Another detail in the local life of yesteryear which is now totally gone from all but historical reference is the German Klingelbeutel – Glingelsock in the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect, literally, “bellpocket.” The Glingelsock was a unique type of collection bag used to collect offerings in the Lutheran and Reformed churches in Pennsylvania from earliest colonial times until the mid-19th Century.
In his well documented 1910 work “A History of the Lutheran Church in New Hanover…” Rev. J.J. Kline noted in the Church Record: “July 23, 1859, The church council resolved to substitute baskets for the Klingelbeutel in taking up collections in church; also until the baskets are procured the collections be taken up on plates at the doors.”
Because the practice was universal among the Pennsylvania Dutch Lutheran and Reformed, we can be sure it was a practice brought here from the old country where the collection bag, Klingelbeutel, is today still widely employed.
The Glingelsock was an open pouch of black velvet about six inches in diameter and eight inches deep drawn together at the bottom with a tassel and bell attached. The pouch was attached to a metal ring which was in turn attached to a thin wooden pole or handle about eight feet long.
According to an article by Alfred Shoemaker in the summer 1961 issue of “Pennsylvania Folklife,” the earliest description of a Glingelsock comes from the 1772 diary of a visiting pastor from Connecticut who noted after attending a service in the Lancaster Lutheran Church, “The mode of collecting was new to me. At the close of public worship about 6 men, each with a small black velvet bag fastened to the end of a long staff presented the bag which had a small bell suspended at the bottom to each person in the long pews or slips. The tinkling of the bell gave warning of the approach of the little purse. The contribution was speedily furnished.”
Another excellent account comes from the “Lutheran” of April 24, 1879: “Ah! Those wonderful contrivances. Called the ‘Klingelbeutel,’ which might be translated, ‘jingle bag.’ What a sight it was when half a dozen grave and revered seignors (sic) marched forth from the vestry door back of the pulpit and alter, each bearing a long black pole (say eight or nine feet long) with such a long black purse or bag, or pouch attached to one end. The deacon carried his pole in his right hand, at an angle of more than 45 degrees, so that the purse was only a few feet above the ground, in front of him as he walked. At the end of the purse concealed in a black tassel, was the little bell, whose tinkling marked each step of the deacon’s progress. [Passing the purse] was comparatively easy as long as the purse was empty, but as one large old-fashioned big and heavy copper penny after the other dropped into the bag, it required great strength and skill on the part of the deacon to push in his pole and get it back again. In those days it was a common saying, that no one but a baker, who acquired skill in shoving bread into the oven and taking it out again, made a really successful deacon.”
Shoemaker notes in his article that he has come upon the following renditions of the word Glingelsock into English in local Pennsylvania and Maryland church histories: alms bag, bell bag, jingle bag, jingle sock, shake bag, and tingling or tinkling bag.
The most curious thing about the Glingelsock is the bell. Why the bell? Did it give the collection bag a voice? One diarist wrote that the “tinkling bell gave warning of the approach of the sack.” This may, indeed, have been its purpose as one informant has reason to believe that there was a constant buzz of talking in the early churches and the preacher talked over the low din.
The bell was often the source of ridicule from the sects who took no collections during meeting, and often it was a source of strife within congregations. Sometimes the bells were taken off with the result that some members refused to contribute, so they were sewn back on. The bell, of course, was often a symbol for some larger idea, grievance or anxiety.
Shoemaker writes: “what led to the discontinuance of the Glingelsock around the 1850’s and the acceptance of other types of collection containers? Two factors were the principal cause, I believe: a general rejection of the then Pennsylvania Dutch intelligentsia of the German-Continental folk-cultural forms and the introduction of the Sunday School with its completely Anglo-American cultural patterns.”
The Historian is produced by the New Hanover Historical Society. Call Robert Wood at 610-326-4165 with comments.
