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 History of the Presbytery of Luzerne st 
 
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The original of tliis book is in 
 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029475518 
 
HISTORY 
 
 Presbytery of Luzerne 
 
 STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 Rev. J. Osmond, 
 
 TACOMA, WASH. 
 
 WITH INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 REV. N. G. PARKE, D. D. 
 
 Published under the Auspices of the Presbyterian 
 Historical Society. 
 
,/:L 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1897, 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. N. G. PARKE, D. D. 
 
 PRESS OF R. BAUR & SON, 
 WILKES-BARRE, PA. 
 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 BY N. G. PARKE, D. D. 
 
 THE history of a Presbytery differs from a biography 
 in this, that it is the history of an institution, 
 while biography is the history of an individual. A 
 Presbytery is made up of individuals, and it will be in 
 character what the individuals, ministers and elders, 
 comprising it, make it. Biography cannot be eliminated 
 from church history, and, as a result of this, the history 
 of Luzerne Presbytery, as presented by the Rev. Jonathan 
 Osmond, is very largely biographical. The same is true 
 of all church history, including the history of the Re- 
 formation of the 1 6th century. 
 
 Over what territory did the Presbytery of Luzerne 
 extend ? What were the conditions of the country- 
 social, commercial and religious, over which it extended ? 
 What were its prospects and its aims ? And what, under 
 divine guidance, did this Presbytery accomplish before 
 it was merged in the Presbyteries of Lackawanna and 
 Lehigh? were all questions germane to the subject of this 
 history ; and these questions Mr. Osmond has attempted 
 to answer in connection with the biographical sketches of 
 the men who did the work in this mission field. 
 
 Mr. Osmond came into the Presbytery shortly after 
 its organization and immediately after graduating from 
 Princeton Theological Seminary. Here, with the self- 
 denying spirit of a true Missionary, he did his first work. 
 
IV PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 and on this field he learned to know and to love the 
 pioneers with whom he was here associated in work for 
 the Master, and the labor of preparing this history was 
 with him a labor of love. 
 
 The Rev. Richard Webster, of Mauch Chunk, and 
 the Rev. John Dorrance, of Wilkes-Barre, the founders 
 of the Presbytery, were not common men. They did 
 grand work for our Zion in this part of Pennsylvania, and 
 this history is a just tribute to their memory, from a 
 fellow laborer, who did as trying and as successful work 
 on these mountains and along these valleys as any of 
 his brethren. 
 
 It is due to Mr. Osmond to say that, while the idea 
 of writing the history of this Presbytery originated with 
 him, he did not covet the work. He did what he could 
 to have it taken up by someone else, and only consented 
 to undertake it when it became apparent that, if he did 
 not do it, the work would not be done. 
 
 There is no question but that the growth and develop- 
 ment of our church within the territorial bounds of this 
 Presbytery, has been phenomenal. In the Wyoming coal 
 field there were, when the Presbytery was organized, but 
 three Presbyterian churches south of Carbondale, viz : 
 Wilkes-Barre, Kingston, and Lackawanna, and one of 
 these was an infant. Now there are not less than fifty, 
 and among them are some of the strongest churches in 
 the State. In the Schuylkill coal field the growth has not 
 been so rapid. 
 
 The development of the church in this region has 
 not been the result merely of the wisdom and faithfulness 
 of the pioneer missionaries. The opening up of the 
 hidden treasures in these mountains and valleys of anthra- 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. V 
 
 cite coal, that brought bright, enterprising Christian men 
 here with their families, has had no little to do with it. 
 Still these early missionaries in this region were wise in 
 their generation in laying foundations, and they builded 
 better than they knew. They rest from their labors and 
 their works follow them. 
 
 At the time of the union of the two branches of the 
 Presbyterian church in 1870, and the formation of the 
 Lackawanna Presbytery, ministers were appointed to 
 write up the history of the Presbyteries that were merged 
 in the new Presbytery, and historical sermons were 
 preached accordingly. But these sermons were little 
 more than historical sketches. There was no room to 
 speak of the work done or the men who did it. Mr. 
 Osmond has attempted to clothe the Luzerne skeleton 
 with flesh, and to give it to the public in a presentable 
 form ; and in doing so he has added a chapter to our 
 ecclesiastical history that entitles him to the thanks of 
 the Presbyterian people of the anthracite coal region of 
 Pennsylvania, and that will be recognized as a valuable 
 contribution to the liistorical literature of our valley. 
 
 Note — The publication of this history in Wilkes- 
 Barre, so remote from the home of the author, in Tacoma, 
 has necessitated supervision and partial editing in the 
 East. This work has been kindly done by his brother, 
 the Rev. Samuel M. Osmond, D. D., of Philadelphia. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 INTRODUCTION BY REV. N. G. PARKE, D. D iii 
 
 CHARTER OF INCORPORATION xi 
 
 I. 
 ORGANIZATION OF THE PRESBYTERY I 
 
 II. 
 THE TERRITORY OCCUPIED 7 
 
 III. 
 EARLY SETTLEMENTS 1 3 
 
 IV. 
 
 ORIGIN AND CHARACTER OF THE SETTLERS I 6 
 
 V. 
 
 SUSQUEHANNA PRESBYTERY 29 
 
 .VI. 
 MAUCH CHUNK AND THE REV. RICHARD WEBSTER ... 40 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE REV. JOHN DORRANCE, D. D. AND THE V/ILKES-BARRE 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 66 
 
 VIII. 
 KINGSTON CHURCH AND ITS PASTORS I05 
 
Vlll PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 IX. 
 
 THE REV. THOMAS POAGE HUNT I24 
 
 X. 
 
 LACKAWANNA VALLEY AND THE REV. NATHAN GRIER 
 
 PARKE, D, D 145 
 
 XL 
 OTHER EARLY MINISTERS OF THE PRESBYTERY . . . . 163 
 
 XII. 
 THE REV. JACOB DELVILLE MITCHELL, D. D 1 69 
 
 XIII. 
 THE REV. B. F. BITTENGER, D. D 1 73 
 
 XIV. 
 THE REV. WILLIAM RENWICK GLENN, D. D., AND SCHUYL- 
 KILL VALLEY MISSIONS 1 76 
 
 XV. 
 THE REV. JOHN JERMAIN PORTER, D. D., AND THE 
 
 KINGSTON CHURCH 179 
 
 XVI. 
 
 THE REV. CORNELIUS RUSTER LANE, D. D 182 
 
 XVII. 
 
 BERWICK AND PORT CARBON I9I 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 THE SCRANTON PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AND ITS PAS- 
 TORS 200 
 
 XIX. 
 SCRANTON CHURCH AND THE REV. JOHN FABIAN BAKER . 2l6 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. IX 
 
 XX. 
 
 SCRANTON CHURCH AND THE REV. MILO J. HICKOK, D. D . 221 
 
 XXI. 
 SCRANTON CHURCH AND THE REV. SAMUEL CROTHERS 
 
 LOGAN, D. D 228 
 
 XXII. 
 GERMAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES IN SCRANTON AND 
 
 THEIR PASTORS 24I 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 BEAVER MEADOW AND WHITE HAVEN CHURCHES . . . 246 
 
 XXIV. 
 NEWTON, WHITE HAVEN AND ECKLEY. THE REV. JONA- 
 THAN OSMOND 252 
 
 XXV. 
 THE REV. HENRY HUNTER WELLES AS PASTOR OF THE 
 
 KINGSTON CHURCH 271 
 
 XXVI. 
 THE REV. REUBEN POST LOWRIE 276 
 
 XXVII. 
 THE REV. JOHN ARMSTRONG, D. D 282 
 
 XXVIII. 
 THE MAUCH CHUNK CHURCH AND ITS LATER PASTORS .291 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 THE CHURCH OF SUMMIT HILL AND PASTORATE OF THE 
 
 REV. JOHN WHITE 299 
 
 XXX. 
 
 THE WYOMING CHURCH AND PRESBYTERIAL INSTITUTE . 302 
 
X PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 XXXI. 
 THE CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF POTTSVILLE 
 
 AND ITS PASTORS 307 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 CONVNGHAM VALLEY CHURCH 316 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 THE CHURCH OF NANTICOKE AND THE REV. JACOB 
 
 WEIDMAN 318 
 
 XXXIV. 
 
 THE HARVEY'S lake OR THE LEHMAN CHURCH .... 324 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 THE WILKES-BARRE CHURCH AND ITS LATER PASTORS .325 
 
 XXXVI. 
 
 PORT CLINTON CHURCH 332 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 THE MAHANOY city CHURCH 336 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 
 THE UPPER LEHIGH CHURCH 338 
 
 XXXIX. 
 
 THE CHURCH OF MEHOOPANY CREEK AND THE REV. 
 
 EDWIN BRONSON 340 
 
 XL. 
 
 THE PLAINS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 34 1 
 
 XL I. 
 
 GNADENHUTTEN CHURCH 342 
 
 CONCLUSION 343 
 
CHARTER OF INCORPORATION. 
 
 THE TRUSTEES OF THE PRESBYTERY OF 
 LUZERNE. 
 
 To the Honorable John N. Conyngham, and his asso- 
 sociates, Judges of the Court of Common Pleas of 
 the County of Luzerne : 
 
 The undersigned, citizens of the Commonwealth of 
 Pennsylvania, are associated together for religious pur- 
 poses, and especially for providing houses of public 
 worship, for sustaining the preaching of the gospel, and 
 affording the means of education within the bounds of the 
 Presbytery of Luzerne, in accordance with the Constitu- 
 tion of the Presbyterian church. 
 
 They have prepared, and herewith present to your 
 Honors, an Instrument in writing, specifying the objects 
 for which, and the articles, conditions, and name under 
 which they have associated. And they pray your Honors 
 to grant them a Charter of Incorporation, under the pro- 
 visions of an Act of Assembly of the Commonwealth of 
 Pennsylvania, passed the 13th day of October, A. D. 
 1840, and entitled "An Act relating to Orphans' Court, 
 and for other purposes," and the various supplements 
 thereunto. 
 
Xll PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 NAME, 
 
 ARTICLES AND CONSTITUTION OF INCORPORA- 
 TION, 
 
 ABOVE PRAYED FOR. 
 
 I. John Dorrance, Thomas P. Hunt, Henry H. 
 Welles, Ebenezer H. Snowden, Samuel F. Colt, Theo- 
 dore Strong, Andrew T. McClintock, John Leisen- 
 RiNG, William Donaldson, George W. Smith and 
 Samuel Sherrerd, and their successors, who shall be 
 citizens of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania duly- 
 elected, and appointed in the manner hereinafter directed, 
 shall be, and are hereby made, declared, and constituted, 
 a Corporation or Body Politic, and Corporate in law, and 
 in fact to have continuance forever, by the name, style 
 and title of The Trustees of the Presbytery of Lu- 
 zerne ; and they, and their successors, by the name, 
 style, and title aforesaid, shall forever hereafter, be per- 
 sons able, and competent in law to purchase, have, 
 receive, take, hold and enjoy in fee simple, or for any 
 lesser estate, or estates, any lands, tenements, rents, an- 
 nuities, franchises, and other hereditaments, by gift, grant, 
 bargain, sale, alienation, enfeoffment, release, confirm- 
 ation, or devise, of any person, or persons, bodies politic, 
 and corporate capable, and able to make the same. 
 
 I I. The said Corporation shall not at any time con- 
 sist of more than eleven persons, (a majority of whom 
 shall always be Laymen), whereof the Presbytery of Lu- 
 zerne may, at their discretion, at any stated meeting, as 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. Xlll 
 
 often as they shall hold their sessions in the State of 
 Pennsylvania, change such a number, and in such a man- 
 ner as to the said Presbytery of Luzerne it shall seem 
 proper. And the Corporation aforesaid shall have power 
 and authority to manage, and dispose of, all moneys, 
 chattels, lands, tenements, and hereditaments, and other 
 estate whatsoever committed to their care, and trust by 
 the said Presbytery of Luzerne. 
 
 III. Five members of the said Corporation, whereof 
 the President, or in his absence the Vice President, is to 
 be one, shall be a quorum to transact the business thereof. 
 They shall meet at any time at the call of the President, 
 Provided, that at any meeting of the Corporation not 
 appointed by adjournment, notice of such meeting shall 
 previously be given to each member, either verbally, or 
 by writing deposited in the Post Office, and properly 
 directed, allowing the member sufficient time to reach the 
 place designated for such meeting. And the said Cor- 
 poration shall, and may, as often as they shall see proper 
 and according to the rules by them prescribed, choose out 
 of their own number, a president, vice president, and 
 such other officers and servants, as shall by them, the said 
 Corporation, be deemed necessary — to which officers the 
 said Corporation may assign such compensation for their 
 services, and such duties so be performed by them, to 
 continue in office for such time, and to be succeeded by 
 others in such way and manner as the said Corporation 
 shall direct. 
 
 I V. All questions before said Corporation shall be 
 decided by a plurality of votes, whereof each member 
 present shall have one, except the president or vice 
 president when acting as president, who shall have only 
 
XIV PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 the casting voice and vote, in case of an equality in the 
 votes of the other members. 
 
 V. The said Corporation shall keep regular and fair 
 entries of their proceedings and a just account of their 
 receipts and disbursements, in a book or books to be pro- 
 vided for that purpose. And their Treasurer shall once 
 in a year exhibit to the Presbytery of Luzerne, an exact 
 statement of the accounts of the Corporation. 
 
 VI. The said Corporation may take, receive, pur- 
 chase, possess, and enjoy, messuages, houses, lands, tene- 
 ments, rents, annuities, and other hereditaments, and real 
 and personal estate of any amount not exceeding in the 
 aggregate the clear annual value of Five Thousand 
 Dollars, provided that " the same shall not be otherwise 
 taken, and held, or inure, than subject to the control and 
 disposition of the lay members of said Corporation, or 
 such constituted officers, or representatives thereof, as 
 shall be composed of a majority of lay members, citizens 
 of Pennsylvania, having a controlling power according to 
 the rules, regulations, usages, or corporate requirements 
 thereof so far as consistent herewith." 
 
 VII. The said Corporation, and their successors, 
 shall have full power and authority to make, have, and 
 use one common seal, with such device and inscription as 
 they shall deem proper, and the same to break, alter, and 
 renew at pleasure. And by the name, style and title of 
 " The Trustees of the Presbytery of Luzerne," shall 
 be able, and capable in law to sue and be sued, plead and 
 be impleaded, in any Court or Courts, before any Judge 
 or Judges, Justice or Justices, in all manner of suits, com- 
 plaints, pleas, causes, matters and demands whatsoever 
 and all, and every matter, and thing therein to do in as 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. XV 
 
 full and effectual a manner as any other person or persons, 
 or bodies politic and corporate within this Common- 
 wealth may, or can do. And are authorized and em- 
 powered to make such rules, by-laws, and ordinances as 
 they may see fit, and to do everything needful for the 
 good government and support of the affairs of the said 
 Corporation. Provided Always, That the said by-laws, 
 rules and ordinances or any of them be not repugnant to 
 the constitution and laws of the United States, to the 
 constitution and laws of this Commonwealth, or to the 
 provisions of this charter. 
 
 John Dorrance, 
 Thos. p. Hunt, 
 H. H. Welles, 
 E. H. Snowden, 
 S. F. Colt, 
 T. Strong, 
 A. T. McClintock, 
 J. Leisenring, 
 W. Donaldson, 
 G. W. Smith, 
 S. Sherrerd. 
 Now, loth January, 1859, the Court having perused 
 and examined the within Instrument and the objects, 
 articles and conditions therein set forth and contained 
 appearing lawful and not injurious to the community, 
 direct said writing to be filed in the office of the Pro- 
 thonotary, and also direct notice to be inserted in one 
 newspaper printed in the County of Luzerne for at least 
 three weeks in pursuance of the 13th Section of the Act 
 of 13th October, 1840, entitled "An act relating to 
 Orphans' Courts and for other purposes. ' ' 
 
 By the Court. 
 
XVI PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 Now, 28th February, 1859, due notice having been 
 given and no reason shown to the contrary, the Court 
 decree and declare by this order that the persons herein- 
 before mentioned and associated shall, according to the 
 articles and conditions in the foregoing Instrument con- 
 tained, become and be a Corporation, or body politic, 
 and further direct that said Charter of Incorporation shall 
 be recorded in the office for recording of Deeds in Lu- 
 zerne County, and on said Instrument being recorded, 
 the persons associated, and their successors and associates, 
 shall become and be a body corporate and politic, in the 
 manner contemplated by the law in such case made and 
 provided. 
 
 In Testimony Whereof, I have hereunto set my 
 hand and the seal of the Court of Common Pleas of 
 Luzerne County, the Twenty-eighth day of February, 
 A. D., 1859. 
 
 David L. Patrick, 
 
 Prothonotary . 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 XVI I 
 
 Luzerne County, ss. 
 
 William P. Miner, being duly sworn on his oath, 
 saith that he is the publisher of the Record of the Times, 
 a weekly newspaper printed and published in the Borough 
 of Wilkes-Barre. That he published in his said paper a 
 notice of which the annexed is a copy, for three con- 
 secutive weeks, to wit : on the 26th of January and the 
 2d and 9th of February, A. D., 1859. 
 
 W. P. Miner. 
 
 Sworn and subscribed this twenty- " 
 third day of February, A. D., 
 1859, before me, 
 
 David L. Patrick, 
 
 Prothonotary . 
 By Chase. 
 
 Luzerne County, ss. 
 
 Recorded in the of&ce for recording deeds, &c., in 
 and for said County, in deed book, No. 75, page 500, &c. 
 
 Witness my hand and official seal this 15th day of 
 March, A. D., 1859. Richard Hutchins, 
 
 pr. B. F. Neur, Dpt. Recorder. 
 
HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE, 
 
 ORGANIZATION OF THE PRESBYTERY. 
 
 TWENTY-FIVE years ago, this Presbytery ceased to 
 exist. Twenty-seven years measured its career as a 
 constituent part of the Presbyterian Church of the United 
 States of America. 
 
 In the following sketch, it is proposed to trace its 
 origin, the antecedents of its constituent parts, the 
 leadings of Providence which made them Presbyterian, 
 and which brought them into this Presbytery; especially 
 the character and work of the founders of the Presbytery, 
 the field of its operations, the results of those operations; 
 viz., the additions to its working force, made from time 
 to time, in ministers and churches, during the period of 
 its existence. 
 
 At the meeting of the General Assembly of 1843, in 
 New York City, the Rev. Gardiner Spring, D. D., being 
 Moderator, an overture was presented to that body by the 
 
2 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 Rev. John Dorrance, of the Susquehanna Presbytery, (as 
 we learn from the Rev. C. C. Corss' history of the 
 Susquehanna Presbytery), asking for the erection of a 
 new Presbytery, to be called the Presbytery of Luzerne; 
 which overture was at once placed on the docket. This 
 petition was presented by one who was subsequently 
 destined to bear a conspicuous part in giving shape and 
 dignity to the institution sought at the hands of the 
 Assembly. The movement, however, originated with 
 another who had already made full proof of his ministry 
 in the southern part of the territory proposed for the new 
 Presbytery and, like Mr. Dorrance in the northern part, 
 was destined to be a vital and efficient agent in its 
 upbuilding, especially in his part of the important field. 
 This we learn from Dr. Cortland Van Rensellaer's sketch 
 of the life of the Rev. Richard Webster, introductory to 
 Mr. W.'s History of the Presbyterian Church in the 
 United States. 
 
 When the Assembly reached the overture on the 
 docket, it was fully discussed and passed, as follows: viz.. 
 
 Resolved: ist. That the Rev. John Dorrance, the 
 Rev. Ebenezer H. Snowden, of the Presbytery of Susque- 
 hanna; together with the churches of Wilkes-Barre, 
 Kingston, Hanover and Lackawanna, to be detached 
 from said Presbytery; and that the Rev, Richard Webster 
 and the Rev. Daniel Gaston, together with the churches 
 of Mauch Chunk, Beaver Meadow, Conyngham and 
 Summit Hill, be detached from the Presbytery of Newton; 
 and that they be erected into the Presbytery of Luzerne; 
 and that the churches of Berwick and Briar Creek, now 
 under the care of the Presbytery of Northumberland, 
 and the church of Port Carbon, now under the care of 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 3 
 
 the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia, be attached to the 
 Presbytery of Luzerne. 
 
 Resolved: 2nd. That all the Presbyterian churches 
 that may hereafter be formed in the counties of Luzerne, 
 Schuylkill, Carbon, and the township of Briar Creek in 
 Columbia county, until otherwise ordered by competent 
 authority, shall be formed under the direction of the 
 Presbytery of Luzerne, and continue under the care of 
 said Presbytery. 
 
 Resolved : 3rd. That the first meeting of the Pres- 
 bytery of Luzerne shall be held in Wilkes-Barre, on the 
 third Tuesday of September, at 7 o'clock p. m., and that 
 said meeting be opened with a sermon by the Rev. 
 Richard Webster, or, in case of his absence, by the 
 oldest minister present. 
 
 Resolved: 4th. That after the organization of 
 Luzerne Presbytery, Mr. Charles Evans, now a licentiate, 
 under the care of the Presbytery of Newton be under the 
 care of the Presbytery of Luzerne, and that said Presby- 
 tery be connected with the Synod of New Jersey. (See 
 minutes of General Assembly for 1843.) 
 
 The Presbytery, thus erected, consisted of ministers 
 and churches detached by the Supreme Court of the 
 Church from four other Presbyteries, belonging to two 
 Synods. The greater area of territory having been under 
 the jurisdiction of the Synod of New Jersey, the Presby- 
 tery was assigned to it rather than the Synod of 
 Philadelphia. Prompt action on the part of the 
 Assembly (the only court that could act for all the 
 parties in interest) was demanded by the conditions of 
 the territory thus provided for, and the inevitable 
 difficulties that would arise from delay in order to secure 
 
2 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 Rev. John Dorrance, of the Susquehanna Presbytery, (as 
 we learn from the Rev. C. C. Corss' history of the 
 Susquehanna Presbytery), asking for the erection of a 
 new Presbytery, to be called the Presbytery of Luzerne; 
 which overture was at once placed on the docket. This 
 petition was presented by one who was subsequently 
 destined to bear a conspicuous part in giving shape and 
 dignity to the institution sought at the hands of the 
 Assembly. The movement, however, originated with 
 another who had already made full proof of his ministry 
 in the southern part of the territory proposed for the new 
 Presbytery and, like Mr. Dorrance in the northern part, 
 was destined to be a vital and efficient agent in its 
 upbuilding, especially in his part of the important field. 
 This we learn from Dr. Cortland Van Rensellaer's sketch 
 of the life of the Rev. Richard Webster, introductory to 
 Mr. W.'s History of the Presbyterian Church in the 
 United States. 
 
 When the Assembly reached the overture on the 
 docket, it was fully discussed and passed, as follows: viz.. 
 
 Resolved: ist. That the Rev. John Dorrance, the 
 Rev. Ebenezer H. Snowden, of the Presbytery of Susque- 
 hanna; together with the churches of Wilkes-Barre, 
 Kingston, Hanover and Lackawanna, to be detached 
 from said Presbytery; and that the Rev, Richard Webster 
 and the Rev. Daniel Gaston, together with the churches 
 of Mauch Chunk, Beaver Meadow, Conyngham and 
 Summit Hill, be detached from the Presbytery of Newton; 
 and that they be erected into the Presbytery of Luzerne; 
 and that the churches of Berwick and Briar Creek, now 
 under the care of the Presbytery of Northumberland, 
 and the church of Port Carbon, now under the care of 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 3 
 
 the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia, be attached to the 
 Presbytery of Luzerne. 
 
 Resolved: 2nd. That all the Presbyterian churches 
 that may hereafter be formed in the counties of Luzerne, 
 Schuylkill, Carbon, and the township of Briar Creek in 
 Columbia county, until otherwise ordered by competent 
 authority, shall be formed under the direction of the 
 Presbytery of Luzerne, and continue under the care of 
 said Presbytery. 
 
 Resolved : 3rd. That the first meeting of the Pres- 
 bytery of Luzerne shall be held in Wilkes-Barre, on the 
 third Tuesday of September, at 7 o'clock p. m., and that 
 said meeting be opened with a sermon by the Rev. 
 Richard Webster, or, in case of his absence, by the 
 oldest minister present. 
 
 Resolved: 4th. That after the organization of 
 Luzerne Presbytery, Mr. Charles Evans, now a licentiate, 
 under the care of the Presbytery of Newton be under the 
 care of the Presbytery of Luzerne, and that said Presby- 
 tery be connected with the Synod of New Jersey. (See 
 minutes of General Assembly for 1843.) 
 
 The Presbytery, thus erected, consisted of ministers 
 and churches detached by the Supreme Court of the 
 Church from four other Presbyteries, belonging to two 
 Synods. The greater area of territory having been under 
 the jurisdiction of the Synod of New Jersey, the Presby- 
 tery was assigned to it rather than the Synod of 
 Philadelphia. Prompt action on the part of the 
 Assembly (the only court that could act for all the 
 parties in interest) was demanded by the conditions of 
 the territory thus provided for, and the inevitable 
 difficulties that would arise from delay in order to secure 
 
4 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 concurrent petitions from all the different parties 
 concerned. Such delay would have been equivalent to an 
 indefinite postponement of the whole matter, and to the 
 disadvantage of all the interests involved. This, doubt- 
 less, is now obvious to the brethren of Susquehanna 
 Presbytery, who at the time felt aggrieved by what they 
 regarded as hasty action. (See Mr. C's Hist, of S. P.) 
 
 The Presbytery of Luzerne was organized at the 
 time fixed for its first meeting by the General Assembly. 
 There were present, at the appointed place, the following 
 ministers, viz., John Dorrance, Richard Webster, 
 Ebenezer Hazard Snowden, and Daniel Gaston, all that 
 were named in the action of the Assembly; and from the 
 churches named, the following elders, viz., John O. 
 Baker of Wilkes-Barre, R. Robins of Hanover, E. S. 
 Warne of Port Carbon, A. H. Van Cleve of Beaver 
 Meadow, John Doak of Berwick, Daniel Melleck of 
 Briar Creek. Later, elder Elijah Crouch of Lackawanna, 
 and Charles Fuller of Kingston, put in an appearance. 
 The full attendance of elders at this meeting, Sept. 7, 
 1848, speaks well for the local churches. The Rev. 
 Richard Webster preached the opening sermon, according 
 to appointment, after which the Rev. E. H. Snowden 
 was elected Moderator, Daniel Gaston, temporary clerk, 
 John Dorrance, treasurer, and Richard Webster, stated 
 clerk. The new Presbytery was found to have under its 
 care (owing to their relation to its churches) John W. 
 Sterling, Alexander Dilley, and John Brown, candidates 
 for the ministry. Mr. Dilley was subsequently, at his 
 own request, dropped from the number. 
 
 The Rev. Thomas P. Hunt was received by letter 
 from the Presbytery of Susquehanna. Two churches 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 5 
 
 from the Presbytery of Northumberland had been detached 
 to form part of the new Presbytery, but no ministers were 
 named in connection with them, therefore the Rev. 
 Aaron H. Hand, stated supply of Berwick and Briar 
 Creek churches, was received from the Presbytery of 
 Flint River; also the Rev. William Hunting, from the 
 Presbytery of Long Island. 
 
 * The new Presbytery concurred with the request of 
 the Presbytery of Susquehanna already made, that the 
 Synod of New Jersey set over to it the churches of 
 Northumberland, and Falls (now Newton). 
 
 At this first meeting, the Presbytery, in conformity 
 with the design of its erection, laid out its work and 
 shaped its measures to overtake the missionary effort 
 which the numerous destitutions in its extended territory 
 so loudly demanded. It made the Rev. Thomas P. 
 Hunt its missionary or Pastor at Large, and well he 
 performed the arduous work assigned him. It arranged 
 for a close correspondence with Princeton Seminary, in 
 order to secure men of the right stamp for its new or 
 destitute fields. It instructed Mr. Webster to prepare a 
 suitable Pastoral Letter, setting forth the work needed in 
 the Presbytery, and calling earnestly for co-operation in 
 its performance. And that, in the future deliberations of 
 the Presbytery, an accurate knowledge of the condition 
 and wants of the various parts of its wide field might be, 
 from time to time, obtained, it provided for a conference, 
 at its stated meetings, with reference to the exact 
 condition of things, spiritual and material, in its several 
 fields of operation ; and, in order that the members of the 
 Presbytery might aid each other in maintaining the 
 proper standard of personal Christian experience, a 
 
D PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 subject of experimental religion was selected at each 
 meeting to be the theme of conference at the next stated 
 meeting. And last, but not least, in order to the 
 encouragement of vital energy in their work, a good 
 measure of time for direct acts of devotion and study of 
 the divine word was set apart at each meeting. For it 
 was realized that it was not by might or by power, but 
 by God's Spirit, that the transforming work, the ultimate 
 aim in all the operation of the church, is performed ; and 
 that for the Spirit to do this, God will be inquired of. 
 Thus the work of the Presbytery was inaugurated at 
 Wilkes-Barre. 
 
II. 
 
 THE TERRITORY OCCUPIED. 
 
 THIS territory and its occupancy by the white man 
 demands more than a passing notice. The largest 
 of the counties, as comprising the limits of the Presbytery 
 indicated above, gave its name to the new ecclesiastical 
 body. Luzerne county had been much larger, but, from 
 time to time, new counties had been established. Its 
 territory, in 1843, was greatly reduced; and during the 
 existence of the Presbytery the county of Wyoming was 
 taken from its limits and, of course, still remained in the 
 Presbytery. No changes in the limits of the Schuylkill 
 and Carbon counties were made between 1843 and 1870. 
 
 These counties are mountainous, and generally of 
 irregular surface, yet having several elevated plateaus or 
 surfaces more nearly approximating the plain. They are 
 watered by the North Branch of the Susquehanna, the 
 Lackawanna, Lehigh and Schuylkill rivers, and a number 
 of smaller streams which are tributaries to these rivers. 
 
 The valleys of all these streams, while often narrow 
 and originally covered with dense, heavy timber through 
 which it was difficult to pass, afforded much land which 
 attracted the early settlers, notwithstanding the difficulty 
 of reaching it. 
 
 The irregular and obstructive topography of many 
 parts of our country are often found to have been a wise 
 and beneficent arrangement, that ultimately magnifies 
 
a PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 the great Creator, and wonderfully benefits His rational 
 creatures. A remarkable illustration of this is afforded in 
 the territory covered by this Presbytery. Much of it was 
 so secluded that, until recently, it was literally unknown ; 
 yet, in these hidden valleys, and on and under these 
 unproductive mountains untold wealth had been stored 
 by the beneficent Creator. 
 
 The boundaries of the Presbytery and those of the 
 great anthracite coal field in Pennsylvania are almost 
 co-terminous. The history of the Presbytery proper runs 
 parallel with the real development of the anthracite coal 
 trade in this country, and kindred industries, which, by 
 its enlargement, were developed in the communities 
 where coal was produced or mined. 
 
 These new or more perfectly developed industries 
 attracted to this part of Pennsylvania a vast increase of 
 population, and radically changed the relations of this 
 part of the State to the great cities on every side, and, 
 indeed, to the rest of the civilized world. 
 
 Up to about the time Luzerne Presbytery was 
 constituted the people were only learning how to use 
 anthracite coal; that problem having been settled, the 
 question had been raised, but not fully settled, as to how 
 it could be transported to the places where it was hoped 
 it would be wanted. In view of the previous seclusion, 
 and the obstacles to be overcome, much had been done 
 towards preparing means for transporting coal from 
 different parts of the territory which we are describing; 
 but much more was demanded at the time of our Presby- 
 tery's organization. 
 
 Coal had been floated down the Susquehanna on 
 arks, and used to some extent by blacksmiths at the 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 9 
 
 government barracks at Carlisle in 1776; but does not 
 seem to have been in very general demand, and during 
 the first quarter of the present century does not seem to 
 have been used to any great extent, even by the smiths. 
 The people had not learned to use it for domestic 
 purposes. 
 
 Messrs. White, Hazard, and Company, in Philadel- 
 phia, successfully used anthracite coal in the manufacture 
 of iron in 1826. This company had leased, in 1817, the 
 original "Coal Mine Company's" property near Mauch 
 Chunk for one ear of corn, annually,* and subsequently 
 bought all the stock of said Company, which consisted 
 of Messrs. Robert Morris, J. Anthony Morris, Cist, 
 Weist, Hillegas, and others, who had secured six thousand 
 acres of land and opened a quarry in 1792 to test the 
 character and value of the coal. In 1798, this Company 
 obtained a charter for a sluice navigation, and this also 
 became the property of Messrs. White, Hazard and 
 Company, which corporation finally became the famous 
 "Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company," that has done 
 so much to develop the coal trade and to promote the 
 prosperity of the country generally. 
 
 The term 'quarry' is applied to the production of 
 coal, as just mentioned, because the method at first 
 pursued in this part of the general coal field, was to 
 remove the earth from the strata and then remove the 
 coal. This, at the original mine at Summit Hill, was 
 more easily done than almost anywhere else, and 
 exhibited a wealth of deposit which has never been 
 excelled, if ever equalled, in the entire anthracite field. 
 
 *They were, however, bound to deliver in Philadelphia 40,000 bushels of 
 coal for their own benefit. 
 
lO PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 If all the coal strata had been allowed to lie as far below 
 the surface as the great majority of them do, they would 
 have been much longer undisturbed, and we would have 
 been longer without the benefits they bring. But the 
 benevolent Creator, as in this case, wisely gives us clues 
 to the discovery of undeveloped treasures, whether 
 material or those of greater value, — not many, indeed, 
 but always enough. The stratum on Summit Hill in 
 Carbon county has led many through the deep superin- 
 cumbent earth and rock to the black diamond beneath. 
 
 In 1820 the Lehigh navigation was so far improved 
 that 365 tons of coal were sent through it to Philadelphia. 
 To the same market, from the Schuylkill region, 1480 
 tons of coal went through the canal on the Schuylkill 
 river in 1822; the canal had been projected in 1814. 
 
 The famous "Switch-back railroad" from the Lehigh 
 at Mauch Chunk, to the mines at Summit Hill, nine 
 miles distant, was completed in 1827, the cars of which 
 were drawn up the steep mountain side by stationary 
 engines on two different summits as our cable street cars, 
 and were arranged for passengers, affording the tourist, for 
 whose accommodation especially these cars were pro- 
 vided, a thrilling ride and a magnificent view of the 
 striking scenery unfolding to his vision. The return 
 behind a long train of coal cars, by gravity, and over a 
 circuitous and longer course on the mountain side, is not 
 less exciting, and is more dangerous. This unique 
 railroad, built for the purpose of moving the coal from 
 the mines to the river, was, with the exception of the 
 railroad in Quincy, Massachusetts, the first built in the 
 country. It is a monument of the skill and enterprise 
 of the Lehigh company. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. II 
 
 The Carbondale field, or Upper Lackawanna valley, 
 was opened up to the markets in 1829 by the Delaware 
 and Hudson Canal and Railroad, the latter running 
 towards the Delaware river by gravity. 
 
 The region of Scranton was not reached by railroad 
 till 1854, but that part of the great coal field has since 
 overtaken all competitors in every part of the State. 
 
 The Pennsylvania canal was opened to Wilkes-Barre, 
 Pittston, and the mouth of the Lackawanna, in 1843. 
 
 The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad had fully 
 opened up the Schuylkill region in 1841. 
 
 Thus the facilities for the more rapid and certain 
 development of the new and profitable industries which 
 Providence was bringing to light were being secured, and 
 increased in accordance with the expectations of sagacious 
 men, one of whom had entered upon a career of useful- 
 ness in the moral upbuilding of the growing communities 
 for which the Luzerne Presbytery was designed to 
 provide. Before its erection, he had publicly said to his 
 brethren, "All the railroads in the United States will 
 enter in this Wyoming Valley," and of course traverse 
 the other parts of the great coal field.* 
 
 We find that while the material interests of the 
 anthracite coal region were advancing, God was preparing 
 the men who were to devote themselves to the moral and 
 spiritual interests of the increasing population, and to the 
 counteracting of new and stronger temptations to world- 
 liness and vice, that were also coming in. Quite a 
 number of these devoted men were already on the ground 
 and in training for their important work. They were the 
 representatives of the various evangelical churches, 
 
 *Rev. T. p. Hunt. 
 
12 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 working and expecting to work in their own chosen 
 divisions of the great army of salvation. 
 
 As, however, these pages are especially designed to 
 recount the_ character and achievements of those who 
 were engaged on foundation work in connection with the 
 career of the Luzerne Presbytery, they will claim our 
 exclusive attention, and exhaust our space and time. 
 
 <m 
 
III. 
 
 EARLY SETTLEMENTS. 
 
 THE territory above described had marked peculiari- 
 ties, and so tire original settlers have a history which 
 is unique. This is especially true with regard to the early 
 settlers, and to the settlements made in the county 
 of Luzerne, and the northern part of the field to be 
 occupied by our Presbytery. 
 
 The motives which first brought the white man 
 thither, and gave shape, in some good measure, to the 
 institutions which were subsequently established, were 
 altogether dissimilar to the motives which afterwards so 
 greatly increased the population of the same localities, 
 and modified the pursuits of the people. The first 
 settlers in this part of Pennsylvania came thither to find 
 quiet homes, and to devote themselves to agricultural 
 pursuits. They came from the then colony of Connec- 
 ticut. They regarded themselves as simply moving to 
 parts of its more western territory, granted them in their 
 charter from the King of England, and acquired by 
 purchase from "the Six Nations" in 1754, by an 
 association formed in Connecticut, called "The Connec- 
 ticut and Susquehanna Company." No settlement how- 
 ever, was attempted till 1762. The next year these 
 settlers were dispersed by the Indians, and many of them 
 slain. In 1769 a body of forty Connecticut pioneers was 
 sent thither by the "Connecticut and Susquehanna 
 
14 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 Company," but found themselves forestalled by some 
 Pennsylvanians, the Six Nations having the previous 
 year sold again this territory to the proprietaries of 
 Pennsylvania.* 
 
 The above reference indicates the beginning of the 
 conflict which lasted six years, and was fiercely waged, 
 between the Connecticut and Pennsylvanian settlers. The 
 former obtained the mastery so far as to establish their 
 settlement, and several considerable towns, as "West- 
 moreland," which had in 1778 a population of two 
 thousand. This was the principal town in the charming 
 valley of Wyoming. The name was afterwards changed 
 to Wilkes-Barre, in honor of two British statesmen who 
 warmly advocated the cause of the Americans, to which 
 both Connecticut and Pennsylvania were signally loyal, 
 from the first movement in the direction of American 
 independence. The Connecticut and Pennsylvania 
 claimants seemed to forget their rivalry in their mutual 
 resistance to what they regarded the injustice and 
 oppression of the British Ministry, and they bravely 
 withstood the hostile forces that had found their way to 
 their secluded homes among the mountains, on the 30th 
 of June, 1778. From these homes there had already 
 been many responses to the colonial call, aud many 
 of the leading settlers had bravely fallen in the conflict, 
 so that when Col. John Butler led four hundred British 
 soldiers, and seven hundred Indians against the 
 colony, it was with greatly reduced numbers that 
 the remaining settlers, under the leadership of Col, 
 Zebulon Butler, courageously withstood the enemy, when 
 called to surrender the fort, called "Forty Fort," from 
 
 *See American Encyclopedia. Article, Wyoming. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 1 5 
 
 the forty original Connecticut settlers. With less than 
 a third of the force coming against them, Col. Zebulon 
 Butler, a Continental officer, then in command of the 
 home Fort, decided to risk a battle, and on the 3rd 
 of July marched his command against the invaders. 
 The battle was lost ; the remnant retreated to the Fort 
 which they were obliged to surrender, after having 
 obtained a promise from the British commander of hon- 
 orable treatment for the prisoners, which promise was 
 shamefully disregarded. The "Massacre of Wyoming" 
 need not be described here; its horrors are familiar to 
 every student of the general history of our country. 
 
 # 
 
IV. 
 
 ORIGIN AND CHARACTER OF THE SETT- 
 LERS. 
 
 THE lull which prevailed in the strife between the Con- 
 necticut and Pennsylvania people was again broken. 
 In 1782 a congressional commission, appointed to 
 consider the title to the territory in dispute, reported in 
 favor of Pennsylvania. But that State found it difficult 
 to dispossess the Connecticut soldiers of their claims, 
 which they defended with arms, and the old conflict was 
 renevved for several years longer. The Legislature of 
 Pennsylvania, 1787, confirmed the titles of the Connecti- 
 cut claimants ; but it seems that more or less conflict 
 with reference to the claims continued to the beginning 
 of the present century. The permanent and major part 
 of the settlers north of Hanover, on the bank of the 
 Susquehanna and Lackawanna rivers, were Connecticut 
 or New England people. Therefore, as they gave shape 
 to the rising institutions in these settlements, which 
 embraced a large majority of the early citizens of Luzerne 
 county, we are more deeply interested in their antece- 
 dents; and in order to understand these, we must briefly 
 refer to the history of the Connecticut colony. 
 
 Settlements were made on the Connecticut river by 
 people from Massachusetts colony as early as 1631, 
 occupying several points near Hartford, New Haven and 
 New Belgium. These settlements grew so rapidly that they 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 1 7 
 
 soon overpowered the Dutch who had attempted to es- 
 tablish trading posts in the same vicinity. 
 
 The character of the English population, the close 
 affiliation which they ever maintained with Roger 
 Williams and his colony, and the fact that Quakers, and 
 others not welcomed in Massachusetts, were cordially 
 received in the new settlements of the Connecticut valley, 
 indicate a rebound from the intolerance of the mother 
 colony. This early indication became a demonstrated 
 fact by the charter which was secured from England, 
 dictated in the colony itself, and which so long and so 
 happily shaped the administration of its government, 
 both as a colony and as " a sovereign State," continuing 
 to be the fundamental law till 18 18. 
 
 The one man who, above all others, made Connecti- 
 cut a model colony, combining all its settlements under 
 one charter, and who exerted such a wise and helpful 
 influence as to make it felt immediately and generally, 
 not only in the Connecticut colony, but in other 
 colonies as well, and whose salutary influence is still felt 
 throughout the great nation whose foundations were then 
 being laid, — that man was the younger Winthrop. 
 
 His father had been, and still was, devoting his life 
 and energies toward making Massachusetts what that 
 great colony became. The son, a man of much more 
 culture and breadth of view, and of equal piety and 
 devotion to human advancement, fully identified himself 
 with the upbuilding of Connecticut. 
 
 In addition to his godly and careful training in his 
 Puritan home, John Winthrop had received a liberal 
 education in Cambridge and Dublin. Of him Bancroft 
 says, "Even as a child he had been the pride of his 
 
10 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 father's house;" and, that his scholastic education "had 
 been perfected by visiting, in part at least, in the public 
 service, not France and Holland only in the days of 
 Prince Maurice and Richelieu, but Venice and Constanti- 
 nople." "From boyhood his manners had been spotless, 
 and the purity of his soul added lustre and beauty to the 
 gifts of nature and industry." This was the man whose 
 personal agency secured from Charles II, soon after 
 the restoration of the Monarchy, in England, his sanction 
 to that liberal and comprehensive charter under which 
 Connecticut lived so long, having sedulously protected it 
 from revocation by James II. The famous Con- 
 necticut charter, most liberal in terms and providing 
 for complete autonomy, with no provision for submitting 
 the acts of the colony to the revision of the crown, 
 granted to the colony all the territory from the Narragan- 
 sett river westward and to cover the 42 nd degree of 
 latitude to the Pacific ocean ; excepting only such lands 
 as were then occupied by prior settlers ; namely, New 
 York and New Jersey.* 
 
 Winthrop's personal approach to Charles II, in 
 behalf of Connecticut, which he represented, was during 
 the year 1662, which was soon after the adoption of the 
 Westminster Assembly's Confession, Catechism and 
 Church Directory by the British Parliament. The 
 preponderating party in said Assembly had been Presby- 
 terian, and that religious body (especially in Scotland) 
 had been active and influential in the restoration of the 
 Monarchy. The Connecticut colony, too, had at once 
 sanctioned the restoration of Charles II, and was 
 evidently in sympathy with the Presbyterian party in its 
 
 *See Mr. Piatt's Reminiscences of Scranton. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 1 9 
 
 course, rather than the Massachusetts colony, understood 
 to be with the Independents, and which hesitated about 
 recognizing the new king. In addition to these consid- 
 erations, we find Winthrop aided in his work by the 
 Presbyterian officials, who still surrounded the person 
 of the king, and readily received by Charles himself. 
 It is plain, therefore, that Presbyterian influence contri- 
 buted largely to Winthrop's success; nor was the 
 impression without foundation, that what was being 
 granted was bestowed on Presbyterians; as it is probable 
 that the major part of the early settlers in Connecticut 
 were of that faith. Mr. Pierson, who led the Presbyterian 
 movement in the early part of the i8th century, was from 
 Connecticut. Indeed, they were accustomed to be 
 called, and called themselves, Presbyterians. Trumbull 
 says of the Assembly that drew up the Saybrook platform 
 subsequently adopted :* "Though the Council were 
 unanimous in passing the platform of discipline, yet they 
 were not all of one opinion. Some were for high 
 con-associational government, and their sentiments 
 nearly Presbyterian ; others were much more moderate, 
 verging on independency." Dr. Hodge adds: "The 
 result of their labors proves that the former class had 
 greatly the ascendency." 
 
 "The influence of Presbyterian principles in New 
 England is, however, much more satisfactorily proved by 
 the nature of the ecclesiastical systems which were there 
 adopted than by any statement of isolated facts. These 
 systems were evidently the result of compromise between 
 the two parties, and they show that the Presbyterian was 
 much stronger than the Independent element. ' ' This is 
 
 *Hodge's History of the Presbyterian Church in U. S. 
 
20 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 also abundantly evident so far as the settlers from 
 Connecticut in Pennsylvania were concerned. 
 
 Charles II, whom Winthrop seems to have known 
 and approached personally, still felt the obligations 
 he was under to Presbyterian influence in his restoration 
 to what he and they regarded his hereditary right to the 
 crown of England. This, together with his careless and 
 impulsive habits, led him to sanction without examination 
 on his part, or that of his secretaries, the charter which 
 had been drawn in the Connecticut colony and to which 
 he was asked to set the royal seal. This he did in 1662. 
 Not long afterwards, however, Charles sanctioned "the 
 Act of Uniformity" by which two thousand of the most 
 godly and learned ministers in England were deprived of 
 their churches and support, very many of them Presby- 
 terians. Their style and teachings did not suit "a 
 gentleman" of his type, therefore he soon forgot his 
 recognized obligations to them. 
 
 When William Penn, 19 years after the date of the 
 Connecticut charter, obtained a liberal charter for his 
 colony in Pennsylvania, Lord North carefully revised 
 that instrument to protect the prerogatives of the king, 
 before the seal was a]iplied, although Penn was a favorite 
 at court. It is perhaps due to this fact that more definite 
 statements and limitations were secured in Penn's charter; 
 and this subsequently gave Pennsylvania the advantage in 
 the final settlement of the boundaries between that State 
 and Connecticut. However this may have been, Win- 
 throp was a wise and far-seeing statesman. What he 
 secured for Connecticut as the residuum of her western 
 claim, granted in the charter from Charles II, was that 
 in ceding to the General Government (afterwards 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 21 
 
 established) her western lands, she retained that part 
 of Ohio which is known to us as "The Western Reserve" 
 and which became the source of Connecticut's princely 
 school fund, which has done so much for the cause 
 of education, not only in Connecticut and Ohio, but 
 through the country generally. A debt of gratitude is 
 due from us all, not only to Winthrop, who obtained 
 such a liberal charter for his colony, but to the sturdy 
 colonist as well who successfully concealed it in a hollow 
 oak when the agents of the king sought to revoke it. 
 
 The schools and churches established and fostered 
 in Connecticut secured to that colony prosperity, liberty, 
 order and happiness. Bancroft says, "There never 
 existed a persecuting spirit in Connecticut, while it had a 
 scholar to its minister in every town or village." Edu- 
 cation was cherished, religious knowledge was carried to 
 the highest degree of refinement, alike in the application 
 to moral duties, and to the mysterious questions on the 
 nature of God, of liberty and the soul. A hardy race 
 multiplied along 'the alluvial streams, and subdued the 
 more rocky and less inviting fields ; its population 
 doubled once in twenty years, in spite of considerable 
 emigration. And if, as has often been said, the ratio 
 of the increase of population is the surest criterion of 
 public happiness, Connecticut was long the happiest state 
 in the world. Religion, united with the pursuit of 
 agriculture, gave the land the aspect of salubrity.* 
 
 It was a part of this Connecticut that made the first 
 settlements in the valley of the north branch of the 
 Susquehanna and the Lackawanna rivers, which the 
 people of that state then regarded as watering a part of 
 
 *See Bancroft, Vol. 2, pp. 56-57. 
 
22 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 their western domain. True, these valleys were widely 
 separated from the valley of the Connecticut or the main 
 western settlement of the colony, and to reach their new 
 homes was. no very easy task ; but it was a task heroically 
 undertaken. Long after this, when the dense forests had 
 been penetrated by roads made from almost every 
 direction into these valleys and into the valley of the 
 Lehigh; when the forests had been in some measure 
 subdued, the mountain sides graded down, the natural 
 gorges among the mountains well known, and the passes 
 graded through them, even after all this had been done, 
 the illustrious Dr. Nicholas Murray, who, in 1828 or 9, 
 came into the valley of Wyoming, which had been 
 immortalized by Campbell's "Gertrude of Wyoming," 
 cherished by its citizens as the place above all others, and 
 greatly admired by Dr. Murray himself, — was accustomed 
 to say of it, that it resembled the Catholic heaven which 
 he regarded as owing its charms to the fact that purgatory 
 had been previously passed through, thus intimating that, 
 to reach the paradise of Wyoming Valley you must 
 approach it through a tract of country of purgatorial 
 difficulty and hardship. Some of us who entered it at a 
 much later day have thought the illustration an apt one. 
 Now we can only imagine the toils, trials and dangers 
 of the region to be traversed by the settlers from the east 
 an hundred years earlier, in order to reach their 
 destination in the valley. They could follow no streams 
 in this part of Pennsylvania without making a very 
 circuitous course. Some of the first settlers from 
 Connecticut, we learn, crossed both the Hudson and 
 Delaware rivers, and leaving the Delaware at the mouth 
 of the Shohola creek, they moved westward till they 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 23 
 
 reached Roaring Brook, which runs into the Lackawanna 
 near Scranton ; then they followed down the Lackawanna 
 to its confluence with the Susquehanna at the base of the 
 lofty ledge which still bears the name of "Campbell's 
 Ledge," from the summit of which the poet is supposed 
 to have looked down on "the fair Susquehanna and the 
 beautiful Wyoming" valley, when he conceived the idea 
 of writing "Gertrude." The whole valley towards the 
 south was before him. This valley was the point of 
 destination sought by the Connecticut pioneers ; but as 
 they approached it, the Susquehanna must be crossed. 
 
 The Connecticut people, who had worked their way 
 to the banks of the Susquehanna and Lackawanna across 
 rivers and through dense forests, marking out the course 
 for roads, or actually constructing them, were brave men, 
 patriotic and resolute, seeking the means by which they 
 might honestly provide for their own subsistence and 
 build up new communities. They dared to encounter 
 danger in the work they had undertaken. 
 
 To people, animated by the principles inculcated in 
 Winthrop's colony, and possessing the courage and 
 perseverance of these pioneers, there have been prepared, 
 through their labors, and those of like character, in the 
 early history of our country, similar opportunities to find 
 homes and build up new communities for all who need 
 homes and a wider sphere of enterprise, with now vastly 
 increased facilities to reach such locations, in almost 
 every direction. These patient, uncomplaining, God- 
 fearing people from Connecticut had been called upon to 
 pass through severe trials in their former homes. They 
 had wisely made efforts to conciliate the Indians. In 
 these efforts that wonderful man, Roger Williams, had 
 
24 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 afforded valuable aid. But when the Pequots had proved 
 incorrigible, and conflict was made necessary, the brave 
 Connecticut men, aided by help from Massachusetts, 
 waged against them a decisive war. They long afterwards 
 lived in peace with the Indians. 
 
 Therefore, in view of the past, and the prospects 
 immediately before them, those who first settled on the 
 banks of the Lackawanna and Susquehanna came thither 
 with the expectation of meeting trial and danger, not 
 ease and speedy accumulation of wealth. Nor did they 
 deliberately plan to live a free and easy life outside 
 of properly organized society, and without the aids and 
 restraints of "the means of grace." 
 
 In addition to other and expected difficulties, 
 incident to new settlements among untaught savages in 
 Luzerne county, there was, from the beginning, that 
 conflict among the settlers themselves about the proprie- 
 tary right to the land, already spoken of. The Rev, Dr. 
 John Dorrance, a decendant of the Connecticut colony, 
 and of whom it will be our privilege to speak at length as 
 we proceed, says of these settlers on the Susquehanna, in 
 a sermon preached on the 8oth anniversary of the settle- 
 ment of the first pastor in Wyoming Valley and the 20th 
 anniversary of his own pastorate over the same church, — 
 after reciting the facts commemorated by the services in 
 progress*: — "Some general remarks on the early religious 
 history of this part of the country will be appropriate. 
 That part of Pennsylvania lying north of the 41st degree 
 of latitude was claimed by the then province (now State) 
 of Connecticut. As a natural consequence, a portion 
 of this territory and especially that which is watered by 
 
 ^Preached in 1853. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 25 
 
 the Susquehanna and its tributaries was originally settled 
 by emigrants from Connecticut, and other New England 
 provinces, with the exception of one township, viz., 
 Hanover. This was occupied, in great part, by emigrants 
 from Hanover, Paxton, Derry and Lancaster, in Dauphin 
 county, Pennsylvania. Those from New England were 
 generally Congregationalists in education and feelings. 
 Those from Dauphin county were of Presbyterian stock, 
 originally from the north of Ireland. Some of them had 
 been engaged in the slaughter of a number of Indians, 
 regarded by some as friendly, but alleged by them to be 
 treacherous and murderous. Whatever may have been 
 thought of this transaction, about which there are widely 
 different views, these inhabitants were as decided in their 
 religious sentiments as in their political, — rigid Presby- 
 terians, and ardent whigs of the Revolution." 
 
 "From these two sources was derived the original 
 population of this northern Pennsylvania. Better sources 
 there are not. The ancestors of both the Puritan and 
 the Scotch Presbyterian had been tried in the furnace 
 of aifliction, had suffered persecution in the old world 
 and endured hardness in the new. Their principles, 
 confirmed by a long and painful experience of oppression, 
 privation, exile and war, were inherited by their children, 
 our fathers. Those who migrated to this then terra 
 incognita through the howling wilderness, and battled 
 with cold and hunger and poverty, with the hostile white 
 man and the lurking Indian, few in numbers, without 
 resources and far from aid, and who manfully struggled 
 for years against the great commonwealth of Pennsyl- 
 vania, against the combined forces of Briton, Tory and 
 savage; whose wives and children, and aged ones, when 
 
26 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 forced from their lands, after witnessing the terrible 
 massacre by one crushing blow of father and son and 
 every able-bodied man, returned again through the 
 trackless forest, unrivalled in their courage and fortitude, 
 and established for us a happy home, were no common 
 men . ' ' 
 
 Their labor, their valor, their constancy, are above 
 all praise. Their moral virtues, honesty, sobriety, love 
 of order, humanity and benevolence are abundantly set 
 forth in the laws framed and executed by themselves. 
 The survivors of the massacre bore ample testimony to 
 the character of the original inhabitants. Mr. Burret, 
 himself a pious and trustworthy man, the grandfather 
 of Mrs. H. Alexander, said they were excellent people, 
 whose equals will not soon, if ever, be found here again. 
 The testimony of the late Judge HoUenback was equally 
 explicit. Such, indeed, we might reasonably expect. 
 They were born and raised in the land of steady habits, 
 were the sons and daughters of the honest yeomanry 
 of Connecticut, not therefore of towns ; not gold-hunters 
 or greedy speculators, or reckless adventurers, but the 
 young, enterprising part of a rural population, whose 
 parents were ministers, deacons, and members of evan- 
 gelical churches. They came to fell the forest, cultivate 
 the land and establish society on the banks of the 
 Susquehanna, where, under a more genial sun, and on a 
 more fertile soil they might enjoy all the privileges of their 
 ancestors and transmit to their posterity a home possessing 
 all the characteristic excellencies of New England. 
 
 Of Captain Stewart, the leader of the Scotch-Irish 
 company who settled in Hanover, his pastor, the Rev. 
 John Elder (who from the singular necessities of the 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 2/ 
 
 times was also colonel commanding in defence of the 
 frontier) writes to the Governor of Pennsylvania: "In 
 the removal of Captain Stewart your excellency has lost a 
 true patriot, an able officer, and a brave soldier. A good 
 Christian, Captain Stewart was a ruling elder in the 
 church, and his companions, or many of them, com- 
 municants." 
 
 The white settlers who took possession of the land 
 in the southern part of the territory occupied by the 
 Presbytery of Luzerne, were led thither, for the most 
 part, by the coal trade ; few settlements had been made 
 in the southern part of Luzerne, Carbon, and the greater 
 part of Schuylkill counties, until the production of coal 
 began to attract the attention of enterprising men. None 
 of our churches antedate the coal trade on the Lehigh 
 and upper Schuylkill. 
 
 German settlements had been made in the county 
 south of Carbon as early as 1741, at Bethlehem and 
 Northampton 1762. Both of these places were in 
 Northampton county ; Lehigh was constituted a county 
 in 181 2, and the name of Northampton gave place to 
 that of Allentown in 1838. From Bethlehem, which has 
 been one of the most prominent Moravian settlements in 
 this country, missionary efforts had been extended to the 
 Indians living north of the Lehigh and on the Susque- 
 hanna, before white settlers had found their way there. 
 These efforts had been fruitful of good, both at Gnauden- 
 hutten and Wyalusing; but both missions were soon 
 broken up by Indian wars. The converts were scattered 
 or slain, and the villages destroyed. The tradition 
 obtains in Plymouth, in Wyoming valley, that Zinzendorf 
 (Nicholas Louis) preached in that locality. It is 
 
28 
 
 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 generally believed that David Brainard, the devoted and 
 successful missionary to the Indians, who during the years 
 of 1744-5 niade his headquarters at the forks of the 
 Delaware, visited the Wyoming valley. His diary speaks 
 of three visits to the Indians on the Susquehanna, but 
 some of these entries mention Shamokin as a point 
 visited, which is far south of Wyoming; on the other 
 hand Mr. Brainard was especially a missionary to the 
 Delawares who, at that time, although not the original 
 owners of the lands, occupied the Wyoming and adjacent 
 valleys. The writer finds nothing to make it absolutely 
 certain that Brainard's visits were to the upper Susque- 
 hanna. There is the same uncertainty as to the locality 
 visited by the Rev. John Seargent. His journal may 
 refer to the Susquehanna and Delaware north of Pennsyl- 
 vania.^ It has been claimed that this Mr. Seargent was 
 the first missionary that visited the nothern part of the 
 territory^occupied by the Presbytery, which may, indeed 
 be true, but the diary of the Rev. Mr. Seargent, who is 
 said to have been the first minister and a Presbyterian, 
 who preached the gospel in Wyoming valley, does not 
 afford proof of the fact.* The services are described in 
 this diary as having been conducted in Wyoming valley 
 and at Susquehanna on successive Sabbaths, which would 
 have been much easier to do in York State than in 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 ~ *Dr. Parke's History of Pittston Church. 
 
V. 
 
 SUSQUEHANNA PRESBYTERY. 
 
 THE Presbytery of Susquehanna, which up to the date 
 of the Luzerne Presbytery's organization, occupied 
 a considerable part of the territory of the new body, 
 cannot be overlooked when we attempt to gather up the 
 facts and influences which gave character and complexion 
 to its lineal successor and to a large part of its functions. 
 It is not enough to understand the general character 
 of the individuals who entered the new organization; 
 their previous associated relationship must also be taken 
 into the account. 
 
 In what has been written above concerning the 
 people who settled in northern Pennsylvania from the 
 original Connecticut colony, and adjacent parts of New 
 England, — especially what we have quoted from the Rev. 
 Dr. John Dorrance's sermon, delivered in 1853, — we 
 learn the general character of these early pioneers, and 
 in the satisfactory history of the Presbytery of Susque- 
 hanna, written more recently by a member of that 
 ecclesiastical body, we learn something of their associated 
 work, in giving the gospel to the new settlements which 
 they made on the Susquehanna and contiguous valleys. 
 
 The Rev. C. C. Corss,* author of this history, was 
 born in Greenfield, Mass., 1803, graduating from 
 Amherst college, 1830. He spent some time in teaching, 
 
 *Since this portion of the history was written he passed into his rest, 
 May 20th, 1896. 
 
30 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 after which he was graduated from Princeton Theological 
 Seminary, was ordained as an evangelist by the Presbytery 
 of Susquehanna, August 27, 1836, and for more than two 
 years was stated supply of the Kingston church, which is 
 on the west side of the Susquehanna opposite Wilkes- 
 Barre ; and he was connected with the same Presbytery 
 until it was dissolved at the reunion, when he became a 
 member of the Presbytery of Lackawanna, doing excellent 
 work for a part of the time, however, in ministering to a 
 Congregational church. This brother has enjoyed the 
 esteem of his brethren, as a man of intelligence of high 
 order, devotion, and sterling integrity. Therefore, in 
 writing the history of his Presbytery, much of which he 
 was, and nearly all of which he saw, he gives perfectly 
 reliable information. In a communication recently 
 received from him by the writer, his mind seemed to be 
 clear although he is now in his 93rd year; but he said 
 that mental effort was burdensome to him. 
 
 Until very recently there were a trio of the early 
 members of the Susquehanna Presbytery, aged respectively 
 — Ebenezer H. Snowden 95, Alexander Heberton 92, 
 and C. C. Corss 92. All of them had been at least 
 acting pastors of the Kingston Presbyterian church, and 
 were alumni of Princeton Theological Seminary, 
 
 From Mr. Corss' History of the Presbytery of 
 Susquehanna, the following facts are gleaned: viz.. 
 
 The churches organized north of Wilkes-Barre were 
 mostly congregational in their proposed government; 
 there were, however, exceptions to this general usage; 
 a nominal exception among them being the church of 
 Wyalusing, organized by the Rev. Ira Condit, a mission- 
 ary sent out by the General Assembly. This church, 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 3 I 
 
 organized 1793, is believed to be the first Presbyterian 
 church in northern Pennsylvania. In 1809 Wyalusing 
 became Congregational, remaining so till 1831, when it 
 again became Presbyterian. 
 
 Perhaps the most steadfast Congregational church 
 was organized by that celebrated colored minister, the 
 Rev. Lemuel Haynes in Poultney, Vermont, Feb., 1801, 
 consisting of three families, about to migrate to what has 
 since been known as Smithfield, Bradford Co., Pa. The 
 first sermon preached to this church was by the Rev. 
 James Wood, of the Connecticut Congregational 
 Missionary Society, in 1802, when, amidst the most 
 primitive surroundings, he administered to the trans- 
 planted church the Lord's Supper, spreading for it a table 
 in the wilderness. 
 
 In 1802 the Susquehanna Association was formed, 
 consisting of five ministers. This new association issued 
 a circular to its churches "On the importance of Christian 
 professors being awake to religion." The evidence is 
 wanting that this letter effectually aroused the adherents 
 of the association, for, so far as documentary evidence of 
 the condition of things appears, there was no improve- 
 ment. This was the last general effort of the association, 
 as such, to make its influence felt. But Mr. Corss tells 
 us that on Nov. 2nd, 1810, the Luzerne Association was 
 formed at the house of the Rev. Ebenezer Kingsbury, in 
 Hartford, Susquehanna county. Pa. " It was," he says, 
 called Luzerne Association because all northern Pennsyl- 
 vania was then called Luzerne. At the first meeting 
 there were present Ebenezer Kingsbury, from the church 
 at Hartford ; Ard Hoyt, from the church at Wilkes-Barre 
 
32 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 and Kingston;* Manasseh Miner York, from the church 
 at Wysox, and Joel Chapin, whose field is not designated. 
 Seven churches were represented by delegates, viz., 
 Daniel Hoyt, from the church at Wilkes-Barre and 
 Kingston; Aden Stevens of Wyalusing; William Johnson 
 of Orwell; Moses Thatcher of Hartford; Joshua W. 
 Raynsford, of the ist church of Bridgewater, (Montrose); 
 Henry V. Champion, of Black Walnut Bottom; and 
 Joshua Mills, of the 2nd church of Bridgewater, This 
 association framed a Confession of Faith which, so far as 
 it goes, is fully in accord with the Westminster standards. 
 
 The records of the Luzerne association up to 181 7 
 show an increase in its membership of ministers and 
 churches from time to time, and fidelity and zeal on the 
 part of pastors. The people too, in view of their limited 
 means and arduous toils, seem to have appreciated gospel 
 privileges; and sometimes the hearts of both pastor and 
 people were made glad by reason of refreshment and 
 ingathering; but frequently pastors had to abandon their 
 fields on account of inadequate support. Stately churches 
 were not erected, and in many cases, none at all. The 
 people worshipped in private houses, in barns, and 
 wherever they could find shelter. There is a tradition 
 that a young family named Fawcett, whose first child was 
 the first white child born in Hector, N. Y., rode with it 
 on horseback down the Susquehanna river 175 miles, to 
 secure for it the ordinance of baptism. 
 
 From the frequent changes in the names which 
 the brethren in northern Pennsylvania assumed in their 
 associated capacity, we infer the existence of a spirit of 
 
 *No ministers from Wyoming Valley appear to have been connected with 
 the Susquehanna Association. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 33 
 
 unrest. These brethren were earnest and conscientious 
 men. They aimed to be consistent with the sentiments 
 and usages to which they subscribed, therefore they found 
 themselves, at times, embarrassed and restrained in 
 following the courses which seemed to be demanded by 
 the wants of their field. Independency in church 
 government, and especially in the aggressive work of the 
 church, runs contrary to Christian consciousness and 
 experience. Wherefore wherever the advancing army 
 of the Lord makes conquests over the powers of darkness, 
 there the theory of Independence has yielded to the 
 demand for co-operation and for mutual control and 
 responsibility, at least so far as to recognize voluntary 
 association, which becomes efficient according to the 
 approximation which it makes toward the recognition 
 of fixed law, providentially or scripturally indicated. 
 Congregational associations, local, state, or national, 
 move so far in the right direction, and testify against the 
 theory of Independency. The noble work of the 
 American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions 
 testifies to the advantage of such law, as against 
 Independency. 
 
 In the year 1817, our brethren of the Luzerne 
 association seem so far to have recognized the law which 
 calls for combined operation of the whole body of 
 associated believers, and the subordination of the parts to 
 the whole, that they took the following action, of which 
 they had for two years been considering the expediency: 
 "At a meeting of the Association at Colesville, a village 
 in Windsor township, N. Y., September 16, 1817, they 
 resolved to change the name of the Luzerne Association 
 to that of the Susquehanna Presbytery." It appears, 
 
34 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 however, that so far as the local churches were concerned, 
 this action was followed by no change in their manage- 
 ment; even such as had been organized as Presbyterian, 
 but had coalesced with the Congregational usages, 
 continued in the same manner 'of administration. Mr. 
 Corss says, "We find no Presbyterian church in the body 
 till March 3rd, 182 1, when the Rev. Manasseh Miner 
 York, and the Rev. Simeon R. Jones organized one with 
 the Presbyterian form in full, in the township of Wells, 
 Bradford county, Pennsylvania." The Presbytery of 
 Susquehanna met in Wells on June 19th, of the same 
 year, and the body seems to have been greatly cheered 
 by reports of revivals in quite a number of its churches. 
 The Lord seems to have blessed the labors of his servants, 
 although their places of worship were of the rudest kind, 
 and far from convenient, yet the people heard the word 
 of the Lord gladly. 
 
 Mr. Corss says further, "The Association had borne 
 the name without the form of a Presbytery for four years. 
 By this time the people had become accustomed to the 
 name of Presbyterian, and would be less disinclined to 
 take the form. Accordingly, at a meeting in Hartford, 
 September i8th, 182 1, a resolution was passed to seek 
 admission into the Synod of New York and New Jersey." 
 The following is an extract from the minutes of that 
 meeting : — 
 
 "The Susquehanna Presbytery, consisting of six 
 ministers able to labor and two unable, and having under 
 its care twenty-four feeble churches, and covering nearly 
 one hundred square miles,* and embracing about forty 
 thousand inhabitants, lamenting the needy state of these 
 
 *The meaning must be, one hundred miles in every direction. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 35 
 
 precious souls, and conscious of their own weakness and 
 inability to afford the requisite relief, one year since took 
 under its serious consideration the subject of seeking a 
 connection with the churches under the care of the 
 General Assembly. After much inquiry and prayerful 
 reflection, not being able to devise any plan of equal 
 promise to increase the means of sound Christian instruc- 
 tion in their needy and extensive region, and to advance 
 the interests of their Redeemer's kingdom: 
 
 "I. Resolved, That we will seek a connection 
 with the churches under the care of the General 
 Assembly. 
 
 "2. Resolved, That this body will adopt the 
 Confession of Faith and Book of Discipline of the 
 General Assembly. 
 
 "3. Resolved, That we will seek a connection 
 with the Synod of New York and New Jersey, and 
 endeavor to have the minutes of the Presbytery so formed 
 that they may be accepted by the Synod, provided the 
 individual churches be allowed to manage their own 
 concerns in their usual, or Congregational, manner. 
 
 "4. Resolved, That the Rev. Cyrus Gildersleeve, 
 Rev. Simeon R. Jones, Rev. Lyman Richardson, and 
 brother Henry V. Champion, be a committee to carry 
 forward an attested copy of the minutes of this Presbytery 
 to the Synod, at its ensuing session in Newark on the first 
 Tuesday of October, and use their endeavors to obtain 
 the connection desired." 
 
 The desired action of the Synod was secured, "the 
 plan of union" then being in operation, and while the 
 Presbytery or body received by the Synod was not so 
 thoroughly revolutionized as might have been expected, 
 
36 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 the movement was significant, and ultimately determined 
 the ecclesiastical status, not only of the Presbytery we are 
 considering especially in this narrative, but of a multitude 
 of churches in northern Pennsylvania, and finally secured 
 for the destitute territory, over which the petitioners 
 yearned so intensely, what they prayed for, and for the 
 Presbyterian church important and efficient factors in her 
 divinely appointed work. 
 
 Among the twenty-four churches of the Susquehanna 
 Presbytery Wilkes-Barre and Kingston are included; they 
 occupied the southern limits of the Presbytery, the 
 northern part being the New York state line. The 
 churches of Salem and Palmyra, in Wayne county on the 
 east, and Wells and Bradford county on the west. 
 
 The few faithful and devoted men in charge of this 
 extensive field, cultivated it, as well as it was possible 
 with their numbers and appliances for work. From time 
 to time additional help was secured. Some ministers 
 were raised up in their own bounds. In their urgent 
 need of more ministers they were not careless about the 
 men they accepted, but seem to have subjected every 
 new comer to a rigid examination as to his qualifications 
 for the gospel ministry. Nor was discipline in the local 
 churches relaxed, but faithfully administered. The purity 
 of the church was regarded as an absolute necessity. 
 
 The evidence of the vitality and aggressiveness of 
 the Presbytery of Susquehanna appears in the fact that, 
 while obliged to give up some of its ministers to other 
 Presbyteries because its own churches could not sustain 
 them, we find it organizing new churches, receiving from 
 time to time more ministers, and licensing young men, 
 among them Joseph Huntington Jones, a graduate of 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 3/ 
 
 Harvard University, in 1822. The same year Mr. Jones 
 entered Princeton Theological Seminary. He was 
 ordained April 29th, 1824. After performing some 
 missionary work in the region of Wilkes-Barre, Mr. Jones 
 became stated supply of the Woodbury church, N. J. 
 Subsequently his career as a prominent and honored 
 minister of the Presbyterian church is well known. He 
 died Dec. 22nd, while secretary of the Assembly's 
 "Disabled Ministers' Fund." 
 
 At the same time the Presbytery licensed Mr. Jones, 
 two others were also licensed, viz., Ambrose Eggleston 
 and Erastus Cole. The latter was ordained and dismissed 
 to the Presbytery of Columbia, N. Y., September 
 24th, 1824. 
 
 We find the Susquehanna Presbytery, in April, 1826, 
 licensing two young men from two of the most important 
 families in Wyoming valley, both connected with the 
 Wilkes-Barre church and prepared for college at the 
 Wilkes-Barre Academy, subsequently graduates of Prince- 
 ton College and Theological Seminary. This event was 
 significant, when it occurred, as it then indicated the 
 conditions that had preceded it in the church, in the 
 families, and in the community to which these young 
 men belonged ; and significant to us now, who look back 
 over the career of these young men who were then 
 receiving the sanction of this Presbytery, to go forth to 
 make trial of their ability to preach "the glorious gospel 
 of the blessed God." They were, respectively, Zebulon 
 Butler and John Dorrance. They began their work in 
 the same general region in the far south and were fully 
 inducted into the ministry in Mississippi, where God 
 blessed their labors from the beginning. Mr. Dorrance 
 
38 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 was ordained November, 1827, at Baton Rouge. Mr. 
 Butler was ordained April 5th, 1828, pastor at Port 
 Gibson, where he remained till his death, which took 
 place Dec. 23rd, i860. In 1849 Lafayette college had 
 conferred on him the degree of D. D. The Rev. John 
 Dorrance returned north to the Presbytery which had 
 licensed him in 1831, and became pastor of the Wysox 
 church. In 1833 he became pastor of the Wilkes-Barre 
 church which he served till called higher, April i8th, 
 1861. In 1859 the College of New Jersey honored him 
 with the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Of him we will 
 have more to say, as one of the founders and honored 
 members of the Presbytery of Luzerne. 
 
 The reports from the churches of the Susquehanna 
 Presbytery, presented April, 1832, were generally of an 
 encouraging character ; times of refreshing had been 
 enjoyed by many of them, and the tendency indicated in 
 the Presbytery seems to have been in the direction of 
 stricter Presbyterianism. The questions which were then 
 agitating the Presbyterian church at large attracted 
 attention, and party lines began to appear. The brethren 
 of Susquehanna Presbytery generally, sympathized with 
 the party denominated "Old School"; but there were 
 exceptions, especially in the more eastern counties of the 
 Presbytery, and when a division of the territory was 
 asked for, the Presbytery of Montrose was formally 
 constituted by the Synod of New Jersey, Oct., 1832,* 
 consisting of the counties of Pike, Susquehanna and 
 Wayne, leaving in the original Presbytery Bradford and 
 Luzerne (Wyoming was not then constituted). This 
 
 ♦The Synod of New York and New Jersey had been divided by the 
 General Assembly in 1828 and the Synod of New Jersey was formally 
 constituted in Oct., 1828. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 39 
 
 division made both Presbyteries more homogeneous, if it 
 did not subsequently promote fraternal co-operation with 
 each other as Presbyteries. 
 
 The action of the General Assembly in 1837 resulted 
 in making the division line between the Presbyteries 
 of Susquehanna and Montrose more distinct, and in 
 enlisting champions on both sides of it to defend all that 
 it implied to them respectively. Prominent among these 
 were Judge Jessup of Montrose and the Rev. Dr. John 
 Dorrance of Susquehanna. 
 
 The next division of the territory of the Susquehanna 
 which was made necessary by the development of the 
 coal trade in Luzerne county, especially its southern part, 
 and in Carbon and Schuylkill counties, we have already 
 noted in the organization of the Presbytery of Luzerne. 
 We have introduced here the above statements with 
 regard to the Presbytery 6f Susquehanna, and its an- 
 tecedents in order to a better understanding of the 
 Providential manner in which the way was prepared for 
 the work of the Presbytery we are endeavoring to portray. 
 We have not, of course, been able to do ample justice to 
 the devoted and useful men and struggling churches to 
 which we have referred, and to some of them we will 
 have occasion to turn our attention again as we proceed. 
 The writer is indebted for most of the facts given above 
 to the excellent History of Susquehanna Presbytery by 
 the venerable Mr. Corss, whose work is well worth 
 perusal; for while it is not a complete history of the 
 Presbytery of Susquehanna, it is a good outline and is 
 very suggestive. 
 
VI. 
 
 MAUCH CHUNK AND THE REV. RICHARD 
 WEBSTER. 
 
 WHILE it might be a more natural method to take up 
 the different individual churches of which the 
 Presbytery was composed in the order of their church life 
 and importance, there seems to be a propriety in beginning 
 with the pastor to whom his brethren have accorded the 
 appelation, "the father of the Presbytery." The Rev. 
 A. B. Cross says in the funeral sermon which he preached 
 at the burial of the Rev. Richard Webster: "At his 
 instance, the General Assembly was memorialized, and 
 in 1843 constituted the Presbytery of Luzerne, and 
 appointed him to preach the opening sermon at its 
 formal organization." Soon after the departure of Mr. 
 Webster to his heavenly rest, — he being the first of its 
 members to cease from his earthly labors, — the Presbytery 
 was called together in Scranton "to take into consider- 
 ation matters connected with the death of Rev. Richard 
 Webster, stated clerk of the Presbytery and chairman of 
 the committee on Domestic Missions." Presbytery 
 recorded "its grief at the loss of our greatly beloved 
 brother, valued co-presbyter and stated clerk, an able 
 and judicious counselor, a warm hearted and zealous 
 fellow-laborer, and the founder of this Presbytery." 
 
 In view of these considerations, and the additional 
 fact that, in no merely nominal measure, the care of all 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 4 1 
 
 the churches rested heavily upon Mr. Webster, we, 
 therefore, following the example of the Assembly of 
 1843, place his name at the head of our list of those who 
 were associated in the new Presbytery in loving fel- 
 lowship. 
 
 The two more prominent centres of growth, in the 
 earlier days of the Presbytery of Luzerne, were Wilkes- 
 Barre on the north and Mauch Chunk on the south of the 
 Presbytery. The vitality of the latter centre we trace to 
 the man in the pulpit, and not originally to the large and 
 influential congregation to which he preached. Not his 
 circumstances, but his devotion, his spirituality and his 
 love for lost souls, constrained by the love of Christ, 
 fired his vigorous intellect and called forth his self-denying 
 labors. This it was which made Richard Webster a 
 power for good among all classes of men. 
 
 The man of whom we write had antecedents 
 preparing him for his life work. We may not reap 
 without sowing. He had received a Christian education, 
 culture and care, in the admonition of the Lord. He 
 was the youngest child of Charles R. and Cynthia (Steele) 
 Webster, born July, 181 1, in Albany, N. Y. His father 
 being a prominent bookseller and publisher of an in- 
 fluential paper, his love for, and extensive acquaintance 
 with literature was early acquired and was doubtless 
 carefully directed by his godly parents, especially by his 
 amiable mother, whose culture was received in the refined 
 and pious household of her own favored parentage. His 
 academic education was completed at Union College, 
 N. Y., 1829, where he formed the acquaintance of such 
 men as the Rev. F. D. W. Ward, D. D., who ever 
 cherished a warm friendship for Mr. Webster and who 
 
42 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 has borne strong testimony to his excellence of heart and 
 life since his departure to his home above. 
 
 Mr. Webster's theological education was acquired at 
 Princeton. To his diligence and proficiency there his 
 seminary friends, the Rev. Benjamin J. Wallace and the 
 Rev. Dr. C. Van Rensselaer bear strong testimony; the 
 former speaks of his peculiar mental characteristics and 
 poetic nature. To the sketch of Mr. Webster's life," 
 given so fully and lovingly by Dr. Van Rensselaer in the 
 introduction to Mr. Webster's History of the Presbyterian 
 church in this country, which he edited after Mr. 
 Webster's death, the present writer wishes to turn the 
 attention of all, especially that of our younger ministers 
 and candidates for the ministry, as said introduction 
 cannot be reproduced here, and no abridgement can do 
 it justice, or convey the salutary impression which a 
 perusal of the whole sketch must leave on the mind of 
 every interested and careful reader. Mr. Webster 
 completed the full course at the Seminary in the spring 
 of 1834, after which he offered himself to the American 
 Board of Foreign Missions, and was accepted as a 
 Missionary to India. But hindrances arose to his 
 entrance upon that desired work, which, interpreted in 
 the light of subsequent events, are now plainly seen to 
 have been a part of the Master's leadings, wiser than his 
 own plans or the policy of the American Board. God 
 had other work for Richard Webster, in our own land. 
 
 Through the influence of the late Judge Porter, of 
 Easton, Pa., Mr. Webster, after graduating at the 
 Seminary, was induced to undertake missionary work in 
 south Easton, where David Brainard, whose spirit he 
 imbibed, had labored so successfully among the Indians 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 43 
 
 nearly a century before ; but the Master designed him for 
 another field, and soon led him fifty miles up the Lehigh 
 to a little dell where the Mauch Chunk creek runs swiftly 
 down into the Lehigh, making its way through the gorge 
 of the Mahoning mountains. In this narrow defile, 
 traversed by the above named tributary on its rapid 
 course to the larger stream, surrounded on all sides by 
 overshadowing mountains, to the little hidden village on 
 the Mauch Chunk creek that was there struggling into 
 existence, Providence was directing the steps of Richard 
 Webster; not to extinguish his light, or repress his 
 energies; not to make his life a blank or shut him out 
 from any worthy place in the church he so ardently 
 loved. Far from it, as the event proved; for God had 
 given him that which would enable him to overleap the 
 mountains and call forth the admiration of all who realize 
 "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of them 
 that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings 
 of good things ! " 
 
 Without seeking or even desiring fame, but con- 
 strained by the love of Christ to labor for the good 
 of others and the glory of the Master, he built his 
 monument so high, and made it so bright, that it has 
 become alike conspicuous in the secluded valleys and 
 over the mountains which shut them in by their towering 
 height. 
 
 We have already seen that the coal trade on the 
 Lehigh dates from about 1820, but its development was 
 not rapid, for Miss Webster, in her History of the Mauch 
 Chunk Presbyterian church, quoting from Dr. Edsal 
 Ferrier, gives the population of that village in 1830 as 
 nearly 700. Up to this time the population of this part 
 
44 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 of the Lehigh was largely confined to those who were 
 engaged in the production of coal, which was principally 
 in the hands of enterprising Philadelphians. 
 
 The valleys on this part of the river were very 
 narrow, and the uplands not regarded as productive, 
 therefore not inviting to farmers. The settlements south 
 of Mauch Chunk were principally German, so not of 
 Presbyterian proclivity. This may account for the fact 
 that considerable time elapsed after coal operations began 
 before our church entered this field. The attention of 
 Presbyterians in Easton and its vicinity was not at once 
 attracted to Mauch Chunk, notwithstanding the two 
 places were connected by canal. The attention of the 
 church at Easton was finally called to Mauch Chunk by a 
 letter addressed to its pastor by a citizen of the latter 
 place, asking for counsel with reference to his personal 
 salvation. The Rev. Dr. John Gray, pastor at Easton, 
 responded, and in addition to such advice as his letter 
 contained, invited the gentleman to visit Easton. This 
 he did, and during that visit made a public confession of 
 Christ as his Saviour, and was received into the church. 
 Returning to his home, he at once interested himself in 
 looking up the Presbyterians of the place, and soliciting 
 them to unite with him and his wife — who had previously 
 been a communicant — in a church organization, for the 
 establishment of which in that important field the 
 providence of God had been so manifestly preparing the 
 way. The zealous work of this new disciple of the 
 Master resulted in a petition reaching the Presbytery 
 of Newton, which body at its full meeting, 1835, 
 appointed a committee to visit Mauch Chunk and answer 
 the prayer of the petitioners if they found all the requisite 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 45 
 
 conditions. On the last day of October two members 
 of that committee were on the ground; viz., the Rev. D. 
 X. Junkin, chairman, (who had expressed his willingness 
 to go into that general field as a missionary two years 
 earlier, but at this time had charge of one of the churches 
 of the Presbytery,) and with him Elder Enoch Green, of 
 the first church of Easton. 
 
 The next day. Sabbath, Nov. ist, the following 
 persons, the charter members of the church, were formally 
 organized, viz., Mr. and Mrs. James Bigger, James 
 Lesley, Mr. and Mrs. Abiel Abbot, Mr. and Mrs. Merrit 
 Abbot, Mr. and Mrs. George Washington Smith, Mrs. 
 Thomas Patterson, ivlia. John Wilson, John Simpson, 
 Mrs. Margaret Youngs, Miss Agnes Youngs, Mrs. Daniel 
 H. Connor, Miss Susan Hartz, Miss Mary Hartz, John 
 Nichol, Alexander M'Lean, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Craig, 
 John Lile, John B. Butler, Mrs. George Adair, and 
 Nathan Patterson. At the same time three elders were 
 elected, ordained and installed, viz., John Simpson, 
 James Bigger and George W. Smith. When our church 
 entered this important field, it found the Methodists 
 already intrenched in Mauch Chunk. They generously 
 opened the doors of their house of worship for the 
 new ally, and between them and the Presbyterians 
 there has always been maintained the most fraternal 
 relations. Both organizations then found abundance of 
 work among those already on the ground, and among the 
 ever increasing numbers carried back upon the cars and 
 boats which conveyed the coal to market, so adding to 
 the toilers and to those who increased the capital and 
 business of the region. Thus additional solitary places 
 among the mountains would soon be made to blossom as 
 
46 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 the rose, and upon them would be seen the beautiful feet 
 of those who bring glad tidings of good things to come. 
 
 About a month after the organization of the Mauch 
 Chunk Presbyterian church, Dr. Junkin returns. He is 
 accompanied by a cherished Seminary friend whom he 
 introduces to his recently made friends there. He is a 
 man of slender frame, but commanding bearing, with an 
 impressive eye, a thoughtful and benevolent mien. 
 He had been in training to do an important work for 
 that new community, and for others that soon were to be 
 gathered in the region round about it, a work which, 
 perhaps, no other man could do so well. 
 
 This man Dr. Junkin introduced to the Presbyterians 
 of Mauch Chunk and proposed to them to accept his 
 friend as a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, to carry 
 forward the work which had been inaugurated in their 
 organization as a church. 
 
 He is presented to them as a man consecrated to the 
 service of Christ, first by his godly parents in the 
 covenant of baptism, and by his personal re-consecration 
 when he voluntarily made the parental act his own. This 
 was done early in life, but intelligently and heartily done, 
 when he devoted himself to the gospel ministry. After 
 years of preparation, aided by the most devoted and 
 wisest men in the Presbyterian church, he had offered 
 himself to the American Board of Missions to go to 
 India, and now that he is providentially hindered from 
 going to India, he is found offering himself to a depart- 
 ment of ministerial work calling for still greater self-denial 
 in some respects than would have been demanded of him 
 if he had been sent to the Orient — viz., foundation work 
 in our own land. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 47 
 
 With such an introduction of such a man, no 
 obstacle could be raised. Mr. Webster entered upon his 
 work. At first only a part of his time could be given to 
 the newly organized church ; for there were already on 
 the mountains, here and there scattered sheep away 
 from the shepherd's care. These must be found; folds 
 must be constructed and porters appointed for their 
 protection, and for the nurture and increase of the flock. 
 For this work no man in modern times had keene; 
 instincts, because none have more fully imbibed the Spirir 
 of the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for 
 the sheep. 
 
 The care so lovingly bestowed on the scattered sheep 
 did not lead to the neglect of the partially folded flock. 
 For, from the day that Dr. Junkin introduced Mr. 
 Webster to the only church to which he sustained the 
 relation of pastor to the day and hour of his release from 
 earthly cares, that people was ever before his eyes and in 
 his heart, from which daily petitions in their behalf arose 
 to the Father of mercies. 
 
 At the first, Mr. Webster's pastoral charge was 
 regarded as embracing Summit Hill, which is nine miles 
 west of Mauch Chunk. Regular services were given to 
 the people in this elevated part of Ms field. These were 
 so productive of good fruits that in the year 1839 the 
 members of the Mauch Chunk church residing in Summit 
 Hill were organized as a church. One year earlier, that 
 part of Mr. Webster's original field embracing the village 
 of Beaver Meadow, had been accorded an organization. 
 In the mean time Mr. Webster had, in April, 1837, 
 received a formal call to the pastorate over the little flock 
 to which he was introduced in 1835. It was for one 
 
48 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 fourth of the time. The installation services took place 
 in July, conducted by a committee of the Presbytery of 
 Newton. Of the services on this occasion the newly 
 installed pastor said: "Everything was appropriate and 
 solemn, and we may well exclaim, 'Blessed be the Lord, 
 for he hath showed me his marvelous loving kindness. ' ' ' 
 
 The labors of the young pastor were not only given 
 with promptness to his home field, to Summit Hill, where 
 23 of the former members of the Mauch Chunk church 
 had the gospel regularly preached to them, and the 
 sacrament of the Lord's Supper administered twice a year, 
 and at Beaver Meadow, where like services were rendered 
 up to 1839, but in addition to these points, Tamaqua, in 
 Schuylkill county, and Port Clinton, were served as 
 frequently as possible; also Conyngham valley. This 
 does not mean occasional sermons only, but general 
 pastoral visitations, reaching every family and individual 
 accessible, giving to all and every one kind and faithful 
 personal instruction and appeals, ending with prayer. 
 
 The first division of labor, in addition to what, from 
 the beginning, he sought to secure from the members of 
 his session and members of his church, was brought about 
 by the coming of the Rev. Daniel Gaston, a licentiate, 
 who had been a student in Lafayette College and 
 Princeton Theological Seminary. Mr. Webster had 
 prepared the way for his taking hold of the work at 
 Beaver Meadow, and he is there regularly inducted into 
 the pastorate. Mr. Webster, as Rev. Dr. Benjamin J. 
 Wallace testifies of him, "was passionately devoted to the 
 Presbyterian church, holding our order and faith to be 
 the very primitive form and mold of apostolic truth; he 
 conld conceive of nothing more noble and venerable than 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 49 
 
 Calvinism and Presbyterianism. Around the church he 
 poured the wealth of his reverence, his imagination, and 
 his affections," and yet, as it seemed to the writer, no 
 man had a more Catholic spirit. But he wisely believed 
 in preaching sound doctrine and carrying out our tried 
 and approved order. Therefore we find the Presbytery of 
 Newton ordaining and installing Mr. Gaston, and two 
 years later, after having followed up Mr. Webster's work 
 in Conyngham valley for a year, Mr. Gaston was installed 
 pastor of the church there, which had been organized 
 Dec. 19th, 1841, with 18 members. 
 
 The Conyngham church consisted of 18 members, 
 most of whom had previously been regarded as members 
 of the Beaver Meadow church, viz., Philip Winterstene, 
 William T. Rhoads, Archibald Delsney, James Gilmore, 
 Mary Winterstene, Amy Rhoads, Letitia McCarty, Jane 
 Sterling, Martha Shelhammer, Mary Muncey, Keziah 
 Brundage, Cornelia Godfrey, Martha Kan, Mary Sterling, 
 Margaret Winterstene, Sarah Ann Miller, Jane Miller, 
 Elijah Cramer. 
 
 Philip Winterstene was installed a ruling elder. The 
 Rev. Daniel Gaston continued in charge of this church in 
 connection with Beaver Meadow till 1844, in the mean 
 time, viz., 1843, the Presbytery of Luzerne was constituted 
 and these churches became constituent parts of the same. 
 Mr. Gaston's work in them had been prospered to their 
 enlargement. He afterwards built up a respectable 
 church in the suburbs of Philadelphia, and has been 
 honored in having the organization he effected bear his 
 name. His earthly labors ended April 28th, 1865, and 
 "his works do follow him," for he was a good man and a 
 faithful minister. 
 
50 PRESBYTERY OF LUZEKNE. 
 
 The Rev. James G. Moore, born near Johnsburgh, 
 N. Y. , 1813, a graduate of Lafayette College and a 
 Princeton Seminary student, was ordained by the Presby- 
 tery of Luzerne April i6th, 1845, and installed pastor of 
 the Beaver Meadow church, which had, in its report of 
 1844, shown a large increase in its membership, the 
 number of members reported being 68. Mr. Moore's field 
 does not seem, as Mr. Gaston's did, to embrace Conyng- 
 ham valley, but by the direction of Presbytery he took 
 into his field some other of the places which shared the 
 earnest attention and labors of Mr. Webster. He gave 
 more time to Hazleton, the growing importance of which 
 he duly appreciated, as he brought fully before his 
 brethren the wants of the whole of the southern part of 
 the Presbytery. His knowledge was personal, and his 
 interest in all the destitute parts of his wide field was 
 hearty and practical. 
 
 That part of Mr. Webster's original field known as 
 Conyngham valley (entire) and more recently a part of 
 Mr. Gaston's charge, was, after Mr. Gaston's relinquish- 
 ment of it, occupied by Mr. Darwin Cook, a licentiate of 
 the new Presbytery. Mr. Cook had been prepared for 
 college under the direct supervision of the Rev. John 
 Dorrance, at the Wilkes-Barre Academy, and it was 
 through the ministry of Mr. Dorrance in Bradford county 
 that he probably had been led to seek preparation for the 
 gospel ministry. He graduated at Lafayette College and 
 Princeton Theological Seminary with the same class 
 (1845) of which Mr. Moore was a member. Mr. Cook 
 was directed by Presbytery to give one Sabbath each 
 month to missionary work in White Haven, a point to 
 which the attention of both Mr. Webster and Mr. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 5 I 
 
 Dorrance had been directed, and in which they had 
 become mutually interested. In Feb., 1846, the Presby- 
 tery of Luzerne ordained Mr. Cook as an evangelist, and 
 as such we find him doing earnest and faithful work, not 
 only in Conyngham valley, but on the Lehigh at White 
 Haven, and on the Susquehanna at Nanticoke, where the 
 people invited him to give them half his time and promised 
 one hundred dollars salary. Mr. Cook also labored in the 
 Schuylkill valley from Tamaqua almost to Pottsville 
 during his six years, after which he returned to his native 
 county, Bradford, and became pastor of the Rome church 
 in 185 1, and in 1858 of the Wyalusing church, retiring as 
 pastor emeritus 1885. He died at Stockton, Sept. 13th, 
 1888, much esteemed as a man and minister of sterling 
 devotion and integrity. One of his sons became a 
 minister, viz., the Rev. Milton Lewis Cook. The Rev, 
 Philip B. Cook, M. D., was his brother. 
 
 Summit Hill church, after its organization. May, 1839, 
 was regularly supplied by Mr. Webster till the spring of 
 1842, when William E. Schenck, a licentiate of the 
 Presbytery of New Brunswick, was engaged for a season to 
 do missionary work at Summit Hill, Tamaqua and Port 
 Clinton. In the narrative to the Presbytery of Newton, 
 April, 1843, Mr. Webster says, "The missionary col- 
 lection" (in the Mauch Chunk church) "has been larger 
 than in any previous year. With a portion of it we 
 sustained for three months a preacher at Summit Hill and 
 Port Clinton, and as a fruit, the former place ,is now 
 supplied with preaching of the gospel every Sabbath, and 
 is nearly as well able to sustain a pastor as we are 
 ourselves."* The item just quoted is significant. The 
 
 *Miss Elizabeth Webster's History of Mauch Chunk Church. 
 
52 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 little church to which Mr, Webster was introduced in 
 Nov., 1835, and from which he went forth with the glad 
 tidings of the gospel in almost every direction, is now, in 
 1842, surrounded by other churches, as Beaver Meadow, 
 Summit Hill, Conyngham valley, and other established 
 preaching places which were soon destined to become the 
 homes of still more influential churches, such as Tamaqua, 
 Hazleton, White Haven and Weatherly. To properly 
 care for the work already developed, and promptly extend 
 it, he saw, as perhaps no one else did, the urgent necessity 
 for a new Presbytery, and the importance of having its 
 territory embrace, as far as possible, the entire contiguous 
 anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania. Although the 
 Rev. John Dorrance, pastor at Wilkes-Barre, was not so 
 much impelled by his immediate surroundings at that 
 time to move in behalf of a new Presbytery, and was 
 more restrained by his association with brethren from 
 whom the proposed movement would in a measure 
 separate him, he yet saw the wisdom of the proposal. 
 The erection of the Presbytery was accomplished with 
 his co-operation, and while his life continued he was 
 always a recognized leader in its operations. 
 
 The first report from the Mauch Chunk church to the 
 new Presbytery gives its membership as 99. Soon after 
 the beginning of Mr. Webster's labors in Mauch Chunk, 
 there were evidences of the Spirit's presence, and souls 
 were brought to Christ, whom he constantly and lovingly 
 held up in all his ministrations, whether in the pulpit, in 
 the family, or in personal visitations. 
 
 In the spring of 1838, Mr. Webster and Miss Eliza- 
 beth Cross of Baltimore were married. This marriage 
 resulted in such domestic felicity as might be expected by 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 53 
 
 such as knew them, and were acquainted with their honor- 
 able, intelligent Christian parentage and education, their 
 own attainments, principles and habits, especially their 
 Christ-like temper. The public testimony of one who 
 knew them intimately, through their entire domestic career 
 — a testimony confirmed by many others, — was one that 
 might well be expected. He says of the husband in his 
 relation to the home established by this marriage: "In a 
 home of more than usual affection and felicity, Mr. Web- 
 ster found rest amid his toils, and solace in his trials. A 
 fonder, happier, or wiser husband and father the writer has 
 rarely known." It was, and continues to be, a model home 
 with all its inmates alike its ornaments. The only survivor 
 among the original ministers and their wives, who consti- 
 tuted the late Presbytery of Luzerne, Mr. Webster's imme- 
 diate successor says with regard to Mrs. Webster's influence 
 beyond her own household, "Mrs. Webster, of whom I 
 would love to speak, but who would not be willing that I 
 should say what I owe of gratitude and love, — of all my 
 helpers she was the most faithful and wise ; she saved me 
 from many a mistake and helped me when no one else 
 could have been of any assistance. Much of my success 
 in my ministry at Mauch Chunk I owe to her. ' ' Many 
 other young ministers received aid from her helpful 
 suggestions, while enjoying her hospitality. 
 
 As Mr. Webster was from time to time relieved of 
 the ministerial care of the more distant parts of his field, 
 he gave special attention to intermediate points, many of 
 which he regularly visited and supplied on Sabbath 
 afternoons and during the week, frequently walking to and 
 from these places. 
 
54 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 To new places, Mr. Webster's benevolent counte- 
 nance, his genial bearing and reputation for disinterested 
 Christian zeal, always secured for him a hearty welcome, 
 the cordiality increasing with the growing familiarity. 
 None questioned his motives, nor was it necessary for him 
 to assert his love for the Master, or for the people. 
 
 The Mauch Chunk church has always had an 
 intelligent, working session, although for some time it was 
 small in numbers, e. g., from 1838 to 1842 it consisted 
 of the pastor and Mr. George W. Smith. During this 
 period, however, the sessional records "show a vast 
 amount of work done thoroughly and faithfully. ' ' At that 
 time elder Smith conducted Sabbath services in the 
 absence of the pastor. April 13th, 1842, Mr. John 
 Ruddle and Dr. John D. Thompson were elected elders. 
 
 In the history of this church, carefully written by a 
 daughter of its first pastor, we find the following with 
 reference to its session. She says: "We notice first, the 
 extreme care of session in receiving members into the 
 church. In the formative years, great wisdom and 
 discretion were needed in admitting persons to the 
 communion of the church. No doubt our church owes 
 much to the decided action and careful deliberation of the 
 men who constituted the session. There was no undue 
 haste in this important matter, but there was most careful 
 and thorough examination. When there was any doubt 
 of the knowledge of spiritual things, the person was held 
 back for a time and instructed by the pastor. When 
 there was a shadow on the reputation, the person was 
 refused admission until truly penitent, and all was cleared 
 away. The session also watched over the members of the 
 church with loving interest. The purity of the church 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 55 
 
 was very precious to them, and they guarded it with 
 jealous care, that, if possible, not even one spot should 
 mar the purity of the church of Christ. Carelessness in 
 attendance upon public worship, disregard of the Lord's 
 Day, speaking reproachfully of one's neighbors, tavern 
 keeping, intemperance and profanity, were all brought 
 before the session. If continued, a member of the session 
 was appointed to visit and admonish the erring one. If 
 the admonition was neglected, the offender was cited to 
 appear before the session and answer the charge. " It is 
 in evidence that no judgment was rendered until after a 
 careful, orderly and prayerful investigation had been 
 made. A thorough sessional, as well as pastoral visitation 
 was made frequently to every family of the congregation. 
 In 1852 Elder Ruddle resigned, and in 1854 Dr. 
 Thompson died, and from the latter date until 1856, the 
 pastor and elder Smith constituted the session. 
 
 During Mr. Webster's ministry, there were several 
 periods which caused him the deepest solicitude, times 
 of apparent reaction after some seasons of more than usual 
 spiritual awakening and ingathering. These quickened 
 the pastor's diligence and prayerfulness. From the 
 recent settlement of the village, its mixed population, 
 and the variety of motives which brought the people 
 together and gave bias to their sentiments and pursuits, it 
 was not to be expected that perfect accord and the most 
 efficient work could be secured at once in church 
 activities; but Mr. Webster's wise and devoted ministry 
 accomplished much in that direction. Many seasons of 
 revival were enjoyed as the result of the pastor's labors, 
 and his people's co-operation. Outside human help was 
 seldom, if ever, invoked. As the church grew in 
 numbers, it grew in stability, based on divine truth. 
 
5 6 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 The Sabbath School was recognized as an important 
 agency in upbuilding, and its operations were carefully 
 directed by the responsible authorities of the church, who 
 have maintained the teaching of the "form of sound 
 words" which the Spirit has so honored, in the work 
 which the Presbyterian and kindred churches have been 
 the means of doing in the world for human salvation, and 
 civil and religious liberty. 
 
 The history of the Sabbath School in Mauch Chunk, 
 from which all the Sabbath Schools in Carbon county had 
 their origin, is a matter of importance. While started by 
 a Presbyterian, it antedates the organization of our church 
 ten years. 
 
 In 1835, Mr. Joseph P. Engles,* then in Mauch 
 Chunk, was the means of inaugurating the work and 
 securing the necessary supply of books and other things. 
 
 Of course, in the absence of any organized church, 
 it was a union school. When the Methodist church came 
 into existence, and had secured a house of worship, their 
 co-operation ceased, leaving the Presbyterians and Episco- 
 palians in union, who worked harmoniously under 
 superintendents, Asa L. Foster, William H. Sayre, Nathan 
 Patterson, and James W. Barnes. The school prospered 
 under this management for several years. When the 
 Episcopalians withdrew, that left only Presbyterians, the 
 original active element. The first record of sessional 
 supervision was made May 8th, 1839. The careful study 
 of the catechism was provided for in the school. Other 
 schools were early arranged for at all the regular preaching 
 places occupied by Mr. Webster; and in maintaining them 
 the members of his session were active and persevering. 
 
 *Subsequently, 1839-1867, Publishing Agent of tlie Presbyterian Board of 
 PubUcation. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 5/ 
 
 At Mauch Chunk, the session was formally made 
 responsible for the regulation of the school, Feb. i6th, 
 1840,* and rules were then adopted for its management. 
 Mr. Nathan Patterson was then superintendent, and 
 continued in that office till 1844, when the same duties 
 were assumed in Summit Hill, which then had become his 
 residence. Elder Ruddle was made superintendent in 
 1845, IVIr. Lewis Hoyt 1848, Mr. George W. Helme 
 1849, Mr. J. H. Siewers performed the duties of the 
 office after Mr. Helme' s removal from Mauch Chunk. 
 Mr. Charles G. Rockwood was next appointed, and 
 superintended the school till he left Mauch Chunk 
 in 1857. 
 
 During Elder Rockwood' s superintendency, the 
 Sabbath School was moved into the lecture room of the 
 new church, which gave it an impetus. The faithful 
 superintendent says in his report in the spring of 1857, 
 "Our school prospers and is, perhaps, larger than ever 
 before. We have on the roll 290 scholars, and 31 
 teachers. The teachers keep up, with interest, a weekly 
 meeting for study, which is well attended. ' ' 
 
 After Mr. Rockwood, Mr. A. G. Broadhead filled the 
 office for a period of a quarter of a century, and when he 
 retired received the thanks of the session for his long, 
 efficient and acceptable service. Mr. Broadhead' s term 
 of service extended beyond the life of Luzerne Presbytery, 
 and covered a troublous period in the history of our 
 country, and several changes in the pastorate of the 
 church, which indicates acceptable and wise management, 
 meriting the thanks given to him by the session at the 
 close of his service. 
 
 ^■Rev. Dr. Ferrier's Historical .Sermon. 
 
58 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 Pastor Webster, during the greater part of his 
 ministry, labored under the disadvantage of having a 
 house of worship that was inadequate to the wants of the 
 iield. It was erected soon after the missionary work 
 began in Mauch Chunk and the regions round about, 
 when the town was small and the people generally poor, 
 and during troublous times in the Presbyterian church in 
 this country ; when as yet our noble and beneficent Board 
 of Church Erection had not been born ; when the growth 
 and stability of the little town was -not yet certain ; 
 therefore this structure soon proved too small. It was, 
 however, substantial, being built of stone, and to those 
 whose hearts, within these stony walls, had so often been 
 made to swell with gratitude to God and with love to 
 each other, it was a good and attractive place, where they 
 fondly lingered. 
 
 Yet, as early as 1847, the enterprising women of the 
 congregation inaugurated measures for providing means 
 for a more commodious sanctuary. These were not only 
 successful in that direction, but also in calling into 
 activity and deepening the zeal of several young ladies 
 whose earnest helpfulness has continued and increased 
 even down to old age. These ladies are pointed out as 
 illustrious examples of faithful stewardship. 
 
 It was, however, nearly ten years before the com- 
 pletion of the new and commodious house of worship, 
 which was built in a defile of the mountain, over a 
 rushing stream whose unceasing music also praises God. 
 The voice of the beloved pastor whose faithful instructions 
 and whose tender and pathetic appeals had gone forth for 
 a score of years from his very heart was never to be 
 heard in the new house. But the echo and memory of its 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 59 
 
 utterances have not yet died away in the minds of those 
 to whom they were originally addressed, the faithful men 
 and women whom God has raised up to carry forward, 
 through the agencies of the new sanctuary, the work of 
 the devoted Webster, ' ' who being dead, yet speaketh. ' ' 
 
 Mr. Webster, as a presbyter, or member of other 
 ecclesiastical bodies, notwithstanding the disadvantage 
 of his ever-increasing deafness, was always influential, 
 because of his thorough acquaintance with the whole 
 range of subjects to be considered, his good judgment, 
 the directness and ability with which he approached the 
 particular topic to be discussed, and his ever Christian 
 and courteous spirit and address, spiced with his charac- 
 teristic wit and humor. It need not be added that he was 
 a popular member of ecclesiastical courts. There are 
 some still living who remember an occasion in the Synod 
 of New Jersey, when the question of dividing that Synod 
 was under consideration. Some of the brethren recoiled 
 from the long, perilous, and fatiguing journey necessary 
 to reach meetings among the mountains in eastern 
 Pennsylvania, and the large missionary aid needed in 
 that part of the Synod, and they earnestly pleaded for 
 division. Mr. Webster, without having heard a word 
 that had been said in the discussion, arose in his place at 
 the proper time, and, seeming to have been fully aware of 
 the drift things were taking, characterized the spirit of the 
 movement in one of the most facetious and trenchant 
 speeches the writer ever heard. The Synod was not 
 divided in his day. 
 
 In playful repartee with his brethren he was a master. 
 But there was no bitterness in his witticisms — nothing 
 calculated to give pain to those at whom they were so 
 
6o PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 pleasantly aimed. If Mr. Webster ever had any misun- 
 derstanding with any of his ministerial brethren, the 
 writer never knew of it. They all loved him and he 
 loved them. The Presbytery of which he was the 
 respected father was indeed fraternal. The Rev. Dr. C. 
 R. Lane, a prominent member, in writing to Mrs. 
 Webster, long after her husband's death, asks, "Was there 
 ever such a Presbytery " (in this respect) " as Luzerne?" 
 It certainly was a delightful body of men. 
 
 Mr. Webster, as a preacher, was methodical, instructive, 
 plain, and eminently practical in his presentation of the 
 gospel. None who heard him questioned his love for the 
 truths he uttered, or his judgment as to their importance 
 to those whom he addressed. He was not a speculative 
 or philosophizing preacher, but delivered his message as 
 from God, without leaving the impression that he himself 
 questioned it, and was reasoning himself into the cordial 
 belief thereof He evidently was not found in the pulpit 
 for the purpose of personal display. He wanted to secure 
 attention, in his own country, to that gospel which he 
 would gladly have carried to India, regarding it as no less 
 precious or necessary at home. He ceased not to 
 commend it with the deepest solicitude, to the very hour 
 of his departure, to those around him and those whom he 
 could reach by messages of love. 
 
 The consciousness to which he was so unexpectedly 
 and recently awakened,* viz., that the time had come for 
 his separation from one of the happiest of earthly homes, 
 and one upon which no such dark cloud had before risen, 
 did not in that trying hour wholly occupy his loving 
 
 *Mr. Webster's iUness was of such a character as to awaken tio fear 
 of a fatal result until a short time before the end came. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 6 1 
 
 solicitude. It also embraced his congregation, especially 
 members of it for whose salvation he was so anxious. 
 These were in his heart and in his last prayers, and to 
 some of them he dictated loving appeals from their dying 
 pastor. From him the sting of death had been averted. 
 When death approached to do his work he did not know 
 him, and was not alarmed when made aware of his 
 presence. His abiding affection for the loved on earth, 
 and his interest in them, were in no measure lessened, but 
 his realization of and delight in the yet unseen things 
 above were greatly increased. Thus the Rev. Richard 
 Webster ended his earthly ministry, June 19th, 1856, 
 when a little less than forty-five years of age, with an 
 established reputation, an acquired experience, and with 
 increased facilities for prosecuting his pastoral work 
 secured, but not yet used. His earthly sun set at 
 noon-day. His last sermon, which was so impressive 
 that some members of his congregation regarded it as 
 prophetic, was with reference to Enoch's communion 
 with God and his translation to glory. 
 
 Many pages might be inserted relative to the 
 remarkable close of Mr. Webster's days on earth, but 
 passing by others equally to be noted, the testimony of 
 Elder Charles G. Rockwood, the intelligent and devoted 
 Sabbath School superintendent, will only be given here. 
 Mr. Rockwood, after giving a just and appreciative 
 sketch of the character and worth of his late beloved 
 pastor, says : "I was permitted to be with him for the 
 last ten or eleven hours, and a greater privilege is seldom 
 enjoyed in a lifetime. No written narrative of peaceful 
 death-bed scenes ever gave me such a realizing sense of 
 the value of a good hope in Christ and daily consecration 
 
62 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 to God as a preparation for death. There was not a fear 
 or a doubt. His mind was cahii and composed, though 
 active and fully awake to his nearness to eternity; yet all 
 was peace, and joyful anticipations for himself and 
 cheerful trust in God for his family and his church." 
 
 In addition to Mr. Webster's missionary and pastoral 
 labors he had written considerable — mostly the result of 
 patient and extensive research — with reference to the 
 planting of our church and her institutions in this 
 country.* Although his work in this direction was not 
 completed, he left much valuable information, a part of 
 which was published about as he left it, under the 
 supervision of his life-long friend, the Rev. Dr. Cortland 
 Van Renselaer, also of precious memory. His ministry 
 resulted in raising up successors in the sacred office. His 
 family consisted of his wife, (who still lives, and does 
 much for the furtherance of the work her husband 
 inaugurated), with five sons and three daughters, the last 
 born a short time after her father's death. The eldest 
 son, John Cross, died in childhood. The second son, 
 Charles Edward, was early inducted into the Eldership of 
 his father's church. He subsequently performed the 
 duties of the office in Pottsville church, and now is an 
 elder of the South Bethlehem church. In all these 
 places he is highly esteemed for his official faithfulness 
 and as an honored business man. 
 
 Mr. Webster's third son is the Rev. William S. C. 
 Webster, D. D., who was licensed by the Presbytery of 
 Luzerne, after completing the full course of study in 
 
 *He also published A Digest of the Deliverances of the General Assembly. 
 Owing to the fact that the full text of these several deliverances were not 
 printed in full in his Book it did not retain the regard to which it was 
 entitled. 
 
PRESBYTEKY OF LUZERNE. 6^ 
 
 Princeton College and Seminary, and, subsequently, after 
 spending some time in teaching, and as stated supply of 
 Paris church, Kentucky, he was advanced by the Presby- 
 tery of Lehigh as minister of the Weatherly church, a 
 part of his father's original field. He is now pastor of 
 the Inslip church, Nassau Presbytery, N. Y. His record 
 indicates his fidelity to his father's church, and his 
 success in its service. The Rev. Richard B. Webster, 
 the fourth son of the Mauch Chunk pastor, is now the 
 successful and honored pastor of the Westminster church 
 of Wilkes-Barre. He is also a graduate of the Princeton 
 institutions. The fifth son, Henry Horace, possessed of 
 a remarkably amiable and sprightly disposition, was not 
 only loved ardently in his own family, but wherever he 
 was known, especially in college at Princeton, Avhere his 
 Christian character, early attained and always maintained, 
 together with his zeal, prudence, ability and tact, made 
 him a power for good among the students, not only in 
 the class room and the prayer meeting, but on the 
 campus as well, as he heartily and vigorously participated 
 in the manly sports of the field, and greatly enjoyed 
 them. 
 
 After his graduation, in connection with his business 
 engagements, he did good and acceptable evangelistic 
 services in the Sabbath Schools and the Young Men's 
 Christian Association in his native town, and afterwards 
 in New York city, to which he was invited to take an 
 important official position in Y. M. C. A. movement ; 
 but soon after he entered upon his work and had 
 demonstrated his ability to meet its responsibilities, and 
 had attracted the affection and secured the co-operation 
 of his associates, he was called to lay down that work and 
 
64 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 join his sainted father in services above. He died 
 January 17, 1891. The character and work of Henry 
 Horace Webster were soon after his death lovingly 
 embalmed in a suitable memoir prepared by Jasper Van 
 Vleck, an associate in Christian service, who was also 
 called from earthly work soon afterward. This little 
 book was published by "The Young Men's Era" Pub- 
 lishing Co., Chicago, 111. 
 
 Mr. Webster's three daughters, who solace the 
 mother in the absence of her beloved husband and sons, 
 are active and efficient Christian workers. The youngest 
 of them has recently prepared an excellent history of the 
 Mauch Chunk church, to which the writer has been much 
 indebted. 
 
 From the Mauch Chunk church, during Mr. 
 Webster's ministry, the Rev. Edward Kennedy, Rev. 
 James Scott and Rev. Joseph W. Porter, members of his 
 church, entered upon a course of study for the gospel 
 ministry which they regularly completed, and were, in 
 due course of time, inducted into the sacred office, as 
 ministers of the Presbyterian church. 
 
 Another member of the Mauch Chunk church during 
 Mr. Webster's time, afterwards inducted into the 
 ministry, viz., Mr. Peter Munnes, for four years the 
 leader of the choir and superintendent of a branch 
 Sunday School, was, after leaving Mauch Chunk, taken 
 under the care of the Presbytery of Baltimore, licensed, 
 and ordained in 1853. 
 
 Another remark is in place with reference to Mr. 
 Webster's ministry. It is the loving regard which it 
 elicited for his work from so many members of his 
 church, as well as their love for him personally. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 6$ 
 
 The writer, in the Providence of God, became 
 pastor to a large number who had been of his flock. 
 These persons from Mauch Chunk church were disposed 
 to entertain the most considerate regard for, and extend 
 the most generous treatment to, other ministers, whom 
 they regarded as honestly engaged in the work which had 
 filled Mr. Webster's heart and consumed his time and 
 strength. 
 
 He elevated the ministry as few men have done, 
 calling out the loving regard of his people which did not 
 terminate with him personally, but reached all others 
 engaged in like work with like zeal and spirit as to the 
 Master and as to men. He seemed more anxious to 
 honor the office than to be honored in it. 
 
 The Rev. J. Aspinwall Hodge, his immediate 
 successor, in a recent communication says of Mr. 
 Webster : "I was not blessed with a personal knowledge 
 of him. The character of his work in Mauch Chunk I 
 am now competent to estimate. While there I thought I 
 fully appreciated it, but since I have been able to 
 compare it with that of others, I am more and more 
 filled with admiration ; for it far surpasses in faithfulness 
 and durability the work of any minister, perhaps, that 
 I know." 
 
VII. 
 THE REV. JOHN DORRANCE, D. D., 
 
 AND 
 
 THE WILKES -BARRE PRESBYTERIAN 
 CHURCH. 
 
 THIS distinguished member of the Presbytery of 
 Luzerne did not, for the first time, come into vital 
 relationship with this church when he became its pastor 
 „in 1833. He was born within its pale, breathed its 
 atmosphere, and received its moral and intellectual 
 training, until prepared to enter and receive the culture 
 of institutions affording more ample facilities for ex- 
 tended intellectual attainments than were, as yet, enjoyed 
 in the immediate vicinity of his pleasant home in the 
 beautiful valley in which he was born. We have already 
 noted above the institutions in which he studied, the 
 direction of his pursuits, his return to his native valley, 
 his licensure to preach the gospel, his subsequent 
 departure to the south, his induction into the full work 
 of the gospel ministry, his successful work in Mississippi, 
 and Bradford county. Pa., but in addition to this, it is 
 due to the man whose work and influence was second to 
 none in the establishment and enlargement of the 
 Presbytery of Luzerne, and to all who are and may 
 hereafter be interested in the work for the advancement 
 of Christ's kingdom accomplished by that Presbytery, 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 6/ 
 
 that we should give here a more extended biographical 
 sketch of Dr. Dorrance. This we are enabled to do 
 through the filial regard of his daughter, Mrs. G. M. 
 Reynolds, who has furnished the writer ample material, 
 and in such a way as to clearly indicate the reverence, 
 affection and honor ardently cherished for her father. 
 
 When the Dorrance family came to Pennsylvania, it 
 was, to all intents and purposes, a Connecticut family, 
 but Mrs. Reynolds says of her father, "that his great 
 grandfather and first American ancestor was the Rev. 
 Samuel Dorrance, a Presbyterian minister who came from 
 Ireland in 1723. He settled at Voluntown, Conn,, and 
 was the first Presbyterian minister settled in New 
 England.* He was a graduate of Glasgow University 
 and, his gravestone says, was licensed to preach by the 
 Presbytery of Dumbarton, Scotland. One of his sons 
 was George Dorrance, who was commissioned a first 
 lieutenant of the 24th Regiment of Connecticut Militia in 
 1775. He came to Wyoming Valley and was in the little 
 company that marched against the English and Indians 
 on the fatal 3rd of July, 1778, when the massacre took 
 place. He ranked, in that battle, Lieut. Col., and 
 commanded the left wing. He was wounded, captured, 
 and the next day slain. One of his children, a small boy 
 at that time, was Benjamin. He resided all his life on 
 the property on which his father had settled, situated one 
 and one half miles from Wilkes-Barre, at Kingston. 
 There my father was born on the 28th of February, 1800. 
 His father was a man of prominence in the community, 
 being the first President of the Wyoming Bank, and was 
 
 ♦Mather says that 4000 Presbyterians settled New England before 1640. 
 See Hodge's History of the Presbyterian church, p. 60. 
 
68 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 sent to the Legislature for eight consecutive years. My 
 father was prepared for college at the Wilkes-Barre 
 Academy, and at Chester, Connecticut. He graduated 
 at Princeton college, 1823, and the Theological Seminary 
 in 1826." 
 
 With regard to the mother of Mr. Dorrance, Mrs. 
 Reynolds is certainly right in saying that "reference to 
 her may not be uninteresting." "His mother was Nancy 
 Buckingham, who was the sixth generation from Thomas 
 Buckingham, the Puritan settler who came to America in 
 1637, with Davenport, Ponden, Eaton, Hopkins and 
 others, who constituted what is known as the New Haven 
 Colony, they being the founders of that town. Thomas, 
 his son, was a Congregational minister, and one of the 
 founders and fellows of Yale College. So my father was 
 of ministerial descent on both sides." 
 
 In going south as a missionary, Dr. Dorrance, 
 although in delicate health, left home on horseback, 
 making the entire distance in that way from Wyoming 
 Valley to Baton Rouge, Miss. While engaged in 
 planting a southern church, the Lord gave him, what to 
 a devoted minister is always the best earthly helper, a 
 good wife, in the person of Miss Penelope Mercer, then 
 residing on a neighboring plantation with a widowed 
 sister. This beloved wife long cheered his home, where 
 she always presided with grace and dignity ; nor was she 
 ever wanting in wise and helpful counsel in her husband's 
 official work. She, however, felt that her most important 
 work was to exercise Christian care over her household, 
 especially guarding and polishing her "Cornelian jewels," 
 eight of which had been bestowed on this loving house- 
 hold, all of them giving promise of ever increasing value; 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 69 
 
 but the Lord who gave, recalled six of the bright ones. 
 Still his name was blessed by the parents, who recognized 
 that he thereby indicated a change of duty from doing to 
 enduring ; and this in their sadness they sought grace to 
 accept. 
 
 The church of Wilkes-Barre, from which Dr. 
 Dorrance accepted a call, and over which he was 
 installed in August, 1833, had, until a short time 
 previous to this date, embraced the whole of the Wyoming 
 Valley, Lackawanna also, and indeed all of Luzerne 
 county north and east of Wilkes-Barre and Kingston, or 
 the locality occupied by these places. It was the 
 religious Jerusalem of all the above described region. 
 Thither the tribes went up to worship. 
 
 The first Connecticut colony, in 1762, had for its 
 minister the Rev. William Marsh, but of his personal 
 sentiments and services we only know from his connection 
 with the colony and from what we would naturally 
 conjecture from his official position. This entire colony 
 was soon scattered and many of its members murdered by 
 the Indians, among them this minister. 
 
 The colony which came in 1769 met unexpected 
 opposition from the white men, and was destined to pass 
 through a baptism of blood ; to be involved in strife as 
 to the proprietary right to the soil, and in revolutionary 
 struggles ; to witness the massacre of its choicest members 
 and defenders ; to be scattered far and wide ; and yet to 
 be regathered, and in destitution and amidst contentions 
 to begin anew preparations for life on the denuded soil 
 of their former homes ; and still in their toils to grow 
 stronger and stronger. The '69 colony had originally 
 for their minister the Rev. George Beckwith. He 
 
70 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 remained but one year. Sometime after, the Rev. Jacob 
 Johnson, a man of learning and piety, came to Wyoming 
 Valley to minister to the colonists. He was a graduate 
 of Yale College. He had spent some years of his earlier 
 ministry as a missionary among the Mohawk Indians. So 
 he was not a very young man, but one whose reputation 
 was established, and he never ceased to be respected. Of 
 the movements early made by this colony for its spiritual 
 and intellectual wants. Dr. Dorrance says, in his anniver- 
 sary sermon for 1853, "In laying out the land in 
 the several townships, a tract sufficiently large was 
 reserved for school purposes, and another for the 
 support of a pastor. If the school fund had been 
 properly managed, we should now be free from present 
 taxation. The provision for a settled minister would 
 have been sufficient also, but might have led to con- 
 tentions as other denominations arose." 
 
 "As early as 1772, only two years after the first 
 arrival of our fathers upon the banks of the Susquehanna, 
 when, as yet, few of the pioneers had ventured to expose 
 their families to the hardships and dangers of frontier 
 life, they sought to obtain the settlement, as their pastor, 
 of the Rev. Jacob Johnson." 
 
 "On the nth of September, 1772, the proprietors 
 in Town meeting voted to give to him, and his heirs 
 forever, in case he settled with us, fifty acres of any land 
 now undivided, in this Township, wherever he may 
 choose." Mr. Anderson Dana and Asa Stephens were 
 appointed to confer with Mr. Johnson and with a 
 committee of other towns agreeable to the vote of the 
 company of the settlers of the five towns. "In March, 
 1773, it was voted to purchase a lot in the town plot for 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 7 1 
 
 Mr, Johnson, provided he did settle with us." And 
 subsequently, the island below town (i. e. Wilkes-Barre) 
 then of considerable size and value for culture and as a 
 fishery, was added. 
 
 "August 23rd, 1773, when the formal call was made, 
 the salary was fixed at sixty pounds sterling (§300), with 
 the promise of raising it, as they were able, to 100 
 pounds. This, with a house built by the town, a lot and 
 fifty acres of land, was a most liberal provision, more so 
 when the times are considered than has since been made 
 for any subsequent pastor. This, while it exhibits the 
 solicitude of our ancestors for gospel privileges, also 
 brings to view another trait of their character, viz., 
 freedom from intolerance. The salary was ordered to be 
 assessed on the tax list. This was the invariable 
 precedent in Connecticut. They knew no other. But 
 when a few who were not Congregationalists, perhaps 
 Baptists, remonstrated against the measure, they at once 
 rescinded their resolution, and raised the sum promised 
 by subscription. This, at the time, was unprecedented. 
 It was greatly in advance of the mother State in which 
 the standing order was continued to a period within my 
 recollection. Having the power and the law, they 
 voluntarily waived their advantage, and took the ad- 
 ditional expense and trouble upon themselves. This was 
 Christianity."* 
 
 It is possible there were covenant relations entered 
 into and maintained during the six years previous to the 
 massacre in 1778, or in other words, a congregational 
 church organized, but there are no records to that effect. 
 It is known, however, that Mr. Johnson preached the 
 
 *Sermon of Dr. Dorrance. 
 
72 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 gospel to the people, visited the sick, baptized the 
 children, which implies that there were professing 
 Christians among them, and it is known that there was 
 at least one deacon. The minister was found using his 
 influence to secure the most favorable terms for his 
 people when the defenders of the fort were obliged to 
 capitulate. But the promises solemnly made were 
 disregarded by the Indians, who should have been 
 restrained by their English officers. Among the mas- 
 sacred was the grandfather of Dr. John Dorrance, Lieut. 
 Col. George Dorrance. The dangers which surrounded 
 the colony were such that all were driven to the wilder- 
 ness, among them the Rev. Jacob Johnson. Their 
 recent homes were destroyed, and their cultivated fields 
 became a wilderness. 
 
 Some of the refugees, like their fathers, found refuge 
 among pious Hollanders on the Delaware river ; others 
 were succored by a noble hearted Scotchman, residing at 
 Stroudsburg, When a remnant in their weakness returned 
 to claim their rights and maintain their struggles, restore 
 their homes and the life of their colony, the pastor was 
 among the number. The house of worship which had 
 been almost completed for public use had, like their own 
 dwellings, been ruthlessly laid waste. It was a long, long 
 time before the beleaguered inhabitants attempted to 
 supply its place. For, when the danger of the revolu- 
 tionary war and Indian aggressions passed away, the 
 question between the claimants of proprietary right to the 
 soil was again opened and proved a serious bar to 
 prosperity and Christian advancement. 
 
 Mr. Johnson ceased from his ministerial work in 
 1795. He had been, during his whole ministry, devoted 
 
PRESBVTERV OF LUZERNE. 73' 
 
 to his work and his people. The fact that many years of 
 his life had been spent in missionary labors among the 
 Indians, indicates his vital interest in the gospel and the 
 highest good of mankind. Before he was laid aside, he 
 had taken active measures to secure in Wilkes-Barre a 
 house of worship. As early as 1791, in the town 
 meeting, a committee was appointed, consisting of 
 Zebulon Butler, John Paul Schott, Timothy Pickering, 
 Daniel Gore, and Nathan Waller, to select a site. They 
 determined to locate it on the Public Square. The 
 building, however, was not erected during Mr. Johnson's 
 lifetime, and, indeed, not till a good while after his 
 death. At last a part of the means for its completion 
 was raised by lottery. These facts would suggest that the 
 general apathy, if not opposition to vital religion, which 
 prevailed throughout the country immediately after the 
 revolutionary war, induced, perhaps, by French infidelity, 
 may have reached the Wyoming Valley. But it is due to 
 those engaged in providing a suitable sanctuary for their 
 community, to note the fact that the committee, which 
 had at a town meeting been duly appointed and the 
 action attested by the clerk, Arnold Colt, provided for a 
 house of fair proportions, forty by sixty feet. From time 
 to time the matter was considered, subscriptions secured, 
 and finally, but not till 1800, "it was voted that the 
 moneys arising from the sale of the Ferry House and the 
 use of the Ferry be appropriated toward building the 
 meeting house." This church building was, of course, 
 designed for the existing church which was Congre- 
 gational, but it was spoken of then and subsequently as 
 Presbyterian. Similar usage prevailed in Connecticut. 
 The original subscriptions to this building and the names 
 
74 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 of subscribers are still extant, and show but one name of 
 a member of any other than the prevailing denomination, 
 that of Mr. Samuel Rose. 'Hence, while this house of 
 worship was not denied in after years to other denomi- 
 nations, it was not built as a union church, as has 
 sometimes been claimed. 
 
 Even before the mortal remains of the Rev. Mr. 
 Johnson rested in the tomb, which, in the early part of 
 1797, he had caused to be prepared for himself on an 
 eminence overlooking the town, from the upper end of 
 what is now Franklin street, there seems to have been 
 interruption in the regularity of religious services. And, 
 after the death of Mr. Johnson, which was on March 
 15th, 1797,* the same irregularity seems to have 
 continued for some years. 
 
 Just when the building of the church was so far 
 completed as to be used by the congregation, does not 
 seem to be a matter of record. Dr. Dorrance, who was 
 born 1800, the year in which the construction was begun 
 in earnest, tells us that he remembers it as an unplastered 
 edifice. This building was subsequently furnished with a 
 large bell, which from 1812 to 1845 regularly "tolled the 
 curfew or knell of parting day," reminding the people of 
 the "land of steady habits." 
 
 The Rev. Jabez Chadwick, a missionary of the 
 Connecticut Society, ministered to the people of the 
 Wyoming Valley for some time, but how long does not 
 appear. The first extant record of the congregation, 
 however, seems to have been made during his term of 
 service, and is described as the first covenant signed by 
 the members of the congregation. It bears the date of 
 
 *According to his prediction, it is said, as to the time of its occurrence. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 75 
 
 July 30th and 31st, 1808. Before this time, it is 
 reasonable to believe, that the congregation, or at least 
 the spiritual part of it, regarded themselves as adhering 
 to the statements of the Saybrook Platform, and among 
 Congregationalists generally the terms of subscription are 
 uniformly the same for ministers and private members of 
 the church. Connecticut Congregationalists were not 
 unqualified Independents. 
 
 The following is the list of subscribers to the first 
 Covenant adopted by the church at Wilkes-Barre and 
 Kingston, viz., Luke Swetland, Wm. Dickson, Hugh 
 Connor, Nehemiah Ide, Daniel Hoyt, Stephen Hollister, 
 John Gore, William Colwell, Darius Preston, Hannah 
 Breese, Wealthy Smith", Elizabeth Sill, Martha Blackman, 
 Polly Mulford, Susanna Fish, Naomi Scott, Mary Ide, 
 Hannah Chapman, Eliezer Ross, Niece Hollister, Ruth 
 Keeler, Jane Colwell, Sarah HoUenback, Hannah 
 Bradley, Susanna Dana, Joanna Fish, Eunice Sprague. 
 
 "This covenant was signed in the presence of Jabez 
 Chadwick and James Woodward, missionaries," 1803, 
 July 30th, at church meeting. Hugh Connor, Nehemiah 
 Ide and Daniel Hoyt, were chosen Deacons. 
 
 "Elisha Blackman, Anna Ross, Margaret Connor, 
 Elizabeth Jackson (wife of William Jackson) were 
 accepted to be propounded to the church to-morrow. 
 On the 31st tirese were admitted, together with Conrad 
 Lines. The same day I baptized Lenora, child of Jabez 
 Fish, Caroline Anne, Eliza Irene, and William Sterling, 
 children of William Ross Sterling, and Phoebe Dalton on 
 account of Sarah HoUenback, wife of Matthias HoUen- 
 back."* So attested the Rev. Jabez Chadwick. 
 
 *Dr. Dorrance's Sermon, 1853. 
 
76 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 The Rev. James W. Woodward, a missionary of the 
 Connecticut Society, was present and participated in the 
 organization, or re-organization, referred to above, but 
 whether simply present for the occasion, or that he spent 
 some time in missionary work in the valley, does not 
 appear. But of the Rev. Mr. Porter, also from New 
 England, there is more satisfactory tradition, and of his 
 valuable labors in preaching the gospel in Wilkes-Barre 
 and vicinity successfully, withstanding the existence of 
 hurtful error and errorists. But the exact time of his 
 labors does not seem to have been so definitely handed 
 down. We now, however, with the advent of the Rev. 
 Ard Hoyt to Wilkes-Barre and Kingston, 1806, take up 
 and follow the official and authenticated record of the 
 mother church in Wyoming Valley. 
 
 The brief record given above, as attested by the 
 Rev. Messrs. Chadwick and Woodward, and handed to 
 the Rev. Mr. Hoyt, at his ordination, is the introduction 
 to the written history of the churches whose origin, 
 association and progress we are considering. 
 
 The Rev. Ard Hoyt had, in early life, after 
 acquiring his elementary education in his native Con- 
 necticut, also acquired a practical knowledge of mechan- 
 ical pursuits. Afterwards, however, he was led to devote 
 himself to preparing, in an orderly way, to preach the 
 gospel. His purpose to enter the ministry was prompted 
 by his just appreciation of spiritual and eternal things. 
 This preparation completed and approved, he, in August, 
 1806, was ordained and installed pastor of the Wilkes- 
 Barre and Kingston church, probably by a council 
 consisting of the Connecticut missionaries who had 
 previously organized the church, and others. The 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. "]"] 
 
 Wilkes-Barre church was not connected with the Susque- 
 hanna Association, and the Luzerne Association had not 
 been formed ; but when it did come into existence in 
 1810, the Wilkes-Barre and Kingston church and its 
 minister were members of the same. 
 
 Dr. Dorrance, who, as a child, knew Mr. Hoyt, the 
 church and community, and had abundant opportunity, 
 as a man and minister, to understand the character and 
 value of his work, says of him in his first historical 
 sermon: "Few men have exhibited a life so uniformly 
 consistent with their profession. He literally set his face 
 like a flint against sin. With him there were no 
 compromises of duty. He was a fearless preacher of the 
 doctrines of grace. It was supposed by some that he 
 rather erred in presenting too strongly to the uninstructed 
 those deep mysteries, hard to be understood, which the 
 unlearned wrest to their own destruction ; giving too 
 strong meat to babes." 
 
 "Mr. Hoyt labored incessantly, extending his efforts 
 as a missionary through various parts of the country. 
 The effect of his labor was evident in the edification of 
 the church. Its members were thoroughly instructed in 
 every good word and work. There were few spurious 
 conversions under his ministry." While, from the 
 character of his work, it was not duly appreciated by 
 those who were not spiritual, the members of his church 
 stood nobly by their pastor. Although the church grew 
 and was edified, his support was inadequate, and, in 
 181 7, he accepted an appointment to do missionary work 
 among the Indians, then in Tennessee, where he was 
 faithful and successful in laying a good foundationr fo 
 Christian work among the Cherokees. During his 
 
78 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 pastorate at Wilkes-Barre, 85 additions were made to the 
 church; there were 34 members in 1806. Two of Mr. • 
 Hoyt's sons became ministers in the South. From 181 7 
 to 182 1 there was no regular pastor over the Wilkes-Barre 
 and Kingston church. 
 
 During the vacancy the field seems to have been 
 visited by the Rev. Eliezer Barrows, and the Rev. 
 Hutchins Taylor, whether as temporary supplies, or as 
 evangelists, does not appear. The former of these 
 ministers was for a time a student in Princeton Theo- 
 logical Seminary, and at the time of his visit a teacher or 
 Professor in Hamilton College, N. Y. The labors of 
 these ministers (in 1818) were greatly blessed, resulting 
 in many conversions, especially in the Kingston part of 
 the church. 
 
 In consequence of the revived interest west of the 
 river, where the greater strength of the church had 
 already existed as to numbers, the Luzerne Association 
 sanctioned a separate organization, to consist of members 
 residing in Kingston or west of the river, and those who 
 had recently confessed Christ. Therefore from this time, 
 1818 or early in 1819, Kingston congregation is known 
 as the Kingston Presbyterian church. As the first 
 offshoo.t from Wilkes-Barre, we must deal with its history 
 hereafter as a local organization, although for some time 
 after this both churches were served by the same 
 ministers. And we continue the History of Wilkes-Barre 
 church after its giving up more than a score of brethren 
 beloved, who go with the blessing of the mother, to 
 increase their strength and usefulness in the exercise 
 of their individual powers and self-dependence. 
 
 It has been doubtless found that they helped the 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 79 
 
 mother more by going out than they would have done by 
 staying in the old nest, which it had been necessary from 
 time to time to enlarge. 
 
 During the vacancy in the pastorate after Mr. 
 Hoyt's departure, unsuccessful efforts were made for the 
 settlement of each of the two ministers whose joint labors 
 had been so productive of good, viz., Messrs. Barrows 
 and Taylor. The former was the more popular preacher, 
 and, withal, a man of superior ability; the latter a 
 minister generally beloved because of his devotion to his 
 work and Christlike spirit. Services with more or less 
 regularity were maintained till the coming of the Rev. 
 Cyrus Gildersleeve, whose pastorate began, June 15th, 
 1 82 1, both churches uniting in the call, and he being- 
 installed at both places. 
 
 The Rev. Cyrus Gildersleeve was born in Orange, 
 N. J., April 14th, 1768. His father, Ezra, came to 
 Orange from Long Island, where the family first settled 
 after coming to the country, as early as 1700, from 
 Holland. He was graduated from Rutgers College, 
 N. J., when twenty-one years old. He studied Theology 
 privately and was licensed to preach by the Presbytery 
 of New York. His first settlement was in the Midway 
 Congregational church, Liberty county, Georgia, where 
 he remained for nineteen years. On his return from 
 Georgia, he was called to the first church of Bloomfield, 
 where he was pastor for six years. From Bloomfield he 
 was called to Wilkes-Barre, where he was pastor for eight 
 years, and where his work was largely missionary. 
 
 His name and zeal come to view in the history 
 of quite a number of churches which he was not 
 permitted to see in his day possessed of organic life, but 
 
80 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 which came afterward from seed he had sown, or, at 
 least, frequently watered. These churches have emerged 
 into life and usefulness at points comparatively remote 
 from his home, and remote from each other. Nor does 
 the missionary zeal of Mr. Gildersleeve in caring for 
 regions beyond the immediate vicinity of his home 
 churches seem to have hindered their proper cultivation 
 and growth. His ability as a preacher, his intellectual 
 attainments and devotion to his work, were fruitful 
 both in Wilkes-Barre and Kingston. The second 
 year of his pastorate, Wilkes-Barre church enjoyed a 
 season of refreshing. Thirty were added to the church 
 on profession of their faith. There was also at the same 
 time a considerable accession to the Kingston church. 
 Mr. Gildersleeve ceased to have charge of Kingston from 
 1826, and that church was supplied by the Rev. Joseph 
 M. Ogden from Dec. 26 to June 28. He was born at 
 Elizabethtown, N. J., was a graduate of Princeton 
 College and Seminary, and ordained by the Presbytery 
 of Elizabethtown. He was, subsequently, long the 
 honored pastor of Chatham church, N. J., where he died 
 Feb. 18, 1884. His Alma Mater had honored him in 
 i860 with the degree of Doctor of Divinity. 
 
 During the last year of Mr. Gildersleeve' s pastorate 
 at Kingston, a revival of great power was enjoyed in the 
 Wilkes-Barre church. On this occasion he was greatly 
 assisted by Mr. James Wood, then a licentiate from 
 Princeton Theological Seminary, who subsequently 
 occupied high places in the church and wielded powerful 
 influence for good, as a minister and teacher. 
 
 While the revival of 1826 was more extended, and 
 the number of professed conversions greater than in 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 8 1 
 
 1822, the fruits do not appear to have been as lasting, 
 especially in the remoter communities affected, as in 
 Hanover and Newport. 
 
 During the pastorate of Mr. Gildersleeve, the con- 
 gregation at Wilkes-Barre became much more interested 
 in missionary work and in sustaining by their contribu- 
 tions the organized operations which aimed to give the 
 Bible a wider circulation and extend Sabbath School 
 work among the destitute, through the agency of the 
 American Bible Society and the American Sabbath 
 School Union. Members of this church are found 
 planting Sabbath Schools at various points, distant from 
 home, but where the pastor preached from time to time. 
 Mr. Gildersleeve 's ministry lasted eight years, during 
 which time 129 were added to the church, 95 of the 
 number on confession of Christ. The church seems, 
 under his ministry, to have grown in all directions. 
 
 Soon after Mr. Gildersleeve came to Wilkes-Barre 
 and became a member of the Luzerne Association its 
 name was changed to that of Susquehanna Presbytery, 
 and it became a constituent part of the General Assembly 
 of the Presbyterian church, and came under the 
 immediate care of the Synod of New York and New 
 Jersey. 
 
 It was under Mr. Gildersleeve's ministry that Dr. 
 Joseph H, Jones, a graduate of Harvard, then residing 
 with his parents and teaching at Wilkes-Barre Academy," 
 resolved to enter upon a course of study for the ministry, 
 which he prosecuted for a time under the direction of 
 Mr. Gildersleeve, and was licensed by the Susquehanna 
 Presbytery, before entering Princeton Seminary. 
 
 After relinquishing his pastoral charge, Mr. Gilder- 
 
82 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 sleeve spent some time as a missionary in Hanover and 
 Plymouth, and then returned to New Jersey, where he 
 died soon after, leaving his work to follow him. 
 
 In the spring of 1829, there came to Wyoming 
 Valley as a missionary a young man who had completed 
 the course of study in Princeton Theological Seminary, 
 He was sent by the Presbyterian Board of Domestic 
 Missions. His destination had been chosen upon the 
 recommendation of the Rev. Dr. Wm. M. Engles, of 
 Philadelphia. The young man was a native of the Green 
 Isle, the son of Catholic parents. His father had died 
 while he was an infant, and he had come to America 
 when yet a boy ; but, possessed of energy, self-reliance 
 and native ability, he soon found employment as proof 
 reader, in the famous publishing house of The Harpers, 
 New York City. This employment, upon which he 
 entered, indicates that his early education had not been 
 neglected, and indeed, his family was one that was able 
 to appreciate the value of early culture, and to provide 
 for it. While thus employed with the Harpers, an 
 associate gave him a copy of the New Testament the 
 reading of which led him to question his traditional faith 
 and renounce Romanism. Then he was, for a time 
 skeptical. While he yet cherished iniidel sentiments, 
 some young men of his acquaintance, students of the 
 Rev. Dr. John M. Mason, induced him to hear Dr. 
 Mason preach. The sermon made so deep an impression 
 on his mind that he returned to his lodgings to resume 
 the reading of his Testament, for instruction to enable 
 him to lead a new life. By some means he was directed 
 to the Rev. Dr. Spring for further personal instruction, 
 which, in the course of time, resulted in a public 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 83 
 
 confession of his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as his 
 Saviour. 
 
 His exemplary Christian life attracted the attention 
 of friends, and led to offers on their part to provide him 
 the means of securing an education for the gospel 
 ministry. This proposal, after due and prayerful 
 consideration, was accepted, and Nicholas Murray 
 entered upon a course of study for the ministry, which 
 was prosecuted at Amherst Academy, Williams College 
 and Princeton Theological Seminary. After preaching a 
 few months to the church made vacant by the resignation 
 of Mr. Gildersleeve, Mr. Murray was formally called to 
 the pastorate of the Wilkes-Barre church, and at the same 
 time to that of the Kingston church, which had also 
 become vacant. Accepting this call, he was ordained 
 and formally installed, Oct., 1829, over both congrega- 
 tions, which charge he retained till July, 1833, when he 
 accepted a flattering call to the First church of 
 Elizabethtown, N. J. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Murray, in his first pastorate, found 
 sufficient to enlist his vigorous energies and develop 
 his superior talents. The character, wants and pro- 
 spective importance of his field, "the inspiring beauty 
 of the scenery by which he was surrounded, together 
 with the significance of his work, in itself considered, 
 all conspired in their appeal for the best of effort on his 
 part. Nor do they seem to have called in vain. Dr. 
 Murray's brief pastorate in Wyoming Valley laid the 
 foundations of his subsequent career of usefulness and 
 influence in the church of his choice. 
 
 Under the ministry of Dr. Murray, many were 
 added to the church at Wilkes-Barre. Seasons of 
 
84 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 spiritual refreshing were enjoyed. The government of 
 the local church was, at his suggestion, modified and 
 made to conform to the Presbyterian constitution. 
 Messrs. Henry C. Anhauser, William C. Gildersleeve 
 (son of the late pastor), and Orestus Collins were elected 
 and installed ruling elders. A more commodious and 
 attractive house of worship was projected, and almost 
 completed, when the young pastor was called to other 
 duties more numerous and varied. 
 
 While the work of consolidation and enlargement 
 was going forward, during the four years of Dr. Murray's 
 ministry, in the centre of his field, the remoter parts 
 of the extended theatre of operations covered by pastors 
 Hoyt and Gildersleeve could not receive the attention 
 that these brethren had bestowed on them, and therefore 
 suffered some measure of decline ; but the Chief Shepherd 
 had in the meantime a man in training to follow the 
 successful pastor of Wilkes-Barre and Kingston, whose 
 birth, education, affiliations and spiritual endowments 
 fitted him not only to conserve the advantages already 
 gained, in the spiritual conquests made in the centers of 
 vigorous operations, but to extend the circumference and 
 maintain the conquest within and beyond the large area. 
 Of him we have already written, but we are called to 
 chronicle the fact that he is about to be called home, and 
 become a notable exception to the proverb : " a prophet 
 is not without honor, save in his own country and in his 
 own house." That man was John Dorrance who, with 
 Richard Webster, was soon to establish a new Presbytery, 
 and make it a model. 
 
 The ninth of August, 1833, witnessed the installation 
 of the Rev. John Dorrance as pastor of the church in 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 8$ 
 
 which he had been born 33 years before, and the 
 dedication of a new house of worship, upon the same 
 day. 
 
 The first generation of members of the church had 
 passed off the stage of action, with but two exceptions ; 
 one of these, Mrs. Eliza Dyer, still in the church, and 
 Mr. Elisha Blackman, who had adopted the theories of 
 Emanuel Swedenborg. 
 
 In the person of the new pastor, however, and in the 
 erection of a new and enlarged sanctuary, both the pro- 
 ductions of the original church organism, and in the fact 
 that those who now constituted the body corporate and 
 were found acting for its preservation and enlargement 
 were able to lay their hands on one of the sons of the 
 church, to place him on their watch-tower and make him 
 their overseer, evidence is afforded of the continued life, 
 growth and vigor of the Wilkes-Barre church. It was, 
 too, an expression of confidence in the new pastor and of 
 honor bestowed upon him which could never be excelled. 
 The sequel proves that all was wisely done and never 
 regretted. 
 
 The settlement of Dr. Dorrance at Wilkes-Barre 
 preceded the settlement of Mr. Webster at Mauch Chunk 
 by two years, within the bounds of the Presbytery of 
 Luzerne, as afterwards fixed. Occupying as they did the 
 radiating points of the Presbytery, they entered their 
 respective fields under widely different circumstances, for 
 which their individual character and attainments adapted 
 them respectively. They supplied what was needed in 
 both cases. 
 
 The work to which Mr. Webster came, in 1835, was 
 strictly initiative. None had been before him. No 
 
86 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 foundation had been laid upon which he could build. 
 His devotion to .the Master, his love of souls, his clear 
 conception of what the gospel means, with reference to 
 God and with reference to man, as well as with reference 
 to the security and prosperity of our country and her 
 institutions, made him a home missionary and a wise 
 foundation builder, such as the writer has never seen 
 excelled between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 
 
 Dr. Dorrance had come into another centre of light 
 and growth, in the prospective Presbytery, as a pastor, 
 two years before Mr. Webster (1833). He brought a good 
 measure of experience with him. He found that the 
 work to which he was called had already assumed fair 
 proportions and extended compass, within which some 
 material had been partially prepared, to go into the new 
 and additional foundations which must be laid under his 
 supervision, or by his personal labor. , With his con- 
 stitutional endowments for leadership ; his thorough 
 knowledge of the field, its wants and diiSculties and 
 materials for building ; with like just conceptions of the 
 importance of the work he was undertaking, and what 
 success meant with reference to God and humanity. Dr. 
 Dorrance entered his part of the field with some advan- 
 tages over Mr. Webster ; but wherein they presented 
 personal peculiarities, these were always found to increase 
 the aggregate force in their co-operation in any good 
 work. Neither of them was ever known to manifest 
 selfishness, or personal ambition. To what extent their 
 example, in this respect, gave character to the Presbytery 
 they projected, we cannot determine ; but certain it is, 
 that, as a Presbytery, Luzerne was remarkably free from 
 the above indicated objectionable exhibitions, which were 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 87 
 
 conspicuous in both Webster and Dorrance by their 
 absence. 
 
 When Dr. Dorrance assumed the pastoral charge of 
 the Wilkes-Barre congregation, there were 126 members 
 in that church. The organization of the Kingston 
 Church was the first off-shoot from that original body, 
 but no further division had been made up to this time, 
 unless Northmoreland church be regarded as an off-spring 
 of the Wilkes-Barre and Kingston churches, in 1821. 
 But the new pastor is found extending his attention to 
 points which recently had not been especially fostered, 
 with a view of preparing them for separate organizations ; 
 also visiting and preaching to other communities that had 
 before received no- attention, all along the Susquehanna 
 northward to Tunkhannock and down the same river to 
 Newport and Hanover, and up the valley of the 
 Lackawanna to points beyond that on which the young 
 and vigorous city of Scranton now stands. This work 
 involved many lonesome, toilsome rides. These, how- 
 ever, brought the zealous pastor to the scattered members 
 of his own church and secured to him the opportunity 
 and privilege of preaching the gospel in these sparsely 
 settled places to many who, without this toil on his part, 
 would never have heard the public proclamation of the 
 glad tidings of grace. Thus foundation work was done, 
 year after year, in these outposts. 
 
 The first organization within the limits of Dr. 
 Dorrance's extended field was perhaps that of Falls 
 Township, on the east side of the Susquehanna. The 
 name of the church was subsequently changed to that of 
 the Newton Presbyterian church. It was organized by a 
 committee of the Susquehanna Presbytery, consisting of 
 
88 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 the Rev. John Rhodes and Rev, Dr. Dorrance, October 
 29th, 1833. So far as can be learned none of the 
 members came from the Wilkes-Barre church. 
 
 Again on December 29th, 1833, another organiza- 
 tion was effected at Tunkhannock, which was the 
 outgrowth of aggressive Christian effort made by Merrit 
 Slocum, a young Presbyterian layman from Wilkes-Barre 
 church, who had removed to Tunkhannock in 1831, 
 where, by Sabbath school and other evangelistic work, 
 which was followed by visits from Dr. Dorrance and 
 missionary labors of the Rev. George Printz and Isaac 
 Todd, he was the means of preparing the way for 
 establishing a Presbyterian church, under the care of the 
 Presbytery of Susquehanna. The organization at Tunk- 
 hannock took twenty-five members from Wilkes-Barre. 
 After these new organizations were effected, considerable 
 time elapsed before any more of the outposts of the 
 Wilkes-Barre pastor became churches ; but Sabbath 
 schools were maintained, largely by the members of 
 the old church, at those outstations, and from time to 
 time planted at new points. These schools, or many of 
 them, were the forerunners of Presbyterian or other evan- 
 gelical churches, in whose history must be seen the labors 
 of the pious members and pastor of the Wilkes-Barre 
 church. These labors of love have been attended by 
 results, as we now see them, which, doubtless, are vaster 
 than the faith of the workers then painted them. 
 
 Dr. Dorrance believed in using special evangelistic 
 efforts in the home church and in the outposts. The 
 immediate cause of the organization at Falls and at 
 Tunkhannock was special and protracted meetings, led 
 by him, assisted by new ministers and licentiates. These 
 proved to be seasons of ingathering. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 89 
 
 In the Wilkes-Barre church, the year 1836 witnessed 
 for it a season of great refreshing. During the year 1839, 
 another followed, with .greater visible results. In the 
 services on this occasion the pastor was greatly aided in 
 his work by the preaching of the Rev. Daniel Baker, 
 whose labors were subsequently so richly blessed, espec- 
 ially in the South and Southwest, not only in "winning 
 souls " to Christ, but also in building up the institutions 
 of the church. His brother, John O. Baker, was for a 
 long time a member, an elder, and a pillar in the Wilkes- 
 Barre church, greatly beloved. Two of his sons went out 
 from this church as ministers of marked ability and 
 devotion. As the fruit of this revival, 50 confessed 
 Christ and united with the church. In 1843, a like 
 number enrolled themselves, as the avowed followers of 
 Christ. Other seasons of quickening of Christian zeal 
 were from time to time enjoyed during the twenty-seven 
 years of Dr. Dorrance's pastorate. He states to his 
 congregation, at the end of twenty years, that there had 
 been received into the church 340; 217 on profession, 
 and 123 by letter from other churches. At that time, 
 the entire debt on the church building, which was 
 dedicated on the day of his installation, had been paid, 
 a new and spacious brick house of worship, costing some 
 ^14,000, had been erected and paid for, with the 
 exception of a small sum, about equal to that which was 
 cancelled on the old building when the new enterprise 
 was projected, and which caused no uneasiness. At this 
 time the congregation was giving about ^250 annually to 
 missions, in addition to special causes and local opera- 
 tions, which it was supposed (by the pastor in 1853) 
 would amount to from g8,ooo to ^10,000, in the aggregate. 
 
90 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 Much thoughtful interest was taken on the part of 
 Dr. Dorrance, and his church, in the welfare, spiritual 
 and material, of missionary points, and organizations 
 throughout the Presbytery. His wise counsel to the 
 younger ministers and feeble congregations was of 
 inestimable value to them. It was always freely given ; 
 but never in a patronizing spirit. His comprehensive 
 grasp of the situation enabled him so to present his advice 
 that it was felt in all cases to be good and profitable. 
 Thus, in his quiet and unassuming way, he could easily 
 control men and movements. With regard to the latter, 
 especially when they were within the bounds of his own 
 Presbytery, he was not dependent on others for his 
 knowledge of their inception, progress, feasibility and 
 importance, or the obstacles in the way of their accom- 
 plishment. 
 
 While the interest of Dr. Dorrance in the movements 
 of the church of Christ was always primary, he was never 
 found ignorant of or indifferent toward any movement 
 pertaining to the good of humanity, intellectually, 
 morally, or socially. During the later years of his life he 
 was intensely interested in the questions which culminated 
 in the war of the rebellion. He had imbibed the 
 sentiments and spirit of his ancestors, whom he himself, 
 in speaking of the influence of the fathers of the nation, 
 characterizes as follows : * 
 
 " Trace them back through the Pilgrims to the days 
 of the Commonwealth and old Cromwell, or, through the 
 Scotch-Irish, to Knox ; and both to Geneva and the 
 Scriptural doctrine and discipline which Calvin taught, 
 there was inculcated the immediate responsibility of man 
 
 *At)niversary sermon preached in 1853. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 9 1 
 
 to God, His sovereignty and the barrenness of kingly or 
 priestly power. There they saw 'a church without a 
 Bishop and a State without a king. ' The principles, not 
 of Calvin, but of Calvin's Master, taught by that great 
 man, are essentially those which lie at the foundation of 
 all lasting good, of every real substantial reform. The 
 constitutional liberty of the British empire is owing to 
 the working of these principles, in England and Scotland. 
 These wrought out our American independence. Where 
 these are lacking, there is no solid and lasting freedom." 
 * * * * "Just so far as the principles of our fathers 
 have been preserved is our community in advance of 
 other portions of the land. ' ' 
 
 Before the erection of the Presbytery of Luzerne, 
 an additional church was organized for the valley 
 of the Lackawanna ; most of its members had been 
 enrolled as communicants of the Wilkes-Barre church 
 and its pastor had, with more or less regularity, min- 
 istered to them at various places in the valley ; especially 
 had Dr. Dorrance given attention to that part of his 
 extended field. These labors of the pastor were 
 supplemented by the ministrations of others whom he had 
 introduced into this and remoter parts of his field ; 
 among whom we find the names of Rev. Thomas Owen, 
 subsequently ordained by the Presbytery of Long Island. 
 John Turbitt, also a student of Princeton Seminary, 
 afterwards ordained by the Presbytery of Allegheny ; 
 Charles Alexander Evans, like Mr. Turbitt from Ireland 
 and a student of Belfast College and Princeton Seminary ; 
 he received ordination at the hands of the new 
 Presbytery, according to the action of the General 
 Assemby constituting said Presbytery, and became pastor 
 
92 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 of one of its churches ; also Rev. Owen Brown whose 
 subsequent ministry is not known to the writer. 
 
 In addition to these, who were mostly young men, 
 the Rev. Thomas P. Hunt did much valuable service, not 
 only in Lackawanna valley, but in almost every congre- 
 gation and mission field of the Presbytery, much of it at 
 his own charges. He became a member of the new 
 Presbytery, and we shall have much to say of him. 
 
 In the fall of 1842, the Susquehanna Presbytery 
 appointed a committee to visit the Lackawanna valley 
 with power to constitute a new church organization. Of 
 the committee appointed, the Rev. John Dorrance, Rev. 
 Thomas P. Hunt, and Rev. Owen Brown met Feb. 25, 
 1842, in the then village of Harrison, previously called 
 Slocum Hollow, and subsequently Scrantonia, and finally 
 Scranton, under which name the village has become a 
 city the fourth in order in the great state of Pennsylvania. 
 They found the way clear, and organized the Lackawanna 
 Presbyterian church, with territory embracing the entire 
 valley south of Carbondale congregation, which had been 
 organized as early as 1829 by the Presbytery of Susque- 
 hanna. Montrose Presbytery, in 1832, had been erected 
 from a part of Luzerne. 
 
 This provision for giving local organization and 
 church life to so large a part of the territory of the 
 Wilkes-Barre church relieved its pastor of much personal 
 labor. He, however, found abundant opportunity to 
 call forth all his energies and exhaust his time and 
 strength nearer home. Work had been done by the 
 Rev. Cyrus Gildersleeve at Coalville, and his son, Mr. 
 William C. Gildersleeve, and others had long maintained 
 a Sabbath School in that place. Mr. Dorrance fostered 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 93 
 
 Christian efforts there, maintaining regular preaching. 
 In 1844, a house of worship was completed. From that 
 time onward the coal trade continued to increase, and 
 with it the population of Coalville and vicinity. 
 
 The Wilkes-Barre Academy, from the beginning 
 closely allied with the Presbyterian church, whose pastor 
 was a member of the Board of Trustees continuously, was 
 an agency of no small importance in promoting the best 
 interests of the community. This institution always 
 shared largely in Dr. Dorrance's labors. The people of 
 the town were justly proud of it. In it many of its 
 leading citizens were educated, as well as others who had 
 gone out from it to occupy places of honor and 
 responsibility; such men as Hendrick B. Wright, B. A. 
 Bidlack, George W. Woodward, Luther Kidder and Ovid 
 F. Johnson and others, — men eminent in the legal 
 profession ; also Dr. S. D. Gross, late of Jefferson 
 Medical College, Philadelphia ; Samuel Bowman, Bishop 
 of Pennsylvania, in the Episcopal church ; Zebulon Butler 
 and John Dorrance, Bishops in the Presbyterian church ; 
 Prof. J. S. White and George Catlin, artist. 
 
 During the pastorate of Mr. Hoyt, there were two 
 students under his charge for the ministry ; one of them 
 named Nelson, died ; the other, a Mr. Chamberlain, 
 became a missionary to the Cherokee Indians. These 
 young men, however, had come from other congregations. 
 Under the pastorate of Mr. Gildersleeve, the candidates 
 for the ministry were, Joseph H. Jones, Zebulon Butler 
 and John Dorrance; and during Dr. Murray's pastorate, 
 John Waters, Edwin Rinehart, S. P. Helme and Prof. 
 John S. Hart ; when Dr. Dorrance was in charge of the 
 Wilkes-Barre church, John W. Sterling, H. H. Welles, 
 
94 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 Alexander Dilley, John Brown, Henry Rinker, John F. 
 Baker, Charles J. Collins, William E. Baker, B. C. 
 Dorrance, Evan Evans, and Theodore Byington, a 
 foreign Missionary. Nearly all the above list were 
 students in the old Academy, and several of them were 
 accorded the first honors in the College from which they 
 subsequently graduated. It is no doubt a matter of regret 
 to many, that the distinguished Academy has ceased to 
 send forth such men, or any men, for that matter. But 
 the class of men furnished by such institutions has given 
 our land the noble public school system, which, while it 
 has some dangers, is of inestimable value to the country. 
 The eye of the Christian patriot should be on it. 
 
 Our space does not allow us to speak of the teachers 
 of the old Academy, many of whom became distinguished 
 names, conspicuous in the list are Judge Joel, Rev. Dr. J. 
 H. Jones and the Rev. John W. Sterling, D. D. 
 
 The Wilkes-Barre Female Institute, projected by Dr. 
 Dorrance, nobly seconded by Judge Hollenback and the 
 church, was undertaken in 1854. A suitable building 
 and appliances, costing J 12,000 were secured in a 
 delightful part of the city. Designed for the wants of 
 young ladies outside of the immediate community as well 
 as Wilkes-Barre, it was made a Presbyterial Institute, and 
 the following was the first Board of Trustees, viz., George 
 M. Hollenback, Alexander Gray, Harrison Wright, Ario 
 Pardee, Samuel Wadhams, John Brown, John Urquhart, 
 Henry M. Fuller, Elisha B. Harvey, William R. Glenn, 
 John Faser, Andrew T. McClintock and Rev. John 
 Dorrance, ex officio. , 
 
 The Rev. Joseph E. Nassau was the first principal, 
 succeeded by the Rev. C. J. Collins, and his successor 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 95 
 
 was Rev. W. S. Parsons who continued in charge of 
 the institution till 1872. Good work was done in the 
 school, but its patronage was principally from the 
 immediate vicinity. 
 
 Dr. Dorrance was greatly interested in the enterprise, 
 but being called to his reward in 1861, his valuable 
 support was lost, nor does it appear that any one came 
 forward to iill his place. The great improvement in the 
 State schools, with the graded system in the towns, has 
 made it much more difficult to laiaintain individual or 
 church schools, unless they had already secured ample 
 endowments. 
 
 Dr. Dorrance was a friend of progress, but would 
 not relinquish that which he was assured was true and 
 excellent, because proved to be so, for that which had 
 failed to present a superior record. He has left the 
 following testimony with regard to the mothers of the 
 past generation, uttered 1858: "From all our observation 
 has noticed, the mothers of the present generation are 
 not likely to be eclipsed, in any of the substantial 
 elements of female character aiid true womanly accom- 
 plishments, by any thing which modern systems have 
 bestowed on their daughters." 
 
 The succession in the eldership in the Wilkes-Barre 
 church does not antedate the pastorate of Dr. Dorrance. 
 Under the ministry of Dr. Murray, the regular Presby- 
 terian induction of that class of officials was inaugurated, 
 and according to the law of the church at that time, they 
 were made elders for life or good behavior. The three 
 good men elected at the first were still in office and long 
 continued to do good service, but, in the course of time, 
 death terminated the career of some, and the removal or 
 
96 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 resignation of others, made it necessary to fill their 
 places. The growth of the church, too, made it desirable 
 to increase the original number of elders from time to 
 time. 
 
 Of the original elders, and of those who subsequently 
 filled that office, and were thus intimately associated with 
 the pastor in the session but had been removed by death 
 or had removed from the bounds of the congregation, 
 Dr. Dorrance says, some three years before his own 
 departure : "The elders of the church, when my ministry 
 commenced here, were O. Collins, W. C. Gildersleeve, 
 H. C. Anhauser, of whom but one, the last named, has 
 been taken to his reward. His integrity of character, 
 simple-hearted piety, his gentle and reverend demeanor 
 and accent, which told of 'Fader Land,' are still fresh in 
 the mind of many among us. The other two still remain 
 we hope for continued and greater usefulness. But while 
 thus sparing of the original members of the session, 
 Death has been active among those subsequently added. 
 Asher Miner, distinguished for his suavity and propriety; 
 Beryn C. Philips, the young, ardent and yet consistent 
 brother, and John O. Baker, the godly man, the firm 
 and intelligent rock in the house of God, meet with us 
 no more on earth. Fell and Grier have united with 
 other congregations." The former of these brethren, 
 the writer knew intimately and favorably for many years 
 after his removal from Wilkes-Barre, and the latter, Mr. 
 John C. Grier, he met in a distant western city, and 
 found him doing excellent Christian service where it was 
 needed and where he was honored for his work and 
 Christian spirit. Calvin Parsons, Nathaniel Rutter, A. 
 T. McClincock, were also members of the session during 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 97 
 
 the ministry of Dr. Dorrance and the existence of the 
 Presbytery of Luzerne; also or subsequently J. W. 
 Hollenback, Douglsiss Smith, Dickson Lewers, and 
 George Loveland. Surely the Wilkes-Barre church has 
 been highly favored in having such men in charge of its 
 spiritual interests, through its entire history. 
 
 The religious instruction of the young, from the 
 early settlement of Wilkes-Barre, was regarded as a 
 matter that should be carefully looked after, not only by 
 parents, but by the church as well. Arrangements were 
 made for the officers of the church to meet the young 
 frequently, on week days, the first Tuesday of each month, 
 in agreement with a recommendation of "the Assembly," 
 for examinations in the Catechism and personal 
 Christian duties. When Sabbath Schools, in the early 
 part of the century, began to attract the attention of 
 Christian people, the first elders of the Wilkes-Barre 
 church were among the most forward in attention to the 
 matter ; especially Messrs. Collins and Gildersleeve. 
 
 The original schools were generally started on the 
 union principle, and most frequently, within the territory 
 covered by the Luzerne Presbytery, their inception and 
 early management came from the Calvinistic element of 
 society, and that class of friends to Sabbath Schools seem 
 to have stood by the union principle until they found 
 themselves alone in the management of the local 
 institution, and then, but not till then as a general thing, 
 the school was moved into the denominational church. 
 The same animus may be recognized in the proportion 
 of aid received from the same class by such union 
 institutions as the American Tract Society, the American 
 Bible Society, and the American Sabbath School Union. 
 
98 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 Such a course has been and is regarded by most as 
 indicative of a true catholic spirit, and by some as 
 proving that Charles II. of England was right in calling 
 Presbyterians "The Lord's silly people." 
 
 When the Sunday School of the Wilkes-Barre church 
 became a denominational school, we find the same.men 
 and women in its management. The elders were 
 generally the superintendents. Judge Collins and Mr. 
 Gildersleeve rendered a life-long service in the cause in 
 the parent church and in its various missions. Mr. J. 
 M. Burtis succeeded Mr. Gildersleeve in the home 
 school ; then John O. Baker, Dickinson, J. C. Grier, 
 Wurtz, Nathaniel Rutter, A. T. McClintock, W. S. 
 Parsons. These names indicate, to such as know the 
 persons who bear them, the fact that the Sabbath School 
 cause in the Wilkes-Barre church was never, during the 
 period covered by the history of the Luzerne Presbytery, 
 entrusted to doubtful leaders. These leaders, too, were 
 sustained by a noble band of teachers, among them the 
 names of Mary Gardner (afterwards Mrs. W. C. Gilder- 
 sleeve) and Susan Mitchell made a noble record of 
 Sabbath School work, not only in the home church but 
 also in various parts of the country. 
 
 The power of Dr. Dorrance never waned in his 
 church, or in his Presbytery,* but he evidently sustained 
 many trials, and some heavy losses or disappointments, 
 towards the close of his ministry. The loss of children 
 and that of their mother followed each other in rapid 
 succession ; but these trials were borne by him as few 
 men could have borne them. The development of the 
 coal and other industries brought into the quiet and 
 
 *The largest accession to his church in any one year was 75 in 1858. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 99 
 
 peaceful valley a great increase of population, of diverse 
 character which, with the increase of wealth and fashion, 
 tended to magnify material prosperity and sensual 
 pleasures, and to deaden piety where it was already 
 feeble. These causes greatly increased the difficulty of 
 reaching those who were ignorant of the gospel and of 
 the glorious privilege of the children of God, and such a 
 condition of things must have been very depressing to 
 the faithful pastor. The deaths of so many of his 
 children, terminating careers which gave peculiar promise 
 of honor, usefulness and earthly happiness, were especially 
 afflictive. The first called away was the first born, a 
 lovely daughter, who had married Lieut. J. C. Beaumont, 
 of the U. S. Navy. Then the eldest son, Benjamin C. 
 Dorrance, who, after having graduated with honor in 
 Princeton College, studied theology at Danville Seminary 
 (hoping for benefit from the genial climate of Kentucky) 
 and, having been regularly licensed by his home Presby- 
 tery, Luzerne, entered the work of the ministry in 
 Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
 The Westminster Presbyterian Church of that city 
 had been organized August 23, 1857, principally through 
 the agency of the Rev. J. G. Rihildaffer, D. D., pastor in 
 St. Paul, who was able to give the new organization but 
 one day's service during the subsequent six months, when 
 Benjamin Dorrance, under a commission from the Board 
 of Domestic Missions, took charge of the new enterprise, 
 Dec. 6, 1857. Of him while yet in the academy, one of 
 his teachers writes in connection with a statement con- 
 cerning Dr. Dorrance : ' 'Benjamin was my pupil, diligent 
 and blameless. I should judge that physically and 
 mentally he was cast in much the same sort of a mould as 
 
lOO PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 his father." Of Mr. Dorrance's brief ministry in Min- 
 neapolis, the history of Hennepin County says, "Mr. 
 Dorrance was a pleasant and forcible preacher. By his 
 public ministrations, as well as by his affectionate, cheer- 
 ful and exemplary Christian deportment, he endeared 
 himself to all. It was a sad day to the little church when 
 their beloved minister, with the shadow of death on his 
 face, bade them farewell, never to return." This public 
 loss not only to the infant church in Minneapolis, but to 
 the church at large, must have been vastly keener to the 
 parents of the young minister. But, alas, these were not 
 all the trials to which the honored pastor of the Wilkes- 
 Barre Church was subjected. Three other promising 
 sons, "the light of his eyes," faded from view, in the 
 course of a few years. It is not wonderful therefore that 
 in the midst of such trials, past and prospective, the tone 
 of the anniversary or quarter century sermon of 1858 
 bears a tinge of sadness and deprecates increasing vanity 
 and worldliness in others. Still he did not lose his 
 cheerfulness, nor relax his labors. Evidently Dr. Dor- 
 rance's heart was not set upon worldly acquisitions, for 
 with abounding opportunities and facilities to avail him- 
 self of them, he avoided pecuniary speculations. He 
 regarded such ventures as likely to imperil his usefulness 
 in the great work to which he had devoted his life. It is 
 true, he was not stimulated by the pressure of want to 
 increase his worldly gains. Through his whole ministry 
 he had been enabled to make the burden of his support 
 light upon the local or general church by sharing it about 
 equally with his congregation, and doing so cheerfully. 
 In this he possessed an advantage over his brethren 
 generally, and yet his administration seems to have been 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. lOI 
 
 SO wise that those who came after him did not suffer, as 
 is sometimes the case, from his relations and generosity 
 to the church he served. The co-operation of this church 
 with the Boards of the general church was, through the 
 intelligent and faithful instruction of the pastor, constant 
 and cordial ; moreover its giving increased with the 
 increase of its members and their increase of wealth. 
 
 Dr. Dorrance was a true Presbyterian, but far remov- 
 ed from bigotry. He maintained the most fraternal 
 relations with his brethren of other denominations. He 
 has especially left us his testimony with regard to the 
 honorable, fraternal and considerate Christian spirit of the 
 Rev. Dr. May, the Episcopal rector in AVilkes-Barre, 
 with whom, perhaps, intimate and brotherly relationship 
 was longer maintained than with his other fellow workers 
 in the pastoral office. 
 
 As a pastor in the local church, he was faithful, con- 
 siderate and beloved of all his parishioners. The late 
 Judge Collins, a member of the Wilkes-Barre session 
 during his ministry, in an obituary published soon after 
 his death, after stating facts that have already come before 
 the reader says of him : "Those that knew the extent of 
 his persistent labors can best appreciate their worth. As 
 a pastor, few men have succeeded better in acquiring 
 friends, and retaining them. In talents. Dr. Dorrance 
 stood much above mediocrity. His sermons were logical 
 and practical ; always true to our standards and frequently 
 of a high order. In pastoral duties he was judicious, and 
 discreet. Prudence with him was a cardinal virtue. His 
 piety was calm and uniform. In his intercourse with the 
 session, he was always cordial and respectful, and during 
 his whole ministry there was no single instance of a want 
 
102 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 of harmony ill the action of the session. In Presbytery, 
 his counsel was sought and respected. In domestic 
 relations, he was happy, but sorely afflicted by sickness in 
 his family. The loss of a devoted wife, after a long and 
 pining sickness, and of four pious children just as they 
 were ripening for usefulness in the church, were sad and 
 painful bereavements. In his last sickness, he gave a 
 patient illustration of the sustaining power of the religion 
 which he had professed and preached. In his sickness, 
 surrounded by his friends, in the last extremity, calm and 
 collected, he declared that he could trust wholly in the 
 Saviour in whom he had believed, and that he felt in his 
 own soul the sustaining power and consolation of that 
 religion which he had preached to his people. He 
 retained an unclouded intellect, and fully understood his 
 condition until he was called by the Master to rest from 
 his labors and sleep in Jesus. ' ' 
 
 The following is the estimate of one who was provi- 
 dentially brought into intimate relationship with Dr. 
 Dorrance in the midst of his pastoral career, viz., the 
 Rev. S. M. Osmond, D. D., who writes — "In the spring 
 of 1850 I took charge of the Wilkes-Barre Academy. 
 My recollections of many things in connection with my 
 brief sojourn in the beautiful valley of Wyoming are, of 
 course, somewhat faded with the lapse of 45 years, but 
 the memory of Dr. Dorrance and his interesting, genial 
 family and of their kindness to the youthful teacher and 
 stranger, abides with me very vividly still. 
 
 "The Doctor was then in the prime of his vigorous 
 life and eminent usefulness. I saw at a glance that he 
 was no ordinary man. Closer acquaintance only deepen- 
 ed the impression of his solid and practical qualities, as a 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. IO3 
 
 man, and minister. He had a somewhat quiet, self- 
 absorbed air. He was an inveterate reader of pretty 
 much all sorts of books, not excepting the best novels of 
 the day, so keeping his mind freshened, quickened, and 
 enriched by contact with current literature. He evidently 
 had a strong hold on the esteem and affection of his 
 people, and I think of the community generally. His 
 preaching was uniformly good, not brilliant, I should say, 
 but earnest, instructive, altogether evangelical and far 
 from commonplace ; well adapted to his congregation, 
 in which all classes of people, and grades of intellect and 
 culture were represented. 
 
 "He was public spirited and deeply interested in the 
 politics of the day ; and especially identified with all 
 proper movements for the progress of Wilkes-Barre. As 
 President of the Board of Trustees, he gave close atten- 
 tion to the interests of the Academy, which was an 
 institution of the town and not under any ecclesiastical 
 control. He must have been in many respects an ideal 
 pastor, and to his influence and efforts during his long 
 and successful pastorate, the subsequent high character, 
 strength and fruitfulness of the church to which he gave 
 his life and labors, are doubtless to be attributed." 
 
 The Hon. Steuben Jenkins* who has the reputation of 
 being better acquainted with the history of Wyoming 
 Valley than any living man and whose ancestors were 
 identified with the settlement from tht first explorations 
 of the valley with a view to its settlement, in a public 
 address, at Forty Fort in 1888, said of Dr. Dorrance : 
 "He was a man of much more than ordinary talents and 
 character, all of which he devoted unstintedly to the 
 
 * Now Deceased. 
 
I04 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 service of the Master, and the upbuilding of His Kingdom 
 on earth. His manner was mild and attractive, inspiring 
 confidence in every word and work. In the councils of 
 the church, his moderation prevailed over the most 
 violent and vehement appeals of his brethren. • In times 
 of excitement, when words and feelings ran high, his cool 
 manner and good common sense suggestions were always 
 accepted as safer and more to be relied upon than extreme 
 measures. He had the unlimited confidence of all his 
 associates, and his word was law among them. They 
 always found his counsel to lead in the prudent and safe 
 path. He became a tower of strength in his church 
 throughout all the lines of its organization. He was 
 grave without austerity ; firm without obstinacy ; mild 
 without weakness, and in his intercourse with the world, 
 blameless." This verdict of a highly intelligent public 
 man Dr. Dorrance's co-presbyters unanimously sanction. 
 
 He ceased from his labors on earth during the first 
 year of the war of the Rebellion, and before he knew its 
 fearful magnitude his spirit passed into rest, with loved 
 ones of his own household who had preceded him. His 
 death occured April i8, 1861. It was calm and peaceful 
 to him, but universally mourned by all who knew him, 
 especially by his church and Presbytery, to whom he has 
 left a precious memory. 
 
 Of his large and interesting family there are only two 
 survivors, viz : Mrs. G. M. Reynolds, to whom we are 
 indebted for many valuable facts of her father's history, 
 and her sister Augusta, wife of Alexander Farnham, Esq., 
 of Wilkes -Barre. 
 
VIII. 
 KINGSTON CHURCH AND ITS PASTORS. 
 
 THE reader has already been made familiar with the 
 general facts in the history of this church up to the 
 year 1833, when it ceased to be served by the pastor of 
 the Wilkes-Barre Church. When Dr. Dorrance took 
 charge of the latter congregation, the Rev. Alexander 
 Heberton became pastor at Kingston. They were also 
 classmates in the Theological Seminary. He was born in 
 Philadelphia, 1803, and a graduate of the University of 
 Pennsylvania. He was ordained by Newton Presbytery, 
 and had served the Allen Township Presbyterian Church 
 some six years. When Kingston Church was accorded a 
 separate pastor, the Susquehanna river became the natural 
 boundary or dividing line between it and the Wilkes- 
 Barre Church, which made the former church mostly 
 responsible of the greater part of the Wyoming Valley, 
 and back to Lehman and up Bowman Creek where some 
 of its members resided, while the latter had all the 
 interests of the east side and the whole of the valley of 
 the Lackawanna to look after. Both had ample fields, 
 and set themselves diligently to their cultivation. 
 
 While Kingston Church had such an ample field, it 
 had no house of worship of its own when Mr. Heberton 
 took charge of it. Many of its Sabbath services were 
 held in private houses, especially those of elder Daniel 
 Hoyt and Mrs. Elijah Reynolds. At Forty Fort there 
 
I06 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 seems to have been a kind of union house of worship, and 
 Mr. Jacob Shoenaaker erected a small building for public 
 worship on what is now a cemetery lot near Wyoming*. 
 All these places, with others, more remote, were occupied 
 according to convenience. In such a wide field the 
 services of the minister must have been scattered, and of 
 necessity less frequent than is generally expected from a 
 settled minister, but it is gratifying to know that neigh- 
 borhood prayer meetings were maintained throughout 
 the extended field, and the way was being prepared for 
 Kingston to become a mother of churches. 
 
 Mr. Heberton did not retain charge of the Kingston 
 church long, although it is understood that he was 
 popular. He went from Kingston to Salem, N. J. , but 
 returned to the Susquehanna, at Berwick, in 1845, where 
 he remained till 1850, and was in connection with the 
 Presbytery of Luzerne. After filling other charges, he 
 returned to the city of his birth, Philadelphia, where he 
 was City missionary from 1868 to 1884, and where he 
 died in 1895, at the advanced age of 92, after a long, 
 useful and honored life, leaving ministerial successors in 
 his sons. 
 
 His immediate successor at Kingston was the Rev. 
 Charles Chapin Corss who also died a few days ago at 
 the age of 93. Mr. Corss was born May 22, 1803, in 
 Greenfield, Mass. His parents died when he was but 
 eleven years old; he and eight brothers and sisters were 
 left to the care of their grandparents. Early in life, 
 however, Charles seems to have assumed the privilege of 
 self-support, in a great measure, nor was he satisfied to 
 simply secure the ordinary supply of his wants. He 
 
 *Fornierly Trov. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. lO/ 
 
 aspired to secure a liberal education, and his perseverance 
 was rewarded by the diplomas of Amherst College and 
 Princeton Theological Seminary. He was licensed to 
 preach by the Hampshire Association of Mass., Feb., 
 1834. The following December he became stated supply 
 of the Kingston church, which he served two years in 
 connection with a more general missionary work in 
 adjacent regions. During this time he was ordained by 
 the Susquehanna Presbytery, of which he continued a 
 member till the reunion of the Old and New School 
 branches of the Presbyterian church. He was highly 
 respected by his brethren, whom he greatly aided in all 
 their enterprises, although for some thirty years he was 
 pastor of the East Smithfield Congregational church. 
 Mr. Corss was especially active and influential in es- 
 tablishing the "Susquehanna Collegiate Institute" at 
 Towanda. As we have already stated, he wrote a history 
 of his Presbytery. The Rev. C. N. Phelps, in an 
 obituary notice of Mr. Corss, published in the Presby- 
 teriaft, June 17th, 1895, tells us that he was of Huguenot 
 descent; and after speaking of the various posts of 
 usefulness he occupied, says of him, after a lifelong 
 acquaintance with his public career : ' 'He was the first 
 minister of the gospel I ever knew ; I think the first one 
 to whom I ever listened. Probably no one ever lived, or 
 ever will live hereafter, in Smithfield who will exert such 
 an influence upon human character and human thought in 
 Smithfield as he did. Both the times and the man were 
 such as to make this possible. It was a stirring time in 
 the intensely religious thought of the community, and 
 there were thinkers in Smithfield in those days when he 
 was in the prime of his manhood. A master of faultless 
 
I08 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 English, a mind given to mathematical formulas, and a 
 soul always having the courage of its own clear-cut 
 convictions, coupled with an active pastorate of thirty 
 years, an unblemished reputation and a most kindly daily 
 life, which never failed to win the hearts of men to whom 
 his theology might have seemed forbidding, — what could 
 follow but such a result as we have intimated ? Men 
 might not agree with him, but no man could follow him 
 in his thoughts, Sabbath after Sabbath, and not be made 
 to think earnestly; to think to the end of the problem." 
 Mr. Corss married, while in charge of the Kingston 
 church, Miss Anna Hoyt, who died in 1857, leaving five 
 children, four of whom, survive their father and occupy 
 prominent and influential positions in various communities. 
 "In 1866, he married Miss Lucelia Phelps, of Smithfield, 
 who died only a few weeks before him. At her funeral 
 her husband paid a most worthy tribute to the many 
 virtues of the departed, who had so kindly cared for his 
 children and blessed him in his home life for so many 
 years." 
 
 The Rev. Ebenezer Hazard Snowden, the next 
 pastor of the Kingston church, who came to it in the year 
 1837, was then a man of about forty years. This was six 
 years before the organization of the Presbytery of Luzerne, 
 of which he was destined to become an important 
 member. Born June 27, 1799, in what has long been 
 regarded the Mecca of Presbyterianism in this country, 
 Princeton, N. J. His father, a Presbyterian minister 
 bearing the name of one of the fathers of Presbyterianism 
 in America, Samuel Finley Snowden, was one of five 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. IO9 
 
 brothers, all of whom graduated at Princeton College. 
 Dr. Samuel Finley was one of the honored presidents of 
 this college, and Samuel Finley Snowden was the first 
 pastor of the Princeton Presbyterian church. The grand- 
 father of the subject of this sketch was a prominent 
 citizen of Philadelphia, a patriot of the Revolution, His 
 name was Isaac Snowden. The mother of Mr. Snowden 
 was Susan Bayard Breese, daughter of Samuel Sidney 
 Breese, of Shrewsburg, N. Y. She was a granddaughter, 
 on her mother's side, of the Rev. James Anderson, the 
 first pastor of the First Presbyterian church of New York 
 city. 
 
 The Rev. Samuel Finley Snowden removed from 
 ,., Princeton, when Ebenezer was an infant, to New Hartford, 
 N. Y. , where he remained eleven years, after which he 
 accepted a call to Sackett's Harbor, and remained there 
 during his natural life ; consequently we find Ebenezer, 
 instead of being in Princeton, in Hamilton College, from 
 which he was graduated at the age of nineteen, in the 
 class of which Gerret Smith, the famous abolitionist, was 
 an honored member. 
 
 Mr. Ebenezer H. Snowden devoted three years to 
 the study of law, after leaving college, and was admitted 
 to the bar at Utica, N. Y. , and entered upon the practice 
 of his profession in Nashville, Tenn., in the midst of 
 influential relatives j but he was not happy, and almost 
 immediately abandoned the law to enter on a course of 
 study in Princeton Theological Seminary, in preparation 
 for the gospel ministry. 
 
 Mr. Snowden was ordained as an evangelist by the 
 New York Presbytery, Oct. ii, 1826, and went 
 immediately to St. Augustine, Florida. After serving the 
 
no PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 church there some time as stated supply, he yas duly 
 installed pastor, and occupied the field till 1836, in 
 connection with the Presbytery of Florida or Georgia. 
 The cause of Presbyterianism was by no means strong in 
 that region. It must, therefore, have gladdened the heart 
 of the pioneer of that cause to know, before his departure 
 from this life, that the St. Augustine church was made the 
 recipient of a quarter of a million dollars as a memorial 
 fund from a Mr. Flagler, millionaire, to erect a 
 magnificent church to cherish the memory of a beloved 
 daughter, Mrs. Benedict, who died on board a yacht 
 opposite that city, which she had been visiting in pursuit 
 of health. 
 
 In 1836, Mr. Snowden returned north, to Brownville 
 church, N. Y. , where he became pastor. This relation 
 seems to have been cut short by the troublesome questions 
 which were then agitating the Presbyterian church, 
 especially in New York. Being in attendance at the 
 General Assembly, in 1837, the crucial time in the great 
 controversy which had been pending in the church and 
 which seems to have turned Mr. Snowden's attention 
 to another field, he listened to overtures from the 
 Kingston church, and was soon after installed as its 
 pastor. His whole time, however, was not demanded; 
 for one Sabbath in four was given to Nanticoke and other 
 places, and dm-ing the week, in addition to pastoral work 
 in his congregation, he did missionary work in many 
 neighboring places, e. g., Plymouth, Lehman and points 
 in the Lackawanna Valley. 
 
 Up to this time the Kingston church held its 
 Sabbath services in the old Academy, as the centre of its 
 operations. Mr. Snowden, however, raised and ad- 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 1 I I 
 
 vocated the question of building a sanctuary, a home 
 exclusively for stated worship and around which sacred 
 associations only should cluster. In consequence of the 
 widely scattered membership of the church, — not large in 
 the aggregate, — together with the fact that up to this 
 time demands for the productions of the farm were 
 limited and money consequently scarce, the building of a 
 house distinctively for worship had not been accomplished. 
 It was therefore some time after Mr. Snowden's advent 
 before the work of church building was inaugurated. 
 Doubtless many precious memories and sacred associations 
 bound the people to the old Academy ; and their loving 
 intercourse in social worship in each others houses tended 
 to delay what seems to us a pressing duty, viz., that of 
 building a house for God, whom they had now worshiped 
 for more than a generation in private and secular 
 buildings. With such an experience, it is not wonderful 
 that the full significance of the Psalmist's longings and 
 beautiful expressions with regard to the amiableness of the 
 tabernacles of God should not have had their full force 
 with these tried and scattered people. Then, too, by 
 this time, a much greater diversity of religious sentiment 
 had come into the valley. These divergent sentiments 
 had been greatly restrained and modified by prevalent 
 influences that came with the first settlers, so that a better 
 type of dissent obtained and continued in the beautiful 
 Wyoming Valley. This is seen in the way the Kingston 
 community was then prepared for the establishment and 
 wonderful prosperity of that noble institution, the 
 Wyoming Seminary. It reaped untold advantages from 
 the prevalence in that community of the Puritan idea 
 of education. The denomination which projected this 
 
112 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 successful institution had not been long in the field as the 
 special pioneer of education, but it had not been a 
 careless observer of the efforts of others, and doubtless 
 noted the danger to which even Christian foundations are 
 exposed in the absence of strict constitutional and 
 ecclesiastical control of educational institutions which rise 
 upon such foundations. Therefore when our Methodist 
 brethren became the patrons of education, they applied 
 their ecclesiastical methods with a rigor to which Congre- 
 gationalists and Presbyterians were in the beginning 
 strangers. 
 
 The Wyoming Seminary from the beginning enjoyed 
 such control, and while it was thus more safely held to 
 evangelical teachings, on the other hand it was made 
 more pointedly the exponent of Methodism and, of course, 
 more a rival of sister denominations. In plain English, 
 it gave our brethren of the Methodist Episcopal faith a 
 great advantage over their Presbyterian neighbors in 
 Kingston, especially in the beginning of its career. This 
 fact, in connection with the long delay in the building 
 of a Presbyterian house of worship in Kingston, made the 
 growth of the Kingston church slow for many years. Mr. 
 Snowden saw his building enterprise completed in 1842, 
 the year before the erection of the Luzerne Presbytery. 
 The edifice was a comely one, seating about three 
 hundred, and costing about ^2,500. It saved the life 
 of the Kingston church and tended greatly to secure for it 
 ultimate prosperity. Therefore, and for other reasons, 
 Mr. Snowden' s pastorate marked an era in the history 
 of the Kingston Presbyterian church. 
 
 It enters the new Presbytery as an important factor 
 in its new local home and habitation ; and equally, if not 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. I 1 3 
 
 more significant, is the work it fostered and developed at 
 various points in its extended original field, as it, from 
 time to time, gave segments of its membership to 
 constitute new organizations and multiplied centres of 
 spiritual light and life. One of its early elders appears 
 with efficiency in two new organizations in the bounds 
 of the Presbytery of Luzerne, and was signally honored 
 after he had served in the last and third church twenty- 
 five years. In meriting and receiving this honor 
 personally, he has honored the church which set him 
 apart as an overseer in the house of God. 
 
 Mr. Snowden supplied Nanticoke for a part of each 
 month, till 1843, when the Rev. Wm. Huntting became 
 the stated supply of that part of Mr. Snowden' s field. 
 Mr. Snowden was released from his pastoral charge at 
 Kingston, returned to the Presbytery of Susquehanna, and 
 was pastor of the Warrenham church from 1849 to 1852, 
 having been engaged in looking after some of the mission 
 fields of Luzerne Presbytery from 1845 to the fall of 
 1849. Returning to his home in Kingston after resigning 
 his charge in Susquehanna Presbytery, we find him 
 engaged in supplying Plymouth, Larksville, and other 
 places, diligently preaching the gospel until the infirmities 
 of age incapacitated him for work, which was not until he 
 was about ninety years old. In his varied labors, the 
 attention which he gave to Plymouth during many years, 
 beginning when he was pastor of the Kingston church, 
 resulted in such vital effects to that place and congregation, 
 that it seems to the writer we have reached the point from 
 which we may properly introduce the history of the 
 Plymouth church, and its relations to the Presbytery 
 of Luzerne. 
 
114 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 The original population of Plymouth was part and 
 parcel of that which has engaged our attention in writing 
 of Wilkes-Barre and Kingston. There were, however, 
 some peculiarities developed in some of the influential 
 colonists from Connecticut which evidently modified the 
 subsequent history of that part of Wyoming Valley. 
 There is also something due to the location of this 
 settlement. Being at the extreme southern limit of the 
 valley made it less eligible as a central and influential 
 point, in early days leaving its inhabitants liable to be 
 swayed, rather than enabling them to sway those beyond 
 their immediate vicinage. How much its subsequent 
 religious state was determined by the change of views on 
 the part of the Rev. Noah Wadhams we cannot decide. 
 It is said that he was an excellent, learned and pious man, 
 a graduate of Princeton College, and the first of its 
 graduates to enter the valley, though an host came later. 
 Soon after the massacre, he left the Connecticut church 
 and became a Methodist, but it seems that he only 
 preached thereafter as a local minister of that denom- 
 ination. He had come early to the valley, having been 
 appointed minister to one of the colonies sent out by the 
 Susquehanna company. At any rate, we find in Plymouth 
 less of substantial agreement among the settlers than usual 
 among the Connecticut colonists ; a larger number of 
 denominations represented and new isms readily finding 
 admission and adherents. With an increase of the coal 
 trade came an increase of population, and gradually 
 evangelical churches were strengthened, among them the 
 Presbyterian, which from the beginning had its represen- 
 tatives in Plymouth ; these, so far as they were identified 
 with local organizations, had their membership with the 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. IIJ 
 
 Wilkes-Barre and Kingston church. When it was 
 divided, and Kingston church organized, it seems that all 
 the adherents of the original church at Plymouth did not 
 fall in with the Kingston organization. Consequently we 
 find, after two pastors took the place of one, that both 
 had interests, to some extent, in Plymouth, and 
 occasionally maintained services there. This state of 
 things, while helpful to the general cause, perhaps served 
 to delay distinct and separate effort to establish a local 
 organization in Plymouth. In the absence of regular 
 service there doubtless was a scattering and loss of 
 material from which the Presbyterian church might have 
 derived increase and strength, and so proved a more 
 healthful agency in promoting the best sentiment, and in 
 securing the greater prosperity, of that beautiful place. 
 All this, however, has now been corrected. 
 
 The Rev. Wm. P. White, D. D., who for a time did 
 excellent service in the Plymouth church, and brought it 
 to a much higher plane of prosperity and usefulness as a 
 church of Christ, prepared an excellent history of the 
 organization in 1876, the centennial of our nation. While 
 the writer is not expected to chronicle Dr. White's work 
 in Plymouth, he takes pleasure in acknowledging his in- 
 debtedness to him for many historical facts relative to that 
 church. His pastoral work at Plymouth was just after the 
 demise of Luzerne Presbytery. 
 
 In the history of the Plymouth church, after noting 
 the occasional services of the Rev. Messrs. Hoyt, Gilder- 
 sleeve, Murray, Dorrance and Heberton at Plymouth, he 
 says of the Rev. E. H. Snowden, D. D. : "I come now 
 to speak of one whose labor for Presbyterianism in this 
 place was more abundant than all others. His name is 
 
Il6 - PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 intimately associated with the early struggles and conflicts 
 to secure and maintain a church of our faith in Plymouth." 
 Of his self-denial and faithfulness in the cause of the 
 Master there are yet witnesses among us. The first 
 minute relating to Plymouth which I find on the records 
 of Presbytery is dated April 15, 1845. It was recom- 
 mended ' that the Rev. E. H. Snowden be commissioned 
 to supply Hanover and labor in Plymouth, Dallas, and 
 Lehman townships, with aid from the Board of Home 
 Missions. ' This circuit or parts of it occupied the at- 
 tention of Mr. Snowden till he was invited to Warrenham 
 in 1849 to 1852. During this absence of Mr. S. from 
 Luzerne county, it appears that Plymouth was allowed to 
 drift again, so far as specific efforts were made to provide 
 for it by the Presbytery. ' ' Dr. White finds in the min- 
 utes of the Presbytery, Sept. 19, 1854, the following: 
 "Rev. E. H. Snowden, who was commissioned last May 
 to labor at Hanover and Plymouth, made a statement of 
 the condition and prosperity there, and applied for an in- 
 crease of missionary aid," and he adds, "from this time, 
 Mr. Snowden continued to preach regularly in Plymouth, 
 for a time every two weeks, the alternate Sabbath being 
 given to Northmoreland. " 
 
 The upper room of the Academy building in Ply- 
 mouth was, until 1855, the common room in which all 
 denominations preached, furnishing cheap accommodation 
 for religious services and making it easy to multiply the 
 variety, but difficult for any one of them to maintain close 
 continuity of services. However, during the year above 
 mentioned, or the next year, the Methodists and the 
 Christians built houses of worship, giving ampler room to 
 those who had been sharing with them the accommo- 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 11/ 
 
 dations of the Academy, and opening the way for other 
 varieties. However that may have been, we find that 
 from this time onward Presbyterian services were main- 
 tained and increased. Still the denomination and its 
 minister are not happy. They show an anxious desire 
 to have a church and place of worship all their own, 
 though the Presbyterian element had not been strong 
 enough to secure one of the houses of worship already 
 built. The first aggressive movement is toward a distinct 
 Presbyterian organization. Quoting from Dr. White 
 again, he says, with regard to an organization, notwith- 
 standing the absence of numbers and strength: "Still they 
 were soon encouraged to form an organization. I find 
 the following petition presented to the Presbytery of 
 Luzerne at its session in Tunkhannock, Sept. 17, 1856: 
 'We, whose names are hereto subscribed, being members 
 of the Presbyterian church, or congregation, and attached 
 to its doctrines and government, and feeling a strong 
 desire to enjoy its ordinances and means of grace, would 
 respectfully request the Presbytery of Luzerne to organize 
 us into a Presbyterian church and congregation, to be 
 called the First Presbyterian church and congregation 
 of Plymouth. ' ' ' Signed by members of the church : 
 Louisa B. Eno, Margaret Hutchison, Thomas W. Posser, 
 Jane Hutchison, Mary E. Lewis, Ann Hutchison, Ann D. 
 Lewis, William McGuffee, Ann D. Rhys, Ellen McGuffee, 
 William Stout, Hanna Stout, Elizabeth Stout, Charles 
 Hutchinson, Agnes Hutchinson, Robert Hutchinson, Jane 
 Hutchinson, Ellen Wright, Joseph Lind, Jane Lind, 
 James Lind. 
 
 Members of the Congregation : Robert Love, Agnes 
 Love, James Hutchinson, George F. Cook, Sarah Ann 
 
Il8 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 Cook, Charles Bovier, Robert Bowie, Thomas Weir, 
 Margaret Weir, Robert Hutchinson, Isabella McGuffie, 
 Josiah Enos. 
 
 The above petition brought the following committee 
 from Presbytery to Plymouth, October 5, 1856, viz: 
 the Rev. E. H. Snowden, Dr. John Dorrance, and Elder 
 Calvin Parsons ; and the above named church members 
 were formally constituted " The First Presbyterian Church 
 of Plymouth." Charles Hutchinson and William Stout 
 were elected elders. Mr. Hutchinson was ordained and 
 installed, but Mr. Stout, not being present, was never in- 
 ducted into the office of ruling elder. The prayer of 
 ordination was offered by Mr. Snowden, and the charge 
 given by Dr. Dorrance. The Rev. Zebulon Butler, from 
 Port Gibson, Miss., had returned to his native valley to 
 visit friends and added to the service, in which he was so 
 deeply interested, some appropriate remarks. 
 
 Soon after a Board of Trustees, consisting of J. W. 
 Eno, William Stout, Stewart Craig, Charles Hutchinson 
 and Robert Love, were duly elected. 
 
 In these transactions we note movements towards re- 
 claiming ground that had been alienated from those of 
 the Reformed Faith, or had been left without proper 
 cultivation by the descendants of the Puritans. They 
 were, therefore, significant transactions. Although Mr. 
 Snowden never was formally inducted into the pastoral 
 office in Plymouth, he led the movements which re-estab- 
 lished an institution which worked successfully in the 
 line of the earlier religious movements in the primitive 
 days of the colony. Dr. White says of the material or- 
 ganized into the Presbyterian church of Plymouth, "And 
 now here came together, and are organized into a church. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. IIQ 
 
 Streams from widely different quarters. There is the 
 descendant of the old Puritan of New England, of the 
 Huguenot of the South, and many sons and daughters 
 of the firm, unbending Covenanters of bonnie Scotland. ' ' 
 Though such streams do flow from different directions, 
 they are always found to coalesce, because their faith had 
 reached their hearts from a common source ; and after 
 twenty years, in reviewing the career of the new church, 
 Dr. White says, in speaking of the congregation then 
 active, " I know there are some among us who, looking 
 back twenty years and remembering how they were then 
 situated as a church, rejoice, and praise God for the 
 privileges they now have, and are more ready to help 
 others who are struggling as they were." 
 
 After the organization, the congregation continued 
 to occupy the upper room of the Academy, and seem 
 from that time to have maintained their own Sabbath 
 school, the other stronger denominations having estab- 
 lished denominational schools. Mr. Charles Hutchinson 
 was the first superintendent, with Mrs. L. B. Eno, 
 assistant. A weekly prayer meeting was held in private 
 houses. The record of the first sessional meeting bears 
 date May i, 1856, at which Margaret Weir, Elizabeth 
 Hancock, and William McGufifie, were received into full 
 membership of the church. On the same day, the ordi- 
 nance of baptism was administered to Mrs. Elizabeth 
 Hancock, and Margaret Bowie, infant of Mr. and Mrs. 
 Charles Hutchinson. This was the first administration of 
 sealing ordinances. 
 
 The church grew slowly for the first four years, but 
 after that exhibits new energy in the inauguration of 
 measures to secure a sanctuary. A location was secured 
 
I20 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 and Presbyterial aid pledged April 19, 1857. Yet there 
 seems to have been hesitation ; for after a year, or March 
 29, i860, we find a congregational meeting advising 
 against the proposed repairing of the Academy and in 
 favor of immediate effort to build a church, and two 
 hundred and twenty-five dollars subscribed at the meeting, 
 which had unanimously decided to arise and build. Dr. 
 White, however, says in his history, "Yet I find no 
 further reference to the subject on the records for a num- 
 ber of years. I am told that efforts to secure sub- 
 scriptions to any amount were not successful. The 
 Academy room was then somewhat repaired and made 
 more comfortable and the congregation continued for 
 some years longer to worship where, for nearly half a 
 century, the religious services of the town had been 
 conducted." A larger element of staunch Scotch Pres- 
 byterianism had come into the town and every Sabbath 
 morning its representatives could be relied upon to be 
 in the place of divine worship. The congregation was 
 not large, but it was regular. When Mr. Snowden was 
 not present, a sermon was read. The Sabbath school met 
 in the afternoon and was quite well attended, not being 
 confined to the children of any one denomination. Many 
 who were thus interested are now in the church. The 
 seed that was sown has brought forth its fruit. 
 
 The session was strengthened from time to time. 
 First, Mr. Stewart Craig was elected March 3, 1859; 
 Mr. Andrew Weir, December, 1866, whom the writer 
 knew to be a good and faithful man, and, for a time, 
 a member of the sessions which he moderated. 
 
 Mr. Snowden's characteristic perseverance was finally 
 encouraged by seeing the work of church building begun 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 121 
 
 in 1866, and ultimately rewarded by seeing it completed 
 two years later. The edifice was a commodious one, 
 for the first. It was erected for about four thousand 
 dollars, five hundred of which was furnished by our 
 helpful Board of Church Erection. The greater part of 
 the balance was given by the Plymouth people themselves. 
 This home and local habitation provided, future useful- 
 ness was assured. 
 
 In view of past conditions and the divided labors 
 of the minister, who was never a resident of Plymouth, 
 there had been good work done. During the fifteen 
 years of Mr. Snowden's ministry, a church had been 
 gathered ; there had been added to it 43 on profession, 
 21 by letter; a good and large Sabbath school main- 
 tained, and a suitable and comely sanctuary erected to 
 the worship of God. 
 
 After all these years and varied toils, Mr. Snowden 
 is no longer young. He had never been able to dwell 
 among the people at Plymouth, and that some one else 
 might do so, he gracefully retires from the field, but not 
 from work. For, before that is done, another house is to 
 be raised for the worship of the triune God, — more 
 directly his personal work, and one with which his name 
 is more closely connected, viz: "The Snowden Me- 
 morial Church ' ' of Larksville. The veteran, in this 
 case, is found breaking new ground and providing for 
 gathering an entirely new church. This organization 
 was effected May 27, 1870, therefore occurred about the 
 time the Presbytery of Luzerne ceased to be, and its 
 history belongs to another Presbytery, but Dr. Snowden 
 continued for a long time to foster the enterprise, or 
 until he was laid aside by the infirmities of age. 
 
122 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 After Mr. Snowden relinquished the Plymouth 
 church, it was for about a year without regular minis- 
 trations. The Rev. Thomas P. Hunt, as was usual with 
 him in such cases, to a large extent supplied the lack of 
 services from others, and always to the profit and pleasure 
 of those who waited on his ministry. 
 
 We have followed up the history of the Plymouth 
 church to the demise of our Presbytery. In the quo- 
 tations made above from Dr. White's fuller history, 
 the reader has no doubt gathered the spirit and purpose 
 of the next minister, under whose pastorate the church 
 enjoyed an era of unwonted prosperity in every depart- 
 ment of church life. It is not, however, our province to 
 write of or trench on the transactions of the new Presby- 
 tery under which the work, inaugurated and fostered by 
 the Luzerne Presbytery, was continued with, perhaps, 
 new impetus, under Dr. White's ministry. 
 
 Dr. Snowden was twice married. First, while with 
 his first charge in Florida, to Miss Elizabeth Allison 
 Smith, a daughter of the Collector of the Port in St. 
 Augustine. There were seven children born to them, 
 of whom four were alive at the death of their father, viz : 
 three daughters and a son : Mary Salina, married to John 
 W. Metcalf, of Irish Lane, Luzerne county. Pa. ; James 
 Glassel Snowden, of Castaline, Era county, Ohio ; Mrs. 
 J. de Sha Patton, of Cleveland, Tenn., and Mrs. James 
 Monroe Williamson, of Oakland City. The first Mrs. 
 Snowden died while her children were still young. After 
 some years. Dr. Snowden married Miss Caroline Adams, 
 at Newburg, N. Y., who was a relative of John Quincy 
 Adams. She died January, 1892, A writer in the 
 Wilkes-Barre Record, says of Dr. Snowden's evening of 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 1 23 
 
 life: "After advanced age incapacitated him for the 
 performance of pastoral duties, he attended church reg- 
 ularly until the year of his death." He was evidently an 
 old man ripening for another life, and yet, he said of 
 him: "he survived his years in a condition of excellent 
 preservation." While the recollections of the past were 
 vivid, he does not seem to have lost his interest in things 
 and persons around him. His last days were, it is under- 
 stood, soothed by the tender care of a daughter, "who 
 had remained at home with him and left nothing undone 
 that would add to his comfort and happiness during the 
 years which the infirmities of age rendered necessary."* 
 
 *Dr. Urquhart. 
 
IX. 
 
 THE REV. THOMAS POAGE HUNT. 
 
 ALTHOUGH Mr. Hunt's name is not found in the list 
 of ministers who were originally assigned to the Lu- 
 zerne Presbytery ; although he never sustained the relation 
 of pastor, formally, to any of its churches, he was one of 
 the most significant factors in establishing and extending 
 the work and prosperity of the Luzerne Presbytery. His 
 important career, his aggressive and advanced work, 
 which in some directions made him widely known not 
 only in the Presbyterian Church, but to the Christian 
 public generally, all this together with his many official 
 labors in the Presbytery, which extended to so many of 
 its churches, make it necessary that he should have a 
 prominent place in its history, side by side with Webster, 
 Dorrance and others, who saw the Presbytery in the day 
 of its birth. Why his name was not in the list furnished 
 the General Assembly does not appear in the record. He 
 had been connected with the Presbytery of Susquehanna 
 and an active member of the committee that organized 
 the Lackawanna church a few months before the action 
 of the Assembly in 1843. He may have been absent on 
 one of his extensive temperance lecturing tours. He had 
 already acquired the title of ' ' The Apostle of Temper- 
 ance.' ' He, however, came into the original organization 
 by certificate from his Presbytery, and was, from the 
 beginning of its work, till called higher, a pillar of 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. I 25 
 
 Strength among his brethren ; always able and ready to do 
 delicate and needed work whenever there was a call for 
 such service. He was in the best sense, a Pastor at 
 Large, sustaining every minister whom he aided and 
 edifying every church which he visited, for he was wise, 
 prompt, discreet, and self-sacrificing. Very many of 
 these services were labors of love, always most cheerfully 
 rendered. His antecedents were not Puritan, were not 
 Scotch or Scotch-Irish, nor Huguenot. The question, 
 therefore, as to whence he came, and how he came, as a 
 Presbyterian, is not without interest, nor without a 
 legitimate place here, especially as, in answering these 
 questions, we learn how Presbyterianism was introduced 
 into the Old Dominion, from whence, having taken root, 
 it spread itself elsewhere. Mr. Hunt not only came to us 
 from Virginia. He was also a lineal descendant of one 
 of the very first settlers. The clergyman of that name who 
 accompanied Captain John Smith to the Jamestown 
 Colony, was of course, an Episcopalian, since Episcopacy 
 was the religion of the early Virginia settlers, established 
 by law for the colony to the exclusion of all others, as 
 was then understood. The following facts as to the 
 introduction of Presbyterianism into the Mother of States, 
 were originally published in the "Evangelical and 
 Literary Magazine", edited by the Rev. John Holt Rice, 
 D. D., Presiding Professor of the Union Theological 
 Seminary in 181 9. They were communicated to Dr. 
 Rice by the Rev. James Hunt, grandfather of the subject 
 of this sketch, and the son of one of the prime movers in 
 planting the Presbyterian Church in Virginia. Dr. Rice 
 vouches for the reliability of the Rev. James Hunt. The 
 article from Dr. Rice's Magazine is also quoted by the 
 
126 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 'Rev. Parke P. Flournoy, in his history of the Rockville 
 and Bethesda Churches in Montgomery County, Mary- 
 land. These churches were originally one organization, 
 which bore the name of Captain John Church and later 
 Cabin John. The Rev. James Hunt was pastor of that 
 church. Mr. Flournoy' s history of these churches, which 
 were off-shoots from Captain John Church, was published 
 in 1880, by the "Messenger Publishing Company, Balti- 
 more, Md." The writer is indebted to this published 
 sermon for the main facts with reference to the beginning 
 of the Hanover Presbytery of which the Rev. Thomas 
 P. Hunt is a production. And as we have traced the 
 origin of some other elements which went to make up the 
 Luzerne Presbytery, we will look back hastily to the 
 Virginia contribution, which seems not less remarkable 
 than the reviews which have already engaged our 
 attention. 
 
 The first of Mr. Hunt's line, as has been intimated, 
 came from England, and came an Episcopalian, the first 
 minister in the Jamestown Colony. He came before 
 Plymouth Rock was discovered and was a good, earnest 
 and faithful preacher, whose memory is still cherished. 
 Since the writer began to look up material for the history 
 of Luzerne Presbytery, his attention has been called to 
 newspaper articles mentioning an honor done by his 
 contemporaries to "the good Rector (or Chaplain) 
 Hunt", viz : the placing of a magnificent memorial 
 window in an important church building. 
 
 Bancroft, in his history of the Jamestown Colony, 
 says, in speaking of an effort on the part of the colonists 
 to exclude Captain John Smith from the company: "As 
 his only offence consisted in the possession of enviable 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 12/ 
 
 qualities, the attempt at his trial was abandoned, and, by 
 'the doctrine and exhortation' of the sincere Hunt, the 
 man without whose aid the vices of the colony would have 
 caused its immediate ruin was soon restored to his 
 station."* 
 
 The Rev. Thomas P. Hunt left in manuscript an 
 autobiography from which his daughter. Miss Susan C. 
 Hunt, has furnished the author the leading facts. He 
 says, "I was born in Charlotte County, Virginia, Dec. 3, 
 1794. I am descended from a long line of God-fearing 
 and loving ancestors. So far as can be traced in this 
 country, it commenced with the good Chaplain Hunt, 
 who came to this country with Captain John Smith. He 
 returned to England ; but one of his sons returned to 
 Virginia, bringing with him three sons. One of them 
 remained there with his father, and I am descended from 
 the Virginia settlers. 
 
 "My great grandfather, James Hunt, was one of the 
 first three Presbyterians in Virginia." 
 
 The ministry of the Episcopal Church in the Virginia 
 Colony, in the days of Mr. Hunt's great grandfather, 
 seems not to have been up to the standard of "the good 
 Chaplain Hunt," and at fhat time there was no other 
 denomination tolerated. This ancestor of Mr. Hunt, 
 finding the ministrations of the established church without 
 profit to him, absented himself from them. This subject- 
 ed him to a fine, when information of his absence from 
 the parish church was laid by any one before the civil 
 authorities. Such information being filed against him, he 
 and three other gentlemen, who had also become con- 
 vinced that the gospel was not then preached in its 
 
 *See Volume I, page 125. 
 
126 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 purity in the parish church, were fined for absence on the 
 same day. These men had acted independently of each 
 other. The absence of all at the same time from the 
 regular services had been made the more noticeable 
 because of their previous regularity and standing in the 
 community. This action against them brought them 
 together, and they naturally conferred with each other 
 and ultimately co-operated in a religious movement. For, 
 while they submitted to the penalty for non-attendance at 
 the parish church, they still absented themselves from the 
 legal services. 
 
 Feeling that they should not neglect a proper 
 observance of the Sabbath, and that some form of 
 religious worship should be observed, they arranged to 
 meet in each others houses, and read together the 
 Scriptures and such other religious books as they had 
 among them. One of the families had a copy of Luther's 
 commentary on Galatians. This volume deeply interested 
 and instructed them in the great doctrine of justification 
 by faith alone. There does not seem to have been any 
 effort made to spread dissent, but those who statedly met 
 for such religious readings and inquiry became deeply 
 interested concerning the great salvation, and many 
 others became anxious to attend the readings. It also 
 attracted the attention of the authorities, and the movers 
 in the matter were formally cited to appear before the 
 Governor and Council at vVilliamsburg. Before setting 
 out for the place of trial and on the way thither, the 
 question as to what they should declare themselves to be 
 in religion greatly exercised them. They had practically 
 turned away from the Parish church, or the church of the 
 Colony. To what had they turned? They did not seem 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 1 29 
 
 able to say. They had some thought of calling them- 
 selves Lutherans, as they had been so deeply interested 
 and benefitted by Luther's commentary on Galatians. But 
 they had noted some things in Luther's writings with which 
 they did not agree. One of the four men went alone to 
 Williamsburg, and on the way thither he was obliged to 
 ask shelter in an humble home from a heavy rain that 
 was falling, which was accorded him, and while he waited 
 for the storm to pass over, his attention was attracted to 
 an old book on a dusty shelf. He took it down and 
 read. What he read seemed to be his own sentiments. 
 He found them embodied in a systematic form. His 
 state of mind made the book extremely interesting, so 
 that he scarcely noticed the termination of the storm. 
 When, however, he found that he must resume his 
 journey, he asked his entertainer if he would sell the 
 book. The man said he would not, but if he really 
 • wanted it, he could have it, as it was of no use to him ; 
 "it was not worth selling."* It was an old Scotch 
 Presbyterian Confession of Faith, and our anxious traveler 
 received it as a gift from heaven. When he joined his 
 companions at Williamsburg, we are told, " they took a 
 private room and there deliberately examined the book 
 and found it contained exactly the system of doctrine 
 which they believed, and though not so well under- 
 standing the Discipline, they did not so cordially approve 
 that, yet they unanimously agreed to adopt it as their 
 Confession of Faith. ' ' Thus they were prepared to define 
 their position before the Governor and Council. They 
 presented the old book, found on the way by one of their 
 number, as setting it forth. 
 
 ♦This man may have been one of the ancestors of the class of people our 
 church is trying to elevate— "The White Mountaineers of the South." 
 
130 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 Governor Gooch, who, it is understood, was educated 
 a Presbyterian, but had, for some reason, conformed to 
 the recognized communion, said at once that the party 
 were Presbyterians, and that under English law they were 
 tolerated ; but the Council were not disposed to put so 
 liberal a construction on the provisions of the law 
 operating at home, and were very bitter toward the 
 culprits. In the midst of the exciting discussion which 
 ensued, a terrific storm burst forth. The sharp and vivid 
 lightning, with its instantaneous and appalling thunder in 
 quick succession, subdued the noise of debate and the 
 rancorous feeling of the Council, so that when the storm 
 subsided the non-conformists were dismissed with the 
 charge "not to make disturbances in his Majesty's colony." 
 
 This question of toleration remained an open one for 
 a long time. The Rev. Samuel Davies, who was the 
 first Presbyterian brought into Virginia regularly to 
 minister to the congregation which originated from the 
 men who were on trial at Williamsburg, first discussed 
 it with the Hon. Peyton Randolph as his opponent, who 
 was at that time the King's Counsellor, or Attorney 
 General. Mr. Davies' able argument before the Court is 
 said to have made a deep impression, and was even the 
 admiration of his opponents. Still the question was not 
 settled. For afterwards, when Dr. Davies was in England 
 as the agent of Princeton College, before his election to 
 its presidency, he had an opportunity to bring the 
 question personally before the King, as to whether the act 
 of toleration prevailing in England extended to the 
 Virginia Colony, and received a favorable assurance from 
 his Majesty.* 
 
 *See Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit, Vol. Ill, p. 140. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. I3I 
 
 The four planters returned to their homes, confirmed 
 rather than disturbed in their sentiments and practices. 
 They continued to use diligently the means they had for 
 their spiritual edification. Not fully satisfied, however, 
 with these, they sought the aid of an authorized minister, 
 which they seem to have been more encouraged to do by 
 their interpretation of the Providences which had already 
 conducted them. They subsequently obtained the 
 presence and assistance of a Rev. Mr. Robinson, a 
 Presbyterian minister of whom they had heard and to 
 whom they had sent a delegation with instructions to 
 urge him to visit Hanover and preach to them, if they 
 found him a suitable man. Mr. Robinson, breaking 
 away with difficulty from other engagements, spent some 
 time among the awakened inhabitants of Hanover county, 
 preaching to them the pure gospel, instructing them in 
 proper methods of worship and general procedure, and 
 checking tendencies which would lead astray and cause 
 confusion and injury. The people seem to have been 
 greatly cheered and aided, and when Mr. Robinson was 
 about to leave them, urged him to accept remuneration 
 for his services. This he declined, and when it was 
 pressed upon him, he finally told the people that he 
 would take their offering and use it to assist a worthy 
 young man, then studying for the ministry, who needed 
 help; and he promised to send the young minister to 
 them when he had completed his course of study; all of 
 which he did in due time. The young man proved to be 
 Samuel Davies, the founder of the Hanover Presbytery, 
 subsequently President of Princeton College, a prince 
 among preachers, a power for good in the colonies, a 
 harbinger of the coming Republic of America. The 
 
132 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 foregoing sketch shows us how Presbyterianism obtained 
 a foothold in Virginia. 
 
 The man who communicated these facts, which Dr. 
 John Holt Rice published to the world and authenticated, 
 was the grandfather of our Mr. Hunt who, to quote again 
 from his autobiography, says : "My grandfather, the Rev. 
 James Hunt, who died in 1793, was pastor of the Old 
 Cabin John Church, Montgomery county, Maryland.* 
 My father was William Pitt Hunt, who graduated from 
 Princeton, and was a tutor there. He early made a 
 profession of religion and intended to exchange the 
 practice of law for the preaching of the gospel ; but 
 getting over -heated in assisting to extinguish a fire in 
 Fredericksburg, Va., he caught cold which settled upon 
 his lungs and consumption soon laid him in the tomb. 
 My father died when I was three years old. My morning 
 of life was one of the greatest suffering and debility. A 
 violent attack of whooping cough, with severe fever, 
 followed by spinal disease, with acute nervous pain, then 
 hip disease and white swelling, left me deformed, and a 
 cripple. My constitution was most powerful or I could 
 not have endured these afflictions. Severe as they were, 
 and mortifying as the result once was, I no longer look 
 upon them in any other light than that of the richest 
 blessing. They kept me chained, as it were, to my 
 mother's side. Her watchful eye was ever over me, her 
 tender hand always on me, and her angel influence 
 always around me. My bouyant spirit, my nervous 
 strength, my indomitable will would have hurried me to 
 destruction, had I not been hampered, trammelled, 
 
 *Miss Susan C. Hunt informs the writer that she and her sister Mary 
 visited the graves of their great grandfather and grandmotherj Ruth Hunt, 
 and read the inscription on their tomb stones in the "Burying Ground" 
 attached to the Old Cabin John Church, in 1893. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 1 33 
 
 restrained as I was. Even with all these restraints and 
 obstacles, my waywardness and desire to mingle with the 
 wild, and out dare the most daring, my love for folly, 
 frolic and sin, often led me astray. 
 
 "It is some comfort to know that she lived to see 
 that her labor of love was not in vain, and that she died 
 in the full belief that I was endeavoring to live the life of 
 faith, and would remember and strive to practice all she 
 taught me. 
 
 "My mother was the daughter of Col. Joel Watkins 
 of Charlotte, Va. But few women excelled her in vigor 
 of intellect and industry in its cultivation. Her piety 
 was remarkable. After the death of my father, she 
 married the Rev. Dr. Moses Hoge, perhaps the most 
 humble, brave, pious, eloquent, generous, laborious 
 preacher of his age. Dr. Hoge was a self-made man. 
 He never graduated at any college, but he died President 
 of Hampden-Sidney College, and Professor of Theology 
 in the Union Theological Institute of Virginia and North 
 Carolina. Some people condemn second marriages, but 
 eternity will not be too long for me to thank God for 
 such a second father as I found in Dr. Hoge. Besides 
 his instruction and example, his position and reputation 
 made his home the retreat of the most distinguished 
 Divines of the day. There were Elijahs, Elishas, Joshuas, 
 Pauls, Peters and Timothys in those days. They preached 
 Christ as I never have heard Him preached since. 
 
 "I was educated at Hampden-Sidney College, and 
 graduated in 1813. I taught school for some time, and 
 then studied theology in the seminary, or what was then 
 the seminary of the Hanover Presbytery, afterward of the 
 Synod of Virginia, and finally became the Union Theo- 
 
134 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 logical Seminary of the Synods of Virginia and North 
 Carolina. Dr. Hoge dying, Dr. John Holt Rice succeed- 
 ed him. I was in the seminary under both these men. 
 They were both pre-eminently great, in their own way. 
 
 "I once heard Mr. Lacey preach one of his powerful, 
 tender sermons on the Sufferings of Christ. I remember 
 that I was very thoughtless and trifling during the 
 discourse. When the communion table was spread, a 
 young and intimate friend of mine arose and took his 
 seat with those who came to show forth the death of Jesus 
 until He come. This act did more to impress my 
 thoughtless heart than all the sermon. 
 
 "After I became a professor of religion, I had to 
 determine on my future pursuit in life. One of my class- 
 mates, who was preparing for the ministry, died. Dr. J. 
 H. Rice published an obituary of him in the Evangelical 
 Magazine. In it was asked the question, 'Who will 
 take his place ?' That simple question made a deep and 
 more determinate impression on me, as to my future 
 calling, than all the many wise writings and powerful 
 appeals I had consulted. I was licensed to preach by the 
 Presbytery of Hanover, Synod of Virginia, at Charlottes- 
 ville, Albemarle Co., 1824. After I was licensed I went 
 to Petersburg to supply Mr. Rice's pulpit while he took a 
 respite from labor that was wearing him out. ' ' 
 
 Mr. Hunt spent some time in Brunswick Co., 
 Virginia, and while there was ordained to the full work of 
 the ministry. From the beginning of his public ministry 
 he showed an interest in the temperance cause, and he 
 himself intimates that he was biased in that direction by 
 the earnest instruction of his theological teacher. Dr. 
 Rice, and while his influence as a preacher was great and 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 1 35 
 
 ever increasing, (for he always secured the fixed attention 
 of those who heard him and always gave solid and evan- 
 gelical instruction, resulting in benefitting multitudes,) 
 yet his influence in preaching the gospel of temperance 
 was still greater. He was among the first to call the 
 attention of the church especially to the giant evil of 
 intemperance. He advocated total abstinence, and the 
 duty of the Christian church to oppose the traffic in 
 intoxicating drinks. It was not, however, until there 
 seemed to be a divine call to devote the main energies of 
 his life to the cause of temperance, indicated by the 
 suffrage of his brethren and the marked providence 
 presenting itself in his way, that he ceased to occupy 
 the pastorate. 
 
 From the southern part of Virginia, where his earlier 
 labors were put forth, he was, without solicitation on his 
 part, or previous knowledge of any movement in that 
 direction, invited to the Presbyterian Church of Raleigh, 
 N. C. Before this invitation had been received, Mr. 
 Hunt had been led to consider his relation to what in the 
 past was known as "the peculiar institution of the South". 
 He himself inherited considerable property in slaves 
 which, if conscience and the tremendous responsibilities 
 that such possessions entail had not called for a canvass 
 of the questions connected with slavery, might have 
 afforded him the means of easy and comfortable subsis- 
 tence. He dreaded the responsibilities of maintaining 
 the relation of master to slaves, and as the result of these 
 reflections, made arrangement for his negroes to be 
 liberated and to be colonized to the young Republic of 
 Liberia, in Africa. He then needed other means of 
 subsistence for himself. He had been ordained to preach 
 
136 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 the gospel, and possessed the "right to live of the 
 gospel". Of this right, however, he seldom through 
 life boasted, but the Lord cared for him and his. And 
 all who knew Mr. Hunt were made heartily to believe 
 that he loved rather to do good, to help his fellow men, 
 and advance the cause of Christ than to accumulate 
 money. 
 
 While at Raleigh, N. C, Mr. Hunt became famous 
 as an advocate of temperance. In the public prints, his 
 work was uniformly described "as the most briUiant and 
 romantic on record. No Knight errant was ever braver 
 or more chivalrous than this bold and gifted advocate of a 
 cause that was running athwart all prejudices and customs 
 of the community' ' . 
 
 He was appointed agent and lecturer of the first 
 State Temperance Society formed in North Carolina, 
 which appointment at the cost of much sacrifice of 
 personal and social comfort and ease, he accepted, and 
 successfully stemmed the tide of prejudice from the world, 
 and many in the church as well. 
 
 After a time he made Fayetteville his headquarters, 
 and while working from that centre began the work of 
 gathering the children into his cold water army. Having 
 composed a very expressive poetical pledge, beginning, 
 "I do not think I'll ever drink, &c.", and enrolled 
 multitudes — the writer among the rest a few years later, 
 and then a child in eastern, Pennsylvania. The pledge 
 then ran : 
 
 "We little children think 
 
 That we will never drink 
 
 Whiskey, brandy, gin or rum, 
 
 Or anything that will make drunk come." 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 1 37 
 
 The Sabbath School children of that day generally 
 signed the declaration of their purpose wherever Mr. 
 Hunt appeared among them ; and he, in those days, was 
 almost ubiquitous. No arithmetic will ever determine 
 the influence of that movement among the children, nor 
 Mr. Hunt's influence in shaping popular sentiment on 
 the drink question. Wherever he was heard he did not 
 fail to carry every audience he addreesed with him, by a 
 public vote which he generally called for, and it was 
 cordially given. He made the business of rum selling 
 "odious" wherever he lectured. Taking Mr. Hunt's 
 whole career as a temperance lecturer and preacher of 
 temperance, it is doubtful whether any other one man in 
 this country has exerted a more potent influence on the 
 temperance question. 
 
 The year 1832 seems to have been an eventful one 
 in the life of Mr. Hunt. We find he was installed pastor 
 of the Presbyterian church of Wilmington, N. C. The 
 same year he is commissioned to the General Assembly, 
 which met in Philadelphia, which was the standing place 
 of meeting from 1800 to 1835. He also attended, by 
 appointment, the first National Temperance Convention 
 which met in the same city and about the same time. 
 Mr. Hunt was booked for an address which he de- 
 livered, and which established his reputation, as a 
 temperance advocate, north of Mason & Dixon's line. 
 It is probable that this speech made him ultimately a 
 member of the Presbytery of Luzerne, and prepared the 
 way for much temperance work in the North. But this 
 was not formally entered upon till some time after this 
 date, as Mr. Hunt then had special engagements in the 
 South, and not alone with his church in Wilmington. 
 
138 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 Another important event of 1842 was a temperance 
 wedding, which we will allow him. to describe. He 
 says: "In Oct., 1832, I attended the first wedding 
 I was ever at in which no intoxicating liquors of any- 
 kind were used. It was the happiest and most pleasant 
 wedding I ever saw. It was my own. Ann Meade 
 Feild, daughter of Dr. Richard Feild, of Hobson's, Bruns- 
 wick Co., Virginia, consented that the Rev. W. S. Plumer, 
 then of Petersburg, Va., should unite us in the bonds 
 of matrimony. He did so. I returned with my bride 
 to Wilmington, visiting my old friends at Raleigh. The 
 kindness of the people of Wilmington to my wife, and 
 the strong attachments aTid friendships she formed there, 
 endeared my people to me more and more." 
 
 This extract seems to show that Mr. Hunt's wife 
 was one of the kind the Lord sends, and that the bonds 
 of which he speaks were never galling. The friendships 
 that Mrs. Hunt elicited were not all in Wilmington, 
 nor all in the South, nor in her youth ; nobody knew her 
 but to love her pure and uplifting life, — her intelligence 
 and uniform testimony to the power of the gospel to 
 enhance the value of every domestic relationship in this 
 world. It is not wonderful that the children of such 
 a woman " rise up and call her blessed, her husband also, 
 and he praiseth her." 
 
 During Mr. Hunt's early ministry, the Synod of 
 North Carolina requested him to publish his little book, 
 "Bible Baptist," which was received with great favor, 
 and proved helpful to many who were anxious to know 
 just what the Bible does teach on the subject of baptism. 
 It called forth many reviews from all quarters. The book 
 still lives, and has been adopted by our Board of Publica- 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 1 39 
 
 tion as one of its standard tracts. Mr. H. did not write 
 much for the press, but enough to show his ability in 
 that direction. 
 
 In 1834, he went North in the interest of Donald- 
 son's Academy, near Fayetteville. As a result of this 
 visit, which extended as far north as the city of New 
 York, he received, soon after his return to Wilmington, 
 from that city such an invitation to return thither as 
 he did not feel at liberty to decline. He was wanted 
 to enter upon the work of temperance lecturing and 
 to devote all his time and energies to that cause. 
 
 After obtaining a release from his church in Wil- 
 mington, N. C, he removed to New York, in the course 
 of a few weeks, where he resided till 1836, when he took 
 up his abode in Philadelphia, from which city he 
 answered the constant calls to lecture in widely scattered 
 places. This period of Mr. Hunt's life was one of 
 incessant toil. Of it he says, " I had not one day's rest 
 for eleven years, and during that time my speaking 
 averaged one and a half a day. If I could get a few 
 hours sleep in the stage, steamboat, or cars, I felt re- 
 freshed and strong." 
 
 Between 1826 and 1850, he writes that "he had 
 visited twenty states, and delivered upwards of ten 
 thousand lectures and sermons." 
 
 In the course of his lectures, Mr. Hunt was called 
 into the Wyoming Valley. He was charmed, and realized 
 that there was a wonderful future for that part of Penn- 
 sylvania. He therefore bought a farm and moved his 
 family thither in 1838. Thus he became significantly 
 identified with the development of every beneficial enter- 
 prise, especially such as aimed to advance the moral. 
 
140 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 intellectual and spiritual interests of that locality, and 
 of our common country. 
 
 While he was in Luzerne and adjoining counties — 
 a power second to none other in the temperance reform — 
 his ministerial brethren, especially those of his own 
 church, found in him a most valuable coadjutor in pro- 
 moting church life and growth. Fully comprehending 
 and prophesying the speedy increase of population and 
 business in the general region in which he had settled, 
 Mr. Hunt was fired with zeal for making the region 
 Christian and temperate ; no labor was regarded as too 
 hard or too expensive when demanded in order to attain 
 these ends. And many a community within the bound- 
 aries of the late Luzerne Presbytery became debtors 
 to him to an amount not easily computed. As will 
 appear in the sequel of this history, few of the organized 
 congregations attained church life without his help, 
 and the number was still fewer of those which were not 
 stimulated in their infancy by his earnest, eloquent in- 
 structions and admonitions given, in season and out of 
 season, cheerfully and without ostentation. 
 
 A patriot of no uncommon ardor, when the late 
 unhappy war came, menacing the integrity of the most 
 favored country the sun ever shone upon, he was 
 found with the union army, standing for the stars and 
 stripes. He followed them to the very place of his 
 birth, where a rival flag had been and still was borne 
 aloft by those who had been very near and dear to him, 
 and with whom, in many things, he was in deepest sym- 
 pathy. Nor is it bitterness now, but the loftiest patriot- 
 ism that determines his attitude and enhances the value 
 of his patriotic services, as he so faithfully and gallantly 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. I4I 
 
 ministers to the spiritual and physical wants of the 
 defenders of the old flag and our common country. 
 Although more than sixty years old, and crippled, no 
 chaplain did better service or was more the idol of his 
 regiment than Thomas P. Hunt. Nor were his bravery 
 and devotion to the men of his regiment only observed in 
 his army corps ; they were noted by many others in and 
 outside the army. One writer says: "His army ex- 
 periences are thrilling, and I am told by those who knew 
 him, that he was as brave as a lion in the discharge 
 of his duty. He was seen in one of the most dreadful 
 battles, when our army was forced to retreat, kneeling 
 by a wounded soldier and ministering to him, despite 
 the perils that were pressing upon him. He won the 
 unbounded admiration of officers and soldiers alike." 
 
 The fruits of Mr. Hunt's early ministry in North 
 Carolina are even yet pointed out in one case, not to 
 speak of others. An established, self-sustaining church is 
 declared by an honored citizen to be due to the Sabbath 
 School which he started more than forty years ago. 
 Eternity only can unfold the results of such an active, 
 earnest life. 
 
 It is impossible properly to characterize Mr. Hunt's 
 temperance work. The methods he employed were his 
 own. Nor was it necessary for him to take out a patent 
 for them, since nobody else could use them. They were 
 effective and versatile. He seemed to be ready for any 
 emergency that he encountered. He maintained perfect 
 self-control. He could still the most turbulent audience, 
 and never failed to turn the laugh on any one who 
 contradicted or criticised him while speaking. A man, 
 displeased at something he said, once called him "an old 
 
142 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 dog." He responded, "Yes, I am an old dog. If you 
 live long enough, you will be an old dog, but now you 
 are only a puppy." He was a genius, with lofty 
 principles, backed up by an energy seldom equalled. 
 
 His useful life terminated October, 1876, ou;' 
 national centennial year, and six years after the Luzerne 
 Presbytery ceased to be. It had been dear to him, as to 
 all its founders and friends. With characteristic fidelity, 
 he had gone to Philadelphia to attend a meeting of the 
 Synod to which he then belonged, though less at home in 
 Philadelphia Synod than in the Synod of New Jersey. 
 He and his brethren of the Luzerne Presbytery dearly 
 loved the old irenic Synod of New Jersey, but they no 
 doubt ejisily coalesced with the solid, faithful and 
 agressive Synod into which the re-union of 1870 had 
 brought them, at the time their Presbytery was dropped 
 from the roll. 
 
 Mr, Hunt was only able to be present at the opening 
 of Synod. He, however attended, on the day following, 
 the unveiling of the Witherspoon statue. He was 
 generally an active member of ecclesiastical meetings, was 
 always heard with interest and deference, sometimes with 
 dread by such as were wanting in zeal in the cause of 
 temperance which was so dear to him. 
 
 Notwithstanding Mr. Hunt's sickness, he preached a 
 temperance sermon in the Tabor church, on Sabbath. 
 It was his last. His public services which had been so 
 numerous, so widely rendered, so effective, and so well 
 received, ended in that Philadelphia church. None who 
 ever heard him forgot him, or forgot all they heard him 
 say. With those to whom Mr. Hunt preached that was 
 scarcely possible. A wonderfully active, unique and 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 143 
 
 effective career ended with that last sermon, on the text 
 found in I Tim. 4:4. After preaching, he returned to 
 the house of his married daughter, Mrs. Edward B. 
 Twaddell, whom he was visiting in Philadelpliia. After 
 this his health failed gradually. The hopes of his 
 physician, founded on his patient's strong constitution 
 and cheerful disposition, were not realized. On the 5th 
 of December, 1876, he was not, for God had taken him. 
 A little more than a year before, September 11, 
 1875, his cherished and beloved wife had preceded him 
 to the better land. Not long separated, their mortal 
 remains rest in the Wilkes-Barre cemetery. The Rev, 
 Robert Adair and Drs. W. P. Breed and McCook 
 conducted private services in Philadelphia, and in 
 Wilkes-Barre a more formal funeral service was held in 
 the First Presbyterian church, under the direction of the 
 Rev. H. H. Swift, the pastor of the family. There were 
 present and participating in the services, the Rev. C. R. 
 Lane, who preached the sermon. Revs. H. H. Welles, 
 F. B. Hodge, N. G. Parke, and S. C. Logan. Some of 
 these brethren knew Mr. Hunt better than others, but 
 all loved him and mourned his loss. Devout men 
 carried his unconscious body to its burial, and lamented 
 the termination of a life that has been so full of activity 
 and usefulness to the very last. 
 
 The immediate family left at his departure consisted 
 of four daughters, earnest, active, accomplished Christian 
 ladies. The eldest. Miss Susan C. Hunt, has unsurpassed 
 missionary zeal. She is especially interested in and 
 helpful to Home missionaries in the great west, and 
 has been very influential in interesting others in like 
 agencies. 
 
144 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 The writer has, in the course of a long Home 
 missionary career, often been cheered by tlie timely 
 co-operation afforded him in emergencies, in forwarding 
 important missionary enterprises through her personal 
 acts or agency. More than once failure would have been 
 incurred in important undertakings but for her efficient 
 aid at the critical time. Miss Susan and her sister Anna, 
 the widow of Andrew J, Welles, who died many years 
 ago, and Mrs. Caspar R. Gregory, the widow of the Rev. 
 Caspar R. Gregory, the lamented pastor of the Memorial 
 Presbyterian church of Wilkes-Barre, live in Wilkes- 
 Barre. Mr. Hunt had purchased a home for his family 
 in that city some four years before his death, and they 
 continue to occupy that house, and are efficient members 
 of the Memorial church. 
 
 Ruth Hall, the third daughter, married Mr. S. H. 
 Hibler, of Wilkes-Barre, but died in 1866. Lucy Jane 
 married Mr. Edward B. Twaddell ; they live in West 
 Philadelphia. Mary Elizabeth Watkins married Mr. 
 George C. Rippard of Wilkes-Barre ; they now live in 
 Baltimore, Md. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Welles had two children, viz : 
 Mrs. Caspar R. Gregory, and Albert, who resides in 
 Scranton and is Professor of Chemistry in the High 
 School in Scranton. Another grandson of Mr. Hunt is 
 a medical student in Philadelphia. This young man 
 bears the name of his grandfather, Thomas P. Hunt. 
 
X. 
 
 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 
 THE REV. NATHAN GRIER PARKE, D. D. 
 
 THIS organization, as we have already shown, was 
 constituted by the Presbytery of Susquehanna more 
 than a year before the erection of the Presbytery of 
 Luzerne, and had for its field the entire valley of the 
 Lackawanna, except what was covered by the Carbon- 
 dale church. The settlements at that time were sparse, 
 and the aggregate population small. The territory 
 yielded but a meagre living to the inhabitants, but the 
 resources of the valley are at this time known, and are 
 attracting men and money for their development. 
 
 To meet this change, in the spring of 1844, the 
 pastor of the Wilkes-Barre church, who still had a 
 fatherly regard for the wants of that extended part of his 
 field for which the Lackawanna church was organized, was 
 looking about earnestly for a suitable man to take the 
 pastoral charge of it, and had fixed his eye upon Mr. J. 
 W. Sterling, a member of his own church who had taught 
 in Wilkes-Barre Academy, and was now completing his 
 theological course in Princeton. Mr. Sterling had made 
 temporary engagements to act as tutor in the College of 
 New Jersey, which he did not feel at liberty to abandon 
 at once, but being interested in the field and disposed to 
 take up the work proposed, he used his influence to have 
 
14^ PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 it supplied until he could himself take hold of it. He in- 
 duced a son of the manse, a Seminary classmate, to 
 undertake the work which had been offered him, viz ; 
 Nathan Grier Parke, a suggestive name to such as are 
 familiar with the history of the Presbyterian church 
 in this country. Mr. Parke's home was in York county. 
 Pa., near the Susquehanna and the Maryland line. His 
 father, the Rev. Samuel Parke, was an able, influential 
 minister and life-long pastor of the "Slate Ridge " Pres- 
 byterian church, which has become the mother of several 
 churches. The Rev. Samuel Parke maintained an Academy 
 also at Slate Ridge. This school made at least one State 
 Governor and United States Senator, Samuel J. Kirk- 
 wood, of Iowa. The writer also found, while a citizen 
 of Iowa, that the influence of another ministerial school 
 in the bounds of the Susquehanna Presbytery, gave Iowa 
 another Governor. This was the Hartford school, which 
 was an efficient cause leading C. C. Carpenter to the 
 exalted office which he occupied, but more by induction 
 than by actual personal training. The parents of young 
 Carpenter both died while he was a mere child, but they 
 and his older brothers had been led, by the influences and 
 instructions which had been brought to bear upon them 
 by this institution of learning, to highly prize education. 
 Young Cyrus had imbibed from this home atmosphere 
 that which, as the writer knows, caused him to make 
 heroic struggles to gain knowledge, — an effect certainly 
 traceable to the noble work of the Rev. Lyman Richard- 
 son and his brothers at Hartford Academy. 
 
 Senator Kirkvvood, who received the training in 
 early life to which he directly attributed all his success in 
 the world, said to the writer, when speaking of the im- 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. I47 
 
 portance of environments, " It is a good tiling for a boy 
 to be brought up in the family of a Presbyterian elder, if 
 he is able to stand it. It was good for me ; " alleging 
 that without the training to which he had been subjected, 
 he never would have reached the honorable positions 
 which he had occupied. He had then retired from public 
 life. At the same time he related an incident which took 
 place at Slate Ridge in his youth. In that community 
 innovations were not readily received or adopted. It 
 seems, however, some were more rigid than others. For 
 in the matter of church music, there was a desire on the 
 part of some, principally the young, to introduce new 
 tunes, from time to time. On one occasion, one of the 
 leaders in singing introduced a new tune, whereupon one 
 of the elders, a Mr. Talbot, arose and trotted out of the 
 house. Henceforth the young people called that tune 
 "Talbot's Trot." Sometime afterwards, just as another 
 new tune was beginning to attract attention, elder Kirk- 
 wood observed, through the window, that his horses had 
 become entangled in their harness, and left the house 
 more rapidly than elder Talbot had done. Therefore the 
 second new tune was named " Kirkwood's Canter." It is 
 from this community, where innovations were somewhat 
 restrained by careful conservatism, that our young mis- 
 sionary, mounted upon a young horse, the gift of his 
 father, turns his course to the upper waters of the Susque- 
 hanna, bearing with him the paternal blessing. While he 
 leaves a Christian home, he carries with him its genial, 
 sanctified atmosphere, which has been retained through 
 the trying days of College and Seminary life. Youthful, 
 hopeful, patient, he goes forth, not knowing all the Lord 
 had in store for him, cheerfully following the cloud and 
 
148 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 trusting the guide. While the young missionary looked 
 forward with hope, he looked back with gratitude to his 
 Christian home and his careful training. Especially has 
 he ever been ready to arise and called her blessed who 
 had so lovingly cared for him and trained him for his 
 future career. So also with all her children. This 
 mother, revered by her children, and indeed by all who 
 knew her, was also a child of the manse. Her father, the 
 Rev. Nathan Grier, D. D., one of the early graduates of 
 the University of Pennsylvania, was pastor of the Brandy- 
 wine Manor church. Of him, Dr, David McConaughy 
 says in his sketch of his life, "Dr. Grier was not only 
 eminently honored of God as a pastor in his congre- 
 gation, and as a faithful and very acceptable preacher of 
 the Gospel in the churches generally, but had an im- 
 portant instrumentality in directing and aiding young 
 men in their studies preparatory to the gospel ministry." 
 This was before the organization of Princeton Theo- 
 logical Seminary. His own sons became ministers. The 
 younger of the two succeeded him as pastor at the Forks 
 of the Brandy wine. The father and the son both spent 
 their entire ministerial lives in that one congregation. 
 He had three daughters ; two of these married ministers, 
 namely, Mrs. White and Mrs. Parke. The other married 
 a physician. Dr. Thompson. All of them were highly 
 useful and greatly honored, especially by the piety and 
 usefulness of their children. As we have already seen 
 God's covenant honored in the families which have 
 passed under our notice, so in this one and its extended 
 branches yet to be noticed. 
 
 Mrs. Parke seems to have been an eminently wise 
 and prudent mother, whose influence and prayers her 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 1 49 
 
 son, Nathan Grier, ever felt and remembered with the 
 deepest gratitude. From the Academy at Slate Ridge 
 he had been sent by his parents to Jefferson College, 
 then under the presidency of Dr. Mathew Brown, whose 
 memory is so revered by his students. His college life 
 seems to have been tranquil and prosperous. So also the 
 Princeton Seminary course, which was completed in the 
 spring of 1844, he receiving the regular certificate of 
 graduation. Mr. Parke had been licensed by the Pres- 
 bytery of Donegal, April, 1843, at Columbia, Pa. 
 
 After a brief visit to the home of his youth, Mr. 
 Parke was carried upon his faithful steed to the home of 
 Dr. Dorrance, in Wilkes-Barre, where he arrived about 
 the first day of June. The pastor was in attendance at 
 the General Assembly, and the young missionary supplied 
 his pulpit on the first Sabbath of June. The next 
 Sabbath found Mr. Parke in Pittston, then a small and 
 unimportant village, near the confluence of the Lacka- 
 wanna with the Susquehanna, and therefore at the 
 southern entrance of the Lackawanna Valley and northern 
 termination of the Wyoming Valley, a strategic point, 
 the advantages of which were but faintly foreshadowed at 
 that time. It was, however, one point designed to be 
 embraced in the operations of the little church which had 
 been organized some 6 or 8 miles up the Lackawanna 
 Valley, the name of which it received. This gives an 
 idea of the extent of the field our young missionary 
 was about entering. Assuming that the central point had 
 been selected for its organization, namely Scranton, and 
 that it was to be spread out nine miles in every direction, 
 this fact assumed, Mr. Parke entered upon a three 
 months' engagement to supply the place of another. 
 
150 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 That engagement extended to more than a half a century, 
 and the little church became a mother church, the centre 
 and source of life and nourishment to other outlying 
 communities. In tracing the history of what was 
 originally the Lackawanna Church under the pastorate of 
 one man, we have indeed a theme of no little magnityde. 
 
 We have already spoken of the organization of the 
 Lackawanna Church by the Presbytery of Susquehanna, 
 February, 1842, composed of the Presbyterians scattered 
 over almost the entire Lackawanna Valley, of which one 
 man had the pastoral oversight, until the Scranton 
 Church was organized in 1848, when the field was 
 divided. 
 
 The original population, or the greater part of it, 
 was similar to that which occupied the Wyoming Valley. 
 Afterwards a considerable element came into the Lacka- 
 wanna Valley from Rhode Island, New York, New 
 Jersey, d counties south in Pennsylvania, so that at 
 the time Mr. Parke entered the Lackawanna Valley, the 
 population had become more mixed ; yet it was a 
 population that seemed to have a general respect for 
 sacred things. Mr. Parke says, upon the authority of 
 Hon. Charles Miner, historian of the Wyoming Valley, 
 "In Pittston the leading families were during the Revo- 
 lutionary war, the Blanchards, Browns, Bennetts, Silbeys, 
 Marcys, Benedicts, St. Johns, and Swoyers, not omitting 
 the gallant Cooper." Many of those with whose names 
 we became familiar in Wilkes-Barre and vicinity are 
 found later in the Lackawanna Valley. 
 
 In an early day a number of Baptist families found 
 their way to Pittston and vicinity, among them were the 
 Giddings, Benedicts and Blanchards. The first church 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. I5I 
 
 organized in Pittston was a Baptist Church, as early as 1 776. 
 The people composing it were principally from Orange 
 County, New York. The organization, however, soon scat- 
 tered, or was abandoned, for the Baptists of Pittston after- 
 wards are found associated with the church of Abington, 
 the sub-strata of which consisted of emigrants from Rhode 
 Island. In 1844 a Baptist minister, familiarly known as 
 Elder Mott, resided in Hyde Park, now a part of the city 
 of Scranton. He had appointments for the alternate 
 weeks at Pittston, which was the only regular service held 
 there. While there were but three members of the 
 Presbyterian Church at that time in Pittston, Mr. Parke 
 found a Sabbath School conducted by a truly competent 
 business man, who has been up to this date an active, 
 earnest and universally esteemed Christian man, of 
 extensive influence, still a citizen of Pittston and pillar 
 of the Presbyterian Church, not only in Pittston and 
 vicinity, but in the church at large as well, viz., Theodore 
 Strong, a younger brother of the late Chief Justice 
 William Strong. 
 
 Several other Sabbath Schools had been previously 
 started in different places in the Lackawanna Valley, e. g., 
 the school at Providence was started by Isaac Hart, 
 father of Professor John S. Hart. He resided, in 1820, 
 near Providence, and was a school teacher and a Justice 
 of the Peace. He subsequently removed to Pittston, and 
 
 in 1825 estabhshed a Sabbath School there 
 
 "The first Sabbath School in Pittston township was 
 established in the old log school house on the premises of 
 Peter Winters, Esq., four and a half miles south of 
 Pittston, by Miss Mary Bowman, who superintended the 
 same, assisted by Messrs. John and Lord Butler." Squire 
 
152 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 Hart subsequently moved further down the Susquehanna, 
 nearer Wilkes-Barre, on Laurel Run. While he resided 
 at this place, Mary Gardner, afterwards Mrs. W. C. 
 Gildersleeve, Susan Mitchell and Mary Bowman, with 
 other ladies from Wilkes-Barre, became interested in 
 John S. Hart, the son of Squire Hart, and encouraged 
 him to prepare for college with a view to entering the 
 ministry. To the Pittston Sabbath School, and the 
 devoted Christian ladies who conducted it. Professor 
 Hart often referred with gratitude in his mature life,"* 
 The church and the cause of Christian education, as well 
 as Prof. Hart, owe a debt of gratitude to these pious 
 ladies. 
 
 Incidentally we have been led nearer to Wilkes- 
 Barre, and there is no impropriety in looking in that 
 direction again from the Lackawanna, for it was from 
 thence the influence had come which had been preparing 
 the way for the establishment of the new centre of life 
 and power we are to describe. We have already seen 
 that until the Lackawanna Church had been constituted, 
 February, 1842, the pastors of the Wilkes-Barre Church 
 generally regarded the Lackawanna Valley as a part of 
 their pastoral charge. The Sabbath Schools we have 
 referred to, and others, owed their origin to the labors, 
 especially of pastors Hoyt, Gildersleeve, and Dorrance, 
 labors which were abundant (in view of all things) in 
 this new field we are entering, and which prepared the 
 way for the new departure soon to be made by our young 
 missionary. 
 
 It is proper that the efficient aid rendered to Dr. 
 Dorrance in caring for his outposts, especially that which 
 
 •Rev. N. G. Parke's Historical Sermon. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. I 53 
 
 was SO abundantly and freely rendered by the Rev. 
 Thomas P. Hunt, in this and in other parts of the new 
 Presbytery, should be noted, and from time to time 
 young men, as Messrs. Thomas Owen and John Turbitt, 
 had under Dr. Dorrance's supervision done more or less 
 preaching during their probation in this general region. 
 The Rev. Oren Brown may also have put in a part of his 
 time in this section of the Presbytery, but as far as we 
 can ascertain his time was mostly devoted to Falls 
 and Northmoreland Churches. After the organization 
 of the Lackawanna Church, Mr. Charles Evans was 
 employed more definitely for a part of his time in this 
 valley. Now, however, Mr. Parke's labors were designed 
 to cover all the ground, as he informs us in a historical 
 sermon, referring to the points occupied. He says, "I 
 was expected to preach once in two weeks in Pittston, and 
 as often in Scranton. Then I was expected to preach in 
 Providence and Hyde Park, and Taylorville, and the 
 Plains, and in Newton and Abington as often as I could 
 find it convenient to do so." No contraction of this 
 extended field was made till the spring of 1848. Upon 
 this work we find him entering on the ninth of June, 
 1844, in the little Red School House in the little village 
 of Pittston. 
 
 There was then set before him an open door which 
 he cheerfully and hopefully entered, in the name of the 
 Master. Not many greeted him at first, but he was 
 cordially welcomed by a few choice spirits. Friendships 
 were then formed which lasted through the long drawn 
 out three months of Dr. Parke's ministry. To these 
 friends very many more were added, and few, if any, 
 estranged, by the amiable young minister, who never 
 
154 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 became old, in feelings, yet, in the course of a few years 
 did not appear quite so boyish as in 1844. 
 
 The Lackawanna Church was scarcely conscious of 
 church life when Mr. Parke came into its bounds, through 
 the agency of Dr. Dorrance acting for the Presbytery 
 and for the church recently organized. Therefore he 
 had not received a call from the people, backed up by a 
 promise of support. Nor had the Board of Domestic 
 Missions (such was the corporate name of the Board at 
 that time) held out encouraging promises of support. 
 One hundred dollars it had promised. The young 
 minister having no entangling alliances, was not anxious 
 about the question of support, and there was a sentiment 
 in his field, although as yet animating few, that the 
 Lord's servants should be provided for while doing His 
 work. The first year, however, less than one hundred 
 dollars in money was contributed on the field. Mr. 
 Parke was never heard to complain, nor was he ever 
 known to want. Among other good results of his long 
 pastorate, a wholesome, generous sentiment was developed 
 in his people with regard to the proper provision for 
 maintaining the means of grace among themselves, and 
 the duty of aiding in sending the gospel where its divine 
 benefits were not so well known as to be appreciated. 
 
 Taking Pittston as the starting point, let us follow 
 Mr. Parke, in 1844, around his circuit. The services, 
 beginning at 10:30, a. m., have closed. We start up the 
 Lackawanna three miles and a half, dine with Mr. 
 Atherton, return half a mile and attend services at a 
 school house in the vicinity of what is known as 
 Taylorville, where another service is held at 3 p. m. 
 Then follow the river some four or five miles further 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. I55 
 
 towards its source, over densely shaded and rough roads 
 to near the mouth of Roaring Brook where the forest is 
 somewhat subdued ; for efforts have been made there to 
 mine coal and make iron, and quite a little village has 
 sprung into life. This is "Slocum Hollow," where a few 
 choice spirits are met. We are cordially received and 
 entertained, and at the regular evening hour another 
 service is held, with an intelligent little congregation, 
 observing all the proprieties of an older community of 
 Christians. We worship in a little union church 
 building, which afterwards passed into the possession of 
 the Methodist Episcopal brethren, but by Just what 
 process is not a matter of record. The night is 
 pleasantly spent in the Hollow, among friends. On 
 Monday, all necessary pastoral work is attended to before 
 returning to the new found home of the young minister. 
 The next Sabbath, the work is begun at Slocum 
 Hollow. After the first service and a hasty dinner, the 
 minister mounts his horse and leaves the river, turning 
 his face towards the mountain westward, and by a bridle 
 path scales the Moosic range. Both the ascent and 
 descent are abrupt, but the spirited, steady-footed steed 
 quickly makes the passage, and at the end of about nine 
 miles another service at 3:30 p. m. is held at the 
 *Newton Centre school house; and thence the mounted 
 minister makes his way to Pittston, the place of 
 beginning, and at 7:30 holds another service. The next 
 week with Pittston and Slocum Hollow, Providence is 
 perhaps taken in, and then Hyde Park, and Abington, 
 some five miles northwest of Scranton, or rather Slocum 
 Hollow, for Scranton had not yet been born. 
 
 ♦This is the Fallstown church, afterwards changed to Newton. 
 
156 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 At this time, no house of worship had been erected 
 by any denomination, except the little union church at 
 Scranton, and perhaps a Baptist church at Abington. 
 
 The Pennsylvania canal had reached Pittston a short 
 time before, and the coal trade was stimulated. The 
 Butler and Pennsylvania Coal Companies were already in 
 operation, and other companies were soon formed. The 
 population began to increase rapidly. Of the thirty 
 members who were, in Feb., 1842, organized as the 
 Lackawanna Presbyterian church, five of these seem to 
 have resided in Pittston, viz., Mrs. Giddings, her sister 
 Fanny McCalpin, James Helm, Sarah Blackman, and 
 Sarah Austin. It was soon made evident to Mr. Parke 
 that that point was to become to him his most important 
 centre of operations, and measures were soon inaugurated 
 for the erection of a Presbyterian church there. The 
 work was carried to completion during the summer of 
 1846. A neat, comfortable brick building was erected 
 in the northern part of the village, and dedicated free 
 from debt, the cost being about j2,ooo. Rev. Dr. 
 David X. Junkin preached the dedication sermon. The 
 Rev. T. L. Cuyler, then doing his first preaching at 
 Kingston, was present at the service. 
 
 Mr. Parke was ordained by the Luzerne Presbytery 
 July 7th, 1846, as an evangelist, and was formally 
 installed pastor of the Lackawanna church in 1847. In 
 1848 the field was divided by the organization of the 
 Harrison church. The name Harrison had been given 
 to Slocum Hollow, but was soon after changed to 
 Scranton. 
 
 This new organization was separated, ipso facto, from 
 the Lackawanna church, and possessed all the functions 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 157 
 
 of a local church. Mr. Parke, of course, remained 
 pastor of the rest of the field, but the new church invited 
 him to continue as its stated supply through the 
 remainder of the current year, which he did. 
 
 About this time, by the action of the Presbytery, 
 the name of the Lackawanna church was changed to the 
 First Presbyterian Church of Pittston, and was regularly 
 incorporated. 
 
 Formal articles of incorporation were adopted by the 
 Pittston church in 1848, in the summer of which year 
 another house of worship was erected and dedicated in 
 what was known as the Atherton neighborhood, in which 
 the major part of the original Lackawanna church resided. 
 The place is now known as Taylor. The church, 
 however, which was for many years occupied as a regular 
 preaching station by Mr. Parke, was for a time abandoned 
 by the Presbyterians. It is now again occupied by them, 
 and a new church organized. During the same year, 
 1848, the Newton Presbyterian church was erected, the 
 work having been inaugurated by Mr. Parke while it was 
 still a part of his field, and provision was made for its 
 completion before he relinquished his care of the Newton 
 church. Dr. Parke says in his Historical sermon that 
 this church was erected in 1850; but, as to date, this is a 
 mistake. 
 
 Thus stakes were being driven and preparation made 
 for future successful work. Another arrangement of no 
 little importance to the young pastor and his work had 
 been proceeding quietly, by which the ties between 
 Wilkes-Barre and Pittston were to be strengthened, and 
 the Levitical succession honored, which was, on the 8th 
 of June, 1847, proclaimed to the world and solemnly 
 
158 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 sanctioned, viz., the marriage of the Rev. Nathan Grier 
 Parke, in Wilkes-Barre, by his father, to Miss Ann 
 Elizabeth Gildersleeve. Many still living in Lackawanna 
 valley remembered her grandfather, the Rev. Cyrus 
 Gildersleeve, the faithful Wilkes-Barre pastor of former 
 years ; and many there were who respected the sterling 
 qualities of her father, Mr. W. C. Gildersleeve, a man in 
 some respects, especially on the subject of the abolition 
 of slavery, in advance of his generation ; and they hailed 
 the advent of the young minister's wife. When they 
 knew her, they also hailed her presence for her own sake; 
 nor did they ever change their just estimation of her 
 excellence. And doubtless she made him whom they 
 had longer known and loved still more worthy of their 
 regard. Of the immediate parties in the transaction we 
 are noting, the Hon. Alfred Hand says, twenty-five years 
 after this important event, upon the occasion of the 
 celebration of a quarter of a century of the life of the 
 Scranton Presbyterian church, the offshoot from the 
 church of Lackawanna ; 
 
 "The Rev. N. G. Parke, who has the honor, not 
 simply of laying the foundation walls, but of clearing 
 away the scrub oak, and digging the foundation trench, 
 is entitled to all honor for his faithfulness. We welcome 
 him here with warm hearts to-night. 'How beautiful 
 upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth 
 good tidings, that publisheth peace.' In mountain paths, 
 over rough roads, at far distant stations, in stormy and 
 fair weather, he served his Master, and we are reaping 
 the fruits of his labors. While Mr. Parke labored here, 
 EHsha Atherton generously gave him a home at his house, 
 and stood by him until he married a wife, and then Mr. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. I 59 
 
 Atherton very reasonably concluded that Mr. Parke 
 could stand without him, a conclusion which subsequent 
 events have fully verified." It maybe added that the 
 wives of the pastors generally, of Luzerne Presbytery, 
 have enabled their husbands to stand firmly where 
 perhaps they would have stood feebly without them. 
 
 Dr. Parke was, at the time of his marriage, a settled 
 pastor on a pledged salary of J8400 per year. His 
 installation took place July 7th, 1847. A commodious 
 parsonage was built on lots contributed by Miss Mira 
 Giddings, which was completed in the spring of 1851, 
 and was the first parsonage in the Presbytery. This 
 located the pastor in the new centre of his field. In 
 securing this advantage the congregation is understood to 
 have been liberally aided. It was an expression of 
 paternal regard, fraternal sentiment, and Christian zeal. 
 
 When the Pittston church was built, Mr. Strong's 
 Sabbath School was moved into it. Not only was this 
 school maintained in vigor and prosperity, but other 
 schools were established at different points in the valley, 
 where they are now organized churches with pastors. 
 
 In 1850, Pittston church had become self-sustaining. 
 Scranton also was a self-sustaining church, and Newton 
 and Abington had been taken from Mr. Parke's original 
 field. Three houses of worship had been erected, and 
 paid for, three ministers instead of one, were devoting all 
 their time to the work. 
 
 At this time Mr. Parke had been relieved of many of 
 his long rides. He had, during the years of his itineracy, 
 greatly extended his acquaintance with the people. His 
 preaching in his various stations had been well attended. 
 The common people heard him gladly. He preached 
 
l6o PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 the pure gospel plainly. As he told the writer, his plan 
 was, not to include many thoughts in a sermon, but to 
 make the leading and important theme of his discourse 
 very plain, and impress it on the minds of his hearers. 
 This he generally succeeded in doing. An intelligent 
 lady told me not long ago, that she remembered some 
 things in the first sermon she heard him deliver, forty-six 
 years ago. Among these, he said some people had just 
 religion enough to make them unhappy, but not enough 
 to bring them into the enjoyment of the gospel. He 
 generally wrote his sermons fully out, but used his manu- 
 script with much freedom and fluency. He was a good, 
 plain, forcible preacher. He did not aim at brilliancy ; 
 on the other hand, he was not dull. There was heart in 
 his delivery. And while his bearing was not of the 
 Chesterfieldian order, there was nothing particularly ob- 
 jectionable, except it might have been a habit of tossing 
 his head quickly to adjust the hair on his forehead, 
 which, in former days, was allowed to grow longer than 
 at present. 
 
 Mr. Parke was eminently social in his disposition, 
 and equable in his temper. The writer, during a long 
 association with him as a neighboring pastor, never saw 
 him perturbed. He was open to counsel, and respected 
 the opinions of others ; yet he was firm in his own con- 
 victions. He had passed through both college and semi- 
 nary without acquiring the habit of using tobacco. 
 
 While Mr. Parke wrote no books, he has been, from 
 early life, a frequent contributor to our church papers. 
 In this correspondence we find the same general char- 
 acteristics that we have found in his sermons — clearness, 
 directness and force. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. l6l 
 
 After the death of Mr. Richard Webster, the pastor 
 of the Pittston church became the efficient stated clerk of 
 the Presbytery, which office he long held. He was a 
 good and faithful Presbyter. The growth of Pittston was 
 rapid in the earlier years of '50, and the building in- 
 creased towards the south, and over the river. The first 
 house of worship was becoming too small, and was some- 
 what out of the center of the congregation. Another, 
 with ampler dimensions, and to be located more favorably, 
 was projected, which meant, with those who had the mat- 
 ter in hand, its erection according to the plans and 
 specifications. This was accomplished in 1857; not, 
 however, without a struggle, for during the years of 
 preparation and work upon the new structure, there had 
 been a season of depression in business. Some of the 
 pioneers who had struggled to build the first sanctuary 
 were still upon the ground, and with unabated zeal and 
 devotion aided the work. 
 
 Growth and stability were thus secured at Pittston, 
 and ultimately to the concurrent work of the churches in 
 all the adjacent communities. Presbyterianism, properly 
 understood, teaches that the true prosperity of any part of 
 the family is the enlargement of the whole body, and 
 thereby the more emphatic testimony to the value of the 
 truth as it is in Jesus. We are not to follow to the end, 
 or even to the present date, all the influence of the church 
 we are dealing with, nor the life of its pastor, who has 
 enjoyed the enviable privilege of such a prolonged pas- 
 torate of one ever prosperous church. We have only 
 been able to note the beginnings of salutary and uplifting 
 influences, as, in a few instances, they are observed to 
 crystalize, attracting light and reflecting it in new di- 
 rections with ever increasing intensity. 
 
1 62 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 Washington and Jefferson College conferred on Mr. 
 Parke the honorary degree of D. D. in 1884. He, with 
 Dr. Milo, of Hickok, in 1867, had the honor of repre- 
 senting our General Assembly in the General Assemblies 
 of the Free and the United Presbyterian Churches of 
 Scotland, and Dr. Parke's own people took pleasure in 
 meeting all the expenses of the mission. 
 
 He is still with us to see the fruits of his work ; Mrs. 
 Parke also. -If spared until June 8th, 1897, they will 
 have been married fifty years. Three sons and one 
 daughter occupy honorable positions in the church and in 
 civil life. Three of the children of Dr. and Mrs. Parke 
 have preceded them to the heavenly rest. 
 
 At the close of the fiftieth year of Dr. Parke's 
 ministry, he resigned his pastoral charge and was made 
 Pastor Emeritus of the church he had served so long, a 
 position which he still holds. During the session of the 
 adjourned meeting of the Lackawanna Presbytery in 
 Pittston Presbyterian Church, June 4th, 1894, after the 
 adoption of the papers for record of the Fiftieth Anni- 
 versary of the Rev. Dr. N. G. Parke's ministry, a 
 committee consisting of Revs. W. Scott Stites, P. H. 
 Brooks, F. B. Hodge, D. D., S. C. Logan, D. D., and 
 S. M. Parke, Esq., was appointed to prepare the minutes 
 of this meeting for publication, and publish them, to- 
 gether with the adopted report of the committee. This 
 was done in a brief memorial, entitled, "Fifty Golden 
 Years." 
 
XI. 
 
 OTHER EARLY MINISTERS OF THE 
 PRESBYTERY. 
 
 THE Rev. Charles A. Evans had come to this country 
 in 1839 from Ballybay, Ireland. He had graduated 
 from Belfast College the same year, and after studying 
 Theology for some time privately, spent some two years 
 in Princeton Theological Seminary. These facts would 
 seem to indicate that he was one of that numerous class 
 to which the Presbyterian Church in this country is so 
 greatly indebted, the Scotch-Irish, but his name raises 
 the question as to whether he was not a Welsh-Irishman. 
 He was licensed by the Newton Presbytery. He was 
 commissioned to labor in the Lackawanna Valley, and in 
 Fallstown, in 1841. Before the organization of the 
 Presbytery of Luzerne, he was engaged in missionary 
 work in its subsequent territory. He was, by the act 
 which constituted the new Presbytery, transferred to it, 
 and his ordination provided for, upon his accepting the 
 call of the Northmoreland Church which was tendered 
 him. Thus his ordination, which took place November 
 13th, 1843, was the first in the Presbytery of Luzerne. 
 He was the first and the only pastor formally installed 
 over the Northmoreland Church. It had been organized 
 among the earliest of the regularly constituted churches 
 in Luzerne County, viz., Dec. 9, 1821. A house of 
 worship had been erected a year previous. The circum- 
 
164 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 Stances of the organization are not, so far as we know, a 
 matter of record. There were, at tlie beginning, fifteen 
 members. The names of the original elder and deacon 
 are given as Daniel Locke and Leonard House ; subse- 
 quent elders were Jehiel Fuller, Ebenezer Brown, and 
 Isaac Harris. 
 
 The first minister, as far as we know, was the Rev. 
 John Rhodes, who seems to have ministered in that 
 community a long time and some of his descendants 
 resided there long afterwards. The Rev. Mr. Corss tells 
 us he came from a Congregational Association in New 
 Jersey (but such associations were not numerous at that 
 time in N. J.), and that he had been brought up among 
 the Moravians. He seems to have been active and 
 energetic. We find him taking part in the organization 
 of several churches, and acting as their supply. He was 
 an earnest worker. The Rev. Isaac Todd supplied 
 Northmoreland for a time, also the Rev. Thomas Owen, 
 and perhaps others, before the Rev. Charles A. Evans was 
 installed pastor in 1848. At this time the church reported 
 thirty-five members. 
 
 Mr. Evans continued pastor of Northmoreland till 
 April, 1846. While a licentiate and after his ordination 
 he had given a part of his time to the Lackawanna 
 Church, which included the whole valley, except Carbon- 
 dale, till Dr. Parke came, June, 1844. He is represented 
 as a faithful and successful worker. He was released 
 from his pastorate, April, 1846, in order that he might 
 accept a charge in a Dutch Reformed Church at Durham, 
 New York. He subsequently was pastor of a church of 
 the same denomination at Moresville, N. Y. , where his 
 work was greatly blessed. He afterwards returned to the 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 1 65 
 
 Presbyterian Church and became stated supply of the 
 churches of State Line City and Lebanon, Ind., from 
 1859 to 1862. He was Professor of Anatomy in Ohio 
 Central College (U. P.) 1870-1873 ; after which he 
 resided in South Bend, Ind.; from thence going forth 
 in various directions in the performance of missionary 
 work as he was able. His health for a long time being 
 greatly impaired, he died in his 73d year, confiding fully 
 in the Redeemer. He left a wife, whom he had married 
 in 1844 — her maiden name being Miss Sarah Marshall 
 Harris, of Dutchess Co., N. Y. — and two children, all 
 that remained of eight that had been born to them. 
 They are Sarah, the wife of Dr. John C. Wallace, and the 
 Rev. Charles A. Evans, pastor of Christ Presbyterian 
 Church at Lebanon, Pa. Thus he lives in the children 
 whom God had given him. 
 
 Mr. George W. Perkins, a licentiate of the Presbytery 
 of Philadelphia, spent a year or two as a supply of the 
 Northmoreland Church after graduating from Princeton 
 Seminary, viz., from 1846 to 1848. He afterwards 
 affiliated with the Moravians. 
 
 The Rev. Ashbel Green Harned was the second 
 minister inducted into the pastoral office by the new 
 Presbytery. This took place on the fourth day of May, 
 1844, he having been ordained at the same time. He 
 was made the first pastor of the Summit Hill Church 
 which, as we have seen, was originally a part of the Rev. 
 Richard Webster's field, but had been formally organized 
 as a church in 1839, and remained under the same 
 ministration till the spring of 1842, after which it was 
 supplied a few months by the Rev. Dr. Wm. E. Schenck, 
 then a young man. He also supplied Tamaqua. He 
 
1 66 
 
 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 was followed for a short time by the Rev. John H. 
 Rittenhouse, a licentiate of Northumberland Presbytery. 
 Summit Church, at this time, had forty-four members. 
 
 Mr. Harned was born in the city of Philadelphia, 
 May 23, 1817. His parents gave him the name of one of 
 the most honored representatives of Presbyterianism in 
 that city, "Ashbel Green." This, in connection with 
 the eminent Presbyterian teachers whom they selected to 
 fit their son for college, would imply, in the absence of 
 positive statements to that effect, that they designed him 
 for the ministry of the Presbyterian Church. We find, 
 too, that his own mind was early impressed by spiritual 
 things, for at the age of seventeen he voluntarily took 
 upon himself the covenant which parental faith had 
 recognized in his behalf. At that time he became a 
 member of the Second Presbyterian Church in his native 
 city. He was graduated from the University of Pennsyl- 
 vania in 1838. The next year he taught in the High 
 School at Norristown, Pa. Entering Princeton Theo- 
 logical Seminary in 1839, yet still employing a part of 
 his time in teaching at Norristown, he completed the 
 entire course in four instead of three years, or 1843. 
 
 The next year, after being licensed by the Presbytery 
 of Philadelphia, June 27th, 1843, he spent in supplying 
 the Presbyterian Church at Frederick City, Md. After 
 which, as we have already noted, he entered upon his 
 first regular pastorate in the town of Summit Hill. This 
 town was one of the coal producing villages, and was a 
 fair representative of such places in Pennsylvania. The 
 percentage of intelligent, thinking people in such places 
 is rather above than below that of the average village. 
 This at least was the case in the earlier days of Summit 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 1 67 
 
 Hill. Even among the miners proper were found many 
 thoughtful, reading men, and the operators and managers 
 were men of much intelligence and enterprise. And, in 
 these days they were men who gave much encouragement 
 to the work of a devoted minister of the gospel. The 
 church work at Summit Hill had already been well begun 
 by Mr. Webster, and there were many good and faithful 
 Sabbath School teachers there when Mr. Harned took it 
 up. We are told that he labored faithfully and success- 
 fully in this church until released, April 17th, 1856 — 
 about twelve years — -the membership numbering at this 
 time about 100. In the meantime many had been 
 dismissed to other churches, new coal enterprises had 
 taken whole colonies from this and older mining towns, 
 consisting of operators and miners. This is the discourag- 
 ing feature of such fields as Summit Hill. 
 
 Mr. Harned was a man of accurate and extensive 
 learning, but very modest and retiring withal, perhaps 
 somewhat wanting in that self-assertion, which often gives 
 greater currency to men of less ability. He did not 
 seem to have a very strong physical frame, although a 
 person of comely appearance. 
 
 Mr. Harned, soon after he was settled at Summit 
 Hill, married Miss Catherine Hugg Fatzinger, daughter 
 of Mr. John Fatzinger. She was an amiable and 
 intelligent lady, whose usefulness and enjoyment were 
 very much hindered by protracted ill health. She was a 
 great sufferer during many years. 
 
 After resigning at Summit Hill, Mr. Harned taught 
 a Classical school in Mauch Chunk for several years. At 
 the same time he became stated supply of the Presbyterian 
 church of Slatington, and on June 29th, i860, was 
 
l68 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 formally installed as pastor there, which position he held 
 till October 4th, 1865. He acted as agent of the 
 Pennsylvania Colonization Society during 1866 and 1867, 
 after which he became Principal of the Luzerne Presby- 
 terial Institute, at Wyoming, thus returning to the 
 Presbytery of Luzerne, and supplying the churches of 
 Northmoreland and Lehman in connection with his 
 principalship, during the years 1868 and 1869. In April, 
 
 1870, he began to act ^ stated supply of the Newton 
 church, and subsequently was installed pastor, Nov. 23rd, 
 
 1 87 1. After being released from Newton, 1877, he was 
 for some time a missionary at Grand Tunnel, Pa., and 
 the stated supply of Waldo and Columbia churches. 
 This was his last charge. Being laid aside by nervous 
 prostration, which not only seriously affected his physical 
 strength, but his mind as well, he returned to his native 
 city for medical aid. Human help, however, seems to 
 have been inadequate, except to soothe in some measure 
 his sufferings and quiet his mind. Oct. 16, 1881, he 
 ended his earthly career, aged sixty-five. The writer of 
 his obituary says of him, "He closed in peace and hope a 
 quiet, unobtrusive life, into which had come many cares 
 and sorrows. He was truly a good man, of warm heart 
 and gentle manners, and an excellent scholar." His 
 wife had ceased from her earthly career five years before 
 him. He left six children to mourn his departure, five 
 daughters and one son. 
 
XII. 
 REV. JACOB DELVILLE MITCHELL, D. D. 
 
 THE Rev. Jacob Delville Mitchell was the third man 
 ordained and installed by the Presbytery of 
 Luzerne ; and made pastor of the Kingston Presbyterian 
 church Sept. 24th, 1845. The sermon of the occasion 
 was preached by a former pastor, the Rev. Alexander 
 Heberton. Mr. Mitchell, like Mr. Harned, was from 
 Philadelphia, the son of an influential Presbyterian family 
 who provided for his thorough and careful instruction in 
 the best institutions. After leaving college he is under- 
 stood to have engaged in secular pursuits for some time, 
 but when it pleased God to reveal unto him His Son, 
 Jesus Christ, he was led to devote himself to preparation 
 for the gospel ministry. He entered Princeton Theo- 
 logical Seminary in 1842, and, as seen above, in 1845 
 we find him regularly inducted into the sacred office. 
 
 From the beginning of his ministry, Mr. Mitchell's 
 sermons were regarded as superior, and were delivered 
 with such an unction as to produce a profound impression, 
 although they were written throughout, and delivered 
 with the manuscript before him. His appearance showed 
 him to be possessed of a fine physical development, and 
 his utterances indicated the grasp of a strong and well 
 stored mind. His preaching was with the emotion which 
 showed the heart interest of the preacher in the truth 
 communicated and in those to whom he addressed it, as 
 
170 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 well as a due sense of his responsibility as a messenger of 
 Divine truth, and as one who watched for souls ; yet over 
 his emotions, which were intense, he maintained perfect 
 control. 
 
 These facts, if we mistake not, account for the fact 
 that, notwithstanding Mr. Mitchell's appearance of great 
 manly strength, his labors were soon interrupted by ill 
 health, much to the regret of his people. For a time 
 during his pastorate at Kingston, he was obliged to call 
 to his aid for several months the Rev. Theodore L. 
 Cuyler, at the very beginning of his long, useful and 
 honored ministry, and Dr. Cuyler doubtless learned some 
 lessons in Wyoming Valley which have made his fruitful 
 ministry more so than it otherwise would have been. 
 Kingston church ardently cherished his memory and 
 early instructions, as-from time to time it followed him in 
 his work in the great cities where God blessed his 
 prolonged, acceptable, wise and faithful ministry. 
 
 It was during the pastorate of Mr. Mitchell that the 
 part of the Kingston congregation which gathered for 
 religious services in the little chapel which had been built 
 on the cemetery grounds, near the village of Troy, 
 (subsequently called Wyoming,) came to the determination 
 to ask Presbytery to constitute them a separate church. 
 This was the first attempt to divide the Kingston 
 congregation; but we learn of no opposition on the part 
 of the mother church or the pastor. The committee that 
 approached Presbytery with reference to the matter 
 consisted of Messrs. Thomas X. Atherton, Peter Barber 
 and Charles Fuller; Presbytery being in session at 
 Berwick, April, 1847. The petition borne by this 
 committee was signed by thirty names. It set forth the 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. IJl 
 
 fact that "the members of the Kingston church residing 
 in the village of Wyoming and vicinity were desirous of 
 securing for themselves and their families more frequent 
 and constant enjoyinent of the means of grace, and 
 therefore they requested to be organized into a separate 
 and distinct church. ' ' Presbytery, by a unanimous votej 
 granted the request of the petitioners and appointed 
 Reverends John Dorrance, T. P. Hunt, N. G. Parke and 
 Elder Charles D. Shoemaker to organize the church, if 
 they found the way clear to do so. The committee met 
 May 4th, 1847. In the absence of Mr. Dorrance the 
 sermon was preached by the Rev. Jacob Belville, of 
 Baltimore Presbytery. Mr. Hunt presided. The organi- 
 zation was effected and completed by the election and 
 installation of the following members as ruling elders, 
 viz., Henry Hice, R. E. Marvine, Charles Fuller, and S. 
 C. Ensign, all of them having previously held the same 
 office in other churches. 
 
 The organization of the Wyoming church of course 
 greatly weakened the Kingston church and gave it a much 
 more circumscribed field. Mr. Mitchell's health failing, 
 he was obliged to resign his pastoral charge, but during 
 the summer he so far recovered as to be able to supply the 
 new church of Wyoming, which knew well his pulpit 
 ability and eagerly sought his services. Mr. Mitchell 
 continued to have charge of the new church till the 
 spring of 1849. At that time an enterprise was under- 
 taken which had deeply engaged the attention of certain 
 members of the Presbytery of Luzerne and citizens of 
 Wyoming. Prominent, if not principal, among the 
 latter class, was Mr. Thomas F. Atherton. This move- 
 ment had reached such a stage of advancement that it 
 
172 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 called for wise, personal management. It was the opening 
 of the Luzerne Presbyterial Institute at that place. To 
 this work the Trustees elected the Rev. J. Delville 
 Mitchell, and in accepting its principalship he relin- 
 quished his charge of the Wyoming church. Thus Dr. 
 Mitchell became personally identified with the important 
 work which the Luzerne Presbyterial Institute did in 
 behalf of Christian education. While it did not accom- 
 plish all that its founders hoped from it, there are many 
 of its students in various honorable and responsible po- 
 sitions, whose character and usefulness speak emphatically 
 in testimony of the good work which the able and devoted 
 teachers and founders performed during the period of its 
 active operations. Of these agents in carrying forward 
 the school, we will have more to say as we proceed. 
 
 Dr. Mitchell was not allowed to continue long with 
 the infant institution, as his services as a preacher and 
 pastor were wanted in developing the work which had 
 been so auspiciously begun in the coming city of Scran- 
 ton. The development of the Presbyterian church there, 
 was to keep pace with the advance in business and the 
 growth of civic institutions in that remarkable city, under 
 the leadership of the men who had explored the wilder- 
 ness where it was to be built, laid out the railroads, sunk 
 the deep shafts that opened up the valuable minerals, the 
 coal and the iron, erected the furnaces, and, as the peo- 
 ple increased, built homes for themselves and others, and 
 gave care to the municipal regulations of the rising 
 metropolis. These men, many of them at least, loved the 
 church of God and cared for the souls of men. Mr. 
 Mitchell is called to identify his efforts with theirs in 
 church work, and for the present we leave him till we 
 come to speak of the Scranton church and its pastors again. 
 
XIII. 
 
 REV. B. F. BITTENGER, D. D. 
 
 AS we have seen, the Rev. Richard Webster extended 
 his missionary labors to the Schuylkill Valley, at a 
 number of points, notable among them, Tamaqua, on the 
 Little Schuylkill river. This point had long been cared 
 for by Mr. Webster and such young ministers as from 
 time to time came to his assistance. Yet no organized 
 church of our denomination is found there till July nth, 
 1846, nor do we learn of a settled minister in Tamaqua 
 till 1847, when Benjamin F. Bittenger is found on the 
 ground. On the second of November of the same year 
 he was ordained as an evangelist at that place. The 
 probability is that he had been there some months before 
 his ordination. Tamaqua early enjoyed railroad commu- 
 nication with Philadelphia, and was quite a centre of 
 coal operations in that part of Schuylkill county. These 
 operations were largely in the hands of Philadelphia 
 capitalists. A number of these were Presbyterians who 
 deeply interested themselves in the religious welfare of 
 that general region. Messrs. Newkirk and Buck, es- 
 pecially, generously assisted in the planting of the Pres- 
 byterian church in Tamaqua. At their own expense, or 
 nearly so, they erected a commodious and handsome 
 church there, which is still standing and doing good ser- 
 vice. But it must be confessed the cause languished not 
 a little when this firm ceased to do business in Tamaqua. 
 
174 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 What they had done, however, greatly aided in holding 
 together the things that remained when they were no 
 longer at hand to foster the cause. 
 
 Mr. Bittenger was born at Waynesboro, Penn., and 
 while we have learned little of his earlier years and edu- 
 cation, we find he had at least one brother who was a 
 Presbyterian minister and who was educated in Columbian 
 College, D. C. Benjamin F. was a faithful student in 
 Princeton Theological Seminary, where he took the full 
 course, and after graduation located in Tamaqua as his 
 first charge. The church grew under his ministration. 
 Mr. Bittenger, however, was never formally installed at 
 Tamaqua, and only continued to supply the church till 
 1850, after which he was a stated supply, in Winchester 
 Presbytery, Va. , of the Lewinsville church ; subsequently 
 pastor from 1852-1857 ; then pastor of the Seventh street 
 church, Washington, D. C.,from '5 7-' 63, when he be- 
 came pastor at Elliott City, Md., continuing till '67; 
 then taking charge of the Westminster church, Wash- 
 ington, D. C, where he still holds the fort. In 1877 the 
 Pennsylvania College conferred on him the degree of 
 Doctor of Divinity. He has been from the beginning a 
 rising man, useful and successful in his several fields. He 
 has long been stated clerk of his Presbytery,* and has 
 published several useful books. 
 
 The Rev. Darwin Cook, of whom we have written 
 above, and whose ordination in Feb., 1846, was the fifth 
 by the Presbytery of Luzerne, had performed missionary 
 work in the vicinity of Tamaqua, and had also, during 
 the first years of his ministry, as his special field, the 
 villages of Donaldson and Fremont, where houses of 
 
 ' Washington City Presbytery. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 1 75 
 
 worship were erected. A church was organized at 
 Donaldson. The work at these points was fostered by 
 friends of our church in Philadelphia, who were also 
 interested in coal operations in this region, but seems to 
 have had no great measure of success. This, no doubt, 
 was owing to interruptions and changes in the mining 
 operations, and the fact that the original settlers, the 
 permanent part of the population of Schuylkill county 
 outside of the larger towns, were Germans and did not 
 readily affiliate with the Presbyterian church. Therefore, 
 the Donaldson church, while it continued on the roll of 
 Presbytery till 1867, was only irregularly supplied and 
 often vacant, and was finally dissolved ; its property, 
 consisting of two churches, was sold to the Lutherans. 
 
XIV. 
 THE REV. WILLIAM RENWICK GLEN 
 
 AND 
 
 SCHUYLKILL VALLEY MISSIONS. 
 
 THE Rev. William Renwick Glen, was born in 
 Scotland, January 12, 181 2. He had acquired, after 
 completing his rudimentary education, a practical knowl- 
 edge of the trade of a machinist, and while prosecuting 
 it at Matteawan, N. Y., for the support of his family, he 
 so inspired the Presbyterian church in that place with 
 confidence in him as an intelligent and upright man, 
 devoted Christian and loyal Presbyterian, that it elected 
 him a ruling elder. His acceptable and efficient per- 
 formance of his duties as an elder led the Matteawan 
 church to undertake to provide for his education in 
 preparation for the office of the gospel ministry ; and 
 after he had mastered such preparatory study as fitted him 
 to meet the requirements of the church, we find him 
 entering Princeton Theological Seminary in 1845, to 
 which place he had taken his family, then consisting of 
 his wife and several children. 
 
 Mr. Glenn stood well among his fellow students and 
 the professors, faithfully meeting all the requirements of 
 the Institution, and graduating with his class in the spring 
 of 1848. He soon afterwards entered upon mission 
 work in Schuylkill Valley; Joseph Mitchell, Esq., and 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 1 7/ 
 
 Other Presbyterian friends in Pliiladelphia providing for 
 the support of the mission. His field included New 
 Philadelphia, Middleport and other coaleries between 
 Tamaqua and Port Carbon. A church was organized, 
 soon after Mr. Glen entered upon his work, designed for 
 the general field, named the Schuylkill Valley church, 
 and a house of worship was erected at Middleport. 
 December loth, 1850, Mr. Glen was ordained as an 
 evangelist and continued to have charge of the mission 
 till 1852. In the earlier part of his term of service there 
 was considerable encouragement, and doubtless much 
 good was done. The mines did not prove profitable, 
 perhaps owing to the peculiar irregularity of the coal 
 strata, not so well understood at that time as now ; 
 operations wete suspended and the people moved 
 away from the several villages. The church, however, 
 was long continued on the roll of Presbytery, and 
 reported ten members in 1858. The name appears 
 afterwards in the Minutes of the General Assembly, but 
 no number of members is given. 
 
 We learned above that Dr. Bittenger left Tamaqua in 
 1850,* and it seems probable that Mr. Glen gave a part 
 of his time from 1850 to 1852 to that church, and during 
 that last named year he became the regular pastor at 
 Tamaqua. He was released in 1856 to take the pastoral 
 charge at German Valley, New Jersey. 
 
 There was substantial growth in Tamaqua during 
 Mr. Glen's ministry. He was an acceptable preacher 
 and diligent pastor. The Rev. Richard Webster says of 
 
 *After the Rev. B. F. Bittenger removed from Tamaqua in 1850 the Rev. 
 Marten Lowrie Hofford succeeded him for two years, or 1851-1852. A 
 graduate of Princeton College and a student in the seminary in that place 
 and alicentiate of the Presbytery of Philadelphia North. 
 
I/S PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 him, in writing to a young minister whom he was 
 counselling to imitate Mr. Glen : "Where there is no 
 fluency it is decidedly a duty to write the whole sermon 
 in a fair, large hand and read it over, so as to be entirely 
 familiar with it, and use it in the pulpit. This is the 
 method of Dr. Green. Mr. Glen uses the same method 
 and his style of preaching is generally and greatly 
 admired." 
 
 Mr. Glen was pastor of the German Valley church 
 from 1856 to 1868, when he was called to Bloomington, 
 111., where he was formally installed in 1869 and 
 continued till 187 1, after which he supplied the church of 
 Heyworth, Illinois, one year. His last pastoral charge 
 was the Monticello church in the same state, beginning 
 1873. Becoming infirm, he resided c in Frankfort, 
 Indiana, from 1875 to 1880, when, on March 31st, he 
 •ceased from his earthly labors. 
 
 He was a good and useful minister, whom the writer 
 knew well as a classmate and co-presbyter, but we have 
 •been long and widely separated, and the condition in 
 which he left the loved ones of his family we are not able 
 to state. 
 
XV. 
 THE REV. JOHN JERMAIN PORTER 
 
 AND THE 
 
 KINGSTON CHURCH. 
 
 EVER since the Kingston cliurcli stood alone, it had 
 been ministered to by men educated at Princeton 
 Theological Seminary, with the exception of Mr. Gilder- 
 sleeve who was from Rutger's Seminary. The Presbytery 
 of Luzerne was, from the beginning, in very close 
 correspondence with that institution, and was able 
 generally to secure the men suited to the work needed in 
 its various and diversified fields. Those who knew the 
 professors of Princeton Seminary at that time, knew that 
 very few unworthy men, or men not fully devoted to the 
 Master and his service, could go through the course of 
 study there without having been led to subject themselves 
 to the most careful examination of their motives and 
 qualifications for the work of the ministry. As a natural 
 result, the students had been led to the most diligent 
 improvement of their time and opportunities. Their 
 work and their responsibility were therefore not lightly 
 €steemed. The expectation of favorable results indulged 
 by the good men who had projected the Presbytery, from 
 the recruits it secured from time to time to their number, 
 were seldom disappointed, as from year to year they laid 
 their hands on one after another of the Princeton students. 
 
l80 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 We have seen that on the second of November, 1847, 
 one had been thus set apart by the Presbytery ; then 
 again, on the ninth of the same month, another was 
 ordained with prayer and the laying on of hands. This 
 candidate had the specific call' of one of its oldest 
 churches, a mother church, which had recently given a 
 large measure of her strength to a daughter that had 
 assumed new church life and personality. 
 
 Yet Kingston church, with her diminished strength, 
 calls to her pastorate the Rev. J. Jermain Porter, who was 
 not a novice. He had been carefully and thoroughly 
 trained, and was a man in whom there was "an excellent 
 spirit," even the spirit of the Master himself. He was 
 born in Ovid, N. Y,, March 20, 1821, graduated from 
 Union College 1843, and from Princeton Seminary 1847. 
 The Kingston congregation received Mr. Porter very 
 cordially, and, with their diminished strength, ralhed 
 nobly to his support. And, although he succeeded a 
 minister of no ordinary pulpit ability, he was able to 
 satisfy the people, and saw evidence of progress in the 
 church during his ministry. He looked after neighboring 
 communities. A new Sabbath School was started in Mill 
 Hollow which, with some interruptions, has been con- 
 tinued ever since, and ultimately became the forerunner 
 of the Bennett Presbyterian church. Mrs. Porter and her 
 sister Miss Hall, were to the young pastor efficient helpers 
 in his work. 
 
 Mr. Porter was not only an excellent preacher and 
 pastor; he was also an efficient presbyter. Possessed of a 
 missionary spirit, he deeply sympathized with the 
 brethren who were doing pioneer work. On one 
 occasion, while at Kingston, he and Mrs. Porter, accom- 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. lOl 
 
 panied by Mr. and Mrs. Wm. C. Gildersleeve, drove on 
 a winter day eighteen miles to call upon a young 
 missionary and his wife, to cheer them in their work. 
 Mr. Gildersleeve, believing the young family would be 
 aided by possessing a cow, left them the means with 
 which to procure that necessary help to comfortable and 
 economical living. This visit had much significance to 
 the novices in missionary work. 
 
 While Mr. Porter remained only three years with 
 his first charge, his ministry greatly benefitted the 
 congregation at Kingston. He also secured from them 
 that affectionate regard which, in their more prosperous 
 days, led them to invite him to revisit them and preach 
 the dedication sermon of their new and greatly superior 
 house of worship, which was set apart for the service of 
 God on the 30th day of January, 1876. 
 
 From Kingston Dr. J. J. Porter was called to supply 
 the Westminster church, Buffalo, N. Y., July, 1850, 
 where he remained seven years. In 1857, he became 
 pastor of the Union church, St. Louis, Mo. In 1864 he 
 left St. Louis to become pastor in Watertown, N. Y. 
 His last pastoral charge was Phelps, from 1881 to 1891. 
 Retiring, he resided at Watertown. Hamilton College, 
 N. Y. , had honored Mr. Porter with the degree of D. D., 
 in 1867. He still lives, but is retired from the active 
 work of the ministry after a long, honorable and 
 successful career. 
 
XVI. 
 
 THE REV. CORNELIUS RUSTER LANE, D. D. 
 
 THE Rev. Cornelius Ruster Lane, D. D., was a 
 member of the same class in the Theological 
 Seminary as Dr. Porter and Dr. Bittenger who came into 
 the Presbytery a little in advance of him. Mr. Lane was 
 born June 27, 1820, at Pluckamin, N. J., of Christian 
 parents, and so carefully and tenderly trained from 
 infancy that he never lost that child-like simplicity which, 
 when maintained, adds beauty and strength to any life, 
 and reflects honor upon the Christian nurture which 
 secures it. Mr. Lane lost his father in early life, but his 
 excellent Christian mother, who had no other children, 
 was never long separated from him during his lifetime. 
 
 He was graduated from Lafayette College, Pa., 
 1843, and engaged for a time in teaching, after which he 
 entered Princeton Theological Seminary, 1844, in which 
 he was a diligent and successful student, enjoying the 
 esteem and confidence both of the faculty and his fellow- 
 students. He continued his studies beyond the usual 
 three years' course. Having a fondness for mathematics, 
 he acquired the habit of aiming to secure that which is 
 equivalent to mathematical demonstration, in all the 
 conclusions which satisfied him in his examination of any 
 matter which was to him a subject of reflection or 
 decision. His mind was trained for profound investi- 
 gation. He loved study. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. iSj 
 
 This was the man who, in the summer of 1848, was 
 invited to take charge of Tunkhannock church, and 
 its outposts through the county of Wyoming, still a 
 comparatively new county, which had been recently 
 carved out of Luzerne. 
 
 The church at Tunkhannock, as already noted, was 
 organized in 1833, but had made little progress, simply 
 holding its ground, and had not sallied out in aggressive 
 work. Its pulpit supplies were frequently changed; most 
 of them living off the field; the services were not 
 frequent, and were sometimes interrupted. 
 
 Among those who ministered to the Tunkhannock 
 church were Isaac Todd, from 1833 to '35. He supplied 
 Northmoreland at the same time. The Rev. George 
 Printz, then pastor at Wyalusing, had bestowed labor 
 upon Tunkhannock before the church was organized. 
 After Mr. Todd the Rev. James Cole spent some time in 
 this field in 1837. Rev. Sylvester Dana, Rev. James G. 
 Hand, and Rev. B. Wall were on the ground between 
 1837 and 1845. The Rev. John Whelen Sterling 
 preached there during 1846. The time spent by each 
 one and the date of service do not appear. Mr. Sterling 
 spent about a year on the field, after which he went to 
 Wisconsin where he was regularly ordained, Oct., 1846. 
 In Wisconsin Dr. Sterling did a noble work as a minister 
 and a Christian educator, in connection with our 
 denominational college at Waukesha, and in the State 
 University at Madison. His Alma Mater, Princeton 
 College, bestowed on him the degree of Ph. D. and 
 LL. D. He died at his post in the University of 
 Wisconsin, March 8, 1885. 
 
 The Rev. Oren Brown supplied Tunkhannock, at 
 
184 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 least a part of the time, between Dr. Sterling's time and 
 the coming of Mr. Lane. 
 
 Although Mr. Lane, in College and the Seminary, 
 had been one of the closest students, and a lover of the 
 more abstract sciences, yet when he entered upon his 
 ministry, he was ready to take up cheerfully and dih- 
 gently, every part of ministerial and parochial work. To 
 him it mattered not whether the duty was easy or dif- 
 ficult, he never slighted the easy work nor was he deterred 
 by the difficult. 
 
 As an illustration of this, he once said to the writer, 
 "I would prepare as carefully to preach if I was to ad- 
 dress a congregation of Comanche Indians, as for the 
 most refined city church. " He began as a Home Mis- 
 sionary. He was ordained as an evangelist, Nov. 30, 
 1848, the tenth in order of ordination in the Presbytery. 
 He generally preached three times every Sabbath, twice in 
 Tunkhannock, once in Meshoppen, La Grange, or some 
 other point ; and to reach these outposts, he usually 
 walked. Nor did he ever complain of the task. He 
 loved the Master. He loved his work. He loved his 
 fellow men. He never entertained an idea that he could 
 <do more for humanity by something aside from the gospel 
 of Christ. He loved the Presbyterian church, the doc- 
 trine and polity by which it is characterized ; yet no man 
 had a more catholic spirit or co-operated more cordially 
 •with his fellow Christians of every name, not only in dis- 
 tinctively Christian work, but in any philanthropic and 
 moral enterprise. With regard to the mission of the 
 Presbyterian church, or the good it had, under God, ac- 
 complished in the world, Dr. Lane held that its influence 
 for good has been as great beyond as within its own pale. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 1 85 
 
 He received the Calvinistic system of doctrine cor- 
 dially, as that which is revealed in the Scriptures and is 
 in accord with sound philosophy. He thoroughly under- 
 stood it, and the history of doctrine as it has been advo- 
 cated or opposed in all ages. And from his study of 
 history, he came to the conclusion that the agents who 
 have been successful in the uplifting of humanity, the 
 permanent advance in morality, in civil and religious 
 liberty, have been animated by Calvinistic or cognate 
 views or sentiments of doctrine and philosophy, although 
 not always connected with a knowledge of the true and 
 living God. 
 
 Although a profound and abstract thinker, Dr. L's 
 sermons were simple and comprehensive statements of 
 Scriptural truths sustained by reasons which, to minds 
 trained to thinking, amounted almost to demonstration ; 
 but to others, perhaps, needed more of familiar illustra- 
 tion to keep the attention duly iixed. He, however, 
 during his first term of service in Wyoming county, ex- 
 erted such an influence, and left such an impression on 
 the church and comnmnity, that when he was called away 
 to another field, it was with great reluctance that the peo- 
 ple saw him depart with his estimable wife and his good 
 mother; and as soon as they discovered any reason to 
 hope that he might be induced to return, they put forth 
 such efforts to have him do so as proved successful. After 
 two or three years he did return as pastor-elect of the 
 Tunkhannock church. He was principal of the Luzerne 
 Presbyterial Institute at Wyoming during its most prosper- 
 ous period. Of this Institution we will have more to say. 
 
 During Mr. Lane's absence from Tunkhannock, the 
 Rev. Augustus Theodore Dobson supplied the church 
 
1 86 
 
 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 there, in connection with Northmoreland. Mr. Dobson 
 was, at the time, a licentiate, and, like Mr. Lane, had 
 graduated at Lafayette College and Princeton Theological 
 Seminary. After leaving Tunkhannock he was ordained 
 by the Presbytery of Long Island and installed pastor of 
 the Moriches church from Oct. 30, 1853 to 1869. He 
 was afterwards, from '69 to '81, pastor of the Third 
 church of Chester, Pa. ; then of the Darby church from 
 '82 to '85. In all these churches he seems to have done 
 good work. 
 
 During a part of 1852, Dr. Lane acted as agent of 
 Lafayette College, and at the same time was stated supply 
 of Warren church, Susquehanna Presbytery. 
 
 In 1853, he returned to his work at Tunkhannock 
 and was formally installed pastor, which relation he sus- 
 tained till 1871, or after the Presbytery of Luzerne 
 ceased to exist. Soon after his return to Wyoming 
 county, he accepted the office of County Superintendent 
 of Schools, which position he filled so well that he was 
 subsequently called to serve another term. By doing this 
 work in the schools, he not only furnished valuable ser- 
 vices to the cause of public education, but also thus 
 enabled the mission he occupied to have preaching and 
 pastoral services all the time. He also relieved our Board 
 of Domestic Missions from assisting in sustaining a mission 
 church and its out-posts. 
 
 The growth of the church at Tunkhannock was not 
 rapid, but its gradual and steady progress was of such a 
 character as to give it stability. A good Sabbath School 
 had been maintained from the beginning, though the for- 
 mal history of it has not been preserved, nor is it at all 
 probable that it was, during its entire history, conducted 
 as a Presbyterian school. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 1 8/ 
 
 The evidence of growth and vigor appears in the 
 gathering of the friends of the congregation on the 4th of 
 July, 1867, to lay the corner stone of a new house of 
 worship which had been projected, and, something like 
 a year afterwards, in the coming together of another and 
 larger congregation to dedicate the completed structure 
 to the worship of Almighty God. The old sanctuary was 
 not worn out, for it was destined to shelter another wor- 
 shiping assembly. The Baptists bought and used it. It 
 had become imsuitable for the Presbyterian congregation, 
 which had erected it in 1834, at a cost of ^2,000. The 
 new one had been built at five times that cost. This work 
 was not done without the careful and prudent business 
 ability of the pastor being called into requisition, and now ' 
 it stands as a_ monument to his usefulness and success at 
 Tunkhannock, Others appear in different parts of his 
 wide field. For while there had been preaching from 
 time to time since 181 5 in the general neighborhood of 
 Meshoppen, and somewhat regularly, more recently at 
 the same place, by the Rev. J. W. Sterling and Rev. H. 
 H. Welles, yet the work connected with the organization 
 of a church of our denomination there, and in securing 
 for the congregation a house of worship, was accomplished 
 during Dr. Lane's ministry. The formal organization of 
 a church took place in 1850. Seventeen members were 
 enrolled, and Messrs. Edward Storm and Robert Clayton 
 were the first elders. The house of worship was secured 
 for the congregation at a cost of gi,2oo. Subsequently 
 it was furnished with a fine bell worth §225. While these- 
 material things show the prosperity of the work of Dr. 
 Lane, his best monument is the influence he exerted, 
 upon the hearts and lives of the people. 
 
I bo PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 As a presbyter, he was promptly and uniformly at 
 his post, fully comprehending the work to be done and 
 having settled in his own mind what he regarded as the 
 best methods for its accomplishment, he was prepared to 
 be an intelligent leader in Presbyterial meetings. He 
 was, however, the last man to assume leadership, and 
 always cheerfully acquiesced in the will of the majority, 
 for he respected the opinions of others. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. N. G. Parke, who knew him longer 
 and more intimately than the writer, says of him in a 
 memorial sermon, soon after Dr. Lane's work ended : "In 
 the Presbytery of Luzerne there was no more cheerful 
 worker than Dr. Lane, and no one more ready to help his 
 brethren. He was rarely, if ever, absent from a stated 
 meeting of Presbytery when able to be present, and his 
 thorough knowledge of ecclesiastical law made his counsel 
 in Presbytery very helpful. His voice in our ecclesiastical 
 ■courts, and everywhere else, was always for peace. He 
 was a man of peace. He had his own views, and he was 
 not afraid to defend them, but he never did this in an 
 aggressive way." 
 
 Dr. Parke says with reference to Dr. Lane's work as 
 a pastor and teacher, "It is now a score of years since 
 Dr. Lane left Tunkhannock, but the work he did here* as 
 an educator, a pastor, a preacher, a kind neighbor, a 
 sympathizing friend and counsellor, a cheerful companion, 
 an intelligent, upright citizen, a loving husband and 
 father, remains, and will remain. A generation has 
 indeed grown up here, who knew him not, but those who 
 were his boys, who where at home in his study, and in 
 his bible-class, and whom he taught to think, and who 
 
 *This sermon was delivered at Tunkhannock. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 1 89 
 
 felt the moulding power of his life, have not forgotten 
 him. They are stronger, broader, wiser and better men 
 because of the influence that has gone into their lives 
 from his life." 
 
 In view of Dr. Lane's studious life, habits of profound 
 thought, thoroughly trained mind, and his intense 
 interest in all the important questions which agitated his 
 generation, he did not use the press with the frequency 
 and to the extent that might have been expected of so 
 capable a writer. What he has published shows his 
 ability in that direction. 
 
 His paper on "The Will", originally published in 
 "The Reformed Quarterly Review", July, 1885, is a 
 clear, strong treatise, and if not, in every particular, a 
 demonstration, it is, nevertheless, the production of a 
 "master of sentences" on that subject. He had evidently 
 thoroughly canvassed the quesion, as treated in the whole 
 range of literature. His pamphlet is worthy of careful 
 study. He wrote other articles for the above named 
 Review, and various other magazines. 
 
 Dr. Lane was still a member of the Presbytery of 
 Luzerne, when, at the Reunion, it was merged into the 
 Presbytery of Lackawanna and Lehigh. He was elected 
 Professor of Mathematics in Wilson College in 1871, and 
 removed to Chambersburg, Pa. , much to the regret of his 
 brethren with whom he had been so long and lovingly 
 associated. No one had been held in higher esteem by 
 all who knew him. He retired from his professorship in 
 1876, but continued to reside in Chambersburg, quietly 
 doing such evangelistic work as his health and oppor- 
 tunities enabled him to undertake, in the meantime 
 pursuing such studies as were most congenial to him. 
 
I go PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 Hanover College had conferred on him the degree of Ph. 
 D. in 1875, ^^<i Franklin and Marshall College that of 
 D. D. in 1887. These honors were deserved. 
 
 Mrs. Lane had entered into her heavenly home 
 before her husband. The Doctor left two daughters to 
 mourn his departure. His eldest daughter, Mary, married 
 George Miles Welles, M. D., and resided with her hus- 
 band in Wayne, Pa. Her sister Jane is unmarried, and 
 resides in the homestead in Chambersburg, which her 
 father had bequeathed to her. Three children died in 
 infancy. Mrs. Lane's maiden name was Stroud. 
 
XVII. 
 
 BERWICK AND PORT CARBON. 
 
 BERWICK and Briar Creek churches were set off by 
 the General Assembly to the Presbytery of Luzerne 
 from that of Northumberland, but after a few years they 
 were restored to their former Presbytery, and while their 
 history will more properly belong to Northumberland 
 Presbytery, yet during the time they were in association 
 with Luzerne, important Presbyterial functions were ex- 
 cised in connection with these congregations, especially 
 Berwick, where at least two stated meetings of Presbytery 
 were held while it was under the care of this body, one 
 ordination administered, and ministers received with 
 reference to the field embracing — it is supposed — both 
 congregations. 
 
 At its first meeting, the Rev. Aaron H. Hand was 
 received from a Presbytery in Michigan. Dr. Hand was 
 born in Albany, N. Y., Dec. 3, 181 1. He was graduated 
 from Williams College 1835, and from Princeton 
 Seminary, 1837. He was stated supply at Berwick some 
 three years. He had previously held the same relation to 
 the churches of Marietta and Roswell, in Georgia. After 
 leaving Berwick, he was the honored and useful pastor of 
 the Greenwich church. New Jersey, for nearly twenty 
 years. During that time he was honored by Lafayette 
 College with the degree of D. D. He died in Easton, 
 Pa., March 3, 1880. 
 
192 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 The church at Berwick was served by the Rev. 
 Alexander Heberton as pastor from 1845 to '48. This 
 brought him a second time in connection with a number 
 of his former co-presbyters, then in the Presbytery of 
 Luzerne, but formerly in Susquehanna. Of course the 
 church had from Mr. Heberton a faithful and efficient 
 ministry. After Mr. Heberton left to become pastor at 
 Williamsport, Berwick, in 1848, secured the services 
 of the 
 
 REV. JAMES FERGUSON KENNEDY, 
 
 a recent graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, 
 who, while he had preached for more than a year at 
 Fayetteville and Waynesboro, Pa. , was still a licentiate. 
 He was born in Warren county, N. J., Sept. 27, 1824, 
 and we find him a graduate of Lafayette College in 1839, 
 or when sixteen years old. After leaving college he 
 engaged in the study of medicine for a time, but his 
 mind seems to have been turned to the ministry, for 
 in 1844 we find him in Princeton Seminary, where he 
 was a diligent and successful student, standing high in 
 scholarship and general excellence of character. After 
 preaching for some months in Berwick, he was ordained 
 and installed by the Presbytery of Luzerne, Dec. 12, 
 1848. Mr. Kennedy's was the eleventh ordination.* 
 Thus he entered upon a promising career, as he was well 
 furnished for and devoted to his work; but in 1850 he 
 was obliged to relinquish it at Berwick on account of 
 failing eye-sight. He did not, however, cease from 
 preaching after leaving Berwick church. For the next 
 four years he was stated supply at Fayetteville; at the 
 
 *Mr. I^ane's was the tenth. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 1 93 
 
 same time teaching, as Principal at Chambersburg; 
 continuing to teach till 1855, and during the last year of 
 this term supplying Dickinson. Residing in Chambers- 
 burg, Mr. Kennedy has still been occupied in teaching 
 the greater part of the time to the present, at the same 
 time preaching a good deal as stated supply of contiguous 
 churches. He was professor of Ancient Languages in 
 Wilson College from 1869 to '76. He is now honorably 
 retired, and has been entirely blind for many years. As 
 we have seen, he has been a remarkably active and useful 
 man. His merits were recognized by his Alma Mater in 
 1872 with the honorary degree of D. D. 
 
 Dr. J. F. Kennedy and Dr. C. R. Lane were class- 
 mates and intimate friends ever since college days, and 
 long resided in the same city. 
 
 After the retirement of Dr. Kennedy from the pas- 
 torate of tlte Berwick church, it was supplied for a time 
 by a licentiate, John Jeptha Morgan, during 1851 and 
 '52. Mr. Morgan was a graduate of Lafayette College 
 and had studied in Princeton Theological Seminary. He 
 never in any regular manner became connected with the 
 Presbytery of Luzerne. As we learn from the stated 
 clerk. Rev. P. H. Brooks, of the Lackawanna Presbytery, 
 (which became the custodian of the records of the Lu- 
 zerne Presbytery), that when an informal application was 
 presented to the latter Presbytery for permission on part 
 of the Berwick congregation to apply to the General 
 Assembly to be set off to the Presbytery of Northumber- 
 land, "The Presbytery declined to take any action 
 and directed its stated clerk to write to Mr. Morgan, 
 then supplying the church, that licentiates laboring in its 
 bounds, were expected to put themselves under its care." 
 
194 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 Mr. Morgan was ordained by the Presbytery of Long 
 Island, Jan. 20, 1853, and was subsequently pastor of the 
 Bridesburg church, Pa.; then of Hempstead church, L. I., 
 and afterward a teacher or principal in the same place. 
 He was re-ordained by an Episcopal Bishop, April 6, 
 1870, and was rector at Altoona, Pa., 1871 and '72, and 
 afterwards a physician in Hempstead, N. Y. Berwick 
 church in 1852, and Briar Creek in 1854, were trans- 
 ferred to Northumberland Presbytery by the General 
 Assembly. 
 
 Port Carbon church in Schuylkill Co., Pa., was one 
 ■of the organizations named in the original petition for a 
 ■Presbytery, and was set over to Luzerne from the Second 
 •Presbytery of Philadelphia. 
 
 With regard to its history we gather the following 
 facts from a sermon by the Rev. S. Augustus Davenport, 
 July 2nd; 1876, who was at that time its pastor: He says 
 •that the first movement in the direction of church life was 
 a meeting held August 27, 1832, in the house of 
 Henry Porter, Esq., in reference to erecting a Presby- 
 .terian church. Lots had already been given, on Grand 
 strcft, by Messrs. William Landon, Bright, Wallace & 
 Co., with building materials that were on the ground. 
 Another meeting was held August 3, 1833, at which there 
 was no minister present, to take steps toward the 
 ■organization of a church. What was done is not 
 recorded, but we find that a house of worship was 
 dedicated May 16, 1834. In the mean time, the Rev. 
 Sylvester Haight had been engaged as stated supply for a 
 part of his time, and ;?4oo had been pledged toward his 
 support, and on April 2, '34, the church organization 
 was officially constituted, but by whom does not appear. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. I95 
 
 The original members were Henry Porter and wife, 
 William Bodyshall and wife, Elizabeth Whiting from Dr. 
 Livingston's church, Philadelphia, Dr. J. J. Foster, 
 wife and daughter, Ruth S. Foster, from Woodbury, 
 N. J., Mrs. Clarissa Haight and three daughters, Jessie 
 Turner, Hugh McCracken, and Jane Falls of Pottsville 
 church. 
 
 Elisha Warne, Henry Porter and Dr. J. J. Foster 
 were elected elders; Mr. Warne declining the office at 
 that time. 
 
 As usual the Sabbath School antedates the church 
 organization, having been started April ist, 1831, with 
 105 members. 
 
 The Rev. Sylvester Haight seems to have been the 
 first regular minister. He supplied the congregation one 
 year. The next supply was the Rev. Mr. Sellers of the 
 German Reformed church. The Port Carbon church 
 appears not at first to have been taken under the care 
 of any Presbytery. 
 
 The Rev. Robert McCartee, D. D., subsequently 
 pastor in New York City, succeeded the Rev. Mr. Sellers 
 upon a salary of ^800, and manse, continuing his charge 
 till 1840, and we learn that about the close of his 
 ministry the church was taken under the care of the 
 Second Presbytery of Philadelphia. The church at that 
 time had 60 members. Soon after Dr. McCartee left, an 
 elderly Scotch minister by the name of Jardine supplied 
 the church one year; a learned and able man, but the 
 people complained that they could not understand him. 
 He seems to have been a Highlander. 
 
 In 1842, and through a part of '43, a young man 
 just from Princeton Seminary, Mr. Garrett Van Artsdalen, 
 
196 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 ministered to the church, and during his time there was 
 deep interest and a large ingathering. It was just after 
 Mr. Van Artsdalen's time that the Port Carbon church 
 was set over to the Presbytery of Luzerne, by the General 
 Assembly, May, 1843. 
 
 The Rev. George Printz, just before his retirement 
 from the active ministry, supplied Port Carbon some six 
 months, after which he was engaged in teaching in his 
 native city, Reading, and for twenty years he filled the 
 office of Alderman with great dignity and wisdom. 
 Thus, while unable to perform the duties of a pastorate, 
 he was active and useful, and of him it is justly said : 
 "He was an upright man, a consistent and devoted 
 Christian, a faithful preacher, a greatly respected citizen 
 and magistrate." He died April 6, 1881. 
 
 The next supply at Port Carbon was Mr. John A. 
 Reiley, also a Princeton student and licentiate, who 
 continued for more than a year, and although called to 
 the pastorate, declined the invitation. He was subse- 
 quently pastor of several churches in N. J., and did good 
 service. He died in East Feliciana, La., Sept. 25, 1878. 
 
 The next minister was the Rev, William Wilson 
 Bonnell, who served as stated supply in Port Carbon from 
 1845 to 1846. Mr. Bonnell, a graduate of Washington 
 College, Pa. , a student in Princeton Seminary during part 
 of the course, and for a time Assistant Secretary of the 
 Board of Domestic Missions, was afterwards ordained by 
 the German Reformed Classis, July 10, 1842. He began 
 ministrations in Pottsville during his term at Port Carbon, 
 which seems to have resulted in the organization of the 
 Central Presbyterian church in that city; and in 1846 he 
 became stated supply of the new church which the 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 1 97 
 
 Luzerne Presbytery had organized in Pottsville.* Mr. 
 Bonnell was an aggressive and efficient minister. After 
 leaving the Presbytery in 1848, he became Principal of a 
 Female Seminary in Frankford, but his ministry was 
 terminated Dec. i, 1849, by the call of the Master. He 
 had spent about one year and six months at Port Carbon. 
 
 In 1848, Mr. Henry J. David, a student in Princeton 
 Theological Seminary was introduced to the church at 
 Port Carbon. He was a Prussian, by birth an Israelite, 
 and possessed a pleasant address. He was regarded in 
 the seminary as bright and sincere. His conversion to 
 Christianity did not seem to be questioned. The church 
 at Port Carbon was pleased with him and made out a 
 call for his pastoral services. The Presbytery of Luzerne 
 being satisfied with his examination, proceeded to ordain 
 and install him as pastor. May 9, 1848, the ninth 
 ordination by the Presbytery. A little more than a year 
 afterward, the Presbytery was called upon to in"titute 
 another examination, of a greatly less satisfactory char- 
 acter, which resulted in the suspension of Henry J. David 
 from the functions of a gospel minister. The church at 
 Port Carbon was again made vacant. Mr. David went 
 West, and seems to have been lost sight of This was, to 
 the Presbytery and former friends of Mr. David, a sad 
 and disappointing turn of affairs. Is was, however, the 
 only case of this kind the Presbytery of Luzerne ever had 
 to deal with, at least among English speaking ministers. 
 
 There seems to have been a brief interval between 
 the trial and suspension of Mr. David and the time his 
 successor took hold of the work at Port Carbon. In the 
 spring of 1849, a young man graduated from Princeton 
 
 *The First Church in Pottsville was connected with the N. S. Assembly. 
 
198 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 Seminary, who had come almost directly into that 
 institution from the land which has furnished so much of 
 the material of which the Presbyterian church in this 
 country has been constructed, viz., the North of Ireland. 
 He was a good specimen of its healthy climate und 
 Presbyterian stability. He had been graduated from 
 Belfast College, before leaving his native land. This 
 young man, Thomas DeLacey Wardlaw, aged 23, was, by 
 some instrumentality, directed to Port Carbon. He 
 came fully equipped for the work upon which he proposed 
 to enter. The church opened its pulpit to him, and after 
 they had afforded him an ample opportunity to show his 
 ability and meetness for the work they extended to him a 
 formal call to become their pastor. He was ordained 
 and installed January 29, 1850, having been stated 
 supply for a considerable time. Under Mr. Wardlaw's 
 ministry the church became self sustaining, and has 
 continued so ever since. Mr. Wardlaw's ordination was 
 the 13th in order. 
 
 Dr. Wardlaw resigned in 1852 and became pastor at 
 Paris, Kentucky, where he continued four years, or until 
 1858. In the meantime he seems to have studied 
 medicine. He was pastor at Clarksville from 1858 to 
 1867. In connection with his pastorate from 1865, he 
 was a physician and principal of a Female Seminary in 
 Shelbyville, from 1867 to 1879. He died in Shelbyville, 
 Tenn., August 29, 1879. Stewart College, Tenn., had 
 conferred on him (1871) the degree of D. D. 
 
 After the departure of Dr. Wardlaw from Port 
 Carbon, the church was for a time supplied by the Rev. 
 Ephraim Saunders, and others. 
 
 In 1858, the Rev. Andrew M. Lowry became stated 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 1 99 
 
 supply. He was born in Northumberland county, June 
 20, 1820, and was graduated from Washington College, ■ 
 Va. He was one of the young men who followed Dr. 
 George Junkin to Virginia, when he left Lafayette 
 College. He also was a graduate of Princeton Seminary, 
 a Presbyterian to the manner born. After a probation of 
 one year in the Port Carbon church, he was called by the 
 church to become its settled pastor, and was ordained 
 and installed by the Presbytery of Luzerne, Oct. 9, 1854. 
 He was still pastor when the Presbytery ceased to be in 
 1875, and continued to hold his place under the care of 
 the Presbytery of Lehigh, till he was obliged to relinquish 
 it on account of failure of health in 1874. He has since 
 resided in Watsontown, Penn. 
 
 Mr. Lowry is a modest man and of retiring 
 disposition, but possessed of good ability, mentally and 
 morally. That he retained the confidence and esteem of 
 the wide awake and somewhat restless community where 
 his lot was cast, through so many years, indicates his 
 worth. 
 
 The field at Port Carbon has never been an extensive 
 one, and the liability to frequent changes, families 
 constantly coming and going, has been a hindrance to 
 the growth of the church there. It seems to have had an 
 intelligent and efficient eldership; prominent among 
 them was Jesse Turner, who long served as a member of 
 the session. The Presbyterian church of Port Carbon 
 has been a power for good in that place, and is under the 
 charge of the Presbytery of Lehigh. 
 
XVIII. 
 
 THE SCRANTON PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 AND ITS PASTORS. 
 
 SIX years ago we visited Slocum Hollow to look in 
 upon a transaction which antedated the erection of 
 the Presbytery of Luzerne. For that transaction, however, 
 said Presbytery soon became a responsible party, and was 
 vitally interested in the results of what had been done. 
 This was the organizing of a Presbyterian church for the 
 Lackawanna Valley, in which Slocum Hollow was even 
 then regarded as an im]iortant point, although only hav- 
 ing a population of two or three hundred people. The 
 church, of course, was designed for such of that number 
 as affiliated with it, recognizing its mission, and for those 
 who, in the future, would be attracted thither by the 
 unknown and undeveloped mineral wealth of the locality, 
 and who might be won to co-operation with it in search- 
 ing for, or in receiving and distributing, the more precious 
 "hid treasure." which is to be found by every one 
 persuaded to seek it. 
 
 Our visit now is not to Slocum Hollow or the dark 
 hollow of the past, but to Harrison. The man who 
 opened the way to the extensive business we now see pro- 
 jected, in what was only a short time before a dark and 
 gloomy wilderness, was William Henry. He properly 
 estimated the importance and possibilities of the place 
 now realized by others. This gave that enterprising 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 201 
 
 pioneer in Slocum Hollow such influential standing in the 
 rising community, that his suggestions and recommen- 
 dations would be favorably regarded. Therefore, upon 
 his motion, the place was given the name of Harrison, in 
 honor of the Hero of Tippecanoe, the ninth President of 
 the United States, in whose election Mr. Henry had 
 been deeply interested. The Slocum family was an old 
 one in this part of the valley. Its members having long 
 been the active and aggressive business men of the com- 
 munity, their name, long a familiar one to the oldest in- 
 habitants, seemed to cling to the place, so that the name 
 Harrison was not universally adopted. The post office 
 had not been re-established in what was designed to be 
 called Harrison,* and when afterward, in 1850, it was 
 restored, the name Harrison seems to have already been 
 pre-empted in the State. By that time new names had 
 been familiarly associated with the new and more im- 
 posing business operations in progress, and it was sought 
 to honor the name now most on the tongues of the peo- 
 ple in connection with business. But because, probably, 
 of the modesty of the men whom the people sought to 
 honor, that name was somewhat disguised by a Latin 
 termination. So under the name of Scrantonia the post 
 office was opened. A year after, however, the direct and 
 worthy name of Scranton was properly adopted and its 
 propriety universally recognized. Hereafter in this nar- 
 rative we will take the liberty of using it even when we 
 speak of events which antedate its adoption, as now, we 
 dwell on the progress made between 1842 and 1848, or 
 at our second visit. 
 
 The partial success in the use of anthracite coal 
 
 operatfo^"*'' ''^"' ""^ ^^ °- '^^^ '° "'^ <^^°"-= °^ 'he new business 
 
202 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 attained in 1842, in the manufacture of iron, proved a 
 complete success in 1843. The patience, energy and 
 perseverance of Messrs. Scrantons, Grant and Co., were 
 rewarded. New iron mines were opened, railroads were 
 built to convey ore to the furnaces and other roads im- 
 proved, in order to make it easier to cart the iron to the 
 still distant railroads and canals over which much of it 
 must pass to reach a market. The original company had 
 been enlarged by new members, and the capital stock in- 
 creased from time to time. The company had also been 
 reorganized for extended operations. 
 
 A number of its new stockholders have become 
 active agents or officers in its management. In addition 
 to the manufacture of iron from the ore, new and ex- 
 tensive plants have been provided for the manufacture of 
 iron itself into the articles needed in the general market, 
 from a nail to a railroad bar. Hundreds of tons have 
 been made for the New York and Erie Railroad, with 
 such expedition and so satisfactorily as to bring the great 
 railroad company under obligations to the new and en- 
 terprising Scranton company for furnishing such an 
 excellent article and for so promptly delivering it where 
 it was wanted, thus saving the New York and Erie Com- 
 pany from heavy forfeiture, and enabling it to secure the 
 State bonus of three million dollars which had been 
 offered for compliance with certain conditions. These 
 conditions the Erie company could not have met but for 
 the aid thus afforded it by Messrs. Scranton, Piatt & Co. 
 from their furnace and rolling mill, built in the then 
 wilderness, to which their heavy machinery had to be 
 carted a long distance, and from which their manu- 
 factured iron was all to be hauled an equal, and some of 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 2O3- 
 
 it a much longer distance. Such are some of the evi- 
 dences that the business of Seranton-was in 1848 estab- 
 lished, and in the hands of able and worthy men. We 
 have not indicated the painful labor and the many dis- 
 appointments experienced in reaching this point, but it 
 may be pertinently added just here, that the success of 
 the intelligent, enterprising and heroic men who pro- 
 jected and accomplished the establishment of the business 
 undertaken in Slocum Hollow, which built up the city of 
 Scranton and made it the fourth city in the great com- 
 monwealth of Pennsylvania, depended on their moral 
 character. They might have had the same business- 
 sagacity, the same measure of general intelligence and 
 enterprise, and yet their scheme would certainly have 
 failed but for their established integrity and reliability as 
 men. This it was which, in addition to their intelli- 
 gence and heroic enterprise, enlisted the capital of good 
 and wise men, such men as Jno. I. Blair and James Blair,, 
 of New Jersey, Anson Phelps, William E. Dodge, and 
 others in New York city. Thus results were secured^ 
 which have proved good for themselves and all others. 
 
 The three Christian families which seem to have 
 been found in Scranton when the Lackawanna church- 
 was organized there in 1842, have been greatly increased 
 during the six years past. The mountain missionary had 
 been constantly at his post, giving to Scranton its portion 
 of his labors, and good results had followed. But the 
 present and prospective growth and importance of Scran- 
 ton demanded a church organization that centered in and 
 would be controlled, as to its local policy and measures, 
 by Scranton Presbyterians. Their own statement of the 
 then situation, as given when the church reviewed twenty- 
 
204 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 five years of its church life, is furnished in the sermon of 
 the pastor, the Rev. Dr. S; C. Logan, preached on that 
 occasion. 
 
 After speaking of the organization of the Lackawanna 
 church in 1842, and the circumstances of which we have 
 already treated, Dr. Logan said: "In June, 1844, the 
 Rev. N. G. Parke, a young man from the Seminary, with 
 a warm heart, and without experience, was called to the 
 bishopric of the scattered church. So wide-spread was 
 the membership, that neither the young pastor nor the 
 people seemed to know definitely where the church be- 
 longed. We find the singular incident recorded of a 
 meeting at Harrison, of which a Mr. Hutchinson was 
 chairman, and one, J. C. Piatt, secretary, as late as 1848, 
 when a committee was appointed consisting of said 
 Hutchinson and one Charles Fuller, to examine the 
 charter and by all other available means obtain know- 
 ledge which might enable the people to decide whether 
 Lackawanna church is here or at Pittston. When Mr. 
 Parke began his labors, there were but four of the mem- 
 bers of the congregation residing here, and all the time 
 -of this discussion the larger body resided at Lackawanna, 
 about three miles down the valley, where by some means 
 a site had been selected and a house of worship built, 
 which was dedicated in 1848. In the meeting for inquiry, 
 it was reported that the pastor had expressed his con- 
 viction that the church was here, which certainly was a 
 reasonable conviction from the fact that it was organized 
 here. This church, with its name changed, ultimately 
 found its home at Pittston, where it has enjoyed the 
 efficient ministrations of Mr. Parke ever since. After 
 ■the building of this edifice, (supposed to be near Lacka- 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 205 
 
 wanna), Scranton was only occupied as a preaching 
 station. The Presbyterians worshiped with other de- 
 nominations, and sustained a union Sabbath School with 
 them until, as the most reasonable solution of the 
 questions arising from a doubtful location of the Lacka- 
 wanna church, in the summer of 1848 it was determined 
 to ask from the Presbytery of Luzerne, a separate 
 organization." 
 
 The meetings for Presbyterian services were at this 
 time, and for some time previously, held in what subse- 
 quently was known as the old Odd Fellows' Hall. Dr. 
 Logan in his sermon proceeds to say : "In this Hall, 
 July loth, 1848, a meeting of Presbyterians, with their 
 adherents, was gathered to hear the report of the com- 
 mittee appointed to learn the truth as to the locus ubi 
 of the church of Lackawanna. A letter was read from the 
 pastor at this meeting in which he states his conviction 
 that the Harrison, Lackawanna and Pittston churches 
 were all one, and that Harrison must be considered the 
 head of the church, although it was called Lackawanna. 
 At this meeting, after deliberation and consultation, as 
 the record states, it was unanimously agreed that the in- 
 terest of the church required a separate organization at 
 this point. Accordingly, Mr. Charles Fuller was ap- 
 pointed a committee to secure from Presbytery such an 
 organization, to be called tlie Church of Harrison. 
 Another committee was authorized to rent the ' Odd 
 Fellows Hair at gio a year for worship." Dr. Logan, 
 at this point, gives us some information as to the char- 
 acter and influence of some of the movers and active 
 agents in the establishment, and in the subsequent foster- 
 ing, of this proposed new organization. We prefer to give 
 
206 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 information, without which our narrative would be defec- 
 tive, in his language, uttered originally in the presence of 
 many living witnesses who fully comprehended its truth and 
 pertinency. Speaking of that meeting which determined 
 -to secure a new organization, he says : " Joseph H. 
 Scranton was secretary, and it would seem, was one of the 
 chief actors." He was not one of the original partners 
 in the business transactions which were becoming so ex- 
 tensive and promising when he afterwards came from 
 Augusta, Georgia, in 1846;* nor was he a brother of 
 George W. and Selden T. Scranton, but cousin. He 
 became pre-eminently the moving spirit in business 
 operations when completely identified with them. The 
 firm of the Scrantons and Piatt had been formed in 1846, 
 and on the loth of June, 1853, was merged into the 
 Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company. This business 
 association had given a new impulse to the little com- 
 munity in 1848, and it had much to do with the material 
 
 .advancement and character of this city of singular growth 
 and immense schemes of industry. 
 
 The firm of Scranton and Piatt deserves an honorable 
 
 ; mention in the history of the church organization, both 
 ■for the material aid and the generous support it has given 
 in the building of the church and the maintenance of its 
 ordinances, and in the efficient identification and co- 
 operation of its officers and employes with it from the 
 
 'beginning until now. This church should thank God for 
 the two Scrantons gone, and for such men as William E. 
 Dodge, S. T. Scranton, and a host among the living 
 
 . connected with this company, and for the noble women 
 associated with them, who, by their efforts, have ever 
 
 ■ cheered and helped on its work. 
 
 * He had, however, been identified at Scranton from 1843. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 207 
 
 Nor, let it be understood, is mention made of this 
 business association in depreciation of other companies 
 and business associations of tlie city ; for all these have 
 given material help and encouragement in furtherance 
 of the work of the church. This new firm had just 
 begun to exercise its influence in laying the founda- 
 tions of the business and social structure of the community, 
 and its progress is evident from a single fact. On the 
 loth of July, 1848, the meeting instructed its committee 
 to ask for an organization to be called the Harrison 
 Presbyterian church, and on the following October the 
 organization was effected ; but in the record of it, it 
 always appears as " The First Presbyterian church of 
 Scranton," or " Scrantonia," and no recorded reason ap- 
 pears for such a change. 
 
 Further confirmation of Dr. Logan's testimony as to 
 the friendly and helpful attitude of the greater and smaller 
 business firms created and stimulated by the enterprise at 
 Scranton, toward the work of the church generally and 
 the Presbyterian church especially, is indicated by the 
 utterance of the General Superintendent of the Delaware, 
 Lackawanna and Western Railroad, which was completed 
 in 1854. He (Mr. Brisben) said, "There is no class of 
 men that do more for the protection of our property all 
 along our lines than ministers of the Gospel. We cannot 
 aid in their support by taking pews in their churches ; 
 we ought therefore to recognize our obligation to them by 
 furnishing them passes over our lines of road." This 
 his company did. 
 
 The work assigned Elder Charles Fuller in July 
 resulted in the appointment, at the next stated meeting 
 of Presbytery, of a committee to visit Scranton on the 
 
208 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 14th of October, and organize the eighteen Presbyterian 
 members as a local church. This number had signed the 
 petition on which Presbytery acted, together with quite 
 a number more who had not been dismissed from the 
 churches to which they belonged. In this we note that 
 which from the beginning has characterized the Scranton 
 church, viz., its orderly proceedings; it respects law. 
 There were also in the petition to Presbytery the names 
 of some whom we find to have been already active and 
 wisely helpful in preparing the way to give life and 
 character to the church about to be, and which they 
 afterward strengthened and adorned when the time came 
 for which they had waited, and they could come into the 
 organization in an orderly way. 
 
 The committee of Presbytery consisted of Drs. John 
 Dorrance and N. Grier Parke, the two members who had 
 been most vitally connected with the development of the 
 Christian life of the Lackawanna valley, the latter 
 especially with the growth of Christian sentiment in the 
 rising city of Scranton. 
 
 Dr. Dorrance preached the sermon of the occasion, 
 after which the credentials of seventeen of the eighteen 
 petitioners were presented and approved. One seems 
 not to have been present. The names were as follows, 
 and constituted the charter members : Seldon T. Scran- 
 ton, Mrs. Ellen C. Scranton, George W. Scranton, Mrs. 
 Jane H. Scranton, Nathaniel B. Hutchinson, Mrs. Rebecca 
 A. Hutchinson, Mrs. Mary Coursen, Mrs. Sarah Coursen, 
 Miss Mary A. Coursen, Miss Catharine Miller, Miss 
 Temperance Miller, Mrs. Mira Fellows, Peter Clarke, 
 James Hutchinson, Charles Fuller, Richard Hollenback, 
 Simon Ward. These were formally constituted the First 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 209 
 
 Presbyterian church of Scranton (so the record says), and 
 secured the new church an hospitable home and habita- 
 tion, though we are not informed just how the disparity 
 between the name in the petition and in the records 
 came about. But if common consent was not secured at 
 the time, it has ever since been lieartily accorded. 
 
 Charles Fuller, (whom we have already twice met, in 
 receiving like honor ; first at Kingston, 1836, subsequently 
 at Wyoming in 1847 ;) George W. Scranton, and N. B. 
 Hutchinson, were elected ruling elders by the new church, 
 a wise use of its organic power in its first exercise of the 
 same. Mr. Scranton, however, declined to assume the 
 functions of the office tendered him by his brethren, 
 although he was so capable. The other brethren were 
 regularly inducted into the office of representatives and 
 rulers in the church, and long and faithfully discharged 
 its important duties. 
 
 Another commendable act on the part of the new 
 organization was the formal continuance of the faithful 
 services of the pastor of the Pittston church for the 
 remainder of the current year, although so anxious to 
 have constant ministrations, while Mr. Parke could, with 
 his other permanent engagements, only afford them 
 partial service. Consequently, after the organization, 
 there were few changes in ministrations till May, 1849. 
 Communions were observed, as they had been, from time 
 to time. 
 
 Among those who had been active in measures 
 which had led up to the organization, but were waiting 
 for their letters, were Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Piatt and 
 Mrs. Catherine S. S. Piatt, who, in the summer of 1849, 
 were fully enrolled as members, having in the meantime 
 
210 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 received their certificates. Mr. Piatt was ordained as an 
 elder in 1871, which was, after having been twice elected 
 to that office. 
 
 The Rev. J. D. Mitchell, who had frequently- 
 supplied the pulpit at Scranton, after the expiration of 
 Mr. Parke's engagement, was elected pastor in August, 
 1849, but he did not, at that time, feel it to be his duty 
 to undertake the work there. The call was renewed in 
 November of the same year, and on the i6th of December 
 he began his ministry, and was regularly installed on 
 April 17th, 1850. His ministry was brief, but brilliant. 
 He was received with enthusiasm, and enjoyed the hearty 
 co-operation of the entire church, and the confidence of 
 the community, which was then prosperous and increasing. 
 It was a pleasant field. The little church was already 
 well organized and equipped for aggressive work. The 
 number of efficient workers was rapidly increasing. The 
 new element entering the church readily assimilated with 
 the compact and earnest body to which it became 
 attached. The years of co-operation in good works had 
 prepared those thus associated for corporate and organic 
 life. In lieu of numbers and wealth, there was devotion, 
 intelligence and zeal. This, with rapid increase in 
 numbers and temporal prosperity, was well calculated to 
 stimulate the efforts of a minister who was already 
 zealously affected, and to make him feel that his labors 
 were appreciated. His salary, also, which was ;g6oo, was 
 promptly paid, and the pastor seems to have been satisfied 
 with the amount. 
 
 The Scranton congregation occupied, for several 
 years, the rented hall which it had secured before the 
 organization of the church. In it the preaching services 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 2 I I 
 
 of the Sabbath, and the Wednesday evening prayer 
 meetings were held. This weekly prayer meeting ante- 
 dated the church. It had been started by N. B. and 
 James Hutchinson, Charles Fuller, Mr. and Mrs. W. H. 
 Piatt, a noble band, to which many have been, from time 
 to time added. It was and is as "the two olive 
 trees" of Zachariah's vision to the church. Yet while 
 unction was not withheld while it occupied tlie rented 
 hall, the pastor and congregation felt that they must have 
 a suitable sanctuary. A movement had been made in 
 that direction as early as 1846, and a subscription of 
 ^640 was obtained towards a church building from 
 adherents then in Scranton. Early in Dr. Mitchell's 
 ministry, the matter was agitated vigorously and the 
 pastor made personal solicitations at home and abroad 
 for means to build a house of worship that would meet 
 the demands, present and prospective, of the congre- 
 gation. He was deeply interested in the work and went 
 forth prayerfully in its performance. The writer 
 remembers hearing him say that on a certain occasion he 
 made the matter one of special prayer for success in 
 his approach to parties whom he desired to interest in 
 the enterprise. 
 
 With regard to the selection of a site and several 
 other preliminary arrangements for the construction of 
 the proposed sanctuary, the usual methodical and careful 
 notations of proceedings in Scranton movements is 
 wanting. They had taken place, however, and satisfac- 
 tory results had been secured. 
 
 In all, seven thousand dollars were pledged, and 
 eligible lots donated by the "Lackawanna Iron and Coal 
 Company ' ' before a beginning was made towards the 
 
212 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 construction of the building. Then plans and specifica- 
 tions prepared by Joel Amsden were adopted. Whereupon 
 the above named company agreed to take the subscriptions 
 and relieve the congregation of the care and management 
 of the construction, giving the congregation ten years to 
 provide for the ^5,000 needed to pay the whole cost. 
 This meant generosity, and business. The new church 
 was dedicated Sept. 19, 1852, "with gladsome and 
 solemn worship, under the direction of Mr. Mitchell." 
 The Rev. Dr. Logan, in his memorial sermon at the end 
 of twenty-five years of the church's life, informs us that, 
 at the end of the ten years for which the mortgage was 
 given to the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company, that 
 it was promptly paid and the Company itself subscribed 
 one thousand dollars. The church was enabled to do 
 this through the efficient and generous agency of Mr. 
 Thomas Dickson, President of the Hudson Canal Co., 
 and Mr. J. J. Albright, a Moravian who had joined the 
 communion of Scranton Presbyterian church, and, like 
 Mr. Dickson, became one of its most generous supporters. 
 
 Between the time of contracting the debt and the 
 building of the church and the payment of the debt, 
 which amounted to ^6,300, the congregation had 
 expended ^4,000 in enlarging its church. This was 
 demanded to accommodate the worshipers. It was done 
 by erecting new sides to the building and making the 
 auditorium 81 feet square. In all this work, the officers 
 of the church gratefully acknowledged the aid afforded by 
 the ladies of the congregation. 
 
 Much to the regret of the congregation, Dr. Mitchell 
 was obliged to ask to be released from his pastoral office, 
 on account of failure of health, October, 1853. His term 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 2I3 
 
 of service, though short, witnessed considerable advance 
 in church life and growth. A large and beautiful house 
 of worship had been secured. There was an increase in 
 membership of sixty-seven, a great increase of church 
 attendance, and in the Sabbath Schools in which, as well 
 as through the preaching of the Word, much seed had 
 been sown. 
 
 Of pastor Mitchell's work, Judge Hand said, many 
 years after it had been performed, "The Rev. Mr. 
 Mitchell, whose eloquence has not yet ceased to ring in 
 the ears of many here, will be remembered for his 
 cultivated taste and his genial good humor," and, by way 
 of refreshing the memory of Dr. Mitchell he read to the 
 meeting a letter from the former pastor in response to the 
 church's invitation to be present on the occasion of the 
 quarter century celebration, from which letter we learn 
 what were Dr. Mitchell's feelings towards the Scranton 
 church and the Master. After acknowledging the 
 invitation, and expressing regret that he would be unable 
 to be present, Dr. Mitchell said: "As one who in the 
 early part of this quarter century was identified with the 
 interests and struggles of the then infant church, I would 
 gladly be with you in person to share in the rejoicing of 
 that church, now grown mature in prosperity as she has 
 grown to maturity in years. You and I, with a few 
 others that remain, have vivid recollections of the time 
 when your now prosperous church and congregation (like 
 the infant village which has now grown into the city of 
 Scranton) were very feeble, few in numbers, and limited 
 in means. But Jehovah was with us in that day of small 
 things, and under his blessing the little one has become a 
 thousand. And it is meet, upon the coming anniversary 
 
214 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 that the people whom God has so richly blessed should 
 recount his mercies, and express their gratitude." 
 
 After a touching reference to beloved members of 
 the congregation who had passed away during the 
 twenty-five years, and a solemn appeal to such as had 
 heard the gospel's calls and warnings through all that 
 time and yet had not yielded their hearts to Christ, he 
 closes with earnest and affectionate wishes for the 
 continued prosperity of the church and the abiding 
 presence of the Holy Spirit, and His still more abundant 
 fruits in the hearts and lives of its members. 
 
 The whole letter — only a brief extract from which 
 could here be given — shows what was the spirit and aim 
 of the first pastor of the Scranton church, in his devoted 
 ministrations to its people. 
 
 Rev. Dr. J. D. Mitchell still lives, and, since 
 resigning his charge of the church at Scranton, has 
 ministered in various places, as the condition of his 
 health permitted. Soon after leaving Scranton he 
 returned to Wyoming and had charge of the Presbyterial 
 Institute in that place from 1853 to 1855, and was stated 
 supply of Wyoming church during 1855 and 1856, after 
 which he spent some time in Scranton without a formal 
 charge. 
 
 In 1858, he became stated supply of the Binghamton 
 Congregational church, N. Y., where he continued till 
 1868. He was an evangelist in Washington, D. C. 
 during '63 and '64, doing good service in that trying 
 time in the history of our country. Wise gospel efforts 
 were then greatly needed in Washington. From '64 to 
 '66, he acted as an evangelist at Binghamton, N. Y., 
 and from '67 to '77 at Wellsboro, Pa., since which time 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 215 
 
 he has resided in Germantown, Philadelphia, and Dan- 
 bury, Conn. He has been honorably retired for a 
 number of years. Lafayette College conferred upon him 
 the degree of D. D. in i-86o. 
 
XIX. 
 SCRANTON CHURCH 
 
 AND 
 
 THE REV. JOHN F. BAKER. 
 
 AFTER the retirement of Dr. Mitchell, Oct. 1853, the 
 pulpit of the Scranton church was vacant till April, 
 1854. During this time the services were maintained by 
 temporary supplies, and twelve persons were received into 
 the membership of the church, all however by letter, and 
 all except one from churches belonging to the Presbytery 
 of Luzerne. Dr. George B. Boyd of Belvidere, N. J., 
 was the exception. 
 
 The Rev. John F. Baker, born in Liberty Coun^, 
 Georgia, was the son of John O. and Frances Fabian 
 Baker. His father was a worthy elder in the Wilkes- 
 Barre church, and brother of the celebrated minister and 
 evangelist, Rev. Daniel Baker. John F., with his brother, 
 William E. Baker, was prepared for college in the Wilkes- 
 Barre Academy, and both graduated from Princeton Col- 
 lege and Theological Seminary, and were licensed to 
 preach by the Presbytery of Luzerne. In all these in- 
 stitutions, and in their examinations before Presbytery, 
 they took a high rank. Mr. J. F. Baker was licensed 
 April 2ist, 1852. He had graduated from the college at 
 the age of eighteen, or less. He then spent three years 
 in teaching and general study, entering the Theological 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 21/ 
 
 Seminary in the fall of 1849. Pie completed his course 
 in 1852. 
 
 It is not wonderful that we find him entering upon 
 his life work with impaired health, which greatly lessened 
 his comfort and usefulness. 
 
 At the age of fourteen he had united with the Wilkes- 
 Barre church, publicly assuming the vows, which his godly 
 parents had long before taken in his behalf, to be the 
 Lord's, and soon afterwards he gave himself to the min- 
 istry of reconciliation. Of him a friend, the Rev. Dr. S. 
 M. Osmond, writes: "I knew something of John F. 
 Baker while I was in Princeton College. He had then 
 graduated and was in the Theological Seminary. I was 
 intimate with his brother William, who was my class- 
 mate and a very dear friend. During the summer 
 vacation both the brothers were at their home in Wilkes- 
 Barre, and there I saw a good deal of John, as well as 
 William. He was less talkative and demonstrative than 
 his younger brother, but was intellectual and spiritual be- 
 yond what is ordinary, with a large infusion of the 
 poetical element in his temperament. While he was in 
 college, and afterwards, poems of his composition ap- 
 peared, from time to time, in the Nassau Literary 
 Magazine, which were of a high order of merit. I never 
 heard him preach, but have no doubt his sermons were, 
 like himself, refined, high toned and of singular mental 
 ability, but whether or not he would usually preach to 
 the level of his hearers, is another question. None could 
 be with him, even to the limited extent that I was, with- 
 out a deep impression of his purity, his separateness from 
 all the grosser forms of thought and life. Of his min- 
 isterial life I have but scanty information." 
 
2l8 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 Immediately after Mr. Baker was licensed, April 2 ist, 
 
 1852, by the Presbytery of Luzerne, he entered a purely 
 missionary field, in Mr. Webster's part of the Presbytery. 
 He was thus far favored in having the aid of one who 
 fully understood Home Missionary work and deeply 
 sympathized with young missionaries. 
 
 The centre of Mr. Baker's field was Beaver Meadow. 
 From this point he worked eastward, to Weatherly and 
 White Haven, and northward, to Hazleton. The only 
 organized churches in the field at this time were Beaver 
 Meadow and White Haven. The membership of the latter 
 was small. 
 
 In this field Mr. Baker was greatly respected by all, 
 and loved by such as knew him intimately, but the habits 
 of his student life, together with his modesty, made him 
 unobtrusive, so that he did not extend his acquaintance 
 with the people as readily as many others. Nevertheless, 
 his work was successful and appreciated by many. 
 
 The first Presbyterian house of worship erected at 
 Hazleton was a substantial brick structure. This was 
 done exclusively, or nearly so, by Mr, Ario Pardee, in 
 
 1853, and was but the beginning of his generous and 
 noble contributions to the Presbyterian church. This was 
 before the organization of the church was effected, and 
 during Mr. Baker's ministry. 
 
 When Dr. Mitchell resigned the pastorate at Scran- 
 ton , the Rev. John Fabian Baker was elected as his suc- 
 cessor, and was ordained sine titulo at Port Carbon, 
 May 8th, 1854. Mr. Baker entered on his work at 
 Scranton with impaired health, yet the excellence of his 
 sermons and character secured the admiration of many. 
 The closer confinement in his new field than in his purely 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 219' 
 
 missionary work, which was widely scattered and made if 
 necessary that he should spend much time in the saddle, 
 was not so favorable to his health, and it became ne- 
 cessary, after a ministry of eighteen months, that he should 
 ask to be released on account of failing health. 
 
 After leaving Scranton, Mr. Baker went to Georgia, 
 and supplied several churches for a time ; some of them 
 elected him pastor. From 1858 to 1 861, he was pastor 
 of the Hebron church, Virginia. In the latter year, the 
 Rev. Henry R. Weed, D. D., pastor of the First Presby- 
 terian church of Wheeling, W. Va., being in feeble health, 
 desired the aid of a co-paster, and the Rev. John F. 
 Baker, then of Augusta county, Va., accepted a call to 
 that position, placed in his hands by the Presbytery of 
 Lexington. It is recorded by the session of the Wheeling 
 church, that he discharged the duties of his office in a 
 satisfactory manner from the first of March, 1861, until 
 the ist of July following, when, at a congregational meet- 
 ing called at his request, he tendered his resignation, from 
 considerations connected with the political state of the 
 country. The resignation was accepted and a resolu- 
 tion adopted, expressing confidence in Mr. Baker and 
 testifying to his honorable motives in the course he had 
 pursued.* 
 
 His longest period of continued service seems to have 
 been in supplying the church of Jerseyville, Illinois, from 
 1866 to 1871, with the exception of a term of years dur- 
 ing which he supplied Hickory Plain and associated 
 churches in Arkansas. These, with some other places oc- 
 cupied for shorter periods, made up his ministerial 
 charges. The author of the sketch of Mr. B's life in the 
 
 •Historical Sermon of the Rev, David A, Cunningham, D. D., 1878. 
 
220 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 Necrological Report of the Princeton Alumni Association 
 for 1886, says of him : " He was one of the most gifted 
 men in the church, but ill health prevented him from 
 filling the high positions for which he was otherwise 
 qualified." He died at Austin, Ark., of brain trouble, 
 May 9th, 1885, at the age of 57. Mr. Baker was married 
 to Miss Fannie, daughter of the Rev. N. A. Piatt, of Ros- 
 well, Georgia, Nov. 29, 1855. She died Jan. 28, 1857. 
 He afterwards married Miss Phebe, daughter of Mr. 
 Joseph Steele, of Lexington, Va. 
 
XX. 
 SCRANTON CHURCH 
 
 AND 
 
 THE REV. MILO J. HICKOK, D. D. 
 
 THE Rev. John F. Baker closed his ministry Jan. 14, 
 1855, and on the 29th of March the'Scranton 
 congregation called the Rev. Milo J. Hickok, who soon 
 appeared upon the ground ; but the definite settlement of 
 the question of his acceptance of the call does not seem at 
 once to have been reached. For on the 14th of June a 
 re-election was made and the salary fixed at gSoo 
 annually. His installation took place on the 8th of the 
 following August. 
 
 The following statement with regard to Dr. Hickok's" 
 antecedents has been kindly furnished by his only 
 daughter, Miss Julia E. Hickok, who resided with her 
 mother in Marietta, Ohio, and is usefully and honorably 
 engaged as a teacher in the High school of that city. 
 She says: "My father was born at New Haven, Vermont, 
 August 22, 1809, the third of eight children. His early 
 life was spent upon a farm. He was graduated from 
 Middlebury College in 1835, and from Union Theological 
 Seminary in 1840. Between the time of leaving Middle- 
 bury and entering the seminary, he taught at Delaware 
 College, Newark, Delaware. He was called to the 
 Congregational Church of Harman, New West Marietta, 
 
-'222 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 ■Ohio, as its first pastor, and remained there from May 4, 
 1842, until April 6, 1844. Then, accepting a call to 
 Rochester, New York, he became pastor of the Wash- 
 ington Street (now Central Presbyterian) church of that 
 city; a relation which he sustained for nine years. His 
 marriage to Maria Thomas, of Marietta, Ohio, occurred 
 in 1845." 
 
 He preached for a time in Montreal ; and was in 
 
 185s installed pastor of the First Presbyterian church of 
 
 Scranton, Pa. This church, to which Dr. Hickok had 
 
 -come as its third pastor, had been organized only seven 
 
 years; but it had a conscious organic life, and right 
 
 -aspirations, and he would prove himself, ere long, to be 
 
 -the right man to be merged into its organism, and to take 
 
 ■-the leading place in directing and stimulating its 
 
 functional and aggregate activities. 
 
 He was a man of a vigorous and well cultivated 
 
 •■mind, industrious and methodical in his work, which he 
 
 loved, fully comprehending its importance and the 
 
 legitimate motives prompting regard for it. He had a 
 
 - warm heart and genial manner — calm, rather than 
 
 effusive. Moreover, he came in a favorable time and 
 
 •under circumstances that conspired to call forth his best 
 
 • energies and the exercise of his sound judgment in the 
 
 forward movements which he was to lead. Of the 
 
 importance of these his congregation was already fully 
 
 'aware, and ready to render cordial co-operation in every 
 
 ■good "word and work." 
 
 An auspicious outlook is before the new pastor. 
 
 Again and again are his already successful efforts 
 
 -stimulated by the evidence of his people's efforts to 
 
 increase his comfort and efficiency. This had all been 
 
 . embraced in the scope of this church's purpose. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 223 
 
 It appears, from the excellent Historical record of 
 this church, published in connection with the Anniver- 
 sary which completed its twenty-five years of church life, 
 that, in the earlier years, after the coming of Dr. 
 Hickok, as In the years of his predecessors, the church 
 grew mostly by the enrollment of members who came 
 with certificates from other churches, rather than by 
 conversions. But during these years, and before we learn 
 of the faithful work that had been going on in the pulpit, 
 in pastoral visitation, in the Sabbath Schools, in the 
 distribution of the Word of God, and Christian literature 
 profusely and generally scattered, and from the be- 
 ginning of these activities, increased private and public 
 prayer had not ceased to go up in behalf of the sower, 
 the seed and the soil, that there might be divine 
 quickening and greater fruitfulness. Finally, in the year 
 1858, on the sth and 6th days of May, (Saturday and 
 Sunday) ninety-five persons stood up to confess Christ as 
 their Saviour, and with them forty-one others came by 
 certificate from sister churches. Twenty-seven received 
 the ordinance of baptism. These were days of gladness 
 in the First Presbyterian church of Scranton. 
 
 Every year afterwards, during Dr. Hickok's ministry 
 showed an encouraging increase of membership, but it 
 was not till 1867, the last year of his active pastorate, 
 that we find anything approximating the ingathering of 
 1858. On the 19th of April, fifty-seven were received 
 into the communion of the church. Twenty-seven others 
 united by letter during the year, or that part of it covered 
 by Dr. Hickok's ministrations, a number of them upon 
 profession of their faith, at the pastor's last public service 
 in connection with the Communion, on the 13th of 
 
224 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 October, 1867. He had completed this last doubtless 
 delightful service in which he and his people commemo- 
 rated the dying love of Jesus, and, while announcing the 
 closing hymn, he was stricken with paralysis. He was 
 carried from the pulpit, and was never able again to 
 perform the active duties of his pastorate. His intel- 
 lectual faculties were not impaired. His daughter says of 
 him that "during the last five .years of his life, his general 
 health was perfect and his mind seemed not at all 
 impaired. But his speech was troublesome and his right 
 side wholly useless. He did not, until the last year, give 
 up the hope of again being able to preach; and to that 
 end, wrote and studied constantly and with much 
 pleasure. His cheerfulness and patience were wonderful. 
 Let me quote from a tribute paid by our pastor.* 'Some- 
 times he has thought that his life was of no service, 
 though even then he did not repine at God's disciphne. 
 But could he have known how effectively he was 
 impressing many of us by the grace with which he 
 accepted the will of God, he surely would not have 
 judged as he did.' " 
 
 During the spring and summer immediately before 
 his disability came, he had represented our General As- 
 sembly as one of the delegates to the Free and United 
 Churches of Scotland. The delight which he experienced 
 in this honorable mission lingered with him, and afforded 
 no little food for thought and renewed enjoyment during 
 the subsequent months and years of restrained public 
 activity, but he longed to preach the gospel again and go 
 in and out among the people he so dearly loved, as he 
 had done for thirteen years. The Hon. Alfred Hand, 
 
 *The pastor of the family at Marietta, Ohio. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 225 
 
 who knew Dr. Hickok during a large part of his ministry 
 in Scranton, and who had been ordained and installed 
 an elder of the church there, April 17th, 1867, thus 
 speaks of his former pastor after his death :* "Among 
 the sainted dead we are compelled to record the name of 
 our former beloved pastor, Milo J. Hickok. His me- 
 thodical sermons and powerful evening lectures will never 
 be forgotten by us. Some of us feel that to him we owe 
 under God's blessing, more than to any other man. The 
 church grew and was strengthened under his ministrations. 
 His labors were faithful and complete in every department 
 of church work. He loved you all with a depth of love 
 which was not always understood. Those who knew him 
 best know this. It was my privilege to be with him in 
 the keen enjoyment of a portion of his journeying in 
 Europe. I saw him when in pleasure he was recreating 
 for the work he most loved. I know how his heart longed 
 to labor with the flock God had given him, and at night, 
 often wearied with the enjoyment of the day, I recall his 
 presentiment of the calamity which so soon came upon 
 him. I quote from a message written with his own hand 
 after his affliction to one of his flock, in clear but tremb- 
 ling letters, as follows : ' A shadow perchance has drifted 
 over both of us since we looked down the green valley of 
 the Thames, and trod the smiling meadows of Runnymede, 
 but I can testify that there is a sadness of the countenance 
 by which the heart is made better. Grace can more than 
 make up for all that is taken away. The dear Lord has 
 developed within me a peace and satisfaction which I 
 never knew in my prosperity. ' ' ' 
 
 When Dr. Hickok's resignation was accepted, April, 
 
 * At the Quarter Century Memorial Service. 
 
226 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 1868, the Scrantou congregation continued to support 
 him during the remaining years of his life. His salary, 
 which was at first ^800 per annum, had been increased 
 from time to time until it had reached ^2,500. His peo- 
 ple also had provided for the expenses of his visit to 
 Europe. After his disability and before his resignation, 
 the pulpit at Scranton had been acceptably supplied, 
 principally by the Rev. W. C. Cattell, D. D., late presi- 
 dent of Lafayette College, and till recently, Secretary of 
 the Disabled Ministers' Fund, and the Rev. W. W. At- 
 tenbury, D. D. In Oct., 1868, just a year after Dr. 
 Hickok was laid aside, he removed, with his family, to 
 Marietta, Ohio, where he began his ministry, and where 
 was the home of Mrs. Hickok. Although an invalid, 
 we have seen that he was not idle or useless. When the 
 call reached him to come up higher, it was without pre- 
 monition. He died July 19th, 1873, leaving to earthly 
 duties and cares a beloved wife, one son and a daughter, 
 with whom we are already acquainted through her loving 
 testimony concerning her honored father. The son is a 
 business man at San Francisco, California. In these, as 
 in the other children of the faithful ministers of the Lu- 
 zerne Presbytery, we see the covenant goodness and faith- 
 fulness of the God whom they served. The strong ties of 
 affection that bound Dr. Hickok to his people, made 
 Scranton ultimately the place of his burial. His remains 
 were removed thither about two years after his death by 
 the ladies of the church, under the lead of Mrs. J. C. 
 Piatt, and a monument was erected to his memory. At 
 the request of Mrs. H. his excellent library was given to 
 Biddle University by his successor, the Rev. Dr. Logan. 
 During Dr. Hickok's ministry, there had been re- 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 22/ 
 
 ceived into the Scranton church, 445 members, of whom 
 222 were by profession of their faith in Christ. Fifty-two 
 of this number he had baptised. 
 
XXI. 
 THE SCRANTON PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 
 AND 
 
 PASTORATE OF THE REV. S. C. LOGAN, D. D. 
 
 WHILE there was any reason to hope for the re- 
 covery of Dr. Hickok of course no effort was 
 made to secure his successor, but, as we have seen, the 
 church was constantly supplied, and its membership was 
 increased during this period by the reception of eighteen 
 members. 
 
 When Dr. Hickok resigned, the congregation at once 
 took measures to secure a permanent pastor, and, as is apt 
 to be the case with congregations anxious to advance 
 their special work, they were disposed to seek an already 
 busy man, rather than such as were only waiting in the 
 market place to be called into the vineyard. Their invi- 
 tation was directed to a minister then in charge of one 
 of our church's most important and difficult enterprises, 
 holding at the time, the secretaryship of the Assembly's 
 Committee on Freedmen, viz., the Rev. S. C. Logan. 
 The action of the Assembly in 1867 reveals the fact that, 
 while some in our church desired that the work for the 
 freedmen should be" merged into that of the Board of 
 Home Missions, the Assembly saw in clearer light the im- 
 portance of maintaining its Committee, and while it de- 
 plored the want of proper co-operation on the part of too 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 229 
 
 many of our churches, it recognized encouraging progress, 
 and commended the wisdom and fidelity of the Freed- 
 men's Committee. In 1868 a similar testimony of the 
 Assembly was still more emphatically given, and measures 
 were taken to secure for the work on behalf of the Freed - 
 men a more ample interest and furtherance throughout 
 the church. 
 
 It was to the Rev. S. C. Logan, while secretary of 
 the Assembly's Committee, that the Scranton church 
 turned, with the request that he would fill her pulpit, 
 August isth, 1868 ; making a formal call for his pastoral 
 services on the 22nd of the same month. He so far com- 
 plied with the overture of the church, as to supply the 
 vacancy, at least with Sabbath services, while he still su- 
 perintended our church's work among the Freedmen, and 
 he entered upon his new duties on the 21st of the 
 following November. He was not regularly installed 
 until September 3d, 1869. The church had voted him a 
 salary of $2,500 per year, with the use of the manse. 
 This amount was subsequently raised to ;?3,ooo. 
 
 The Rev. Samuel Crothers Logan was born in Han- 
 over, Indiana, Dec. 21st, 1823, and graduated from the 
 college located in his native town, in 1846. After teach- 
 ing one year, he entered Princeton Theological Seminary, 
 where he completed the regular course in 1850. He 
 spent the next six months in Indiana, Kentucky and 
 Michigan. He began mission work at Constantine, 
 Michigan, Nov., 1850. He was ordained sine titulo, 
 April 14, 1 85 1, and became pastor of the Constantine 
 church in 1853. He was there till 1857, when he ac- 
 cepted a call to the pastorate of the Fifth Presbyterian 
 church of Cincinnati, Ohio, continuing in that relation 
 
230 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 till 1859. The subsequent year, he was stated supply of 
 the Seventh church in the same city. In i860 he was in- 
 vited to Valparaiso, Indiana, and was installed as pastor 
 of the church there in 1863, remaining in that charge till 
 he became secretary of the Freedman Committee in 1864. 
 He had also been principal of the Valparaiso Collegiate 
 Institute during the years of 1860-64. We have seen him 
 introduced to Scranton and inducted into the pastorate 
 there in 1869. 
 
 Dr. Logan's successful work elsewhere brought him 
 to Scranton; and while we do not follow him long into 
 his pastorate of the Scranton church, which continued till 
 1892, enough of that time comes under our review to 
 give us a fair sample of his individual work, and of his 
 cordial relations with the important church which he 
 served. He was a worthy successor of the good men who 
 had preceded him, possessing those elements of character 
 and following those methods of administration which 
 fitted him to carry forward, without friction, and with 
 perhaps increased impetus, a church enterprise which had 
 been characterized by a wise management and an 
 enlightened zeal, seldom surpassed even in this last half 
 of the nineteenth century. 
 
 We cannot better understand what had been 
 accomplished in the church's advancement during the 
 existence of the Luzerne Presbytery, — which is all that 
 this History properly covers, — than by looking at its 
 career from a standpoint in Dr. Logan's ministry in 
 advance of his, and the church's, relations to the old 
 Presbytery, viz., the time when, at the end of twenty-five 
 years, and in connection with the Anniversary fittingly 
 celebrated at that time, the pastor and the people bring 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 231 
 
 the past history of their church so vividly to view. The 
 memorial services of this deeply interesting occasion were 
 held on the Sabbath of Nov. i6th, 1873. 
 
 A vivid outline of the first twenty-five years of the 
 church's history was presented in the sermon of Dr. 
 Logan, preached on the Sabbath morning of the Anniver- 
 sary. From this is seen — more from its recital of facts 
 than its direct statements — the happy relations which 
 from the beginning existed between the pastors and the 
 church session, as well as between the session — composed 
 of the pastor and elders — and the whole church. The 
 choir, the Sabbath School, the various departments of the 
 church, and the church itself, sustained toward each other 
 an association as harmonious as it was mutually beneficial. 
 So with the church proper and the congregation, the 
 community, the great denomination with which the 
 church stands connected, and all its organized schemes 
 and agencies for prosecuting its benevolent work. 
 Loyalty to our national government was also practically 
 shown by the church and its Sabbath School, especially 
 during the dark and trying period of civil war, through 
 which the country was called to pass. To the poor and 
 unfortunate of the young city in which the church was 
 planted, not only was the gospel preached, but such 
 substantial help for the needy as its spirit prompts was 
 generously rendered. The progress made and the fruits 
 gathered could only be partially realized from the facts 
 cited. 
 
 The seventeen Christian men and women who, in 
 1848, had covenanted with the Lord, and with each 
 other, to establish a Presbyterian church in the locality 
 which had become so important, and to enter into its 
 
232 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 fellowship and co-operate in its work for Christ and 
 humanity, had, at the end of twenty-five years, become a 
 communion of 491 members! Beginning without any 
 church property, they had now a commodious, convenient 
 and handsome house of worship, surmounted by an 
 excellent bell, and a fine organ to aid them in the service 
 of song. There was also a lecture room suited to 
 Sabbath School purposes, and a spacious residence for the 
 pastor. 
 
 In 1850 nine dollars apiece were given to the two 
 Boards of Home and Foreign Missions. These amounts 
 have grown, at the close of the quarter century, into an 
 aggregate of ^11,515 to Home missions, and ^6,041 to 
 Foreign Missions. There have been contributed, in the 
 mean time, $5,981 to the Board of Education; $1,832 to 
 Publication; $5,135 to Church Erection; $7,052 to 
 Ministerial Relief; ^2,153 to Freedmen; $500 to Susten- 
 tation; and to Bible and Tract Societies, the Young 
 Men's Christian Association, the Sunday School Union, 
 and for religious work among the sailors, $11,612, — a 
 total, during these years, of $51,821. Additional 
 contributions, for special causes at home and abroad, 
 more than double the amount just named. The Sunday 
 School was also liberal in meeting the urgent wants of 
 soldiers and their families during the civil war, in the 
 early sixties ; and, as has been seen, after Dr. Hickok 
 was laid aside, the church provided for his support. 
 
 The Reunion of the Old and New School branches 
 of the Presbyterian church, which was warmly espoused 
 by the Scranton church, as, indeed, by the whole 
 Presbytery of Luzerne, was made the occasion of a thank 
 offering of $31,000. A portion of this fund was used for 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 233 
 
 placing a superior organ in the church. Of Ji8,ooo 
 given by Mr. J. H. Scranton, $15,000 went to the cause 
 of Missions and Christian education, the latter mostly to 
 Lafayette College. The balance provided for equipping 
 a second church in Scranton, which was soon called into 
 activity. 
 
 The chairman of the Memorial meeting, held on the 
 evening of the Anniversary Sabbath, was Mr. Joseph A. 
 Scranton, eldest son and fitting representative on this 
 occasion, of Joseph H. Scranton, who from the first had 
 occupied so influential and honorable a position in 
 connection with all the activities and benefactions of the 
 church, and who for twelve years was superintendent of 
 its Sabbath School. Two years previous he had rested 
 from his earthly labors. The chairman's appropriate 
 introduction to the addresses of the evening made the 
 impressive scenes and events of the church's past to live 
 again in the awakened memories of many of his auditors. 
 
 Mr. Joseph C. Piatt, who at the time of the 
 organization of the Scranton church was but three years 
 old; who was the first child enrolled in the Sabbath 
 school; and who had grown to surpassing stature, in 
 more ways than one, under the tutelage of the church and 
 the Sabbath School, — in a spirited and valuable address, 
 recited the origin and history of the latter institution. 
 He graphically sketched the characteristics and the work 
 of some of its officers and teachers. 
 
 The Sabbath School started in a little red school 
 house at " Slocum Hollow," standing amidst its umbra- 
 geous surroundings. It had at first only six scholars. 
 Among its excellent and ample corps of teachers was Mr. 
 Manners, the master builder of the Scranton Firm ; and 
 
234 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 there were others, like him, of the enterprising men who 
 were busy with foundation work for what was to be an 
 important inland city, yet who found time for still more 
 necessary Christian efforts, to lay, in youthful minds and 
 hearts, the only true foundations of character, and of 
 good for this present world as well as for the world 
 to come. 
 
 The Sunday School began as a union school, although 
 in 1845, twelve of its seventeen teachers and officers were 
 Presbyterians. Largely out of deference to esteemed co- 
 workers of other denominations, this state of things con- 
 tinued even four years after the organization of the Pres- 
 byterian church. A school was then organized under the 
 direct control of the church, but it was held at a different 
 hour from the union school and in a different building. 
 It began with sixteen officers and teachers and thirty-nine 
 scholars. Joseph H. Scranton was its first superintendent. 
 In 1854, two years after its strictly Presbyterian character 
 was assumed, its first classes were taught in the church 
 edifice, and from that time there was a marked accelera- 
 tion of its growth. 
 
 Early in the progress of the Scranton Sabbath school 
 work, systematic efforts were made by its teachers to 
 develop the spirit of benevolence and patriotism in their 
 pupils. There was careful training in the service of song 
 by the best musical talent in the church. The first infant 
 class was taught by Dr. W. A. Chittenden, and it was a 
 peculiarity of the school that the primary department 
 was generally conducted, not by ladies, but by ma- 
 ture men. 
 
 Missionary and benevolent societies were organized 
 among the pupils, by which, at the time of the memorial 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 235 
 
 celebration, a foreign missionary was supported at Beirut, 
 Syria, and a home missionary at Puget Sound, Washing- 
 ton. Three hundred dollars were raised by the school 
 for the Christian commission during the civil war, through 
 the encouragement and co-operation of the superintendent, 
 Mr. Joseph H. Scranton. 
 
 Mr. J. C. Piatt became superintendent in 1865, and 
 efiSciently filled that office until after the Presbytery 
 ceased to exist. 
 
 Mission schools grew out of the church school, from 
 time to time. In 1851 one was started at the Constantine 
 mines, and another the same year at the Bellevue mines. 
 A third was added at Pine Brook in 1853. 
 
 The choir of the Scranton church also received de- 
 served and honorable mention at the memorial service. 
 From the comprehensive report presented by Mr. Edward 
 P. Kingsbury, for many years its efficient leader, we learn 
 that from the organization of the church, the choir was 
 composed of the most stable element of the congregation. 
 Many of its members were among those who sustained the 
 burdens of extensive business and other public duties, and 
 of its number were elect ladies who looked well to the 
 ways of their households, and had due part in all impor- 
 tant social duties. During the twenty-five years the 
 church had but two regular choristers and only four 
 organists. This is significant of its irenic spirit and 
 perennial life, as well as of harmonious relations between 
 the choir, and both pastor and people. 
 
 Judge Alfred Hand, a member of the session, was 
 one of the speakers of the memorial evening meeting, on 
 whose rich banquet of interesting and suggestive remi- 
 niscences we must still for a while linger. His address 
 
236 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 paid fitting tribute to some who had been prominently- 
 identified with the church, in whole or in part, through 
 its past history — -both of the living and the dead. Special 
 mention was made of Elder Charles Fuller. He had been 
 honored by other churches, with which we have already 
 met him, and now at the age of seventy-six, his hold on 
 the affection of his brethren had been strengthening with 
 his years and multiplied services in the session, in the 
 Sabbath School, the community, and the great business 
 firm which he had so long and faithfully served. At the 
 close of the address, the pastor. Dr. Logan, went down 
 into the audience, and taking the venerable elder by the 
 hand, led him forward, and in the presence of the vast 
 assembly, said: "Let the elders who rule well be ac- 
 counted worthy of double honor." — I Tim., 5:17. Where- 
 upon the whole audience arose and saluted the venerable 
 elder, who bowed in meekness and silent tears. 
 
 Another of the most useful and benevolent members 
 of the Scranton church, toward whom the attention of the 
 memorial meeting was turned, was a man well advanced 
 in life, and whose early associations and Christian nurture 
 had been among the Moravians. He came from Nazareth, 
 Pa., but for many years had been a most important factor 
 in the Presbyterian church of Scranton. His life com- 
 mended his antecedents, and his efficient and generous 
 co-operation at Scranton, was a cordial endorsement of 
 his later affiliations. This was Joseph H. Albright, who 
 excelled in benevolence, and was even thought by some 
 to have erred in the extreme to which he went in that 
 direction. But "there is that scattereth, and yet increas- 
 eth," if not always in material wealth, yet, doubtless, in 
 that which enriches and enlarges the souls of its possessors. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 237 
 
 The noble women of the church had conspicuoas 
 mention. They were commended as those who had been, 
 from first to last, its most valuable and helpful members, 
 — knowing best of all how to appreciate the work of 
 Christ and the true glory of the Christian life. 
 
 It only remained to be said, that there were some ex- 
 cellent citizens of Scranton who had greatly aided the 
 First Presbyterian church, yet were never enrolled in its 
 membership. Prominent among these was James Archi- 
 bald Senior, a man of sterling principle and practice. 
 He was not, however, one who trusted in his personal 
 morality. He recognized Jesus Christ as the only 
 Saviour. Judge Hand says of him: "His faith was 
 stronger in the ability of Christ to save than in his own 
 experience of that faith." It had nevertheless, undoubt- 
 edly controlled his life, and prompted many worthy and 
 generous deeds, which won for him the gratitude of the 
 church and community. His pastor was satisfied, by 
 revelations made before his death, that he was indeed an 
 humble Christian. 
 
 Reference to the departed pastor, Dr. Hickok, deeply 
 stirred the emotions of the audience, nor was it, perhaps, 
 less so, when mention was made of George W. Scranton, 
 an elder elect. Sabbath School teacher. Christian Con- 
 gressman, and leading member of the great business firm 
 of Scranton, mourned by all, when called away in 1861, 
 leaving his place vacant in the halls of legislation, and in 
 the prayer meeting, as well as in the city, with the up- 
 building and character of which he had so much to do. 
 
 More recently, his associate and coadjutor, Joseph 
 H. Scranton, had followed him to the better city not 
 made with hands ; greatly missed, but, through the grace 
 
238 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 and faithfulness of a covenant keeping God, leaving 
 worthy successors in his own household.* 
 
 THE SESSION. 
 
 It was not till after the Luzerne Presbytery had 
 ceased to be, that the General Assembly yielded to the 
 pressure brought to bear upon it to provide for a change 
 in the constitution of the church that would allow 
 individual churches the privilege of electing ruling elders 
 for a term of years, instead of for life, or good behavior; 
 therefore all the elders and deacons in the churches of 
 the Luzerne Presbytery were elected under the provision 
 of the old constitution and were not voted out of office. 
 We have already found a number who served in different 
 churches through the entire career of the Presbytery. 
 The first elder of the Scranton church, Mr. Charles 
 Fuller, was in office when Luzerne Presbytery was merged 
 into Lackawanna ; and indeed continued an active elder 
 until 1881, having been the honored Clerk of the Session 
 in 1848. 
 
 Mr. N. B. Hutchinson, elected at the same time, 
 removed from Scranton in i860 and of course could no 
 longer perform the duties of the office, where for many 
 years he had been so useful, especially in the prayer 
 meetings, which he and Mrs. Hutchinson, Mr. and Mrs. 
 W. Piatt, and James Hutchinson, brother of the elder, 
 started and maintained, long before the organization of 
 the church. Mr. Hutchinson had been ordained an elder 
 in Belvidere, N. J., in 1845. 
 
 *The writer of this History wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to 
 Mr. Alexander W. Dickson, clerk of the session of the Scranton church, for 
 the unique history of that church, covering the first twenty-five years of its 
 existence, including the published memorial addresses and proceedings at 
 the end of that period. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 239 
 
 It was several years before any one was chosen to 
 fill the place in the session to which the Hon. George 
 W. Scranton was elected at the organization of the 
 church; but on July 10, 1853, Mr. James Harrington, 
 who had been received a few months before from the 
 Presbyterian church of Providence, Pa. , was added to the 
 session by election, and was installed by the Rev. J. D. 
 Mitchell, D. D. He sustained the relation of ruling 
 elder to the Scranton church till 1865, when he removed 
 to the state of New York. 
 
 In the mean time, Samuel Sherred was ordained and 
 installed May 31, 1857, Charles Mattes, George Fuller 
 and E. A. Lawrence at the same time. R. M. Arnold 
 was installed November 25, i860. These brethren were 
 all inducted into the office by Dr. Hickok. Afterwards, 
 Judge Alfred Hand was ordained and installed, also 
 Robert Blake and Edward Judson. U. M. Stowers was 
 installed April 17, 1867, and inducted by Dr. Hickok. 
 At the termination of his ministry there were in the 
 session six active elders ; the others had been honorably 
 dismissed to churches in other communities. 
 
 Other removals occurred, some after the transfer of 
 the Presbytery, and we learn that the session was in 187 1 
 strengthened by the election, ordination and installation 
 of C. H. Doud, William H. Piatt, who had been twice 
 elected before, and Alexander W. Dickson. Thus we 
 find the First church of Scranton entering the new 
 Presbytery well equipped for aggressive work. 
 
 Before taking leave of this favored church, we 
 mention, as indicative of the spirit it had imbibed during 
 its connection with its foster mother, the Presbytery of 
 Luzerne, another characteristic transaction which deserves 
 commemoration : 
 
240 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 When rejoicing over the manifold blessings the great 
 Head of the Church had afforded them through a quarter 
 of a century, a thoughtful member of the body suggested 
 the propriety and feasibility of raising and investing, at 
 that favorable opportunity, a permanent fund of ten 
 thousand dollars, the earnings of which should, for all 
 coming time, be devoted to aiding the poor. Eight 
 hundred dollars more than the proposed sum were 
 promptly pledged. 
 
 The originator of this worthy scheme was Thomas 
 Dickson, whom we have already met in company with 
 other generous companions. He was subsequently 
 associated with the overflow of the mother church in 
 Scranton in giving autonomy to the Second church for 
 which the First had been so generously providing, and 
 which has had a like prosperous career with that of the 
 parent organization from which it sprung. 
 
XXII. 
 
 GERMAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES IN 
 SCRANTON AND THEIR PASTORS. 
 
 THESE, in the nature of the case, could not be the 
 natural children of the First church; but they are its 
 foster children, and as such have been cherished by the 
 foster mother and her natural children. They have been 
 the objects of deep and tender solicitude as to their 
 spiritual health and growth. 
 
 But owing to the fact that their services were 
 conducted in a language with which but few of the 
 Presbyterians of the First church were acquainted, there 
 could not be the close intercourse, in worship and 
 opportunities for social influence, necessary to rapid 
 affiliation and co-operation. Yet these churches have 
 grown, and seem to have been loyal to the Presbytery, 
 which is the more to be commended in view of the fact 
 that the earlier membership had been trained in somewhat 
 different usages from those which prevail among us. 
 Their ministers, although well educated men, had been 
 instructed in, and accustomed to, modes of administration 
 and habits of thought in many respects dissimilar to ours. 
 These German churches have done a good work for our 
 denomination, and prepared the way for a much greater 
 future work in which they and we alike will find lasting 
 benefits, both in church and state. 
 
242 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 The first of these German churches was constituted 
 January 28, 1856,* and formally taken under the care of 
 the Presbytery of Luzerne, on the 25 th of the following 
 June. It consisted of 60 members. 
 
 The first minister was the Rev. Herman Veith, who 
 was probably received from some German church. He 
 was with the church from its organization, Jan., 1856, till 
 March, 1858. He seems to have been dismissed to the 
 Presbytery of Hudson and to have taken charge of the 
 Jeffersonville German church. At the termination of 
 Mr. Veith's ministry the church reports 156 members. 
 
 The next minister was the Rev. Thomas Gradman, 
 whose name does not appear in the minutes of the 
 General Assembly at the time. He was in Scranton 
 about a year. 
 
 March i, 1859, the Rev. Charles David Rosenthal, 
 from the Presbytery of Passaic, and pastor of the German 
 church of Patterson, N. J., entered upon the charge of 
 the German church of Scranton, and was its regular 
 pastor till October, 1864. Mr. Rosenthal was regular in 
 his attendance at all the meetings of Presbytery and 
 seemed cordially to adopt our system of doctrine and 
 polity. When he left his charge in Scranton, the number 
 of members reported was 249, with 210 in the Sabbath 
 School. 
 
 In the fall of 1864, soon after Mr. Rosenthal ceased 
 to be the pastor of the German church, the Rev. William 
 C. Wunderlich became pastor. Mr. Rosenthal remained 
 on the roll of Presbytery for several years, and was 
 reported as stated supply at White's Corners, N. Y. 
 Subsequently he became pastor of the Clarkestown 
 
 *Perhaps by the Presbytery of Luzerne. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 243 
 
 German church in the Presbytery of New York. This 
 pastorate he retained till he was relieved by his death, 
 which took place at Naunt, N. Y., May 4, 1874. The 
 Clarkstown church was at that time under the care 
 of the Presbytery of Hudson. This church was a small 
 one, but it seems to have been loyal to the Boards of our 
 church under Mr. Rosenthal's ministry. 
 
 The Rev. Wm. C. Wunderlich, who became pastor 
 of the Scranton German church, does not appear on our 
 roll before that time. 
 
 The reports from his church were at first meagre, 
 but in the course of a few years they became quite 
 encouraging, and at the time the Presbytery was merged 
 in other Presbyteries the church reported a membership 
 of 594, and a Sabbath School of 260 members, with 
 contributions to nearly all our Boards. They raised for 
 congregational purposes, for the year ending April, 
 1870, $2,535, and received into the church that year, 
 53 on profession, and 35 by certificate, a total of 86. 
 
 The congregation had erected a house of worship on 
 Hickory street, between Cedar and Pittston streets, at a 
 cost of J3500. The building was formally dedicated 
 Nov. 6, 1859. Previous to this, the church, had occupied 
 the Odd Fellows' Hall, the former meeting place of 
 the First church. 
 
 Mr. Wunderlich in 1885 dedicated a new house of 
 worship at far greater cost than that of the old building, 
 and placed a chime of bells on it. He retained his 
 position as pastor till 1888. Having made a visit to his 
 native land and returned, he still resides in Scranton. 
 
 The Petersburg German Presbyterian church, so 
 named from the part of the "larger Scranton " in which 
 
244 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 it was located, was organized January, 1858. Its original 
 members were : George N. and Peter Engel, Conrad 
 Otto, John M. Thrier, John Feries, Jacob Saun, Charles 
 Smidt, Fred Teufel, John Braumann, Henry Wengel, 
 Henry Schulz, Joseph Faber, William Vetgel and Franz 
 Zigler. The women's names are not given, but we can- 
 not conceive of a Christian church within the limits of 
 civilization without women. The Pennsylvania Coal 
 Company gave this new enterprise a lot for the erection 
 of a house of worship, which was completed at a cost of 
 ^2,500, and dedicated to the worship of God, July 25, 
 1869. One month before this congregation had been 
 formally taken under the care of the Presbytery of Lu- 
 zerne it had a membership of 55. Thus it is seen that 
 there was a place for the women and children. More- 
 over, we learn that it had a flourishing Sabbath School of 
 75 pupils, with Mr. Conrad Otto as its superintendent. 
 
 It was from the first under the pastoral care of the 
 ministers of the First German church, viz : the Revs. 
 Messrs. Gradman, Rosenthal, and Wunderlich, who di- 
 vided their services with the newer organization. The 
 Petersburg church was located on Centre street. Previous 
 to the erection of the church building, it availed itself of 
 the use of the school house in that part of the city. As 
 there is no separate report of this church in the minutes 
 of the General Assembly during the existence of the Lu- 
 zerne Presbytery, its membership and other things must 
 have been included in the report of the First German 
 church. 
 
 Another German church was organized in Archbald 
 in the early part of 1862, and reported (indefinitely), 
 with the Rev. Bernhard Sickel as its pastor. This 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 245 
 
 enterprise, no doubt, was due to influences emanating 
 from Scranton. In 1864 a more definite report is sent to 
 Presbytery, which gives the membership of the church as 
 72, and shows the existence of a small Sabbath School, 
 with ^615 raised toward self-support and miscellaneous 
 matters ; also small contributions raised for four of our 
 boards. During this year the pastoral relation between 
 Mr. Sickel and the Archbald church was dissolved and 
 the congregation lost its house of worship by fire. In 
 1865 the church is reported vacant. In 1866 the Rev. J. 
 E. Lang was ordained and installed pastor of the Arch- 
 bald church, and continued in that relation till 1874. 
 This church did not grow much at first. Like all mining 
 congregations it was constantly liable to changes. More- 
 over, during its history, it not only lost its house of 
 worship, but its first pastor, Mr. Sickel, fell under the 
 censure of his Presbytery, which was obliged to divest 
 him of his ministerial office in 1869. The people, with 
 the aid of Christian friends outside, rebuilt their house of 
 worship, securing a much more substantial and beau- 
 tiful one. 
 
 In 1870, when it was taken charge of by the new 
 Presbytery, it reported 147 members. The Presbytery of 
 Luzerne had not many German churches, for while it 
 would have regarded it cruel to withhold the gospel from 
 those incapable of receiving it in any other than their 
 native tongue, it was deemed best to secure, at the 
 earliest possible time, unity of language, thought and 
 worship, in order to the highest temporal and spiritual 
 advantages of all interested parties. 
 
XXIII. 
 
 BEAVER MEADOW AND WHITE HAVEN 
 CHURCHES. 
 
 THE Rev. David Harbison, who was born, reared and 
 educated in the north of Ireland, came into the 
 bounds of tlie Luzerne Presbytery in the early part of 
 1848, bearing testimonials of licensure for the ministry 
 in the Presbyterian church of his native land. His uncle, 
 Thomas Harrison, Esq., a prominent and influential 
 citizen residing iiear White Haven, on the Lehigh, al- 
 though not at that time a member of the Presbyterian 
 church, yet introduced his nephew to the congregation at 
 White Haven, with which he worshiped, and which was 
 then vacant. It was part of the Beaver Meadow field. 
 The young man was an acceptable preacher, of pre- 
 possessing manners and good reputation , and was there- 
 fore at once taken hold of by the Presbytery and the 
 then vacant mission field. He was instructed to give half 
 his time to White Haven, where as yet no church had 
 been organized. But, as we have seen in an earlier part 
 of this history, the Rev. Darwin Cook had done mission- 
 ary work in connection with Conyngham Valley soon 
 after the organization of the Presbytery in 1843, giving 
 the place one Sabbath a month. Subsequently, the Rev. 
 James G. Moore was directed, in 1845, to give this field 
 the same proportion of time, which he continued to do 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 247 
 
 till 1848, or until a short time before the coming of Mr. 
 Harbison, who took up Mr. Moore's work in his whole 
 field, but gave a larger part of his time to White Haven. 
 Already the business at Beaver Meadow was beginning to 
 decline, and changes were taking place which were carry- 
 ing away the membership of the church there, and so 
 weakening it. Notwithstanding, Mr. Harbison's ministry 
 was understood to be very acceptable to that people. 
 
 Though there were but few Presbyterians in White 
 Haven, a proposal to erect a house of worship was favor- 
 ably entertained. I will here quote from a historical state- 
 ment furnished by the present popular pastor of the 
 White Haven church:* "A subscription was made which 
 warranted the commencement of the building in the 
 summer of 1849. The corner stone was laid by the Rev. 
 Richard Webster. In the winter the Sacrament of the 
 Lord's Supper was administered by the Rev. John 
 Dorrance, and the Presbytery appointed a committee to 
 organize a church." Work being demanded at Hazleton, 
 nearer Beaver Meadow, Mr. Harbison seems to have been 
 relieved of the care of White Haven early in 1850; and 
 on the 2ist day of May of the same year, Mr. Harbison 
 was inducted formally into the pastorate of the Beaver 
 Meadow church, having been solemnly ordained to the 
 full work of the ministry. 
 
 In the meantime, the Rev. Samuel A. Gayley was 
 appointed stated supply of White Haven and the regions 
 round about. Mr. Harbison was the only member of the 
 Committee of Presbytery able to attend at the time 
 appointed for the organization of the White Haven 
 church, Dec. 6, 1850, and he had the satisfaction of 
 
 *Rev. Ebenezer Flack. 
 
248 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 enrolling and organizing twenty-three members into the 
 First Presbyterian Church of White Haven. Of these, 
 the present pastor informs us, three are still alive and 
 honored members, viz., Mrs. A. F. Peters, Mrs. E. P. 
 Morris and Mrs. Bradley Childs. Mr. Harbison ordained 
 and installed Mr. William Davis ruling elder. 
 
 The missionary work at White Haven had passed 
 into good hands when Mr. Gayley took hold of it. He, 
 like Mr. Harbison, was born in Ireland, his birth 
 occurring at Castleberg, Dec. 11, 1822. But, coming to 
 this country early in life, he was educated here ; first in 
 his uncle's excellent classical school near Wilmington, 
 Delaware, afterward in Lafayette College and Princeton 
 Theological Seminary, graduating from the latter institu- 
 tion in 1850. He only remained a short time at White 
 Haven, as in 1851 he received and accepted a call to 
 Lockhaven, Pa. He was ordained by the Presbytery of 
 Northumberland May 28th of the same year. He 
 continued pastor of the Lockhaven church till 1862, 
 when he became pastor of the Lower West Nottingham 
 church in Maryland, a church of which Gilbert Tenent 
 had been pastor, and, in later years, the Rev. Dr. 
 George Burrowes and the Rev. A. A. Hodge, D. D. 
 Here Dr. Samuel A. Gayley continued an honorable, 
 useful and every way fortunate career till 1893. On his 
 voluntary retirement from the church, he was made its 
 pastor emeritus, and resides in Wayne, Pa. 
 
 During Dr. Gayley' s term of service at White 
 Haven, the Sabbath School was organized, and has, from 
 the beginning to the present time, been well managed, 
 and a source of great good to the church and the 
 community. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 249 
 
 In the summer of 1851, Mr. James Scott, just from 
 Princeton Seminary, served the same field that had been 
 vacated by Mr. Gayley. He also was from the North of 
 Ireland, Armagh county, but was a graduate of the 
 University of Glasgow, Scotland. He was subsequently 
 ordained by the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia, and 
 became pastor of the church at Homesburg, Pa., June 
 6th, 1854. He continued there until 1861, when he was 
 released from that charge in order to his acceptance of a 
 call to White Haven. He was a man of fine culture and 
 of excellent Christian spirit. 
 
 In the summer of 185 1, the house of worship which 
 had been projected before the organization of the church 
 was formally dedicated. The service was conducted by 
 the Rev. Richard Webster, who from time to time, as in 
 this instance, rejoiced to see the little churches, for which 
 he had travailed in birth, comfortably sheltered and 
 without any lingering encumbrance of debt. This 
 building was beautifully situated for scenical effects, but, 
 unfortunately, was too far from the centre of population. 
 
 The next minister was the Rev. John F. Baker, 
 whose work has been already noticed. When Mr. Baker 
 was called to the Scranton church in the spring of 1854, 
 the Rev. Joseph Wray Porter, a licentiate of the Presby- 
 tery, was appointed stated supply, with a field somewhat 
 modified; for, instead of Beaver Meadow and Hazleton, 
 Weatherly, Clifton and Filmore were associated with 
 White Haven. 
 
 Mr. Porter was born in Colerain, Ireland, but was 
 educated in this country. He was, in fact, one of Mr. 
 Webster's boys. He graduated from Lafayette College, 
 and was a student from Princeton Seminary. 
 
250 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 White Haven was his radiating point. Mr. Baker 
 had resided in Beaver Meadow. Mr. Porter's other 
 preaching places were unorganized, and the organization 
 at the centre was by no means strong. The elder whom 
 Mr. Harbison had ordained had removed from the place; 
 therefore the young minister had little trained assistance, 
 except from the Sabbath School workers. Nevertheless 
 all who knew of Mr. Porter's work recognized his 
 earnestness, zeal and fidelity. 
 
 Under his ministry at the new coal town of Filraore, 
 the way was prepared for the more perfect establishment 
 of a Presbyterian church. Mr, Porter was appointed by 
 Presbytery, at the request of Mr. John Leisenring, a 
 leading member of the Council Ridge Coal Company, to 
 preach at Filmore, and, at the petition of the people of 
 that place, a committee was appointed by the Presbytery, 
 Sept., 1856, to organize a church there, but, owing to 
 some hindrance, the committee, which consisted of the 
 Rev. T, P. Hunt, Rev. John Armstrong, Rev. John 
 Johnson and G. W. Smith, did not perform its duty 
 till near the close of the year, and did not secure 
 the election of elders. The following persons were 
 enrolled, viz., John Leisenring, Mrs. John Leisenring, 
 Mrs. Sallie P. Sharpe, Hugh Hyndman, Mrs, Hugh 
 Hyndman, Mrs. Rebecca and Isabella Bayn, John 
 Cuningham and Mrs. Cuningham, James Black, Thomas 
 Ellis, Samuel Wiesley, Robert McConnahan, Miss Martha 
 McClelland and Miss Mary McClelland. In this general 
 field, Mr. Porter did a laborious and useful work. After 
 leaving White Haven, August, 1857, he was ordained by 
 the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia, March 19, i860, 
 and installed pastor over the churches of Charleston and 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 25 I 
 
 Pheonixville, having previously supplied them for a 
 time. This charge he retained, with a good record, 
 till 1876. He then became pastor of the Fifth Presby- 
 terian Church of Trenton, N. J., with which he spent two 
 years. From 1881-83, he served the Stanhope church, 
 in the same state. His last charge was the Woodside 
 church of Newark, N. J. He died at Newark, July 16, 
 1890. Mr. Porter married Miss Rebecca Stern, of 
 Easton, Pa. She survived him, with one son and one 
 daughter. 
 
 The Rev. David Harbison, after relinquishing the 
 White Haven portion of his original field, continued to 
 serve the Beaver Meadow church, Hazleton and other 
 adjacent points. No church, up to this time, nor until 
 several years later, was organized at Hazleton, although it 
 had received attention from Mr. Webster himself 
 Messrs. Gaston and Moore had maintained regular 
 services there, once in two weeks. The business of the 
 place was increasing rapidly, especially under the vigorous 
 and wise management of Ario Pardee and Company. 
 Hazleton had, therefore, become the more important part 
 of Mr. Harbison's field of operations. The services were 
 conducted in the public school house. 
 
 Mr. Harbison continued to occupy his general field, 
 acceptably to the several communities, till the spring of 
 1852, when he became pastor of the United churches of 
 Donegal and Ligonier in the Presbytery of Blairsville; 
 then Ebensburg and New Salem, of the same Presbytery, 
 in the order named. In the year 1875, ^^ returned to 
 Lehigh Presbytery, and became pastor of the Bridge 
 street church of Catasauqua, which position he still 
 occupies. Mr. Harbison married during the earlier part 
 of his residence in the interior of Pennsylvania. 
 
XXIV. 
 
 NEWTON, WHITE HAVEN AND ECKLEY. 
 THE REV. JONATHAN OSMOND. 
 
 ABOUT the time the Rev. David Harbison landed in 
 this country, an invitation from the Presbytery of 
 Luzerne, written by the Rev. Richard Webster, reached 
 Jonathan Osmond to visit Beaver Meadow and spend two 
 Sabbaths in tlie church there. Mr. Osmond was then in 
 the middle of his senior year in Princeton Theological 
 Seminary. He had not, at that time, applied to his 
 Presbytery for license, therefore he felt that he could not, 
 without great loss, be absent so long from his classes, nor 
 did he like to go into the field till he was duly licensed. 
 However, he consulted with Dr. Archibald Alexander, 
 who thought his objections well founded. Therefore, he 
 respectfully declined Mr. Webster's invitation, and, as 
 we have seen, Mr. Harbison was introduced into the 
 Beaver Meadow field and Mr. Osmond was informed that 
 the Presbytery would offer him another missionary field 
 when he was ready to enter upon it. After graduation in 
 the spring of 1848, and having been regularly licensed by 
 the Presbytery of New Castle, Mr. Osmond left his home 
 near Oxford, Pa., on horseback, to visit the field desig- 
 nated by the Presbytery of Luzerne. It proved to be that 
 part of Mr. Parke's field situated north of Pittston, and 
 originally embraced what is now included in the townships 
 of Newton, North and South Abington, Ransom in 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 253 
 
 Lackawanna county, and Falls in Wyoming. This ground 
 was actually occupied, with nothing to hinder the oc- 
 cupancy of Scott, Benton and Greenfield in Lackawanna 
 county. On this territory, the only organized church was 
 Fallstown, which was afterwards changed by the Presby- 
 tery to Newton, because of the changes in township lines 
 which ultimately located the home of the church in the 
 centre of Newton township. 
 
 This was a country church embracing many families 
 in the prime of life. A short time before, a young 
 minister by the name of Stevens had been sent into this 
 congregation, but was seen soon after making his way 
 from the community. A member of the Presbytery 
 wanted to know why he had abandoned the field, and was 
 answered, "Oh, there are so many children." It was 
 still true when Mr. O. reached the Newton congregation, 
 that there were many children, but this, to his mind, only 
 gave the more promise of a lively condition of things, 
 and while it would call for no little effort on their behalf, 
 he could not regard this, and similar providential indica- 
 tions pointing to the necessity for much work, as furnish- 
 ing ground of excuse for turning away from a specially 
 difficult field, though at first he was tempted to do so. 
 While the church had long been organized, it had no 
 completed house of worship, no Sabbath School, and had 
 had only partial and somewhat irregular services. Dr. 
 Parke had, for the past four years, supplied this part of his 
 extensive parish as frequently as possible, but he could not 
 be very often in the remoter parts of his field, or continue 
 long when he visited them. However, the people at 
 Newton had become acquainted with and greatly attached 
 to the Mountain Missionary, and were not particularly 
 
254 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 anxious for a change. They, however, treated the young 
 minister kindly, for they were a good, honest people, and 
 really desired the upbuilding of the spiritual house. Their 
 hands had been set to work in building a house of worship. 
 
 One of the first members of the church with which 
 the new minister became acquainted was, at the time of 
 introduction, on the top of the rising structure destined 
 to be the much needed sanctuary which Mr. Parke had 
 stirred up the people to begin to build. Peter Dershiraer, 
 the builder, was soon inducted into the eldership, which, 
 from the organization of the church, had consisted of 
 Peter Corselius and Peter Richards. Thus its first en- 
 largement by the addition of a third Peter, making it 
 eminently Petrine, brought in a new element, the Ger- 
 man, added to the Holland or Jersey of the other two. 
 They were all different, and all good men. Their children 
 became significant factors in church work, and still are. 
 
 Before the completion of the Presbyterian house of 
 worship on the beautiful site selected for it, facing the 
 conspicuous mountain on the east, our Methodist brethren 
 had begun a church edifice, just beside the old red school 
 house which had long served for all sorts of pubhc 
 gatherings. In 1848 worship was held by all denomina- 
 tions in this new, but unfinished structure. 
 
 The attendance was good as to numbers, but in 
 meeting with a people who for nearly a score of years had 
 only worshiped in school houses or other secular build- 
 ings, the impression on the mind of the young minister 
 in the delivery of his first sermon from the text " For to 
 me to live is Christ," was not inspiring. There was 
 something wanting. There seemed to be no such spiritual 
 atmosphere as he had been accustomed to in the church 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 255 
 
 of his childhood, where all the families were gathered in 
 their respective pews, and waited reverently the words of 
 the pastor, the Rev. Ebenezer Dickey, D. D., and after- 
 wards the eloquent utterances of his son, the Rev. John 
 M. Dickey, D. D., the founder of Lincoln University, or 
 the mild but touching words of the Rev. Robert P. Du- 
 bois, while a student and teacher for a long time in the 
 Academy at New London,* — all this, to say nothing of 
 the atmosphere of Princeton's worshiping assemblies, 
 suggested to the young preacher on "Brushy Ridge " a 
 startling contrast. 
 
 New adjustments must be made, the conditions and 
 wants of pioneer communities, especially of the younger 
 members of such communities, must be considered, and 
 the fact faced that these conditions are to them normal, 
 while to the older people, it might be, that only after 
 gradual, and, at the first, reluctant yielding of what had 
 once been preferred, they had fallen into the free and easy 
 habits of pioneer life. A new element in such society 
 cannot revolutionize it at once, and whenever attempting 
 to do so destroys its ability to revolutionize it at all. 
 Here, as in all moral uplifting, the new element must 
 lead, not drive. This is a lesson that must be learned by 
 would-be reformers before progress in the right direction 
 is ordinarily secured. 
 
 The community for which the Newton church was 
 designed had, for many years after their first settlements, 
 a laborious struggle in subduing the wilderness and 
 providing themselves with homes. From necessity their 
 first buildings were small and inconvenient. During the 
 
 •A lineal successor of the school taught by the celebrated Dr Francis 
 Allison, among the first really Presbyterian schools in this country under 
 strictly ecclesiastical control— that of the Synod of Philadelphia iiii. 
 See Dr. Charles Hodge's history of the Presbyterian church, p 262 
 
256 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 time Mr. Parke looked after their spiritual wants, a new 
 and better market opened up for the productions of their 
 farms. This had stimulated greater industry and thrift, 
 in which they had been led and encouraged by the 
 greater enterprise and sobriety of some more recent 
 settlers. In consequence of this state of things, very 
 many of the farmers had become able to build themselves 
 larger and better homes. But before they could, to any 
 considerable extent, refurnish their homes, the call was 
 made for building houses of worship. They regarded 
 this call, and occupied their new homes without ad- 
 ditional furniture. 
 
 In the summer of 1848, the neat new Presbyterian 
 church was dedicated to God, free from debt. It was a 
 glad day to both people and minister. Appropriate and 
 impressive services were conducted by members of the 
 Presbytery. 
 
 A Sabbath School was at once organized. The new 
 minister had his Bible class. The school was from the 
 beginning well attended and useful. The church was 
 greatly aided in their building enterprise by Mr. George 
 Cory, who was made superintendent of the Sabbath 
 School. Although not a member of the Presbyterian 
 church, he was regarded as a brother beloved. While he 
 did business in the community, he continued his friendly 
 assistance. 
 
 An important part of the field to which Mr. Osmond 
 was assigned by the Presbytery was Abington, seven 
 miles north-east of Newton, a village settled by intelligent 
 people ; the seat of Madison Academy, where there were 
 a number of Presbyterians of whom one, the head of a 
 family, was an elder in the Wilkes-Barre church. The 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 25/ 
 
 young minister was kindly welcomed by all the Presby- 
 terians and very courteously treated by the ministers and 
 members of the Baptist and Methodist congregations, 
 who generously opened their churches for his services, 
 many of them attending upon his ministry. In addition 
 to these two important places, the missionary, during his 
 stay at Newton, occupied eight school houses and a 
 German Reformed church in different and more remote 
 places in his general field, most of them once a month, 
 on Sabbath afternoons ; preaching three times on Sabbath 
 and frequently on week evenings. This enabled him to 
 reach twice as many as would have heard him had he 
 confined himself to the central church. 
 
 Oct. 24, 1848, Mr. Osmond married Miss Margaret 
 Francina, daughter of Robert Murdagh, a life long elder 
 in the Oxford church, Chester Co., Pa. Elder Peter 
 Richards furnished the minister and his wife a home in a 
 part of his new house, where they lived comfortably two 
 years. This marriage brought an efficient helper into the 
 Newton congregation. 
 
 Mr. Osmond was ordained and installed pastor of 
 the Newton church. May 4, 1849. 
 
 From the beginning of his ministry till the spring of 
 1850 there had been a gradual increase in the congre- 
 gation, over the whole field, and a special work of grace, 
 at Newton and in other parts, including Abington. 
 
 It was understood from the beginning that at least 
 one person at Abington, Mr. Leonard Bachelder, a graduate 
 of Amherst College, had been affiliated with the New 
 School branch of the Presbyterian church, with which the 
 Presbytery of Montrose was connected, but he had most 
 cordially co-operated with the Luzerne missionary. In 
 
258 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 April, 1850, however, the field was visited by the Rev. 
 Burr Baldwin, who was at the time acting as the mission- 
 ary of Montrose Presbytery,^ and, at a meeting which had 
 been called by him at Abington, and which Mr, Osmond 
 attended at his invitation, the organization of a New 
 School Presbyterian church, then and there, was insisted 
 upon by Mr. Baldwin. Although the attendance was 
 very slim, and notwithstanding Mr. Osmond proposed 
 that definite action should be postponed until the 
 members of Presbyterian churches residing in the vicinity 
 could be allowed an opportunity of voting on the matter 
 and of intelligently deciding for themselves the question 
 of Presbyterial jurisdiction,* — still Mr. Baldwin pro- 
 ceeded with the accomplishment of his purpose, refusing 
 even at that time, to put the matter to a vote of those 
 present. Five persons agreed to enter the organization, 
 and one of these, Israel Brundage, a young student in 
 Madison Academy, was ordained and installed a ruling 
 elder. This young man left the place in a few months, 
 and subsequently became a useful minister in the New 
 School branch of the Presbyterian church. 
 
 In the course of a few days, thirteen Presbyterians of 
 Abington signed a petition for the organization of a 
 Presbyterian church in that town to be connected with 
 the Presbytery of Luzerne, according to their natural and 
 geographical relations, and there were others who favored 
 the movement. 
 
 A conference to settle the matter was soon afterwards 
 arranged by the two Presbyteries. The Rev. Dr. 
 
 *As was urged, at the above meeting, by Mr. Osmond, IvUzerne Presby- 
 tery was entitled to the ground by the terms of the original division of 
 territory, as stipulated wlien the Montrose Presbytery was constituted 
 from a part of Susquehanna, and by many years of occupancy. See 
 Chap. V, Susquehanna Presbytery. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 259 
 
 Roland of Honesdale, the Rev. Dr. Riley, and the Hon. 
 Judge Jessup, were understood to have been originally 
 appointed as representatives of Montrose, and Drs. 
 Dorrance, Mitchell and Parke, of Luzerne. The con- 
 ference was held at Abington, but was not attended by 
 the Montrose brethren first appointed. Those who did 
 attend from that Presbytery assumed that they now had a 
 church in Abington, and could not alienate it, but by its 
 own vote; that the only thing for the Presbyterians who 
 preferred connection with Luzerne Presbytery to do, was 
 to come into that church and outvote the existing 
 members. So questionable an expedient did not, of 
 course, find favor, and nothing to change the existing 
 state of things was agreed upon. 
 
 Even at the New School organization and il? direct 
 connection with it, those who had entered into it 
 requested Mr. Osmond to go on with his labors in 
 Abington and supply the newly organized church. This, 
 under the circumstances, he did not feel that he could 
 consistently do, nor did he regard it as his duty to 
 continue his services with even the larger number who 
 desired to remain in connection with the Luzerne 
 Presbytery. He therefore asked his Presbytery to allow 
 him to give up work in that part of his legitimate field, 
 simply because the conditions into which our operations 
 in Abington had been unhappily precipitated, by the 
 divisive course pursued, had utterly destroyed the hope of 
 usefulness ; and a wide and destitute field still remained 
 for him outside of Abington, Other brethren were for a 
 time sent to fill our appointments, among them the Rev. 
 Reuben P. Lowrie, of blessed memory, whose connection 
 with Luzerne Presbytery we are yet to consider. The 
 
26o PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 Presbytery gradually came to the conclusion that it was 
 better to relinquish its rights than contend with brethren 
 whom it loved. Some of the Presbyterians who adhered 
 to their former preferences made their home with 
 churches outside of Abington, and others fell in with the 
 new organization. 
 
 - In the fall of 1849 the Newton church enjoyed a gra- 
 cious outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The whole commu- 
 nity was stirred ; many souls were born into the kingdom, 
 and the membership of the little church in which Mr. 0. 
 had found about 40 active members at the beginning of his 
 work, was increased to double of its original number. 
 Meetings were protracted for a considerable time, and the 
 young pastor was, daring their progress, greatly aided by 
 brethren of the Presbytery, especially by his neighboring 
 pastors — Parke, Porter and Lane. Mr. Hunt had, in the 
 preceding year, frequently visited and assisted the minis- 
 ter at Newton. As a result of the revival, not only was the 
 Presbyterian church strengthened, but its fruits caused the 
 organization, or re-organization, of a Baptist church. In 
 the second year of his pastorate the congregation built 
 their minister a house, on land adjoining the church 
 given by Elder Collum. It was not a costly building, but 
 sufficiently spacious and comely for the general condition 
 of things. 
 
 The next year after the erection of the parsonage a 
 school house was built on the opposite side of the church, 
 and Newton Hall Academy was started. This enterprise 
 is thought to have originated in an effort made by Mrs. 
 Osmond to which she herself attached little importance, 
 to aid some young people in the study of grammar. 
 
 The pastor was made principal of the academy. The 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 261 
 
 earnings of the institution and the aid offered by our 
 Board of Education were all used in employing the very 
 best teacher that could be secured. During the six years 
 of Mr. O's principalship his assistant was the Rev. W. C. 
 Davis, a graduate of Lafayette College and Princeton The- 
 ological Seminary, who made teaching his life-work. 
 
 This Christian school did good work, not only for its 
 pupils but also by raising the standard of instruction in 
 the public schools of the community. It is to be regret- 
 ted that it was not kept up longer. The pastor acted as 
 principal, and spent a part of every school day in taking 
 some part in its exercises and conducting some of his ad- 
 vanced classes, and he regards the work done in this insti- 
 tution as among the most profitable of his pastoral serv- 
 ices. 
 
 Early in Mr. Osmond's pastorate Horace CoUum, 
 William C. Ayers and Lewis Litts were added to the 
 session. The people of the Newton congregation were 
 thoughtful of their minister's comfort, kindly supplement- 
 ing their subscriptions by many tokens of their regard, 
 which greatly aided in his support. The Donation Day 
 in the Ne\rton congregation was to them a great day, and 
 it showed the largeness of their hearts when their means 
 were considered. 
 
 One of the original elders, Peter Richards, who had 
 been an earnest, efficient worker in the church, died Sep- 
 tember, 1850. This was a serious loss. The other orig- 
 inal elder, Peter Cornelius, was a great suff'erer from 
 asthma, and was for many years unable to do any kind of 
 work. The more recently elected elders were active and 
 deeply interested in the prosperity of the church. There 
 was, however, but little increase in the population, and, 
 
262 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 while there was, in view of the existing condition of 
 things, an encouraging increase of membership, and times 
 of quickening were enjoyed, yet the church did not rapidly 
 increase. It did indeed become more thoroughly Presby- 
 terian, and therefore more entirely assimilated to the 
 great body of which it was a part. Its improved spirit 
 and influence are evinced by the growing usefulness of its 
 younger members in the subsequent history of the church 
 in which they were born, and in the activities of other 
 local churches with which the lots of some of them were 
 afterwards cast as officers and members. 
 
 Mr. Osmond resigned his pastorate in the summer of 
 1857, and, by the appointment of Presbytery, took charge 
 of mission work at Eckley and White Haven. 
 
 The Rev. William E. Holmes, a member of the Mo- 
 kawk Presbytery, became stated supply of the Newton 
 church. Previous to coming from the Synod of Albany, 
 Mr. Holmes had been for a time pastor of a Congrega- 
 tional church, but just where it was located has not been 
 learned. The academy was not opened for pupils during 
 his ministry, which continued till 1859, when we find him 
 reported as stated supply of Northmoreland and Me- 
 hoopany churches, with his home at Ransom, Pa. This 
 relation he sustained till 1867, when his name no longer 
 appears on the roll of the General Assembly. 
 
 After Mr. Holmes' term of service in the Newton 
 church expired, we find it in charge of the Rev. Joseph 
 Bruce Adams, who was born in Chester county. Pa., in 
 1 80 1. He graduated from Jefferson College and Prince- 
 ton Theological Seminary. For a time he was a mis- 
 sionary in the Huntington Presbytery, ordained as an 
 Evangelist October 6th, 1830. Mr. Adams' ministry 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 263 
 
 was in the south, the central west and interior of Pennsyl- 
 vania before coming to Newton church in 1859. The 
 early part of his ministry as stated supply at Newton was 
 attended with encouraging success, but during its latter 
 part he experienced some hindrance in his work, owing 
 to the excitement occasioned by the civil war. 
 
 In 1863 he retired from the Newton charge and re- 
 sided in Easton, where he acted as an agent of the 
 " U. S. Christian Commission" until his earthly labors 
 were ended by his death, which occurred July 5, 1865. 
 He left a widow and one son, who also studied for the 
 ministry, but does not seem to have entered fully upon 
 the work, although he had passed through an extended 
 course of study. This son, Joseph Bruce Williams 
 Adams, died July 4th, 1872, at Princeton, New Jersey. 
 The father was a man of energy and possessed of a mis- 
 sionary spirit, as is evident from his career. He is under- 
 stood to have been an acceptable preacher, and withal, 
 patriotic. 
 
 The Rev. John H. Sargent next became the stated 
 supply of the Newton church. He was born in Massa- 
 chusetts February 28, 1828, graduated from Dartmouth 
 College in 1852, and from Princeton Theological Sem- 
 inary in 1856. He was licensed by the Presbytery of 
 Philadelphia April 3rd, 1856, where his father, Winthrop 
 Sargent, then lived and filled the office of " Superintend- 
 ent of Colportage and Business Correspondent ' ' of the 
 Board of Publication, continuing in that position from 
 1854-70. 
 
 Mr. Sargent was ordained by the Presbytery of 
 Erie, June i6th, 1861, as an evangelist. In the meantime 
 he had done evangelistic work in Maryland and North 
 
264 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 Carolina. After his ordination he spent some time as 
 stated supply of the Perry church in Pennsylvania. While 
 engaged with this church he secured the organization of 
 the Oil City Presbyterian church, which has become large 
 and important. 
 
 He became stated supply of the Newton church in 
 1864, and continued in charge of it till '69. During his 
 ministry there he seems to have prospered, as the church 
 reported its largest membership at that time. After leav- 
 ing Newton he supplied Osceola church in Bradford 
 county one year. In 1870 he took charge of the Phillips- 
 burg church, which he continued to supply till 1878, and 
 from which point he extended his work to other places, 
 where he gathered other churches. From the last date 
 till 1880, Mr. Sargent was unable to labor, but on re- 
 covering he took charge of the church of Peru, N. Y., 
 which he continued to serve till 1888. Two years later 
 he died of apoplexy at Fort Worth, Staten Island. 
 Throughout his entire ministry, and indeed in his college 
 course, he was greatly hindered by the want of vigorous 
 health. By those who knew him intimately he is spoken 
 of as "an earnest and devout Christian, and always un- 
 tiring in his labors, although so much burdened by bodily 
 weakness." He married, June 2nd, 1858, Miss Frances 
 Eugenia Hall, of Schenectady, N. Y., who survived him. 
 When the Presbytery of Luzerne ceased to be, the Rev. 
 Ashbel Green Harned, of whom we have already written, 
 was in charge of the Newton church. He afterwards was 
 regularly installed its pastor. 
 
 When Mr. Osmond resigned his pastoral charge of 
 Newton, his Presbytery appointed him, at the request of 
 the White Haven and Eckley churches, their temporary 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 265 
 
 supply. He entered upon the duties of the position, 
 November, 1857. 
 
 There were choice spirits in both these enrolled 
 companies of Presbyterian believers. They were local 
 churches, though at this time neither of them had a 
 session, yet were they fullv competent to provide for this 
 necessity to orderly rule and representation. 
 
 Neither session nor pastor, which are both creatures 
 of the enrolled body of believers, are absolutely essential 
 to the existence of a church, but certainly are to its com- 
 pleteness. The more recent of the two churches of which 
 we are speaking was the first to attain that completeness, 
 although as yet without a local home or habitation. 
 
 The Eckley church, like the church of Scran ton, was 
 then enrolled by the name of an ex-president, Fillmore ; 
 but when the new town wanted a post office, it found, as 
 the Scranton people had, that the name they would honor 
 was already appropriated within the Commonwealth, and 
 another must be selected for the place. The choice was 
 that of a popular young man, a son of the late Judge Cox, 
 the proprietor from whom the Council Ridge Coal Com- 
 pany had leased, for twenty-five years, the 1,500 acres of 
 land upon which it had built the town and works. This 
 ultimately changed the name of the church, which was 
 located on the top of Buck Mountain, about seven miles 
 from White Haven, on the Lehigh, at the head of slack 
 water navigation. 
 
 The gentlemen composing the Council Ridge Coal 
 Company, were high-toned Christian men, who conducted 
 their extensive business with an evident regard for the 
 highest good of all assisting them in their operations, as 
 well as for their own individual gains. These gentlemen 
 
266 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 were Richard Sharpe, an Episcopalian ; John Leisenring, 
 Presbyterian ; Francis Weise, Lutheran ; Asa Foster, Epis- 
 copalian, and Mr. Belford, Presbyterian. Of course, in 
 building a town to accommodate from 800 to 1,000 peo- 
 ple, upon leased property, the buildings must be as inex- 
 pensive as possible, but they were well appointed for com- 
 fort and neatness. As soon as families came in, a 
 convenient school house was erected and a school was 
 opened by the company, without waiting for the operation 
 of the school law. This school building was at once used 
 for preaching services and a union Sabbath School, and 
 while this Sabbath School continued, the president of the 
 company, Mr. Sharpe, was the superintendent. Before 
 a dollar was received from the sale of coal in the market, 
 Mr. Leisenring, the architect of the town, had secured 
 from our Presbytery, the services of the Rev. J. W. Por- 
 ter, for a part of his time, and Mr. Sharpe also secured 
 the services of the Rev. Mr. Russell of the Episcopal 
 church, who supplied the other part of the time, and this 
 arrangement was long continued in perfect harmony. 
 The same ministers supplied their respective churches at 
 White Haven, alternating as to time. 
 
 Soon after Mr. Osmond came to the field, Hugh 
 Hyndman and Peter Cunningham were inducted into the 
 office of ruling elders at Eckley, and they " ruled well." 
 It was not until August 31st, 1859, that Mr. Joseph 
 Bloom was ordained and installed at White Haven. That 
 church had been without a session since 1853. Mr. Os- 
 mond accepted the invitation of these two churches to 
 continue his labors, but not seeing the way clear to be 
 installed at White Haven, as the people desired, remained 
 till August of 1863 pastor in everything but the name. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 26/ 
 
 The field was not extensive at either of the two central 
 points, but was important, and with the cordial co-opera- 
 tion received, and the very generous treatment of his 
 people extended to him and his family, it was an exceed- 
 ingly pleasant charge ; all classes were in perfect harmony. 
 
 In addition to the regular Sabbath preaching at both 
 churches, preachirig was regularly maintained at Morrison, 
 midway between White Haven and Eckley, at Jeddo and 
 Ebervale, towards Hazleton, and occasionally at the Tan- 
 nery, down the Lehigh. 
 
 The question with reference to providing houses of 
 worship was early raised. The company generously pro- 
 posed to erect a building at its own expense, but the Pres- 
 byterian element thought it best that each church organi- 
 zation should own its own place of worship. With this 
 the company generously acquiesced and lent its aid in 
 securing lots and warranty deeds for the same. 
 
 The Presbyterian church was a very neat and com- 
 fortable building, having a basement for Sabbath School 
 and prayer meeting purposes. 
 
 The growth at Eckley was encouraging, seasons of 
 spiritual refreshment were enjoyed, and the Sabbath 
 school was well attended and interesting. Two young 
 ladies from the Wyoming church, who were engaged at 
 Eckley as teachers, viz.. Miss Susan C. Hunt and Miss 
 Hattie Ensign, rendered in the early days of the Sabbath 
 School valuable assistance in its operations. 
 
 Increase of membership at White Haven was no* 
 rapid, yet additions were received from time to time. 
 The church building was very inconvenient as to location. 
 During Mr. Osmond's term of service more eligible lots 
 were selected, but the erection of a new house of worship 
 
268 
 
 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 was somewhat delayed by the fact that, in the summer of 
 1862 there was in the Lehigh river an unprecedented 
 freshet which utterly carried away all the dams of the 
 slack water canal, and for a time the business of the place 
 was arrested. This, however, ultimately proved a great 
 blessing by making it an important railroad town. 
 
 The Sabbath School in White Haven has not, like 
 the church, been subject to frequent change of manage- 
 ment. Mr. E. P. Morris has had the superintendency 
 since before Mr. Osmond's time, and they have always 
 had a good school. 
 
 Since 1863 Mr. Osmond has been engaged in Home 
 Mission work in Iowa, North Dakota, and on the Pacific 
 coast. In all these varied fields of labor the Master has 
 given him some measure of success, some of which has 
 been due to generous aid from friends in his former east- 
 ern charges. In none of his pastorates has he been the 
 successor of a regularly installed predecessor. He now 
 resides in Tacoma, Washington, as a retired minister, 
 though still, as strength and opportunity permit, engaged 
 in the service of the Master. 
 
 There were in Eckley and White Haven many Ger- 
 man families who were entirely ignorant of our language, 
 and for whose religious instruction no provision had been 
 made by German speaking churches. To meet the wants 
 of this class the services of Mr. Albert John Wintereck 
 (born in Treves, Prussia, April 24, 1832, but educated 
 in .Lafayette College and Princeton Seminary) were 
 obtained. He was to preach in the Presbyterian churches 
 of the above named places and do general missionary 
 work in these communities. He was ordained as an Evan- 
 gelist June 18, 1862. He continued in the service 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 269 
 
 assigned him two years, reaching many of his own nation- 
 ality with the gospel which he preached, but no church 
 was organized. He was subsequently pastor of German 
 churches in New Jersey and New York till 1877, when he 
 seems to have passed over to the German Evangelical 
 church. 
 
 Before leaving the Eckley and White Haven field 
 Mr. Osmond had the satisfaction of seeing his place sup- 
 plied by the Rev. James McMurtree Salmon, born Jan. 
 31st, 1825, in the adjoining county of Columbia, a grad- 
 uate of Lafayette College and student of Princeton Sem- 
 inary, and ordained by the Presbytery of Northumberland 
 May nth, 1859. He had supplied for a time the two 
 Columbia county churches, Berwick and Briar Creek, 
 which had been connected with the Presbytery of Luzerne, 
 and from 1859 to the time he came to the churches of 
 Eckley and White Haven (August, '63), he had been 
 their regular pastor. He resided at White Haven in his 
 new field, in which he remained as long as the Luzerne 
 Presbytery continued. After these churches became a 
 part of the Lehigh Presbytery Mr. Salmon was installed 
 pastor at White Haven. He was well liked in both -parts 
 of his field. 
 
 It is due to him to state that before he entered upon 
 his work Eckley had been somewhat weakened by the 
 removal of influential members, and, subsequently, still 
 more so by changes in business management ; and at 
 White Haven the interruption of business, caused by the 
 great flood of 1862, had delayed the contemplated change 
 of site for the church and the erection of a more commo- 
 dious and better constructed house of worship. This 
 however, was accomphshed in 1869, and was the begin- 
 
270 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 ning of a new and more prosperous era for the Presby- 
 terian church. Thus, much was accomplished, especially 
 in the way of preparatory work. The change was seen at 
 oace in the increased attendance at the Sabbath school, 
 and ultimately in the enlarged membership of the church, 
 though not in a marked degree for several years. 
 
XXV. 
 REV. HENRY HUNTER WELLES 
 
 AS 
 
 PASTOR OF THE KINGSTON CHURCH. 
 
 MR. WELLES, although born in Wyalusing, in Brad- 
 ford county, was closely affiliated with the people 
 of Wyoming valley. His mother was a Hollenback. We 
 have already met him in the Wilkes-Barre Academy and 
 church. Like Dr. Dorrance, he belonged to the general 
 community on which his life labors were bestowed, and in 
 which he is still vitally interested. His birth occurred 
 September 15th, 1824. His college course, which was 
 pursued at Princeton, he completed in 1844, before his 
 twentieth year. On leaving college he seems to have had 
 some idea of becoming a disciple of Blackstone, but the 
 impulse did not last long, for in a little more than a year 
 after his graduation, we saw him matriculated in Prince- 
 ton Seminary and sitting at the feet of those incomparable 
 teachers of sacred science, A. A. Alexander, Samuel 
 Miller, Charles Hodge and J. Addison Alexander. 
 
 There, among his associates, he was loved and im- 
 plicitly trusted, but, much to the regret of his numerous 
 friends in Princeton and elsewhere, toward the close of 
 his term of study in the seminary he was missed, and his 
 place in class and conference was vacant. His health had 
 failed, and for a time it was doubtful whether he would be 
 
2/2 • PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 able to enter fully upon ministerial work. His heart, 
 however, still prompted him in that direction, and we find 
 him doing missionary work in Meshoppen and elsewhere. 
 After the retirement of Mr. Porter he became stated sup- 
 ply of the Kingston church, having been licensed by the 
 Susquehanna Presbytery, and subsequently ordained and 
 installed as pastor of that church, June 12th, 1851, by the 
 Presbytery of Luzerne.* Mr. Welles was the seventh pas- 
 tor installed at Kingston. The Rev. Messrs. Corss and 
 Ogden were not fully inducted into the pastoral office 
 there. The territorial limits of the Kingston congrega- 
 tion had, as we have seen, been greatly restricted. The 
 population in the rural parts devoted to agriculture, dur- 
 ing the existence of the Luzerne Presbytery, diminished 
 rather than increased, in consequence of the introduction 
 of new machinery in farming operations. There was but 
 little to promote the growth of the village of Kingston 
 for a long time except the excellent and flourishing 
 Wyoming Seminary, and its prosperity tended rather to 
 the prosperity of another than the Presbyterian church. 
 Consequently, while Dr. Welles had a compact and reli- 
 able congregation, its growth was not rapid. In this field 
 our pastor did faithful and good work and saw a reason- 
 able enlargement. He enjoyed the love and confidence 
 of his people and the cordial esteem of the community. 
 
 No member of the Presbytery was more esteemed 
 than the pastor of the Kingston church. Recently the 
 present pastor, Rev. Ferdinand Krug, in an anniversary 
 sermon preached in the presence of Dr. Welles and the 
 representatives of the congregation to which he so long 
 ministered, said of his predecessor: " For twenty years 
 
 *The fifth ordination of the Presbytery. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 2/3 
 
 Mr. Welles continued to preach the Word, administer the 
 sacraments, visit and comfort the mourning, and bury the 
 dead. For twenty years he was the faithful spiritual 
 guide of the people. He taught you, by precept and 
 example, in all the work of the church. Upon many of 
 you present this morning, his hand sprinkled the waters 
 of baptism ; and later, you received from his hands the 
 emblems of a Saviour's broken body and shed blood of 
 your first communion. Many of you he has joined in 
 the dearest and closest earthly relationship. We thank 
 God for what he has been to this church, and we love 
 him for what he is to us to-day. ' ' 
 
 To this merited testimony, Dr. N. G. Parke, who 
 has been intimately associated with Dr. Welles during his 
 whole ministerial life, adds ; "In the old Presbytery 
 there was no brother more beloved, or that labored more 
 conscientiously and faithfully than this Kingston pastor. 
 He was a man of delicate health when he entered the 
 ministry, and his health was not firm at any time during 
 his pastorate ; but his labors were abundant and successful. 
 His home is still among the people for whom he labored 
 so long, and he is still active in promoting the kingdom 
 of Christ, although unable longer to perform the duties of 
 a pastor." 
 
 The Rev. Dr. S. C. Logan, who has only known 
 Dr. Welles during the latter period of his pastorate at 
 Kingston and since, bears like testimony to this esteemed 
 brother. Dr. Welles had tact, as well as faithfulness, in 
 the .performance of his pastoral work. The writer, who 
 was with him a few days during a protracted meeting, 
 well remembers his ability to give conversation such a 
 turn as would naturally and easily bring up that subject 
 
2/4 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 which the devoted pastor regards as the main subject to 
 be dwelt upon in pastoral visits, viz., the relation of his 
 parishioners to Christ and salvation, and their progress in 
 the divine life, while present interests, privileges and 
 pleasures are by no means to be ignored. On one of the 
 occasions referred to, we had called on the family of the 
 late Governor Hoyt. Mr. Hoyt was at home. At that 
 time he was not a professor of religion, but an accom- 
 plished gentleman. 
 
 The subject of conversation was suggested by the 
 admirable location of the beautiful home we had entered, 
 the delightful prospect enjoyed from it in almost every 
 direction toward which the eye could be turned. In the 
 midst of our expressions of mutual satisfaction, Mr. 
 Welles, turning to the owner of that beautiful home, in 
 that beautiful valley, said, in a natural, easy way: 
 " Heaven is more beautiful than this." Even had there 
 been nothing more said, which, according to my recol- 
 lection, was not the case, there was in the pastor's 
 utterance food for thought and wholesome incentive to 
 right action as well as right thinking afforded. 
 
 Dr. Welles, like many of his co-presbyters, was 
 blessed with a good wife, who not only cheered his 
 home, but greatly helped his work. She had accompanied 
 her husband when he came to Kingston. 
 
 They had been married Oct. 12, 1849, in Farming- 
 ton, Me. The arrangements for this marriage, if " made 
 in heaven," as doubtless was the case, were somewhat 
 on the circumlocution order. Mrs. Welles' brother, the 
 Rev. Francis D. Ladd, had been sent into Pennsylvania 
 on an important mission, — first to work at Silver Lake, 
 in Susquehanna Co., afterwards to the pastorate of the 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 2/5 
 
 Penn Presbyterian church, Philadelphia, where his mem- 
 ory is precious. His successful work was not long 
 continued, for he fell at his post ere his sun had reached 
 its meridian. 
 
 While at work at Silver Lake, his sister, Miss Ellen 
 S. Ladd, visited him, and there Mr. Welles found her ; 
 and we have seen what followed, making her, in the 
 language of another, ' ' his faithful and noble helpmate for 
 nearly half a century. ' ' Of her, the same writer, after 
 her unexpected death, which occurred recently, said : 
 " To those who have known Mrs. Welles during her long 
 residence in Wyoming Valley, no post mortem eulogy is 
 necessary. Born of the best old Pilgrim stock, she 
 honored her descent, traced in both the paternal and 
 maternal lines from many well known old families, 
 by a life-long attention to duty ; leaving behind her a 
 bereaved husband, three children and an adopted daughter, 
 all well known among us, and all of whom have through 
 life illustrated, by their daily walk, the high standard 
 of Christian ethics taught and exemplified by her whose 
 loss they now deplore." How blessed such a memory! 
 
 Dr. Welles is still, by example and precept, holding 
 forth the Word of Life ; and is a connecting link between 
 the fathers we so greatly revere and their sons to whom 
 we look with so much hope for the years to come. 
 
XXVI. 
 
 THE REV. REUBEN POST LOWRIE. 
 
 AFTER the ordination of the Rev. H. H. Welles, 
 June 12, 1851, it was not until Margh 22, 1854, 
 that another occurred. This was the ordination of Mr. 
 Lowrie. His connection with the Presbytery brought it 
 into very close touch with the Foreign Missionary family, 
 par excellence, of the Presbyterian church. 
 
 The Hon. Walter Lowrie, the father of the subject 
 of this sketch, had, by his part in the establishment and 
 management of our Board of Foreign Missions, done 
 much to make it second only in our country to the great 
 American Board of Foreign Missions, toward which 
 Presbyterians had largely contributed, in men and money, 
 for many years. 
 
 To take up this work and press it forward, Mr. 
 Lowrie had relinquished earthly honors and emoluments. 
 In doing so he was honored by his church, in her ready 
 and hearty co-operation with his wise and successful 
 management of the Presbyterian Board, and by the 
 distinguished labors and sacrifices of his own sons, two of 
 whom early went forth courageously to the front, in the 
 battle against the darkness of heathen lands. One of 
 them was driven back by sickness and bereavement, but 
 only to enter another department of the same life-saving 
 work, in which he has long and faithfully toiled.* 
 
 *Thc Rev. Dr. John C. I,owrie, Senior Secretary of the Presbyterian 
 Board of Foreign Missions. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 2/7 
 
 Another sleeps in his watery grave, which he reached by 
 the violence of those whom he sought to serve. 
 
 Another son of the same devoted sire was found 
 among us in the Presbytery of Luzerne, doing good ser- 
 vice for the Master. He was then carrying with him a 
 copy of the divine word which had fallen from the hands 
 of his martyred brother, Walter M. Lowrie, off the coast 
 of China. He had written on its fly leaf, under an im- 
 pression of the perils he had encountered from the ocean, 
 in order to tell the Chinese of the way of life : " There 
 shall be no more sea." The desire to take that book 
 back to China and fill the place of the fallen in ex- 
 pounding its heavenly messages, made Reuben Lowrie 
 unwilling to remain where there were so many others to 
 carry on the work of Christ in his native land. Therefore, 
 soon after his ordination, he turned his face to the Orient, 
 where, as a Missionary of the Cross, he labored faithfully 
 and successfully, until he fell at his post, April 26th, i860. 
 His beloved wife, his son, Rev. James Walter Lowrie, 
 and his daughter, and her husband. Dr. B. C. Atterbury, 
 still represent the Lowrie family in missionary work in 
 China. A short time ago, the writer enjoyed the oppor- 
 tunity of becoming acquainted with Mrs. Reuben Lowrie, 
 and her son, the Rev. J. Walter Lowrie, in Tacoma, 
 Washington, and found them possessed of the same 
 qualities of mind and heart as those of the beloved 
 brother whom he had assisted in ordaining in 1854. 
 
 The following discriminating sketch from the now 
 oldest member of the late Luzerne Presbytery is gladly 
 given here instead of anything I might say: The Rev. 
 N. G. Parke, D. D., writes: "The Rev. Reuben Post 
 Lowrie, the fifth son of the Hon. Walter Lowrie, was 
 
278 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 given to the Chinese Mission in 1854. He died in 
 Shanghai in i860, but his widow and ^ their son and 
 daughter, still represent the missionary spirit of the family 
 as efficient missionaries at Paoting fu. North China." 
 This is quoted from Dr. F. F. Ellinwood's brief notice 
 of Reuben P. Lowrie, which Dr. Parke supplements by 
 saying: "It refers to one of the most devoted and 
 promising young missionaries we have ever sent into the 
 foreign field, whose early death brought sorrow to many 
 who knew and loved him in Wyoming Valley. 
 
 " After graduating with honor in the University of 
 New York City, and completing his studies in Princeton, 
 New Jersey, he was chosen principal of the Institute at 
 Wyoming that had just been established under the 
 auspices of the old Presbytery of Luzerne. This position 
 he occupied for two years. Wyoming is in the beautiful 
 valley of the same name, some three miles south of Pitts- 
 ton and six north of Wilkes-Barre, on the west side of the 
 Susquehanna. While Mr. Lowrie was in charge of this 
 institution, it was my privilege to meet him often. Our 
 house was one of his homes while he was in this region, 
 and we learned to love and esteem him as a finished scholar 
 and earnest Christian man. In the school it was won- 
 derful how speedily he won the hearts of the students and 
 all the patrons of the institution. He was always cheer- 
 ful, unassuming, entertaining and devoted to his work. 
 He possessed the happy faculty of making himself at home, 
 and those whom he met at ease, in the humblest cottage 
 as well as in the home of luxury. Of his purpose in life, 
 he said little to anyone, but his brethren in the Presbytery 
 and the trustees of the Institute, knew that it was in his 
 mind and heart when the way was clear to go as a 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 279 
 
 missionary to China, where his brother, Walter M., perished. 
 They hoped, however, that as he became acquainted 
 with the demand there was in this home field for just such 
 service as he was able to give, he would change his mind 
 and consent to settle here. He was a very acceptable 
 preacher and the young and growing church of Scranton, 
 which was vacant, was exceedingly anxious to have him 
 accept a call from it. The Rev. Dr. John Dorrance, 
 Rev. T. P. Hunt and the Rev. J. D. Mitchell, (the re- 
 tiring pastor), who had been chiefly instrumental in bring- 
 ing him here, united with the Scranton people in urging 
 him to accept their call. To my mind it appeared so 
 clear that he should stay here, that I invited him to my 
 study and talked the matter over with him seriously and 
 earnestly. He heard me quietly, and then replied ten- 
 derly, but decidedly, in substance : ' What you have said 
 of the great need of laborers in this part of the Lord's 
 vineyard is true. I admit it all and appreciate the kind 
 feelings of the Scranton people, but you have Christian 
 ministers, elders and laymen in this valley. The millions 
 of China virtually have none to tell them of the way of 
 life through Christ. I am interested in the work here, 
 but I must go to China.' 
 
 ' ' He believed that God had called him to go there, 
 and he could not stay here. There was nothing more 
 said. After a year spent in Spencer Academy, with the 
 Choctaw Indians, and the way was clear for him to go to 
 China, he came to Wilkes-Barre, and, in Dr. Dorrance' s 
 church, was ordained by the Presbytery of Luzerne as an 
 evangelist. 
 
 "His father, the Hon. Walter Lowrie, of whom Dr. 
 Ellenwood had recently written so pleasantly and truth- 
 
280 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 fully, was present, and made a touching and impressive 
 address. He expressed no regret at the decision of his 
 son to go to China. On the other hand, he gave thanks 
 to the great Head of the church for calling him. He had 
 already given two sons to this work and was more than 
 willing to give another.* 
 
 "It is now more than forty years since the ordination 
 of this brother, and in my mind's eye I can still see that 
 venerable Christian father making this parting address to 
 his dear boy who was leaving him to return no more. 
 
 " In the course of this memorable address, he spoke 
 of a scene he had witnessed a few weeks before in New 
 York. Two mothers had come on board the ship on 
 which their daughters were about to sail for their fields 
 of missionary labor in India. One of these mothers was 
 simply inconsolable ; the other bore up so bravely and 
 was so cheerful that some one made free to ask her, how 
 she could be so calm and apparently happy under the 
 circumstances ? With a sweet smile on her motherly face, 
 she answered : ' Why should I not be happy? I gave my 
 child to the Lord before she was born, and now that God 
 has called her to work for Him, what more could I 
 ask for her ? 
 
 " How true it is that ' God's ways are not our ways ; 
 nor his thoughts, our thoughts.' So far as we can see this 
 dear brother was needed in China. His facility in ac- 
 quiring language made it easy work for him to master the 
 difficult language of the country to which he went. He 
 was able to preach to the people there in their own lan- 
 guage inside of a year after leaving America. By nature, 
 culture and grace, and in every other way, so far as we 
 
 *He said if he had a hundred sons, he would be glad to have them aU 
 missionaries. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 201 
 
 could see, he was eminently fitted for the work into 
 which he had put his whole heart. But He who called 
 him to this work and fitted him for it, and in the 
 morning of life called him from it, makes no mistakes. 
 ' What He does we know not now, but shall know here- 
 after.' " 
 
 No doubt Reuben P. Lowrie's brief connection with 
 the Luzerne Presbytery, and his going as its repre- 
 sentative into one of the most diificult and distant 
 missionary fields, has done much for the cause in the 
 Presbytery which sent him forth and followed him with 
 its prayers. 
 
XXVII. 
 
 THE REV. JOHN ARMSTRONG, D. D. 
 
 IN September, 1854, the writer was visiting friends in 
 Oxford, Pa., where he met his life-long friend, the 
 Rev. John Armstrong, who had just returned from Mis- 
 souri, where he had spent a year in missionary work. 
 There were reasons why it did not seem to be his duty to 
 return to Missouri. We invited him to take a seat in our 
 carriage and accompany us to Hazleton, in our Presby- 
 tery, where the church was vacant. 
 
 He accepted the invitation, and reaching that place 
 on our way, he was introduced to Mr. Ario Pardee, an 
 ardent friend and patron of the Presbyterian church there, 
 for which, as we have already seen, he had built a house 
 of worship. Arrangements were at once made for Mr. 
 Armstrong to take hold of the general field of which 
 Hazleton had now become the centre. The other points 
 were Beaver Meadow and Weatherly. He continued in 
 charge of this field for ten years, laboring with great dili- 
 gence and success, enjoying the confidence and esteem of 
 all his people. 
 
 Mr. A. was the eldest son of Mr. Andrew Armstrong, 
 born March 11, 1825, at the home of his parents, near 
 Oxford, Pa. John was from early childhood a diligent 
 student and faithful Sabbath School scholar. While quite 
 young he made a public profession of religion and united 
 with the Oxford Presbyterian church. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 283 
 
 He soon determined to acquire a liberal education. 
 To accomplish this he displayed great perseverance and 
 heroism. After leaving the academy he went south to 
 teach in order to earn money to meet college expenses. 
 He walked from his home in Chester county, Pa. , nearly 
 all the way to the state of Georgia. After spending some 
 time, with moderate success, he returned and entered the 
 sophomore class in Lafayette College, where he spent one 
 year, after which he accompanied the Rev. Dr. George 
 Junkin to Washington College, Lexington, Va., and 
 graduated under him from that institution ; and, in 1853, 
 he graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary. 
 
 With more or less regularity Hazleton had been vis- 
 ited and supplied with preaching by the Rev. Richard 
 Webster, the Rev. Daniel Gaston, Rev. J, G. Moore and 
 others, from r836, and afterwards statedly by the Rev. 
 David Harbison, the Rev. John Johnson and the Rev. 
 John F. Baker, but there had not been the formal organi- 
 zation of a church till 1854, about the time Mr. Baker 
 left the field. When Mr. Armstrong entered it he found 
 an organized church and a good house of worship. 
 
 The first elders in the Hazleton church were Robert 
 Russell and Henry A. Mears, who were good and efficient 
 officers. 
 
 Under Mr. Armstrong's ministry both the congrega- 
 tion and Sabbath School rapidly increased. The church 
 grew mainly by the reception of members on profession 
 of faith. 
 
 The Beaver Meadow church, on the other hand, had 
 became greatly weakened by the decline of business there, 
 and the consequent removal of its members to other 
 places until no elders were left, and, in 1859, the mem- 
 
284 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 bers were transferred to Hazleton and Weatherly. At 
 this latter place a remarkable work of grace was experi- 
 enced in 1857, which resulted in many conversions and 
 the organization of a church consisting of sixty-one 
 members. 
 
 The first elders of this church were Samuel Harleman 
 and Esquire Styles. This field had, in addition to the 
 service given by the ministers who radiated from Beaver 
 Meadow and Hazleton, a part of the Rev. Joseph W. 
 Porter's time while he supplied White Haven and its 
 associated fields ; but at this time Mr. Armstrong had 
 charge and continued to have till the fall of 1859, when 
 the Rev. John Darrock was installed pastor of the Weath- 
 erly church. He was born in Argyleshire, Scotland, in 
 1829, but was graduated from Princeton College, N. J. 
 He studied theology in the seminary of Columbia, S. C, 
 and in Princeton Seminary. His ordination and installa- 
 tion as pastor of the Weatherly church took place Novem- 
 ber isth, 1859. He was well equipped for his work. 
 
 This charge Mr. Darrock resigned in 1861, and went 
 to Canada, where he became pastor at Lochiel ; subse- 
 quently he returned to Scotland. The church at Weath- 
 erly was vacant for some time after Mr. Darrock left. 
 Then it had stated supplies for two years. During a part 
 of this time Mr. Armstrong looked after its interests 
 again. 
 
 In the year 1866 there came the Rev. Daniel Der- 
 uelle, another graduate of Princeton College and Semi- 
 nary. He was born August loth, 1838, in Washington 
 county, Pa., where true blue Presbyterians are reared. 
 The Presbytery ordained him as an Evangelist April 26, 
 1866. Mr. Deruelle continued stated supply of the 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 285 
 
 Weatherly church as long as it constituted a part of the 
 Luzerne Presbytery, and the church grew under his minis- 
 trations, having attained a membership of 102 at the time 
 of the reunion. At the same time the Sabbath School 
 numbered 180 members. 
 
 He was aggressive, extending his work to Beaver 
 Meadow, Audenried and Jonesville. At Audenried a 
 flourishing church was gathered, of which he was pastor 
 for several years. He afterwards served several churches 
 in New Jersey and New England as pastor, or stated sup- 
 ply ; subsequently he returned to Pennsylvania and was 
 stated supply at South Bethlehem and Redington. He 
 seems to have been an active and successful minister of 
 Christ. 
 
 After provision had been made for the Weatherly 
 part of Mr. Armstrong's field his whole time was 
 demanded at Hazleton, and that church had a very 
 encouraging growth, although he was never willing to be 
 installed as its pastor. He and the writer, then his near- 
 est ministerial neighbor, had from the beginning of their 
 ministry an ardent desire to work in the great West, 
 especially with the purpose of doing something to advance 
 Christian education. They were both waiting for the 
 opportunity to turn their faces toward the setting sun, 
 notwithstanding their work at that time was pleasant and 
 their people all that could be desired in kindness and cor- 
 dial co-operation. The understanding with each other 
 was, that the first to go was to prepare the way for his 
 neighbor to follow. The way was opened in 1863 for the 
 writer to enter upon a purely missionary work in the 
 interior of Iowa. The next summer, through his recom- 
 mendation and that of his brother, then pastor of the 
 
286 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 First Presbyterian church of Iowa City, an invitation was 
 extended to Mr. Armstrong to take charge of the Musca- 
 tine church, on the west bank of the Mississippi, and 
 under the care of the Presbytery of Cedar, The engage- 
 ment was for one year, with a view to permanent settle- 
 ment if the arrangement should be mutually agreeable. 
 This proved to be the case, and his former co-presbyter 
 had the pleasure of delivering the charge to the pastor at 
 his installation before the year expired. 
 
 Mr. Armstrong, before leaving Hazleton, anxious for 
 the continued prosperity and usefulness of that church, 
 and the cause of religion in his native state, took pains to 
 prepare the way to have the pulpit of the Hazleton 
 church supplied one Sabbath in the near future by the 
 popular, able and enterprising young president of Lafay- 
 ette College, in the interests of that Christian Institution. 
 He had previously invited the Rev. Dr. W. C. Cattell, 
 the President of the College, to visit Hazleton. And in 
 expectation of that visit set forth to his congregation, 
 before leaving, the wants and worth of the college, and 
 the importance of adequately sustaining it. 
 
 Mr. Ario Pardee was the man in Hazleton who 
 possessed the ability to generously aid the institution, 
 if in his judgment it was proper to do so. This 
 enterprising, successful and generous business man was 
 highly esteemed by the retiring minister, who had known 
 him intimately for ten years, and was sure that Mr. 
 Pardee must be thoroughly convinced of the reasonable 
 prospects, the value and stability of an institution before 
 patronizing it. This prompted what he had done, and 
 the desire that the president of the college, who could set 
 forth the matter still more intelligently, should have the 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 28/ 
 
 Opportunity to do so. Mr. Pardee had through all these 
 years shown his minister great respect. He was always in 
 his place in his pew on the Sabbath, and was accustomed 
 to say, that the kind of weather which would not hinder 
 him from going to his office on a week day should not 
 hinder him from going to church on the Sabbath ; and as 
 a further mark of his regard for his pastor, soon after the 
 young minister was married, he had built a good and 
 attractive parsonage for the church. 
 
 After Mr. Armstrong's departure. President Cattell 
 appeared in Hazleton, and was cordially received. The 
 Doctor did not know that Mr. Armstrong had been at 
 work along his peculiar line, and the prudent, far-seeing 
 business man did not divulge this fact, but received the 
 new, independent, and doubtless more impassioned 
 testimony of the interested advocate. Mr. Pardee said 
 nothing at first, but on the next day wrote out a draft for 
 President Cattell for ^25,000, to aid the institution 
 concerning which he had only recently known anything. 
 
 This was, up to this time, the largest single gift the 
 college had ever received. Yet it proved to be only a 
 kind of first fruit, for it was followed ere long by about a 
 half million from the same generous giver, whose name is 
 now inseparably connected with Lafayette College. 
 
 Mr. Armstrong retained his pastorate at Muscatine 
 ten years, in which God blessed his work. 
 
 About the time Mr. Armstrong resigned his church 
 at Muscatine, the Synod of Iowa South resolved to 
 establish within its bounds a Christian school of a high 
 order, and elected Mr. Armstrong its financial agent. 
 This movement of the Synod resulted in the founding 
 of Parsons College at Fairfield, Iowa. As it began to 
 
288 PRESBYTERY C>F LUZERNE. 
 
 assume tangibility, the trustees of a fund devised by Mr. 
 Lewis Parsons offered said fund to the Synod, on 
 conditions which were subsequently met. The Synod 
 had elected a Board of Trustees, the President of which 
 has been, from the beginning, the Rev. Dr. Willis Green 
 Craig, who has been a most efficient officer. 
 
 Dr. Armstrong, as the financial agent and member 
 of the executive committee, devoted his whole time and 
 much of his means to furthering this worthy enterprise. 
 His services were so efficient that the trustees soon 
 elected him President of the new college. Parsons 
 College has prospered from the beginning. Many of its 
 graduates have entered the gospel ministry, and are 
 doing good service in the home and foreign field. 
 
 Dr. Armstrong, as the President, served the institu- 
 tion faithfully at his own charges four years. At the 
 end of that time, he was released at the call of the 
 Master. He calmly and hopefully passed away, August 
 13, 1879. Before his death he gave all necessary 
 directions with reference to his business and his funeral, 
 requesting his old co-presbyter to conduct the religious 
 services of the occasion. His mortal remains were, by 
 the urgent request of the trustees of the college, laid to 
 rest in a shady corner of the beautiful college campus. 
 To this his faithful wife had consented on condition that 
 her resting-place should be there also ; and thither, a few 
 months ago, her inanimate form was borne. Mrs. 
 Margaret (Rowland) Armstrong was born near Port 
 Deposit, Md.; and in the neighborhood of her birth- 
 place she passed to the better land, to join her beloved 
 husband. She loved the institution which he had done 
 so much; to establish, and provided liberally towards 
 sustaining it after her demise. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 289 
 
 Mr. Armstrong's most intimate friends, the writer 
 and his brother, the Rev. S. M. Osmond, D. D., a 
 college and seminary classmate of President Armstrong, 
 were associated with him and others in the management 
 of Parsons College in its earlier career. 
 
 As a preacher Dr. Armstrong had a strong, somewhat 
 brusque style, often very forcible. His choice of words 
 in which to clothe his thoughts was generally those in 
 most common use; he was, therefore always understood. 
 He was a diligent student all his life, and had a fondness 
 for science rather than classical learning. Centre 
 College, Ky., conferred upon him the degree of D. D. 
 in 1879. His was an earnest, useful life. Its early 
 termination was greatly deplored by all who knew his 
 worth. 
 
 He was a true, warm-hearted man, and a devout 
 Christian. 
 
 The Hazleton church was vacant for some time after 
 Dr. Armstrong left for the West. The Rev. Ellis J. 
 Newlin, D. D., from the Presbytery of Newark, N. J., 
 finally became pastor, and was installed Nov. 2, 1865; 
 but the exact condition of the church is not fully 
 indicated in the minutes of the Assembly till 1868, 
 when we find some growth had taken place. During 
 Dr. Ellis J. Newlin's pastorate, a new, large and elegant 
 sanctuary was erected, equalling, if not surpassing, any 
 house of worship in that part of Pennsylvania. Here 
 again there stands another monument to Mr. Pardee's 
 liberal patronage of the Presbyterian church. "He loved 
 our nation and hath built us a Synagogue." Notwith- 
 standing Mr. Pardee's liberality to the Presbyterian 
 church he did not dictate its internal management. 
 
290 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 In 1871, Dr. Newlin resigned, and returned to the 
 Presbytery of Newark. He does not seem after this to 
 have taken charge of another church. He died Dec. 6, 
 1885, at Perth Amboy, N. J. When Luzerne was merged 
 into the Presbytery of Lehigh, Hazleton was well 
 equipped for aggressive work among all classes, especially 
 in its Sabbath School, which had been ably maintained 
 through the entire history of the church. 
 
XXVIII. 
 
 THE MAUCH CHUNK CHURCH AND ITS 
 LATER PASTORS. 
 
 THE Rev. John Aspimvall Hodge, D. D., second pas- 
 tor of this church, is the eldest son of the late Dr. 
 Hugh L. Hodge, long and very honorably connected 
 with the medical department of the University of Penn- 
 sylvania. He was born in Philadelphia, August 12, 1831, 
 was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, 
 1851, and from Princeton Theological Seminary, 1856, 
 entering upon his work at Mauch Chunk in the fall of the 
 same year, not very long after the death of Mr. Webster. 
 His ordination and installation took place April 22nd, 
 1857. He brought the prestige of a name honored through- 
 out the land in two of the learned professions. He soon 
 made an alliance — mainly matrimonial — with a family 
 also honored in journalism and scientific invention. The 
 alliance was Hodge and Morse — Philadelphia and New 
 York. Doubtless all this helped to win, but this was not 
 all. The young pastor brought intelligence of a high 
 order, enthusiasm, and the pastoral spirit. He had at 
 his side a sprightly, interested and intelligent ally in his 
 excellent wife, and, with these superior advantages, he 
 found at Mauch Chunk, a good foundation already laid 
 deep and broad, a people who had learned to appreciate 
 gospel privileges, and to co-operate with their pastor in 
 commending that gospel which they loved to those who 
 
292 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 had not yet learned its value. Then, too, he was privi- 
 leged to occupy the more commodious and attractive 
 sanctuary, which had been in the mind of the late pastor 
 as a fact to be accomplished, but which Mr. Webster only 
 enjoyed in anticipation, for ere it was opened for worship, 
 he was worshiping " in the temple not made with hands." 
 In the judgment of Dr. J. A. Hodge's people, and 
 in that of his successor, his work was successful. Miss 
 Elizabeth Webster, in her history of the Mauch Chunk 
 church, says of her pastor, speaking of his honored 
 lineage: " Our Mr. Hodge has, by a long and faithful 
 ministry, by unswerving devotion to the purity of our 
 beloved church in doctrine and government, added new 
 lustre to that honored name. Our written records, as 
 well as those who loved him, attest to his faithfulness and 
 care as pastor ; " and quoting from Dr. Ferrier's historical 
 sermon, she further says ; " Under the ministry of Mr. 
 Hodge, the church made good progress, the house of wor- 
 ship was completed, congregations increased in numbers, 
 and, though there was no extensive revival, many, from 
 time to time, were added to the church. During the 
 eight years of his ministry, one hundred were added to 
 the communion of the church." The next paragraph 
 of the history from which we are quoting, shows the 
 secret of the then fruitful ministry : ' ' The session 
 resolved to hold a prayer-meeting in the lecture room 
 every Sabbath morning at 10 a. m., to beseech God to 
 bless His word in the conversion of those who were out 
 of Christ. The pastor also held a prayer-meeting for 
 young men. ' ' 
 
 The session was enlarged, January, 1856, by the 
 election of four new elders, viz : Charles G. Rockwood, 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 293 
 
 Nathan Fegley, Robert Porter and Joseph Forrest. This 
 was before Mr. Webster's death. George W. Smith had, 
 from the organization of the church, been a faithful mem- 
 ber of the session, as we have seen. Mr. Hodge testifies 
 to the efficiency and harmonious co-operation of all the 
 members of the Mauch Chunk session. 
 
 They received the new pastor with great cordiality, 
 although it is understood that one of the new members 
 wished to be thoroughly satisfied that the young minister 
 would teach a sound gospel, and, from a deep sense of 
 duty, timidly visited him for that purpose, notwithstanding 
 the fact that he was a Hodge, just from Princeton Semi- 
 nary, and had been licensed by the Presbytery of 
 Philadelphia. Mr. Hodge was delighted with the con- 
 scientious interest of the elder, and gladly invited his 
 visitor to examine him fully, which, with some little em- 
 barrassment at first, he proceeded to do, in an examination 
 of more thoroughness than that to which a candidate for 
 licensure is usually subjected by his presbytery. The 
 interview terminated to the satisfaction of both parties. 
 
 Much to the regret of the pastor and the congrega- 
 tion. Elder Rockwood, who, as the efficient Sabbath 
 School superintendent, had, to the very last, stood so 
 closely to the beloved Webster, removed from Mauch 
 Chunk, in 1857. No increase of the session was imme- 
 diately made, but, in March, 1861, two new members 
 were elected, ordained and installed, amid the gathering 
 storms and political convulsions which indicated the 
 coming trials through which the nation was about to pass, 
 effecting every community in our land. 
 
 These brethren had been chosen as strong, repre- 
 sentative men. In many respects they were dissimilar. 
 
294 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 They, however, both loved the church and enjoyed its 
 confidence as well as that of the general community. 
 They did good service in their respective spheres. They 
 were the Hon. A. G. Broadhead and Fisher Hagard. 
 They greatly helped the pastor, and their mutual efforts 
 carried the church safely through the troublous times of 
 the civil war. 
 
 Before Dr. Hodge's retirement, the session was 
 again strengthened by the election and induction into the 
 eldership, Feb. ist, 1865, of Robert S. Cook, William 
 Patterson and Charles E. Webster, son of the first pastor. 
 Thus the second generation is coming to the front in at 
 least two of this class. The elders had, early in Dr. 
 Hodge's ministry, been divided into classes, each class 
 having its specific work, and with an assigned number of 
 families and individual members who were especially 
 under its watchful care. This greatly increased the ef- 
 ciency of the session, as a whole. 
 
 Dr. Hodge resigned April, 1865, with a good record. 
 The new church building, in use but not finished when he 
 came, had been completed and paid for. A house for the 
 pastor had been erected by the congregation and was 
 nearly ready for occupancy. The membership of the 
 church had nearly doubled, and commendable liberality 
 toward the Boards of the church was exhibited. The 
 congregation reluctantly concurred with the request of 
 the pastor to the Presbytery for a dissolution of the 
 pastoral relation, passing and recording the following 
 resolution : 
 
 Resolved, That by his urbanity and gentlemanly 
 deportment, by his Christian zeal and faithfulness as a 
 pastor, and his untiring devotion to the spiritual, as well 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 295 
 
 as the temporal interests of this church, Mr. Hodge has 
 greatly endeared himself to his people, and will always 
 be remembered by them with grateful affection. 
 
 Dr. Hodge's next charge was that of the First Pres- 
 byterian church of Hartford, Connecticut, in which he 
 had an active and successful pastorate for twenty-six years. 
 He still sustains the relation of Pastor Emeritus to that 
 church. He is now filling an important position as Pro- 
 fessor in Lincoln University, Oxford, Pa. He has always 
 been a good presbyter as well as pastor. He has published 
 several valuable books. His work on " What is Presby- 
 terian Law?" has had a wide circulation and has been 
 exceedingly useful. In 1873, Princeton College conferred 
 on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. 
 
 After Dr. Hodge's resignation in 1865 the Mauch 
 Chunk church was acceptably supplied for nearly a year 
 by the Rev. Charles Jewitt Collins, a son of Judge Col- 
 lins, with whom we have become acquainted as one of 
 the first elders of the Wilkes-Barre church. Mr. Collins 
 might be regarded as a son of the Luzerne Presbytery. 
 He was a graduate of Williams College, in which he was 
 afterwards a tutor. He began his theological course in 
 Union Seminary, New York City, but afterwards spent 
 three years in Princeton Seminary. After leaving the 
 seminary he became principal of the Female Institute at 
 Wilkes-Barre. He was subsequently ordained by the 
 Presbytery of Northumberland and installed pastor of the 
 Danville Presbyterian church, which position he occupied 
 from 1856 to 1865. It was, therefore, after this pastorate 
 he supplied the church in Mauch Chunk. He seems to 
 have devoted his time after this to teaching, and has 
 occupied several important places in that employment. 
 
296 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 He is now a resident of the city of New York. He was 
 well furnished for his work and an acceptable preacher. 
 
 The third pastor of the Mauch Chunk church was 
 the Rev. Jacob Belville, D. D., who was installed Novem- 
 ber I, 1866. Unlike his predecessors, he brought to this 
 field professional experience and reputation acquired 
 elsewhere. He was born in Hartville, Pa., December 
 12, 1820, is a graduate of Princeton College in 1839, 
 and of the Seminary in 1843. He was ordained and 
 installed pastor of the churches of Taneytown and New 
 Windsor, Md., November 22, 1844. He returned to 
 Pennsylvania in 1848, and was, for a time, stated supply 
 of the Phoenixville church. He became pastor of the 
 Neshaminy church in 1849, and principal of the academy 
 in the same place, in connection with his pastoral work, 
 in 1 85 1. He seems to have resigned his church in '57, 
 and retained the academy till 1863. He was then pastor 
 of the church at Holmesburg for two years, when he was 
 unanimously called to Mauch Chunk. He entered on 
 this new pastorate under very favorable circumstances. 
 The results expected were realized. "Our church," 
 writes Miss Webster, "was richly blessed, temporally 
 and spiritually. A decided advance in every respect was 
 made. The congregation, perfectly united and harmon- 
 ious, was enlarged and able to undertake more aggressive 
 work. The burden of debt which had rested on the 
 church was removed . ' ' 
 
 Soon after Dr. Belville came, a family, which had in 
 former years gone out of the Mauch Chunk church, 
 returned to its original church home, and again nobly 
 fostered the church work in Mauch Chunk, and thus 
 stimulated and encouraged others in sustaining their 
 church and preparing the way for extending its influence. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 29/ 
 
 Of these friends and others, Dr. Belville writes : "I 
 cannot forbear to speak of two persons who were eminent 
 for their usefulness in the church during my pastorate — 
 Mrs. Andrew Douglas and her brother, John Leisenring, 
 who was received by certificate from Eckley at our first 
 communion. There seemed to be nothing needed by 
 the church or its pastor, that money would buy, that they 
 were not ready at once to guarantee." Nor were they 
 alone in this respect. Others followed in the same direc- 
 tion. Dr. Belville adds an illustration : " When, in 
 1870, an effort was made to pay off the debt, then having 
 reached the sum of ^6,500.00, as part of the memorial 
 fund of that year, Mr. Leisenring led with an offer of one- 
 fourth, and Mr. Douglas, though not a member of the 
 church but ardently devoted to its interests, followed with 
 the eighth, Fisher Hagard, a similar sum, and before we 
 left the house ^4,000.00 was subscribed. Mr. Leisenring 
 was appointed chairman of a committee to secure the 
 remainder, and before I returned that night they reported 
 that the whole amount was subscribed." 
 
 During Dr. B.'s pastorate his health became so far 
 impaired that he could not keep up the measure of pas- 
 toral service that he had long maintained. He had con- 
 ducted three prayer-meetings every week besides other 
 pastoral duties. Till the end of his time in Mauch 
 Chunk he enjoyed the cordial regard and co-operation of 
 his entire charge ; and it was with great regret that his 
 people consented to his removal to Pottsville, where an 
 important work awaited him, for which, in view of all the 
 circumstances, he was perhaps better qualified than any 
 other man that might have entered that field. 
 
 His ministry in Mauch Chunk had been harmonious 
 
298 , PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 and fruitful, so also were the twenty-one years of pastoral 
 work which he subsequently performed at Pottsville. He 
 now enjoys immunity from the active duties of the pastor- 
 ate, but if his health would enable him to work he would 
 still delight in preaching " the glorious gospel of the 
 blessed God," which for half a century he has so ably 
 proclaimed to his fellow men. 
 
 The Mauch Chunk church, although greatly changed 
 in its constituency, maintains, under faithful ministers, 
 its mission in another Presbytery, into which it was trans- 
 ferred with a membership of 202, and a Sabbath School of 
 600 members. Its annual contributions for the year in 
 which the transference took place were, in the aggregate, 
 |4,2 2i.oo, in addition to the amount of the memorial 
 fund raised of ^6,500.00. At the same time it was well 
 furnished with all requisite appliances for prosecuting its 
 work. 
 
XXIX. 
 • THE CHURCH OF SUMMIT HILL 
 
 AND 
 
 PASTORATE OF THE REV. JOHN WHITE. 
 
 AFTER the Rev. A. G. Harned resigned the pastorate 
 of the Summit Hill church in 1856, it was without 
 a regular pastor for some months. The Rev. John White 
 took charge in the fall of 1857 and was regularly installed, 
 May 19th, 1858. He came into this Presbytery from that 
 of Susquehanna, having been stated supply of the 2nd 
 church of Wyalusing. He was a man of very retiring 
 iJabits, but by no means wanting in preparation for his 
 work, or the most conscientious devotion to it. His ser- 
 mons showed learning and depth of piety, and that they 
 had been p^pared with great care. His people were fed 
 with a pure gospel. His pastoral diligence in his own 
 parish was great. Therefore he was highly esteemed by 
 his people, and upon them he spent his time and strength, 
 not without evidence of success, although there was a 
 falling off in the aggregate membership of the church dur- 
 ing and shortly after the civil war. Every year, however, 
 additions were reported, in 1867 a large addition, so 
 that the previous loss was more than overtaken. The 
 church also exhibited, through its entire career, loyalty 
 to the general schemes of benevolence. 
 
 Mr. White did not, however, take a very active part 
 
300 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 in the proceedings of Presbytery and Synod. He was 
 extremely sensitive and not disposed to put himself for- 
 ward. For this reason he was not properly known by the 
 members of the Presbytery or the churches outside of his 
 own. By these, however, he was so well known and 
 respected, that his peculiarities of manner and adminis- 
 tration were either not noticed or overlooked. He was 
 among them a useful and edifying minister of the gospel. 
 His nearest ministerial neighbor. Dr. J. A. Hodge, says 
 of him : " He was a learned man, wholly devoted to his 
 Master's work, much esteemed by his own people, and 
 an excellent preacher and very faithful pastor. We under- 
 stood each other and remained warm friends." He was 
 pastor in Summit Hill about seventeen years. He re- 
 signed his charge in 1872, and subsequently made his 
 home at Tamaqua, Pa., where he died April 21st, 1880, 
 aged 75 years. 
 
 His daughter. Miss Mary G. White, of Audenried', 
 Pa., has kindly furnished additional information con- 
 cerning her father's life and labors, a condensation of 
 which is made necessary by our limited spacer 
 
 " He was born at Rutherglen, near Glasgow, Scot- 
 land, and pursued his classical and theological studies at 
 the University of Glasgow. Not long after the com- 
 pletion of the latter course, he was ordained and came to 
 the United States. 
 
 "His first charge was at Poundridge, in Westchester 
 County, N. Y. Afterwards, he was called to the church 
 of White Plains in the same county, at which time he 
 married Miss Eliza Grace of New York City, a lady of 
 great beauty and force of character, whose companionship 
 cheered and supported him through his whole ministry, 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 3OI 
 
 "Three children were born to them. A daughter, 
 Mary G., and two sons, the Rev. Dr. J. C. White of 
 Pittsburg, Pa., and Dr. W. H. White, a prominent 
 physician of Bloomfield, N. J. Mrs. White survived her 
 husband twelve years, and died at Hazleton, Pa., in 1892. 
 
 "After leaving White Plains, Mr. W. held charges 
 at Seneca and Oxbow, N. Y., and at Newburg, Spruce 
 Creek and Martinsburg, Pa. He removed to German- 
 town, Pa., in 1848, for the purpose of educating his 
 children, and while there acted for some time as an agent 
 for the American Tract Society. After three years of this 
 work, he took charge of the church in Churchhill, Md., 
 and in 1855, of the Second church of Wyalusing, Pa. 
 His subsequent pastorate at Summit Hill was brought to 
 a close in 1872 on account of his failing health. 
 
 "He was a fervent and affectionate preacher of the 
 gospel. This he made his main work and he never 
 stinted time or effort in preparation. His early studies 
 in logic and philosophy always afterward colored both his 
 thought and style. He was an enthusiastic student of the 
 classic authors, and gave help and stimulus to many of 
 his younger friends in their classical studies. Twice in 
 the course of his ministry he accepted opportunities of 
 Academical teaching, once at Williamsport and once at 
 Williamsburg, both in Pennsylvania. 
 
 "His life was one of continuous labor. His 
 character was simple, sincere and independent. When 
 his health, which had been exceptionally good so many 
 years, at last broke down, he bore'his sickness patiently. 
 His retirement from the activity of the ministry he loved 
 so well, he accepted with resignation. He died in the 
 confidence of a certain faith." 
 
XXX. 
 
 THE WYOMING CHURCH AND PRESBY- 
 TERIAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 WHEN the Rev. J. D. Mitchell finally accepted the 
 call of the Scranton church, the Wyoming church 
 secured the services of the Rev. Paul Eugene Stevenson, 
 as pastor. He was born in New Brunswick, N. J., Oct. 
 14th, 1809, was graduated from Union College, N. Y., 
 and studied theology in Princeton Theological Seminary. 
 He had spent his early ministry in Virginia, having been 
 ordained by the Presbytery of Lexington, and was pastor 
 at Staunton, Va., from 1838 to 1844; then four years at 
 Williamsburg, N. Y., before being invited to Wyoming, 
 Pa. Entering on his pastoral work in March, 1850, he 
 became, in 1852, Principal of the Presbyterial Institute, 
 as the successor of the Rev. Reuben Post Lowrie and Rev. 
 C. R. Lane, who had followed Dr. Mitchell from '49 to 
 '51, and Dr. Lane, from '51 to '52. The Wyoming 
 church prospered greatly under Mr. Stevenson's ministry. 
 He was a man of ability and well furnished for his work, 
 to which he was thoroughly devoted. This church never, 
 through the existence of Luzerne Presbytery, enrolled a 
 greater number of members than during that period. 
 
 There was also awakened a desire for a more suitable 
 house of worship, and aid was secured towards its erection. 
 When the actual work of construction was undertaken, 
 the Rev. U. S. Prime, of Brooklyn, father-in-law of Mr. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 3O3 
 
 S., contributed $600 toward the enterprise. While Mr. 
 Stevenson had charge of the Institute, from '52 to '55, 
 Mrs. CorneHa Prime Stevenson, wife of the Principal, 
 assisted her husband in the Institute, where she exhibited 
 rare qualities as a teacher, and secured the undying 
 esteem of her pupils. She was sister of the Rev. Dr. S. 
 I. and E. D. G. Prime, late of the New York Observer. 
 This family brought to Wyoming help and stimulation. 
 Their departure was greatly regretted. Mr. Stevenson 
 was afterward engaged in important educational work in 
 Bridgeton, Madison and Patterson, N. J. In the latter 
 place he died March 17, 1870. 
 
 Mr. Stevenson's removal left the Wyoming church 
 without a regular pastor, but the Rev. L. P. Hunt, who 
 had been from the beginning a deeply interested patron, 
 friend and guardian of both institutions, and who always 
 maintained the services of the church during every hiatus, 
 gave it necessary pastoral care and service, until he was 
 relieved by the return of Dr. Mitchell, who entered upon 
 a second term of service in the church in 1855. He had 
 taken the supervision of the Institute before he had re- 
 sumed the care of the church the second time, and when 
 obliged to give up the church on account of failing health, 
 Mr. Hunt again supplied it for six months. 
 
 In the spring of 1857, a young man, born in New 
 York, March lo, 1833, William L. Moore, a graduate of 
 Rutgers College, N. J., in 1854, and of the Seminary at 
 Princeton in 1857, was called to the pastorate of the 
 Wyoming church, and ordained and installed July 21st, 
 '57. He, however, only continued in charge of the- 
 church till February, 1858. In the mean time a new, 
 beautiful and commodious house of worship, near the 
 
304 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 Institute, was dedicated. The sermon on the occasion 
 was by the Rev. Dr. Nicholas Murray. 
 
 The Wyoming congregation had, in the early part 
 of Mr. Stevenson's ministry, erected a comfortable house 
 for their minister on lots donated by Mr. David Perkins 
 and his daughter, Mrs. Mary Jane Carpenter. In 1858, 
 for six months, the Rev. Frederick La Rue King, a 
 Princeton man but a minister of the Dutch Reformed 
 church, supplied the Wyoming pulpit. 
 
 The Rev. Henry Rinker became pastor and principal 
 at Wyoming May, 1859. Mr. Rinker was one of Dr. 
 Dorrance's young men, who entered the ministry from 
 the Wilkes-Barre church. He had graduated from Prince- 
 ton College in which he stood high for scholarship. He 
 spent two years in the Seminary at Princeton, after which 
 he taught two years in Mt. Holly, New Jersey, and was 
 ordained by the Presbytery of Albany as an Evangelist, 
 February 15, 1^853. After a term of two years there in 
 mission work he was engaged two years as teacher and 
 stated supply at Windsor, N. Y., and from 1857 to '59 
 was stated supply at Burdett, N. Y. 
 
 Mr. Rinker only remained in Wyoming till 1861, 
 when he accepted the principalship of the Collegiate 
 Institute of Newton, N. J. From 1863 to 1865 he was 
 chaplain in the U. S. army. After the war he resided in 
 Stillwater, N. J., till 1875. He was pastor in Dickinson, 
 Pa., 1875-81, where he seems to have had a good 
 measure of success. He now resides in Carlisle, Pa. 
 
 After the resignation of Mr. Rinker at Wyoming the 
 church was again supplied for a year and a half by the 
 pastor of the Kingston church, the Rev. Dr. H. H. 
 Welles. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 3O5 
 
 In the fall of 1868 the Rev. A. B. King was called- 
 He was born in Morristown, N. J., and bore the name of 
 Albert Barnes, a former honored pastor in that city. He 
 graduated from Princeton College, and studied theology 
 in Union and Princeton theological seminaries. He was 
 ordained by Monmouth Presbytery October 22, 1861, 
 and served as pastor at Oceanic, N. J., for two years, 
 then supplied the Dutch Reformed church at Gilboa, 
 N. Y. , in 1862-63. He became the pastor of the church 
 and principal of the Institute at Wyoming in the fall of 
 1863. This pastorate continued ten years, or three years 
 beyond the life of the Luzerne Presbytery. His princi- 
 palship terminated in 1869, when, as we have before 
 seen, the Rfev. A. G. Harned took his place in the school. 
 Mr. King's pastorate was the longest this church has ever 
 had. 
 
 Wyoming church has always had a good session and 
 able ministrations, and while the membership has never 
 been large, it has been composed of excellent people and 
 loyal Presbyterians. Reuben P. Lowrie was enrolled as a 
 member of this church up to the time of his ordination. 
 
 Another who spent several years as a teacher in the 
 Presbyterial Institute and was also ordained as an Evan- 
 gelist September 17, 1864, had been a member of this 
 church, viz., the Rev. James Potter Hughes. He was a 
 graduate of Princeton College and Seminary. Mr. 
 Hughes, however, has made teaching his life-work, and 
 has uniformly been regarded as a successful instructor, 
 having the ability to influence young people in the right 
 direction. Many of them, under his cheerful and efficient 
 management, have been prepared for college, for business 
 and teaching. He has taught at Edge Hill, Princeton, 
 
306 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 Cape May, N. J., and Logansport, Ind. From this latter 
 place he was called to the principalship of the Bellefonte 
 Academy in 1868, and for three years supplied Bald 
 Eagle church in connection with school work ; but since 
 then has confined his attention to the Academy and the 
 care of his family of eight children, his wife having been 
 called to her heavenly home. With all these duties, 
 cares and trials, he still speaks of the goodness of God as 
 sustaining him and enabling him to meet his daily duties 
 and bear his trials. 
 
XXXI. 
 
 THE CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 OF POTTSVILLE AND ITS PASTORS. 
 
 AFTER the ministry of the Rev. William Wilson Bon- 
 nell in Pottsville, covering the years from 1846 to 
 1848, during which time the Presbytery of Luzerne organ- 
 ized the Central church in that city, as the result in part 
 of his work there, we do not find that the services were 
 very constant or regular in the new church. Services, 
 however, were rendered for longer or shorter periods by 
 various ministers, among them we may name the Rev. 
 J. D. Mitchell and Rev. E. D. Saunders, of Philadelphia, 
 where he conducted a school for boys on property which 
 he afterward gave to the Presbyterian church as the site of 
 the splendidly equipped hospital which now occupies it. 
 
 During this long period of irregular ministrations the 
 membership of the church could not be expected to grow, 
 and doubtless material which might have been gathered 
 under more favorable circumstances was scattered or lost. 
 After the Rev. Samuel Fisher Colt was elected pastor the 
 church only reported 24 members; this was in 1857. 
 
 Mr. Colt was born in Patterson, N. J. He graduated 
 from Lafayette College and Princeton Seminary, and was 
 ordained by the Presbytery of West Jersey June 17, 1841. 
 He was three years stated supply at May's Landing, 
 N. J. , when he became pastor of the church of Wyalusing, 
 
308 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 Pa. He labored successfully there till 1852, when he 
 became principal of the Susquehanna Collegiate Institute 
 at Towanda, Pa. This position he occupied till 1857, at 
 the same time supplying the Wysox church. Early in 
 1858, as pastor-elect of the Central church of Pottsville, 
 he came into the Presbytery of Luzerne. He was a man 
 of talent, zealous and laborious in his Master's service. 
 His success in Pottsville was good, in view of the condi- 
 tion of things when he entered the field, the disturbed 
 condition of the country, and the fact that he spent more 
 than a year as chaplain in the army during his pastorate 
 there. The church had a membership of 120 when he 
 left it in 1864 to act as secretary of the Eastern Committee 
 on Freedmen, at the same time supplying the church of 
 Troy in the Presbytery of Susquehanna. After a time he 
 was induced to take charge once more of the school at 
 Towanda, which, after four years, he again resigned in 
 1870. His last ministerial charges were Wysox and La- 
 port, as stated supply. Having during his ministry studied 
 medicine, he, during the later years of his life, practised 
 the heahng art in connection with the supply of mis- 
 sionary churches. 
 
 His was a busy life, and not without special cares, 
 sorrows and bereavements. He was twice married and 
 had a large family, most of whom it is understood, with 
 his second wife, survived him. Their loss in the death of 
 the genial and kind husband and father must have been 
 very great. The church, too, lost an earnest and faithful 
 worker. His death occurred at Wysox, Pa., December 
 17, 1893. 
 
 For some months after Mr. Colt left Pottsville, the 
 Second church was vacant. The next pastor was a 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 3O9 
 
 distinguished man in the Presbyterian church, the Rev. 
 Dr. William S. Plummer, whose coming was a result of 
 the terrible national agitation which had also determined 
 the direction of the departure of the last pastor. The great 
 conflict did not to any great extent affect the personnel of 
 the Presbytery; but sectional agitations bore into its 
 bounds important allies in prosecuting its work. The 
 sentiments which moved them from their former moorings 
 and activities were opposite, but those which animated 
 them in their work in the Presbytery were concurrent, 
 fixed and strong, for they were strong men. They were 
 respectively, the Rev. Drs. A. A. Hodge and William S. 
 Plummer. The latter from 1865 to 1867 was the second 
 pastor of the Second church of Pottsville. He was born 
 in Green Co., Pa., educated in Washington College, Va. , 
 and Princeton Theological Seminary, and was ordained 
 by the Presbytery of Orange. Dr. Plummer did mission- 
 ary work in southern Virginia and in North Carolina; 
 then was pastor of the Presbyterian church of Petersburg, 
 Va.; afterwards, successively, he sustained the same 
 relation to the Presbyterian churches in Richmond, Va., 
 Baltimore, Md., and Allegheny, Pa., from 1854 to 1862, 
 filling also, during the same time, the chair of Didactic 
 Theology in the Western Theological Seminary of the 
 same city. 
 
 As an evangelical preacher. Dr. Plummer had few 
 superiors. His services were in demand in conducting 
 protracted meetings, and were greatly blessed . In Mr. 
 Moody's most successful meeting in Philadelphia, he 
 .was greatly aided by Dr. Plummer, not only by his 
 preaching, but especially by his public responses to 
 questions addressed to him with reference to great 
 
3IO PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 scriptural doctrines and vital questions of Christian 
 experience. These answers, thus drawn out, were of 
 inestimable value to inquiring souls. Dr. Plummer wrote 
 much on practical religion, and was for many years an 
 almost constant contributor to the American Messenger, 
 the American Tract Society's popular publication. Even 
 the brief ministry of such a man must have been exceed- 
 ingly helpful to the Second church and the community 
 at Pottsville. 
 
 In 1867 he accepted a professorship in the Columbia 
 Theological Seminary, S. C, the duties of which were 
 performed till 1880, On the 22nd of October of that 
 year, he ceased from his earthly ministry, in Baltimore. 
 Few men in the Presbyterian church in this country 
 have received more of its honors. Before the separation 
 of our southern brethren, he moderated the General 
 Assembly, 1838; and again, in 1 871, that of the Southern 
 Assembly. He was a Director of our oldest theological 
 seminary, and Professor of Systematic Theology in two 
 Seminaries. The honorary degree of D. D. was conferred 
 on him by Washington, Pa., Lafayette and Princeton 
 Colleges; that of LL. D. by the University of Mississippi. 
 
 Very soon after Dr. Plummer left for the South, the 
 Rev. Prentiss DeVeuve was called to the place made 
 vacant by his departure. He was born in Staten Island, 
 N. Y., July 28, 1833, was a graduate of the College and 
 Seminary of Princeton, N. J., and ordained by the 
 Presbytery of New Brunswick. His first pastorate was at 
 Ewing, N. J., and after seven years he was removed to 
 the Second church of Germantown. After spending two 
 years with that church, he became a member of the 
 Presbytery of Luzerne, and was installed pastor of the 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 3II 
 
 Second church of Pottsville, where he was popular, and 
 seems to have gained the entire confidence of his own 
 people as well as those of the First church in that city. 
 His pastorate, however, was short, though significant. 
 
 The Second church, as might have been expected, 
 was smaller than the First, which was older, and belonged 
 to the New School branch of the general church. But 
 even at that time the question of reunion was engaging 
 the attention of both branches, and what occurred under 
 Dr. DeVeuve's ministry was in anticipation of such a 
 consummation, and evidently prompted by the desire to 
 accelerate the union of the divided church. The history 
 of what took place in Pottsville with reference to this 
 matter has been given to me recently by the Rev. Jacob 
 Belville, D. D., and is so fully and frankly set forth by 
 that brother's communication, that I prefer to allow him 
 to present his statement in his own words. He was 
 familiar with the facts of the case, and was soon after 
 their occurrence brought face to face with the results of 
 what proved to be an unsuccessful attempt to unite the 
 whole Presbyterian element in Pottsville. His wise and 
 pacific management no doubt did much to make those 
 results less disastrous than they otherwise might have 
 been. 
 
 Dr. Belville says: "After Dr. Plummer, Rev. 
 Prentiss De Veuve was called to the pastorate. The Rev. 
 Isaac Riley, afterward of Buffalo, N. Y., was the pastor of 
 the First church of Pottsville. It was not long until he 
 was called to be co-pastor with his father-in-law. Dr. 
 Parker, of New York City. 
 
 "Before leaving Pottsville he and Mr. De Veuve, 
 with leading men in each church, believing that the 
 
312 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 interests of Presbyterianism, and the cause of Christ in 
 Pottsville would ■ be promoted by a union of the two 
 churches, and that orthodoxy would be safe in either Old 
 or New School connection, arranged a plan of union 
 between the two churches which was adopted by both. 
 It was agreed that the members of the two churches 
 should all take their certificates to a new church to be 
 organized by the Third Presbytery of Philadelphia, 
 (N. S.) to which the First church then belonged; that 
 they should be organized under the charter of the First 
 church and should occupy the property of the First 
 church ; that Mr. De Veuve, then pastor of the Second 
 church, should be the pastor of the new church, and that 
 Solomon Foster, and Hiram Parker, then elders of the 
 First church, with Thomas Russell and Henry Strauch, 
 then elders of the Second church, should constitute the 
 session of the new church. The pastor was always to be 
 chosen from the Old School branch, and the property of 
 the Second church was to be sold, and the proceeds held 
 as a nucleus of a fund for the erection of a larger new 
 church building. All this having been arranged, and in 
 accordance with it the certificates having been given, the 
 Rev. Mr. DeVeuve appeared in Presbytery at Kingston in 
 April, 1868, and informed us of the facts, and asked that 
 Presbytery would acquiesce, by granting him dismission 
 to the Third Presbytery of Philadelphia, and striking the 
 name of the Second church of Pottsville from the roll. 
 
 ' ' This was done by a vote of the Presbytery almost if 
 not entirely unanimous. It was done very cordially by 
 those of us who were earnest in our desire for the reunion 
 of the Old and New School, which was then in progress, 
 while those who were not favorable to the reunion, if they 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 3I3 
 
 did not oppose, assented, though very reluctantly, to merg- 
 ing the two Pottsville churches, inasmuch as it seemed aiL 
 accomplished fact. The Presbytery of Luzerne having 
 taken this action, to which I have referred, the certificates 
 were presented to the Third Presbytery of Philadelphia, 
 with request for organization, under the plan of union 
 agreed upon. Accordingly the new church, called the 
 First church of Pottsville, was organized, and a committee 
 of Presbytery was appointed to install the pastor at an 
 early date. The members of the First church all gave up 
 their pews. Then pews were selected by the alternate 
 drawing from each church, and so the new church was 
 housed in the building of the First, with the idea that it 
 would soon be displaced by a new and commodious struc- 
 ture for which the nucleus of a fund had been already 
 secured, in the sum of g8,ooo, accruing from the sale of 
 the old Second church property. The two churches, thus 
 merged into one, worshiped together as such for several 
 months. The two sessions of the new organization met 
 frequently as the session of the new organization, but 
 when the time came for the installation of the first pastor, 
 Mr. De Veuve, after conference with him and with the 
 elders and people, the committee appointed for the pur- 
 pose decided that ' ' the way was not clear, ' ' and the 
 installation did not take place. 
 
 " Mr. De Veuve withdrew and the Rev. J. W. Schenck, 
 then of the Dutch Reformed church, having united with 
 the Presbytery of Philadelphia, Old School, was called, 
 accepted and was installed ; nevertheless a very consider- 
 able proportion of those who had belonged to the Second 
 church, with two elders, having become dissatisfied with 
 the new organization, withdrew from it, secured again the 
 
314 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 property, which had been sold, and in the fall of 1868 
 applied to the Presbytery of Luzerne to be reorganized 
 again as the Second church of Pottsville. This was con- 
 tested till the fall of 1869, when it was granted on the 
 ground that, inasmuch as the First church had belonged to 
 another body, the action of the session of the Second 
 church in giving certificates to all its members for the 
 purpose of forming with it a new church in that body, 
 was unconstitutional, and therefore null and void. One 
 of the elders of the Second church, Thomas M. Russell, 
 had, on the organization of the new First church, been 
 appointed its treasurer, and as such had possession of the 
 funds accruing from the sale of the Second church prop- 
 erty. For this a suit was instituted by the trustees of the 
 First church, which was decided in their favor in the 
 Schuylkill county court, but was appealed. 
 
 "Very soon after the reunion of the Old and New 
 School bodies was effected, and the two Pottsville churches 
 came under the care of the Presbytery of Lehigh. Efforts 
 were at once made for an amicable settlement of difficul- 
 ties, as the result of which the funds in question were 
 yielded by the First church to the Second. Hostile feel- 
 ings gradually subsided, and the relations between the 
 two churches are now as pleasant as could be expected in 
 view of the residue of human nature always to be found in 
 the body of the church militant. 
 
 "I became pastor of the First church on May ist, 
 1873, ^'^d continued till October ist, 1894. I can hon- 
 estly say that during that period I did all that lay in my 
 power to promote harmony and concert in good doing. 
 In the mean time Pottsville has grown and promises, in 
 the not distant future, much larger growth, and there 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 3 1 5 
 
 seems better reason for two Presbyterian churches than 
 ever before." 
 
 The Rev. George W. Smiley, D. D., was the first 
 pastor after the reorganization of the Second church of 
 Pottsville. He was received from the Congregational 
 body, and had been pastor of the Second Congregational 
 church of Philadelphia. He came into the Luzerne Pres- 
 bytery in March of the year during which it was con- 
 nected with the Lehigh Presbytery, and continued pastor 
 of the Second church of Pottsville till he was called to 
 higher service, June 29th, 1883, in the 64th year of his 
 age. In view of the condition of things when he entered 
 on his work he seems to have had a successful ministry. 
 
XXXII. 
 CONYNGHAM VALLEY CHURCH. 
 
 THE part of this valley in which the Presbyterians had 
 their principal place of worship, was in Sugar Loaf 
 Township, at Seybertsville. The whole valley had been 
 pre-empted by Mr. Webster, and occupied, as we have 
 seen, by Rev. Daniel Gaston, the Rev. Darwin Cook, and 
 others; but later and longer by the Rev. John Johnson. 
 
 Although never installed as pastor, as Mr. Gaston 
 had been, Mr. Johnson's ministry was remarkable, in view 
 of the fact that he had received no special training for it. 
 A tailor by trade, and a member of the Rev. Dr. Gray's 
 church in Easton, he had shown considerable zeal as a 
 lay worker, and, in connection with some of the pious 
 students at Lafayette College, had conducted religious 
 services in the more destitute communities of the suburbs 
 of Easton, and with such success as to call the attention 
 of ministers and other Christians to his work. 
 
 On account of the difficulty of securing and sustain- 
 ing a minister in Conyngham Valley, Mr. Johnson was 
 invited to undertake evangelistic work there. The 
 Presbytery of Luzerne was so well pleased with his 
 services and success, that he was given a license to preach 
 about 1850, and subsequently, without the usual exami- 
 nations, he was ordained to the full work of the ministry, 
 this being regarded an extraordinary case. We have seen 
 him in the pulpit with Dr. Charles Hodge, assisting in 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 31/ 
 
 performing the highest ministerial functions, and doing 
 his part with, perhaps, more freedom and unction than if 
 he were able to realize the trying ordeals through which 
 others had passed before reaching the position which he 
 was occupying. He preached with ease and sometimes 
 with much force. His pastorate proved to be one of the 
 longest in the Presbytery, being about twenty years, 
 through the whole of which he retained the affection of 
 his people, and that of the Presbytery. He was fond of 
 reading, especially sermons, and he had an excellent 
 memory. A brick house of worship was erected at Sey- 
 bertsville, and many members were received from time to 
 time, but stated worship was not continued at Drums, in 
 Butler Township, and no church was organized there ; a 
 part, however, of the Presbyterian element, found a 
 church home at Seybertsville. Mr. Johnson helped to 
 hold the ground for the Presbyterian church at Hazleton 
 before the organization of a church in that town, and he 
 seems to have been one of the instruments used in pre- 
 paring the way for the organization of the Upper Lehigh 
 church. In writing the history of Luzerne Presbytery, it 
 is proper to say that the country churches, as the cities 
 within its bounds grew, were greatly depleted by the 
 drafts made from their membership by the business 
 centres, and it became difficult for these country congre- 
 gations to hold their own. This was true of Conyngham 
 Valley, as of other places. Mr. Johnson, in 187 1, left 
 his charge in Luzerne for one in Northumberland Pres- 
 bytery, which he held for ten years. He then returned 
 to Easton, where he died May ist, 1890, aged 78 years. 
 
XXXIII. 
 THE CHURCH OF NANTICOKE 
 
 AND 
 
 THE REV. JACOB WEIDMAN. 
 
 THE Rev. Jacob Weidman came into the Presbytery 
 in the summer of 1859. He had just graduated 
 from Princeton Seminary. He had taken his degree of 
 A. B. in Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, before he 
 was nineteen years old, having been born in Lebanon, 
 Pa., Dec. 20, 1837; and now at his twenty-second year, 
 he is found taking hold of his life-work with us. He 
 had labored as stated supply for a short time at Tamaqua, 
 before coming to Nan ti coke. The field to which he was 
 then introduced has already been before us. 
 
 We have seen that that part of the valley of the Sus- 
 quehanna was originally settled by a different class of 
 people from those who had taken possession of the land 
 north of Hanover and Newport Townships, in Luzerne 
 County, Pa. But Dr. Dorrance speaks of them as ex- 
 cellent people, many of them staunch Presbyterians. The 
 first church organized on this ground, however, was 
 German Reformed. While for a time it was prosperous, 
 unfortunate occurrences marred its prospects, and the 
 congregation and its house of worship fell into decay. 
 
 The pastors of Wilkes-Barre, especially Mr. Gilder- 
 sleeve, gave some attention to this community, and after he 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 3I9 
 
 resigned his pastorate, he did special Missionary work for 
 a time in Hanover and Newport townships, and with his 
 successor, Dr. Nicholas Murray, organized the Presby- 
 terians in the general community and without church 
 connections, together with a number then dismissed from 
 the Wilkes-Barre church, into "The church of Hanover 
 and Newport." This organization was effected Nov. 27, 
 1829. John Schleppy, Anderson Dana and Henry Styes, 
 were the first elders. 
 
 Mr. Gildersleeve did not continue long with the 
 new organization, and after he retired services were very 
 irregularly held. They were afforded, for the most part, 
 by the Rev. Messrs. Rhodes, of Northmoreland, Corss 
 and Snowden, of Kingston. After the Rev. T. P. Hunt 
 came to Wyoming Valley, he was frequently on the 
 ground, and then also Darwin Cook, with whom the 
 people of Nanticoke where anxious to make a permanent 
 engagement. 
 
 We find Presbytery sending a committee in April, 
 i860, to look into the condition of the field to which Mr. 
 Weidman had been sent the previous year. This com- 
 mittee consisted of Rev. Dr. Dorrance, Mr. Hunt and 
 Elder Collins. What they found, or what they did not 
 find, led to the unanimous conclusion that it was nec- 
 essary to reorganize the church. This they proceeded to 
 do. The new body, included the members of the 
 former church still on the ground, and five members 
 from the Wilkes-Barre church, with three other persons 
 on profession of their faith. John Fairchild was elected, 
 ordained and installed elder. The name of the church 
 was at this time changed to that of Nanticoke. 
 
 We see in these transactions that something had been 
 
320 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 done already by the young Missionary. The next year 
 the congregation took measures to provide a sanctuary. 
 
 It was completed in 1863, in troublous times. Thus 
 stakes were being driven ; preparation for effective and 
 permanent work is secured, but, unhappily, we find, after 
 all this, Nanticoke church is reported vacant for several 
 years after Mr. Weidman's retirement in 1864. Hence, 
 of course, the Nanticoke congregation does not report 
 much progress for some time. 
 
 Mr. Weidman does not seem to have had a special 
 charge for a time after leaving Nanticoke. In 1867 he 
 became pastor of the church of Bristol, Pa., where he re- 
 mained till 1873. He was then pastor of the Brainard 
 church, Easton, Pa., till 1880. Afterwards he was stated 
 supply of the South Bethlehem church for five years. 
 He then resided for two years in Pottsville, Pa. , laboring 
 as an evangelist. He was, during the years 1887-88, in 
 charge of the White Haven church. His last pastorate 
 was at Clifton Heights, Pa. Mr. Weidman was regarded 
 as a man of sound judgment, well informed and devoted 
 to his work — a useful an honored minister of Christ.* 
 
 The next regular minister at Nanticoke was the Rev. 
 William James Day. He began his ministerial career 
 July, 1865. His labors, however, were not confined to 
 the field which had engaged the attention of Mr. Weid- 
 man, but included Ashley, nearer Wilkes-Barre. Mr. 
 Day came directly from Princeton Theological Seminary, 
 in which he had taken the full course. He was originally 
 from Canada, born February 20th, 1840. 
 
 He entered upon his work with zeal, but, for some 
 time, was not encouraged by a great increase in the 
 
 *Mr. Weidman was for some time, 1866-7, assistant minister of Rev. Dr. 
 Backus, pastor of the First Presbyterian church, of Baltimore, Md. 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 321 
 
 church at Nanticoke. He resided in Ashley, to which 
 place it is natural to suppose the greater part of his pas- 
 toral labor would be given. Nanticoke, hovvever, soon 
 after the reunion was blessed with a revival which resulted 
 in more than doubling its membership. 
 
 When Mr. Day came into the Presbytery in 1865, 
 the Ashley or Coalville church had not been organized. 
 The village being a suburb of Wilkes-Barre it was regarded 
 as within the bounds of the Wilkes-Barre church. It had 
 been a preaching place from 1834, and had a Sabbath 
 School conducted by members of that church. W. C. 
 Gildersleeve was its superintendent for many years ; and, 
 as we have already seen, there was a house of worship 
 erected there as early as 1844. Thus there had been a 
 preparatory work done on that part of Mr. Day's field, 
 which had not been equalled at Nanticoke. The growth 
 of population, too, had been of late much more rapid. 
 The formal organization, however, did not take place till 
 January, 1866, some six months after Mr. Day's work 
 began. But Dr. Dorrance especially, Mr. Hunt and Mr. 
 Weidman, had given much attention to this coal town, in 
 view of its increasing population. The demand for a sep- 
 arate church had become imperative, in order properly to 
 provide for Ashley and to relieve Wilkes-Barre, where the 
 parent church was constantly needing and absorbing more 
 and more care and labor. 
 
 At first the organization consisted of but 1 7 mem- 
 bers, with Daniel Frederick, Robert H. Johnson and Rob- 
 ert Brown as elders. The Baltimore Coal Company had 
 donated suitable lots for a new and larger house of 
 worship, which was constructed at the cost of ^8,500, and 
 dedicated February, i86g. The old church, too, was 
 
322 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 remodeled and made useful for Sabbath School purposes. 
 When the Luzerne Presbytery was merged into the Presby- 
 tery of Lackawanna, Ashville, or Coalville, church 
 reported 85 members and 120 Sabbath School members. 
 Mr. Day was formally installed pastor at Ashley in 1873. 
 He was called from his prosperous work on the east side of 
 the river to the Plymouth church, on the west side, in 
 1889. 
 
 Connected with the churches south of Wilkes-Barre 
 we must notice the Shickshinny church, in Union town- 
 ship, on the west bank of the Susquehanna. The first 
 settlers in this township were from Connecticut, and were 
 among those who were driven from their homes by the 
 battle of Wyoming. There were also settlers who came 
 in soon afterwards, and who secured their claims from the 
 proprietors of Pennsylvania, which fact may have resulted 
 in destroying harmony and hindering the co-operation nec- 
 essary to the establishing of the institutions of religion. 
 However that may have been, there was no Presbyterian 
 church organized at Shickshinny till 1864, or during Mr. 
 Weidman's mission. The information as to its constitu- 
 tion and subsequent growth are not at hand. The name 
 of the organization appears some times in the reports of 
 the Presbytery, then again it is omitted for a time. Some 
 time after Mr. Weidman left the general iield, Solomon 
 Clarke McElroy came to Shickshinny as stated supply of 
 the church, in connection with teaching. He was a 
 Canadian by birth, but had graduated from Union Col- 
 lege, N. Y. , and Princeton Seminary. Our Presbytery 
 ordained him as an Evangelist in 1865. He continued 
 till 1867. 
 
 The Rev. James S. Ferguson, who had been received 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 323 
 
 from the Methodist church and seems to have resided for 
 some years in Shickshinny, ministered to our church 
 or adherents there for a time ; also at Harvey's Lake, 
 where Messrs. George Hollenback and John Urquhart had 
 built a comfortable house of worship and presented it to 
 the Presbyterians. 
 
 After the reunion we find a sanctuary in 18 71, cost- 
 ing between four and five thousand dollars. The same 
 year a pastor is installed, which implies that the church 
 had assumed an aggressive attitude, and these movements 
 were evidently kept up under their chosen leader, the 
 Rev. William Bradford Darrach, from 1871 to 1876. At 
 the end of that time we see a church of 47 members and a 
 Sabbath School of no. 
 
XXXIV. 
 
 THE HARVEY'S LAKE OR THE LEHMAN 
 CHURCH. 
 
 THIS organization was constituted by the Presbytery 
 December 23, i860, with 15 members, and set in 
 the report opposite the name of the Rev. James S. Fergu- 
 son as its first minister. Until after the demise of the 
 Presbytery it was reported from year to year, as the Har- 
 vey's Lake church, and is supposed to have occupied the 
 house of worship erected by Messrs. Hollenback and 
 Urquhart. There seems, however, to have been no 
 growth at tlie lake, and subsequently the place of worship 
 most used was in Lehman township, where the Kingston 
 church had long had some members, and looked after 
 them. There another house of worship was erected, as 
 more central for the general region. 
 
 Mr. Ferguson's term of service closed in 1863. His 
 name, however, appears in the minutes of the General 
 Assembly till 1870. Since that time we have been unable 
 to trace him. At the time he left the church 20 members 
 were reported, and one or two small contributions to our 
 boards. 
 
 After Mr. Ferguson the Rev. Charles Edwin Van 
 Allen, Just from Princeton Seminary, supplied the church 
 for a short time, but he never came into the Presbytery. 
 The Rev. A. Harned, while in charge of the Presbyterial 
 Institute, gave it some services during 1868 and 1869. In 
 1870 the church only reported 17 members. 
 
XXXV. 
 
 THE WILKES -BARRE CHURCH AND ITS 
 LATER PASTORS. 
 
 WE left this mother church of the Presbytery in 
 1 86 1. It was a time of general gloom in our 
 land, and to the church and Presbytery a time of sore 
 bereavement ; but even then, when turning our faces 
 from this church, we had the satisfaction of knowing 
 that it was an institution firmly established, in the care of 
 loyal, intelligent guardians who would see that the 
 important place made vacant by the death of its beloved 
 pastor would be suitably filled. And as we moved from 
 this, the original centre, we met everywhere within the 
 circle of its Presbyterial influence the evidences of its 
 ecclesiastical vitality and fruitfulness. If we have been 
 observant and thoughtful, we return to the mother church 
 with increased admiration for her past work, and with 
 larger expectations of precious fruits from her later agencies 
 and operations. 
 
 The pulpit of the Wilkes-Barre church became vacant 
 on the i8th of April, 1861, the date of Dr. Dorrance's 
 death. It was filled in less than three months. The 
 changes caused by the civil war had just brought again to 
 the north the Rev. Dr. A. A. Hodge from Virginia; and 
 the Wilkes-Barre church at once invited him to its vacant 
 pulpit. Archibald Alexander Hodge had always breathed 
 
326 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 a spiritual atmosphere ; had early acquired the habit of 
 close study, and enjoyed the benefit of teachers of ability, 
 in addition to his superior home culture. He was born 
 in Princeton, N. J., July, 1823, the eldest son of the 
 Rev. Dr. Charles and Mrs. Sarah (Bache) Hodge. In 
 addition to private instruction, he was graduated from 
 the College in his native town, and was, for a time, a 
 tutor in the same. After his subsequent graduation from 
 the Theological Seminary he took a post graduate course. 
 During this last course, he was a very close student, as 
 the writer knows, having occupied an adjoining room in 
 the Seminary. 
 
 This distinguished man has been so prominently 
 before the church in other important relations and 
 positions that it is scarcely necessary, in giving a history 
 of Luzerne Presbytery, to dwell on his characteristics as a 
 man, and a very eminent minister, teacher and writer in 
 our church. He was the son and successor of one of the 
 greatest theologians of the present century. His own 
 intellectual ability and attainments are proved by his 
 writings. His devotion to Christianity and its divine 
 Author is shown by his entering on the foreign mission- 
 ary work in India, and by his subsequent tireless labors as 
 a preacher, pastor, theological professor, original thinker 
 and defender of the faith. When, after the failure of his 
 wife's health, he was compelled to return to his native 
 land he established a reputation as a successful pastor in 
 several states, in all these pastorates gaining the love and 
 confidence of his people. He occupied the highest chair, 
 that of Theology, in two of our most prominent seminaries, 
 the Western and Princeton. His popular lectures on 
 theological subjects greatly added to his fame and 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 327 
 
 extended his usefulness. He had more idiosyncrasies 
 than his amiable and gifted father, but not less theological 
 acumen, and a more forcible way of popularizing his 
 teachings. His "Outlines of Theology" has been 
 translated into various languages and is widely used both 
 at home and abroad. 
 
 The removal of Dr. A. A. Hodge from Wilkes-Barre 
 to fill a professorship in the Theological Seminary at 
 Allegheny was greatly deplored by his congregation, 
 which was capable of appreciating his rich and instructive 
 sermons. 
 
 He was about three years connected with the 
 Presbytery of Luzerne, leaving in 1864. After teaching 
 didactic theology and at the same time serving two 
 churches, viz., the First church at Pittsburg, 1865; then 
 the North church of Alleghany, 1866 and '67, he was 
 elected Associate Professor with his father in Princeton 
 Seminary in 1877. After the death of Dr. Charles 
 Hodge, June 1878, Dr. A. A. Hodge occupied the chair 
 of Systematic Theology alone till his death, which took 
 place Nov. 11, 1886, in the height of his usefulness, and 
 was regarded as a public calamity. 
 
 He was married twice. His first wife was Miss 
 Elizabeth Bent, of Winchester, Va., whom he married 
 June 17, 1847, just before embarking for India. She was 
 the mother of his two daughters. Mrs. Hodge died in 
 Allegheny, Sept. 28, 1868. He afterward married Mrs. 
 Margaret (McLaren) Wood, who, with the daughters 
 above mentioned, survived the husband and father. 
 
 His Alma Mater gave him the degree of D. D. in 
 1862, and he received the degree of L.L. D. from 
 Woorster University in 1876. 
 
328 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 Soon after Dr. A. A. Hodge was called to Allegheny, 
 the Rev. Samuel Bayard Dod became pastor of the 
 Wilkes-Barre church in 1864. Mr. Dod was born in 
 Princeton, N. J., Dec. 2, 1838, and was the son of the 
 late Albert Baldwin Dod, D. D., who was Professor of 
 Mathematics, and lecturer on Political Economy and 
 Architecture in Princeton College. Dr. Dod was one of 
 the most popular professors and accomplished scholars of 
 our country, in his generation. His brilliant career 
 terminated when he was only 48 years old. The writer 
 well remembers the deep gloom and sorrow which were 
 exhibited in Princeton, when, in 1845, the early and 
 unexpected death of Prof. Dod was announced. 
 
 The new pastor, coming in 1864, brought with him 
 very similar antecedents to those of the late pastor of the 
 Wilkes-Barre church. He too bore the prestige of an 
 honored name as well as the testimonials of the Princeton 
 Institutions, the atmosphere of which he had so early 
 and long breathed. He had enjoyed the advantages of 
 foreign travel and study abroad. He had been ordained 
 by the Presbytery of Hudson and installed pastor of the 
 Monticello church, in June, 1862, which he resigned in 
 order to accept the call of the Wilkes-Barre church, 
 where he was installed in 1864, 
 
 Mr. Dod was a bright, active young man, a forcible 
 speaker, a clear and logical reasoner, a fluent writer, and 
 earnest and effective in his work as a pastor. But his 
 work at Wilkes-Barre was cut short by the death of Mr. 
 Edwin A. Stevens, of Hoboken, N. J., by whose will 
 Mr. Dod was made one of the executors of his large 
 estate, and the active and responsible agent in carrying 
 out the wishes of Mr. Stevens in regard to the " Institute 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 329 
 
 of Technology " provided for by him. It was a position of 
 trust given him by his sister's husband whicli he could 
 not see the way clear to decline ; but he could not take it 
 and continue his work as the pastor of the First Presby- 
 terian church of AVilkes-Barre, and asked the Presbytery 
 to dissolve his pastoral relation. This was done in 1868. 
 The planning for the building of the Institute and the 
 arranging for the different departments of educational 
 work that were to be conducted in it, devolved largely on 
 Mr. Dod, and for this work he was eminently fitted, as 
 results have shown. 
 
 The last pastor installed over the First Presbyterian 
 church of Wilkes-Barre, is the younger brother of the 
 Rev. Dr. A. A. Hodge, who had so recently filled the 
 same position, and who was the eldest son of the 
 renowned and beloved Princeton Theologian, to whose 
 distinguished character and services we have already paid 
 the tribute of reverence and praise which we could not 
 but render with the necessary mention of his honored 
 name. Coming as Francis Blanchard Hodge did, we 
 scarcely need to speak of his antecedents. Of course he 
 bore with him the sanction of all the Princeton Institu- 
 tions, which he entered early and with which he lingered 
 after graduating from the Seminary. He finally left that 
 institution in 1863. His first pastoral charge was the old 
 and important church of Oxford, Chester Co., Pa., where 
 he was ordained, May 9th, 1863, by the Presbytery of 
 New Castle. 
 
 Mr. Hodge's pastorate at Oxford continued till he 
 was called to Wilkes-Barre in 1869. In Oxford he had 
 succeeded his brother, Caspar Wistar Hodge, who was 
 greatly loved by the Oxford people, as he deserved to be 
 
330 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 for his faithful ministrations, ample attainments and 
 loving care of his flock. The Rev. F. B. Hodge filled 
 his brother's place well in Oxford, and held the hearts of 
 the people. The church prospered under his ministry, 
 and reluctantly yielded him to Wilkes-Barre, where he 
 entered upon what has proved to be a long pastorate. 
 His entrance upon the Wilkes-Barre charge was during 
 the last year of the existence of the Luzerne Presbytery, 
 and while it is not our province to follow him in his 
 work, it is pleasant to record the testimony of two of his 
 co-presbyters, Drs. Parke and Logan, who agree in saying 
 that his success has by no means fallen behind that of any 
 of his predecessors. True, he has had good foundations 
 on which to build. 
 
 Not long after the re-union in 1870, the Memorial 
 church was organized to worship in the edifice erected by 
 Mr. Calvin Wadhams to the memory of his children, 
 who had been taken to the upper fold. 
 
 The Church of the Covenant, composed of colored 
 people, had also been organized, but a short time ago it 
 was dissolved by the Presbytery of Lackawanna. 
 
 In 1888 Westminster church was organized, and 
 1889, Grant street. These churches have grown and 
 prospered without checking the growth of the mother 
 church, only showing her vitality and fruitfulness. 
 
 The Rev. Winfield Scott Parsons, a minister long 
 enrolled as a member of the Presbytery of Luzerne, 
 although not connected with any of its churches, deserves 
 notice among his brethren. He was regularly educated 
 for the ministry, graduating from Lafayette College and 
 Princeton Seminary. He was ordained by the Presbytery 
 of Buffalo City, and supplied Lockport church, N. Y., 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 33 I 
 
 a short time. After that he seems to have devoted his 
 life to educational work. He came into the Presbytery 
 of Luzerne in 1856, and did good service in the educa- 
 tional institutions of Wilkes-Barre, where he still resides. 
 
XXXVI. 
 PORT CLINTON CHURCH. 
 
 THE village and community of Port Clinton had 
 received more or less attention from Mr. Webster, 
 and even before the organization of the Presbytery, but 
 the services were not maintained with much regularity. 
 No church was organized till i860. During the previous 
 year Mr. F. F. Kolb had been licensed with a view to his 
 occupying that place with other points contiguous, and, 
 in connection with his first year of missionary labor, the 
 church was organized by the Presbytery. It reported 16 
 members the next year. The elders were Joseph Cork 
 and John S. Rick. At the meeting of Presbytery to 
 which this report was made Mr. Kolb was reported as an 
 ordained minister. He had been ordained at Scranton 
 January 19, 1861, as an evangelist, but was reported at 
 the regular meeting of Presbytery as stated supply of the 
 Port Clinton and the Scots church at "New Mines," 
 which had been organized with 22 members and three 
 
 elders, viz., Archibald Wallace, McDonald and 
 
 Robert Neilson. The former of these infant churches 
 was made up of professing christians previously belonging 
 to different denominations. In the Port Clinton church 
 there does not seem to have been any growth. The 
 Scots church, the second year, reported 32 members. At 
 and around Port Clinton the stable population was Ger- 
 man, and our church found little material from which to 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 333 
 
 build. At New Mines the population was fluctuating, 
 consequently while good was done during our occupancy 
 of this field our work did not result in establishing 
 churches, and after the first decade the effort was aban- 
 doned. Mr. Kolb says: "I spent several years in hard 
 work in my old mission field, and I was knocked down 
 one Sabbath afternoon by a Catholic Irishman as I was 
 going from one preaching place to the other. ' ' He spent 
 one year in supplying Mahanoy City, probably 1865. 
 Then he was called to a church in Northumberland Pres- 
 bytery, where he was a successful pastor for seven years, 
 after which he was called back to take pastoral charge of 
 the Shenandoah church in the Presbytery of Lehigh, of 
 which church he is still pastor. 
 
 The Shenandoah church was gathered through the 
 labors of the Rev. William Edgar Honeyman, in this new 
 coal town, December, 1866. Mr. Honeyman was a 
 native of New Jersey, born July 26, 1839. He was grad- 
 uated from the College and Seminary at Princeton, 
 and ordained by the Presbytery of Rockaway, August, 
 1865. He spent the next year as stated supply in Rock- 
 away, when, in 1866, he entered on his missionary work 
 in Shenandoah. He was so far successful that the way 
 was prepared for the Presbytery of Luzerne to organize a 
 church March 17th, 1868, consisting of Mrs. Wm. E. 
 Honeyman, Mrs. Wm. Grant, Mrs. John Costier, James 
 Hutton, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Romage, Miss Robenia 
 Westwood, Mrs. John A. Lewis, Mrs. Honeyman, Miss 
 Hannah Jones and Mrs. Adam Leckil. James Sutton was 
 elected ruling elder and regularly inducted into office. A 
 short time before the organization of the church a house 
 of worship had been dedicated, January 30th, 1868. 
 
334 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 This showed a commendable interest in spiritual things 
 on the part of the new town. Mr. Honeyman says of his 
 work in this place : "I went to Shenandoah in Novem- 
 ber, 1866, and began work in a school house. Only one 
 Presbyterian was there, and in 1867 we began to build a 
 church. An organization was formed with Mr. James 
 Hutton as elder, and in February and March there was a 
 revival that really gave us church life. I superintended 
 the Sabbath School, with Mr. James Hutton assistant 
 superintendent." This church has always maintained a 
 flourishing Sabbath School. 
 
 The early erected house of worship was burned in 
 1874, and the records of the church up to that date were 
 also consumed ; but we learn from Mr. Albert Hoover, 
 at present clerk of the session, that after Mr. Honeyman 
 and Mr. Hutton, Mr. Robert A. Glover served as Sabbath 
 School Superintendent, and the school is now under the 
 care of the clerk of the session, and is flourishing. 
 Although we may not follow the church minutely beyond 
 the limit assigned to this history, it is perhaps proper to 
 say that the loss this congregation sustained in the burn- 
 ing of its house of worship has been made up to it by 
 the erection of a more substantial structure. 
 
 It seems a matter for regret that Mr. Honeyman 
 should, for any reason, have had to leave Shenandoah, 
 where he had succeeded in securing such ample appliances 
 for a still more successful work. The foundations seem 
 to have been well laid. The little church from the be- 
 ginning has realized that it does not exist simply for 
 itself, and it is therefore found possessed of a missionary 
 spirit, regarding the divine command : " Go ye therefore, 
 and teach all nations." 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 335 
 
 From Shenandoah Mr. Honeyman went to Oakland 
 church in the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia. The 
 successor of Mr. Honeyman was the Rev. John C. Clyde, 
 a Lafayette College and Princeton Seminary man, who 
 had been a Missionary in Iowa, where he was ordained by 
 the Chariton Presbytery, in which he did good service 
 for a time, but his most important work has been as a 
 pastor in New Jersey. The Shenandoah church has had 
 a steady growth up to this time, and has exerted a 
 salutary influence in the community where it was planted. 
 
XXXVII. 
 THE MAHANOY CITY CHURCH. 
 
 THIS church was gathered during the last decade of 
 the Presbytery, in the new coal town on the 
 Mahanoy mountain, about ten miles south of Hazleton, 
 and not far from Shenandoah. It is probable that the 
 Rev. Wm. Thomson did at least a part of the pioneer 
 work which resulted in gathering this congregation, while 
 he ministered to the Tamaqua church. The organization 
 is first reported to Presbytery in the spring of 1863, as an 
 organized church of nineteen members. Of this number 
 seventeen had been received on certificate and two on 
 profession, making the original number of charter mem- 
 bers, and was reported as supplied by Mr. Thompson. 
 
 The church building was erected and dedicated in 
 the fall of 1862. The writer, in company with the late 
 Dr. John Armstrong, then minister at Hazleton, was 
 present at the dedication of this church. The sermon 
 was preached by the Rev. Dr. DeWitt Talmage. 
 
 After the charge of the new church passed out of 
 Mr. Thompson's hands in 1864, Mr. Kolb seems to have 
 had charge of it, in connection with Port Clinton and 
 the Scots' church, as appears from the report in 1865, 
 when the membership is given at thirty-three. 
 
 In t866 the Rev. William Henry Dinsmore took 
 charge of this church as its regularly installed pastor. He 
 was born in Green Co., Pa., May 31, 1833; graduated 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 337 
 
 from Princeton College in 1857, and from the Theo- 
 logical Seminar)' in i860. He was ordained by the 
 Presbytery of Philadelphia, Nov. 19, 1861. He served as 
 stated supply and pastor of the Silvers' Spring, Pa., church 
 from 1860-65, and became pastor at Mahanoy, 1866. 
 During the first three years of this pastorate, the growth 
 of the church was remarkable, considering the size of the 
 place. In 1867 it reported fifty-seven additions, all but 
 eight on profession of faith, and subsequently forty-eight, 
 with but nine by certificate. 
 
 After this, almost every one in the congregation had 
 been led to Christ. Removals afterward — especially the 
 departure of the family of Elder George F. Wiggans to 
 Philadelphia — was a serious loss to the congregation. 
 Mr. Wiggans was one of the men who exerted a great and 
 wholesome influence. 
 
 Mr, Dinsmore was released from his pastoral charge 
 in 1869, and became pastor at Stroudsburg, where he 
 continued till 1876, when he was called to Deerfield, 
 N. J., where ended his earthly ministry. May 26, 1877. 
 
 The next pastor of the Mahanoy church was the Rev. 
 Alexander Miller Woods. He was installed 1870, and 
 therefore among the last, if not the very last, inducted 
 into the pastorate by the Luzerne Presbytery ; and it 
 seems to have been no misfit ; for, notwithstanding the 
 constant change and fluctuation to which such towns are 
 liable, he is still in his place. He also is a graduate of 
 the Princeton Institutions. He came into Presbytery 
 with much the same antecedents as Dr. Belville, and has 
 been a good member of the new Presbytery. 
 
XXXVIII. 
 THE UPPER LEHIGH CHURCH. 
 
 THE Eckley church with its out -stations, Clifton, 
 Jeddo, and Ebervale, owed much, during the 
 existence of the Luzerne Presbytery, to the Council 
 Ridge Coal Company's assistance. But as the members 
 of that honorable and efficient company removed to other 
 homes and engaged in other enterprises, the church at 
 Eckley was greatly weakened; yet it maintained its 
 existence for some time after the Presbytery ceased to be. 
 We find the Presbyterian element of the company 
 and the members of the Eckley church, in their new 
 connections, establishing or helping other enterprises of 
 our church. This is especially true of the managers of 
 the old Council Ridge Company, as seen at the above 
 named coal town, where among the proprietors the 
 Presbyterian element was largely represented. Soon after 
 movements towards the development of the coal interest 
 were begun at this place, measures were taken to build up 
 another Presbyterian church, while, at the same time, 
 encouragement was also given in assisting other denomi- 
 nations in building up their interests. Judge Leisenring 
 in particular, who had done so much to inaugurate and 
 stimulate church work at Eckley, was no less interested in 
 the religious wants of this new town, where his skill as its 
 engineer has done so much to make its material arrange- 
 ments minister to the comfort and esthetical enjoyment 
 
PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 339 
 
 of those who, in the employment of the coal company, 
 must make the town their home and the home of their 
 wives and children. This company, and many others in 
 the general coal region of Pennsylvania — let it be said to 
 their honor — have been interested in the moral and 
 spiritual atmosphere of the theaters of their business 
 operations. 
 
 Preaching of the gospel was provided for, as soon as 
 possible. The services of the minister in Conyngham 
 Valley, the Rev. John Johnson, were secured for a part 
 of the time; and on June 21, 1869, a committee of the 
 Presbytery of Luzerne organized a church in Upper 
 Lehigh, with Mr. Parker Price its ruling elder. The 
 report to the meeting of Presbytery, April, 1870, gives 
 ten as the number of members. It was indeed a child of 
 our Presbytery ; but we have only to do with its birth ; it 
 must henceforth be identified with another foster mother, 
 viz., the Lehigh Presbytery. We are glad to know the 
 infant grew, and soon enjoyed all the functions of a well 
 appointed church. 
 
XXXIX. 
 THE CHURCH OF MEHOOPANY CREEK 
 
 AND 
 
 THE REV. EDWIN BRONSON. 
 
 THIS church first appears on the minutes of the General 
 Assembly in 1856, having reported 19 members, 16 
 of whom were received by certificate and three on 
 confession of faith. 
 
 The Rev. Edwin Bronson supplied the IMehoopany 
 church till the year 1S59, after which the Rev. Wm. E. 
 Holmes had charge of the Mission for several years, in 
 connection with Northmoreland. Mr. Bronson, how- 
 ever, resided at Mehoopany for some years, without 
 charge. In 1862, he is reported as residing at Laporte in 
 the bounds of the Presbytery of Susquehanna ; the next 
 year he was stated supply of the church of Laporte, to 
 which he continued to minister till 1864. After this he 
 does not seem to have had charge of any church ; and in 
 1874 his name was placed on the list of honorably retired 
 ministers. He died at Arnot, Pa., Nov. 3, 1893, aged 
 ninety-three. 
 
XL. 
 
 THE PLAINS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 THIS church, about midway between Pittston and 
 Wilkes-Barre, on the east side of the Susquehanna, 
 was the last organized by the Presbytery of Luzerne; nor 
 is the writer able to determine whether it is the child or the 
 grandchild of the Wilkes-Barre church. We learn, how- 
 ever, that the pastor of the older church officiated as 
 chairman of the committee which constituted it in the 
 name of the Presbytery, by the organization of twelve 
 Presbyterians into the First Presbyterian church of Plains. 
 The ruling elders were James Allen and James Steele. 
 
 The Rev. Alexander C. Smith, received from the 
 Presbytery of New York, became the first pastor of the 
 new church and he seems to have been encouraged in 
 his work.* 
 
 *Whatever uncertainty there may have been about the maternity of the 
 Plains church, there could be none as to that of another church constituted 
 soon after the reunion of 1S70, viz., the West Pittston church, org^anized 
 by the Presbytery of I.ackawanna in 1871. It seems proper to mention this 
 organization in order properly to exhibit the fruitfulness of the First 
 church of Pittston from which it sprung. Other evidence has before 
 appeared attesting the same fact. 
 
XLI. 
 GNADENHUTTEN CHURCH. 
 
 THIS is the name of a Mission established by the 
 Moravians about the middle of the last century, 
 some miles south of Mauch Chunk, Pa. 
 
 It was for a time successful; quite a village had been 
 gathered, consisting of the missionaries and the Indians, 
 many of whom had been converted to Christianity. But 
 in I7S5) with no warning of approaching danger, an 
 assault was made on the peaceful village by the savage 
 Indians. Seven of the missionaries were slain, the hamlet 
 burned, and the Christian Indians widely scattered, never 
 to return. This gave the place a kind of sacred memory, 
 and it was long the desire of Presbyterians to maintain 
 work on that hallowed ground. Our Presbytery in 1859 
 organized the church of Gnadenhutten, but their 
 number was few, only nine members, and the population 
 sparse and scattered, so, in the absence of a settled 
 minister, who could not be provided, there was no 
 prospect of growth; therefore, in 1862, Presbytery 
 dissolved the church and dismissed its members to Mauch 
 Chunk and Summit Hill churches. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 IN 1870 the Luzerne Presbytery reported 32 churches, 
 and this list does not embrace some of the churches 
 which had appeared on its roll and which reappear 
 afterward on the rolls of Lackawanna and Lehigh Presby- 
 teries. Twenty-seven years before, this Presbytery was 
 constituted by the General Assembly, with eleven 
 churches, and two of these were set back to the Presbytery 
 of Northumberland by the same body. It is also true 
 that several additional churches, which had been over- 
 looked, were subsequently added to the eleven. 
 
 The Assembly named eight ministers, one licentiate 
 for the new Presbytery, with four candidates. The 
 Presbytery reports, in 1870, twenty-nine ministers, one 
 licentiate and two candidates. The church membership 
 at the time of the organization was nine hundred and 
 seventy -seven. In 1870 there were reported three 
 thousand, three hundred and forty-six communicants, 
 and four thousand, one hundred and fifty Sabbath School 
 members. 
 
 The value of church property, at the beginning, 
 consisting of churches, manses and school buildings 
 belonging to the congregations entering into the new 
 Presbytery, was in the neighborhood of from gr 0,000 to 
 ^15,000. And the annual contributions of its churches 
 for 1843, ^488.00 though in this reported sum, congre- 
 gational expenses were probably not included. 
 
 The annual contributions, as reported in 1870, were 
 
344 PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE. 
 
 ^60,690. The Presbytery has organized twenty-seven 
 churches, and ordained to the ministry, twenty-nine. 
 B'ifteen were licensed to preach the gospel. 
 
 No case of doctrinal difference ever demanded 
 Presbyterial attention during the twenty-seven years of its 
 existence. No case of appeal from the action of the 
 sessions comes to the mind of the writer; nor does he 
 recollect of any protest against the action of this Presby- 
 tery ever being entered in the records of its proceedings. 
 
 Truly tlie brethren of Luzerne Presbytery dwelt 
 together in love and unity, co-operating cordially with 
 each other in every good work. The beloved wife of 
 Richard Webster, whom his brethren regarded as the 
 father of the Presbytery, is still with us, and Rev. Dr. N. 
 G. Parke, honored by the service of more than half a 
 century's pastorate of one church, and whose work in the 
 Presbytery began before the termination of the first year 
 of its existence, is here too, as deeply interested as ever 
 in the prosecution of that work for whicli the Presbytery 
 of Luzerne is no longer responsible. He doubtless can 
 look backward with abounding gratitude, and forward, 
 with assuring hope, for the success of that cause which 
 now is largely entrusted to other hands, so far as human 
 agency is concerned.