Rev. Willis Heckler’s plan to tell the story of Maxatawny Church and its people has reached stage two.

A full accounting of the church registers have now been published in softcover book form. Lists of all baptisms, confirmations, marriages and deaths by Maxatawny pastors have been researched by Rev. Heckler more than14 years in libraries and genealogical centers from Lancaster to Reading to Philadelphia, to Allentown and Kutztown. Persons by the dozens have joined him in combing family bibles, certificates, and photographs from drawers and attics in homes.

The extended research in scattered places was necessitated by the fact that there was no Lutheran record book in church possession until 1921; and no Reformed record book until 1937. All prior ministerial acts were in personal records of the Maxatawny pastors. When those personal records were located in his search he discovered they were listed chronologically with little or no reference to which of their eight or more churches in a parish were the locale of the baptisms, weddings and funerals. This required considerable familiarity on Rev. Heckler’s part with the families of the Maxatawny region in the 19th and 20th centuries to pick from the volumes of records which ministrations pertained to Zion’s Church. Heckler counted on skills acquired during a quarter century living among this people with an attentive ear and deep concern, inadequate as it may yet have been.