Political unrest was fomenting for long years between the North and the South. The distinctively American ability to find a lasting compromise was seemingly lost in the halls of the Congress and Senate as well as in the media. President James Buchanan from nearby Mercersburg, and the only Pennsylvanian ever elected to the U.S. presidency, seemed unable to stop the move toward civil war. And when it came in 1861, Pennsylvania played an important role in preserving the Union.
Pennsylvania's industrial enterprise and natural resources were essential factors in the economic strength of the northern cause. Its railroad system, iron and steel industry, and agricultural wealth were vital to the war effort. Waynesboro was a crossroads for men and material going to war. Southern forces invaded Pennsylvania three times by way of the Cumberland Valley, a natural highway from Virginia to the North, and came right through Waynesboro on several occasions. As the "keystone state," Pennsylvania shielded the other northeastern states from the direct effects of the war. Through its four grueling years, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania sent more than 350,000 of her sons to war and untold numbers of her daughters to service on the U.S. Sanitary Commission as nurses, as telegraphers in the military telegraphic service, as stenographers to the Army and in a host of other roles. Waynesboro sent her sons and daughters forth, too, including some from the Methodist Episcopal Church.
The war came right to Waynesboro's doors in a direct way during the battle of Antietam in September of 1862, again during late June and early July of 1863 as the armies collided at the town of Gettysburg, some 19 miles away. For fifteen days, Confederate troops occupied the town of Waynesboro and vicinity. It is said that General Robert E. Lee rode through Waynesboro on retreat to the Potomac River, following the battles at Gettysburg. The war came to town yet again in July of 1864 as Southern troops moved through the area, burned Chambersburg to the north and occupied Emmitsburg to the southeast.
Church members from Waynesboro's Methodist Episcopal Church banded together, made bandages, knit stockings and other garments for the troops in the field and those recuperating from their injuries. Some went directly to the field to help care for the huge numbers of injured soldiers following the battles of Antietam and Gettysburg. Everyone in the community was affected in some way by the devastating realities of the first modern war, which brought the fighting right to the populace.
Following the Civil War, a time of peace and prosperity blossomed in the north. The Geiser Manufacturing Company was making phenomenal advances in farming technology with the production of steam engines that powered threshing machines and other farm machinery. Further impetus to industrial growth came in 1879, when the Geiser Manufacturing Company, looking for engines to power its machinery, bought the steam engine works of Lancaster County's Landis brothers, Abraham B. and Franklin F. Landis.
The Landis brothers moved to Waynesboro to work for Geiser, and the ingenious designs they developed there led them to start their own factory manufacturing grinding and boring machines in 1890. Landis Tool came out of that company in 1897, and Landis Machine followed in 1903. Machine shops and machinists and their families came to the community and many joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. The church, along with the other churches of Waynesboro, became a focal point in the spiritual and social life of the community.
Through its tradition of social ministry, provisions for the poor and homeless, the widowed, sick and orphaned were made by members of the church. The women were encouraged to join the Women's Christian Temperance Union to crusade against the devastating ills caused by alcoholism. Members of the church foreswore all use of alcohol including the use of communion wine. Another Methodist, by the name of James Welch in New York state, was busy perfecting the preservation and bottling of grape juice for use by churches as a substitute for wine.
The congregation sought for ways to care for their children and youth and so adults were recruited and trained to serve as Sunday School teachers and small group leaders. An Epworth League was formed in 1891 to offer a youth ministry to the teens of the church and community. Children's Day was a regular event each year and pictures still exist that show an extravagantly decorated sanctuary festooned with flowers and décor that celebrated the role of children in the congregation.
As a new century dawned, the need for a larger church building was again before the congregation. The trustees met and quickly concurred that a new church building was needed that would allow the congregation to go forward in their ministry. A building committee was formed and members recruited to lead it. Members included Alvin M. Foltz, Ezekiel Elden, F. Jesse Beard, William E. Bender, John G. Corbett, Aaron H. Deardorff, John H. Deardorff, D. Singer Geiser, A. Welty Rauthrauff, Val Smith, Americus E. Waynant and the Rev. George N. Hoke, pastor.
In late 1900, the former church was demolished and the work on the new building begun. The trustees of the cemetery received permission to disband and the graves were removed to various other cemeteries in the area. The former parsonage, which stood on the site now occupied by the Lockstamphor Funeral home, was sold and a new parsonage was erected beside the new church building on the Second Street side. This building still stands and serves as educational space for the congregation.
The building and furnishings cost a little over $25,000.00 -a large sum of money at that time for a modest congregation to raise considering that the average salary of a working family at that time was less than $1,200.00 per year. The congregation gave sacrificially and with a vision for the future.