THE CHRONICLE
Journal of the Historical Society
of the
Susquehanna Conference
of the
United Methodist Church
Milton W. Loyer
editor
.
Volume XXXV spring 2024
Editor's Preface .......................................................................................................3
1. Two Daughters of the Parsonage: A Friendship for the Ages
Lizzie Akers and Jennie Taylor, 1896..……………………………….…..4
2. The Excellent Baker
Francis Asbury, 1812 ……………………………………………..……..18
3. A Peck Letter Home
Luther Peck, 1838………………………………………………...…..…23
4. The Mount Pisgah Prayer Band
Earl Smith [1969], 1870…………………………...…………………….26
5. Thoughts from a Presiding Elder
Jacob Smith, 1873………………………………………………....……..34
6. Joshua Lippincott and Methodist Influences on the Carlisle Indian School
Robert Baker [2023], 1879………………………………………….…...37
7. Dear Brethren
Jacob Erb, 1883……………………………………….…….……………45
8. A Peck Family Trial
New York Times, 1884………………………………….…….………….49
9. An Instance of Faithfulness
Martin Luther Drum, 1890………………………….……………...…….54
10. Five Significant Letters
William A. Carver, 1890……………………………….…………….…..61
11. Greetings from China
Marie Hasenpflug, 1908……………………….……….….……………..71
12. New United Brethren Church
W.W. Longacre, 1910…………………………………….…….…….….74
2 The Chronicle 2024
13. Dear Friends
Forrest and Grace Beachy, 1925………………………………...……….79
14. Dear Folks
Benjamin S.P. Busey, 1826..………………………….…………….……85
15. Dear Marion
Aunt Catherine, 1977………………………………………….…………88
16. Racial Prejudice in Harrisburg Methodism
Milton Loyer, 2022…………………………………………….………...91
Each of these articles is based on written or oral statements preserved in the
conference archives and not previously published with annotations or introductory
remarks. They come from postcards, letters, public presentations, and individual
reminiscences. Some of the content is deeply personal and/or disturbing.
The lead article and subject of the cover of this issue centers around a framed
collage and a personal letter involving gospel songwriter and children’s Sunday
School teacher Miss Lizzie Akers of Bellwood PA and medical missionary Miss
Jennie Taylor of Angola, Africa. These daughters of Central Pennsylvania
Conference Methodist pastors met while students at Williamsport Dickinson
Seminary (now Lycoming College) in the 1880’s and developed a lifelong friendship
that spanned the globe.
The 15 remaining briefer articles are based on various public and personal
communications and presented in chronological order.
Editor’s Preface 3
EDITOR'S PREFACE
On behalf of the Historical Society of the Susquehanna Conference of the
United Methodist Church, I present with mixed feelings volume XXXV of The
Chronicle. For thirty-five years, the society has produced a mix of scholarly,
entertaining, informative and inspiring stories of United Methodism – all united by a
common theme. By joint decision of the Conference Historical Society and the
Conference Commission on Archives and History, this volume is scheduled to be the
final printed copy of The Chronicle. It has yet to be determined whether future
stories of area United Methodism will continue in an annual on-line only version of
The Chronicle or as periodic articles in some other format.
Since volume I first appeared in 1990 featuring the diary of Peggy Holcomb
Dow, wife and traveling companion of the noted and eccentric early Methodist
evangelist Lorenzo Dow, The Chronicle has sought to minister to two particular
audiences: local United Methodists seeking to develop an appreciation for and
understanding of their spiritual heritage, and scholars researching significant United
Methodist persons and events.
The first audience has been reached by annually providing a printed copy of
the journal to each member of the Historical Society and to each pastoral charge
within the Conference. The time has come to evaluate the stewardship of resources
and ultimate effectiveness of this ministry. The second audience has been reached
primarily by persons accessing The Chronicle via internet searches on particular
topics. All issues of the journal are available on-line, and the conference archives
regularly receives feedback and appreciation regarding its articles from scholars
around the globe. This ministry has proven to be effective and will continue.
The uniting theme for the articles in this final printed copy is “Speeches,
Letters and Articles” – oral and written communications that give insight into a wide
variety of persons and situations. These are communications that have found their
ways into the conference archives, but that have never been published with
explanatory introductions or footnotes. Some of them – like Forest and Grace
Beachy’s 1925 “Dear Friends” – are interesting but not necessarily a significant part
of the United Methodist story. Others – like the examination of Francis Asbury’s
1812 statement regarding “the excellent” Baker – represent major breakthroughs in
United Methodist history and documentation.
The items are relatively self-explanatory and, after the lead article on Misses
Lizzie Akers and Jennie Taylor, are presented in chronological order with little
introduction. May these varied communications from the past help to ground us in
the present by reminding us of God’s faithfulness throughout the generations.
Pleasant reading.
4 The Chronicle 2024
Two Daughters of the Parsonage
A Friendship for the Ages
Lizzie Akers and Jennie Taylor, 1896
Introduction
Lizzie Akers and Jennie Taylor were daughters of pastors in the Central
Pennsylvania Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church who developed a
powerful friendship. Although Lizzie settled in Bellwood, Blair County PA, and
Jennie became a missionary to Africa, they remained in contact via letters. When
Jennie died in Africa in 1897, Lizzie prepared as a memorial to her departed friend
a framed collage of photographs, a letter from Jennie and African grasses that
Jennie had sent. That framed collage was recently discovered, in a much
deteriorated condition, among the historical artifacts of the former Bellwood
Trinity UMC. In addition to presenting photographs from that collage, this article
shares the stories of these two women of faith and their families. As the original
letter in the collage was unreadable, this article features a different letter from
Jennie to Lizzie that has been preserved in the Archives and Special Collections at
Taylor University.
1
Lizzie and Jennie met in 1883 while students at Williamsport Dickinson
Seminary. Jennie went on to earn an A.B. from Dickinson College in 1889 and an
M.D. from the Woman’s Medical College of Philadelphia in 1892. After working
at Philadelphia’s Methodist Episcopal Hospital and gaining additional training and
certification in dentistry, she entered the African mission field in Angola
2
in 1893.
This article begins with a previously unpublished 1896 letter from Jennie to Lizzie,
continues with more detailed information about Jennie and Lizzie, and concludes
with pictures from the collage that sparked the interest in their relationship.
1
Taylor University in Upland IN is named for Bishop William Taylor (1821-1902), the prominent
Methodist missionary bishop and uncle of Jennie Taylor. Their archives contain a collection of
Jennie Taylor artifacts and correspondence and have graciously permitted The Chronicle to
choose and transcribe and publish a letter from that collection that was written to Lizzie Akers by
Jennie Taylor in 1896. The provenance of the letters from Jennie to Lizzie is uncertain.
2
The Methodist work in Angola was begun in 1884 when newly elected missionary Bishop to
Africa William Taylor (1821-1902) organized self-supporting mission stations in that country.
Bishop Taylor was the uncle of Jennie Taylor and was instrumental in encouraging her to enter
missionary work. The intent was for the work to establish farms and stores that would fund the
ministry without requiring financial support from the denomination. The idea proved successful,
and when Bishop Taylor retired in 1896, the missions became a regular part of the Missionary
Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Lizzie Akers 5
The Letter
Quihongoa
3
My Dear Chum, June 15, 1896
Yours of 4-14-96 reached me on the 11
th
inst. I feel ashamed that I haven’t
written more regularly, but feel glad that I was with my husband
4
a little of the time
– otherwise you might think that I was so absorbed in him as to find no incentive
to write. Once more I am a (grass) widow.
5
My husband has gone on a trip to the
coast, and back fortunately
6
(from the standpoint of a human heart), for now he is
the best linguist among the missionaries and when there is any official business to
be done it falls to his lot to attend to it – he is the Bishop’s attorney; add to that his
cool levelheadedness in settling business affairs and great powers of endurance (a
great item in this railroadless land) and you have some of the reasons why he was
selected for this flying (as nearly as that word can apply in this slow country) trip
of 400 miles.
When you remember that his little wife (for I scarcely come up to his
shoulders – “tall and symmetrical” the Bishop once wrote about him) has a medical
education, you have begun to surmise why we were separated; there is a patient up
here who will require my services before “Charlie” and I would have returned;
hence I am obligated to remain in order to look after her (there is no other physician
within 76 miles). The woman is in very delicate health and it is doubtful she will
get through and her husband was very anxious to have professional aid if possible
and spoke to me about it several months ago.
Mr. Gordon and I have been appointed to Quihongoa and on his return we
will settle down here (or rather he will, for I have already settled). After our
marriage he “took up” with all my friends not shared, with interest in you [more]
than in any other (which was natural perhaps). I have often thought that instead of
losing a friend you had gained one. Before he left he asked permission to write you
if he should find some time while he was away. I readily gave my consent. He
thinks you take entirely too much work on you and if he writes I think you may
expect a little of remonstrance along that line. He contended with me a long, long
3
The work in Angola began in the coastal town of Loanda in 1884 and quickly spread inland. The
station at Quihongoa was the most recent outpost and had just opened in 1896. It was some 200
miles inland from the coastal city of Loanda.
4
Jennie Taylor had recently (January 12, 1896) married fellow missionary Rev. Charles W.
Gordon. As she died the following year, her time as Mrs. Gordon was short-lived and she is most
commonly referred to as Jennie Taylor – and that will be the designation in this article. Gordon
was one of Bishop Taylor’s two 1884 advance persons sent to set up the work in Angola and is
last listed in 1903 as being “home in America.” He is not to be confused with the contemporary
Presbyterian Rev. Dr. Charles William Gordon (1860-1937) who served as a missionary and wrote
novels under the pen name Ralph Conner.
5
A grass widow is a woman whose husband is away often or for a prolonged period.
6
Jennie is using “fortunately” in the sense of “hopefully.”
6 The Chronicle 2024
time on that point until finally I yielded and am now fully convinced that he is right.
If I had continued as I commenced in Angola, I think I should have been lying under
Afric’s golden sands long ere this, with the soul part of me only one quarter
developed. As it was, my natural protector took charge of me from the very first
and continually sustained me (I took that 150 mile walk
7
with him as my daily
companion.) so that I was not only enabled to conserve my natural force but also to
devote more time to the development of my spiritual nature, which is the most
important after all.
Perhaps you want to know something of my daily life in my new
“appointment.” My programme is delightfully regular: rise at 4:00 am; public
prayer at 4:30; fix up some, read, write, walk 5:30; strain milk, put up lunch for the
three men on the mountain 7 am; breakfast at 8; teach from 9 – 11 am; plate of soup
at 11; then private prayer followed by study (Kimbundu
8
class meets twice a week
at 1 pm); 12:30 – 1:30 sleep. Dinner at 2. After that study, read, write walk. Public
prayers 6:30. Retire at 8 pm.
I am much pleased with my situation. We are in the country and I have
fresh milk and eggs every day; and O, the abundance and variety of fruit and
vegetables. Lemons, mangos, bananas and some peaches (which are the hardest of
all to refuse – don’t try to analyze that please) bring a continued temptation to
overeating and unless I exercise constant self denial my gastric organ suffers.
My companions are very congenial. Bro. Dodson
9
was a “Pennington man”
and as I met a number of their graduates at Dickinson College I felt quite at home
with him from the very first (in addition to that, he spent the later years of his
American life in Philadelphia). Bro. and Sister Withey both attended Wilbraham
Academy before their marriage.
10
Their son Herbert
11
is one of the best informed
young men I have ever known; he is a good student and is well informed in all
subjects. He is studying Hebrew on account of its great similarity to Kimbundu
7
When Jennie first arrived at the coastal town of Loanda in 1893, she had to walk 150 miles
inland to her first appointment
8
Kimbundu is the native language.
9
Rev. William P. Dodson graduated from Pennington School in New Jersey. He was among
Bishop Taylor’s first group of missionaries to Angola in 1885.
10
Rev. Amos E. and Mrs. Irene A. Withey met at Wilbraham Academy in Massachusetts and were
– with their four children: Herbert Cookmann [“Bertie”], Mary Estella [“Stella”], Lottie May and
Florence Steele [“Flossi”] – also among Bishop Taylor’s first group of missionaries to Angola in
1885. Their story, especially from the viewpoint of Herbert, is well told in Sophia Lyon Fahs’ 1918
Red, Yellow and Black: Tales of Indians, Chinese and Africans, pages 133-215. Miss Stella Withey
became a useful interpreter but died in Angola in 1889. Her two sisters reportedly also died in
Africa.
11
Herbert “Bertie” Withey (1873-1937) became an ordained missionary in Angola and married
fellow missionary Ruth Bassett. Their daughter Hester Hartzell Withey (1913-2010) was born in
Quihongoa and became a Methodist missionary to China and India. The Herbert Cookman
Withey papers are part of the special collections of the General Commission on Archives and
History in Madison NJ.
Lizzie Akers 7
and the consequent ease with which the Old Testament can be translated from the
original into Kimbundu. He has recently finished translating the Gospel of St.
Matthew into the native tongue. He came to Africa when twelve years old and
speaks like a native. Ambundu
12
from a distance marvel to hear a white man talk
with such ease and say among themselves “Kimbundu menha” (Kimbundu water),
so easily does thee language flow from his lips. I greatly admire “my big brother”
(he is taller than the Bishop).
Thanks to your mamma
13
, Bro. and Mrs. Gheer
14
, Minnie
15
and Allie
16
,
Ide
17
and Mary Miles
18
for kind wishes. Give these my love and assurances of my
happiness. Neither my husband nor I have had the occasion for the slightest regret
with regard to our marriage. We are both fully assured it was the Lord’s will; our
union is in Him and we considered only His glory in our decision of the question.
He has correspondingly blessed us. Parise His name for His goodness and mercy
to us. My regards to Rev. and Mrs. S.D. Wilson.
19
In much love as ever,
Your Chum Quihongoa
Consejo de Pungo Andongo
Angola
South Central Africa
Jennie Taylor
Jennie M. Taylor (1867-1897) was one of seven children of Rev. Andrew
E. Taylor and Cleopatra Florence (Diehl) Taylor. She was born in Concord,
Franklin County PA, while her father was serving that charge. Considering the
Methodist roots on both sides of her family, her decision to become a Methodist
missionary was not surprising.
12
The Ambundu are a Bantu people living in Angola who speak the Kimbundu language.
13
Lizzie’s stepmother, Lydia A. Akers (1837-1915).
14
Thomas Patterson Gheer (1851-1940) and his wife Addie (Renner) Gheer (1848-1931). T.P.
Gheer was very active in the Bellwood church, serving on the Missions Committee and for many
years as the Sunday School Superintendent. He was a brother to Miss Jean Margaret “Jennie”
Gheer (1846-1910), friend of Lizzie and longtime (1879-1910) missionary to Japan.
15
Miss Minnie Williamson (1863-1929) was active in the Bellwood church. She married
Theodore F. Lindsay of Bellwood, and they moved to Charleroi PA about 1900 – where she
continued active in the Methodist church, as a teacher in the Dorcas Bible Class and president of
their Women’s Foreign Mission Society.
16
Possibly Miss Alice Baker. She and her parents were active in the Bellwood church and lived on
the same street as Lizzie.
17
Unknown, but not the Miss Ida Dice (1861-1939) who came to Bellwood in 1902 with Rev.
Moses and assisted Lizzie in the Primary Department.
18
Miss Mary M. Miles (1845-1934) was a founding member and the first treasurer of Bellwood’s
Women’s Foreign Missionary Society. She was a lifelong supporter of missions.
19
Samuel Dyson Wilson (1857-1912) was the pastor currently serving at Bellwood, the home
church of Lizzie.
8 The Chronicle 2024
Andrew Edward Taylor (1833-1907) was the son of local pastor Stuart
Taylor (1796-1874) of the Virginia Conference and a brother to prominent
missionary and bishop William Taylor (1821-1902) and to Archibald Taylor (1830-
1915) of the Oregon Conference. In addition to being the father of missionary
Jennie Taylor, he is the father of Rollin Stuart Taylor (1862-1932) of the Central
Pennsylvania Conference and of Charles Diehl Taylor (1873-1952) of the
Baltimore Conference. The family’s ministerial connections continued to a fourth
generation as Rollin S. Taylor’s son Rollin Harmon Taylor (1903-1982) was also
an ordained member of the Central Pennsylvania Conference.
Cleopatra Florence Diehl (1838-1909) was born the oldest of six children
near Cashtown, Adams County PA, and met Rev. Andrew Taylor when he served
the Gettysburg circuit 1857-59. They were married in 1860
20
, and she kept the
parsonage light burning at 17 different charges in all parts of conference before he
retired 1904. Florence, as she preferred to be called, died at her home in
Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County PA, where they had served 1894-99 and to
which place they had retired. Her mortal remains lie in Evergreen Cemetery in her
native Gettysburg area, along with those of her husband Andrew and her daughter
Jennie
21
and four of her sons.
Jennie’s 1893 entrance to the mission field was the direct result of
encouragement from her uncle William Taylor, the renowned missionary and
bishop who traveled the world establishing self-supporting missions. Her father
was serving at Montoursville, Lycoming County, 1890-94, and so that is listed in
the missionary records as her sending congregation. One local paper
22
provides the
following account.
Dr. Jennie TAYLOR, of Montoursville, is probably the first missionary to go out
into foreign fields with the distinct mission as a dentist. She is a daughter of Rev.
A.E. TAYLOR, of Montoursville, and has decided to accompany her uncle, Bishop
TAYLOR, on his itinerary to Congo and Angola. Miss TAYLOR is a graduate of
Dickinson Seminary at Williamsport, and of the Woman's Medical College,
Philadelphia, where she practiced a year.
The following paragraphs from an 1895 article
23
about Bishop Taylor in a
national paper give more details about “Dr. Jennie.”
Bishop Taylor will sail for Africa next December, and expects to return home in
the spring of 1896. When the Bishop comes back at that time he will be
20
Having left the family farm 3 years before Battle of Gettysburg, Jennie’s mother was not a
witness to those events. During the intrusion into the neighborhood by the Confederates,
however, their farm was occupied but very little damage was done. Jennie’s mother and
younger sister were active in furnishing provisions for the soldiers, and thereby secured
protection until the fight – when considerable property was taken by the Rebels.
21
While Jennie’s name and dates appear on the family monument, some sources state that she
was buried in Africa.
22
Sullivan Review, February 15, 1894.
23
New York Times, May 11, 1895.
Lizzie Akers 9
accompanied by his niece, Dr. Jennie Taylor, who went out to Africa with him two
years ago. That was her first African journey, and her missionary career has been
filled with several novel and unique experiences. In fact, Dr. Jennie Taylor has the
honor of being the first dental missionary to go out to Africa. The missionaries
there had for years been in need of a dentist, and Dr. Jennie’s visit was a cause of
great comfort and relief to many of the missionaries who have been denied the
necessities of civilization.
Dr. Jennie Taylor fitted herself as a medical missionary, and was the first
woman to be appointed on a hospital staff in Philadelphia. When she learned
how badly a dentist was needed in Africa, she took a special course in dentistry
in this city, and sailed with the Bishop two years ago. She has visited all the
missions with the Bishop, withstood all the difficulties of travel in that country
with the hardidhood of a veteran African explorer.
The following paragraphs from a 2021
24
book provide additional
information about Dr. Jennie’s life and death.
Dr. Jennie Taylor Gordon died at the age of thirty on December 29, 1897, after
a nine day illness. She had been in Africa less than five years and was survived by
her husband, Reverend Charles Gordon, and daughter, Florence Taylor Gordon,
just past one year old. Cause of Dr. Jennie’s death was hematuric fever, a type of
urinary tract infection. Her burial was at the mission graveyard in Malange, with
hundreds of Africans attending her funeral. Her father had opposed her traveling
to Africa. But she was headstrong and wanted adventure and to help people, so
she defied her father’s wishes. She had planned to remain two and a half years,
but after meeting and marrying Rev. Gordon, Dr. Jennie extended her stay.
Likely, improper diet, inadequate shelter, or an insect-borne disease
weakened Dr. Taylor, causing her death. Missionary William Dobson [sic] visited
the Quessua [sic] home where she died and described it thus: “a noble structure
so far as the walls are concerned, but not a window in it of any description –
having simple a door at each end.” He cited lack of light and ventilation, “with
draft on opening both doors and the rotten condition of the roof” as a fair
example of the old-style mission buildings, contributing to the physical
breakdown of missionaries he knew.
24
Susan Angeline Collins: With a Hallelujah Heart, chapter 10: Life in Angola, by Janis Bennington
Van Buren. The quotes from William Dodson are taken from a more complete account in the
Annual Report of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church for the year 1898,
pages 33-34. The house Dodson viewed where Dr. Jennie died was in Malange, and after her
death the family was relocated to better quarters in Quessua.
10 The Chronicle 2024
Photographs of Jennie Taylor are very scarce. In addition to the ones from
Lizzie’s collage that are given at the end of this article, the only other known
photographs come from the archives at Dickinson College and are identified as
follows.
Jennie (on the left) in her dorm room with two companions
Jennie (extreme right, with neck ribbon) with a group of female students.
Lizzie Akers 11
Lizzie Akers
Elizabeth “Lizzie” Akers (1866-1953) was the older of two children of Rev.
J. Benson Akers and his first wife Henrietta (Galligher) Akers. Like Jennie, Lizzie
had roots that ran deep in the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Joseph Benson Akers (1829-1889) was born in Akersville, Fulton County
PA, and was one of eight men from the small, rural Akersville Methodist Episcopal
Church
25
that entered the ordained ministry in the Central Pennsylvania
Conference. Among those eight was his brother John Milton Akers (1836-1889).
J. Benson graduated from Dickinson College in 1858 and served 15 different
appointments before retiring for health reasons in 1889. Included among those
appointments was one year as president of Catawissa Seminary
26
1871-72. The
family retired to Bellwood, where they had served 1885-87, but J. Benson died of
a stroke a week later. Lizzie and her step-mother Lydia remained active members
at Bellwood for the rest of their lives.
Henrietta Galligher (1832-1872) married J. Benson Akers in 1863. They
had two children – Lizzie and William (1869-1949). Henrietta died in the
parsonage at White Haven, where J. Benson was serving at the time, and is buried
in the Galligher family plot at Prospect Hill Cemetery in York PA.
Lydia A. Gibbony (1837-1915) married J. Benson Akers in 1874 when
Lizzie was eight years old. Together, they had another son Herbert (1875-1935).
It was Lydia who raised Lizzie through her adolescence, reinforcing and developing
her faith and natural abilities. J. Benson, Lydia, Lizzie and Herbert are buried in
the Logan Valley Cemetery, Bellwood PA.
Lizzie is best known outside the Susquehanna Conference as the composer
of gospel song texts, and that aspect of her life has been documented in various
books
27
and websites.
28
But in Bellwood, she is most remembered for her 64 years
of faithful ministry in the Cradle Roll Department at Trinity Methodist Church. Her
biography and the story of that special ministry is given in a 1981 booklet
29
25
That congregation was organized in 1812 and worshiped in homes and the schoolhouse before
erecting a modest building in 1858 on land deeded by Israel Akers, the father of Rev. J. Benson
Akers. The appointment was discontinued in 1972. The property was sold to the Akersville
Cemetery Association in 1991, with the old church building still maintained in good repair and
used for community worship services.
26
Catawissa Seminary in Columbia County PA was chartered in 1866 by prominent citizens in the
town as a non-sectarian institution, but limited patronage soon led to its demise. Akers proved
to be the final president, and the building was sold to the newly organized Episcopal
congregation in 1872 to be renovated into a church building.
27
See, for example, Loyer’s 2004 James M. Black and Friends: Contributions of Williamsport PA to
American Gospel Music, pages 12 and 29. At least five of her texts were put to music by Black.
28
See, for example, http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/a/k/e/r/akers_e.htm.
29
Miss Elizabeth (Lizzie) Akers, September 10, 1866 – March 26, 1953.
12 The Chronicle 2024
published by the congregation as a memorial to the impact she had on bringing to
faith and nurturing generations of believers.
The following paragraphs are taken from that 1981 booklet.
Her mother passed away when she was seven years of age, leaving a baby
brother to her care. Even though her father hired a housekeeper, Miss Lizzie
insisted that she take care of her baby brother by feeding, clothing, bathing,
rocking him in the cradle and mothering him. Later, after several different
housekeepers, a new Mama appeared. After her arrival, little was said or
commented about her real Mama.
When Miss Lizzie was about 11 years of age, she developed severe rheumatism
in her feet and legs. She was not a healthy child, but she did not complain openly.
As a result of this, she was forced to wear high-topped shoes for support for the
remainder of her life. Later in her youth, she learned to use a treadle sewing
machine which had been the property of her own mother. Until then she had not
been able to treadle the machine because of the ankle and foot movement
required. But with the stiff leather high-topped shoes, she could make the
machine work. She became an excellent seamstress and made many clothes not
only for herself and her own family, but also for needy persons both at home and
elsewhere through her own mission work.
She started a Cradle Roll Department
30
in the Bellwood Methodist church in
her early adulthood. She taught many action songs and finger motions, many
times making up the words or music that would interest little children. In order
to build up the Department, she walked all over Bellwood and the outlying areas,
visiting homes where there were new babies. She would present the parents with
a certificate of enrollment for the children she received into the Department. At
one time there was an enrollment of 107 children on the Cradle Roll, with an
average attendance of from 40 to 50 each Sunday.
She was very aware of the needs of the families, learning this from the visits
she made to the homes. She would provide those less fortunate with articles of
clothing, sitting hour after hour at her treadle sewing machine. For many years
Miss Lizzie had various other ladies living with her who were unable to manage
financially themselves, and she took them into her home in exchange for their
helping with household chores. When anyone visited her home she always
showed delightful hospitality, offering them her homemade cookies. Children
were always welcome at her home, and some toys would be found for both boys
and girls.
Miss Lizzie was an inspiration and was Heaven-sent to the people of Bellwood.
Many owe their present devotion to church work to her interest in them, and
they shall always cherish the memory of her.
But Lizzie Akers also had a professional life, by which she was able support
herself. For over 31 years she worked on the staff of the Altoona Tribune. The
30
The “Cradle Roll” Department included all the children from birth to kindergarten, which
previously had not been included in any specific ministry.
Lizzie Akers 13
following paragraph comes from a newspaper article printed on the occasion of her
85
th
birthday and reproduced in the 1981 booklet.
31
Miss Akers graduated from Williamsport Seminary in 1885. While working at
the Tribune she came from Bellwood to Altoona on the six o’clock train and
returned on the “goat” train at 4 A.M. Wesley Schwartz was editor and Warren
Everhart at the city desk, Verge Taylor covering city hall. Miss Akers started as a
proof reader, later took care of church and lodge news for Altoona and
surrounding towns, still later serving as first assistant to Mr. Everhart in the
editorial room. The aged lady is in fine health except for a rheumatic shoulder
and reads and listens to the radio, especially news.
The Lizzie-Jennie Connection
Lizzie Akers and Jennie Taylor met and became instant and lifelong friends
at Williamsport Dickinson Seminary, where both of them were enrolled in the
classic curriculum. Lizzie graduated in 1885, and received an award for ranking
#2 in that curriculum; Jennie graduated the following year. Their friendship
included annual visits to the town’s Dean and Cornwell photographic studios,
where the pictures were taken that found their place within Lizzie’s memorial
collage. Some of the pictures are given on the following pages: head photos taken
in 1884 and 1886, and full-body images taken in 1885. The photograph on the
cover of this issue of The Chronicle was taken in 1883 and includes Lizzie’s brother
William Wilberforce Akers (1860-1949). In the 1883 catalogue, both Lizzie and
Jennie are listed as sophomores in the seminary (although they eventually graduated
in different years) and William is listed as a second year student in the pre-seminary
“academic” category.
32
These photographs, the only known ones to exist from this period of the
lives of Lizzie Akers and Jennie Taylor, are preserved in the Lizzie Akers collection
within the Bellwood Methodist Episcopal Church material of the closed churches
files at the Susquehanna Conference archives.
31
Miss Elizabeth (Lizzie) Akers, September 10, 1866 – March 26, 1953, page 25a.
32
This was the last year at the school for Lizzie’s older brother William, and he was not a
graduate of Williamsport Dickinson Seminary. It so happens that Jennie’s older brother Rollin
Stuart Taylor was an 1882 graduate of Williamsport Dickinson Seminary – and, setting the
pattern followed by Jennie, went on to graduate from Dickinson College in 1889.
14 The Chronicle 2024
Jennie Taylor
June 1884
Jennie Taylor
October 1886
Lizzie Akers 15
Lizzie Akers
June 1884
Lizzie Akers
October 1886
16 The Chronicle 2024
Miss Jennie Taylor May 1885
Lizzie Akers 17
Miss Lizzie Akers May 1885
18 The Chronicle 2024
“…the excellent Baker”
Early United Brethren Preacher Henry Baker
inspired by a speech of Francis Asbury, 1812
The United Brethren denomination had its unofficial beginning in 1767
when Reformed preacher Philip William Otterbein and Mennonite evangelist
Martin Boehm met at Long’s Barn in Lancaster County PA and proclaimed “Wir
sind bruder” – pledging to work together to reach German-speaking Americans
with experiential religion and salvation through Jesus Christ. The seminal moment
toward formal organization of the denomination is considered to be a gathering of
like-minded preachers in 1789 at Otterbein’s parsonage in Baltimore that “laid the
first formal basis for the United Brethren.” One of the preachers present at that
meeting was Henry Baker.
1
Martin Boehm died on March 23, 1812, and on April 5 of that year
Methodist bishop Francis Asbury delivered a notable eulogy on Boehm and spoke
generally on the United Brethren work. Included in those prepared remarks is the
following statement: “Our German reformers have left no journal or record, that I
have seen or heard of, by which we might learn the extent of their labors; but from
Tennessee, where the excellent Baker labored and died, through Virginia and
Maryland, into Pennsylvania as far eastward as Bucks and Berks counties, the
effects of their ministry were happily seen and felt.”
2
That statement about “the excellent Baker” by Asbury is the only direct
documentation of Henry Baker and his ministry, and it is the basis for the following
description of Baker that United Brethren historian A.W. Drury gives in his
accounting of those who were present at that historic 1789 gathering: “Henry Baker,
at the time of the conference, was a member of Otterbein’s vestry… He afterward
moved to Virginia, and still later to Tennessee, where he died at some time before
1812. He was a laborious and successful evangelist.”
3
It is Drury’s 1924 account
upon which all later statements about Baker are based.
4
In 1946, the first paragraph in a notable thesis of Bonebrake Theological
Seminary student Sherman Starling on the history of United Brethren work in
Tennessee cites Drury’s account and states the following: “Very early in the history
of the United Brethren Church one of its preachers who was called ‘excellent
Baker,’ reached the state of Tennessee. Although we know that this preacher
worked in Tennessee, we know nothing about where he worked, the type of his
labor, or anything about him except that Asbury on the occasion of Martin Boehm’s
1
A.W. Drury, History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, 1924, page 155.
2
Ibid., page 257.
3
Ibid., page 156.
4
Note that Drury specifically states that Baker lived for a time in Virginia before moving to
Tennessee, but there is no other known secular or ecclesiastical documentation to support that
claim – and it may well result from a loose reading of Asbury’s 1812 statement.
Henry Baker 19
death said ‘excellent Baker’ labored and died in Tennessee. This was the beginning
of the work of the United Brethren in Tennessee which was not taken up for many
years.”
5
In 1951, United Brethren historian Phares Gibble in his authoritative list of
United Brethren pastors states that Henry Baker was one of the original 1789
ministerial members of the denomination and that his membership ceased by reason
of death in 1811.
6
In 1959, United Brethren historian and pastor of Baltimore’s Old Otterbein
Church Paul Holdcraft prepared a comprehensive history of the congregation and
states the following: “Henry Baker, a member and vestryman of Otterbein Church,
is listed as one of the members of the first conference of United Brethren ministers,
1789. The scope of his ministerial labors is not known, other than that he preached
in Virginia and later in Tennessee, where he died in 1812.”
7
Using the more recent data bases not available to earlier historians, this
paper attempts to properly identify Rev. Henry Baker, reconstruct his personal life,
and explain how he came to be singled out by Methodist bishop Francis Asbury.
The information presented is admittedly a reconstruction based on, in several cases,
conflicting accounts and is the conclusion of this author – who invites and
encourages criticism, comments or suggestions. The appendix gives a limited
family tree – showing only persons mentioned in this article and those necessary to
connect them.
Henry Baker was born in the Palatinate region of Germany in 1759 to
William Tilghman Baker and his wife Margaret. The family came to America in
1764 on the ship “City of Baltimore” and originally settled near Hagerstown MD.
In Hagerstown, the William Tilghman Baker family were members of the German
Reformed Church, now Zion Reformed United Church of Christ. William and his
oldest son Ernst are listed as members when the first church building was erected
there in 1774.
8
5
Sherman Starling, History of the Tennessee Conference of the United Brethren in Christ from the
Beginning until the Fall of 1894, 1946, page 1. The second paragraph of the thesis jumps to the
first documented United Brethren work in Tennessee – the sending of John Rubush in April 1856
to open up Tennessee as a new mission field.
6
Phares B. Gibble, History of the East Pennsylvania Conference of the Church of the United
Brethren in Christ, 1951, page 497. The 1811 death date apparently was conjectured from
Asbury’s 1812 statement that he had died in Tennessee.
7
Paul E. Holdcraft, The Old Otterbein Church Story, 1959, page 58. That Baker preached in
Virginia is not supported by any other known documentation and is likely the result of a
misreading of Asbury’s 1812 eulogy. The 1812 death date apparently was given to coincide with
Asbury’s 1812 statement that he had died in Tennessee.
8
https://www.germanmarylanders.org/churches/zion-hagerstown, accessed 5/31/2023
20 The Chronicle 2024
Sometime before 1800, the family moved to Baltimore and identified with the
congregation led by Philip William Otterbein.
9
The family eventually included at least four males and one female, but
documentation is limited. This is what can be surmised about Henry and his
siblings.
• Older brother Ernst was born about 1732, migrated with the family to America,
remained in the Hagerstown area and died about 1810.
• Older sister Gertrude was born about 1754, married and settled in Hagerstown,
moved to Ohio after the 1790 death of her husband and died in Miamisburg OH in
1837.
• Henry’s moves took him from the Hagerstown area to Baltimore, to a possible
stay in Somerset County PA, to Knoxville TN.
• Younger brother Tilghman may have been born on the ship during the family’s
1764 crossing to America. He later moved to Knoxville TN and then to Ohio,
where he died in 1831.
• Younger brother Daniel was born in the Hagerstown area about 1766 and
reportedly died in Baltimore. Nothing more is known about him.
In 1781, Henry married Susanna Putnam. One of their children, also named
Henry, became a quite distinguished Methodist minister in the Cincinnati
conference, and it is the first paragraph his obituary
10
that provides the key for
understanding the family.
Rev. Henry Baker, M.D., was born in the city of Baltimore, Maryland,
March 25, 1797.
11
He was the son of Rev. Henry Baker, of the Otterbein
connection, in whose hospitable home Bishop Asbury found so oft a loved
retreat. In the early childhood of Dr. Baker, his father removed to Knoxville,
Tennessee, and opened his house for preaching, and invited the Methodist
preachers to labor there. In 1808 this eminently good man died, and young
Henry went to live with his uncle [Henry’s brother Tilghman] in Fairfield
county, Ohio.
9
There is a William Baker listed as one of the original trustees of the present 1785 Old Otterbein
building – and as a vestryman in 1785 and 1786 – but it is not known whether that is Henry’s
father, who is reported to have died in Baltimore in 1787, as the name William Baker (the same
person?) re-appears as a vestryman in the 1790’s (Paul E. Holdcraft, The Old Otterbein Church
Story, 1959, pages 50 and 71) and in an 1814 letter from Otterbein’s congregation (Minutes of
the Pennsylvania Conference of the United Brethren in Christ, transcribed by I.H. Albright 1901,
page 63).
10
Minutes of the Cincinnati Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1865, page 23.
11
This is also the birthdate given in the cemetery records, but DAR records and other sources
clearly specify that his mother was Susanna Putnam – the first wife of Henry Baker, who died in
Baltimore in 1796. Henry Baker then married Miss Charity Ault on February 13, 1797, and they
had a daughter born December 26, 1797. Accordingly, this paper follows another source that
gives the birthdate as March 25, 1795.
Henry Baker 21
Unfortunately, the Journal of Francis Asbury makes no mention of Henry
Baker during his visits to Knoxville. The entry for November 21, 1812, however,
reads as follows
12
: “We came through the rain to Knoxville, and lodged with father
Wagner, one of Otterbein’s men.” An accompanying footnote adds the following:
George Wagner, a member of the United Brethren Church, founded by Philip
Otterbein, lived where the Macedonia Church in Knoxville now stands. He gave
the lot where that first church was erected in 1809.”
The George Wagner [sic] in Asbury’s journal is actually Henry’s son-in-
law George R. Waggoner. He and Henry’s daughter Mary E. Baker were married
in Knoxville in 1808 and moved to Illinois about 1835. Of their children, one was
named John Otterbine Waggoner (who in turn had a son named John Wesley
Waggoner) and another was Rev. George Washington Waggoner, who became a
distinguished Methodist preacher in the Southern Illinois Conference. The latter’s
obituary
13
states that he “was born in Knoxville, Tenn., August 24, 1820, and with
his parents removed to Illinois” about 1835.
Nor is this the only reference to early United Brethren activity in Knoxville,
well before the denomination sent its first official missionary there in 1856. On his
return journey from the 1820 General Conference in Baltimore, the noted Methodist
pioneer preacher Peter Cartwright reports
14
stopping at an inn Knoxville and says
of the owner, “This gentleman was an Otterbein Methodist” – undoubtedly one of
the results of Henry Baker’s preaching.
The conclusion is that Asbury’s “excellent Baker” settled in Knoxville TN,
where his evangelistic efforts resulted in a community of “Otterbein Methodists.”
There being no formal United Brethren efforts in the area, he identified with and
hosted Methodist Episcopal preachers – including Bishop Asbury himself. Not
only did a son and grandson become prominent Methodist preachers, but his
nephew Rev. Job M. Baker
15
excelled as a pioneer Methodist clergyman in Texas.
12
The Journal and Letters of Francis Asbury, editor-in-chief Elmer T. Clark (1958), Volume II, page
713.
13
Minutes of the Southern Illinois Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1905, page 68.
14
Autobiography of Peter Cartwright, introduction and index by Charles L. Wallis (1956), page
141.
15
Job McNamee Baker, like his cousin Henry, also practiced medicine, was instrumental in
expanding Methodism into new territories, and served in ecclesiastical positions beyond the local
ministry. Perhaps because he served in various conferences and in various positions, there
appears to be no conference obituary to mark his passing – but a detailed memoir appears in the
Texas Christian Advocate for February 23, 1878.
22 The Chronicle 2024
Appendix: Abbreviated William Tilghman Baker Family Tree
showing members discussed in the article and those necessary to connect them
(birth–death dates indicated by parentheses)
[marriage dates indicated by brackets]
0. William Tilghman Baker (1710 – 1787)
m. Margaret _____ (1718 – 1789) [1731]
1. Ernst Baker (1732 – 1810)
m. Eva _____ (c1735 - ?)
1. Gertrude Charity Baker (1754-1837)
m. Michael Tobias Tobey (1752-1790)
16
[1779]
1. Rev. Henry Baker (1759 – 8/?/1808)
m. Susanna Putnam (1761-1796) [1781]
2. Mary E. Baker (7/31/1790 – 11/28/1872)
17
m. George R. Waggoner (3/12/1786 – 11/21/1879)
18
[1808]
3. John Otterbine Waggoner (1811 – 1844)
m. Rebecca Nelson (1806-1882) [1832]
4. John Wesley Waggoner (10/3/1835 – 2/7/1904)
3. Rev. George W. Waggoner (8/24/1820 – 6/14/1905)
19
2. Rev. Henry Baker, M.D. (3/25/1795 – 12/24/1863)
20
m. Hannah Woodruff Heaton (12/14/1801 – 8/11/1839)
m. Sarepta Marsh (10/12/1804 -1/18/1890) [6/2/1841]
m. Charity Ault (1773 - ) [2/13/1797]
1. Tilghman [Tilman] Baker Jr. (11/20/1764 – 10/8/1831)
21
m. Maria McNamee (6/21/1769 – 12/1/1832)
2. Rev. Job McNamee Baker, M.D. (1/13/1794 – 2/5/1878)
22
m. Sarah Carter (8/6/1802 – 11/10/1858)
16
Buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, Hagerstown MD.
17
Born in Baltimore MD and buried in Asbury Cemetery, Brighton IL.
18
Born in Baltimore MD and buried in Asbury Cemetery, Brighton IL. The 10/26/1808 marriage
took place in Knoxville TN.
19
Southern Illinois Conference (ME), born in Knoxville TN and buried in Oakwood Cemetery,
Alton IL.
20
Cincinnati Conference (ME), born in Baltimore MD and buried in Lebanon Cemetery, Lebanon
OH
21
Born in Washington County MD, moved to Knoxville TN in 1798, moved to Fairfield County OH
in 1808, buried in McNamee Cemetery, Thurston OH.
22
East Texas Conference (ME), born in Washington County MD and buried in Woodlawn
Cemetery, Woodlawn TX.
Luther Peck 23
A Peck Letter Home
by Luther Peck [aged 13], 1838
Rev. George Peck (1797-1876) is one of the five noted Peck brothers to
serve in the Methodist ministry: Luther Hoyt Peck (b. 1793), George Peck (b.
1797), Andrew Peck (b. 1800), William Peck (b. 1802), [Bishop] Jesse Truesdell
Peck (b. 1811). Their story is told in the 1897 book Luther Peck and his Five Sons,
by Jonathan Kenyon Peck. Biographies of George Peck appear in Chaffee’s 1904
History of the Wyoming Conference, page 220, and in the 1974 Encyclopedia of
World Methodism, page 1872. He is the father of George M. Peck (1820-1897) and
Luther W. Peck (1825-1900) of the Wyoming Conference and of Mary Helen Peck
Crane, wife of Jonathan Townley Crane (1819-1880) of the Newark Conference.
This article presents a letter by George’s son Luther, another article
1
in this issue
of The Chronicle details a controversy between his other two children, George M.
and Mary Helen.
An 1829 charter member of the Oneida Conference and an 1852 charter
member of the Wyoming Conference, George Peck lived through and informed the
early years of Methodism. His ministry included several terms as superintendent
of various districts and twelve years as editor of the denomination’s Christian
Advocate and Methodist Quarterly Review.
The following letter was written to George Peck by his thirteen-year-old son
Luther Wesley Peck (1825-1900) while the former was principal at Cazenovia
Seminary and the latter was attending preparatory school at Wesleyan University
2
in Middletown CT. He would enter the University as a freshman there two years
later – at the age of fifteen – and go on to serve 46 years in the ordained ministry
as a pastor and district superintendent. He is the father of Mary Peck Williams,
wife of John F. Williams (1844-1896) of the Wyoming Conference. George Peck,
Luther Wesley Peck and Mary Peck Williams are all buried with their spouses in
the cemetery at the old Forty Fort Meeting House, a Susquehanna Conference
historic site.
The conference archives has in its Peck collection a photocopy of the
original letter. In addition to the remarkable maturity shown in the letter, the
penmanship is extraordinary for a boy of only thirteen and reflects the formal style
used in colonial America.
24 The Chronicle 2024
Middletown CT
November 28, 1838
Dear Father
3
,
Another week has fled and leaves one the number less. It is now two weeks
since I received a letter from you, but this does not dampen my courage as long as
I get along well in my studies. I find that I have not forgotten Greek or Latin, but
there is an endless field of labor open which cannot be too well cultivated. I get
along very well in algebra and hope that in process of time I shall be able to conquer
it. Speaking on the stage comes very natural and seems like old things.
I have succeeded in gaining my health, and hope I shall be able to keep it.
I find much watchfulness to be necessary to keep my evil nature under, but my only
hope is in Him who has the hearts of all in His hands. I often wish to see home and
friends and enjoy your society, but peace is alone found in the performance of our
duty.
I have not yet joined the church here as Mr. Thomson
4
said that you wished
me to join class at the college. Therefore I shall give my letter to Professor Holdich
5
as soon as possible, as he will arrange the matter.
I have kept an account of all the money I have spent which I here send you.
I have had now and then a homesick spell besides some trials, but trials are common
to all men, but especially to the wicked.
I hope that I shall receive a letter from you before a great while as your
letters are of great profit to me as I am surrounded on every side by trials and
temptations and by the fascinations of wicked school males. I mentioned something
about skating in my other letter. I should like to know what you think about it. One
object for skating would be exercise, but if you or Mother are not willing to have
me skate I am willing to relinquish it.
6
Most of the skating is on the pond and
overflows in the meadows, which are not so dangerous as the river.
Misters Landon
7
and Round
8
have left the town on a teaching excursion.
Many more of the students have left for home and otherwheres. I hope you will
please pardon my short letters, as I would write longer if I had time. Please
remember me to Mother
9
and Sister
10
.
I remain your obedient son,
L.W. Peck
Luther Peck 25
1
See pages 49-53.
2
Founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1831, Wesleyan University in Middletown CT
was the first academic institution to be named after John Wesley. It severed its ties with the
Church in 1937 and continues today as a private secular school.
3
Rev. Dr. George Peck at the time of this letter was serving as president of Cazenovia Seminary in
Cazenovia NY.
4
This person is unknown, but should not be confused with [Bishop] Edward Thomson (1810-
1870) who was a president of another Wesleyan University – the one in Ohio.
5
Joseph Holdich (1804-1893) was a faculty member at Wesleyan University and the author of
several books and articles on subjects ranging from political economy to Bible history – including
his noted 1842 Life of Willbur Fisk, the first president of Wesleyan University. The “letter”
referred to is the letter of membership transfer from his home church to the college
congregation.
6
Although not specifically mentioned in the Discipline, skating, like dancing, was considered by
some to be a worldly amusement inappropriate for committed Methodists.
7
George Landon (1816-1904) was born in Wyoming County PA, graduated from Wesleyan
University in 1841, entered the Methodist ministry, and was a noted orator/speaker. He retired
to Pennsylvania and is buried in Camptown, Bradford County PA. At the time of the letter he was
a friend of Luther, an older student from his home Conference that would have been known to
his father.
8
John Wesley Round (1823-1862) was born in Otsego County NY, graduated from Wesleyan
University in 1843, and was principal of the SS Seward Institute in Florida NY from 1851 until his
death. He is buried in Florida, Orange County NY. . At the time of the letter he was a friend of
Luther, an older student from his home Conference that would have been known to his father.
9
Mary Myers Peck (1798-1881) was the daughter of wealthy Forty Fort pioneer resident Philip
Myers, Esq. She married George Peck in 1819 when he was serving the Wyoming circuit, and
that year he was transferred to the impoverished Bridgewater circuit. When her friends
implored her to remain at home for at least a year, she told Rev. Peck, “I can live where you can.”
10
Mary Helen Peck (1827-1891) was two years younger than Luther and 11 years old at the time
of this letter. She would later marry Rev. Jonathan T. Crane of the Newark Conference, and she
plays a principle role in the other article about the Peck family in this volume of The Chronicle.
The failure to mention his older brother George Meyers Peck (1820-1897) likely means that he
was either not living in the Peck home (but living in the Cazenovia dormitory) or that this was
after he had returned to Wyoming Valley to care for the family’s farm holdings.
26 The Chronicle 2024
The Mount Pisgah Praying Band
by Earl Smith [1989], 1870
Preface
The story of the eight men of “The Mount Pisgah Praying Band” is well-
known in Bradford County – even though some of the dates and details have
become a little fuzzy as the story was passed down from generation to generation.
1
The Chronicle is pleased to present a detailed account prepared in the 1960’s by
Rev. Earl Smith, a descendant of one of those men.
1
All dates, names and other details in the body of this article are presented as given by the
original authors. While some corrections and explanations are made in the footnotes, all of
which were provided by the editor, the reader will doubtless notice some discrepancies in the
text.
Mount Pisgah Praying Band 27
Rev. Earl Lee Smith (1935-2017) was born in Big Pond, Bradford County
PA. He was licensed by the Central New York Conference, which then covered
that part of Bradford County, in 1955. He graduated from Asbury College in
Wilmore KY in 1972 and was ordained an elder by the Central Pennsylvania
Conference in 1977. His personal connection with the area and people involved
provide an added dimension to the story.
To set the stage, we began with the brief account given by Gladys Burnham
2
in chapter 14 of her 1969 book The Churches in our Midst.
The Mt. Pisgah Praying Band was organized August 31, 1874. It consisted
of eight men
3
: D. A. Lamont, Pisgah; Edward Partridge, East Smithfield; John
Miller, East Smithfield; Alvin Smith, Big Pond; Derrick G. Smith, Big Pond;
Lert J. Ballard, Pisgah; Guy S. Ballard, Pisgah; and Gideon Baxter, Pisgah. The
group was made up of young farmers who "resolved to use their talents and
time every winter, when not engaged on their farms, to win souls for
Christ’s kingdom". They took lessons in music from a local musician – Lottie
Elsbree.
4
Their services consisted of prayer, singing and testimony in various
homes where they were invited; as well as assisting in Revival Meetings in
churches of various denominations, tho’ they were all Methodists.
They held meetings over a wide area, going as far as Binghamton and
Scranton. They continued as an active group for 12 years, tho’ not all of the
original eight remained with them. Several continued on until 1888. They
had a total of over 5,000 converts during their existence. Guy S. Ballard,
who lived to the age of 92, was the last survivor of the band.
2
Mrs. Gladys Cora (nee Young) Burnham (1895-1981), buried in Bentley Creek Cemetery,
Bradford County PA, was a life-long resident and unofficial historian of the area.
3
The men are identified more fully in the text by Earl Smith.
4
Charlotte Elsbree (1860-1929) was born in Ulster PA is buried in Church Street Cemetery in
Little Falls NY. She is identified more fully in the text by Earl Smith.
28 The Chronicle 2024
The Mount Pisgah Praying Band
by Earl L. Smith
Situated in the center of northern Bradford County is the famous Mount
Pisgah, with its lofty elevation of 2,260 feet.
5
It was from this mountain that eight
men from the surrounding area, in 1870, took the name for their group, the “Mount
Pisgah Praying Band.” They traveled far and wide in Central Pennsylvania and
Central New York, and over a period of twelve years, until 1882, won thousands of
converts for the Lord.
This band of men consisted of D.A. Lamont
6
, Edward Partridge
7
, John
Miller
8
, Guy S. Ballard
9
, Derrick G. Smith
10
, Alvin R. Smith
11
, Lert Ballard
12
and
Gideon A. Baxter
13
. The Ballards were brothers and the Smiths were cousins. In
addition, LaMont’s wife was a Ballard, a cousin of the brothers. All these men
were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, now the United Methodist
Church.
A spiritual awakening occurred in the Mount Pisgah area about 1866. God
sent revival without any scheduled services or preaching. People sensed the
presence of the Holy Spirit and sought God, without any outward prompting,
repenting for the sins they had committed. Martha Blakeslee Ballard, wife of Bert
Ballard of Burlington Township, became concerned about her salvation and the
lack of Christian training for her children. The inhabitants of the area were not
church-going people. Only the McKean family
14
professed to be born-again
5
Named for the biblical mountain from which Moses viewed the promised land, Mount Pisgah
was a favorite late nineteenth century resort for those from the eastern cities. Visitors were able
to stay on a mountaintop hotel which featured a 100-foot observation tower. An 1886 booklet
by P.J.Bull, pastor of the East Troy and Columbia ME charge, describes it as “a summer resort
which under the management of Brother Guy S. Ballard is rapidly coming into favor and
prominence among tourists.” None of those amenities exist today, but the area is home to the
1,302-acre Mt. Pisgah State Park.
6
Darwin A. Lamont (1840-1923) was born in New York State and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in
Troy PA
7
Edward Partridge (1837-1896) was born in New York State and is buried in Union Cemetery,
East Smithfield PA.
8
John W. Miller became a Methodist preacher and left the area to serve in New York state.
9
Guy S. Ballard (1839-1931) was born in Pennsylvania and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Troy
PA.
10
Derrick Goff Smith (1844-1916) is buried in Union Cemetery, East Smithfield PA.
11
Alvin Remington Smith (1839-1903) is buried in Wetona Cemetery, Wetona PA.
12
Laertes James Ballard (1841-1926) was born in West Burlington PA and is buried in Glenwood
Cemetery, Troy PA.
13
Abram Gideon Baxter (1845-1903) was born in Troy PA and is buried in Glenwood Cemetery,
Troy PA.
14
James McKean Sr. (1745-1797) moved to the area from Chemung NY in 1790 and was the first
white man to clear land along Sugar Creek. His family was responsible for bringing Methodism to
the area, gave the land for a church building in 1794 and was the force behind building the 1822
Mount Pisgah Praying Band 29
people. Mrs. Ballard sought the Lord in earnest prayer and received the conversion
experience without any outside guidance.
Mr. Ballard was rebellious and angered at being kept awake nights by his
wife’s loud vocal prayers. He decided to sell the farm, buy his wife a small house
and go west. However conviction seized him, and he began crying unto the Lord
for salvation. It was not long before they both were rejoicing in the assurance that
they were Christians. Others were converted and also found the assurance that their
sins were forgiven.
Four of the men who were converted in their homes resolved that they
would spend the winter months, when their farm work was at low ebb, to gain souls
for Christ’s kingdom. They began to receive invitations from both near and far to
come help them in revivals. In 1872, they received an invitation from the Tioga
County Sunday School Association to assist in a revival at Nelson PA, on Beecher’s
Island. Four other young men joined with them to participate in this service. They
labored together five days, with fifty persons being converted. They were called a
“Praying Band” by the people at the convention. The name stuck and they named
themselves “The Mount Pisgah Praying Band.”
On their way home from Nelson, they talked about the way God had used
them and felt God’s Spirit calling them to consecrate themselves for His work.
They stopped by the Cowanesque River, knelt on the bank under a spreading elm
tree, and dedicated themselves to evangelism. During the winter months when their
crops were in the barn, they traveled, often in two companies, witnessing for the
Lord. They sang and gave their testimonies, often being invited to participate in
revival meetings being held in various churches. They were all excellent singers,
having received voice lessons at Lottie Elsbree’s School of Music in Troy.
Miss Elsbree later married Samuel S. Dale, a textile editor
15
of Brookline
MA. Mr. Dale was an ardent admirer of The Mount Pisgah Praying Band. He
wrote about the Band to several publications, and we are indebted to him for
preserving many statistical and interesting facts about the Praying Band.
Old Burlington church, which still stands as a conference historic site and in which graveyard
many of the McKeans ae buried.
15
It’s unclear exactly what being a “textile editor” involved at that time. Samuel Sherman Dale
(1859-1940) started as a wool merchant and worked his way up in the textile business and textile
education. He was editor of the Textile World Record, a textile industry journal published in the
early twentieth century, and the Columbia University Archives has a substantial Samuel S. Dale
collection. He is buried with his wife in Little Falls NY.
30 The Chronicle 2024
Being Methodists, these men were committed “to spread Scriptural
Holiness throughout the land.”
16
They took their injunction seriously. Their theme
song
17
was as follows:
Here we come upon our mission, bearing Jesus’ cross on high.
This our wish, our only calling – leading souls to Calvary.
[Let the world pursue their pleasures,] let them seek for wealth and fame.
Ours the higher, holier mission – preaching life thro’ Jesus name.
O, may holy fire descending rest on every pleading soul.
May the blood of Christ now cleansing, purify and make us whole.
Pastor, people, all assembled, now the mighty influence share.
Ask believing; it is coming! Lo! He crowns this place of prayer.
During their twelve years of ministry, members of the Praying Band saw
over 5,000 persons converted.
18
The greatest number was a Binghamton NY
revival with over 600 converts. A great revival at Milan PA was reported in the
March 5, 1879, issue of the Elmira Advertiser. The article stated that over 600
persons attended, with over 100 being unable to gain admittance and had to be
contented to stand at open doors and windows. There were 101 converts. At
Austinville PA, they had 112 converts. At Daggett PA, 155 converts. At Lamb’s
Creek
19
PA, there were 87 converts. At Alder Run
20
PA, there were also 87
converts. At Blossburg PA, there were over 200. At Big Pond PA, there were 180
converts. At Roseville PA, 240. At Elkland there were over that amount. At
Orwell
21
and LeRaysville
22
PA, 205 converts. There were over 300 at Wellsboro
PA and 387 at Knoxville PA. Successful meetings were also held at Mecklenburg
16
This is a quote from John Wesley, whose writings include the following notable statement.
Q. What may we reasonably believe to be God's design in raising up the Preachers called
Methodists?
A. To reform the nation and, in particular, the Church; to spread scriptural holiness over the land.
17
Given here are verses 1 and 4 of the hymn “Mission of the Praying Band” by Mrs. E.R. Wells.
More about this hymn, its author and the songbook in which it appears are given in the
Appendix.
18
This paragraph references many towns/churches. Additional information will be given only for
those locations within the present Susquehanna Conference for which there was no longer a
United Methodist presence in 2023.
19
According to church records, the Methodist class here was organized in February 1883 and
dedicated their church building April 28, 1884. If that is the case, the revival led by the Mount
Pisgah Praying Band was probably instrumental in beginning the class – but where the meetings
were held cannot be determined.
20
This church was part of the Millerton charge. When the congregation dwindled, the building
was sold about 1890 to the Mitchell’s Mills Grange #912 of the Patrons of Husbandry.
21
This congregation federated with the Presbyterians in 1930 and the Methodist building was
sold. That structure, which has stood at its present location since 1850, now houses the Orwell
Bible Church.
22
The LeRaysville Methodist Episcopal Church federated with the Congregational Church in 1920,
with the congregation using the latter’s building and the Methodist structure torn down about
1940.
Mount Pisgah Praying Band 31
NY, Cohocton NY, Naples NY, Liberty Corners PA, Owego NY, Durell
23
PA,
Susquehanna PA, Nichols NY, Barton NY, Smithboro NY, Athens PA, Canton PA,
Ulster PA, Meshoppen PA, Tunkhannock PA, Pittston PA, Wyoming PA, Scranton
PA, Carbondale PA, East Smithfield PA and Troy PA, as well as many other places
in Pennsylvania and New York.
In the beginning the Band did not keep a record of the converts, but later
recorded over five thousand. Many of the converts became ministers as a result of
the Band’s activities. From the village of Tioga PA, three of the converts became
ministers.
The number of Praying Band members varied from time to time. At one
time there were nine members. Toward the end here were only five members;
however, for most of the part there were eight active members. The eight who were
named as members at the beginning of this article made up the Band during most
of its existence. In the beginning there was another member, Robert Ballard
24
, who
was a cousin of Lert and Guy. His sister was the wife of D.A. Lamont. Robert
Ballard and D.A. Lamont were active for only a short time. John Miller entered the
ministry. Lert Ballard continued with the Band until 1876 when he removed to
Troy and engaged in the mercantile business. The names of W.E. Ballard
25
and
M.J. Ballard
26
are included in the Praying Band records, but there is no mention of
them having been involved in its traveling ministry.
The Mount Pisgah Praying Band owned the Mount Pisgah Camp Meeting
Grounds, located at the top of the hill on the road between Wetona and Leona.
There were no buildings on the land, which was comprised of over seven acres.
The camp ground was a place where people congregated from miles around to
worship the Lord. There a preacher would mount a stump or a temporary platform
to preach a zealous message aimed at sinners and backsliders. Old camp meeting
gospel songs were sung with fervor, such as “Amazing Grace,” “How Tedious and
Tasteless the Hours When Jesus No Longer I See,”
27
“On Jordan’s Stormy Banks I
Stand,” or “We’re Marching to Zion.” The Mount Pisgah Praying Band members
would give their personal testimonies and exhort sinners to get right with God.
People would fall to the ground and call upon God for deliverance, and shout
praises to God when assurance of that deliverance came.
23
An appointment at Durell appears to have been served until the early 1940’s, but it is unclear
whether the Methodists ever owned a church building there.
24
Robert A. Ballard (1843-1922) was born in Troy PA and is buried in Glenwood Cemetery, Troy
PA.
25
Walter E. Ballard (1839-?) was a brother to Robert A. Ballard and a member of the Methodist
class at East Troy.
26
Mahlon J. Ballard (1849-1870) was a brother of brother of Guy and Lert – but as he died in
1870 at the age of 20, he may not be the M.J. Ballard in the text.
27
The words to this now unfamiliar song were written by John Newton of “Amazing Grace” fame.
32 The Chronicle 2024
In those early camp meetings, people would come for miles around on
wagons, bringing a cow for milk and their cooking utensils. They would sleep
under their wagon unless they had a canvas top on it making it a luxury for inside
sleeping. They would stay as long as the meetings continued, which was usually
an indefinite amount of time.
The Mount Pisgah Camp Meeting grounds were jointly owned by the
members of the Praying Band, which was not incorporated. Listed in the deed as
owners were: A. Gideon Baxter and his wife Emily A., Guy S. Ballard and his wife
Julia, D.D. LaMont and his wife Fanny, W.E. Ballard and his wife Alina G., Derrick
G. Smith and his wife Jane, Alvin R. Smith and his wife Lydia, Edward Partridge
and his wife Melvina, Lert J. Ballard and his wife Martha, Robert A. Ballard and
his wife Mattie, and John Miller and his wife Mary. For years after the Mount
Pisgah Praying Band was dissolved, the Camp Meetings continued. The land was
sold in 1883 to Alexander Cannon, but it is my understanding that the Camp
Meetings continued for some time. My father, who was born in 1898, can
remember attending with his parents. Cannon did not record the deed until 1921.
Statistics are not available on all the members of the Praying Band. Such
as we have are offered here.
Guy S. Ballard was the last to die. He died May 29, 1931, at the age of 92
at his home in Leona PA. Many of the Ballards still live in the area. He was the
father of Denton Ballard of Leona.
Lert Ballard moved to Troy in 1876 and ran a mercantile business. He
served in the Civil War.
John Miller became a Methodist minister and served churches in New York
State.
Robert A. Ballard was living in Westfield PA at the time that the Camp
Grounds were sold.
A. Gideon Baxter moved from Leona to Troy. At least his address was
Troy. His descendants live in Leona. Among them is a great-grandson, Oliver
Baxter.
Derrick Goff Smith was born June 10, 1844, to Harry B. and Elmira Gates
Smith. He died May 10, 1916, at East Smithfield PA and is buried there. His wife
was Jane Scott. Among his descendants was a grandson Rev. L. Smith Lain, who
was an Episcopal minister it Geneva NY for many years.
Albert Remington Smith was born November 21, 1839, to Major David B,
and Naomi Remington Smith. He died August 3, 1903, at Big Pond PA. He is
buried at Wetona PA. His wife was Lydia Sargeant6. He served in the Civil War.
Among his descendants is a great-grandson, Rev. Earl L. Smith, a United Methodist
minister.
Mount Pisgah Praying Band 33
Appendix: “Mission of the Praying Band” by Mrs. E.R. Wells
The text by Earl Smith gives only verses 1 and 4 of this hymn. The entire hymn is
given (without music) as #38 in the 1869 songbook The Revivalist: A Collection of
Choice Revival Hymns and Tunes, Original and Selected by Joseph Hillman. While
it’s tempting to say that the words were composed to memorialize the work of the
Mount Pisgah Praying Band, the 1869 publication date of the songbook indicates
that the hymn pre-dates the Mount Pisgah Praying Band. In all likelihood, although
it has never been so reported, the eight young men of Mount Pisgah adopted their
name because they identified with the song.
Joseph Hillman (1823-1890), compiler of the songbook was born in Schoharie
County NY and lived most of his life in Troy, where he compiled and published the
songbook. He was a respected publisher, with The Revivalist, which went through
at least two editions, being his most successful gospel work. The preface to the
songbook includes endorsements by noted gospel songwriter and singing evangelist
Philip Phillips (1834-1895), who also served as musical editor of the New York
Methodist Book Concern, and by the distinguished Jesse T. Peck (1811-1883),
whose resume included the presidency of Dickinson College and who would in
1872 be elected a Methodist bishop. The conference archives has a copy of The
Revivalist in its gospel songbook collection. Also a devoted Methodist, Joseph
Hillman was author of the 1888 classic The History of Methodism in Troy NY. He
is buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Troy NY.
The words are attributed to Mrs. E.R. Wells. Elvenah Raymond Wells (1826-1869)
was born Elvenah Cooper Raymond and married Rev. G. C. Wells in 1844, from
which point on she was known as Mrs. E.R. Wells. She was born and died in
Albany NY and is buried in Albany Rural Cemetery, Menands NY. Mrs. Wells
was active in the women’s groups within the Troy Conference of the Methodist
Church. She has three hymn texts in The Revivalist, one of them being “Tenting
Again,” a paraphrase of a popular Civil War song. Besides her hymns, she was a
writer of considerable prose and poetry, which was edited by her husband and
published posthumously in 1869 under the title Lingering Sounds from a Broken
Harp.
Rev. George C. Wells (1819-1873) was born in Hebron CT and died in Minneapolis
MN. Some sources give his middle name as Clair, and others give it as Chauncy.
Like others mentioned in this Appendix he was both thoroughly Methodist and
musical. He united with Methodism’s Troy Conference in 1845, transferred to the
Wisconsin Conference following his wife’s death, and later to the Minnesota
Conference. Six pieces in The Revivalist have his name attached to them – the
words of one, the tunes of two, and the arrangements of three others. In addition,
yet another tune in The Revivalist was harmonized by Miss Eva L. Wells (1845-
1933) the daughter of George and Elvenah – who in 1870 married Rev. Andrew B.
Bishop (1836-1905) of the Minnesota Conference.
34 The Chronicle 2024
Thoughts from a Presiding Elder
letter from J.C. Smith, 1873
Jacob C. Smith was born January 22, 1819, on a farm near Chambersburg,
Franklin County. He was the son of Jacob (1771-?) and Barbara Ziegler
Clippinger Smith (1776-1863). Converted at revival services held by John Fohl
1
and JS Kessler
2
in 1838, he joined the Pennsylvania Conference in 1843 and
started his ministerial career by serving the 30+ appointments on the
Chambersburg circuit. He served York First (later re-named Otterbein) three
times. During his first appointment there (1847-51) he built a congregation that
was being recommended for abandonment into a strong station of 137 persons,
and during his third appointment there (1866-71) he led the congregation in the
erection of the present substantial sanctuary at that site. In 1873 he was serving as
presiding elder (district superintendent) of the York district and living in
Newville, Cumberland County.
This letter, written to congratulate his son John on his new daughter, also
includes news about and insights into the United Brethren church. Three years
later, in 1876, Smith would be assigned to the Chambersburg Second church –
ostensibly organized to supply the north end of town, but in reality an attempt to
serve conservative members who supported the denomination’s official ban on
secret societies. When Smith reported the true situation to the annual session of
1877, the conference disavowed the congregation – which continued an
independent existence until the 1889 denominational split and is now King Street
United Brethren (Old Constitution) Church. Jacob C. Smith died in York PA
November 13, 1886.
Jacob C. Smith and Eliza Ann Staley (1823-1906) were married May 6,
1846. Although Holdcraft’s 1939 History of the Pennsylvania Conference, page
308, and the 1996 volume of The Chronicle, page 98, give brief biographical
comments, we know surprising little of the family beyond what is revealed in the
letter. The recipient, son John Lawrence Smith (1852-1911) and his wife Emma
Kate Schroeder (1852-1935) became the father of daughter Lottie (1873-1934).
Younger son and 1873 graduate Charles Edward Smith (1851-1921) married his
cousin Elizabeth Adenanna Staley (1855-1914) and became a medical doctor.
Son Harry appears to be about six years old in 1873, likely the youngest child in a
spread-out family.
1
John Fohl (1815-1901) was a powerful and conservative early United Brethren circuit rider. The
conference archives have a copy of the 61-page booklet Autobiography of John Fohl, constructed
in 2000 by Milton Loyer. He later affiliated with the denomination’s Old Constitution branch.
2
Jacob Smith Kessler (1812-1863) was also a powerful early United Brethren circuit rider. The
conference archives have a copy of the 1867 Biography of Rev. Jacob Smith Kessler by Isaiah L.
Kephart.
Jacob Smith 35
Newville
1
March 14, 1873
Dear John,
Your last favors were received, and now on reply I send you this –
congratulating you on your new relation to society and the music of the cradle. I
am truly glad to hear that you have had so little trouble, and that Emma and the
wee girl are doing so well.
You contend that there is a resemblance between yourself and the
daughter – and perforce of myself. Well if this is so, I have only to say that it
can’t be beauty. But there is still one thing to fall back on – viz., “ugly babies
make pretty people.” So the adage goes.
About my coming down soon – I can’t say much just now. I will have a
quarterly meeting at Dillsburg on the 29
th
prox.
2
If there is a way to go to York
on the first of April, I may take that route to return. But all depends on a way to
get to your place.
I had a letter from your brother Ed. He graduated with the highest honors
of the college. He received 88 of 90 votes – 90 is the highest anyone can obtain,
or 10 from each of the 9 professors. This is certainly very flattering to him. This
is now Thursday, 5 o’clock p.m., and he is not home yet. I can’t divine why he
stays so long. He may be home in the evening train, which arrives in an hour.
Should he come, I will note this before I close.
There is nothing of news as yet here. Shaffer
3
has not yet arrived. He is
snowbound near Taneytown, Md. Otterbein
4
has been to Big Spring circuit last
Sunday – he will live only 3 miles from here.
I saw Brother Young
5
and spoke a few words to him. I learn that he has
concluded to take the corner
6
Raber, Erb and Colestock have selected. I hope and
trust it may be the right place, and that they will all unite in making it a real
success.
Mother is afflicted – sorely afflicted with insomnia. She often in 4 or 5
nights doesn’t sleep more than one or two hours per night. This makes her head
feel most miserable. Otherwise her health is quite good.
Harry is learning remarkably fast. He is nearly constantly at the head of
his class. He spells in four syllables quite readily, and reads with ease out of the
Bible, book or newspaper. He is a very good, obedient boy – nearly always in the
house or garden when not at school or Mrs. Reed’s.
Friday morning
Ed arrived last evening hale and hearty – and he has his two diplomas.
Now if he had a practice like Fetterhoff
7
that pays $2500 per year he could soon
pay me back some of my money. I told Harry that now he is an uncle, but he
denied it strongly – he thought that was fun-making. There is nothing more of
interest that I know to write, so I close this subscribing myself –
Your affectionate father, J.C. Smith
Greet the entire family.
36 The Chronicle 2024
1
There was once a two-story, brick United Brethren church building in Newville.
Erected on Newton [now Fairfield] Street 1868, its congregation was never as large as
hoped for and the 1889 denominational split appears to have delivered the fatal blow.
The work was abandoned in 1890. The pews were used in the 1891 remodeling of the
West Hill church. The bricks, organ and other fixtures were used in the 1893-94
construction of the original Grace church on South Street in Carlisle.
2
This is the abbreviation for proximo, meaning “in the next month.” Also in common
usage were instant [inst.] and ultimo [ult.] for “in the present month” and “in the past
month.”
3
Jacob T. Shaffer (1843-1909) was the pastor assigned to Newville at the February 10,
1873, annual session of the Pennsylvania Conference. Having served Greencastle the
previous year, he was to have started this new assignment approximately March 1, but
apparently the weather delayed his arrival. Taneytown [Carroll County MD, southeast
of Gettysburg] was Rev. Shaffer’s hometown, and it was customary for pastors to spend a
week or so visiting “at home” while changing assignments. This provided time to
prepare parsonages for the new pastor and made up for the fact that there were no regular
“vacations” as such. Later in the year J.C. Smith would preside at the marriage of his
niece, Mary Smith (b 1/20/1853) of Franklin County, to Rev. Shaffer. Having transferred
to the East Pennsylvania Conference in 1900, Rev. Shaffer organized the Haverford
Avenue congregation in West Philadelphia in 1906. He was serving as their pastor at the
time of his death, and he is buried in Philadelphia.
4
William Otterbein Smith (b 4/4/1849) was the son of Jacob C. Smith’s older brother
George Smith (1817-1886). Other members of this family were Susan E. Smith (b
11/29/1844), John S. Smith (b 11/22/1846), Mary C. Smith (b 1/20/1853, see end note
#3) and George H. Smith (b 4/1/1864). Rev. W.O. Smith entered the conference in 1872,
was ordained in 1875 and withdrew from the ministry in 1879. Having served as
assistant on the Manchester [York Co] circuit the previous year, he was assigned at the
February 10, 1873, annual conference to be pastor of the Big Spring circuit.
5
John H. Young entered the conference in 1868. He was ordained in 1868 and withdrew
from the ministry in 1901. Nothing more is known of him. At the February 10, 1873,
annual conference he was moved from Newville to become the first pastor of the York
Second appointment.
6
The dwelling and corner lot at Duke and South Streets were purchased January 22,
1873, by Rev. William B. Raber (1824-1875) – the pastor of the York First church, who
had formed a new class in that part of York. While tradition says that Raber acted on his
own, this letter reveals that Jacob Erb (1804-1883, retired ex-bishop whose counsel was
valued in many areas) and Zephaniah Colestock (1824-1924, presiding elder of the York
district) also had input in the decision. John H. Young, the first pastor assigned to the
developing congregation, apparently approved of the site.
7
George Fetterhoff (1760-1819) was the patriarch of the large Franklin County United
Brethren clan that gave us Fetterhoff’s Chapel. The only known physician among them
was Dr. John Fetterhoff, a graduate of Breslau University in Germany, who joined his
relatives in the Chambersburg area about 1834 and married Elizabeth Fahrney.
Joshua Lippincott 37
Joshua Allan Lippincott,
and Methodist Influences on the Carlisle Indian School
by Robert L. Baker [2023], 1879
editor’s note: This paper was delivered to the Historical Society of the
United Methodist Church, meeting at Williamsport PA, May 16, 2023. Robert
Baker is a newspaper editor for the Wyoming County Press Examiner and served
as the archivist of the former Wyoming Conference UMC.
On September 27, 2021, the General Board of Global Ministries of the
United Methodist Church issued the following statement as a matter of background
about the Indian boarding schools issue: “Current media attention is on schools
reflecting a strict military-style model, for example, the Carlisle Indian Industrial
School in Pennsylvania, opened in 1879. While Carlisle itself had no religious
sponsors, others of its ilk did.”
1
Oh, really? In 2022, the minister at my home church – knowing that I have
Native ancestry
2
– asked if I might be interested in offering a Mission Minute for
Native American Awareness Sunday. Well, my mission minute turned into a ten
minute tirade, and I am here today to tell you that the Methodists played a
substantial role in the Carlisle Indian School’s development – even though there
are many people who do not want to hear it.
This paper will argue that while the Methodists may not have been strictly
allied in the public mind to the beginning of the Carlisle school in the fall of 1879,
as a matter of practicality regarding the school's formation, the Methodists helped
provide profound spiritual guidance over the school's first two decades.
This paper has three focal points:
First, it speaks about who provided spiritual guidance at the Carlisle School,
primarily focusing on the life of Joshua Allan Lippincott, and whether or not he was
a Methodist minister.
1
The statement of the United Methodist Church Board of Global Ministries on Sep. 27, 2021,
appears online at www.iaumc.org/newsdetail/the-general-board-of-global-ministries-marks-
september-30-as-a-day-to-remember-native-americans-as-victims-of-us-schools-15477780.
2
On my maternal grandmother’s side of the family, I descend from a long line of Hudson’s Bay
Company employees who were not allowed to bring women with them in their occupations as
fur traders. My great-great-great grandfather James Morrison arrived from Scotland in 1817 as a
blacksmith and didn’t take long to forge a large family with a Cree or halfbreed woman. In 1840
when Methodist missionary George Barnley became the first European to evangelize the First
Nations Cree settlements around today’s James Bay, Ontario, he formally married Morrison and
his Native wife, and a few days later baptized their four oldest children. I have First Nations
fourth cousins, many of whom I visited in the summer of 1992 at Moose Factory Island, Ontario,
in 1992. After Barnley left in 1847, the Anglican Church eventually provided spiritual guidance to
the Moose Factory Settlement.
38 The Chronicle 2024
Secondly, this paper will share excerpts from a statement he made in 1882 as to
how he recruited Indians of school age to join the Carlisle School.
And, thirdly, this paper will address statements he made 16 years later when as
a recently retired Methodist Episcopal preacher at one of the larger churches in the
Philadelphia Conference and as a trustee of Dickinson College, an ME-related
institution of higher education, he delivered the 1898 commencement address at the
Carlisle Indian School.
SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE
Richard Henry Pratt, the mastermind and proprietor of the Carlisle Indian
Industrial School discussed in his autobiography, Battlefield and Classroom,
written 14 years before the school closed, the providing spiritual guidance to his
newly arrived Indian pupils at Carlisle.
3
It was a bit different from what appeared
in Volume 1 Number 1 of the Carlisle school's newspaper, Eadle Keatah Toh:
“Delegations of pupils attend the different Sunday Schools and churches in the city.
The contact with, and the example and precept of the refined Christian people
composing said churches cannot fail to have a benign influence upon the pupils and
tend to wed them to the better, purer life of the good people among whom they
mingle every week to praise and worship the Creator of all men.”
4
While the concept of spiritual guidance was well articulated, in practice,
Pratt recalled in his autobiography that his wife, Anna (Mason) Pratt, had a hand in
making it happen. Faced with having prayers with the children on a Sunday
evening when her husband was out of town, Mrs. Pratt was advised by her lady
friends to invite different pastors to provide the religious services, but she told them,
“The president of the college is a minister, and I will ask him.” From that time
forward, Dickinson's President James McCauley, an ordained Methodist minister,
became an adviser and most-valued friend of the school, and inferred that the
college's professors would also help in the enterprise.
Among all of the college's professors, the record shows that no one in the
Indian School's earliest years was devoted more to Pratt's enterprise than Joshua
Allan Lippincott, who had taught mathematics, German and astronomy at
Dickinson since 1874. Lippincott had graduated from Dickinson 16 years earlier
3
Richard Henry Pratt had just turned 82 in 1922 when he began working on his memoirs, which
ultimately became Battlefield and Classroom: Four Decades with the American Indian – published
by Yale University Press, and republished in 1964 by the University of Oklahoma Press. Mrs.
Pratt's statement about ministerial help for the Indian students from Dickinson is on p. 241.
4
“Religious Training,” Eadle Keatoh Toh, Vol. 1, No.1, page 2 notes the religious expectation of
what faces the first school class of 154 Indian youth, representing 11 different tribes, and
claiming “every Sunday afternoon, service is conducted by one of the clergymen of the city.”
Although Lippincott is not named in this publication, he appears to be the lone clergyman made
reference to, and is later referred to by Pratt as “chaplain.”
Joshua Lippincott 39
in 1858. He was raised in Burlington County NJ and attended Pennington Seminary
in Mercer County NJ for prep school before matriculating at Dickinson.
He was hired for his first job outside of college in 1858 to teach mathematics
and German at his alma mater, Pennington Seminary, by future Methodist
Episcopal Bishop Isaac Wiley, who was then serving as principal of the seminary.
What possessed Lippincott, an educator, to become a Methodist minister is
unknown at this point, but I can attest it took considerable energy to track down all
of the places he allegedly served, and conferences that he identified with.
Lippincott left Pennington in the fall of 1862, to become superintendent of
schools in Scranton. He married on Christmas Eve of 1862 one of his former
classmates at Pennington, Harriet Barlow, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister.
Near the end of the Civil War in April of 1865, on the fourth day of the Wyoming
Annual Conference, meeting at Carbondale, he was one of five men admitted on
trial.
5
His presiding elder, the venerable George Peck serving the Lackawanna
District, assigned Lippincott, then age 30, to serve at Dunmore PA.
6
Seven months into his pastorate, Lippincott left the pulpit at Dunmore
7
to
accept a secular job as principal of a model boy's school in Trenton NJ. At the time,
Lippincott and his wife apparently joined the State Street Methodist Episcopal
Church in Trenton, and while he may have supplied the pulpit temporarily there in
a fill-in capacity, no evidence exists that he pastored there.
His membership eventually transferred to the New Jersey or Newark
Conference, and at some point he served Asbury ME Church in Hackensack, but
the years he was supposedly there, conference records reveal only “to be supplied.”
By the fall of 1872, he opened the Lippincott Institute: A French and English
Boarding and Day School in Baltimore MD and served as its principal. His
membership in the larger M.E. Church had transferred to the Baltimore Conference
– and we know this, because in March of 1874 he transferred his membership back
to the New Jersey Conference.
5
The Carbondale Advance, April 22, 1865, page 2, noted in its coverage of the Wyoming Annual
Conference, that at 8:30 a.m., Sunday, five men (Isaac Austin, J.D. Woodruff, William Hiller,
Johnathan Weston, and Lippincott) were examined before being admitted on trial as pastors. An
hour beforehand, at 7:30 a.m., George Peck read a telegram to those gathered noting President
Abraham Lincoln had been shot the night before, and had died that very morning.
6
Interestingly, Joshua Lippincott's pastorate at Dunmore is not identified in an occupational
review of his professional pursuits given in a 248-page Alumni Record for Dickinson College at a
Harrisburg publishing house (which he edited in 1886, while he was serving as chancellor at the
University of Kansas). Nor is any affiliation with a Methodist Episcopal conference given in the
alumni listing for Joshua, while older brother Benjamin Crispin Lippincott, also an ME preacher
had clearly been affirmed in both the Baltimore and New Jersey ME conferences.
7
William H. Gavitt, who had been a chaplain in the Army during the Civil War, took over the
pulpit at Dunmore in the fall of 1865.
40 The Chronicle 2024
Lippincott joined the Dickinson College faculty in 1874, and in his nine
years at the college, no evidence could be located that he ever participated in the
Central Pennsylvania ME Conference. In fact, newspaper accounts, such as in the
March 31, 1881, Carlisle Sentinel on occasion note when he is “visiting the Newark
Conference.”
8
He was called on occasionally to do such things as give a prayer
during a decoration day program, conduct a wedding or funeral, or give a
temperance lecture, or talk about what it would take to organize a YMCA, or fill
the pulpit for the local ME minister, or participate in a rededication of an historic
church or participate in a nearby village camp meeting. That he was a gifted orator
showed up for Decoration Day of 1881 when his address was reprinted in at least
one of the Carlisle newspapers which said he was accompanied by 200 Indian boys
in uniform.
9
But Lippincott almost never was referred to in the press as a pastor or
reverend.
The Valley Sentinel of Carlisle began taking notice around mid-October of
1879 of the Carlisle Barracks being a center of attention – or maybe a spectacle –
as the Carlisle Indian School was supposed to open around Nov. 1. The newspaper
noted on Oct. 16, “As noticed in our last issue Saturday is the only day set apart for
visitors. Last Saturday, several hundred persons visited the barracks for the purpose
of seeing the red man of the forest.” And it practically exclaimed, “It seems almost
incomprehensible that a barracks where only a few years ago, men were trained to
kill Indians, should now be occupied by Indians anxious and clamorous to become
civilized.”
10
With the arrival of a chapel at the Indian School on Christmas eve of 1879,
Lippincott perhaps saw himself finally with a pulpit of his own. Two years later
found the Lancaster Intelligencer referring to Lippincott as Rev. Dr. and called him
“a very zealous agent in the cause of Indian education and evangelization.”
11
The
newspaper further wrote, “the success attending the Carlisle school has shown that
the Indian can be educated and civilized for a mere tithe of what it costs to hunt and
butcher him. Which then shall it be – education or extermination? If the former, let
the Carlisle School have more liberal appropriations than have yet been meted out
to it, and let dozens of similar schools be organized in different parts of the country
until every one of the little redskins have the same opportunity of acquiring
knowledge and civilization as is accorded the white and the black.”
The following spring (1882), Lippincott was one of four ministers accorded
an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, a
school with Reformed roots. It is guessed the academic honor was tied with his
8
See also the Carlisle Weekly Record, Mar. 3, 1881, pg. 3.
9
Even page one of the Philadelphia Inquirer, May 28, 1881, gave notice of Lippincott and the
Carlisle Indian boys.
10
Nearly every day of the last half of October 1879 of the Carlisle Valley Sentinel had a new tidbit
related to the new Indian school.
11
Lancaster Intelligencer, Sep. 30, 1881, p. 1.
Joshua Lippincott 41
work with the Carlisle School, and perhaps Richard Pratt recommended him for the
honor, but current Franklin & Marshall archivist Louise LoBello wrote last winter,
“we found a few letters of recommendation for the other ministers, but
unfortunately not for Lippincott. The 1882 Commencement program has no
mention of honorary degrees and the Board of Trustees minutes have an
inconvenient gap in the record during this time period.”
12
RECRUITMENT
Having a D.D. behind his name obviously helped in other ways. In July of
1882, Pratt wrote the Office of Indian Affairs in Washington of his interest in getting
65 Sioux children to the Carlisle school. In a lengthy hand-written letter, Pratt
shares: “I have the preliminary arrangements all under way. Professor Lipincott of
Dickinson College who has been our chaplain will with an assistant go to the Indian
territory.”
13
Then the following September one of the school's publications, The
Morning Star, had an article authored by Lippincott, which retraced his travels into
Indian Territory. In this document, he wrote pretty positively of the Indian agencies
which seemed to be doing most of the recruitment work, to get these students to
come to the Carlisle school. They (the Indian agencies) seemed to do a bulk of the
work, and Lippincott while he was away from Carlisle seemed to just be an
empathetic ear, which could provide, as needed, a light prayer or words of assurance
that gave tribal elders and/or parents a sense of trust.
But it wasn't all peaches and cream. Lippincott wrote, “In this work, I found
many difficulties – some of them doubtless real; many of them perhaps imaginary.
First of all was the impossibility of direct converse with them. A speech delivered
through an interpreter must lose half its force. A conversation carried on in the
same way is unsatisfactory. Still there was no lack of good interpreters, and I
succeeded in making myself understood. Again, parents who have passed through
a similar experience will easily understand how hard it is to send children away
from school.”
14
Lippincott also noted that “since each of the tongues of dialects
sounded a little differently, that also must've been a bit strange to the students.”
The following summer, while on a similar recruiting trip into Indian
Territory – this time in present-day New Mexico – Lippincott received a telegram
from a brother-in-law in Kansas who just happened to be on the University of
12
Email correspondence, March 31, 2023, from Louise LoBello, digital and special collections
librarian at Franklin & Marshall College to Robert Baker. The other four pastors to receive an
honorary D.D. From Franklin and Marshall are: Rev. D.Y. Heisler, of Easton, and Rev. J.M. Titzel, of
Altoona, both Reformed; and Rev. Joseph Nesbitt, of Lock Haven, Presbyterian.
13
United States Indian Service correspondence to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs written by
R. H. Pratt, July 12, 1882. Third page has reference to Lippincott.
14
“Dr. Lippincott's Report,” The Morning Star, Vol. 3, No. 2, September 1882, page 1.
42 The Chronicle 2024
Kansas' board of trustees.
15
He wondered if Lippincott might consent to change his
route home to Pennsylvania, by stopping at Lawrence, Kansas, and consider
himself as a possible candidate for the chancellor's job. He agreed, and in time
assembled an impressive array of references which included Bishop Isaac Wiley
who was his former boss at Pennington Seminary, Pratt of the Carlisle School, a
Lehigh University President, as well as the Superintendent of Public Instruction for
the state of New Jersey.
Unfortunately, I did not comb the University of Kansas archives to see if
the references for Lippincott survived, although I was eager to learn if Bishop
Wiley, a missionary to China who actively worked with the Freedman's Aid Society
in the south after the Civil War, had offered any comments about indigenous people.
Surely he must not have thought very keenly about the fact that the first peoples of
this country, were the last to receive citizenship, and indeed didn't get it until 1924.
16
Incidentally, after Lippincott left Dickinson and the Carlisle School for
greener pastures in Kansas, the Indian School at Carlisle was frequently on the
minds of Methodists during the school's years of infancy. On May 19, 1884, for
instance, some 350 Carlisle Indian pupils arrived at the Methodist Episcopal
Church's General Conference meeting in Philadelphia that year. The Harrisburg
Daily Independent wrote the next day, “The meeting had been arranged to instruct
the public on the cause of education especially industrial education of the nation's
wards.”
U.S. Interior Secretary Henry Teller was on hand along with Dickinson
President James McAuley. Hiram Price, commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Indian
Affairs, and a prominent Methodist, acknowledged to those gathered that as
chairman on the Committee on Missions at a previous General Conference in 1876
that he had been “very derelict in not giving heed to Our Indians.” Captain Pratt,
the Indian School's proprietor, was called to the podium and also sharply addressed
the Methodists calling them “Christians who could find a mote in Africa and Asia,
and not the beam in their own country.”
17
The matter of not attending enough to the needs of Indians was punctuated
with hundreds of Carlisle Indian boys and girls along with numerous industrial
creations from their hands on center stage, and then quickly followed by five or six
of them taking that stage briefly where the audience of Methodists could hear them
discussing the question about whether Indians should be made citizens of the land.
Even Philadelphia business man John Wannamaker got into the act using the
15
“State University: The New Chancellor,” Capper's Weekly, Sep. 13, 1883, .Page 10.
16
Bishop Isaac Wiley, was Lippincott's first boss after his graduation from Dickinson in 1858. I
could not determine if his reference letter to help Lippincott get the job as Chancellor of the
University of Kansas survived.
17
“Indian Exhibition” and “Secretary Teller on Indians,” Harrisburg Daily Independent, May 20,
1884, page 4.
Joshua Lippincott 43
occasion to challenge fellow Christians by taking subscriptions of $500 each to pay
off a $14,000 mortgage on a farm at Carlisle.
When he left Dickinson in 1883 to become chancellor of the University of
Kansas, Lippincott transferred his ministerial ME membership to the Kansas
Conference, and annually in newspaper reports of that conference's list of
appointments he would be shown as serving the University of Kansas.
18
That
changed after he stepped down from the chancellorship in 1889 to become Pastor
of the First M.E. Church of Topeka, Kansas.
He was there for three years, when at a quarterly meeting of the church in
July of 1892, it was announced that Philadelphia Conference Bishop Cyrus Foss
had called to have Lippincott transferred to serve the pulpit of the Arch Street ME
Church in Philadelphia, where he moved the following September.
19
Four years
later, he was appointed to serve the Nineteenth Street Church in Philadelphia for
one year, and the following year he was appointed corresponding secretary at the
Philadelphia Methodist Hospital. He also received an appointment in 1897 to serve
on the Dickinson College Board of Trustees.
THE 1898 COMMENCEMENT SPEECH
In 1898, he returned to Carlisle Indian School to give the commencement
address. It is there that he delivered remarks to a class of 24 before a crowd of
3,000 people. He shared a story about his older son living within a half hour of the
Pacific Ocean, but he did not grieve over it.
20
“This is the white man's way of meeting life's great duty. Is the Indian's way
any better. I will tell you what to do. Make yourself a home and a decent
independent living here among the splendid opportunities of the East and then send
for your father and mother to come and enjoy your home with you. That is what the
white man does. Is it not good enough for the Indian?
“But you are not to be Indians any more. The Indian is DEAD in you.
Someone has said that the only good Indian is a dead Indian, and it is true. Be men
and women, but not Indians. Let all that is Indian within you die! Then you will
be men and women, free men, American citizens. I have been talking seriously
enough I know, and I have not time now and perhaps this is not the place to preach
18
“Conference Appointments,” The Stockton Review, Mar. 27, 1885, for instance.
19
How an M.E. pastor gets moved from Topeka, Kansas, to one of the larger churches in
Philadelphia is a puzzle. It is noted that Lippincott was a reserve delegate to General Conference
held in Omaha NE in May of 1892, and perhaps he and Bishop Foss struck up a friendship. The
participants in the 1892 General Conference are identified in the Omaha Evening World, May 3,
1892, page 6.
20
The full text of Joshua Lippincott's March 2, 1898, commencement speech to the graduates of
the Carlisle Indian School can be found in The Red Man, Vol. 14, No. 10, March 1898, pages 6-7.
44 The Chronicle 2024
a formal sermon, yet I want to say that there is a very deep truth in what I have just
said. You cannot become truly American citizens, industrious, intelligent, cultured,
civilized until the Indian within you is DEAD.”
To see this come out of the mouth of a Methodist preacher with my 21
st
Century binoculars is unbelievable. For people who had endured almost 400 years
of oppression, it became clear that the reservation school system was just another
of the deplorable anti-Indian actions of white America and its government.
After Lippincott sat down, Richard Pratt went to the podium and said “I
want to say about the speech we have just heard, I never fired a bigger shot and
never hit the bull's eye more center.”
Before Lippincott delivered his speech, Pratt qualified the importance of
him in his introduction. Speaking of Lippincott, and as Lippincott's boss 19 years
earlier, Pratt said: “When I came to Carlisle, I found a warm welcome in my mission
from the people of the college. Its great president was the first to talk to our children.
Dear old Dr. McAuley, he has gone to his eternal home. The professors were all
kind to us. Finally, I was attracted to one man. He came out and began to talk to
the children, showing such wise interest in our affairs, that we became friends.
Many times we walked up and down these walks, night and day, talking over the
situation. And then he was taken away to the University of Kansas. After a number
of years, he came back east.”
Joshua Allen Lippincott Carlisle Indian School
(1835-1906) (1879-1918)
Jacob Erb 45
Dear Brethren
by Jacob Erb, 1883
editor’s note: This letter by the aged ex-bishop Jacob Erb was read to the
1883 Annual Conference. As he died a few months later, in April 1883, this is his
final known official communication. His complete service record is given in the
Appendix.
Shiremanstown, Pa.
February 1883
To the Pennsylvania and East Pennsylvania Conference
1
in session in Chambersburg, Pa:
Dear Brethren,
It would give me great pleasure to be present with you in Conference this
year, especially since you are assembled in the town where I was ordained to the
office of Elder fifty-eight years ago. I had hoped to be with you in the new and
enlarged church edifice which now takes the place of the smaller buildings in
which we worshipped in former years, and where God so graciously poured out
His spirit upon His people.
A kind heavenly father granted to me the privilege of attending in consecutive
order, sixty annual sessions of the Pennsylvania Conference. Could I be with you
this year, it would be my sixty-first
For several months past my bodily powers have been failing. My mind is
good. I can remember and can carry a train of thought without difficulty. My
faith in God is strong. My confidence in his word is unshaken; and I know by
personal experience that there is power in true religion. The future of a blessed
life is to me full of promise. “God is my refuge and strength.”
I joined Conference in 1823.
2
It convened at John Cronise’s, near Frederick,
Md. I was then 19 years of age. Now, after the lapse of sixty years, when nearly
79 years old, I love to look back and see the progress which we as a church have
made. How our brethren have pushed forward the work is seen in the hundreds
of churches built, the thousands of members received (many of whom are
already safe in heaven), in the schools which have been founded, in our
1
The East Pennsylvania Conference was separated off from the Pennsylvania Conference in
1846. For one quadrennium, the conference years from 1882 to 1885 they met in joint session –
and appointments were made across former conference boundaries. While there was
movement to formally re-unite the two conferences, several complications prevented that, and
they returned to meeting and operating separately in 1886.
2
In 1823 there was only one (unnamed) Conference for all the work east of the Allegheny
Mountains. In 1829 it was officially named the Hagerstown Conference, and in 1830 it was
divided into the Pennsylvania Conference and the Virginia Conference.
46 The Chronicle 2024
institutions of benevolence, in our publishing house becoming every year more
extensive, and in the noble work of our missionary society. I thank God that I
have lived to see this day, which presents such grand monuments of substantial
growth in the church of the United Brethren in Christ.
As a humble member of this Conference I always tried to do my duty. In
looking back, I can see where I might have done better service, but I console
myself with this thought, that I always endeavored to bring an honest heart to
the work. In the earlier part of my ministry I had to travel very large circuits
which entailed much work. I labored mostly in this conference, though I also
preached in fields outside of our bounds. After my ordination in 1825, I was sent
to the Westmoreland circuit, which then belonged to the Muskingum
Conference, and by organizing the forces there the nucleus of the Allegheny
Conference was formed, which was set off in 1839. I also did mission work in the
state of New York, in that part now occupied by the Erie Conference. My labors
extended into Canada, where in early life I was a missionary, and in advanced
years I had the honor of serving as Presiding Elder.
I had the office of Bishop three terms
3
– first from 1837 to 1845, and again
from 1849 to 1853. I do not wish to weary this Conference by a recital of my
labors, but if permitted I will state that few of the younger members of this
Conference have any proper conception of my work in the city of Baltimore, Md.
My pastorate of the Otterbein church there extended through a period of seven
years. A great part of that time was occupied in a fierce litigation to retain the
property where it justly and lawfully belonged.
4
The care, and anxiety of mind,
which the trial involved time cannot efface from my memory. As you are aware,
it fell to my lot to conduct that long contest, and you will pardon me if I should
boast a little, and confidentially tell you, that in my opinion I managed the case
quite well.
3
Bishops in the United Brethren Church were elected at each General Conference for four-year
terms. Notice in Jacob Erb’s service record given in the Appendix, that he sometimes served a
local church under appointment while a bishop.
4
The First German Reformed Church of Baltimore was organized about 1750. In 1771, members
of First organized the Reformed congregation that developed into the Otterbein church and
called the evangelical-minded Rev. Benedict Swope to be their pastor. In 1774, Swope resigned
and Otterbein was called to take his place. Otterbein was still a Reformed pastor – and he
actually maintained that connection his entire life. Although he had been working with
Mennonite preacher Martin Boehm to evangelize the German-speaking peoples in America, the
United Brethren Church had not yet been formed and both Otterbein and Boehm continued to
work within their own denominations. After the United Brethren denomination was officially
organized in 1800, Otterbein continued serving in Baltimore (as a person now simultaneously
ordained in two denominations) until his death in 1813. During that time, the congregation
moved from Reformed theology to United Brethren theology. When Otterbein died in 1813 he
was followed by a United Brethren preacher, and so the pattern continued – until the pastorate
of Jacob Erb, when the Reformed Church launched a legal battle to reclaim the property.
Jacob Erb 47
At all events success came in the end. If Brother Drury
5
, who is now writing a
new history of our church, should make inquiry of the few old lay-brethren of
the Otterbein congregation who so nobly participated in that conflict, he will
learn that when the fire opened from the batteries of the enemy I did not run
away.
While some of the forgoing lines might seem like boasting in the abundance
of labors and successes, I see no merit in them at all. It was done in weakness
and not without imperfections. And the nearer I get home the more I realize
that Christ alone is my wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.
My letter is already too long. I close abruptly, with the sincere hope and
prayer that you may have a good session of Conference. May God direct you, my
dear brethren, in all that you do. “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord
make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you; the Lord lift up his
countenance upon you, and give you peace.”
Your brother in Christ,
Jacob Erb
6
The journal reports that after the letter was read, the Conference joined in
singing the hymn “E’en down to old age, all my people shall prove
My grace is eternal, unbounded my love.”
7
5
Augustus Ward Drury (1851-1935) was born in Indiana, ordained by the Iowa Conference and
pastored congregations in Iowa and Ohio before moving to Bonebrake [now United] Seminary in
Dayton OH in 1880 to teach church history and theology and serve as the librarian until his
retirement in 1935. While he was apparently envisioning a new denominational history in 1883,
his definitive History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ did not appear until 1924.
While there were earlier modest historical accounts of the denomination, the first truly
comprehensive one was published by John Lawrence in 1868 – followed by another by Daniel
Berger (who apparently didn’t want to wait on Drury) in 1897.
6
In addition to the biographical accounts of Jacob Erb referenced in the Appendix, a concise
account of his ministry and local relevance is given in Loyer’s 1984 History of the New
Cumberland District, pages 58-59.
7
This is from the unfamiliar original fifth verse of “How Firm a Foundation” – which has been
omitted from the hymn as given as #529 in the United Methodist Hymnal. The entire fifth verse,
as it appears as #651 in the 1871 United Brethren Hymn Book (of 1078 hymns) is
“E’en down to old age, all my people shall prove
My grace is eternal, unbounded my love;
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs they shall still in my bosom be borne.”
48 The Chronicle 2024
Appendix – The record of Jacob Erb, adapted from the conference website.
ERB, JACOB
Born: 5-25-1804 near Manheim PA married: Elizabeth Shirk
Died: 4-29-1883 obit: [4/1/1801 – 2/18/1834]
1823 license
1825 ordained
Interment: Shopp’s Cemetery, Shiremanstown PA
Obit: Pennsylvania Conference 1884, 20
1823-24 Lancaster circuit
1824-25 Hagerstown circuit
1825-26 Lancaster circuit
1827-28 missionary to New York
1828-29 Susquehanna circuit
1829-31 unassigned
1831-32 Littlestown circuit
1832-33 Canada mission, informally & working on hymnal
1833-36 presiding elder, Carlisle District
1836-37 Canada mission, informally
1837-45 bishop
1837-38 Dauphin circuit
1841-45 Baltimore Otterbein
1845-48 Baltimore Otterbein
1849-53 bishop
1854-56 presiding elder, York District
1856-57 agent for Philadelphia church
1857-58 presiding elder, Chambersburg District
1858-59 Liverpool circuit
1859-60 agent for the printing establishment
1860-62 unassigned – agent for Otterbein University & the printing establishment
1862-63 Carlisle circuit
1863-66 York station
1866-68 unassigned – proprietor of Cottage Hill Female College in York
1868-70 Harrisburg First
1871-75 unassigned
1875 retired
1876 special agent for Lebanon Valley College
1878-82 conference evangelist
Note: Holdcraft’s 1939 History of the Pennsylvania Conference, page 317, and Weaver’s
1908 Minutes of the 1819-24 Conferences, page 46, give brief biographies. Chapter 6 of
the 1911 denominational study guide Our Heroes, volume 2 discusses Jacob Erb.
Peck Family 49
An 1884 Peck Trial
from the New York Times, 1884
Rev. George M. Peck (1820-1897) of the Wyoming Conference was a
member of the noted Peck ministerial family that was instrumental in founding both
Wyoming Seminary and the Wyoming Conference. Their story is told in the 1897
book Luther Peck and his Five Sons, by Jonathan Kenyon Peck. George M. Peck’s
father, his four uncles, his brother and five first cousins were all ordained members
of the Methodist Episcopal Church whose contributions extended across the
country. An abbreviated Peck Family Tree is given in the Appendix.
Central to this story is an often overlook member of the family, George M.
Peck’s sister Mary Helen Peck Crane (1827-1891). She married Rev. Jonathan
Townley Crane (1819-1880) of the Newark Conference and was a significant voice
in local and conference Methodism as well as in the abolition and temperance
movements, not only in New Jersey but also nationwide. In addition to raising
fourteen children (the youngest of which was the noted Stephen Crane, author of
The Red Badge of Courage), she was a class leader at St. Paul’s ME Church in
Newark, a worker among the poor, an officer in the Woman’s Foreign Missionary
Society and an officer in the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. She also
addressed the New Jersey Legislature on several occasions regarding temperance
bills and held positions at the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting.
To supplement her income from temperance work, Mrs. Crane relied on
dividends from inherited shares in Wyoming Valley coal mines. When difficulties
developed within the mine property, the loss of income forced her to rent out her
Ocean Grove home to summer visitors. Ultimately, the situation became personal
and she formally charged her brother George M. Peck before the Wyoming
Conference of the ME Church with mismanagement. The conference journal
simply reports as follows:
1
The Court for the trial of G.M. Peck presented their report, viz.: “That the
charge is not sustained.”
His character passed, and he was granted a Supernumerary [retired] relation
at his own request.
Despite the low-key approach within the Wyoming Conference, the
prominence of both George M. Peck and Helen Peck Crane generated considerable
public interest and publicity for the proceedings. The following three articles from
the New York Times give an account of the situation. The first article appears to
be simply statement of a moderately interesting event and was placed on page 5.
2
1
Official Minutes of the Wyoming Annual Conference, 1884, page 32.
2
New York Times, April 1, 1884, page 5.
50 The Chronicle 2024
A MINISTER EXONERATED
Scranton, Penn., March 31 – The charges made against the Rev. George M.
Peck, one of the oldest members of the Wyoming Methodist Conference, by his
sister, Mrs. M. Helen Crane, were considered by the Conference to-day, and Mr.
Peck was exonerated and restored to full relationship. Mr. Peck was charged by
his sister with unbrotherly conduct and dishonesty in his action as Executor of the
estate of the late Rev. Dr. George Peck, their father, who died at Scranton in the
Spring of 1876. Dr. Peck, who was one of the best-known members of his
denomination, left his property, including a valuable tract of coal land, in equal
shares to his four children. His son, the Rev. George M. Peck, has been the
managing Executor of the estate.
The second article, a slight clarification of the first, appeared three days later
– on the front page, with Peck’s name in the headline.
3
THE REV. MR. PECK’S CASE
Scranton, Penn., April 3 – A slight amendment should be made in the report
regarding the case of the Rev. George M. Peck, who was tried by the Wyoming
Conference upon charges of unbrotherly conduct and dishonesty in his capacity
as Executor of the estate of his father, the late Rev. Dr. George Peck. The
complainant, his sister, decided not to press the latter charge. In reporting to the
Conference the Chairman of the committee which tried the case said the charge
of dishonesty was not sustained, but the evidence showed the defendant had
exceeded his power as Executor.
Each of the previous articles was apparently picked up from the local
Scranton newspaper and passed along verbatim. As the articles go beyond what
was printed in the official Conference Minutes, the information must be regarded
as unofficial and second-hand. The third much larger article is another attempt to
clarify the matter. Unfortunately it must be regarded as even more unofficial and
second-hand, as it was admittedly submitted to the Scranton newspaper
correspondent by “numerous friends” of George M. Peck and seems to present a
one-sided account. Attempts to retrieve Mrs. Crane’s original written complaint or
any original transcripts of the testimony given at the trial have proved futile, and it
must be assumed that such records no longer exist. The third and final published
account of the matter is as follows.
4
3
New York Times, April 4, 1884, page 1.
4
New York Times, April 9, 1884, page2.
Peck Family 51
THE REV. MR. PECK VINDICATED
HIS SISTER’S CHARGE OF DISHONESTY NOT SUSTAINED
Scranton, Penn., April 8 – The charge of dishonesty preferred against the Rev.
George M. Peck, of this city, by his sister, Mrs. M. Helen Crane, of New Jersey, at
the recent session of the Wyoming Methodist Conference, continues to attract a
good deal of attention throughout this region, owing to the unjust report of the
affair which has gone abroad, and which places Mr. Peck, who was fully acquitted,
in a false light. His numerous friends are naturally anxious that the vindication of
his conduct, which resulted from the investigation, should not be shorn of any of
its strength, and they have made the following statement to the correspondent of
THE TIMES.
The Rev. George M. Peck was appointed co-Executor of his father’s estate, with
his brother, Luther, about the year 1876. The Executors were charged in the will
of the Rev. Dr. Peck, who was the pioneer of Methodism in this section, to pay
certain debts of the estate, and they could not close it until those debts were paid.
The estate consisted in part of coal property, which was leased to a company that
expended a large amount of money in the effort to develop it. Owing to the
difficulties in getting out the coal, the effort proved a failure.
Another party undertook to mine the coal, with a similar result, and gave up
the property. After some delay a third party agreed to lease the land under certain
conditions, for the purpose of mining the anthracite. The Rev. Luther Peck
dissented at first, but finally the Rev. George M. Peck made an arrangement which
resulted in making the property valuable to the estate. Mrs. Peck, wife of Dr. Peck,
who died some years after her husband, seeing the difficulty that existed between
George M. Peck and the heirs in making the arrangement to develop the property,
appointed George M. Peck and his son her Executors, leaving out all the others.
The Rev. George M. Peck administered the affairs of the estate in accordance
with the terms of the will in a careful and judicious manner. At the time that he
rendered his main account of the sale of the property, etc., he called all the heirs
together, showed them his account, and thereupon all the parties sanctioned
what he had done and the court approved his work. The charge against him since
then was prompted by jealousy on the part of those who felt slighted because of
the preference shown him. The appointment of his son as one of the Executors
gave dissatisfaction to the others, and a family difficulty commenced, which
culminated in Mrs. Crane’s presenting to the Wyoming Conference the charge of
dishonesty against her brother. This was the only charge, and the report that she
had arraigned him for “unbrotherly conduct” was false.
A committee of eleven was appointed by the Conference to try the case. Mrs.
Crane brought with her from New Jersey a prominent reverend gentleman to act
as her counsel, and she was also represented by the Rev, Mr. Forsyth, an able
minister and prominent member of this Conference. The Rev. Abel Barker was
counsel for Mr. Peck. Several witnesses were examined for the prosecution,
52 The Chronicle 2024
among the number Mrs. Crane herself. It was a case of absorbing interest, but in
her cross-examination by Mr. Barker, Mrs. Crane broke down completely, and her
statement, although intended to have the opposite effect, was a complete
vindication of her brother.
This was so apparent that Mr. Barker, who was acting as Mr. Peck’s counsel,
proposed to submit the case at that point, without further testimony and without
argument. After a brief statement from Mr. William Connell, who is mining coal
from the property, the case was submitted to the committee. Mrs. Crane did not,
as reported, withdraw or decide not to press the charge of dishonesty. That was
the only charge against her brother, and she pressed it with all the energy at her
command; but the committee fully acquitted Mr. Peck, and decided that his
management of the estate had been honest in every particular and beyond
reproach.
The entire estate, including the property left by Dr. and Mrs. Peck, consisted of
about 100 acres of coal land. The Rev. George M. Peck has been for 30 years a
member of this Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the purity of
his character and conduct has never been questioned until this charge was
preferred by his sister. In this city, where his home is, he is esteemed by all classes,
and his vindication by the Conference gives great satisfaction.
Rev. George Meyers Peck Mary Helen Peck Crane
(1820 – 1897) (1827 – 1891)
Peck Family 53
Appendix. Abbreviated Peck Family Tree
Clergy persons are given in bold type. Except as noted, all clergy have Wyoming
Conference connections – and their appointments, obituary locations, burial places,
etc. may be found at susumcarchives.org in the Wyoming Conference pastor data
base.
0. Luther Peck (1767-1848)
m. Annis Collar (1768-1839)
1. Rev. Luther Hoyt Peck (1793-1881)
m. Mary Kenyon (1796-1865)
2. Rev. Jonathan Kenyon Peck (1824-1899)
m. Mary Searle (1833-1915)
3. Mary A. Peck (1861-1933)
m. Rev. Charles Henry Newing (1862-1943)
4. Ralph L. Newing (1891-1987), editor The Methodist
2. Rev. Luther Peck (1827-1894)
m. Lucy Adeline Lyman (1845-1908)
1. Rev. George Peck (1797-1876)
m. Mary Myers (1798-1881)
2. Rev. George Myers Peck (1820-1897)
m. Sarah Louisa Butler (1819-1902)
2. Rev. Luther Wesley Peck (1825-1900)
m. Sarah Maria Gibbons (1828-1911)
3. Mary Elizabeth Peck (1851-1929)
m. Rev. John F. Williams (1844-1896)
2. Mary Helen Peck (1827-1891)
m. Rev. Jonathan Townley Crane (1819-1880)
3. Stephen Crane (1871-1900), author of Red Badge of Courage
1. Rev. Andrew Peck (1800-1887)
2. Rev. Wesley Peck (1831-1914), California Conference
m. Harriet C. Stiles (1831-1921)
2. Rev. Elbert Andrew Peck (1846-1928), Central NY Conference
m. Margaret Augusta Carpenter (1847-1928)
1. Rev. William Peck (1803-1883)
m. Charlotte Walling (1813-1897)
1. Anna Peck (1806-1880)
m. Solomon Crowell (1799-1867)
2. Rev Jesse Truesdell Crowell (1839-1869)
m. Lucy E. Stewart (1841-1927)
3. Blanche Crowell (1867-1948)
m. Rev. John W. Nicholson (1860-1939)
1. Rev. Jesse Truesdell Peck (1811-1883)
m. Persis Wing (1807-1897)
54 The Chronicle 2023
An Instance of Faithfulness
by Martin Luther Drum, 1890
editor’s note: Rev. Martin Luther Drum was born in 1834 in McKee’s Half
Falls, Snyder County, the eldest son of Charles and Mary Ramsey Drum. He
married Selma Jane McMillan, daughter of local pastor David McMillan, in
Gettysburg in 1859 and served 43 years in Central Pennsylvania as a Methodist
Episcopal pastor. He died in 1898 and is buried in Gettysburg. Among his hand-
written sermons preserved in the conference archives is the following manuscript,
believed to have been composed by Martin about 1890, describing the conversion
and faithfulness of his mother, Mary Ramsey Drum.
Mary Ramsey (1801-1883) was one of five sisters. Their home was in
Central Pennsylvania. Their parents were old style members of the Presbyterian
Church. They honestly believed the theological system called Calvinism and hence
accepted that view of the divine decrees.
Mary’s sisters were pious. She desired to be – but, believing that she was
not of the elect class, was in constant dread of the divine displeasure and eternal
punishment. She had so thoroughly given place to the idea of elect and reprobate,
and so fully recognized herself as being of the latter class, that she could not even
pray. Her reason, accepting the statement that the members of the unconditionally
chosen and not chosen were definitely and absolutely fixed by the eternal decree of
God, would not permit her to make any effort looking to her salvation. Yet her life
was moral, and her treatment of the church and theology as taught was respectful
and deferential.
When seventeen years of age, she was told that on a given Sunday morning
in a school house about five miles from her house a Methodist preacher would hold
religious services. She had heard of this sect of Christianity, but had never heard a
sermon by one of their preachers – nor had she known any members of that church.
The impression she held concerning them was that they were honest – but lacking
in intelligence and inclined to an unreasoning enthusiasm. She, however, felt a
strong inclination to hear that sermon, in the hope that she might be persuaded that
she was not forsaken of God and doomed to continue in the reprobate class.
She became one of the most interested and anxious hearers in that little
audience as Rev. John Thomas
1
of the old Baltimore Conference announced as his
text, “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.” In the
elaboration of his theme, he discussed the question of a limited atonement and
emphasized the fact that Jesus Christ had tested death for every man. He showed
that every attribute of God was against the unconditional appointment of any one
to either life or death. He pressed upon his audience the fact that Jesus as a loving
1
John Thomas (1783-1867) retired from the ministry in 1828 and later served as an associate
judge in Lycoming County PA. He is buried in the Williamsport Cemetery in Williamsport PA.
Martin Luther Drum 55
Savior was waiting to save now and assured them that not one need return to his
home in darkness or without the assurance of justification.
When Mary Ramsey started for her home, she was inspired by new
thoughts, new purposes, new hopes. She walked, however, heavily in gloom
because of the keener appreciation of her moral pollution and guilt. But she
thought, she prayed, and she quoted the text. She had walked about two miles in
this inquiring and struggling state of mind when suddenly she found herself
increasing her speed almost to a run. Her feeling underwent a sudden change. She
felt as if she walked the air. She was startled by the sudden lighting up of the road
and the fields, and the brightening of all natural objects, and the joyousness of her
heart. The old feeling that she was a reprobate was gone. New, strange, entrancing
love took possession of her soul and she cried out, “Oh! This is heaven!”
Then there came as suddenly and with terrific force the suggestion, “This is
not religion. This is only excitement.” And giving it place in her mind, she found
herself just as suddenly plodding along again in gloom. Her experience in the past
had been too painful to permit her to rest now. Having had a glimpse of a brighter
life, and being a young woman of strong purpose and high ambition, she
deliberately set herself to the task of unraveling this mystery. For mystery it surely
was. She had been conscious of joy – of supreme delight. She was now conscious
of most intense spiritual misery. There must be a cause. She had done nothing
wicked, she had not disputed the text, she had not consciously rebelled against God,
and yet she had suddenly been thrust from a heaven of delight into a hell of misery.
She reasoned: “If excitement produces that joy, is it not a blessed
excitement? I believe the text, ‘Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the
sins of the world.’ I will believe it. He takes away my sins. He does save me –
even me.”
Immediately she was reinstated, and from that blessed Sabbath morning
until her death at eighty-two years of age Satan never gained another such
advantage. She married Charles Drum, who was in charge of the mercantile house
of J. and J. Walls of Lewisburg, Pa. He was a man of the world and had been taught
to despise the Methodists as a set of fanatical babblers. It is surprising he would
choose a fanatical babbler as a wife – but such is the inconsistency of human
depravity.
When there were three children
2
, a girl and two boys, they desired to visit
friends at a distance. He, in spite of her protest determined to go upon the holy
Sabbath. It being winter, they went in a sleigh. The older boy sat on the bottom of
the sleigh at their feet, while the other was carried in arms. As they journeyed,
conversation turned upon religion and the church. He expressed himself as greatly
dissatisfied with the Methodists as a denomination, characterizing them as “noisy,
2
The three children at this time were Elizabeth (1832), Martin Luther (1835) and John R. (1838).
Another son, Thomas (1840), would later complete the family.
56 The Chronicle 2023
shouting fanatics.” To this she responded, “You may say what you choose about
my church. I hope and pray that both my boys may be shouting Methodist
preachers.” And that older boy did become just that – and for nearly fifty years he
shouted and preached the Gospel.
Her devotion and influence were so potential that her parents and sisters,
largely through it, became lively and earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. Her husband retired from the employ of the Messrs. Walls and entered
upon business for himself. In 1838 he opened a store of general merchandise and
became also proprietor of the hotel at Trout Run
3
, a village fifteen miles north of
Williamsport, Pa. Mary promptly transferred her membership to Pine Street
Methodist Episcopal Church in Williamsport. She was assigned to a class which
met at 9 o’clock Sabbath morning and for twelve years worshipped frequently with
God’s people in that church. The husband and, when he had grown sufficiently,
the eldest son often drove the span of bays to take her to her class meeting at 9
o’clock.
On Sabbath afternoons, in the parlor of the tavern, she would open the large
family Bible upon her lap and read and expound the Scriptures to her children as
they knelt upon the floor around her knees. Each child, at its earliest ability to
understand, was taught the Lord’s Prayer – and faithfully amid the surrounding of
a country tavern, she labored to train her children to loyalty to God. Frequently she
arranged to have preaching – and bar room, dining room, and parlor would be filled
with the assembled neighbors to hear the Word of God. Her husband would send
his teams and carriage to Williamsport, bring the preacher on Saturday, and return
him on Monday – this making a drive of sixty miles to give the people of the
neighborhood the opportunity to hear the Gospel. Although he would thus
cooperate with his wife, and would sometimes slip into the children’s bedroom after
mother had heard their prayers and tucked them in and retired, that he might teach
them little prayer he had learned as a child, he yet remained a man of the world.
At Block House, fifteen miles over the mountain, lived Mrs. Sebring, a
Presbyterian lady, deeply and intelligently pious, between whom and Mary a warm
personal friendship has arisen.
4
Mr. Woodruff, proprietor of the hotel in that place,
advertised a ball which was to be a most elegant social affair. Charles had a strong
desire to participate in the festivities – and as Mary was a tall, fine-looking woman
3
Mary and Charles Drum lived in Trout Run 1838-1851. In addition to the pursuits mentioned in
the text, Charles served as postmaster in Trout Run 1840-44 and again 1846-51. This was before
the advent of organized religion in that community. A Union Sunday School was organized in
Trout Run in 1847, but Mary’s role in that endeavor is not known. A Methodist congregation was
organized in 1860 and met in the school house. The Presbyterians erected the community’s first
church building in 1885, and the Methodists followed with one of their own in 1897.
4
Block House is the former name of Liberty, in Tioga County. Both the Methodists and the
Evangelicals had congregations there, but the last United Methodist church building in Liberty
was sold in 2002. Sebring is a neighborhood two miles north of Liberty. The Evangelicals had a
congregation there until the building was sold in 1930.
Martin Luther Drum 57
whose fame as a model landlady had spread far and wide, he was extremely
ambitious to secure her presence with him at the ball. He dared not tell her of the
contemplated diversion, as she would at once peremptorily decline to go.
The sleighing was fine, the weather delightful. Hence he announced to her
that having some business demanding his presence, he would that afternoon drive
over in the two-horse cutter and would like her to go with him. She readily
consented, but when on top of the mountain and within five miles of the place, he
broke to her the fact of the ball – and she met the care as he might have expected.
“Charles, you can do one of two things – either turn around and take me home, or
drive me on to Mrs. Sebring’s.” There was no alternative, and he landed at Jonathan
Sebring’s door. When night came, Charles and “Johnty” went down and looked on
a while, while their good wives talked pleasantly at home. Charles never again
tried to get his wife to a ball.
In the latter part of the year 1838, a rail road was finished between
Williamsport and Ralston, ten miles northeast of Trout Run. The mode of
construction was peculiar to those early days. Road bed and ties were much as
now, but the rail consisted of two parts. First was placed over the ties a sawed
scantling
5
some sixteen feet long by six inches wide and three inches thick. On this
was placed a strip of iron about three eighths of an inch in thickness and two and a
half inches wide. These strips were at the ends cut to an angle and put down to fit
neatly together. Both scantling and strips were secured by large iron spikes.
At first the road worked finely, but heavy locomotives and freight cars
caused springing and sagging in places, and soon the ends of the strips began to
turn up – these were called “snake heads.” And sometimes a wheel would so strike
these that instead of being run over, the “snake heads” would run up through the
car and tumble locomotive or car off the track. It was no uncommon thing to see a
locomotive over in a neighbor’s cornfield. Locomotives were then taken off, and
cars were propelled by horse power.
When the road was in this condition, it was announced that a camp meeting
would be held some eleven miles below Trout Run. Mary desired to attend that
meeting. But to do so, she must have her own tent – as no arrangements were made
in those days to entertain individuals or families. Although a tavern keeper, Charles
had such respect for his wife that he secured a car, loaded it with lumber for the tent
and furniture and provisions, and, taking a competent helper, proceeded to the
grounds. Charles was a small man in physical stature, but his helper was a very
large and powerful Dutchman
6
.
On the way to the camp ground, they met another car going in the opposite
direction. The man in charge insisted on Charles turning and returning to a siding
5
Scantling is broad pieces of timber used for support, as the rafters in a house. Here it was used
as a level base for the rail.
6
The term “Dutchman” was used to denote a Pennsylvania German.
58 The Chronicle 2023
where they could pass. But the siding in the other direction was nearer, and Charles
insisted upon the other man going back. But the other man, being much the larger
and more violent in disposition, was about to enforce his demand by giving Charles
a thrashing. The Dutchman looked on, and when the other man had about reached
the climax of his threatening attitude, stepped up to him and doubling up his
sledgehammer fist brought him an overhand blow upon the top his head, saying,
“You no go back? Hey! You fight little man? Hey!” And bringing another terrific
blow, he added. “You go back now?” The other man went back. The ground was
reached and the tent put up, and in due time was occupied by Mary and her children.
In 1851 they removed to Williamsport, where Charles opened a large store
of general merchandise. Here Mary enjoyed all the privileges of the church of her
choice and in November of that year rejoiced in the conversion of her husband their
eldest son. Her constant and unwavering faithfulness amid all the temptations and
annoyances of life in a country tavern had not failed to deeply impress her family.
Her home, always an open house for ministers of the Gospel, was now more than
ever the house of Methodist itinerants.
In 1859 her husband sold his store and property in Williamsport and, in
partnership with a son-in-law
7
, removed to Osceola
8
, Clearfield County, Pa., where
they felled trees and built a large steam sawmill. The houses they put up for
themselves and the mill hands constituted the beginning of the now prosperous
town. Such was Mary’s zeal and devotion to God that she had the new mill, before
the machinery was introduced, seated and furnished with a table for preaching by
the circuit preachers. A class was there formed, which met in her house until a
small church building was erected.
After the death of her husband, Mary removed to Washington City, D.C.,
where she made her home with her daughter. Her church membership was
transferred to the Metropolitan Methodist Episcopal Church. She was now eighty-
two years of age. On the 19
th
of May she walked six squares to hear the Word of
7
Elizabeth, the only daughter of Mary and Charles Drum, married Caleb Lippincott May 23, 1852.
His father (and later his brother Edward) operated a lumber mill on the family land in Rose
Valley, north of Williamsport. Caleb was born in Monmouth NJ in 1826 and died about 1867 in
Osceola, at which time Elizabeth and her parents returned to Williamsport. Elizabeth and Caleb
apparently preceded Mary and Charles to Osceola by a few years, as their two sons Charles and
William were born there in 1855 and 1859. Elizabeth later lived in Washington DC, where she
married Daniel Webster Smith in 1879. He was born 4/18/1826 in Maine and died 12/6/1888 in
the District of Columbia. Following the death of Mr. Smith, Elizabeth moved to Denver CO to live
with her son Charles and his family until her death about 1915.
8
The first Methodist church building at Osceola Mills was erected in 1870, after the Drum-
Lippincott family had returned to Williamsport. The local church history does not mention Mary
Drum by name, but does indicate that the pastor from Philipsburg held services there in the early
1860’s “in a boarding house kept by a Methodist family.”
Martin Luther Drum 59
God in her chosen church home. Having returned, she sat down to rest by an open
window. She there contracted a cold, which developed into inflammation of…
9
Appendix I – A Williamsport Connection: Lycoming College
The “Drum House” of Lycoming College
This building at the corner of Washington Boulevard and Warrior Way was
erected about 1857 by Charles and Mary Drum when they moved from Trout Run
to Williamsport. It was purchased by Williamsport Dickinson Seminary and Junior
College [now Lycoming College] in in 1931. It served as the president’s residence
from 1940 to 1965, when it was renovated to house the Fine Arts Department. After
a new Fine Arts facility was completed in in 1983, it underwent another extensive
renovation to become the Admissions House – which moved its offices into the
new Gateway House in 2019. Now the oldest building on campus, it has once more
been repurposed – this time to house the athletic offices for the college’s NCAA
sports.
Two further connections to this Williamsport campus are worth noting.
Martin Luther Drum, the 1890 author of the account of Mary’s faithfulness,
graduated from Williamsport Dickinson Seminary in 1857, and his daughter Edith
Myrtle Drum
10
served on the faculty 1890-92.
9
This is the end of the nine-page manuscript preserved in the conference archives. As the
account is nearing the end of Mary’s earthly life on May 31, 1883, at the age of eighty-two, it is
assumed that only a final page of the manuscript is missing. This is symbolic, as the stories and
influence of people like Mary Ramsey Drum never really come to end. Charles Drum (1807-
1882), Mary Ramsey Drum (1801-1883) and their son Thomas W. Drum (1840-1851) are buried in
the family plot in the Williamsport Cemetery on Washington Boulevard.
10
Edith Myrtle Drum (1865-1961) married Williamsport Dickinson Seminary student William H.G.
Gould (1869-1933), whom the family had introduced to the Christian faith and who served as
General Counsel to the denomination’s Board of Home Missions and lay delegate to several
60 The Chronicle 2023
Appendix II – Mrs. Martin Luther Drum
Besides his mother, the other woman prominent in the life of Martin Luther
Drum (1834-1898) was his wife, the former Selma Jane McMillan (1835-1927) of
Gettysburg PA. Her father David McMillan (1798-1885) was a local preacher in
the Methodist Episcopal Church, and her sister Carrie L. McMillan (1844-1932)
was a Methodist missionary to India, where she met and married noted missionary
Rev. Philo M. Buck (1826-1924). Situated on the Gettysburg battlefield, the
McMillan home was shelled and ransacked during the conflict while the family fled
for their lives.
11
Carrie was on the platform in 1863 when Lincoln delivered his
Gettysburg Address, and she lived to be one of the last surviving witnesses of that
memorable speech.
Martin Luther Drum and Selma Jane McMillan Drum are buried in the
Evergreen Cemetery in Gettysburg PA.
The McMillan House on Seminary Ridge, Gettysburg PA
General Conferences. They became the parents of Methodist preachers and leaders William
Drum Gould (1897-1992) of the East Pennsylvania Conference and Ivan M. Gould (1908-1963) of
the New York East Conference.
11
The story of the staunchly Methodist McMillan family and their ordeal during the Battle of
Gettysburg is given in the 2012 volume of The Chronicle, pages 49-52.
William Carver 61
Five Significant Letters
by William A. Carver, 1890
Introduction
William Augustus Carver (1850-1939) is considered the first historian of
the former Central Pennsylvania Conference of the Methodist
1
Church. That
Conference was formed in 1868 and existed for over 100 years, until 1970, when
the reorganization necessitated by the 1968 denominational union joined it with the
Susquehanna Conference of the Evangelical United Brethren Church to create the
Central Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Originally, most Methodist churches in Central Pennsylvania were part of
the Baltimore Conference.
2
In 1857, the large Baltimore Conference was divided
when a significant portion of the work (including all the Pennsylvania churches)
were set off to be the East Baltimore Conference. In 1868, it was decided that the
division of the Baltimore Conference had been ill-conceived and should have been
done differently – and its Maryland churches were returned to the Baltimore
Conference while its Pennsylvania churches were reorganized as the Central
Pennsylvania Conference.
In 1890, Rev. William Carver determined to write a history of the Central
Pennsylvania Conference to which he had been admitted in 1873. He wisely began
by contacting senior members of the conference and asking for written responses
to certain questions he had after reviewing the conference journals and other
resources at his disposal. This 2024 article in The Chronicle consists of five letters
written to Carver in response to his request. These original hand-written letters are
preserved in the conference archives and contain much valuable insight and
information that otherwise would have been lost. Those documents are as follows:
letter #1 – March 1, 1890, from David S. Monroe
letter #2 – May 27, 1890, from Martin L. Smyser
letter #3 – July 4, 1890, from W. Maslin Frysinger
letter #4 – August 4, 1890, from Thompson Mitchell
letter #5 – October 7, 1890, from James Curns
The result of Carver’s efforts was the masterful, if not misleadingly mis-
named 1891 Manual of the Central Pennsylvania.
3
Along with a history of the
1
This article uses the term “Methodist” to refer that denomination which was officially the
“Methodist Episcopal Church” until 1939, and then the “Methodist Church” from 1939 to 1968.
2
The northern tier of counties were served by conferences from New York until 1962 – and in
the very early years, the Genesee Conference reached as far south as Lewisburg, Union County.
3
The Manual was printed by the Mount Pleasant Printery, of J. Horace McFarland (1859-1948),
one of the most prominent and influential citizens in early 20
th
century Harrisburg. He was an
active member of the Harrisburg Grace ME church for over 75 years. The Manual appears to be
the only non-horticulture/conservation-oriented book produced by his extensive printing
company.
62 The Chronicle 2024
Conference and its agencies, and many other lists, that remarkable book includes
the following:
•summaries of each annual conference session from 1868 to 1890
•the status of every charge that ever existed from 1868 to 1890
•the complete service record of every current pastor
•the 1868-1890 pastoral record of every current charge
•accounts of the development of Methodism and the formation of circuits in
each of the five districts
Apparently, in 1868 there was tremendous (almost unanimous) opposition
within the conference to the notion of dividing the East Baltimore Conference along
state lines – and only the authoritative voice of the General Conference made the
Central Pennsylvania Conference a reality. The following paragraphs from the
beginning of Carver’s Manual provide additional background and set the stage for
the five letters. In addition, they indicate Carver’s weaving into the documented
historical facts the personal insights he received from communications with those
directly involved.
At the session of the East Baltimore Conference in 1868 it was rumored that the
Conference would be divided by state lines, that part lying in the state of Pennsylvania to
be erected into a separate Conference, and the balance re-united to the Baltimore
Conference. The subject was brought up on the first day of the session, March 11, and a
committee ordered to take the matter into consideration, consisting of Revs. J.S. Deale,
Edward Kinsey, A.W. Gibson, D.S. Monroe and John Stine.
The first meeting of this committee developed the fact of a division of sentiment, the
only member positively favoring the movement, however, being D.S. Monroe. Two
others were undecided at first, but were finally won over, “reluctantly,” to the side of the
opponents of the measure, and a report prepared accordingly. The journal says, “After
several motions with reference to the disposition of this report had been made, the
Conference ordered the question to be taken up without (further) debate, whereupon
the report of the committee was adopted.” The almost unanimous character of the vote
revealed the fact that the Conference, as a whole, was “uncompromisingly opposed to
division or dismemberment.”
The election of delegates to the General Conference, which was to meet in Chicago the
following May, was doubtless largely influenced by this question, if, indeed, it was not the
dominant issue, as Bishop Clark, who presided, was believed to favor the division, while
the delegates elected were thought to be strongly opposed and were instructed to vote
against it.
4
Furthermore, the Baltimore Conference, greatly weakened by the withdrawal
of a large portion of its members to the Southern church in 1861, naturally favored such
a scheme, and the interest taken in the question by its delegates during the General
4
Note that D.S. Monroe, who had favored the division, was not elected a delegate – even though
he was a relatively prominent member of the Conference
William Carver 63
Conference was proof to that effect. Rumors were afloat prior to the meeting of the
General Conference that Bishop Ames
5
was also interested and favored the division.
The Baltimore delegation consisted of Revs. Lanahan, W.B. Edwards and S.V. Blake;
and the East Baltimore delegation of Revs. B.H. Crever, Spottswood, France, Mitchell,
Barnhart, Dosh and Slicer.
6
The former, who were represented on the Committee on
Boundaries by Blake, worked skillfully and untiringly, and as the results showed,
successfully. The latter were represented by Crever, who, though he championed his
cause nobly, did not awake to a full realization of the situation until the current had set
in the direction of division, when it was too late to stop it… Although the entire East
Baltimore delegation voted solidly against the report of the Commission which declared
and defined the division, yet one of its own members explained on the floor of the
Conference that he did so because so instructed.
7
This report was adopted May 26, 1868, during the last and busiest days of the session.
Henry Slicer
8
moved a reconsideration... An effort to table his motion having failed, it was
adopted by a vote of 95 to 76. He then moved to amend the report by adding the
words…”including Harrisburg,” but it was vigorously opposed
9
and, on motion of L.
Hitchcock,
10
indefinitely postponed. Defeated in the effort to secure the wish of his own
Conference, yet with true loyalty to the church’s highest voice of authority, Thompson
Mitchell moved the “re-adoption of the lines of the two Conferences,” which prevailed.
Thus the action was complete, the division made, the East Baltimore Conference ceased
to exist and the Central Pennsylvania Conference was established.
5
At this time, bishops served the entire church and there were no designated episcopal areas.
Bishop Edward R. Ames (1806-1879) was one of the bishops officiating at the 1868 session of the
Baltimore Conference.
6
The size of the delegations (3 for Baltimore, 7 for East Baltimore) reflects the numerical
strength of the Conferences.
7
That instruction was not legally binding, and delegates to Annual, Jurisdictional and General
Conferences have always been free to vote their consciences – although they have to face their
constituents after the conferences.
8
Henry Slicer (1801-1874) was one of the East Baltimore Conference delegates instructed to vote
against the division. Resigned to accept the division, he apparently asked for the reconsideration
to introduce the change in wording given in the next sentence – and not as an attempt to reverse
the decision. Curiously, note that Slicer voted against the division which the General Conference
approved, while Robert’s Rules states that a motion to reconsider can be brought only by
someone who voted in favor of the action under discussion.
9
The new Central Pennsylvania Conference as approved (with the Susquehanna River as its
southeastern boundary) would include no major, nationally recognized defining city – and so
Slicer moved to include Harrisburg. This sensible adjustment, which failed to pass the 1868
General Conference, was made a reality by the following 1872 General Conference – and those
details are very well presented in Maser’s authoritative 1971 Methodism in Central Pennsylvania,
which introduces the entire volume on pages 3 to 6 with “The Fight for Harrisburg.” In the
reorganization necessitated by the 1968 formation of the United Methodist Church, the
boundaries were further extended to include all of Dauphin County.
10
Luke Hitchcock (1813-1898), head of the Rock River Conference delegation, had no vested
interest in the decision and apparently so acted in order to keep the meeting moving.
64 The Chronicle 2024
letter #1 – March 1, 1890, from David S. Monroe
Altoona, Pa. March 1, 1890
Dear Brother Will,
Yours to hand. At the session of the East Baltimore Conference 1868, it
was rumored that the Conference would be divided by state lines. The subject
was brought up on the first day of the session, Wednesday, March 11, 1868, and a
committee ordered and the next day announced as follows: John S. Deale
11
,
Edward Kinsey
12
, A.W. Gibson
13
, D.S. Monroe
14
, John Stine
15
.
The first meeting of the Committee developed a division of sentiment:
Deale and Kinsey against, Monroe for, and Gibson and Stine undecided. Other
meetings were held, Gibson and Stine were won over reluctantly, and I agreed not
to present a minority report and not to sign the majority report. After making a
brief statement to the Conference, I voted in the Conference against its adoption.
The journal says, “After several motions with reference to the disposition of this
report had been made, the Conference ordered the question to be taken without
(further) debate, whereupon the report of the Committee was adopted.”
My impression is the majority in favor of the report was large. Of course
the report was against division. Bishop Clark, if I recollect, favored division. The
11
John S. Deale (1825-1885) was born in Maryland, joined the Baltimore Conference in 1849 and
was a charter member of the East Baltimore Conference in 1857. All his appointments were
south of Pennsylvania and he returned to the Baltimore Conference in 1869.
12
Edward Kinsey (1829-1877) was born in Maryland, joined the Baltimore Conference in 1853
and was a charter member of the East Baltimore Conference in 1857. He only ever served one
appointment in Pennsylvania, Hanover 1859-61, and he returned to the Baltimore Conference in
1869.
13
Andrew W. Gibson was born in Pennsylvania, joined the Baltimore Conference in 1851, and
was a charter member of the East Baltimore Conference in 1857. All his East Baltimore
Conference appointments were in Pennsylvania, and he opted to become a charter member of
the Central Pennsylvania Conference in 1869.
14
David S. Monroe (1833-1910) was born in Virginia, joined the Baltimore Conference in 1854
and was a charter member of the East Baltimore Conference in 1857. He was serving Lewistown
PA in 1869 and became a charter member of the Central Pennsylvania Conference by boundary
change. He became prominent in the new conference and has a biographical sketch in Simpson’s
1881 Cyclopedia of Methodism. He is the writer of this letter.
15
John S. Stine (1813-1898) was born in Virginia, joined the Baltimore Conference in 1836 and
was a charter member of the East Baltimore Conference in 1857. He was serving Williamsburg
PA in 1869 and became a charter member of the Central Pennsylvania Conference by boundary
change.
William Carver 65
delegates
16
to the General Conference were B.H. Crever
17
, W.L. Spottswood
18
, J.
France
19
, T. Mitchell
20
, T. Barhnart
21
, J.H.C. Dosh
22
, H. Slicer
23
.
After the division. Sometime in the autumn, the presiding elders – James
Curns, T. Barnhart, B.H. Crever, W.L. Spottswood – met, I think in
Northumberland, and requested me to act as secretary until the meeting of the
Conference, assuring me that they represented the wish of the preachers. I
accepted and prepared the necessary documents.
As to the Conference paper, I think if we are to have one it should have a
Stock Company behind it with a capital of from $5000 to $10,000. If we have
16
Of the seven elected delegates, all prominent and respected members of the Conference, two
of them did not make the trip to Chicago – and they were not replaced by the elected alternates.
In the 1800’s it was not uncommon for Conferences, especially those distant from the site of the
General Conference, to have less than a full delegation in attendance. As there was no lay
representation (or female clergy) at that time, these were all ordained males.
17
Benjamin Heck Crever (1817-1890) joined the Baltimore Conference in 1840 and was a charter
member of the East Baltimore Conference in 1857 and of the Central Pennsylvania Conference in
1868. He was the 1848 founding President of Williamsport Dickinson Seminary and the 1874
founding President of Worthington Seminary in the Minnesota Conference.
18
Wilson L. Spottswood (1822-1892) joined the Baltimore Conference in 1843 and was a charter
member of the East Baltimore Conference in 1857 and of the Central Pennsylvania Conference in
1868. He served as President of Williamsport Dickinson Seminary 1869-74 and as District
Superintendent of three different districts.
19
Joseph France (1819-1889) joined the Baltimore Conference in 1842 and was a charter
member of the East Baltimore Conference in 1857. He opted to return to the Baltimore
Conference when the East Baltimore Conference was dissolved in 1869. He was one of the two
elected delegates that appears not to have attended.
20
Thompson Mitchell (1817-1897) joined the Baltimore Conference in 1839 and was a charter
member of the East Baltimore Conference in 1857 and of the Central Pennsylvania Conference in
1869. He served as the President of Williamsport Dickinson Seminary 1860-69 and as the District
Superintendent of five different districts. He has a biographical sketch in Simpson’s 1891
definitive Cyclopedia of Methodism. In 1890, Thompson Mitchell was one of most authoritative
and respected persons in the Central Pennsylvania Conference. He was Carver’s primary source
of information because he was the only one of the 1868 delegates still available – Crever,
Barnhart and Slicer were deceased, and Spottswood was living in Kansas City MO.
21
Thomas Barnhart (1823-1880) joined the Baltimore Conference in 1845 and was a charter
member of the East Baltimore Conference in 1857 and of the Central Pennsylvania Conference in
1869.
22
John H.C. Dosh (1821-1888) joined the Baltimore Conference in 1848 and was a charter
member of the East Baltimore Conference in 1857. He opted to return to the Baltimore
Conference when the East Baltimore Conference was dissolved in 1869. He was one of the two
elected delegates that appears not to have attended.
23
Henry Slicer (1801-1874) joined the Baltimore Conference in 1821 and was a charter member
of the East Baltimore Conference in 1857. He served as a District Superintendent in multiple
districts in both conferences, and he opted to return to the Baltimore Conference when the East
Baltimore Conference divided in 1869.
66 The Chronicle 2024
any at all, it should be first class and start with a subscription list of at least 5000.
It should certainly not be inferior to the ones issued by Baltimore, Philadelphia or
Wilmington – they are ordinary enough. The salary of the editor should be not
less than $1200 and house rent. (I do not know who are named authoritatively as
editor except yourself. I have not given your article in “The News” a very close
reading, but my impression from one reading is favorable. I understand the
matter of your editorship was more freely talked of at Clearfield during District
Conference.)
Any help I can give you toward a Manual will be cheerfully furnished.
With kindest regards to all.
Yours as ever,
Monroe
letter #2 – May 27, 1890, from Martin L. Smyser
Bedford, Pa. May 27, 1890
Dear Brother Carver,
In reply to your favor of such data, I would say that I have but little
information to give concerning the organization of the Central Pennsylvania
Conference Historical Society. The General Conference of 1884 (see appendix of
Discipline, ¶ 7, paragraphs 364 & 365) recommended to the several Annual
Conferences the organization of such societies. Prior to that, however, in 1876
the Central Pennsylvania Conference took action by appointing D.S. Monroe, J.B.
Young
24
, S.M. Frost
25
, J.S. McMurray
26
& J.H. McGarrah
27
(see Conference
Minutes 1876, page 12) a Committee on the Organization of a Historical Society.
The Committee subsequently reported (see Report, Minutes 1876, page 48) and
the brethren above named were appointed to prepare and publish a Constitution
(see Minutes 1876, page 24).
Whether that Committee ever reported to the Conference I have no means
of learning. Possibly Dr. Monroe can inform you. Neither do I know by what
action of the Conference officers for the Conference Historical Society were
appointed in 1881 (see Officers of Conference in Minutes of 1881). Dr. Frost was
the president of this shadowy society until in 1887 when I was appointed
president.
24
Jesse Bowman Young (1844-1914) was the son a Methodist Pastor and the author of several
devotional and historical books housed in the conference archives.
25
Samuel Milton Frost (1825-1906) was born in North Carolina and started his ministry in the
North Carolina Conference of the ME South. He transferred to the Central Pennsylvania
Conference in 1872. He may have been included on this Committee because of his previous
experience as a teacher and college president.
26
Jacob Snyder McMurray (1821-1885) died while superintendent of the Juniata District.
27
James H. McGarrah (1830-1899) retired to Ennisville in 1897 and is buried in the Manor Hill
Cemetery.
William Carver 67
At the Conference of 1888 I had arranged for an anniversary of the society
in order to bring the subject more fully to the attention of the Conference & the
churches generally. Addresses were made by Dr. B.H. Crever and Rev. J.
Guyer.
28
The officers also met at my call and the paper presented to & adopted
by the Conference (see Minutes 1888, pages 38 & 39) was the result of our
deliberations.
The Committee appointed to prepare a Constitution reported at the next
Conference, since which time I have had no official connection with the
organization – but it has been managed by H.C. Pardoe
29
, presiding elder of the
Harrisburg District, who can give you all the needed information.
Glad to hear that you are happy in your new appointment.
30
May great
success crown your labors. My family is well. William
31
, who is now a member
of the Williamsport faculty, will take unto himself a help meet in the near future.
Kind regards to your family.
Yours as ever,
M.L. Smyser
32
28
There appears to be no mention of any such addresses in the 1888 Conference Minutes, and
“Rev. J. Guyer” cannot be identified with certainty. In 1888 there were two ordained Guyer
brothers in the Central Pennsylvania Conference: Asbury Weston Guyer (1832-1899) and George
Guyer (1812-1891). It seems likely that retired pastors would be asked to give such addresses –
and since Crever retired in 1886 and George Guyer retired in 1888, the most probable
explanation is that Smyser mistakenly used the initial J in place of G.
29
Hiles C. Pardoe (1839-1919) is listed in the 1916 Who’s Who in American Methodism. In 1892
he would replace M.L. Smyser at Bedford.
30
At the March 1890 Annual Conference, Carver was moved from Warrior’s Mark to
McConnellsburg.
31
William Emory Smyser (1866-1935) had attended Williamsport Dickinson Seminary and
graduated from Wesleyan University in Connecticut in 1889. In 1890 he was returning briefly to
Williamsport Dickinson Seminary to teach Latin and Rhetoric before joining the faculties at
Northwestern University, DePauw University, and finally Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware
OH – where served beginning in 1900 for 35 years, first as a professor of English and then as
Dean.
32
Martin Luther Smyser (1841-1900) died while serving as superintendent of the Altoona District
and is buried in his native York County.
68 The Chronicle 2024
letter #3 – July 4, 1890, from W. Maslin Frysinger
The Baltimore Methodist July 4, 1890
6 East Lexington Street
Dear Brother Carver,
I have several times attempted to reply to your letter, but have been
prevented for a time by prostration, and since by work – and can do so only in a
very unsatisfactorily way.
In 1874, I was appointed Sunday School and Book Agent for Central
Pennsylvania Conference. Being in feeble health and residing in York, Pa., from
which point I made trips in various directions canvassing for the sale of Methodist
Episcopal books, I found our Methodist families and Sunday Schools sadly
destitute of their own church literature. During ’75 I resided in Lewistown, and
from there circulated quite a number of our books and periodicals, to aid in which
I issued a little sheet entitled “The Conference News,” announcing it as “Vol. 1,
No. 1, and the only one.” The business increased in my hands, and the following
year (’76) I removed to Harrisburg and with the assistance of J.K. Shiffer
33
(now
Rev., of the Upper Iowa Conference) established a somewhat more pretentious
business in Methodist books and periodicals.
In June 1877, a stock company was formed, and the Conference Book
Room was formally organized. In the meantime, “The Conference News” was
published regularly as a monthly paper, chiefly with a view of advertising the
business. From that time you can doubtless trace the particulars by means of the
Minutes and a file of “The News.” I am sorry I have neither the time or strength
to give you more.
Wishing you every success,
Yours truly,
W. Maslin Frysinger
34
33
James Knox Shiffer (1844-1916) was born in Broadheadsville, Moroe County, and graduated
from the Evangelical Association’s Union Seminary in New Berlin in 1869, and from the
Methodist’s Dickinson College in Carlisle in 1873. After his work in Harrisburg, he served as
principal of the New Hampshire Conference Seminary and Female College 1877-79 before joining
the Upper Iowa Conference in 1879.
34
William Maslin Frysinger (1840-1933) was born in Hanover PA and admitted to the East
Baltimore Conference in 1860. During his career, which included both pastoral assignments and
administrative positions, he transferred freely back and forth between the Central Pennsylvania
and Baltimore Conferences. He served as president of Centenary Biblical Institute 1882-89 as
editor of The Baltimore Methodist newspaper 1889-94. Centenary Biblical Institute was
established in Baltimore by the Methodists as a college for African Americans in 1867 and is now
Morgan State University. Frysinger is listed in the 1916 Who’s Who in American Methodism.
William Carver 69
letter #4 – August 4, 1890, from Thompson Mitchell
Williamsport, Pa. August 4, 1890
Rev. W.A. Carver
Dear Brother,
Yours of the 1
st
instant in hand. Your “understanding” that “when the East
Baltimore Conference existed there was no Baltimore Conference” is wrong. The
Baltimore Conference was formed in 1802, when the whole work in America was
divided into seven Annual Conferences, of which Baltimore was one. Since then
there has ever been a Baltimore Conference, and since 1861 when the larger part
of the Baltimore Conference went to the Southern Church, there have been two –
the Southern seceders from the Conference in Staunton, Va., in 1861 (Bishop
Scott presiding) taking the Conference Journals with them, John S. Martin being
the Secretary.
This of course greatly weakened our Baltimore Conference, taking most of
the Virginia territory and a good deal of Maryland. The General Conference of
1856 authorized the Baltimore Conference to divide itself at its next session, the
presiding Bishop concurring. Accordingly, what was considered a fair division of
the whole work was made in 1857. The Baltimore Conference had most of
Baltimore city west of the “falls”, Washington, and the Southern ministers.
There were not “two factions or parties” in the East Baltimore Conference
in 1868 when the Central Pennsylvania Conference was created at the General
Conference in Chicago. Had been none at any time. I think there were not six
men in the Conference that favored division, or rather [illegible]. If there were,
they kept very quiet.
So you see Lanahan
35
, Edwards
36
and Blake
37
represented the Baltimore
Conference – and Crever, Spottswood, Mitchell, Barnhart and Slicer the East
Baltimore Conference.
38
Dr. Crever, our Committee man on Boundaries was an able noble man, but
was not a match for this Committee man Blake on Boundaries in activity and
shrewdness – else I think the result might have been different. Can’t go into
35
John Lanahan (1815-1903) joined the Baltimore Conference in 1838 and represented it at
every General Conference from 1856 to 1900.
36
William B. Edwards (1809-1888) joined the Baltimore Conference in 1830. He was given an
honorary Doctor of Divinity by Dickinson College in 1856 and offered the chair of their
Department of Philosophy in 1868 – a position he declined to remain in the pastoral ministry. He
was actually elected as a reserve delegate, but he attended in place of delegate Nicholas J.B.
Morgan who chose not to make the trip to Chicago.
37
Samuel V. Blake (1814-1871) joined the Baltimore Conference in 1835 and began his ministry
with several Pennsylvania appointments in Bedford, Clearfield and Centre counties. While
assigned to Lewistown in 1850 he preached the funeral discourse for Jacob Gruber. All that area
was in the Baltimore Conference until 1857.
38
The 3-5 ratio for delegates to General Conference is only partially indicative of the relative
sizes of the two conferences – as the ratio would have been 3-7, but for the two of East
Baltimore elected delegates that did not make the trip to Chicago and were not replaced.
70 The Chronicle 2024
details. Perhaps ought not to have said this much. Consider this as for your
[illegible].
Hoping you may be completely [illegible] in your work.
Remaining yours truly,
Thompson Mitchell
letter #5 – October 7, 1890, from James Curns
Huntingdon, Pa. October 7, 1890
Dear Brother Carver,
Yours received. I am unable to give you the amount of money loaned by
our Educational Society,
39
but if you will drop a card to Brother Smyser at
Bedford who is now the Treasurer of the Society, he can give you the amount – at
least approximately, as he has the accounts, notes and other data from which to
give you the desired information.
The rule in our Conference for a while after the organization of the
Educational Society was to give the collections taken for general educational
purposes in the congregations to our Society, and Children’s Day collections to
New York. But under General Conference arrangement (see Discipline 1888,
¶344,§§5-7) we have been dividing equally between our Society and New York.
But I propose at the coming session of our Conference to ask that, in view of the
great demands upon us, and the present embarrassed condition of our Treasury,
for the next year or two the whole amount of our collections be paid to our
Society (Discipline ¶344,§5).
The manipulation of the funds is this. The money is paid to the
Conference Treasurer. In order to get aid, the applicant signs the necessary
papers as requested by the Constitution; must be recommended by his Quarterly
Conference; and give money payable at his convenience – but if not paid within
two years after leaving school, it is to bear interest at 5 per cent. The money paid
out as such note is not paid directly to the applicant to be used by him as he may
see fit, but it is paid to the President of the Seminary or College and applied to his
bills. The Conference Treasurer holds these notes till paid or otherwise disposed
of by the Board, according to the Constitution.
Yours fraternally,
James Curns
40
39
The Educational Society is one of many Conference societies and organizations for which
Carver gives a brief history and an accounting of its policies. It is likely that this letter is typical of
many others that did not survive from persons that Carver contacted for comments on the other
societies and organizations covered in his 1891 Manual.
40
James Curns (1824-1891) passed away while still in the active pastorate less than 15 months
after responding to Carver. A charter member of both the East Baltimore and Central
Pennsylvania Conferences, and one of the original district superintendents in the latter, he was a
person involved in and familiar with much of the business of the Annual Conference.
Marie Hasenpflug 71
Greetings from China
by Marie T. Hasenpflug, 1908
editor’s note: This communication is presented as representative of the
many missionary letters preserved in the conference archives. This specific letter
comes from the Evangelical branch of United Methodism – in particular from the
United Evangelical
1
branch. It was written by Miss Marie Hasenpflug
2
to the
Women’s Missionary Society at Trinity United Evangelical Church
3
in York PA.
The 1906 ‘Directory of Protestant Missionaries in China, Japan and Corea
[sic]’ lists the following personnel for the United Evangelical Church Mission in
Hunan province, each of whom will be further identified when mentioned in the
letter.
Changsha – Rev. C. Newton Dubs and wife; Miss M.T. Hasenpflug
Siangtan – Rev. C.C. Talbott and wife; Rev. H.E. Voss
Liling – Rev. M.E. Ritzman; Rev. A.I. Ferch and wife
Mrs. M.I. Jamison
4
Changsha, China
239 E. King Street May 8, 1908
York, Penna.
My dear Friends,
Greetings to one and all the members of the W.M.S. of Trinity Church!
Ever since receiving the thoughtful and generous box which you so kindly
sent us I have been wanting to write you, but so much has happened that it has
been impossible to find time.
The box came on the same steamer which brought our dear fellow workers
back from the homeland to again join us in the work out here. We also welcome
1
The United Evangelical Church was a split in the Evangelical Church that existed from 1894 to
1922 and included almost all of the work in Central Pennsylvania.
2
Marie Theresa Hasenpflug (1868-1956) was born in Ohio – daughter of Rev. George Hasenpflug
(1834-1896), a native of Germany and a member of the Ohio Conference of the United
Evangelical Church. While the Hasenpflug family has no direct connection to Central
Pennsylvania, Marie was supported by the York Trinity Congregation, and the letter references
persons with Central Pennsylvania connections. She is buried with her parents in Cleveland OH.
3
The Trinity congregation at 241 E. King Street began in 1871 when 57 members of Queen Street
withdrew to form an “English mission” and erected a frame building at the present location. The
congregation became United Evangelical during the denominational split and erected the existing
brick building in 1896 – which was enlarged in 1906. In 2013, York Trinity UMC merged into York
Fourth UMC (which had formerly been United Brethren).
4
Rev. Milton Irvin Jamison (1859-1920) served York Trinity 1907-1911. Mrs. Jamison, nee Rosa
Emma Keen (1862-1935), has deep denominational roots – being the niece of Rev. Christian F.
Deininger (1826-1888), the sister of Rev. Emmanuel D. Keen (1849-1917), and the aunt of Rev.
Paul E. Keen (1888-1958).
72 The Chronicle 2024
Miss Poling
5
with much joy and thankfulness. When they came it seemed as if
there was less time than ever, for there was so much to be arranged and planned.
We had a Mission Meeting for the purpose of organizing our Mission and now
feel as if we were on a better basis for effective work. As you will notice Mr. and
Mrs. Talbott
6
returned to Siangtan, Rev. Voss
7
is at Liling and Rev. Ritzman
8
is to
come to Changsha. This divides up our number but does not really properly man
any one station. We are glad that more reinforcements are to come to us in the
fall.
I have not words with which to thank you as I should like to for the
beautiful gifts you enclosed in the box for me. Every one is a welcome and most
useful present, and I thank you not only for the tokens but for the thoughts and
loving good wishes which prompted the sending of this box to me. May you be
richly blessed for all the acts of kindness, of love and self-denial which you are
giving to the Church and to Him whom we serve!
Saturday afternoon, or rather at noon, on April 25
th
we had an accident to
the school building which alarmed us greatly at the time. While at tiffin
9
my
house woman came over to tell me that a wall of the school-room had fallen.
Hurrying over we found it true and the girls were trying to pull the desks and
chairs from under the debris. We called them away just it time from having the
greater part of the wall fall on them. It was very fortunate that it did not happen at
night for the two servants and a pupil were sleeping up-stairs and would have
been seriously hurt. As it was no one was harmed, for which we are so thankful.
The Chinese would have blamed us had any one suffered. Again we see the
Lord’s Hand leading. As you know the school has been housed in an old Chinese
5
Miss Irene Poling (1878-1967) was from Johnstown PA. In April 1910 there was rioting at
Changsha, and Miss Poling was feared dead – but it was later discovered she had married Edwin
A. Beck (1875-1960), a missionary of the Reformed Church, in March and had relocated to
another mission.
6
Rev. Charles C. Talbott (1875-1962) was a member of the Nebraska Conference. He and Mrs.
Talbott, nee Carrie Wengert (1883-1924) of Lebanon PA, met while students at Albright College.
They have papers in the United Methodist Historical Center at Nebraska Wesleyan University.
7
Herman Ehrenreich Voss (1873-1951) was also a member of the Nebraska Conference and has
papers in the United Methodist Historical Center at Nebraska Wesleyan University. He came to
America with his parents at the age of nine and settled in Amherst NE. In 1899 he was licensed
by the Central Pennsylvania Conference while attending the Central Pennsylvania College of the
United Evangelical Church in New Berlin PA. When the denomination opened Westmar College
in LeMars IA in 1900, he transferred there and graduated in 1904. His first wife, nee Lilla Snyder,
served in China 1905-15 and died there. His second wife, nee Sadie Dunkelberger (1883-1961)
served in China 1912-27.
8
Michael Erwin Ritzman (1880-1947) was a member of the East Pennsylvania Conference. He
was born in Gratz, Dauphin County, and served in China 1903-1922. While there, he married
missionary Miss Daisy Shaffer from Western Pennsylvania. They would have three daughters,
two of whom married pastors. Dr. Ritzman served as a professor in the Hunan Union Theological
School and later at the Evangelical School of Theology in Reading.
9
Tiffin is a South Asian English word referring to a mid-day light meal.
Marie Hasenpflug 73
house which has walls of mud-brick. During the rainy weather we have been
having these walls soaked and therefore [they] gave way. This made the entire
house unsafe and so we had to take all the girls away at once. Being unable to
rent a house we were obliged to close school much to our regret. It was very hard
to send the girls to their homes and they too were loathe to go. This deprives us
of quarters for the school but we are hoping to rent a place before next fall so the
girls will not miss a whole year of time. Since closing school I have been busy
storing things away for the summer and having the school bedding washed up and
ready for use as soon as we can find a house.
You will regret to hear that Mrs. Dubs
10
has not been well for a couple
weeks. She is much better and we trust almost free from the rheumatism which
has troubled her. It was so hard to have her ill just when we thought she had
returned to our midst. It is good to have her about again and improving hopefully.
Miss Poling seems to enjoy her study greatly and “digs away”, as we say,
faithfully. The Chinese friends are much amused by her language of signs which
[she] must of course still use. “Signs and wonders.”
Miss Snyder
11
has gone to Siangtan to be with Mr. and Mrs. Talbott while
continuing her study. We miss her here very much.
With renewed thanks and best of wished to you all and wishing your
society much success and many rich blessings, I remain
Yours in His Service,
Marie T. Hasenpflug
Miss Marie Hasenpflug Mrs. Emma Hasenpflug Dubs
(1868-1956) (1862-1914)
missionary to China missionary to China
10
Rev. Charles Newton Dubs (1862-1936) was the son of Bishop Rudolph Dubs (1837-1915),
leader of the dissenters that became the United Evangelical Church and who is buried in
Harrisburg. C. Newton Dubs is reported to have been the first white man to live within the
walled city of Changsha and feared for his life on several occasions. Before going to China, he
lived in Harrisburg and was editor of the denomination’s German newspaper. Mrs. Dubs, nee
Emma Matilda Hasenpflug (1862-1914), was a sister to Marie, the author of this letter.
11
Miss Lilla Snyder married Herman Voss later that year in Hankow, and they took up their
residence in Liling. She died in China in 1915.
74 The Chronicle 2023
New United Brethren Church
by W.W. Longacre, 1915
The following postcard is part of the collection at the conference archives.
The card is postmarked June 6, 1910, and addressed to David Portzline, Port
Trevorton, Pa. The message reads as follows:
On the surface, the card seems unworthy of a place in the archives – let alone being
selected for recognition in this volume of The Chronicle. But four factors combine
to make this card of special interest: the postmark, the photo and description on the
front of the card, the sender, and the recipient.
The Postmark
The postmark is “Mount Pleasant Mills” – and there is confusion to this day
over the names “Fremont” and “Mount Pleasant Mills.” Fremont was the name of
the town in Perry township, Snyder County PA, on PA 35 about one mile west of
PA 104 that was laid out in 1853 and named after the popular Rocky Mountain
explorer General John Charles Fremont (1813-1890). Mount Pleasant Mills was a
gathering of buildings around a grist and flour mill along PA 104 south of PA 35.
Dear Br:
I will be down for the cherries on Thursday P.M. Leave about
12 or 15 quarts if you can spare them. We expect to go away on
Sat. to spend the day so want the cherries on Thursday the 9
th
to
do them up on Friday. Yours Truly.
W.W. Longacre
Forrest & Grace
W.W. Longacre 75
As early as 1885 there was a post office in Mount Pleasant Mills, and the post office
of that name is now in the town of Fremont. As reported in the 1948 county
history,
1
“The two places together are generally known as Mt. Pleasant Mills.” The
former United Brethren Church in the town, is still known in conference records as
Fremont Emmanuel UMC.
The Front of the Card
The story behind this 1909 dedication is told in The Religious Telescope.
2
Because that article gives information about the building and the congregation that
does not appear in subsequent publications, it is given below in its entirety.
1
George F. Dunkelberger, The Story of Snyder County, page 86.
2
The Religious Telescope, September 29, 1909, page 13.
76 The Chronicle 2023
REDEDICATION OF EMANUEL CHURCH
Sunday, August 22, 1909 was a gala day for the people of Fremont, it being the
service for the rededication of the Emanuel United Brethren church. The
propitious weather brought out many visitors from the neighboring towns and
immediate vicinity, eager to witness the exercises incident to the event, which
were inspiring and successfully carried out and long to be cherished in the
memories of those who participated.
The corner-stone was laid on Tuesday evening, August 17, at eight o'clock, by
the pastor, Rev. H.F. Reber.
3
The first United Brethren congregation was
organized and a building erected in 1851 in Potato Valley, where for eleven years
the congregation worshiped, when it was sold to Perry Township and used as a
schoolhouse. In 1865 the church in Fremont was built and the congregation
prospered. The trustees were, John Fisher, Napoleon Brosius, and Elias Miller.
During the past few years the membership of this church became so small in
numbers that they could not give sufficient support to a pastor, and the building
was allowed to become dilapidated and the same was sold at public sale; but the
new pastor on the Middleburg Circuit, Rev. H.F. Reber, with renewed energy and
being imbued with the spirit to work in upbuilding his Master's kingdom, held
revival meetings last winter and the result was that eighteen members constituted
the congregation. The old building being almost untenantable, preparations were
made in the spring to remodel and otherwise improve the appearance of the
church, and a building committee was chosen who set to work toward its
consummation. The committee comprised Dr. W.W. Longacre, president; Henry
Howell, secretary; Michael Mengel, treasurer.
The new church is semi-Gothic in architecture, neatly furnished with semi-
circular seats and has a capacity for about three hundred people. The tower on
the north-west corner, through which entrance is made, rises in graceful
proportions to the height of forty-five feet, in which hangs the bell which
surmounted the College of Music, Freeburg.
There are fifteen beautiful memorial windows which adorn the church, and
were presented by the following: in memory of Napoleon Brosius and wife, by
George F. Brosius; in memory of John Rathfon, by son, Oliver Rathfon and wife; in
memory of John Fisher, by his wife, Catherine; in memory of George Rehrer and
Polly Mengel, presented by the congregation; in memory of Catherine Smith, by
her son, W.S. Smith; A.G. Garman and family; Miss Katie A. Arnold; Rev. H.F. Reber
and family; Elmer Troup and family; M.A. Mengel and family; Dr. W.W. Longacre
and wife; John N. Brosius and family; W.H. Newman and family; Isaac W. Longacre
and family; Henry Howell and family.
3
Rev. Howard F. Reber (1888-1914) was truly a remarkable young man whose ministry was cut
short two weeks after his twenty-sixth birthday. The story of this couple is told in the article
“Mrs. Esther (Weidner) Reber” in the 2021 volume of The Chronicle, pages 73-83.
W.W. Longacre 77
The Sender
Dr. William Wellington Longacre MD (1865-1921) was a prominent
physician in early twentieth century Snyder County and an active United Brethren
layman. The following excerpts from his newspaper obituary
4
give the details.
DR. W.W. LONGACRE’S BUSY CAREER IS ENDED
ONE OF COUNTY’S LEADING PROFESSIONAL MEN SUC-
CUMBED AT HOME. MORE THAN 1000 ATTEND FUNERAL.
Dr. W.W. Longacre, one of the representative citizens of Snyder county, died
Thursday night of last week at his home in Mount Pleasant Mills, and was buried
on Monday afternoon.
More than a thousand people attended the obsequies, which was the largest
funeral ever known to have been held in that part of the county. The services
were held in the United Brethren Church there and interment was made in the
adjoining cemetery.
Dr. Longacre was the son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Longacre. His mother
was Miss Mary A. Witmer, of Union township. The deceased man was born at
Verdilla on October 9, 1865, being 55 years old at the time of his death. Dr.
Longacre married Miss Katie M. Houser, also of Union township, on September 2,
1894. Dr. Longacre was long an active and influential member of the United
Brethren Church in Mount Pleasant Mills.
Dr. Longacre as a practitioner of medicine was one of the successful
professional men of the county. He brought into his profession so much of his
kind personality, which was often as potent as medicine in restoring the health of
patients.
[His brother] was made the Democratic member of the board of county
commissioners two years ago, but died in March. Dr. Longacre thereupon
resigned his postmastership in Mount Pleasant Mills that he might be eligible to
the appointment as his brother’s successor. He sought the position that he might
give all the salary of the office to his brother’s widow. He was commissioner only
a few weeks, until he succumbed to lung trouble against which he had made a
brave fight for many years.
While the Susquehanna Conference archives have an extensive collection
of church postcards,
5
it is particularly gratifying to have one of a church dedication
that was sent by someone instrumental in that very event.
4
A scan of the full obituary is given on W.W. Longacre’s findagrave site, but there is no citation.
5
The postcard collection may be viewed at the archives website susumcarchives.org.
78 The Chronicle 2023
The Recipient
David A. Portzline (1870-1958) has ancestors and descendants of both
secular and United Brethren interest. Immigrant ancestor Francis Charles Portzline
(1771-1858) was born in Germany. When a youth, he and his mother and sister
decided to immigrate to America. The mother died at sea, but Francis and his sister
landed in Baltimore and in due time settled in York County. He eventually settled
about one mile west of Meiserville, Snyder County. It is said that he was conversant
in French, English, German and Latin – and that he also possessed artistic skills,
with a number of his birth and baptismal certificates still in demand by collectors.
6
He is buried in the Portzline Family Cemetery between Meiserville and the former
St. Thomas United Brethren Church.
One grandson of Francis was Eli Portzline (1851-1928), who in 1891
donated the land on which the St. Thomas United Brethren Church
7
was erected.
Eli is buried in the St. Thomas United Brethren cemetery. Another grandson of
Francis was David, Eli’s cousin and the recipient of the postcard. David’s son A.
Bahner Portzline (1895-1959) carried on his father’s interest in produce and started
working for the Weis brothers (Harry and Sigmund) in 1917. When the Weis Pure
Food Stores corporation was formed in 1925 the officers were: Harry Weis,
president; Sigmund Weis, vice-president and treasurer; A. Bahner Portzline,
secretary and general superintendent – a position he held for over 20 years. This
corporation is now the extensive Weis Markets, Inc., regional food retailer
headquartered in Sunbury PA.
The recipient of the postcard David Portzline and his son Bahner are buried
in the Union Cemetery in Selinsgrove.
6
George F. Dunkelberger, The Story of Snyder County, page 705-6.
7
In 1979, the congregation was split when many of the members left to form an independent St.
Thomas Church and erect a building less than one mile away. In 1983, the remaining St. Thomas
(former United Brethren) congregation united with the Daniels (former Evangelical) congregation
to form the present Daniels-St. Thomas UMC. The St. Thomas building was sold to a Mennonite
congregation.
Forrest Beachy 79
Dear Friends
by Forrest and Grace, 1925
The following postcard was given to the conference archivist by a retired
couple who had operated a small antique and collectibles business. This particular
card had intrigued the couple for many years, and they had tried without success to
identify the postmark, the senders of the card, and the fate of the child whose birth
was noted within the text. Ultimately, they decided to pass it on to someone with
more expertise in such matters, with the possibility that it might even have a United
Methodist connection.
The card is postmarked April 7, 1925, and addressed to Mr. & Mrs. T.O.
Collier, Accident Md. The message reads as follows:
On the surface, there are four unknowns to investigate: the full identity of the
recipients, the post office from which the card was mailed, the full identity of the
senders Forrest and Grace, and the fate of the baby girl whose birth was announced
in the text.
Dear Friends,
How are you all this winter. We are all getting along pretty
good. We have a nice little baby girl at our house. Came March
29. She weighed 9 pounds. We want you all [to] come down.
Forrest & Grace
80 The Chronicle 2023
Having solved similar mysteries associated with postcards in the United
Methodist postcard collection at the conference archives, the archivist was rather
quickly able to resolve the four unknowns. Even though there proved to be no
direct United Methodist connections, the story uncovered was deemed worthy to
be shared in this issue of The Chronicle dedicated to speeches, letters and articles.
The Recipients
The card is addressed to Mr. and Mrs. T.O. Collier of Accident
1
MD.
Tarleton Osborne Collier (1850-1939) was born near Somerfield
2
, Somerset
County PA. His father was Oliver Hazard Perry Collier (1819-1901), named after
the noted commander who led the American naval victory over the British on Lake
Erie in the War of 1812. As a young man, he began farming in the area called “the
Cove”
3
, just north of Accident, Garrett County MD, and married Mary Weller in
1885. Among their children were a son Joseph (1890-1977), who took over the
family farm when Tarleton retired, and a son Tarleton (1902-1904) who died as a
toddler.
Mary W. Weller Collier (1863-1926) was born in Garrett County MD – one
of nine children born to German immigrant Melchior Weller (1818-1891), and the
only one to survive her father. The Colliers and the Wellers were Lutherans, and
they are all buried in Saint John’s Lutheran Church Cemetery in Accident MD.
The Post Office
The postcard is postmarked from Frostburg MD. Frostburg is in Allegany
County MD, eight miles west of Cumberland. It was the first city west of
Cumberland on the National Road built to link the Potomac and Ohio Rivers. While
it is over 2000 feet above sea level and known for its cold weather, its name comes
from the Frost family and not from having frequent frosts.
The senders of the postcard lived in rural Grantsville, which town is the
second city west of Cumberland on the National Road and 14 miles west of
Frostburg. It is not clear why the card bears a Frostburg postmark, but their farm
may have been served by the Frostburg post office and/or they travelled to
Frostburg to do their shopping.
The Senders
The “Forrest and Grace” who sent the postcard lived in rural Grantsville
MD and were one of the numerous Beachy families in the Somerset County PA –
Garrett County MD area. Those Beachy families are descended from Peter Beachy
1
Accident MD has an interesting history, which is given the Appendix.
2
Somerfield PA has an interesting history, which is given in the Appendix.
3
The Cove MD has interesting connections, which are given in the Appendix, to both the
recipients and the senders of the postcard.
Forrest Beachy 81
IV (1753-1832), who was born in Germany and came to the area with his father in
1767. They were Amish Mennonites.
4
Forrest Fay Beachy (1897-1981) was actually born in Webster ND as his
father Joel Aaron Beachy (1873-1971) had lived there for several years circa 1900
before returning to Grantsville in Garrett County MD. A great-great-grandson of
Peter IV, Forrest was a farmer and a member of St. John’s United Church of Christ
(formerly the Reformed Church) in Grantsville.
Grace Alverta (Kamp) Beachy (1897-1974) was born and raised in the
Cove, just north of Accident MD. It was through Grace, therefore, that the Beachy
family and the Collier family, who farm was in the Cove, were connected. Forrest
and Grace Beachy are buried in the Grantsville Cemetery, as are Forrest’s parents.
Grace’s parents were lifelong Lutherans and are buried in the St. John’s English
Lutheran Church Cemetery in Accident MD.
The Baby Girl
The baby girl mentioned in the postcard was Forrest and Grace’s daughter
Dorthey Jane Beachy, born March 25, 1925 – and it is her story that adds poignant
meaning to the postcard correspondence. When she was 7 years old, she was
getting off a school bus and fatally struck by a car three days after Christmas. The
following article
5
gives the details.
LITTLE SCHOOL GIRL KILLED
BY BEING STRUCK BY AN AUTOMOBILE
GRANTSVILLE, Md. – Dec. 28. After alighting from a school bus near her grandparents’
home, Dorthey Jane Beachy, seven-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Forrest Beachy,
residing near Avilton,
6
was struck by an automobile and instantly killed last Thursday
afternoon, on the National Highway, two miles west of Grantsville.
The driver of the car, Harry O. Younkin, of Grantsville, was exonerated by a coroner’s
jury, following an inquest Friday night in Grantsville. The inquest was conducted by
State’s Attorney Walter J. Dawson, of Oakland. Gilead Broadwater was foreman of the
jury, which found that the mishap was apparently unavoidable.
The child attended a rural school and had been residing with her grandparents. The
bus, operated by Scott Duckworth, stopped in front of the Beachy home, a regular bus
stop, and the child alighted on the right side. She walked around the bus and started to
cross the road when Younkin’s car struck her. She was dragged about 75 feet before
Younkin could get his car stopped.
4
The “Amish Mennonites” may be considered liberal Amish or conservative Mennonites. There
have been many splits in those groups over the years. Some off-shoots of this persuasion are
known today as “Beachy Amish” or “Beachy Mennonites.”
5
Myersdale Republican, December 29, 1932.
6
Avilton is a rural area south of the National Road (US 40) between Frostburg and Grantsville.
82 The Chronicle 2023
Younkin immediately stopped the car and took the child’s body to Grantsville. His
uncle, George Younkin, and his daughter, Eleanor were with him. They had been visiting
in the Cove and were returning home when the child was struck.
Dr. R.N. Davis, who was summoned, said she was instantly killed. Her skull was
fractured and her legs and arms were shattered by the force of the impact. Besides her
parents, she is survived by several brothers and sisters
7
…
The funeral services were held Saturday afternoon in the Reformed Church and were
largely attended. Rev. Dr. Bash officiated; burial in the Grantsville Cemetery followed the
services in the church.
This sad occurrence cast a decided gloom upon the community, dampening the
Christmas festivities which all expected to enjoy.
The general feeling in the community is that such accidents are unnecessary and can
easily be prevented by drivers being more cautious in approaching school busses. Bus
drivers and school authorities could also help by utilizing continuous safety instruction
and deputizing some of the older pupils to alight from the busses first at discharge stops
to see that pupils do not scatter out before a clear vision of the road is had. The hope is
expressed in many quarters that a community conference will be called to go into the
matter of safety for school children. Would this not be a fitting undertaking for the
County Superintendent of Schools?
8
7
Dorthey was the 3
rd
of 6 children, the rest of whom lived to adulthood – including a brother
who was killed in Korea in 1952 at age 23, a sister who died in 2019 at the age of 96, and the last
of which was a sister who just died in 2022 at age 94.
8
It was not too many years later that flashing lights and projectable stop signs were placed on
school busses and laws were passed requiring automobiles to stop when the lights and signs
were deployed.
Forrest Beachy 83
Appendix – Three Communities Associated with the Postcard.
Accident, Garrett County MD
Accident Main Street (now US 219), looking north, circa 1904
The story as to how the town of Accident was named begins about 1751,
when a Mr. George Deakins was granted 600 acres of land by King George II of
England in payment of a debt. Deakins sent out two surveying crews, independent
of each other, to locate the best land in the area. “By accident” the two crews
identified the same land, and Deakins had it patented as “The Accident Tract.” The
town was incorporated in 1916.
Somerfield, Somerset County PA
1860 map of Somerfield, on the Youghiogheny River
84 The Chronicle 2023
Once a thriving village on the National Road, with shops and hotels and a
Methodist Church, Somerfield is now an underwater ghost town. It was founded
about 1816 by Philip Smyth. In the 1940’s, the US government bought the land,
and the remaining 176 people were forced to move. The town was then razed and
flooded as part of the construction of the Youghiogheny Dam. When the water is
low, the outline of the streets and some foundations are still visible.
The Cove, Garrett County MD
The Cove, real photo postcard by Leo J. Beachy
Leo J. Beachy (1874-1927) was a great-grandson of the aforementioned
immigrant Peter Beachy IV, and a second-cousin to Forrest’s father. He was a
teacher, write and photographer who was born and raised in Garrett County. He
took thousands of superb photographs of the area, its people and their pursuits. He
sold many as postcards at the Grantsville drug store, and National Geographic
reportedly published on of his photographs.
Unfortunately, his work was not fully recognized until decades after his
death, and his relations destroyed the majority of his glass plate negatives when
they decided to turn his studio into a chicken house. Through a remarkably
fortuitous chain of events, a niece discovered and acquired 2,700 glass plates that
had been kept by Leo’s sister. That discovery brought renewed interest and
recognition to Leo: Life Magazine published a portfolio of his photographs in
1990; a documentary titled “Leo Beachy: A Legacy Nearly Lost” has been
produced; and today the collection can be viewed at the Grantsville Museum.
B.P.S. Busey 85
Dear Folks
by B.P.S. Busey, 1926
The postcard pictured below is part of the postcard collection in the
conference archives and shown on the archives website susumcarchives.org. It is
of interest for several reasons: the picture, the message, the sender and the recipient.
86 The Chronicle 2024
The Picture
The Dillsburg charge that BPS Busey served in 1926 included four church
buildings: the one pictured above at 18 E. Harrisburg Street in Dillsburg, Arnold’s,
Chestnut Grove and Mt. Zion. While there had been a Dillsburg charge since 1887,
and a parsonage in Dillsburg beginning in 1894, it wasn’t until 1895 that a
congregation was organized in Dillsburg and the above church building erected.
Part of the funding and the part of the congregation came from selling the United
Brethren building in Franklintown to the United Brethren Old Constitution
denomination.
1
In 1968, this congregation united with the former Methodist
congregation to erect a new building on Mumper Lane. The old UB building
pictured on the postcard was then sold to the Brethren in Christ denomination and
has since been considerably enlarged.
The Message
1-20-26
Dear Folk,
Hope you are all well.
Was that your brother who died I saw in the Woodman
2
? Mr. Webster.
3
We are well. Having a nice winter. All are well and send our best.
This is my church. Love to all the friends.
As ever, your friend.
BPS Busey
The Sender
Benjamin Pitzer Sherman Busey (1865-1952) was born in West Virginia.
He was a prosperous farmer in the Matinsburg area in 1886 when he met and
married Miss Ida Gertrude Knadler (1862-1946). A few years later he yielded to
the call to ministry, discontinued farming, and entered the denomination’s
Shenandoah Institute.
4
He received his quarterly conference license (1889), annual
1
The 1889 United Brethren denominational split weakened the Dillsburg charge, with most of
the members at Franklintown and Mt. Zion siding with the Old Constitution faction and
ultimately consolidating into a single congregation in Franklintown.
2
This was a publication of Woodmen of the World, a fraternal benefit society founded in 1890.
In 1912, the new WOW building in Omaha NE was the tallest structure between Chicago and the
Pacific Ocean. The enterprise continues today as the WoodmenLife insurance company.
3
Ralph Webster (1887-1925) was a brother to Frank’s wife Zona Webster Lang (1881-1972).
Never married, he farmed with his parents, died of a bleeding ulcer, and is buried in the Wilson
Grove Cemetery near Sumner.
4
Shenandoah High School was started with unofficial United Brethren connections in 1875 in
Dayton VA. In 1876, it was renamed Shenandoah Seminary and chartered by the Virginia
Conference of the United Brethren Church. In 1884, it was purchased by the denomination and
rechartered as Shenandoah Institute. The institution eventually became Shenandoah College
and Shenandoah Conservatory of Music and moved from Dayton to Winchester in 1960. Today
B.P.S. Busey 87
conference license (1891) and ordination (1898) in the Virginia Conference of the
United Brethren Church. Apparently not afraid of new situations, he transferred to
the Northern Illinois Conference in 1898, to the Iowa Conference in 1903, and to
the Miami (Ohio) Conference in 1906 before finally transferring to the
Pennsylvania Conference in 1911 – after having served Bendersville PA for two
years while a member of the Miami Conference. He spent the rest of his ministerial
career as a member of the Pennsylvania Conference and was serving the Dillsburg
charge 1925-1929 when he sent this postcard.
While it would be tempting to assume BPS Busey met Frank Lang while he
was serving in the Iowa Conference 1903 to 1906, such is not the case. From 1914
to 1917, while a member of the Pennsylvania Conference, Busey returned to Iowa
to serve the Sumner charge, a rural multi-point charge with the parsonage in
Sumner, which included the Lang family’s nearby Finnell United Brethren Church.
After 49 years in the United Brethren ministry, Rev. and Mrs. Busey eventually
retired to the Dillsburg area, where they are buried.
The Recipient
Frank Lang (1875–1972) of Sumner IA was that town’s oldest living citizen
when he passed away 5 days before his 97
th
birthday. Before his wife of 71+ years
died earlier in the year, the couple reportedly “had been among the oldest married
couples in the United States.” A farmer, he had been active in the Finnell United
Brethren Church and Sunday School in rural Sumner, serving as a
leader/superintendent in both contexts for many years. He had also served on the
county board of commissions for 9 years and as president of the local creamery
board for 23 years. Following the 1946 union that formed the Evangelical United
Brethren denomination, the Finnell United Brethren Church merged
5
into the
Sumner Evangelical Church to form the Salem EUB [later UM] Church of Sumner.
It was to this congregation that Frank and Zona then pledged their allegiance, and
from which they were buried in the Wilson Grove Cemetery.
It may interesting to note that Frank’s father, John Lang (1851-1949), was
also Sumner’s oldest living resident when he passed away at the age of 90. The
senior Lang had been born in Germany, came with his wife to America in 1874,
and was an active member in Sumner’s Salem Evangelical Church.
Shenandoah University in Winchester VA is a United Methodist Church-affiliated institution with
a full offering of undergraduate and graduate programs.
5
This occurred in 1951 as the first merger of former UB and EV congregations in all of Iowa.
While the denominations united in 1946, separate conferences were maintained until 1951 – at
which time the merging of congregations could be readily accomplished. See John A. Nye’s 1986
Between the Rivers: A History of Iowa United Methodism, pages 100 and 120.
88 The Chronicle 2023
Dear Marion
by Aunt Catherine, 1977
The following postcard from the conference archives is of interest for at
least four reasons: the image on the card, the recipient and her location, the
recipient’s family, and the sender.
Marion Bollinger 89
The Image: Evangelical Manor
The building pictured in the post card still stands at 8401 Roosevelt
Boulevard as part of a greatly expanded retirement community loosely associated
with the United Methodist Church. Even in 1977 there was significant development
behind the main building, as the sender lives “in the apartments… built back of
this.” This benevolent endeavor in Philadelphia was founded by the Evangelical
Association in 1888 as the German Home for Aged and renamed the Evangelical
Home for the Aged in 1924. The building pictured on the postcard was erected
1930-31 and dedicated March 15, 1931. It became known as the Evangelical Manor
in 1962.
The Recipient and Her Location
Miss Marion E. Bullinger (1932–1993) was the only child of Clarence and
Mary Bullinger of State College, who will be further identified in the next section.
She resided for most of her adult life at the Martha Lloyd School, a facility for
persons with developmental disabilities, in Troy PA.
An institution of national reputation, the Martha Lloyd School was
established by Martha J. “Mattie” Lloyd (1890–1964)
1
in 1928 as boarding school
to provide a family-like environment for individuals with downs syndrome and
other developmental disabilities. What started as a farm house in the middle of
Troy has grown into 18 group homes across two counties.
At the time Mrs. Lloyd decided to found such a school, she was secretary
to the superintendent of Glen Mills Schools
2
, where her husband was chief clerk.
She and her husband rented the Cobb Homestead at Lake Ariel and established the
school with three students. From the start, she laid down the policy that prevailed
throughout her life – that half the space be used for indigent cases and half for
children whose parents were well able to pay moderate fees. Encouraged by the
Pennsylvania Bureau of Mental Health, she and her husband sought a larger home,
finally locating one at Troy that became the nucleus of the present school. After
Mr. Lloyd died in 1946, she limited the school for many years to girls only – but
such is no longer the case.
The school continues to enjoy the full support and cooperation of the
citizens and businesses of Troy in integrating its residents into the community, and
residents of the school have been frequent attendees at the Special Needs Camps of
the Susquehanna Conference UMC.
1
Martha Douse was born in Scranton, attended Lackawanna Business College, and married John
Lloyd (1884-1947). She was a member of First Presbyterian Church, Troy. Her only survivors were
six nieces and 10 nephews.
2
Founded in 1826 and located in Glen Mills in suburban Philadelphia, this residential school for
troubled youths was the oldest school of its type in the United States until it was closed in 2019
over questions regarding policies and regulation. It reopened in 2021 as Clock Tower Schools.
90 The Chronicle 2023
The Recipient’s Family
Marion’s father Clarence Edward Bullinger (1892-1981) was head of the
Department of Industrial Engineering
3
at Penn State University in State College
from 1930 until retiring in 1955. The author of numerous academic books and
articles, he was also particularly active at St. Paul’s Methodist Church – where he
served as a trustee and as general superintendent of the church school,
encompassing all the departments from children to the adults.
He was born in Philadelphia and received his bachelor’s degree from Penn
State in 1921. Following his retirement from Penn State University, he served in
the industrial engineering departments at Perdue
4
, Iowa State and Texas A&M
before permanently retiring to the Lewisburg United Methodist Home (now
Riverwoods), where he died. He and his wife and daughter are buried in State
College’s Centre County Memorial Park.
Marion’s mother Mary Hess Engle (1891-1981) married C.E. Bullinger in
1922 and gave birth to their only child Marion ten years later. Her family had very
deep and continuing roots in the Brethren in Christ denomination, founded by Jacob
Engel in the late 1700’s as part of the Otterbein-Boehm revivalism that led to the
formation of the United Brethren denomination. She is a direct descendent of Jacob
Engle’s brother Hans Engle – and Brethren in Christ historian Carlton Wittlinger
states “Their first ministers were Jacob Engel, Hans Engel, C. Rupp and others…”
5
The Sender
The sender remains a mystery, and Catherine appears not to be a true “aunt”
of Marion. Marion’s father had only one known sibling, Elsie May Bullinger
(1894-1969). Marion’s mother had only one known sibling, Robert Hess Engle
(1895-1982) who married a Grace Riehl. As Marion’s father Clarence was born in
Philadelphia and had relatives there, this “Aunt Catherine” may be part of that
extended family.
3
Since 1973, the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering.
4
At Purdue, Bullinger was part of a foreign aid team working on the rehabilitation of the Chinese
Engineering College in Taiwan.
5
Carlton Wittlinger (1978), Quest for Piety and Obedience: The Story of the Brethren in Christ,
page 16. Mary’s father Paris Engle (1859-1951) was the g-g-grandson of Hans Engel (1745-1824)
who labored very closely with his brother Jacob Engel (1753-1859) is establishing the
denomination.
Milton Loyer 91
Racial Prejudice in Harrisburg Methodism
The Story of Mitchell Memorial Church
by Milton Loyer, 2022
editor’s note: This address was originally delivered at Lycoming College in
Williamsport PA in the spring of 2022 as part of a symposium on faculty and student
research on diversity and inclusiveness in various contexts. Each participant was
to present a 9 minute talk followed by a period of discussion. The Susquehanna
Conference archives are located at Lycoming College, where the archivist Dr.
Loyer serves as an adjunct professor and participates in college programming.
The membership ethnicity section of the 2021 journal of the Susquehanna
Conference of the United Methodist Church reports that its membership is
127,286/128,550 = 99.02% white.
It so happens that the Susquehanna Conference, which includes the middle
third of the state from the Maryland line to the New York line, includes – I should
say used to include – one of the most significant black Methodist congregations in
the entire denomination: Harrisburg’s Mitchell Memorial Church. In 2018 I wrote
the only authoritative history of that congregation, which was printed in the 2019
volume of The Chronicle, the journal of the conference’s Historical Society. I
would like to share with you the story of that congregation and what it says about
prejudice within the Methodist church.
First let me say that I am talking about the United Methodist Church, which
was founded in America in 1784 as the Methodist Episcopal Church. In the 1800’s,
3 separate black Methodist denominations separated from the main branch of the
Methodist Episcopal Church and still exist today as separate denominations.
•the AME, or African Methodist Episcopal Church
•the AMEZ, or African Methodist Episcopal Church Zion
•the CME, originally the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church and now
the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
While all three of those bodies exist in Harrisburg today, I am not talking today
about those denominations. I am talking about prejudice and discrimination in the
mainstream United Methodist Church.
To its credit, the Methodist church has traditionally been the mainline
denomination most open to racial and ethnic diversity in the United States – and
that is why there are black Methodist denominations today. But let me tell you
want happened in Harrisburg and why that city’s Mitchell Memorial Church is so
significant.
In 1864, the Methodist Church established separate conferences for its black
congregations, ostensibly so that they could ordain and assign their own pastors and
bishops. There was only one enduring black Methodist congregation in central
92 The Chronicle 2024
Pennsylvania – and so while all the other Methodist churches in the area were in
the Central Pennsylvania Conference, now the Susquehanna Conference, the
congregation that was to become Mitchell Memorial was placed in the segregated
Washington Conference, which covered the area from Harrisburg down to northern
North Carolina. While white Methodist congregations could easily meet and
fellowship with other churches in their conference, the black Methodists in
Harrisburg had to travel out of state, typically to Virginia, in order to meet and
fellowship within their own conference.
In 1956, the Methodist Church began to dismantle its segregated structure
and instituted a complicated procedure that allowed a black congregation to transfer
into a white conference. That year, Mitchell Memorial Church in Harrisburg
became the first black Methodist congregation in the entire denomination to transfer
from a black conference into a white conference. Reverend George Davis, pictured
on the cover of the 2019 volume of The Chronicle, was the pastor at the time, and
he was received as the first black pastor in the Central Pennsylvania Conference.
That was in 1956.
This event was accomplished with great ceremony, and much publicity was
given to the fact that Harrisburg Methodism was now fully integrated. But all did
not go well. Mitchell Memorial was not invited to have joint Vacation Bible
Schools with the other Methodist churches, and it had to continue having such
combined events with other black and non-Methodist congregations in the city. The
same was true for youth fellowship and men’s and women’s groups, combined
Thanksgiving and Lenten services, etc.
The congregation had a small but adequate building on Marion Street, but
white Methodist churches in the city that were once large and prestigious were
losing members as the white population relocated to the suburbs and was replaced
by persons of color who did not feel comfortable in the Methodist Church. In 1989
the conference decided that Mitchell Memorial should merge into the Camp Curtin
Church. This was once a large and prestigious congregation with a magnificent
stone cathedral built on the historic site of the Union Army’s famed Camp Curtin.
The Mitchell Memorial congregation preferred to remain in their own building, but
the move was forced upon them – again, with much fanfare and publicity.
The official line was that Harrisburg Methodism was taking a giant step
forward. A black congregation and a white congregation would now be united into
one fully integrated congregation worshiping in one of the largest and most historic
Methodist buildings in the city. You can guess what happened. The white
congregants moved their memberships elsewhere, and the remaining black
congregation was left to care for a huge cathedral-type building that was 20 times
bigger than what they needed or could afford to maintain.
Things continued in that state until 2018 – with the Mitchell Memorial
congregation struggling to maintain its facilities and the white churches in
Milton Loyer 93
Harrisburg continuing to lose members as the older members died or relocated and
were replaced by more diverse residents who did not feel comfortable in the
Methodist Church. In 2018 the conference came up with another master plan.
There were 10 churches that were considered Harrisburg congregations: Mitchell
Memorial and 9 white churches – all of which were struggling. The conference
declared it was going to close all 10 churches, unite the members into one large
integrated congregation, sell all 10 buildings, and use the money to erect one large
building on a fine suburban campus. Until the new site was chosen and the new
building was erected, the united congregation would worship in what was
considered the best of the 10 existing buildings – a structure on the very edge of the
city limits, with the church building in the city of Harrisburg and its parking lot
across the street in Swatara township.
Needless to say, the plan met with considerable local opposition –
particularly from the Mitchell Memorial congregation. The members of the
Mitchell Memorial congregation had 3 major objections:
(1) Unlike the members of most of the other 9 churches, their members actually
lived in the city of Harrisburg – and in areas far removed from the proposed
location for the combined congregation. Travel to the new location would
be inconvenient and problematic.
(2) They wanted to stay where they were as they felt called to minister to the
diverse community in which they were located.
(3) They felt they would not be welcomed and accepted into a blended
congregation.
This was 4 years ago, in the fall of 2018.
I and others came up with an alternate proposal. Take one of the white
church buildings located very near to Mitchell Memorial, which was a much
smaller building and in the middle of a diverse neighborhood and in very good
repair and well within the financial capabilities of the Mitchell Memorial
congregation to maintain. Allow the Mitchell Memorial congregation to remain
outside of the 10-congregation merger and let them move into that building. It was
as an effort to remind everyone of the significance of the Mitchell Memorial
congregation I researched and published that first and only authoritative history of
the congregation. And it’s what I discovered while writing that history that opened
my eyes as to depth and nature of the prejudice faced by that congregation and by
all people of color in Harrisburg.
But before I tell you what I learned, let me bring you up to date on the
congregation. All efforts to save the congregation fell on deaf ears. The three most
common official responses were
(1) to keep the Mitchell Memorial congregation out of the merger would
actually be to encourage racism and segregation.
(2) the members of the white congregations would welcome the members from
Mitchell Memorial – and in fact they are looking forward to having them
94 The Chronicle 2024
and their inherent natural musical ability [can you believe it!] filling spaces
in the choir of the merged congregation.
(3) we want to project to Harrisburg a model of full integration, diversity and
fellowship that transcends racial and ethnic boundaries.
The Mitchell Memorial congregation was closed and forced to join the merger.
You can guess what happened. So far as I know, not a single member from
Mitchell Memorial joined the merged congregation, and they all transferred to
various non-United Methodist black congregations in the city. The United
Methodist Church now has essentially no presence among the people of color in
Harrisburg. A congregation that survived over 150 years of racism, became the
first black congregation in the entire denomination to move from a black conference
to a white conference, and was the only historically black congregation in the entire
Susquehanna Conference of the United Methodist Church is gone forever because
of a misguided sense of how to deal with issues of diversity and racism.
So what did I learn from writing the history? First, I learned it’s difficult to
do research on women and minorities. All aspects of history are dominated by, and
full of the accounts of, white males. The Mitchell Memorial Church had a webpage
that supposedly gave its history, but I soon found out that it was totally inadequate
and riddled with errors – compiled by well-meaning members of the congregation
who had only the memories of their older members and some historical folklore on
which to base their history of Mitchell Memorial. They even had the name of their
namesake Rev. Mitchell consistently given as Elijah Mitchell – when in fact it was
Elisha Mitchell.
Another thing I learned in going through old newspapers is that most of
them gave little notice to the churches, organizations, social gatherings or obituaries
of persons of color. Fortunately there was one newspaper in Harrisburg, the
Harrisburg Telegraph, that covered African Americans more justly than its
competitors – and also in language that was less maligning and less condescending.
I was able to glean much from the files of the Harrisburg Telegraph.
As part of the history, I identify and give the personal story of every pastor
that served the Mitchell Memorial congregation from its founding in 1882 until it
joined the previously all-white Central Pennsylvania Conference in 1956. And
researching the lives of those ordinary pastors of color was no small task. I wish I
had the space to tell you about each one of these men and their experiences serving
in Harrisburg, but let me share only a little about one of them: Elisha Mitchell.
Elisha M. Mitchell served the congregation from 1936 to 1940. It was he
who led the congregation to purchase the building on Marion Street and set the
church on firm financial footing. The name of the congregation was changed from
Asbury to Mitchell Memorial in his honor. He was no stranger to racial prejudice
and injustice. One of his previous charges, before coming to Harrisburg, was in
Richmond VA. Richmond at that time was operating under the infamous
Milton Loyer 95
Vonderlehr Ordinance that defined segregated property and living areas in
Richmond. Mitchell and his congregation purchased a church building from a
white Baptist congregation that was situated on a corner property right on the
boundary line. The church fronted on a whites’ only street, but the side street was
in the Negro section. The congregation was told that they could legally occupy the
building if they reconfigured the building to place the entrance on the side street.
After spending considerable money to move the entrance, they were still forbidden
to use the building. For three years the congregation could not worship in the
building they owned and renovated until a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. While
not overturning the entire Plessy vs. Ferguson decision, that ruling did overturn the
Vonderlehr and similar ordinances on residential segregation.
In conclusion, I would like to recommend of two of the best books I have
ever read: While the World Watched by Carolyn Maull McKinstry and Buses Are
A Comin’ by Charles Person. I strongly recommend these books to persons of all
ethnicities – perhaps even as required reading for all Lycoming College freshmen.
Carolyn was a 14 year old girl living in Birmingham AL during the civil rights
movement in the early 1960’s. In 1963, she participated in Dr. Martin Luther
King’s famed children’s marches and was one of the thousands of children who
were threatened by tanks, sprayed with pressure hoses, and attacked by dogs. She
was a member of the 16
th
Street Baptist Church where 4 of her best friends were
killed when the church was dynamited one Sunday morning in September 1963. At
the age of 19, Charles Person was the youngest of the original 1961 Freedom Riders
who tested the U.S. Supreme Court decision that declared segregation illegal and
unconstitutional on public interstate buses and their associated depots, restaurants
and restrooms. In Alabama, the Greyhound bus in which they were riding was
burned, and the Freedom Riders were severely beaten. My wife Sandra and I are
part of a group that in June will be visiting many of the major civil rights sites in
the South and personally meeting both Carolyn Maull McKinstry and Charles
Person. These books are excellently written and extremely moving. They will open
your eyes. I cannot recommend them highly enough.
Prejudice and racism take many forms. May we all learn from our past
mistakes, recognize the courage of those who have brought us to where we are, and
strive to live into all that we were created to be.
editor’s closing note: The appendix on the following page gives information
on each of the ten churches involved in the 2018 unification plan – the name and
address, the original denomination (Evangelical, Methodist, United Brethren), the
membership and attendance figures at the time of the proposed unification, the
disposition of the property, and the membership at the 1968 Methodist-EUB
denominational union to form the United Methodist Church. Ultimately, only two
of the ten congregations participated in the union to form The Journey UMC –
current membership/attendance of 101/116. [The official name of the Mitchell
Memorial Church at the time was the Camp Curtain Memorial Mitchell UMC.]
96 The Chronicle 2024
Appendix. Follow-Up on Harrisburg Methodism
The ten churches involved in the original unification plan.
church orig 2018 mem/att disposition 1968 mem
1. Derry Street UB 126/70 closed, sold 2020 928
1508 Derry St. Nigerian Anglican
2. First UB 25/14 closed, sold 2020 221
260 Boas St. developer
3. Grace ME 108/42 allowed to remain open 1478
216 State Street served part-time
4. Mitchell Memorial ME 105/56 closed, sold 2021 373 + 243
2221 N. Sixth St. developer [CC + MM]
5. Penbrook Grace UB 63/22 closed, sold 2019 770
25 S. 28
th
St. community center
6. Penbrook Trinity EV 86/17 closed, sold 2019 154
3 N. 25
th
St. independent church
7. Riverside ME 16/20 joined The Journey 233
3200 N. Third St. Kesher Israel
8. Rockville UB 120/57 allowed to remain open 399
4386 N. 6
th
St. satellite of Linglestown
9. St. Mark’s ME 58/7 closed, sold 2019 343
3985 N. Second St. Baptist
10. Twenty-ninth Street UB 95/58 joined The Journey 543
750 S. 29
th
St. home to The Journey
The ten other churches in the city of Harrisburg at the time of the 1968 Methodist-EUB
merger that were closed prior to the 2018 unification plan.
church orig disposition 1968 memb
1. Epworth ME closed 2005 812
21
st
& Derry Sts. AME
2. Fifth Street ME closed 2007 1147
5
th
& Granite Sts AME
3. Harris Street EV closed 2016 534
250 Harris St. Church of God
4. Otterbein UB closed 2003 450
310 Peffer St independent church
5. Park Street EV closed 2015 375
16
th
& Park Sts. independent church
6. Sixth Street UB merged 1970, Paxton 545
6
th
& Seneca Sts. Baptist
7. St. Paul’s ME closed 2006 163
118 Vine St. Coptic Orthodox
8. State Street UB closed 1996 638
1801 State St. independent church
9. Stevens Memorial ME closed 2013 1664
110 S. 13
th
St independent church
10. Trinity ME merged 1970, Paxton 376
915 N. 17
th
St. AMEZ