Alonzo Diller

Alonzo Diller

Quick Facts

Significance:

Diller was a priest at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Johnstown.

Place of Birth:

Lancaster, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Date of Birth:

July 7, 1854

Place of Death:

Johnstown, Cambria County, Pennsylvania

Date of Death:

May 31, 1889

Place of Burial:

Southmont, Cambria County, Pennsylvania

Cemetery Name:

Grandview Cemetery

"He was a man of unblemished integrity, of human piety, and a strong faith in God. To know him was to love him, and to be in his company a single hour was to be impressed with the majesty of simple goodness." -Bishop Whitehead

Alonzo Diller was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He attended Franklin and Marshall College and the General Theological Seminary. He served at St. Mary's in Brooklyn, New York. He then went to Marietta, Pennsylvania and the Mission at Mercer near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

Alonzo and Marion were wed in 1886. Her family is the Morrell family of the Cambria Iron Company. They had two children, an infant son Isaac and adopted daughter Lola.

Alonzo Diller was the priest at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Johnstown starting in 1885. There was disorganization in the church and the building was in bad condition. Diller soon fixed things. He was well liked and his congregation group by a few hundred people after his arrival and the church had one of the largest Sunday school classes. The family lived across from the church in the rectory on Locust Street.

He also served as priest in Ehrenfeld after he learned they were in need of someone to lead services. A large portion of the congregation in Ehrenfeld was coal miners and their families. They met for services on the second floor of the mine store when it was available. He wanted the congregation to have a proper church. Using his own money, he traveled via the Pennsylvania Railroad from Johnstown to Ehrenfeld. Woodvale and Moxham were also served by Diller at least once a week.

He was offered a job in at St. Luke's Parish in Pittsburgh and his wife urged him to take the job. He worried that his replacement would "abandon these dear sheep in the wilderness..." On April 12, 1889, he decided to stay in Johnstown, thereby giving up a bigger salary and a rent free rectory. Even though his current job was overwhelming, he felt connected to the work he was doing. 

On May 31, 1889, Diller was at home with his family in the rectory. Alonzo, Marion, Isaac and Lola all died in the flood. They were last seen in a second story window of the rectory. Alonzo's body was identified on June 24, 1889 by church workers. He was found with his family clutching him. His body was taken to Morgue C" at the Millville School-House. The Diller's are buried in a private plot at Grandview Cemetery. Their plot is marked by a marble cross.

Fifty seven members of St. Mark's died in the Johnstown Flood. Part of the church property was used by Clara Barton as a Red Cross Hotel.

In Bishop Whitehead's convention address six days after the flood he said of Diller:
"His people loved and trusted him, and willingly followed him in all Church enterprises. He was particularly loved and honored among the lowly, and the success of his ministry among them was most remarkable."