For much of its history, the Resurrection Reformed Church of Burkittsville was the center of religious work that extended into surrounding communities in the lower Middletown Valley. At least four congregations were organized and supported by the ministers of Burkittsville's church during a period of time spanning more than a century.
An Introduction to the Charge System:
Burkittsville's Reformed Church had its origins as a congregation within a larger charge. The services which were held at the barn of John Willard just outside the village in the 1820s were led by ministers who traveled here from Christ Reformed Church in Middletown. Charges, similar to parishes in other denominations, were frameworks for administering multiple congregations in a geographically-linked area. Over the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, these charges tended to get smaller and grow in number as more settlers came to live in the Maryland piedmont. This was the case in 1846 when Burkittsville's Reformed Church was made the center of a new charge, separated from that of Middletown. This new charge encompassed much of the lower Middletown Valley, including the villages of Burkittsville, Knoxville, Petersville, Berlin (later Brunswick), and even part of Pleasant Valley in Washington County. The minister lived in a parsonage next to the church in Burkittsville and rode by horse to his appointments at the charge's congregations. The first minister called to the Burkittsville Charge was the Rev. George Lewis Staley, who arrived in 1846 and served until 1849.
Burkittsville's Reformed Church had its origins as a congregation within a larger charge. The services which were held at the barn of John Willard just outside the village in the 1820s were led by ministers who traveled here from Christ Reformed Church in Middletown. Charges, similar to parishes in other denominations, were frameworks for administering multiple congregations in a geographically-linked area. Over the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, these charges tended to get smaller and grow in number as more settlers came to live in the Maryland piedmont. This was the case in 1846 when Burkittsville's Reformed Church was made the center of a new charge, separated from that of Middletown. This new charge encompassed much of the lower Middletown Valley, including the villages of Burkittsville, Knoxville, Petersville, Berlin (later Brunswick), and even part of Pleasant Valley in Washington County. The minister lived in a parsonage next to the church in Burkittsville and rode by horse to his appointments at the charge's congregations. The first minister called to the Burkittsville Charge was the Rev. George Lewis Staley, who arrived in 1846 and served until 1849.
