March 1983 , New Series, Vol X, No. 1, Article, page 2 "The Old Frankstown Log Church at Geeseytown"
3. ↑ The Journal of Gabriel Adam Reichert, Lutheran Pastor in Indiana, Armstrong, Huntingdon, and Adjacent Counties 1822-1827, by Paul Miller Ruff, 1996
4. ↑ https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/1991646/geeseytown-cemetery