THE CHRONICLE

Journal of the Historical Society

of the

Susquehanna Conference

of the

United Methodist Church

Milton W. Loyer

editor

.

Volume XXXVI

spring 2025

Editor's Preface .......................................................................................................2

Congregations

Mechanicsburg…………………………………………………………..……..3

Lawrenceville……………………………………………………….…….……9

Bald Eagle Chapel…………………………………………………….………15

Warrior’s Mark………………………………………………………....……..22

Mifflinburg………...………………………………………………….………30

Districts

Altoona……………………………………………………………….….……38

Williamsport……………………………………………….…………...……..48

Conference

Early Methodism……...……………………………………………….….…..59

The First Hundred Years……………………………………….……….….…77

Beyond

Missionary Brothers……………………………..………………………..…..92

Editor’s Epilogue……………………………..……………………….…..….96

2

The Chronicle 2024

EDITOR'S PREFACE

On behalf of the Historical Society of the Susquehanna Conference of the

United Methodist Church, I present volume XXXVI of The Chronicle. For thirty-six

years, the society has produced a mix of scholarly, entertaining, informative and

inspiring stories of United Methodism – all united by a common theme. This year’s

volume is dedicated to Rev. Dr. Charles F. Berkheimer (1896-1968), longtime

historian of the Central Pennsylvania Conference of the Methodist Church and

namesake of the Susquehanna Conference archives room in the Lycoming College

Library in Williamsport PA. Dr. Berkheimer was an eminent scholar whose detailed

research and prolific writings have set the standard for all who followed him.

When Dr. Berkheimer died in 1968, he had been gathering material for a

definitive 1969 history of the Central Pennsylvania Conference of the Methodist

Church that would serve a dual purpose: the Centennial History of a Conference that

first met in 1869, and the closing record of an ecclesiastical organization that would

cease to exist January 1, 1970, as part of a state-wide reorganization involving

Methodist and EUB congregations in the incorporation of a new United Methodist

Conference. That volume, Methodism in Central Pennsylvania 1771-1969, was

completed by Frederick E. Maser and dedicated to Charles F. Berkheimer.

This volume of The Chronicle is a collection of several his articles and

presentations, which have never been published for general circulation, divided into

four sections: individual congregations, district-level presentations, conference –wide

material, and articles on particular topics or incidents In each case, the text is

Berkheimer’s and the footnotes have been added by the editor – mainly to explain

references to persons or material that may have been familiar to Berkheimer’s

audiences of 50+ years ago and to add updates or information previouslyunavailable.

Over the years, The Chronicle has already printed the following Berkheimer

articles, and there are still more waiting in the wings.

1993: VI, 80-88 “How a Camp Meeting Heckler Suffered for His Sins”

1993: VI, 84-85 “The Methodist Preacher Who Killed a Heckler”

1999: X, 49-52 “John L. Lenhart, Captain of the Cumberland”

2002: XIII, 5-15 “Methodism in the Northern Tier – Some Bits of History”

2003: XIV, 4-50 “Early Central Pennsylvania Methodism: Whitefield to Asbury”

2006: XVII, 6-21 “This, Too, Is Harrisburg District History”

This year’s journey begins with an insightful look at some personalities in

Mechanicsburg’s Methodist congregation, the home church of Dr. Berkheimer,

covers every part of the Conference, and ends with missionary work in Indiana and

Texas. May these accounts from the past, inspire your present and help to inform

your future. Enjoy the trip.

Mechanicsburg

3

Historical Comments on Methodism

in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania¹

It is likely true that the full and complete history of any church has never

been written. There is no need to go into all of the reasons for this. Much of the

most effective and lasting achievement has been done by those humble and self-

effacing lay disciples of our Lord whose names have not come down to us in the

official records. And some unusual characteristics of local churches have never

been written down for posterity at all, and this is a tragic error. Francis Asbury was

afraid that this would happen, and he urgently requested his preachers to write out

the story of the beginnings of each church they served. But they were too busily

engaged in dealing with the present and preparing souls for the future to look back,

let alone to record what had happened in the past.

Like every other local church, our Mechanicsburg Methodist Church has a

unique personality. The factors which have influenced this personality in the past

should be recorded in her archives. We have the record of her beginning as a

preaching place, as a Methodist class and as a regular station appointment. Her

statistics can be discovered from the Journals of the Conference, and someone

should take the time to look them up and write them into a more complete story

than has as yet been written. But all of this would not tell of the individual

personality she has had.

The story of her four church buildings can be told with much interest. You

can describe when and where each one was erected, what was the capacity of each

and how much it cost. You must not overlook the tragedies (or were they

blessings?) of a tornado and a cyclone which transformed the plans and the pictures.

But what about the personalities of the leading and most influential members? We

cannot find these described in the records of deeds or financial audits. Yet they

have counted for so much that no one will ever be able to evaluate their effects upon

the church of today.

Permit me privilege of paying tribute to some personalities which have

helped to shape the personality of Mechanicsburg Methodism in the past. These

few have had their part to some degree in shaping my own personal life and,

therefore, my attitude toward the church in which I grew up and which means so

much to me now.

Just as the present Methodism in Mechanicsburg is doubly blessed by the

presence of one of the institutions of the Conference with her able leadership and

splendid family of staff members who are loyal Methodists with significant Annual

Conference relationships which help tie the local church to the larger interest of the

Church, so other ties in the past have done the same. Not all local churches have

had these interests which have focused the church’s eyes on the Conference and the

¹The talk was delivered to the Mechanicsburg Methodist congregation in 1961.

4

The Chronicle 2025

Conference’s eyes on the local church. For the past forty-four years the Methodist

Home for Children has been an influential part of Mechanicsburg Methodism’s

story and has had its effect upon her personality. This has brought added

responsibilities, but in the main it has also brought great strength to the church.

But I write and speak words for the historical record of this local church

today. These things might never get into the record unless I put them there now.

It was fortunate for Mechanicsburg that a young man born in Boiling

Springs in 1800, the scion of the old iron masters of the place, by the name of Oliver

T. Ege came to here to live when the place was only a small hamlet. He had been

well educated in private schools and had an excellent mind as well as family

background. Converted when about 19 years of age under the powerful but

eccentric Methodist circuit rider on the Dauphin Circuit, Jacob Gruber (who had

been Presiding Elder of the Carlisle District 1815-19), he joined the Methodist

Episcopal Church in Harrisburg. Living in Mechanicsburg, he soon gathered

together some of his fellow citizens and they agreed to ask the preacher in charge

of the Carlisle Circuit to add another preaching place to his already extensive field.

In 1819 the Carlisle Circuit had the following preaching places (mostly private

houses):

Shippensburg

Thomas Weakley’s

Sishes

M. Studebaker’s

Gettysburg

Carlisle

W. Mayberry’s

Davis Even’s

Pine Grove

Rock Chapel

Ripperton’s

John Long’s

J. Van Kirk’s

C. Delaps

Hunterstown

Dallastown

Stevens

Godfrey’s

Weiley’s

A. Wolgenuth’s

Lewisberry

Elijah Yocum’s

Joseph Stayman’s (Salem)

Newville

John Dunlap’s

Rudolph Kreisher’s

Rehoboth

Mechanicsburg

Dr. Pike’s

Note: 1819 was the first year Mechanicsburg appeared on the circuit list – as given

by the Steward’s Record made May 18 & 19 at Shippensburg.

This sounds like a description of the Harrisburg District of today, but it was

then one circuit with two preachers going the rounds regularly. It is to the credit of

the Preacher in Charge that he came regularly and within three years organized the

first class in 1829 from which this congregation is now descended. It appears that

in 1819 Eli Hinkle and John Tanyhill were Preacher in Charge and assistant on the

Carlisle Circuit.

But Mechanicsburg Methodism must always think of Oliver Ege as Father

Ege, as he was called in the Conference for decades before his death here in

Mechanicsburg at the age of 90. Oliver Ege was a Methodist itinerant for 32 years

after he entered the Baltimore Conference in 1827. His name is prominent in the

affairs of many churches and of the Conference he served as a member for 62 years.

(He joined the Baltimore, going with the East Baltimore when it divided, and with

Mechanicsburg

5

Central Pennsylvania Conference after it was formed in 1869. No name is more

honored in our Conference history.)

When he became a supernumerary member of the Conference in 1860, he

came back to live in Mechanicsburg. Here he and his sons, the Rev. Thompson P.

Ege and Prof. Alexander H. Ege, became the owners and Principals and faculty of

the Cumberland Valley Institute for Young Gentlemen which had been formed as

a private school in 1840 and called C.V.I. in 1853. After the Eges took over the

management this institution was considered one of the “Seminaries” of the

Methodist Conference for many years and was given very high recommendations

by the Conference year by year. The Education Report of 1876 has the following

to say:

“CUMBERLAND VALLEY INSTITUTE – This institution, located at

Mechanicsburg, Pa., during the past year, upon the whole, enjoyed increased

patronage, though there has been a slight falling off in the number of students from

abroad. The local patronage has been much in advance of preceding years. Special

inducements are offered by the Principals, Rev. O. Ege and son, to ministers having

sons to educate, either for college or business. We take pleasure to commending

this institution to our ministers and people.”

In the same Conference Journal Report on Education, there is the following

report which will surprise many present day Mechanicsburg Methodists who have

never known that Irving Female College was once a Methodist institution.

“IRVING FEMALE COLLEGE – This attractive College Home, also located at

Mechanicsburg, Pa., is, we are grateful to know, in a more prosperous condition

than for several years past. It has now almost as many young ladies in attendance

as can be accommodated, with encouraging prospects for the coming college year.

Special inducements are here also offered by the President, Rev. T.P. Ege, to

members of the Conference having daughters to educate, a number of whom have

availed themselves thereof. This college, because of its eminent home-like

character, its thorough drill, its comforts, and its improved advantages, deserves to

be more widely known and more largely patronized.”

Rev. Thompson P. Ege, A.M., became President of Irving in 1865 after the

death of the Rev. A.G. Marlatt, A.M., also a Methodist minister. How fully devoted

to Methodism Irving College had previously been we are not sure, but the Journal

of March 1868 reports with evident satisfaction:

“Irving Female College, ay Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County, Pa., since the

last session of Conference has been purged of all influences not Methodistic, and

under the Presidency of Rev. Thompson Ege, A.M., a full corps of Methodist

teachers merits the patronage of our people.”

By 1884 Irving College fell on serious financial difficulties, had to suspend

operations and the Rev. Thompson Ege withdrew from the Central Pennsylvania

Conference.

6

The Chronicle 2025

Who can measure the influence of the Ege family upon our local church?

They were scholars of the old school and lived in disciplined dignity in the town

and in the church. But they believed in the Methodistical merging of wisdom and

vital piety in a very practical way.

One Conference comment says: “The religious is combined with the intellectual.

An earnest effort is made to improve the heart and life, as well as the mind.”

In 1871: “During the year a number of students have found, in a happy

experience, the power of the renewing grace of Christ” in the Cumberland Valley

Institute.

In 1869 the report states concerning Irving College: “During the year past some

twenty-five scholars have professed conversion and consecrated their hearts and

intellect to God.” Most of the Commencement exercises at this period were held

in the Methodist church.

The Ege family was not one to express its piety in sheer emotionalism on

the one hand, nor cold intellectualism on the other. They were fervently

evangelistic and deeply devout people who were never ashamed to be called

Methodists in a community in which they were in the minority. Professor

Alexander H. Ege was the most elegant and scholarly man I ever knew as a boy.

He and his charming wife sat in the pew in front of our family pew. It was grand

to see this portly old gentleman in his swallow-tailed coat come up the aisle on a

Sunday morning and with some cultured ritual place his high silk hat on the window

ledge to the right. He was the only man in the town except Dr. Swiler²who in my

childhood still wore a high silk hat on his trips up and down the street. I thought

he was the only man who deserved to have that right. Had he not taught Greek in

college for over 40 years? And hadn’t my mother told me that in his Sunday School

class, of which she was a member, he used words so big and sentences so involved

that nobody quite understood what he meant? But nobody ever doubted that he was

an old fashioned Methodist – although he never shouted. In fact, nobody else did.

Methodism in Mechanicsburg did not get out of hand emotionally. It wasn’t

intellectual, as far as most of the members were concerned, but it was rather formal

in its informality and dignified in its loyalties to the Church.

Another distinguished family played its strong part in shaping the

personality of the Mechanicsburg Methodist Church in my boyhood and youth. I

refer to the Kast family, of which Miss Helen³is the sole surviving member. I do

not know anything about the history of the Business College run by Professor Kast⁴,

but it had a good reputation as a business college. The entire family was given

²Dr. William Eckels Swiler (1833-1906) was an honored and distinguished physician in

Mechanicsburg.

³Helen Mabel Kast (1876-1962) is buried in Chestnut Hill Cemetery – along with her parents and

sisters. This paper of Berkheimer was given in 1961, and Miss Kast died in April 1962.

⁴David Emmanuel Kast (1829-1918) was an 1853 graduate of the Cumberland Valley Institute, on

the faculty of the first normal school in Cumberland County and served for six years as the

County Superintendent of Schools.

Mechanicsburg

7

more to education and religion than to any other interest. They were eccentric in

that they were never influenced by what other people did or what other people said,

or what other people wore. They lived their own lives, which were above reproach.

They were faithful in their church attendance, although Professor and Mrs. Kast, as

I recall them, were not leaders in the church. They were not given much to

socializing, although they were friendly in a reserved and pleasant sort of way. I

can recall when all of them, at least the father and the three daughters, rode bicycles

down town to their offices or class rooms.

They set their example upon me and many others by their stern adherence

to what they thought was right regardless of what others may do to compromise.

They, too, were Methodists of the old school who had reasons for the faith that was

in them. Many of you remember Miss Ida Kast⁵, attorney-at-law. She was one of

the leading Prohibitionists of Pennsylvania and ran on the Prohibition ticket for the

State Superior Court. She could be counted on to oppose anything she thought was

wrong with courage and gentile strength. She might act like a man many times, but

she was always a polite, alert lady. She was extremely witty and the most popular

elocutionist in the town. No program in the church was complete without a reading

by Miss Ida. Her long readings were excellent and interesting, but her encore

numbers were always looked forward to by me. She used one of the few poems I

can remember as an encore one evening at a reception for a new pastor. It was on

“The Antiquity of Lice” and here it is: “Adam had ‘em.”

I owe very much to her sister Clara⁶who was my teacher of Latin in high

school. Many of us made fun of her peculiar dress, but we were ashamed of

ourselves afterwards – for we had every reason to respect her ability, her high

Christian character and her real geniality. The Kast family were Christian

individualists in the highest sense – Christians who expected others who were

church members to be Christian also. Their emotions were always contained except

when they were called to stand up as Christians in opposing something unChristian.

These people helped to influence the personality of this church. Wisdom and vital

piety were blended in each of their lives in a special blend which commanded

respect. “By their fruits ye shall know them.”

Most of you who know me will expect me to speak about the influence of

the Sours family upon the personality of this church. It was quite different than the

others of whom I have spoken.

Holiness is the work in its highest Methodist connotation which expresses

my thought about this family. The Rev. John D. Sowers⁷became a local preacher

⁵Ida Grace Kast (1872-1951) was an 1892 graduate of Irving College and the first female

admitted to the bar in Cumberland County.

⁶Clara May Kast (1870-1941) was the oldest of the sisters and the first to die.

⁷John Dickson Sours (1815-1912) was granted a local preacher’s license in 1844 and, although

never formally under appointment, travelled circuits and pioneered work in remote areas – e.g.,

he organized the work at Cross Forks in Potter County in 1851. “Sours” is the continuing family

8

The Chronicle 2025

in the Methodist Church in 1869 and continued as one until he died in 1912, aged

97. He was patriarchal in appearance and behavior. He wore a long white beard,

and in his latter years he had gone blind. But he was always in his place at church

when he could be led there. For many years, especially after he was 80, he was

invited to preach on the Sunday nearest his birthday. When his strength was too

feeble for that he would recite the scripture lessons from memory. Once after he

was 90, he began at the first chapter of Genesis and recited two entire chapters

before he was reminded that he had gone far enough.

This family revealed what early Methodist piety was like a no other I have

ever known. Naturally such a family would be considered eccentric. But they were

God’s people and everybody in the church and town knew it. They were poor in

this world’s goods but rich in faith and good works.

Benjamin Franklin Mears Sours⁸was my Sunday School teacher from the

time I left the Primary Department until I went to college. No one outside of my

own family influenced me as much as he did. No one else ever thought for a

moment that I could be a minister of the Gospel. But he did, and he led me to see

that God would use anyone who would surrender his life to His service. It took a

peculiar person to see that I might ever amount to anything in His service. This

indicates how God sometimes works, and that He needs more peculiar people to do

His work and too send out His messages.

B.F.M. Sours never had the advantage of advanced schooling but was a well

educated person. His great interest and his outstanding accomplishment were his

poetry. He certainly contributed more to our religious periodicals in his lifetime

than any other person from this community. He actually wrote more than 10,000

poems in his lifetime, continuing as long as his eyesight permitted. Many were

written while he was a guest at the Methodist Home for the Aged. All of his

manuscripts are deposited in a New England depository for unpublished poems.

Many of his poems, quite likely the vast majority of them, would not pass

for great poetry. Many of them, literally hundreds of them, were excellent. But

every one of them revealed his deep religious experience and his constant praise of

God, the Heavenly Father. He was a religious poet. More than that, he was a deeply

spiritual poet. He was one of Christ’s humble but holy followers.

These, being dead, yet speak. Their works follow after them in this church.

Who will influence the personality of this church in this generation and the next

and the next, and how will thy influence it?

spelling, and the one on his tombstone, but he was often listed as “Sowers.” The 1869 date is when

he stopped traveling on his own and formally “retired” as local preacher to Mechanicsburg.

⁸Poem texts of Benjamin Franklin Mears Sours (1863-1956) and his sister Laura Myrtle Sours (1866-1923)

were set to music by various composers and appear in several gospel hymnbooks.

Lawrenceville

9

Early Methodism at Lawrenceville

and Tioga, Pennsylvania¹

May 15, 1966

Text: They being dead, yet speak. Hebrews 11:4

If the ancient Hebrew people had not told and re-told the stories of what

God had done for their forefathers and what their forefathers had done for God, we

might not have had an Old Testament, humanly speaking. To a great extent, the

same thing might be said of the New Testament. They are the records made by men

inspired to tell of their own and their forefathers’ experiences of God. The

experiences came first. They were a matter of history. Then came the inspired

records which became our guides by faith.

Isaiah said that it was a good thing for men to look at the hole of the pit

from which they were digged and the rock from which they were hewn.²And so,

this morning, we are following divine injunction to look back to see and tell of what

our spiritual forefathers did for their God and what God did so marvelously for

them. This is the true reason why Methodists celebrate the Bi-centennial of

American Methodism, thanking God for the consecrated laymen who began to hold

services as local preachers in New York and Maryland. They had come from

Ireland where John Wesley had licensed them as local preachers. Philip Embury

was a carpenter in New York and Robert Strawbridge was a famer in Maryland.

Without any doubt God used them to sow the seeds of Methodism in America, and

we are the benefactors of their obedience to God.

Because of the limitations of time, I should like to bring to you some voices

from the past, speaking about the beginnings of Methodism in this vicinity. Many

of the earliest settlers in this community, as you know, came from Connecticut to

open up the wilderness and hew out their farms and homes from the virgin forests.

However, some of them came from Maryland, Virginia and Delaware. One of the

settlers in Delmar township³Tioga County, came from Delaware with his family

and a group of emigrants. He was one of the first Methodists to be ordained as a

minister in the new Methodist Episcopal Church, and his name was Caleb Boyer.

He was ordained at the Christmas Conference of 1784 and served for some time as

an itinerant minister. Perhaps when he married he located and became a local

preacher, leaving Delaware and Maryland and coming into Tioga County where he

¹This 1966 presentation was for the Lawrenceville and Tioga Methodist churches, the two main

congregations on the charge. Following the 1972 flood, the Methodist and Presbyterian

congregations in those towns combined. In Lawrenceville the two congregations merged into

one Methodist congregation and met in the former Methodist building. In Tioga the two

congregations merged into one Presbyterian congregation and met in the former Presbyterian

building.

²Isaiah 51:1

³Delmar is a combination of Delaware and Maryland, the origin of the settlers.

10 The Chronicle 2025

took up land. A good tradition has it that he was the first preacher to organize

classes at Lawrenceville and Tioga about the year 1809.

The faith of the Methodists was not popular, and the earliest converts had

to endure scorn and ridicule – and in many cases real persecution – from their

neighbors. Pioneer conditions were crude and many pioneers were hard-living

hard-drinking scoffers at any efforts to change their way of life. As a result of this,

some of the first converts were discouraged and did not hold out. While there were

some penitents converted, there were usually some who soon backslid. Some years

excellent revivals were held in homes, barns, school houses or in the open fields.

Other years the preachers saw very little fruitage from their sermons and entreaties.

So, for years there were not enough members to be able to afford to build a church.

But a noble band of a few souls continued to persevere in their faith – meeting in

class meetings, prayer meetings and camp meetings under unpromising conditions,

except that they relied on the promises of God and had faith in His purposes.

We bless the memories of these faithful few in these days and most of us

wonder whether we would have continued for twenty or thirty years going to

services in homes and barns with only a handful of members and crowds of

onlookers who sometimes disrupted the meetings themselves by their ridicule.

At Tioga, as your histories show, the first church building was begun in

June 1826, just 140 years ago. A contract was let and the frame put up in 1827, but

nothing else was done until it was enclosed in 1842. During this time the people

and the preachers were discouraged. Hear the voice of Ambrose Abbott, who was

on the Lawrenceville and Blossburg circuit⁴1836-38. His letter appeared in the

Christian Advocate and Journal, New York, on February 9, 1838. Hear this letter

as I read it.

Dear Brethren,

Our circumstances on this circuit are not of the most flattering kind; we have

no parsonage house here; we have one brick church well finished, and there is of

late an increasing congregation; but the house is burdened with a debt of between

eight and eleven hundred dollars. We also have a frame erected at Willardsburgh⁵

of near three years standing, that is yet uncovered, and it will be with the utmost

difficulty that we shall get it done this year if we do it at all; but in the name of my

Master, and in humble dependence on his aid, I intend to make an effort.

Methodism has been on the decline here about three years and it will require an

energy more than human to raise it to the proper standard. But God has given us

some indication that he is about to do his own work. Some backsliders have been

reclaimed, and three have been hopefully converted to God; and we are earnestly

praying that God may revive his work more powerfully, and that Zion may arise

and shine. Yours in the best of bonds.

AMBROSE ABBOTT

⁴The Lawrenceville and Blossburg circuit was in the Dansville District of the Genesee Conference.

⁵Willardsburgh was the old name for Tioga.

Lawrenceville 11

That was the voice of a circuit rider, the Rev. Ambrose Abbott, on this

circuit for the years 1836-38. In 1831, however, another circuit rider, the Rev. John

Griffing⁶, wrote on September 17^th, “The Lord has done much for us this past year.

At our late camp meeting between 60 and 80 professed to find God and the good

seems to be spreading.” On March 4, 1833, he writes from Tioga, “Received about

100 in society in the past few months. Have subscriptions for four meeting houses

and shall have two finished this season. The people are awake to the curse of

intemperance and find the waters of the Susquehanna and Tioga are more

conducive to health than fire water. We have peace in all our borders and we pray

for the peace of Jerusalem.” JOHN GRIFFING, being dead yet speaketh (Christian

Advocate and Journal, April 1, 1833)

Hear another voice from Lawrenceville circuit (Christian Advocate and

Journal, June 6, 1841). A letter was dated May 11 says that there were 100

converted and 80 joined the church. It is signed by the two preachers, E.G.

Townsend and O. Trowbridge.⁷

Now comes the final victory for the Tioga church. This time the voices are

those of circuit riders Ira Smith, Jr. and E.H. Cranmer.⁸Hear their message.

At all our appointments the Lord has given us tokens for good. At Tioga, where

Zion has long languished, the brethren, though only seven in number, yet having

the work at heart, resolved to combine their energies and finish a house for the

worship of God, which has stood for eight years in an unfinished state; and not

withstanding clouds and tempests surrounding them, they commenced the work,

which has not been in vain. The ladies of this pleasant village were soon at their

post, laboring in their department. They have done much to advance the work.

The house is 70 feet wide and 50 feet long, with a very commodious class room

and the whole is finished in plain and neat style. It was solemnly dedicated to the

worship of Almighty God on Wednesday, February 16^th. The services on the

occasion were conducted by the Rev. William Babcock, our worthy presiding

elder, whose coming among us was as the coming of Titus to his brethren. The

text was from Psalm 84:1,2. (How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts!

my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my

flesh cry out for the living God.) The sermon was deliver in his usual pathetic⁹

manner, accompanied by an unction which could but make the audience feel,

both in their hearts and their pockets; which may be seen from the collection.

⁶Charles Berkheimer was off base here. According to the General Minutes (page 110) John

Griffing served the Vestal NY circuit in the Susquehanna District of the Oneida Conference 1831-

32 and was on leave (page 155) 1832-33. There is a Tioga NY in the Oneida Conference. But

Vestal NY and Tioga NY are relatively close to Lawrenceville PA, and the comments by Griffing

probably apply to that broad NY-PA region.

⁷Elbridge G. Townsend and Orrin A. Trowbridge served the Lawrenceville circuit in the Seneca

Lake District of the Genesee Conference 1840-41.

⁸Ira Smith and Enoch H. Cranmer served the Lawrenceville circuit in the Dansville District of the

Genesee Conference 1841-42.

⁹Pathetic can also mean “touching” or “having a capacity to move.”

12 The Chronicle 2025

The congregation was unusually small, in consequence of the inclemency of the

weather; yet we received, in pledges and money, $200.00 toward liquidation of

the debt, which was $600. The meeting was protracted a number of evenings

and many souls were happily converted to God, and the good work is still going

on.

And they being dead yet speak. They speak to us in this generation, although they

did not address their thoughts directly to us.

The average history written for a local church is felt to be complete when

the dates of the erection of the church buildings and parsonages are given along

with a complete list of all the pastors. This, to me, is only a superficial kind of

history. The church itself is not a building but a fellowship of Christian

personalities, most of them laymen and lay women. It is a good thing to know who

the preachers were, but when you remember that the earliest circuit riders were

appointed for only one year and moved to another circuit for the next year, it seems

clear that the classes and societies had to be held together by lay people who had

much greater responsibilities than we can quite imagine.

If we knew more about the leading lay persons of each church, we would

have a better picture of its history. Individual preachers were not here long enough

to influence the character of the local church, except as they conducted great

revivals and camp meetings and took in large numbers of members. Converted

people are given to the practice of attributing much praise to the ministers who

conducted the meetings at which they were converted. As a result, the preachers

are mentioned with appreciation (or sometimes with criticism) while local

preachers, class leaders, and Sunday School teachers are hardly mentioned. And

yet, I believe that most people remember the church member who led them to Jesus

Christ, although they do not remember what the preacher preached about the day

they made the great decision.

At any rate, one could wish he knew more about the local members of each

church. Some were narrow-minded and self-centered, insisting upon their own

ways in the church affairs. These often influenced the church in a negative manner

and were the cause of divisions and weaknesses in the fellowship. Some churches

have died because of this – and should have died. On the other hand, we ought to

be able to give great credit to the spiritual forefathers in every church who were

broad in their vision for the future of the church, never self-centered, and always

working for the welfare of the church and the Kingdom of God. We wish we could

name them and tell something about them.

The history of the Lawrenceville church says that it is one of the oldest in

Tioga County; that it originated in the early 1820’s; that the first church was brick

and was begun in 1831 or ’32 and completed in 1836; the second church was

erected in 1849 and burned in December of 1888; that this church was replaced by

another one in 1889. These dates are important, but more important are such

Lawrenceville 13

records as the history written by Dr. Lewis L. Darling, Jr.¹⁰, in 1889 when he told

of the lovely church which burned before it was re-opened after its renovation. You

have been hearing about his story of the terrible fire and the burden which fell upon

the Methodist people with a destroyed church building which was inadequately

insured – and upon which a debt had to be paid before beginning to rebuild.

This is real history and you reverently cherish it. On this Bi-centennial of

American Methodism you give proper tribute to the heroes of the faith who

demonstrated the kind of Christian fortitude and faith in God which you must

emulate in order to turn disaster into victory for the cause of Christ in this

community. If they could do it in their day with smaller resources and greater

problems, surely we must learn from them how God is to be trusted for strength

and guidance.

Will you have others of the spirit of little Jamie Putnam¹¹who in 1888 sent

his dollar, the first received after the fire, with the words “to help build the dear

church. I am so sorry it burned.” Here is history. It is the history of how God puts

into the hearts of children as well as adults to be true Christian stewards. Let us do

what God puts it into our hearts to do.

There are some personal records left which should always be preserved.

One is that the ground for the first building in 1831 was given by Mr. Ira Kilburn¹²

and that his heirs donated it to the borough for the extension of Mechanic Street.

About a year ago I came across the obituary of Mrs. Ira Kilburn as it appeared in

the New York Christian Advocate of June 27, 1861. It gives the only accurate date

of the origin of the Lawrenceville class which is to be found. It can relied upon for

it was given 105 years ago by her family.

Sally Kilburn died in Lawrenceville, Tioga County, Pa., May 17, 1861, aged 79

years. She was a worthy member here for 52 years. She came here from

Connecticut with her parents in 1800. She was married to Mr. Ira Kilburn in 1803.

She experience religion in 1809 under the labors of the first M.E. minister

appointed to this place. This minister organized this church in Lawrenceville the

same year, 1809. Sister Kilburn’s name was enrolled on the first class record. She

was faithful and liberal through the years. H.H. Beers, pastor

This is better evidence than that of the Tioga County History or of your other

records which were written almost 40 years after the above obituary of Sally

¹⁰Lewis Darling, Jr. (1840-1916) was a lifelong resident of Lawrenceville, where he and his father

were physicians.

¹¹James Henry Putnam Jr. (1879-1943) was born in Lawrenceville and followed his father into the

family’s mercantile business. He is buried in the Lawrenceville Power Cemetery.

¹²Ira Kilburn (1772-1854) was one of the first Tioga County commissioners and the first

postmaster. He came to Lawrenceville in 1802 from Connecticut, Kilburn purchased a large

tract of land comprising most of the present-day Lawrenceville Borough, and Tioga County

associate judge 1812 through 1840. He also operated a gristmill and sawmill in the village.

14 The Chronicle 2025

Kilburn. Your church was organized in 1809. It is now 157 years old. You are to

be congratulated upon your heritage.

Let me quote one more reference from the Christian Advocate files which

relates to the work at Lawrenceville. It is dated May 9, 1843, and signed by the

pastor, the Rev. Joseph K. Tuttle.¹³

God has revived his work among us during the past winter and spring.

16 have been received into the church as from the fruit gathered by those

who labored on this charge last year, since conference; and between 20 and

30 have been added to our probation list.

That pastor, being dead, yet speaketh to us. He is saying, “This God’s work,

not ours. We are simply God’s servants. God will revive His own work. We can’t

revive it ourselves. And God can’t revive His work unless his people are willing

to be revived.” When we really let God revive His work among us, then there will

be added to His Church such as shall be saved.

Tioga Methodist Church (1872-1972)

northwest corner of Main and Center Streets

¹³Rev. Joseph King Tuttle served the Tioga circuit in the Danville District of the Genesee

Conference 1842-43.

Curtin 15

The Origin of Bald Eagle Chapel

(now Curtin Methodist Church)¹

“Our fathers worshiped on this mountain.” John 4:20

If the Old Testament Hebrews had not been interested in their origins and

had not told about their fathers’ traditions, there would have been no Old Testament

– and possibly no New Testament. These people found God’s hand in these ancient

experiences. This justified their perpetuation of their traditions. We, too, are

justified in perpetuating our traditions.

The first Methodist local preachers came to America in 1766. Francis

Asbury and others came in 1771. The first Conference was held in 1773 and

included all the local preachers as well as the few itinerants.

Methodist converts were among the pioneers moving westward from the

eastern seaboard. In 1781 Little York (to distinguish it from New York) circuit was

formed and 90 members were reported. In 1784 a Juniata circuit was formed in

that river basin including present Perry, Juniata and part of Mifflin Counties. In

1787 these two circuits were combined.

That year David Combs came up the Juniata, crossed the Seven Mountains

and organized a class here at Philip Antes’. Tradition also has it that a class was

organized at Henry Benn’s that same year. It is not improbable that David Combs,

a member on trial in the Baltimore Conference, organized both of these classes on

that same visit – although the old pioneers seem to have left the tradition that he

came here once each month that year. From that time to this, regular preaching

services have been held here by Methodist preachers.

The Centre Hall church is, without doubt, the outgrowth of that class at

Henry Benn’s – although there seems to be no certainty that that congregation has

had uninterrupted service since then. I also think, however, that there is no proof

that it has not had existence since then.

The Benns came from Delaware in 1786 and shortly thereafter organized a

Methodist class in their home. There is a family legend that Henry Benn and his

wife were born Jews. They had been converted undoubtedly under Francis Asbury.

One of their daughters had married Robert Pennington.²The Penningtons were

both converted about 1776. Another daughter married Job Colbert³, and a third

¹Charles Berkeimer delivered this address August 18, 1963, at the Home-coming Celebration at

the Curtin Methodist Church.

²Rebecca Benn (1759-1824) married Robert Pennington (1754-1826) in 1774. Both of them had

been born in England.

³Chloe Benn (1771-1853) married Job Colbert [aka Calvert] (1758-1858), the brother [or possibly

a very closed relative] of noted circuit rider William Colbert (1764-1833) – which explains

William’s reaching out, mentioned later in this address, to this isolated location.

16 The Chronicle 2025

William Monks⁴. All of these were veterans of the Revolutionary War and all

became influential leaders in the Methodist Episcopal Church – both in this county

and in western Pennsylvania. Dr. Rachel Benn⁵, a great-granddaughter of Henry,

was one of the first women doctors sent out by the Women’s Foreign Missionary

Society of the Church.

About 1800 most of the Benns moved to a western county and the leadership

of the class fell to Robert Pennington. The class was called Pennington’s Class and

Robert Pennington is called the “Father of Penn’s Valley Methodism.” He built a

log chapel on his farm located along the Brush Valley Road just east of the present

Centre Hall, and in the little cemetery there lie his remains together with those of

his ministerial son and grandson. As we shall see, the Benns and the Penningtons

were interested in the building of Bald Eagle Chapel and contributed to its cost,

even though they may have had no church house of their own as yet – probably not

until 1819.

But we must give attention this afternoon to Philip Antes, the true founder

of this church. Older generations of Methodists here have heard of him and the

present generation of local Methodists should know something of who he was. His

grandfather was a Moravian layman who came from Germany and settled in

Frederick township, Philadelphia County (now Montgomery County). He was

known as “the pious Moravian layman” whose home was the center of religious

activities. From the front porch of this house George Whitefield, the most famous

Methodist orator of his day, preached to over 2,000 people one afternoon in 1740.

I like to think that my own ancestors, who then lived only a few miles away, were

in that congregation although they were Lutheran and unable to speak English.

Philip Antes’ father, Col. Henry Antes, came to the West Branch Valley

with other pioneers before the Revolution – and while danger from the Indians was

very real. He built the structure called Antes Fort under order from Pennsylvania

officials. He was a real leader among the pioneers and was elected sheriff of Old

Northumberland County – which embraced this territory where he purchased land

“near the bald eagle’s nest.” Col. John Henry Antes was also a devout man,

although not a Moravian, and conducted family prayers in his home daily. So

ardent were they in their adherence to the German Reformed Church that some

members of the family wanted to disown Philip when he became a Methodist.

Indeed, the will of Col. Antes does not mention his son Philip in person as an heir.

But Philip stood by his convictions and because of this God used him as he did and

we are here today to honor his memory.

⁴Rachael Benn (1770-1852) married William Monks (1762-1841), and became the mother of Rev.

William Monks (1806-1860), who served in the Erie Conference.

⁵Dr. Rachel Benn (1853-1927), medical missionary to China [later married to a Mr. Dunkel], was

the daughter of Jonathan Benn Jr (1810-1885), son of Jonathan Wesley Benn Sr (1779-1855), son

of Henry. Jonathan Sr. also became a Methodist preacher and had two sons Thomas Benn (1803-

1879) and Jesse Parr Benn (1815-1875) who became Methodist preachers in the Erie Conference.

Curtin 17

When and where Philip Antes became a Methodist history does not disclose.

Born in Philadelphia County in 1750, he lived for some time in what is now

Dauphin County – where he married Susannah Williams, who may have been a

Methodist. From there he moved to Northumberland where he bought several lots

and a house. There were Methodists in Northumberland also, although we have no

record of their religious activities until 1791 when there was a Methodist class

there. It is not impossible that this class was in existence prior to 1786 when Philip

and Susannah moved up the river. Tradition says that they placed their growing

family and all their belongings on two canoes and came upstream to this locality

where they had taken over land for their new home. He erected a cabin and a mill,

and as soon as the cabin was under roof he gathered his neighbors together for

worship and a Methodist class was soon organized.

There were at first but six members: Philip Antes and wife⁶, John S.

Bathurst and wife⁷, Christopher Helford and wife⁸. Among early accessions to the

class were Frederick Antes⁹, Polly Miller¹⁰, Mary Barnhart, Isabella Barnhart and

Nancy Bathurst¹¹. This list was likely made from memory by an old Methodist

many years later and cannot be dated. Certainly Frederick Antes, six years old in

1787, did not join then – and Polly Antes Miller was only one month old when the

family moved here.

From 1787 until this day there have been continuous services held by the

people called Methodists at this place. Some of you are undoubtedly descendants

of these pioneers, but all members of the present day are really spiritual descendants

of these courageous saints of long ago. Time does not permit extended descriptions

of the crude and primitive conditions under which these people worshiped.

Was this once a preaching point on the Little York-Juniata circuit?

Tradition here says that the fathers reported monthly visits of Methodist preachers

from the time of the inception of the class. Their visits might not have been that

frequent prior to 1791, but from that date, when the Northumberland circuit was

formed, the circuit riders came every two weeks – each of the two appointees

covering the circuit in four weeks. The circuit was enormous. It covered all the

territory from Half Moon Valley on the west to Beach Haven, beyond Berwick, on

the east. Each circuit rider was to rest one day in seven, but on the other six he

⁶Philip Frederick Antes (1759-1831) and Maria Susanna (Williams) Antes (1755-1826)

⁷This should be Lawrence Bathurst Jr (1757-1845) and Rebecca (Archibald) Bathurst (1764-1848).

As stated later in the article, this list appears to come from a personal memory and not from

primary source material. John Bathurst (1791-1841) was a son of Lawrence.

⁸Early circuit rider William Colbert reports visiting Christopher Helford in September, October

and November of 1798. The Helfords settled in Bald Eagle in 1786, a year before Antes. The 1801

Northumberland circuit steward’s book lists Antes’ and Helford’s as two separate classes, and the

April 1802 entry lists the class as “widow Helford’s.”

⁹Frederick Antes (1781-1862), son of Philip

¹⁰Mary Polly (Antes) Miller (1876-1856), daughter of Philip

¹¹Nancy Bathurst (1787-1858), daughter of Lawrence, later married John H. Middleton.

18 The Chronicle 2025

traveled long, weary miles and preached at least once – frequently twice or three

times – a day whenever a congregation awaited him. The people were eager to get

together for any purpose, even if not always to worship God reverently, so there

was usually a group. Sometimes, of course, only a few came out – and sometimes

even those few didn’t like the preacher. But the circuit rider preached the Gospel

to them and rode on through heat and cold, rainstorm and snowstorm, dusty drought

or muddy paths, fording streams and frequently preaching in wet boots and

breeches for which he had no change.

Remember that most of these settlers were very poor. They lived in one or

two room cabins, and the hospitality they had to offer the preacher amounted to

meager table fare and a place to sleep on the floor with the rest of the family on

many occasions. But the preacher usually got the best that the people had to offer,

and Philip Antes was one to give him the best. William Colbert, one of the earliest

circuit riders, was appointed here in 1792. He kept a journal and recorded the texts

of all of his sermons and the persons who put him up. On a preaching trip through

here is 1798 he writes: “At Philip Antes’ I had a room to myself, the first time on

Northumberland circuit I ever had a room to myself at night.”

Let me pause here to pay a tribute of respect to Rev. David Combs, the

ministerial organizer of this church. The General Minutes say that Asbury

appointed him to ride Little York and Juniata circuits in 1787, but little is found out

about him from official sources. He and his brother James had been admitted on

trial into the Baltimore Conference the year before. His brother is listed as a full

member and an itinerant minister for some years before he finally located, but there

is not so much as a further mention of David. Did he locate? Was he discontinued?

Was he expelled? Did he withdraw? The books do not balance on him. His name

just disappears. For years I have sought some answer to this query. Recently I

came across what I believe to be the answer. The news did not get to Conference

and no record was ever made of this Methodist pioneer circuit rider martyr.

It is well known to church historians that Bishop Asbury was wont to make

mid-year appointments, changing men from one circuit to another, when he saw the

need. I am convinced that Asbury, finding a young man who was ready to make

long trips into the unexplored wilderness, picked him with others to go as a

missionary to Kentucky – where Daniel Boone and many others had gone. Let me

now quote from Our Fathers Have Told Us, a history of beginnings in the

Pittsburgh Conference, by Dr. Jacob S. Payton:

On a certain Sunday of that year (1786?) a congregation gathered at the home of

Mrs. Casner, where the town of Donora now stands, to hear David Combs, a local

preacher from Bucks County who was on his way to Kentucky. In the

congregation was Benjamin Fell and his son John. The latter was amazed to

discover in the preacher an old friend whom he had last met at an eastern ball.

The change in his friend, the sermon, with the blessing of the Holy Spirit, soon

resulted in John Fell’s conversion. At the invitation of Benjamin Fell, David Combs

crossed the river and preached to a large congregation at the Fell homestead. A

Curtin 19

few days later, near Wheeling, David Combs was murdered by the Indians. His

untimely death, soon after he had preached to them, made a deep impression on

the congregation at “The Forks.” This resulted in the organization of Fells Church

and from Fells Church, the old Methodist hive from which have swarmed so many

religious workers, went John Fell – who served in the itinerancy and for many

years as a local preacher.

Fells Church has had a great achievement record in the present Western

Pennsylvania Conference. So the chapter on David Combs seeme to close – but it

closes on a Methodist circuit rider martyr. “He being dead yet speaketh.” We all

owe a debt to these pioneer preachers which is too great to pay with anything less

than our own deepest dedication to the Savior whose Gospel they proclaimed.

You should be reminded that when Philip Antes sold his mill to Roland Curtin

(father of Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin) he removed into another pioneer section

to the west and a few years later gave the land for the first Methodist church ever

erected in Clearfield County – the Centre Church now on Clearfield circuit. As The

History of Methodism in Clearfield by George Rheems (1910), page 27, reports:

The first move toward building a church on the circuit was made at a Quarterly

Conference held at Abram Keagy’s in the southern end of the county, June 9^thand

10^th, 1827, when Moses Boggs from the River (Centre) appointment stated that it

was their determination to erect a meeting house on land donated by Philip

Antes, Sr.

Your church records here should contain certain data which relate to the

building of Bald Eagle Chapel, the first log church, begun in 1804 and dedicated in

1805. Erected on this very site, it was, without doubt, used for about a year before

it even had a door, let alone windows.

On September 7^th, 1805, the class owed Philip Antes a balance of $33.14 on

the building. This may have been the total cash outlay to that date. On July 31^st,

1806, the debt was increased to $46.64 because windows and double doors were

installed. The old Quarterly Conference Steward’s Book (now in the Central

Pennsylvania Conference Historical Society Library) includes the following

account which was written into the back pages of the book:

John Rhodes¹²faced five windows for his part in the meeting house Bald Eagle

Chapel. N.B. and also made one door for which he hopes they will pay him for.

The account further includes:

July 31^st, 1806

to bands and boarding John Rhodes

to face all the widows and one double door

to 101 panes of glass at ten cents per pane

to fit in same

$2.50

10.00

1.00

$46.64

¹²John Rhodes (1783-1843) struggled with a call to the ministry before presenting himself to the

Baltimore Conference as a candidate in 1808.

20 The Chronicle 2025

On the other side of the ledger, beginning with the day after Quarterly

Conference meeting held at Bald Eagle Chapel at which the collection for that day

was $5.93:

September 9, 1805 Christopher Fry, preacher in charge,

public collection amounting to

December 1, 1805 John Rhodes gave

5.93

1.00

May 26, 1806

August 24

November

October 31

by 8 bushels of wheat from Robert Pennington 8.00

by one dollar from Henry Benn

by three dollars from Isaac Parsons

by present of panes toward the meeting house

John Shampson 50 panes

1.00

3.00

5.00

.50

Robert Lipton 5 panes

George Jacobs 6 panes

.60

.25

1.00

.20

Richard Gunsalus¹³two and a half panes

Henry Benn 10 panes

Thomas Bese 2 panes

26.73

Thomas Holt 4 panes

Frederick Jacobs 6 panes

Samuel Watkins 2 panes

Philip Antes

.40

.60

.20

1.10

29.13

There is no official record as to when the entire indebtedness was wiped out.

It should be noted that John Rhodes became one of the early circuit riders

of the Conference and after a long ministry became superannuated (retired) and

lived in Milton until he died in 1843. Other ministers have gone out from this

church, I feel sure, although the incomplete records do not reveal who they were.

One Sunday in 1810, Jacob Banghart, the junior preacher on the circuit, was

stricken while preaching here and died a short time later in the Antes home, nursed

by Frederick Antes, oldest son of Philip Antes. His death was caused by a rupture

with which he had been afflicted for some years but which was excited or

aggravated while he was preaching in the Chapel pulpit. His body was the first

buried in this graveyard. In 1838 the Rev. John Bowen of Williamsport procured

by public contribution tombstones to designate his grave. It is unfortunate that the

ravages of time have destroyed all evidences of these stones now. Jacob Banghart

was said to have been a “man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. He died in triumph

and is now no doubt in heaven reaping his reward.” (From the District Stewards

Book of Northumberland-Lycoming circuits, as entered January 1843 –

Williamsport parsonage.)

¹³Richard Derrick “Dirk” Gonsalus (1756-1838)

Curtin 21

To take Banghart’s place came Timothy Lee¹⁴, a recruit for the ministry – a

member of the Lee family of this very vicinity. He shared with Christopher Fry,

preacher in charge in 1805, the honors of being the very first to preach in the log

chapel. Timothy Lee was then a local preacher, but he soon became an itinerant

and had a notable record as a preacher of the gospel.

The Bald Eagle Chapel was the second church building built by the

Methodists on the Northumberland circuit. The first was built in Mifflinburg in

1803. The third was Lycoming Chapel (Williamsport) in 1805. The fourth was at

Milton in 1807. It is true that Colbert and Asbury both mention a building owned

by the Methodists and used as a school in Northumberland, but this seems to have

been a privately owned unfinished house. As a Methodist meeting house, it

probably should not be given first position on the circuit.

One more entry for the record. This is a notation made by John Hazard,

preacher in charge, on May 11^th, 1813:

The majority of the Trustees of the Bald Eagle Chapel met at the house of Philip

Antes, voted Jacob Lee¹⁵, Philip Barnhart¹⁶, Isaac Lee¹⁷, Archibald Bathurst¹⁸and

Frederick Antes Trustees of said Chapel.

Signed

Philip Antes

Archibald Bathurst

John Hazard

May the new evangelistic spirit evidenced in this church’s revitalization in

this past year become a mightier work of the Holy Spirit in this day and age than

any of the mighty works of the past generations.

¹⁴Rev. Timothy Lee (1778-1860) and his son Rev. Joseph S. Lee (1808-1864) were both itinerants

in the Baltimore Conference and are buried in Clearfield County.

¹⁵Jacob Lee (1770-1847) was a first cousin to the previously mentioned Rev. Timothy Lee. He

moved his family to Clearfield County in 1822.

¹⁶Philip Barnhart (1758-1844) was married to Elizabeth (Antes) Barnhart (1761-1845), a sister to

Philip Antes. They were not original members of the Bald Eagle class because they did not arrive

until 1806. Philip Barnhart and Lawrence Bathurst served together under George Washington.

The 1833 Pennsylvania Legislature passed the following: "The state treasurer is authorized and

required to pay Philip Barnhart and Lawrence Bathurst of Boggs Township, Centre Co., Pa.,

solders of the Revolution, or to their respective orders, forty dollars to each immediately and an

annuity of forty dollars to each during life, payable semi-annually, and to commence on the first

day of Jan, 1833."

¹⁷Isaac Lee (1772-?) was a brother to Jacob Lee. Nothing is known of his later life, but he is listed

in the 1850 census as a widower living in Centre County. In 1795, Jacob and Isaac Lee reportedly

built one of the first stone houses in Bellefonte.

¹⁸Archibald Bathurst (1783-1856) is the son of the previously mentioned original member

Lawrence Bathurst.

22 The Chronicle 2025

Warrior’s Mark Methodists Are Debtors:

An Historical Sermon on the Bi-Centenary

of American Methodism

February 6, 1966

Text: I am under obligation both to Greeks and to Barbarians; both to the wise and

to the foolish. Romans 1:4

If St. Paul meant that he owed much to the Greeks because they had taught

him so much, and therefore he felt he could pay his debt by helping barbarians who

needed help (and I think he did), and if he meant he should teach the foolish in

order to help show his appreciation to the wise who had taught him (and I think he

did), then St. Paul was a great and good debtor. By that standard of honor and

goodness, we Methodists are great debtors. We owe more than we can ever pay to

the saints of the past, and the only way we can pay what we owe them is to pay it

to those today and tomorrow who are in need of the same Gospel our forefathers

preached.

It is good, therefore, that we pause on this anniversary occasion to recall

“our forefathers that taught us.” The Old Testament Hebrews did this often. If they

had not done so, we would not have any Old Testament record as we have, for it is

the continuous unfolding of what Jehovah God had done for their forefathers and

how they felt they came to know him. In like manner the New Testament is a record

of men inspired by the Holy Spirit to tell what God through His Son Jesus Christ

had done for them and their forebears.

In this brief address I do not desire to leave the impression that I think

everything that our Methodist forebears did was exactly what God wanted them to

do, although most of them believed it was. We must judge them by the pioneer

standards of their day and not by our own. Nor do I want to leave the impression

that I believe that the Church of yesterday was so far superior to the Church of

today. Judged by the standards of the Eternal God, neither the records of yesterday

or today seem so commendable. I am convinced that God in His infinite patience

is waiting for that time in the future when His Church will approach more nearly

His great purpose for it. The great day of the Methodist Church must assuredly be

in the future, and our children and our children’s children will be her leading

members.

I

But today we want to acknowledge our debt to the past. Two hundred (and

more) years ago, two devout local preachers, one a carpenter and the other a farmer,

began to proclaim the good news as they knew it from their own experiences. We

salute them. They had come to this country as immigrants seeking a better way of

life for their families and they were pioneers in a new land who were to point their

fellow citizens and pioneers to a higher citizenship in an Eternal Kingdom. We

Warrior’s Mark 23

also desire to pay tribute more specifically to those who gave birth to Methodism

in this locality in which you live. “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain,”

But we must go back beyond the fathers who organized this church to their

spiritual forebear, John Wesley, and his colleagues in England.

Dr. David G. Downey¹once said, “Methodism didn’t just happen.” Its roots

were in England where conventionalism and formalism had left the Church of

England half dead and her ministers content just to conduct services and collect

their “living.”

In the fullness and ripeness of such times, the Good News that Christ died

for all men, regardless of their condition or sate in life, and that God’s parental love

included forgiveness and acceptance for the lowliest, the least, the last and the lost,

was preached boldly and received joyously by multitudes of penitent individuals.

Methodism thus brought new life to individuals and gradually they effected nothing

less than a new social order.

A new literature was produced; new and better manners were observed; a

new philanthropy brought more assistance to the hopeless and the impoverished.

Eventually, as a result of this new order, the slave trade was legally abolished and

the historian Green²declared that the first impulse toward the education of the

masses was given by this Methodist movement. It is often repeated that, “The

Aldersagte experience of John Wesley meant more to England than all of her

victories under Pitt³.”

Then Methodist immigrants came to America, among them the two we have

mentioned, namely Philip Embury in New York and Robert Strawbridge in

Maryland. Once it was believed that Embury began to preach before Strawbridge,

both in the year 1766. Very recently it has been discovered that a Methodist church

was being built in Leesburg, Virginia, as early as 1765, presumably the result of

Strawbridge’s preaching there even earlier. It is possible, even likely, that

Strawbridge, in Maryland, may have been the direct spiritual father of several of

the earliest Methodists to emigrate to Huntingdon and Centre Counties – for

example, Peter Gray, Sr., came from Maryland to this area in 1792. Others came

from New Jersey after the Revolutionary War and were probably influenced by the

preaching of Francis Asbury while there, where his work had become so effective.

Some veterans of the War for Independence may have heard Jesse Lee or Freeborn

Garrettson while they were in the service of their country.

¹David G. Downey (1859 - 1935) was an author, educator, and long-time book editor for the

Methodist Episcopal Church.

²John Richard Green (1837-1883) was a noted English historian whose many definitive works

include the four volume A History of the English People.

³William Pitt (1759-1806) was England’s the prime minister for 18 years, the second longest in

history, and instituted many reforms – included the reformulation of Great Britain into the

United Kingdom.

24 The Chronicle 2025

We shall never know for sure who these persons were, but we know our

forefathers were indebted to their forefathers, and we must be to ours. Let us look

at a few of the pictures of early Methodism in this vicinity, which the printed

histories have not recorded.

The December 8, 1841, issue of The Christian Advocate contained the

following letter from Warrior’s Mark Circuit:

The new M.E. Church at Warrior’s Mark Town was dedicated on the 17^thof

October. The sermon was preached by the Rev. H. Slicer, from Psalm 26:8: “O

Lord, I love the habitation of thy house and the place where thine honor

dwelleth.” The church is fifty feet long by sixty feet wide. Well seated, with a

good pulpit and altar and two aisles, it will sit comfortably 800 people. The cost

was about $2500. We had obtained $1300 prior, and on the day of dedication

raised $1100 more. [Note: This does NOT seem like the church W.A. Carver

sketched from memory and was given in your Anniversary Booklet of 1960.]

At the same time our third quarterly conference took place. We had our

beloved Presiding Elder and brother Jacob Larkin, both of whom preached. The

meeting continued until Friday night (protracted) and 21 were converted. At the

Love Feast, some of the aged members spoke of the state of Methodism in this

place forty or fifty years ago, when a few persecuted followers of Jesus in this

romantic country would assemble themselves together in a humble cottage to

pray. Now they have a fine commodious church and a large flourishing society.

– J. Stevens and S. Regester

What do the Methodists who have never known persecution owe to those who were

persecuted for being Methodist?

On March 3, 1842, Peter Gray, Sr., the husband of the former Mary Hyskell,

died at his residence in Halfmoon, Centre County. His obituary says that he was

born near Hagerstown, Maryland, and came here fifty years ago (1792). Their

house was a preaching place for almost thirty years until a house of worship was

erected. The first class in this section was at Warrior’s Mark, Huntingdon County.

Father Gray and his wife united there. It was twelve miles to attend their class, but

they thought it a privilege to attend. One report states:

Some time later they lost their home and contents by fire. They put up

another. There was no bed for themselves but straw on the floor, but the

preacher was welcome to what they had. There was no apparent success in their

community for seven years, and the preachers were discouraged. Mr. Gray went

to his brother John Gray and his brother-in-law John Gearhart and their wives,

and they formed a class.

What preacher ever came to Halfmoon, and was not generously entertained

by one of the Gray descendants.

– (Rev.) John B. Meek (L.P.)⁴

What do you owe spiritual forbears like these?

⁴John Breckenridge Meek (1797-1868) was a licensed local preacher who served three terms in

the U.S. House pf Representatives. He is buried in Meek’s Cemetery near Fairbrook, Centre

County. He is the father of Rev. John M.D. Meek (1831-1854.

Warrior’s Mark 25

I purposely do not give much place to the debt you owe to your former

pastors. Some of them have received splendid recognition, and some far too much.

In our historical records we have complete lists of them, and most of them were

faithful participants in the “Endless Line of Splendor.” It is not out of order,

however, to mention one or two.

In 1844, for example, Joseph F. Lee reported that 265 probationers had been

received in the last two years.

In 1845, those appointments of the Warrior’s Mark Circuit which

contributed anything to missions were: Meeks M.H. (meeting house), Buffalo Run,

Franklin M.H., Martha Furnace, Warrior’s Mark, Boalsburg, Watkinsville, Centre

Furnace, Pine Grove, Wrye’s and Huntingdon Furnace. In addition to these twelve,

there were likely others where no offering was received. What a circuit! And yet

in that year Rev. Jacob Gruber, the eccentric but influential Pennsylvania-German

preacher, complained that it was only “a piece of a good old circuit which has been

cut into about a half dozen of pieces.” Here was a circuit rider who would rather

ride and preach every day of the month than concentrate upon the people and

problems of a circuit which kept him home at least part of the time.

Here is a letter of Jacob Gruber to Dr. Thomas Bond, editor of the Christian

Advocate and Journal, published November 26, 1845:

Warrior’s Mark Circuit

Dear Brother Bond,

November 8, 1845

On a very rainy day, not pleasant to go visiting, I set down to write to an old

friend. This circuit is a piece of a good old circuit which has been cut into about a

half dozen of pieces. It is among mountains, hills, valleys and barrens; has six or

seven furnaces and near as many forges in it. The iron fever and moving spirit are

a great injury to our church here. Many of our members move to where there

are more and new iron works to get higher wages. Perhaps they will get rich “and

fall into temptation, and into a snare”, etc. May the Lord save them. We have

had some good and successful meetings, and some revivals. At a quarterly

meeting a few weeks ago which continued more than a week, some counted

about thirty converts, but we know not how many will stay converted. Some

people seem to be constitutionally unstable. No dependence can be put in their

profession, and yet they have souls, and Christ died for them, and we must labor

with them and for them. Help, Lord.

In a cloudy day my reflections are gloomy. It is upward of fifty years since my

name was written in a class book, and forty-five since it was printed in the

Minutes of Conference. Having obtained help from the Lord, I continue to this

day – fill three appointments each Sunday, and have not neglected to fill my

appointments for many years. But preachers, leaders and members should be

workers together with the Lord to have a great and continued work. Prayer,

prayer is necessary – private, first thing in the morning, and the last duty at night,

by the bedside, and regular daily family prayer, morning and evening. Is this

neglected by Methodist families? Do make inquiry. Can any get religion and keep

26 The Chronicle 2025

it without prayer? How? Where? We may preach – but how often we have to

get persons converted who neglect prayer, and keep unnecessary company with

the wicked, and follow the fashions of a vain, gay and proud world. The Lord help

our members to keep their baptismal vow. Amen.

We labor under severe difficulties among the mountains and among the poor.

The circuits are cut into small patches, not into fields of labor, to get Sunday

preaching into every neighborhood. Now a local preacher can scarce have an

appointment without coming in contact with an itinerant. They want a single

man, as well as one who has been fortunate enough to secure himself a wife. On

a circuit where they have not collected the allowance of a married and a single

man, they will not easily support two married men. The circuits are burdened

and the preachers are mortified. Time was when young men went out to secure

a bride for the Master’s Son; but now if some are fortunate to find a wife, though

a stripling, he becomes independent, eats his own bread, and supports his wife –

and perhaps without inquiring why it was expedient to get married so early. St.

Paul wrote to Timothy that from a child he had known the Holy Scriptures. He

gave him directions on how to behave himself in the church, but not a word about

getting married early. It is a pity that young single preachers are so much like

angel visits: “Few and far between.”

It seems as though some were willing to be parsons and they want a good

parsonage. Now, my good old friend, you honored me too much in publishing it

that you were not willing to offend me by saying parsonages, as I was so tenacious

for the old Methodist name: “Preacher’s house.” I surely though you would love

the old name as you love the old church. [So I do – Ed.] But after all what is in

the new name? Is it parsonage? I deny it. It is doubted whether, in truth, a

Methodist preacher can be called parson: The priest.” And to have it said and

written, these parsonages are occupied by preachers and their families would be

queer – no parson, nor parish. A local preacher is not said to live in a parsonage.

Why not? Is he no parson? Walker says, “Parsonage, the benefice of a parish.”

Where will that apply to a Methodist? Let the new organization get new

names, but let us keep the old Methodist names, and live and die in the good old

way – and Church, too. Which is easiest to find, a preacher who is a good pastor

or one who is in good pastures and loves so well to be at the parsonage?

I remain your old friend and brother. Farewell.

J. Gruber.

Gruber was concerned about the spirit and welfare of his flock. Their

salvation was by grace through faith, and yet he knew they needed spiritual nurture

and discipline through prayer to stay in grace and grow in it. He was much involved

with people. The genius of the circuit system was to go where the people lived.

Yet he did not know how to deal with the new industrial problems of his day. He

decried the efforts of his people to find a higher standard of living for themselves.

Do we know better how to help the people with their problems today?

What do you owe to such circuit riders as Jacob Gruber, one of the most

outstanding Methodists of his day, and a close friend of Francis Asbury? Well, in

Warrior’s Mark 27

dollars and cents you owe him $64.74 for the year that he served this circuit! His

salary and allowance was to have been $280 for that year. But according to your

quarterly conference records he received only $215.26 – and that included $35 he

received as personal gifts.

You can’t pay that debt to him! To whom can you pay it? Not to your

present preacher! Only to the needy in Christ’s Kingdom.

Gruber was not actually “in need.” He boasted about his saving and

frugality and actually voted in the General Conference of 1818 against raising the

allowance of a preacher from $80 to $100. He believed that many preachers of that

day were actually getting more than they needed. But he had married a well-to-do

widow, and during their lifetime together they displayed a marvelous combination

of sheer frugality in personal living together with a large generosity to the causes

of the Kingdom. When he died he willed substantial sums to the institutions and

causes of the Church he loved so well.

The members of the Warrior’s Mark church and circuit were not provincial

and entirely self-satisfied with their accomplishments in those days, at least many

of them were not. They were concerned about their own and others’ soul’s

salvation. They were also ready to involve themselves in the affairs of the

denomination. This quarterly conference was one of the few recorded as having

passed resolutions condemning the division of Methodism in 1844 over the issue

of slavery. “We cannot give our consent to division,” they said. The entire

resolution is in the April 30, 1845, issue of The Christian Advocate.

Your leaders were anxious to be informed about the work of the Church in

the world. In 1854 the distinguished Editor of The Christian Advocate visited the

Bellefonte District. He tells of going with the Presiding Elder of the District to the

quarterly meeting held at Warrior’s Mark. He says that on Saturday morning the

meeting began and lasted two days. He tells of the Love Feast. At 11 o’clock on

Sunday morning there was a large congregation. He sat in the window and watched

the congregation gather. Some travelled twelve to fourteen miles, he said:

“Mothers on horseback with their babes before them.”

“Warrior’s Mark Circuit is in a flame,” he goes on. One old lady spoke to

him of their love for The Christian Advocate and its Editor. “Come with me,” she

said, “and I’ll show you a room papered with it.” It was not a log cabin, but a log

house with four rooms on the first floor and as many above – and neatly furnished

too. The old lady had the means to paper it with French paper, but the lessons of

the Advocate were to her far beyond decoration. “And it was really pretty, too,”

said the editor, “in a room with a mahogany bureau and other excellent furniture,

with white curtains at the windows.”

These were your spiritual ancestors. Think what you owe them! Warrior’s

Mark Methodists are greatly in debt to the past!

28 The Chronicle 2025

II

Now, for a moment, what shall we say about the present? “We live in the

20^thcentury,” you say. “What has that to do with the past?”

I answer in complete agreement that we do live in an almost completely

different world than that of which I have been speaking. We live not only in a

different generation, but in a New Era called “The Atomic Era.” This very day our

nation is in suspense and prayer over the danger which besets us. Of course, in this

dangerous era of the world’s history and our nation’s, we shall not, as a people,

spend too much time in prayer about it. We shall have to be given plenty of time

to sit before our TV sets to watch our favorite forms of entertainment – some of

which bring into our homes questionable conversations, sly obscenities, and blatant

paganism, so costumed as to attract our lower natures and those of our children.

We, as a nation, permit the stimulation of our lower natures and our worldly

interests – making millionaires out of pagan performers, while we also do feel

somewhat concerned about the future security of ourselves and of mankind itself.

Let us be reminded that in the 20^thcentury, while everything seems to be in

a state of insecurity, there is a great need to proclaim the fact that there are some

things that are unchangeable and eternal. Do you remember the story that Abraham

Lincoln told of the terrible night when the entire atmosphere was filled with

shooting stars and most people were sure that the Day of Judgment was at hand?

Lincoln said that when he looked into the heavens he saw all of that, but he also

saw certain fixed constellations that were unmoved – and he felt unafraid. We

Methodists must pay our debts to the past, and above all to God our Father, by

keeping on with the emphasis upon the eternal truths of His Word and witness

before the world, by our lives and our lips, that Jesus Christ must be accepted as

the Savior of Souls and the Savior of the world – or else it has no Savior.

Some things never change in any generation. JUDGMENT. RIGHTEOUS-

NESS. TRUTH. GOD. GOD’S ETERNAL LOVE. The peace of God still passes

all understanding! Edwin Markham⁵says it like this:

At the heart of the cyclone tearing up the sky

And flinging the clouds and the towers by

Is a place of central calm,

So here in the roar of mortal things,

I have a place where my spirit sings

In the hollow of God’s palm.

Some things must be carried from the past, through the present to the future,

to other people, to other lands. These are our debts to others! We owe them this!

⁵Distinguished American poet Edwin Markham (1852-1940) was raised Methodist but in 1876

turned to spiritualism and utopian socialism. His poem “Lincoln, the Man of the People” was

selected to be read (by him) at the 1922 dedication of the Lincoln Memorial.

Warrior’s Mark 29

We do live in the 20^thcentury. It’s a great time to demonstrate that our forefathers

were not entirely wrong about a living and loving God.

III

Our debt to the future can be paid only as we pass on to others what we have

received from others. Here our debt is greatest. Will it ever all be paid? Or will

we be satisfied with simply tribute to our ancestors?

John Wesley once made a prediction with some solemn implications for us.

He said, “Methodism will probably live with vigor and the spirit of conquest for

possible 150 years on the impulse that gave it birth and set it out as a religious force

in the world. After that, unless it acquires a new impulse, equally commanding and

imperial, it will continue to be useful, but it will become more or less conventional.”

That was 200 years ago! Has the prediction come true?

“Methodism is Christianity in earnest.” Many Methodists have lost

earnestness. We must be interested in doing good to all. We must exhibit to the

world a society of changed people. The new world is desperately in need of new

people – people who are strong enough to overcome their own temptations to

indifference and sin. To pay our debts to the past and to the future, we must keep

alive the consciousness of God’s spirit in our hearts.

Karl Marx thought society could be changed from without. The trend in

world affairs seems to be to believe that the world needs to be changed so that the

poor and needy will not have such a hard time – which is good in itself. But the

greater need seems to be to have enough responsible witnesses declaring, in their

own lives and in their own neighborhoods, that JESUS CHRIST said that the world

could not be changed without unless it is first changed from within.

The great society must not overlook the need for greater and better people.

We must engage in a Crusade against forces that thwart, deform and mutilate

personality. To do this the Church must show her faith by her works. The Church

must ever be willing to change her program in order to meet the changing

conditions. But the central message of the Gospel must always be kept true. Belief

in the reality of the experience of God’s Spirit in the heart is the Fixed Star of

Methodism.

Are we today paying tribute to the past? Or are we willing, in earnest, to

pay our debt to the past by serving this present age, our calling to fulfill. The call

to the Church of today is to make the unchanging Gospel relevant to the problems

of today as well as to the people of today. Methodism go where the people are and

deal with the problems she finds there!

30 The Chronicle 2025

Origins of Mifflinburg Methodist Church

delivered at the 160^thanniversary

July 21, 1963

Text: Our fathers worshipped on this mountain. John 4:20

When the first Methodists came to this valley is not known. In 1791, when

the first preachers were assigned by Bishop Asbury to hew out of this gigantic

county of Northumberland (an area comprising ten counties now) a gigantic circuit

given the same name, it was estimated that there were approximately 180

Methodists here. This area consisted of the following present counties:

Northumberland, Snyder, Union, part of Luzerne, Columbia, Montour, Lycoming,

Clinton and Centre. It is probably no stretch of the imagination to say that the early

circuit riders found comparatively few persons who had ever heard a Methodist

sermon and a large percentage of the populace who never wanted to hear one.

We know that not ten percent of the sparse population had ever had any

church affiliation prior to coming to the frontier and, when they arrived, conditions

among the rough pioneers were not conducive to active church relations. Most

church people were openly scorned and ridiculed by their neighbors. It was not

easy to wrest a living from the wilderness; it was not easy to be a good Christian

among ungodly frontiersmen; and it was certainly not the way to popularity to be a

Methodist preacher. And yet a few of “our fathers worshipped on this mountain”

and welcomed the preachers on their monthly rounds.

Already the Presbyterians had established a church at Buffalo Cross Roads

with a small but eminently respectable group of members. Some of the subscribers

and pew renters were likely English-speaking members of other denominations

who were anxious to became part of a congregation of believers. Some of them

later became the most hospitable supporters of the Methodist circuit riders when

they came.

One of these families was that of the Farleys, who had settled where

Allenwood now stands about 1786. They had come from Hunterdon County, New

Jersey, where Francis Asbury had already had great success, and he had been a

guest at the home of the father of the brothers Caleb and John Farley. It is to be

presumed that they called themselves Methodists when they came here, although

they contributed to the only church available to them then. The Farley Mill on

Whitedeer Hole Creek became one of the first preaching places on the circuit, and

Caleb Farley was a class leader and exhorter – perhaps a local preacher – for many

years.

The Lutheran and Reformed churches had been established at Dreisbach’s

some years prior to 1791. But many of our Methodist fathers did not mix easily

with the better educated Presbyterians whose Calvinism the Wesleys had abhorred;

nor could they worship easily with their German neighbors whose language and

liturgy they did not understand.

Mifflinburg 31

Although not cordially welcomed at many places in this valley, in 1792

William Colbert, who was the only early preacher to leave a diary, lists the

following preaching places in Buffalo Valley. He was treated civilly at Thomas

Rees’s¹at Derrstown and preached regularly there the first year. He preached at

John Thompson’s², near Colonel Kelly’s³, and later at the home of his son

Benjamin, a mile east of Youngmanstown.⁴He stopped regularly at William and

Edward Crawford’s⁵at present Hartleton. He preached at White Springs in the little

log school house near Thomas Barber’s⁶in 1792, and a White Springs class was

listed for a few years. (Note: This probably proves this to have been the first

schoolhouse erected in the great county.) Later he also stopped at Mr. Reily’s⁷and

at Philip Stahl’s⁸, near present Mazeppa. How many of these had been, were then,

or ever became Methodists, no one can tell. Yet among them were your first

Methodist fathers “who worshipped on this mountain.”

From the diary of William Colbert, I mention several significant entries:

Thursday, June 7, 1792 – preached at John Thompson’s on Matt. 18:3. I was

enabled to speak with freedom.

Friday, June 8, 1792 – at Thomas Rees’ on Luke 14:18 in the afternoon.

¹Thomas Rees was from Philadelphia and bought land adjacent to that of Ludwig Derr, the

founder of Derrstown, later called Ludwigsburg, and now named Lewisburg. In 1788 he is listed

as the owner of the house at “Strohecker’s Landing” – the point on the river from which the

road, now PA 45, ran west into Penn’s Valley.

²John Thompson was one of several brothers who lived in what is now Buffalo township, Union

County. Another brother was Captain James Thompson, whose capture by Indians and

subsequent experiences and eventual escape form one of the epic stories of Union County. Both

John and James Thompson were contributors toward the erection of the Buffalo Cross Roads

Presbyterian Church, and in 1791 they were among the pew holders there. John had two sons:

John Jr. and Benjamin. By 1801, the year of his father’s death, Benjamin Thompson was one of

the stewards of Northumberland circuit.

³Colonel John Kelly (1744-1832) was a Revolutionary War hero who covered the retreat of

General Washington from the Battle of Princeton. In 1775 he built a house northeast of

Mazeppa on land he received for his military service. Kelly township is named in his honor.

⁴Youngmanstown was the early name for Mifflinburg. For some reason this is sometimes

rendered as “Yonkmanstown” in various secular and ecclesiastical records, but we will use the

more standard “Youngmanstown” throughout.

⁵William and Edward Crawford were farmers in Buffalo Valley. Edward was there as early as

1780, and in 1792 he was among the tenants of Colonel Hartley. Colbert’s diary confirms local

accounts that there was continuous Methodist preaching at Hartleton from the formation of

Northumberland circuit in 1791 until the church building (which was erected in 1841) was closed

in 1935

⁶Thomas Barber (1760-1827) and his brother Robert were born in Columbia and moved to the

White Springs area in 1785. They are buried in the Lwis Cemetery in Mifflinburg.

⁷This is likely John Reily, Esquire, who lived near present Lewisburg and had been admitted to

the bar in 1785. Nothing else is known about Mr. Reily or his Methodist connections.

⁸Philip Stahl Sr. (1748-1799) is buried in White Deer Cemetery. He was a Revolutionary War

veteran.

32 The Chronicle 2025

Tuesday, June 19, 1792 – I rode to John Thompson’s and preached on Matt.

11:28-30. The ignorance of the people in these parts is astonishing.

Wednesday, June 20, 1792 – I preached at William Crawford’s to a good

many for a week day on Rev. 22:17. To all appearances thee people are willing

to hear. (Note: From this time on this became a week-day appointment. No

Sunday services were recorded until 1798.)

Wednesday, August 29, 1792 – preached at John Thompson’s on Col 4:2.

lodged with Benjamin Thompson, son of John Thompson.

Monday, May 24, 1797 – rode to Benjamin Thompson’s and was not well

received. Rode on the Philip Stahl’s where we were kindly received.

Wednesday, May 26, 1797 – returned to Benjamin Thompson’s. (Note:

Richard Sneath⁹preached, Colbert preached and gave the Lord’s supper. Sneath

baptized two adults.) In justice to our good friend Benjamin Thompson, I must say

that he was not home when we called there. If he had been home I have no doubt

we should have been used well.

Keep in mind the name of Benjamin Thompson. At his home the first

Communion was administered; at his home the first Sunday service of record was

held. He may well have been the father of Mifflinburg Methodism. It was he who

introduced Colbert to his brother-in-law Mishael Lincoln¹⁰, the first Methodist

trustee of Mifflinburg.

Continuing in Colbert’s journal:

Sunday, September 9, 1798 – through grace I was enabled to preach with

freedom and power at Hedden’s¹¹from Amos 4:12. The people were very

attentive and some of them affected. In the afternoon I preached at Benjamin

Thompson’s from Matt. 18:3. The congregation was large and stupid. It is about

6 years since I first preached in this neighborhood and now there are only 4 men

joined in Society.

⁹Richard Sneath (1751-1824) was born in Ireland and emigrated to America in 1774. He

“embraced religion” and joined the Methodist Church in 1782 and became an itinerant in 1796.

Currently on his first assignment, as the junior preacher on Northumberland circuit, he would

itinerate for 28 years and earn a reputation as an effective evangelist. He married, raised 8

children, and lived in Delaware and Lancaster Counties PA.

¹⁰Mishael (pronounced “My-shall”) Lincoln (1761-1849) was one of the more prominent citizens

of East Buffalo township. His father Thomas Lincoln had been killed by Indians, and he is related

to President Abraham Lincoln. In 1798 he had just moved into his new stone house east of

Mifflinburg. Although a 1791 pew holder (#18) in the Buffalo Valley Presbyterian Church, he

became a devout Methodist. Likely the prime mover in the organization of the Mifflinburg class,

he was one of the original trustees of the log church erected by the Methodists in Mifflinburg in

1803. Mishael Lincoln married Rachel Thompson, daughter of the previously mentioned John

Thompson and a sister to Benjamin Thompson. Their son John Lincoln (1782-1862) gave the land

for Lincoln Chapel UMC, one mile west of Laurelton.

¹¹William Hedden lived near Hartleton and was a neighbor to the Crawfords.

Mifflinburg 33

We pause here to ask the question, Is Colbert implying that the class was

organized in 1792? We cannot infer this, and yet a class must have been organized

for some time by 1798. I believe this to be the class which was later called

Youngmanstown class with Mishael Lincoln as leader. If so, then your real

anniversary today (July 1963) would be at least your 165^thinstead of 160^th.

Returning for s final entry from Colbert’s journal:

Sunday, October 21, 1798 – I lodged with Mishael Lincoln, and was treated

with great kindness.

Lincoln must have been one of those converted and baptized in May 1797.

He had recently built a new stone mansion one mile east of Mifflinburg and his

farm adjoined that of his brother-in-law Benjamin Thompson. Mishael Lincoln,

one of the most distinguished pioneers of this valley was a Revolutionary War

veteran, having been on the expedition against the Indians with General Sullivan¹²

and having been at Fort Freeland.¹³He was the grandson of Mordecai Lincoln,

who was President Abraham Lincoln’s great-grandfather. His grandson confirmed

this relationship by correspondence with the great President before he was

martyred.

Mishael Lincoln died at the home of his son John near Laurelton and is

buried beside his wife in the old Lewis Cemetery. John and Hannah Lincoln gave

the distinguished name to Lincoln Chapel. From the writings of their son Richard

Van Buskirk Lincoln many facts in this history have been gleaned.

By 1801, Youngmanstown class gave evidence of strength and promise. At

the quarterly meeting held at Whitedeer Hole (Allenwood) August 8 and 9, 1801,

the following classes on Northumberland circuit reported their contributions to the

support of the preachers:

Board’s at Liberty, near Lock Haven

Helford’s (near Howard) – 20.5 cents for 3 months

Antis’ (at Curtin, near Milesburg)

Young’s and Richard’s of Centre County

Pennington’s (Upper Penn’s Valley)

Youngmanstown – $2.50

Lutz’s (White Deer) – $5.03

Mahonan (Danville)

Bowmans’s (Briar Creek near Berwick)

Salem

Shamokin Valley

¹²General John Sullivan (1740-1795) was a celebrated Revolutionary War hero.

¹³Now merely a footnote to history remembered only by the most serious scholars, but

apparently assumed familiar to the people in Mifflinburg in 1966, the events at Fort Freeland,

near Turbotville in Northumberland County, have been called “perhaps the greatest tragedy

to ever take place in central Pennsylvania.” In 1779 approximately 108 outnumbered Americans

were killed or wounded by British and Native American forces who destroyed the fort.

34 The Chronicle 2025

Benjamin Thompson was the “banker” (treasurer). Nicholas Egbert was the “book-

keeper” (recording steward). Nicholas Egbert was a class leader in Chillisquaque

township (perhaps the Milton class) until after 1800 when he moved to West

Buffalo and established a class near Forest Hill where he died in 1816.

Quarterly meetings were great events of spiritual significance lasting two

days and ending with Holy Communion. In the 1800’s several such meetings were

held in Buffalo Valley, which was central for the circuit. One was held at Martin

Dreisbach’s April 2 and 3, 1803.

Dreisbach’s Church had had no services for some time because of much

unrest among the members. The Reformed leaders blamed the trouble on the

unconventional antics of one of their ministers named Pfrimmer.¹⁴Many members

followed him because he preached, taught and believed an evangelical type of

Gospel more like that of the Methodists. The history of the German Reformed

Fathers calls him the apostate Pfrimmer.¹⁵He left these parts and went south and

later west, but his influence lingered. The history of the United Brethren Church

calls him “the sainted Father Pfrimmer.” He later excelled as an evangelistic

preacher among the United Brethren.

Because of this unsettled condition in the valley, the Dreisbach home was

open to the Methodists, Episcopalians, the Otterbein Methodist (United Brethren)

and the Albright Methodists (Evangelicals). Bishop Newcomer of the United

Brethren Church held a quarterly meeting at Dreisbach’s at which he and another

minister preached in German and Caleb Farley, a Methodist, spoke in English. In

this particular family the Evangelicals won out, for in 1806 they organized a class

there of which Martin Dreisbach and his son John were both members. This son

John, licensed as a preacher at 18, became one of the most influential leaders of the

Albright people and became the first editor of their denominational literature.

The first quarterly meeting of the Methodists held in Youngmanstown was

on December 15 and 16 1804. Leaders from 21 preaching places reported. This

was held in the recently erected log chapel – the first chapel erected by the

Methodists in the entire Northumberland circuit.

The Thompson class must have gained a new spiritual life and have

increased more rapidly in the six years following 1798 than during the six years

prior when only 4 men had joined. In in 1803 the “Communion Christian Church”

(later called “the old Log Cabin Church”) was erected on this lot with Christopher

Waggoner and Mishael Lincoln as the trustees. Their motive in erecting a union or

¹⁴Rev. John George Pfrimmer (1762-1825) was born in Germany and died in Indiana.

Holdcraft’s 1939 History of the Pennsylvania Conference of the United Brethren Church, page

304, gives a brief biography. Chapter 4 of the that denomination’s 1908 Our Heroes discusses

John George Pfrimmer.

¹⁵Berkheimer is likely referring to Harbaugh’s 1872 The Fathers of the German Reformed Church,

pages 464-465.

Mifflinburg 35

community church can only be surmised, but it may have been that services were

held here by itinerant United Brethren and Evangelicals, or others, as well as

Methodists. It is known that the Methodists used it for 53 years, or until 1856. That

it was a Methodist church in reality seems proven by the action of the Quarterly

conference of the Lycoming circuit, which voted to have the two trustees transfer

title to the Methodist Episcopal Church. This was in 1829, but it was not until 1844

or 1845 that it was really done. If this had not been owned by the Methodists this

action could hardly have been taken in the way in which it was.

This was undoubtedly the first church building erected by the Methodists of

this circuit. In 1895 the Lycoming Chapel, a log building, was erected at

Williamsport. The same year another was erected at Curtin, near Milesburg, on the

Bald Eagle Creek, and dedicated the next year. That society sprang from the class

organized in 1787 and has had continuous existence to this day. In 1807 a log

meeting house was erected at Milton. In 1808 the Stone Church at Briar Creek,

now restored as a shrine, was erected near Berwick. But the Youngmanstown Log

Meeting House takes priority, even though it was not legally a Methodist Episcopal

property.

In the spring of 1843 the first Sunday School was organized with Miss Rose

Wilson the teacher of one class of ten pupils. In 1853 Mifflinburg became the

center of a new circuit taken from Northumberland. A great revival swept the town

and a new church was needed. It was erected on this lot at a cost of $3,500 and

dedicated in January 1857. Bishop Thomas Bowman¹⁶and Dr. Dashiell¹⁷were

present.

Forty years later, in 1893, the trustees decided to build a new church. The

cornerstone was laid July 30, 1893 (70 years ago). The last service was held in the

old church on May 9^th.The dedication was made on February 25, 1894. The cost

was $10,500.00. Present were Bishop Cyrus D. Foss and Dr. D.J. Gray, president

of Williamsport Dickinson Seminary.

There have been many changes over the years. The Mifflinburg charge in

1855 consisted of Mifflinburg, New Berlin, Winfield, Middleburg, Lincoln Chapel,

Hartleton and Forest Hill. Later a Middleburg charge was created. Finally, all the

appointments except Mifflinburg and Lincoln Chapel were abandoned and the

properties sold. Methodists have not done as well in a decidedly Pennsylvania

¹⁶Rev. Thomas Bowman (1817-1914), born near Berwick, was a product of the Northumberland

circuit. In 1857 he was serving as the founding president (1848-58) of Williamsport Dickinson

Seminary. Not yet a bishop, he was elected top that office in 1872.

¹⁷Rev. John Hutson Dashiell (1821-1914) was serving Lewisburg station. He later served as

president of Williamsport Dickinson Seminary (1858-60). The following year, in 1858, he an

Bowman switched places, with Bowman assigned to Lewisburg station and Dashiell moving to

Williamsport Dickinson Seminary. His brother Robert Laurenson Dashiell (1825-1880) served as

president of Dickinson College (1868-72).

36 The Chronicle 2025

German Community as the United Brethren or Evangelicals whose background was

entirely German, while the Methodists were largely Irish or English.

Forest Hill church resulted from the stirring revival held by Samuel

Creighton, pastor of this charge, in 1857. The revival was held in the school house,

but soon after a union church was erected and held jointly by the Methodists,

Evangelicals and Lutherans. I am convinced that Methodists very much earlier in

the century had a class near there, probably the one led by the previously mentioned

Nicholas Egbert.

One must not forget the ministerial products as well as the ministerial

leadership of a church in writing about its history. In this study, I have not

mentioned the long list of excellent ministers this charge as had. Most other

histories give this matter over emphasis because the records are available, while the

records of lay leadership are not. Once upon a time, I asked the members of this

quarterly conference how many ministers had ever gone out from this church. The

answer was that the records indicated no one who had gone into our ministry.

Further research has indicated two sons of this church who were ministers

of our Conference and whose bodies lie interred in the local cemetery where their

graves might well become the special care of members of this church.

The Rev. Abraham Mench¹⁸was born near Mifflinburg, July 28, 1845,

and died at the residence of his brother John Mench, May 19, 1876. He joined this

church at the age of 15 years. He graduated from Dickinson College in 1867 and

joined the East Baltimore Conference in 1868. His funeral service was held in this

church May 24, 1876. Like many of the early circuit riders he died early, being in

his 31^styear. He served eight years in the traveling ministry.

The Rev. William Charles Hesser¹⁹was born in Mifflinburg, June 6, 1833.

He attended Mifflinburg public schools and academy, and there taught several

terms. In 1850, at the age of 17, he was converted and joined this church. He

married Ella C. Templin, duaghter of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Templin of Mifflinburg,

and they had six children. Called into the ministry, he was recommended for

license to preach in 1858 and to enter the traveling ministry in 1859. He attended

Allegheny College and in 1860 was appointed to the Middleburg charge. He served

as an effective minister for forty years.

He retired in 1901 and came back to Mifflinburg to live. He was a man of

many talents, being a musician, composer and choir director as well as being a

¹⁸Abraham Horatius Mench left his last appointment (Jamestown charge = Jamestown [Oriole],

Oval and Elizabeth) in mid-year to remove to Colorado for this health. Finding no relief, he

returned to Mifflinburg after 9 months, as he said, “only to bid us good bye.” He never married.

¹⁹William C. Hesser is the son of Hannah Wagoner Hesser and Rev. Charles Hesser (1807-1843)

of the Evangelical Association. The elder Rev. Hesser died in an accident on his way to attend the

1843 General Conference of the Evangelical Association as a delegate of the East Pennsylvania

Conference [see Breyfogel’s 1888 Landmarks of the Evangelical Association, page 105.]

Mifflinburg 37

powerful pulpit orator. He was stricken with paralysis after attending this church

on Sunday evening, September 3, 1905. He died on January 7, 1906. His funeral

was held in this church, the other pastors of the town acting as the pall bearers. His

body was interred in Woodland Cemetery.

Rev. John McElllhenny²⁰, now serving in the Philadelphia Conference, is

a third member of this congregation to enter the ministry.

Three ministers of the Gospel in 165 years of existence as a church. Is that

all God has called into His service from this church? Probably over 100 ministers

have served this church in its history, for in the earliest days there were two

preachers on each large circuit and they moved every year.

“Our fathers worshipped on this mountain.” Our children are to worship

here. Our fathers heard God calling them into His service. Who is to remind our

children that God is still calling mean and women into His service?

With all of the marvelous history of the past, Christianity is always only one

generation from extinction. If, in this generation everyone stopped talking about

God and His Gospel of salvation through faith in Christ, then there would be no

future generation of Christians. If youth are not reminded by their teachers, parents

and elders that God is still issuing calls into His service, then the shortage of

ministerial candidates will become greater each year until ministers will be

unavailable. God does not will this to be. But God does will that we of this

generation should tell of His wondrous works to our children who, in turn, will tell

it to their children and generations to come will glorify His name on this mountain.

²⁰John G. McEllhenney entered the Philadelphia Conference of the Methodist Church in 1957

and in 1997. He is the author and/or editor of several books, including the 1992 United

Methodism in America: A Compact History. His wife, the former Nancy Gray Wolf, died in 2018,

but as of 2025 John is living in retirement at the denomination’s Cornwall Manor near Lebanon

PA.

38 The Chronicle 2025

These Made History in Altoona District Methodism¹

The particular occasion fop this paper at this time, I take it, is to stimulate

some interest in uncovering and preserving historical data and in getting our local

churches to plan for some observations of the Bi-centennial of American

Methodism in 1966. We have been notorious in our neglect of our heritage. Before

Francis Asbury died he instructed all his preachers to see that historical records of

the origins and development of all their circuits should be written down for

posterity; but his preachers had little time to write, and few in their societies were

able to do it, so it was universally neglected.

In 1839 a general appeal was made to all conferences to form historical

societies for this purpose. Shortly thereafter an Asbury Historical Society for the

M.E. Church was formed and Dickinson College was made the repository of its

findings. Then, in our own Conference, our preachers passed resolutions urging

themselves to preserve all historical documents and to write historical statements

of the origins of all churches – and then they went on to do what we do today: feel

good about passing good resolutions and doing almost nothing else.

In 1882 a letter was sent to all pastors for this purpose by the newly

authorized and organized Conference Historical Society. A good many lay and

ministerial persons contributed old books, documents, etc., and a few began to write

carefully prepared local histories. Rev. H.C. Pardoe was one of the most helpful of

these writers. When the Conference was 25 years old, it was proposed that a history

of the Conference should be written; nothing was done.

In 1917 when we were about to observe our Semi-centennial, questionnaires

were sent out by the District Superintendents to all churches with the purpose of

collecting material for a Conference History. The response in most cases seems to

have been made, but the some D.S.’s apparently did not send in these forms, except

in two cases. Now we have about one fourth of the Conference covered by these

returns.²

Now, again, we are bravely trying to acquire historical information which

may have been forever lost or, at best, obscured by the swift passing of time and by

the passing to their rewards of the members of the older generation of Methodists

who carried with them the traditions they had acquired from the elders. It seems

almost a visionary and audacious undertaking even to try to bring to light some of

this material, and yet some of it is still to be found if we know how to look and have

the disposition to try.

¹This paper was read by Charles Berkheimer before the Altoona District Ministerium meeting in

Hustontown, Fulton County, in October 1965.

²The exisiting 1917 forms now reside in the church files at the conference archives and have

proved to be valuable sources of information.

Altoona District 39

In passing, let me defend the fathers for what might seem to be neglect on

their part. A preacher did not usually stay long enough in one charge to learn about

its historical background. He had other and more important interest to occupy all

of his time, we must admit. But we are now appealing to you to preserve and make

available whatever historical data you may find on your charges. Let me say also,

in passing, that we are not here to induce ourselves to look back at the past as the

most glorious era in Methodist history. We are in a day when we need spiritual

renewal in our beloved church and we know it. But it is a truism to say that if the

Hebrew patriarchs and prophets had not told and retold their ancient traditions and

kept them living, we would have no Old Testament. The same might be said of the

New Testament. Our fathers found a basis of spiritual renewal in reminding each

other of how the Spirit of God had moved upon the lives of their forefathers.

Now let me tell you some stories of how God’s Spirit moved upon the

fathers and mothers of the past century and a half in this part of our Conference. I

shall begin by telling you of the discovery of a simple little piece of pencil-written

paper which unlocked for us some important historical secrets. At Shrewsbury,

before N.R. Wagner retired, he found such a piece of paper which he did not

understand, but which seemed to be part of a larger whole. Instead of destroying

it, he sent it to M.V. Mussina³with some artifacts and Mussina asked me what I

thought it was. It turned out to be penciled notes in reply to the D.S.’s questionnaire

of 1917, and written by an elderly leader of the church who remembered. As a

consequence of this research we now have conclusive evidence of the fact that

Philip Gatch in 1772 came into that part of York County and started a preaching

place which later was called Low’s Meeting House. Three Generations of Lows

kept this house open for preachers and later led to the erection of Rock Chapel in

York County. Francis Asbury, Bishops Roberts and McKendree and many other

leaders of Methodism preached in this home and church. New light is shed upon

several references in Asbury’s journal and corrections must now be made if a new

edition is printed. Furthermore, the story of a little negro slave girl converted in a

Shrewsbury revival was told and we now bring to light the forgotten story of

Amanda Smith, the greatest woman evangelist Methodism has ever produced, and

the Mahalia Jackson of her day, who had the most amazing contralto in America

and sang in European countries where she travelled as well as for at least two

General Conferences of Methodism. She spent twelve years in Liberia with Bishop

William Taylor, receiving only her bare necessities as recompense. In addition, the

little paper talked of the old camp meeting where little Eugene E. Hendrix went

forward with his mother and was converted. He became Bishop Eugene E. Hendrix

of the M.E. Church, South, and the first president of the Federal Council of

Churches of Christ in the United States. Now hear this: three years ago there could

³Malcolm Vivian Mussina (1902-1971) is listed in the 1966 Who’s Who in the Methodist Church.

He served as the executive secretary of the Conference Board of Education 1948-1969. He is also

the grandfather of MLB Hall-of-Fame pitcher Mike Mussina.

40 The Chronicle 2025

not be fond anybody on that charge, minister or layman, who ever heard of these

things. BUT THIS IS METHODIST HISTORY.

The bits of history I am about to give you were entirely new to me when I

read them in the files of the New York Christian Advocate from 1826 to 1860. For

the convenience of local church historians, I have indexed each item I found in two

years of digging so that they might become available again. I also researched and

indexed other publications.

For example, in our own Pennsylvania Methodist of October 1893, I found

the article describing the dedication of this church in which we are meeting today

in Hustontown to be called the Hartman Chapel, after “Uncle Dan Hartman” – one

of the distinguished leaders of our Conference who began his ministry on the

Littleton Circuit in 1827. His namesake, Governor of Pennsylvania General Daniel

Hartman Hastings, for whom the town of Hastings was named, was here to speak

in 1894 about what Uncle Dan had done for his family. Dr. E.J. Gray⁴conducted

the financial appeal of the day and raised the excellent sum of $400 which almost

cancelled the indebtedness. This building also has connections to the three Deavor

brothers⁵of the Central Pennsylvania Conference, who gave 101 years of effective

service. The youngest was converted in Hartman Chapel under the preaching of

his brother.

In 1835, the Littleton Circuit was about to begin its third camp meeting for

the Conference year on October 8^th. This was the day when most circuits had their

own camp meetings which usually ran for 2 or 3 days. Let us hope they had good

weather, that their crops were now in, and that the World Series did not distract at

their tents. This was also the day of “protracted meetings.” The quarterly meetings

always lasted 2 days, the members staying in nearby homes overnight, or more

often the class leaders and local preachers sleeping in the nearest barns. If there

were conversions or a manifestation of the Spirit, the meetings were continued, or

“protracted” – sometimes for two or three weeks. The P.E. stayed as long as he

could and then went on to start another on the next circuit. But these meetings were

usually “protracted” in another sense. They usually began on Saturday morning

and sometimes ran into Monday, providing for as many as three or four sermons

each day in addition to the Sunday morning Love Feast and Holy Communion. But

they had no officials holding up their watches to remind the preacher that it was

time to go home. Evening meetings started at “early candle light” and ended when

they ended. Everybody didn’t approve, however. On August 24, 1838, the

Christian Advocate published as letter on “Unduly Protracted Meetings” signed by

“An Anxious Observer” in which he argues that:

⁴Rev. Dr. Edward James Gray (1832-1905) was the president of Williamsport Dickinson Seminary

1874-1905. A biographical sketch for him appears in Simpson’s 1881 Cyclopedia of Methodism.

⁵Rev. Edward Ephraim Allen Deavor (1845-1923), Rev. Joseph Dyke Walter Deavor (1853-1935),

and Rev. William Tecumseh Sherman Deavor (1864-1898).

Altoona District 41

“Five or six hours, from candle light to ten o’clock in a heated atmosphere is

too much. It is bad for working people, family people and servants.”

A simple remedy was offered in these words:

“Let the officers of our societies prepare brief reports, fix only 4 or at most 6

addresses, and limit each speaker absolutely to 20 minutes. Let our brethren

who take the lead be a little more modest.”

Another item of local and conference interest was published on April 14,

1837. This was in the day before the Missionary Movement had gained much

impetus. Even in 1841, when the Editor of the Christian Advocate proposed a plan

to raise the fabulous sum of $300,000 by having every member give 2 cents a week

for missions, he closed his editorial with this appeal:

“Who will be the first to lead the way? Who will be the first to croak, for

someone surely will!”

A letter from Littleton Circuit says: “Three years since, a few pious females

formed themselves into the Licking Creek Female Missionary Society, auxiliary to

the Missionary Society of the M.E. Church.” This is the first record of a woman’s

missionary organization I have found within the bounds of this conference. The

officers were:

Mrs. E. Duncan, First Directress; Mrs. M.K. Donovan, Second Directress

Mrs. C. Davis, Treasurer; Miss A.M. Kellogg, Secretary

Mrs. E. Spencer, Mrs. S.C. Himes, Mrs. I. Brandeberry, Miss M. Cummins,

Miss K. Irvin, Miss E. Heist, Miss M.K. Angle, Miss A.M. Attick,

Miss A. Langhead, Managers

All hail these missionary minded women. They sent in $36 for the year. THIS IS

METHODIST HISTORY.

In that day there were not so many special days to be observed with special

programs. The few holidays there were were the occasions for revival meetings to

start or for missionary meetings. You may know that no evangelical Protestant

church prior to Civial War times ever observed Christmas as a religious holiday.

Sometimes the preachers preached on the Incarnation, but they mostly believed that

the death of Christ for the sins of the world was more important than his birth – and

anyway, they were not willing to follow the paganism of the Roman Catholic

Church’s observance of the Christ Mass. This, then, was the schedule of the latter

part of the Conference year 1837-38 on Bedford Circuit:

third quarter meeting at Horn’s Meeting House

a 2-day meeting at Schellsburg

Christmas Meeting held at Bloody Run [i.e., Everett]

New Year’s Meeting at the home of Charles McLaughlin – where 20 professed

conversion, some of them enemies of each other

fourth quarterly meeting at Bedford – where 40 came forward at the invitation

of a brother who had just been blessed

There were 175 conversions so far in the year. THIS IS METHODIST HISTORY.

42 The Chronicle 2025

Let me bring into this paper some long forgotten names from some of the

nearby circuits of this District. I shall do this because I believe that so many of our

so-called church anniversaries have been only anniversaries of church buildings;

and the average printed history of a local church contains little but the history of

material improvements to the building and the list of the pastors of record. The

church, in every case, is a fellowship of believers – persons – and the history of

their fellowship ante-dates and outshines the story of their church buildings. The

true history of the first lay members, the first classes, the first prayer bands, the first

societies, has never been written down – with the result that we do not have church

histories, only church building histories. This can hardly be helped, and the story

of church buildings themselves is often very interesting and significant. Where are

we now recording for our posterity what truly devoted men and women are doing

today in our churches? History to me is the story of personalities, and I give you a

few examples of what persistent research has uncovered so far – in the earnest hope

that you may try to dig up whatever remains of the traditions of the elders in your

local parishes. THIS IS METHODIST HISTORY.

Francis Asbury’s Journal is a rich resource for some of the churches in this

particular area. In 1805, for example, Asbury, travelling west on the Forbes Road,

stopped at Burnt Cabins at John Thompson’s. Since the Thompson home here is

an important one to Methodism in this Conference, let me pause here to risk a trial

of identification. Asbury’s Journal is quite notorious to historians for its

inaccuracies on names, dates, texts, etc. – due likely to his writing it up for days at

a time, perhaps on his “rest day” a week later. Instead of John Thompson, he meant

Isaac Thompson of Burnt Cabins, who gave the land and was responsible for

building the first log meeting house near here. (See Lytle’s History of Huntingdon

County.) Isaac Thompson died January 5, 1843, aged 81 years. His obituary

contains his personal testimony, as follows:

“I was born 6 of April 1762 in Chester County, Pa., and moved to this place in

1788. In March 1791 I was converted under the sermon of John Rowen, the

first ever preacher in my house. I obtained sanctification in 1803.”

His pastor writes of him:

“He was for forty years the leader of one or two classes. He was a Steward for

44 tears and Recording Steward for 24 years. Asbury accepted his hospitality.

Having no children, he made the M.E. Church his heir, giving half of his estate

to the Missionary Society and the other half to the Preachers’ Aid Society of

the Baltimore Conference.”

THIS IS METHODIST HISTORY.

On Asbury’s trip through here in 1809, he stopped at Thompson’s and

lodged at Ramsey’s, where the P.E. of the Carlisle District had his house and home.

He was James Hunter, the guilty P.E. who was a thorn in the flesh to Asbury while

he was preaching in Bedford Court House when he “put his feet on the bannister of

my pulpit while I was preaching.” THIS IS METHODIST HISTORY.

Altoona District 43

In September of 1840, Mrs. Margaret Edwards died at the age of 34 years.

The father of her husband had died in June 1849, having been a member of the M.E.

Church in Wells Valley for 30 years – meaning that the Wells Valley Church goes

back at least to 1809.

In Schellsburg, in 1841 or 42 Mrs. Susannah, consort of Henry Horn, fell

dead on the spot on which she had been converted just 4 weeks before. When she

fell during the altar service, they thought she was in a religious ecstasy – and the

other worshippers left her where she was until the meeting was closing when they

found she was dead.

In Brush Creek Valley, Mrs. Rachel Akers died May 1842, aged 80. Her

obituary says that in 1804 a class was formed by the Rev. David Best and she and

her husband joined. Their mill was a regular preaching place and their home held

a welcome to the preachers until 1817 when her husband died. Three of her

grandsons⁶became Methodist preachers. THIS IS METHODIST HISTORY.

You can’t know the Methodist history of this territory unless you know

about the Shaver family, which produced two generations of Methodist preachers.

Peter Shaver was a veteran of the Revolutionary War (as were most of the early

laymen and preachers) who was proficient in both English and German and served

as an interpreter for army officers who spoke only English. After the war he

married a German girl from Franklin County and moved to Huntingdon County.

His wife died April 15, 1843, aged 77, and her obituary says that the first Methodist

preacher who visited her place came there in 1790. She did not understand English,

but she was shortly thereafter converted and became a faithful and ardent

Methodist. Her son David, born in 1804, became a member of the Baltimore

Conference in 1826. His son Joseph became a member of the Central Pennsylvania

Conference in 1869 and had a distinguished career as a minister. THIS IS

METHODIST HISTORY.

You have not all read the biography of Jacob Gruber, the eccentric

Pennsylvania German circuit rider, ordained by Asbury and a power for

righteousness wherever he went. You should read it, each and every one of you.

But because you haven’t, let me read you some excerpts from some letters he wrote

while he was a pastor of the Trough Creek Circuit, pastor of some churches of

which some of you are now his successors.

In January 1845 he wrote the Christian Advocate at New York:

“We have been highly favored among these mountains in this poor circuit, with

upwards of 70 converts. We have curiosities and varieties here. A thing some

call a parsonage, but no parson here. There is no lack of preachers in this area.

Three of four different sorts of travelling preachers all trying to get the people

⁶Rev. Joseph Benson Akers (1829-1889), Rev. John Milton Akers (1836-1889) and Rev. Jesse R.

Akers (1844-1904),

44 The Chronicle 2025

right. Some have found out that they have never been baptized – only

catechized; so they bury them in a liquid grave, and wash their feet, and call

themselves ‘The Church of God.’ Others teach that all must be dipped forward

three times. No wonder some call religion bigotry and superstition. So here we

run opposition lines, while on some parts they run division lines.”

He goes on:

“Between 40 and 50 years ago, some critical persons asked, ‘Why have you no

Doctors of Divinity among you?’ We would answer, ‘Our divinity is not sick.

No doubt when it gets sick we will get Doctors.’ But what shall we say now?

We have Doctors enough to cure all, and the Masters too. But what a pity when

an M.D. administers a few pills to a D.D. – they should work the other way

here. We have A.M.’s and D.D.’s enough for a little while. We want some

Masters of Economy and we need not a few who are willing to take the lowest

seats and do hard work.” Signed, Jacob Gruber.

THIS IS METHODIST HISTORY. But despite this, the effort to get trained ministers

went on as a policy of the denomination.

In this District we should call attention to one of the most important ventures

in Christian education in our Conference – indeed, two ventures: the Rainsburg

Seminary and the Cassville Seminary. Some of you should do the research and

write up the histories of these institutions for our files. I came across just last week

a minister’s daughter who had lived at Cassville while her father was pastor there

and had never heard of Cassville Seminary. The founding of Cassville Seminary

was a noble effort, nobly conceived, and did fine work for some years – albeit under

some extreme difficulties. One of these was the fact that the P.E.’s often ordered

young local preachers who wanted to get better training to leave the Seminary and

take work because there were needed to preach and not to study.

This was true at Cassville and also at Williamsport Dickinson Seminary.

Dr. J.E. Skillington told me that when he graduated from the Seminary at

Williamsport, President E.J. Gray, perhaps then the leader of our Conference, told

him that he was unwise to waste his time going to College and Theological

Seminary, since he was already capable as a preacher with a good religious

experience and a divine call. But let me read the advertisement for Cassville

Seminary which appeared in the Christian Advocate on June 8, 1854:

“The Cassville Male and Female Seminary of the Baltimore Conference will

open its first term for the third year, August the 10^th, and the second term,

November 10^th. Expenses for board, tuition, room-rent and furniture for one year:

$90.00. Ornamental Branches extra.⁷

“Cassville, the seat of the institution, is a remote mountainous region 12 miles

from the Penna. R.R. at Mill Creek, from which it is accessible by stage that

⁷Designed for female students in ante-bellum education, the “Ornamental Branches” typically

included such things as needlework, drawing and painting, elegant penmanship, music and grace

of motion.

Altoona District 45

leaves there at 1 p.m. The Board of Instruction will consist of seven, and they

will be prepared to impart instruction in all Practical, Scientific, Classical,

Literary and Ornamental Branches usually taught in similar institutions.

Catalogues and Circulars of further information can be had at any time by

addressing the principal J.T. Tomlin.”

Principal Tomlin’s description of the institution is contained in a letter published in

the same issue. He says, in part:

“The institution was started two years ago upon an original plan, and we

think, as Bishop Waugh remarked before it was presented to the Baltimore

Conference, ‘It is the plan.’ Stockholders own the property and erect the

buildings, while the Conference is represented on the Board of Trustees; thus

sharing the educational and religious interests of the Conference without

encumbering it with the finances. Their plans are to prepare it to accommodate

200 to 500 students. The plans will be the most complete of any in the land.

“Cassville is to be the Central Seminary of Methodism, at which the North

and South, the East and West, will meet to be educated together, where the

ultra-prejudices of the extremes may be softened by material association and a

free exchange of opinion and the cultivation of liberal sentiments. Not a tavern

or grog-shop where spirituous liquors can be obtained within some miles of this

place.” J.T. Tomlin

Undoubtedly the purposes of Cassville Seminary were noble, but then a

Civil War intervened, which tried to settle differences between ultra-prejudices of

the extremes in another way. A century later, we find that they were not settled at

all, and we wonder what might have been the effect if half a hundred Cassville

Seminaries had been supported vigorously by Methodists in the North and South.

BUT THIS IS NOT METHODIST HISTORY.

Methodist history must tell of the divisions in the church caused by the

Methodist Protestant and Wesleyan Methodist secessions as they were called in that

day. I hope that someone here will be responsible for tracing this history and telling

us which present Methodist churches came from the M.P.’s or the Wesleyans and

which still exist as either. Both of these groups had real grievances against the M.E.

Church, but they gave trouble to the P.E.’s by their opposition to any kind of

supervision. It’s hard for us to believe that there was prejudice of any kind against

the P.E.’s in many churches. BUT THIS IS METHODIST HISTORY.

In 1822 Henry Smith was P.E. of the Northumberland District. He had only

eight circuits, although two of them, Aughwick and Juniata, were combined. Since

all four quarterly conferences were held each year, he still had only 32 to hold in

the year. But… the circuits were Northumberland, Shamokin, Lycoming, Bald

Eagle, Aughwick, Juniata, Huntingdon and Bedford. These circuits included all of

what is now the Central Pennsylvania Conference except Carlisle, York and

46 The Chronicle 2025

Chambersburg circuits – parts of which were in Maryland. In Henry Smith’s

narrative he says:

“In 1822 at Conference in Baltimore, I heard read out Northumberland

District, Henry Smith, P.E. At that time it was not an enviable appointment

when ‘the Bishop’s men’ were looked upon with a suspicious eye. A part of

the District had been transferred from the Genesee to the Baltimore Conference.

The first quarterly meeting was held in William Morrison’s barn on Juniata-

Aughwick Circuit. Provisions were estimated to be $30 in addition to

quarterage [if he could get it] for the preacher his wife and child. [Quarterage

was then $100 each for the preacher and his wife, and $16 for each child under

16.]

“This was a poor beginning. I found great prejudice in the district against

making provisions for a preacher’s family. But, being a bachelor myself, I

could approach the subject with boldness and advocate the cause of God and

my suffering brethren.”

He goes on to give his arguments, warning them that if they did not do better

they would only get worn-out bachelors or inexperienced boys as pastors.

Incidentally, he does not tell us anything more about his year on Northumberland

Circuit. His volume of Reminiscences is in our Historical Society Library.

One could go on telling about the serious problems of pastors and P.E.’s.

The districts were very large, coverage vast areas. In 1805 the Susquehanna

District, formed in 1803, contained only seven circuits – but they were Wyoming

(now Wyoming Conference), Northumberland, Carlisle, Huntingdon, Littleton,

Juniata and Tioga. This was substantially all of Methodism at the time in the

territory now covered in the Wyoming, Central Pennsylvania and Central New

York Conferences.

George Harmon, who travelled this District in 1812, left a brief but vivid

description of his district. Says he:

“I commenced on the south end, about 100 miles north of Baltimore. It

extended to within 20 miles of Utica, in New York State, and from the Delaware

River on the east to the Genesee on the west. It was at least 1000 miles around

it. Such roads! Such mountains! Such hills! I broke down several horses

during my term of service on this district.”

THIS IS METHODIST HISTORY. It is LOCAL METHODIST HISTORY, for this was

the district of which this section was a part.

And Methodist history cannot be told without honoring class leaders and

local preachers, for they held the local societies together when the preacher in

charge was seen only once or twice a month. They visited the sick, reproved the

erring, buried the dead, and comforted the bereaved while the preacher in charge

was often 2 or 3 weeks travel time away. To write the histories of most of our

churches and give only the names of the preachers appointed is to write only partial

Altoona District 47

histories. Such names as Lakin, Breeze, Horn, Akers, Stevens, Thompson,

Edwards, Levering, Ramsey, Chilcoate, to mention only a few, are names of prime

historical importance. Sadly we lack much information about the Breeze family

from Breezewood, the birthplace of Bishop James Mathews⁸of the Boston

Episcopal Area. He was born there when he father was serving as a supply pastor

on the Rays Hill charge. All of these MADE METHODIST HISTORY.

Let me close these ramblings with a notable observation made by a

Methodist preacher in July of 1845. The M.E. Church, South, had been organized;

the Wesleyan Methodists had left because of a weak position on abolition; the

Millerite excitement about the predicted Second Coming and the end of the world

had brought thousands of conversions prior to April of 1844 and now that their

predictions had not come true the church had more backsliders than at any other

time of its history; and the General Minutes for the M.E. Church alone showed a

net loss of 36,000 members. The writer said that he would think about a sixth of

the loss is due to seceders, and another sixth resulting from the sifting of additions

during the excitement of the past few years. “But,” said he, “I am inclined to think

the cause is elsewhere. Many preachers find fewer members than reported to

Conference by their predecessors! Class leaders do not see their members at least

once a week. If every leader did this there would be fewer backsliders. We might

have fewer members but better ones. Our church might be smaller but more

influential in the world.” And then this punch line as the conclusion of his letter,

“I had rather have one small spring of water than a large stagnant pool.” End of

quotation.

So would I and so would you! May all of our churches so come to adapt

themselves to the business of spreading the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ in this

day of spiritual drought that it shall be said a century form now that each local

church was indeed a small spring of living water refreshing a dry and thirsty land.

WE ARE MAKING METHODIST HISTORY TODAY OF ONE KIND OR

ANOTHER.

⁸James Kenneth Matthews (1913-2010) was also a missionary and married Eunice Jones, the

daughter of the noted Methodist missionary, evangelist and author Rev. E. Stanley Jones (1884-

1973)

48 The Chronicle 2025

Origins of Methodism in the Williamsport District

Some Bits of History¹

My assignment by the program committee was not to prepare a history of

the Williamsport District of the Central Pennsylvania Conference. Such a paper

would contain voluminous statistics, most of them dry and uninteresting, even

though valuable for historical study. The particular occasion for this paper at this

time, I take it, is to stimulate some interest in preserving our historical data and in

getting our local churches to plan for come observances of the Bi-centennial of

American Methodism in 1966.

It will still be my purpose today to try to make interesting some of the

human interest stories and legends which have come down to us and to share with

you some of the Methodistica I have found in my carefree excursions into the past.

Too many of our so-called church anniversaries have been only

anniversaries of church buildings, and the average history of a local church

mentions almost exclusively material improvements to the buildings and the list of

pastors it has had. In each case the church is a fellowship of persons whose history

ante-dates and outshines the story of their church buildings. Of course, most of

these things have never been written down, with the result that we do not have

church histories really – only church building histories. This can hardly be helped,

and the story of church buildings themselves is very interesting as far as it goes.

Let us begin with some highlights of the history of Methodism at this spot

on which we are assembled. The building is a living symbol of Methodism’s

missionary and church building policy. This edifice was erected here in 1822 – the

third building used by the Methodists on this plot of ground – and is now the oldest

church building in Bradford County. It is also probably the only remaining example

of this particular type of church architecture within the bounds of our conference.

It was erected here because this was the central place for Methodists in Sugar Creek,

but by 1857 the settlements of Burlington and West Burlington had been made and

the people living there built meeting houses more to their own needs at the time,

abandoning this meeting house as a regular preaching place after only thirty-five

years of regular use. Methodist preachers always went where the people were. This

building had served its purpose and others took its place. It should be said,

however, that there has been an annual service held in this old church ever since it

was not used as a circuit preaching place.

Thus, this building is not only a symbol of the glory of a shining past, but a

symbol of the importance of change and adaptability of our fathers to new

circumstances. This kind of pulpit, by the way, was not uncommon in Methodist

churches in that day. The first church built on Pine Street in Williamsport “had a

¹This paper was presented at the Williamsport District Ministerial Association meeting at the Old

Burlington Church in Bradford County PA on September 14, 1965.

Williamsport District 49

high pulpit built up at the rear of the church (between the entrance doors), with

steps leading up to it, after the architecture of the day, and was so very high that a

child could not see the preacher when he was in it, until he stood up to preach.” I

call your attention to the fact that this is an octagonal pulpit, as most modern pulpits

are, symbolizing the eight beatitudes of Jesus or the eight offices of the ministry

(Ephesians 4). Other denominations called this a “wine glass pulpit” because of its

shape, but the Methodists usually didn’t.

Like others of its day, this church was built according to the Disciplinary

rule, “Let all our churches be plain and decent; but not more expensive than is

absolutely unavoidable; otherwise the necessity of raising money will make rich

men necessary to us. But if so, we must be dependent on them, yea, and governed

by them. And then farewell to Methodist discipline, if not doctrine too.” This

paragraph appeared in all editions of the Disciple from Francis Asbury’s day and

for almost a hundred years. Methodists were not like Quakers in insisting on

plainness. They were social radicals and insisted on keeping themselves “unspotted

form the world.”

But Methodist polity has always changed from time to time. And customs

changed, too. Back in 1842, on November 2, there appeared the following letter to

the editor of The Christian Advocate concerning the proper posture for pronouncing

and receiving the benediction. Let me quote part of it. The inquirer, signing himself

as “Uniformity”, says:

“Generally the benediction follows prayer with the preacher and people

kneeling. This is the way the bishops and preachers usually do. I suppose this

to be right. But of late I have visited Methodist congregations where the

preacher, on closing the prayer, has suddenly popped up from behind the sacred

desk, as from the dome of St. Peter’s, throwing forth his hands to the

congregation, who have suddenly rushed to their feet to receive the expected

benediction. Now, Mr. Editor, it appears to me to be a little more Protestant to

pronounce the benediction when preceded by prayer, upon the knees as a

prayer, in the use of first person plural us instead of you. What think you,

Doctor? Please give us your opinion.”

The editor, Dr. Bond, replied like this:

“The peace and unity of the church has been so disturbed and broken up by the

many attempts to produce uniformity in matters of doctrine and forms of

worship, that we have no disposition to enter the controversy… If we were to

do so, we would ask the question in a different form. Should the people stand

or sit down, as kneeling during any part of public worship is going out of

fashion in both the north and the east?”

Unless you think in terms of a high pulpit like this, you cannot understand

“Uniformity’s” picturesque description.

The history of this society at Burlington goes back to 1791, the year that the

first class was formed at Amariah Sutton’s on the Lycoming, and the year in which

50 The Chronicle 2025

Wesley died. In that year the wives of some of the first settlers started to have

regular prayer meetings among themselves, which continued for several years

before any circuit preacher began to hold services regularly. There is an interesting

legend which declares that one day a group of young people got together for a frolic

and staged a mock prayer meeting, making fun of their mothers, as a form of

amusement. They sang hymns, read scripture and had several prayers when

suddenly the seriousness of their so-called amusement struck them with a sense of

shame and they became convicted of their sin. Their mothers, instead of rebuking

them, wisely came to join them in their prayer meeting and several were converted.

No date is given for this event and no preacher was there to guide it, but it seems

like a good beginning for a church. Remember that at that period of our history not

more than one in ten of the population was a church member, and remember, too,

that the population of this particular frontier was very sparse. The men came later

to be active leaders, but the women started the church.

As in most of these northern tier settlements, the majority of the original

settlers here were veterans of the Revolutionary War, many of them having been

officers who received grants of land for their war service – or having bought land

from the Connecticut Company, which had claimed the upper third of Pennsylvania

as part of the State of Connecticut by a grant which they held to have precedence

over that of William Penn. While many settlers came from southern Pennsylvania,

Maryland and Delaware, a large number were true “Connecticut Yankees” – and

this accounts for the New England style of their villages, their homes, and their

churches. It accounts also for many of their characteristics and usages, quite

distinct from those of the Pennsylvania Germans of the southern and central parts

of the state and conference.

They were stern, liberty-loving, independent, thrifty, honorable people, and

their descendants retain many of those traits today. William Colbert, the first

itinerant assigned to Tioga Circuit in 1792, would not have given them so much

praise as a group, however, for he had come into contact with the wild, primitive

life the earliest settlers lived in their crude one room log cabins, and he was

depressed at the response he got here at first. But many men who later achieved

distinction were settlers in this part of our District.

In this churchyard, for example, rests the body of General Samuel McKean,

who was the 19^thUnited States Senator from Pennsylvania. His family came from

Maryland and may have been Methodists when they arrived here. Samuel was a

lawyer and probably the most influential citizen of the community in his day.

Because of his leadership, this church obtained its first charter as “The Methodist

Society of Burlington” in 1796. I have not heard of another charter issued as early

as this to any other Methodist Society in our Conference. His relative, William

McKean, was the carpenter who built the pulpit of this church at Burlington and

probably supervised the construction of the edifice. For a period of over fifty years

most of the class leaders had the surname McKean, while several were local

preachers and one was an itinerant.

Williamsport District 51

When Tioga Circuit was formed in 1792, it covered the territory to the west

of the Wyoming Valley, including most of the present Bradford, Sullivan and Tioga

counties in Pennsylvania and on up into the Seneca and Cayuga Lake country in

New York state. Colbert called it a very cold, dismal, poor territory with few

settlers and most of those poverty-stricken. He says he had only three converts

while he was here. He was here, however, only about four months in late 1792 and

early 1793. He speaks well of Brother Campbell and Stephen Ballard, of Sugar

Creek, at whose houses he was welcomed. In 1804, when he was presiding elder

of the district, he held the first quarterly meeting ever held at this spot. Andrew

McKean was the class leader and exhorter at this time.

Williamsport District Territory through the Early Years

It is interesting to note that when this territory was taken from Central New

York Conference and placed with the Central Pennsylvania Conference²this was

not the first time that these different sections of the church were part of the same

district. Let me set out a few dates and arrangements of circuits into presiding elder

Districts in the past.

In 1794, Thornton Fleming was Presiding Elder here with only three

circuits in his district. But these three circuits were Tioga, Seneca (Lake) and Nova

Scotia – to which latter circuit eight preachers had been appointed. Fleming had

only twelve quarterly meetings to hold in a whole year.

In 1796, Thomas Ware was Presiding Elder and he had had Philadelphia,

Chester, Bristol, Wilmington, Strasburgh, Northumberland, Wyoming, Tioga and

Seneca circuits – eight circuits covering the state of Delaware, a large part of

Pennsylvania, and New York. He had thirty-two quarterly meetings to attend.

In 1801, the districts were formally formed and named. Northumberland

and Wyoming circuits were in Philadelphia District – with the state of Delaware

and four other circuits. Tioga and Seneca were in Albany District.

In 1803, Susquehanna District was formed and was in the Philadelphia

Conference. By 1805 Susquehanna District was in the Baltimore Conference and

had Anning Owen, “The Wyoming Blacksmith”, as Presiding Elder. He had only

seven circuits, which meant twenty-eight quarterly meetings – and camp meetings

were now starting to be held, with the presiding elder expected to participate. The

circuits of Susquehanna District in 1805 were the following: Wyoming,

Northumberland, Carlisle, Huntingdon, Littleton, Juniata and Tioga. This was

substantially all the Methodist work in the territory of the present Central

Pennsylvania and Wyoming conferences. This was one District, and we were in

Susquehanna District for a number of years.

²This occurred in 1962, when the conference boundaries were adjusted to match the state lines

– and very much in the memory and on the mind of those attending the meeting where

Berkheimer presented this paper.

52 The Chronicle 2025

In 1810, Genesee Conference was formed and Susquehanna District

became part of it – consisting of the following circuits: Lyons (NY) where the

Genesee Conference was formed that year, Ontario County (NY), Holland Lands,

Canisteo, Lycoming, Northumberland, Wyoming, Canaan, Tioga and Seneca. This

Conference also had two districts in Canada, Upper and Lower. One of the men

sent to Upper Canada in 1812 was John Rhoades, who did yeoman service in all

these circuits during his long ministry and was very well known as a member of the

Baltimore Conference. When the War of 1812 broke out, Rhoades was not allowed

to return to the United States and to his Conference sessions until 1817 when the

War was over. That year he was appointed to Lycoming circuit. While he was

interred in Canada, he found a wife and was married. Bishop Asbury had died in

1816, and the other bishops did not require Rhoades to locate. What Asbury would

have required of him one does not know. John Rhoades finally retired and lived at

Milton until he died in 1842, full of years and great honor.

George Harmon’s Early Accounts

The Rev. George Harmon was Presiding Elder of Susquehanna District in

1812 and for two years thereafter. Toward the close of his life he wrote the

following about his experiences here:

It commenced on the south end, about 100 miles north of Baltimore. It

extended north to within 20 miles of Utica, in the state of New York, and from

the Delaware River on the east to the Genesee on the west. It was at least

1,000 miles around it. Such roads! Such mountains! I broke down several

horses during my term of service on this district.

The great point of adventure and romance in real life was the Lycoming

route between western New York and Williamsport on the West Branch. Towanda

Creek, Sugar Creek and Lycoming Creek head nearly together – the two former

emptying into the North Branch below Tioga and the latter into the West Branch

near Williamsport. From the head of the Lycoming to its mouth is about 30 miles,

and in passing down it had to be forded 34 times. It is a deep and rapid stream upon

which small rafts of lumber were run in the spring. On one of Mr. Harmon’s

perilous trips through this route he gives as follows:

I held a quarterly meeting on the north part of my district, my next being on

the south part. I had to pass through the sixty mile wilderness. I took what

was called the Lycoming route. It was in winter, the snow being between two

and three feet deep. I lodged all night at Spaulding’s Tavern, near the head of

the Towanda. I started early the next morning and rode to Brother Soper’s on

the Lycoming and took breakfast. I then set out for Williamsport. When I came

to what was considered then the most dangerous crossing place on the route,

I found the river frozen over about one-third of the way on each side. The snow,

as stated above, was from two to three feet deep and no one had passed to

open the road. I paused but for a minute. I could not go back to Brother Soper’s

some 10 to 15 miles, the last house I had passed; the sun had gone down. If I

Williamsport District 53

could cross, there was a log tavern within about one mile. I knew the greatest

danger would be getting on the ice on the other side – for should the ice break,

I and my horse would both go under. I must venture it. I saw no other course.

I was on a very spirited and powerful horse. I urged him forward, and when his

feet touched bottom his head went under the water. As he arose on his hind

feet, I put spurs into his flanks and he at once bounded off into the river. The

river was so deep that it ran over the tops of my boots as I sat upon his back. I

got through without further difficulty.

When I reached the tavern, my first care was to have my horse attended to.

But when I attempted to take off my boots they were frozen to my socks. I

succeeded after a while in removing them. I had not long before read Dr. Rush

on the use of spirituous liquors. That great man acknowledged they had their

use in certain cases, but there could be no case in which it would not be better

to pour them into a swill-pail, and put both feet in, than to drink them. I bought

half a pint of rum and bathed myself with it. I slept comfortably and took no

cold. But my poor horse! The fatigue of worrying through the snow, and so

often fording the river, so affected his limbs that I had to part with him at great

sacrifice.

These experiences show something of the problems of early Presiding

Elders, but by no means all of them. In this northern tier of Pennsylvania, there

were many good Methodists who were opposed to Bishops and Presiding Elders

and did not hesitate to let them know it. This was the period of the establishment

of the Methodist Protestant Church with its emphasis on lay membership in

Conference and no episcopacy to make autocratic decisions. Numerous such

churches were formed in Bradford and Tioga counties, and our churches there lost

many good people. Later the Wesleyan Methodists, who believed much the same

as the Methodist Protestants but were also radical about abolition of slavery and in

disagreement over the General Conference’s reticence to declare slavery a moral

evil, was organized and many MP’s joined the Wesleyans – who still have rather

active churches in this area. When the Civil War brought an end to legalized

slavery, the issue was not so hot and many of them, of both these dissident groups,

came back to the mother church again. They had never been disloyal to the spirit,

the aims or the doctrines of Methodism. They disagreed violently on polity.

Much has been written about the physical hardships of circuit riders who

had so much to endure on these early charges. Most of them did not complain. Not

enough has been said about their difficulties and their controversies with their

contemporary ministers of other and differing beliefs. In the central part of

Pennsylvania they had to deal with the Calvinism and formalism of the Episcopal,

Presbyterian, Lutheran and other denominations that were older than Methodism.

Wesley’s preachers were Arminian and their gospel, which declared that Christ

died for all men and that all who accepted him could be saved, was understood by

the rough sinners among these uneducated pioneer settlers. These preachers spent

54 The Chronicle 2025

a great deal of their time showing up what they believed to be the fallacies of

Calvinism. They did not always succeed, but they had a better batting average with

these common sinners than many of their better educated clerical antagonists – who

made a better score with the formally educated and already orthodox of a higher

social standing.

Naturally, these Calvinists did not take Methodist attacks without defending

themselves and their doctrines. Their attacks were no more gentle and kindly than

the Methodists who had attacked them. The result was very often wildfire. Here

in Bradford and Tioga counties, the Baptists were much stronger than in

Pennsylvania to the south and they were decidedly Calvinistic as well as being

independent in polity. They had come from the Roger Williams country of

Connecticut and Rhode Island, so they were staunch in their stands for freedom

from supervision provided by a connectional type church. But there was another

element prominent here – namely, Universalism. Their doctrine of universal

salvation was not accepted by the Methodists, but it was based on the belief that

Christ died for all men and not for a pre-destined portion of mankind – so our

Methodist forefathers said they could rather agree with the Universalists than with

the Baptists. The old Universalist Church at Sheshequin is a building built like this

one but more elegant in its style – and it houses a congregation to this day. There

are quite a few Universalists in this area at the present time, but the old

controversies have died out in the spirit of respect for each other’s convictions.

And yet, there came soon to be a genuinely co-operative spirit in the work

of saving souls among the different denominations. By 1840 it could be reported

from Knoxville circuit, for example, that they had had a protracted meeting with

over 50 converts, especially favoring Mixtown³and Westfield, while there were 30

more conversions at a union protracted meeting at Beecher’s Island⁴with the

Presbyterians, Baptist and Methodists working together.

The circuit riders were primarily exactly what they were called – “Methodist

preachers”. The pastoral work was largely done by local preachers and class

leaders. Too much cannot be said for the services of these consecrated people who

visited the sick, reproved the erring, buried the dead and comforted the bereaved –

while the preacher in charge was two or three weeks travel time distant. We know

who some of them were in the earliest days. The best known was Elisha Cole⁵,

whose father settled near Monroeton and cleared a large farm there shortly after the

Revolutionary War. Father Cole had come from Connecticut and was a faithful

Methodist – although Colbert says he was a little too much attracted to

Universalism. His son, however, has left his name on the history of this part of the

District. Hardly a local church organized or built at that day but had the services

³Mixtown is a very small community in Clymer township, Tioga County PA.

⁴Beecher’s Island, in the Cowanesque River, was a former name for Nelson in Tioga County PA.

⁵Rev. Elisha Cole (1769-1852) is buried in the Cole Cemetery, about 1 mile north of Monroeton,

on US 220, behind the The Daily and Sunday Review newspaper offices.

Williamsport District 55

of and profited by the preaching of Elisha Cole. It is said that at one time he was

the only resident preacher in the county. What did he preach and how did he do as

a preacher? He did better than the average local preacher, for he had had several

years of work as an itinerant.

But if he was a typical local preacher of that day, he did not rely alone upon

his own sermons when filling a pulpit. Many a local preacher came to service

prepared to read one of Wesley’s sermons in the congregation if the preacher

scheduled did not arrive. One of those who did just that, and who also erected a

log school house and church was a local preacher who came to Pike’s Mills (now

Galeton) from Columbia PA to be the superintendent of the first lumber mill in

Potter County. What he had done in leading Methodist meetings in Columbia, he

did at Pike’s Mills before any regular preacher was ever assigned there. He read

Wesley’s sermons to the congregations consisting of his mill hands and their

families. His name was Goodman, and no printed record has been found to mention

his presence there. A personal letter written years later by his niece, who lived at

his home, tells of the pioneer conditions and the religious efforts of her uncle. Rev.

O.M. Goodman is buried at Wellsboro.

There were more preachers coming and going in this primitive woodland

country than you might think. The settlement at Priestville, near Westfield, was so

named because there were so many preachers living there at one time. One of the

best known was “Father Conant”⁶, whose services were much sought after. Near

Wellsboro, shortly after 1800, there lived as a first settler in Delmar township, the

Rev. Caleb Boyer, a located elder in the Methodist Church, who was ordained along

with Bishop Asbury at the Christmas Conference of 1784. This means that he was

one of the first 20 elders ever ordained in American Methodism. He may not have

remained here long. No church records seem to show his influence here. Actually

it might be said that there the local preachers were the pastors and the itinerant

preachers were the preachers of that day. This was necessary, of course, but it was

also very acceptable to the preachers in charge. At one time on Tioga circuit,

William Colbert wrote in his diary that he had been persuaded to spend some time

calling on the members for the sake of harmony among them. He did not enjoy the

work, but he confessed that it was probably a necessary exercise.

Revival work, too, took up a great deal of time of the circuit preachers, and

substitutes had to be sent to keep the regular preaching appointments while the

meeting was protracted. Sometimes the success of the revival in the number of

penitents professing conversion was very great, other times it was disappointing.

During the period from 1842 to 1844, when the great Millerite prophesies of the

⁶Rev. Samuel Conant (1777-1846) is buried in Champlin Cemetery, in Westfield, Tioga County PA.

The ministry of this local Methodist began about 1815 and preceded the arrival of the first

itinerants. He reportedly preached with such force and effect that it was not unusual for

members of his congregations to become unconscious, or in the phraseology of the time, to be

“slain in the spirit.”

56 The Chronicle 2025

coming of Christ and the end of the world were being publicized everywhere,

hundreds and thousands of converts were made. During that period one level-

headed churchman wrote to The Christian Advocate that “Their Revivals Nearly

Ruined Them.” His point was that the Methodists were making so many converts,

and the converts were being told that all they needed was conversion, that they were

actually raising up a generation of members who were in Scriptural ignorance and

needed training. He reminded his readers that Wesley’s purpose for Methodism

was to spread “scriptural holiness” abroad in the land, and this they were not doing

with this method of evangelism. You could not experience scriptural holiness if

you did not know the scriptures. However, after April 15, 1844, when the world

did not come to an end and the Millerites were proven to have been mistaken,

Methodists saw more backsliders in one year than in any other period in their

history.

Something, too, should be said about the problems of church members of

that early day. The first thing to say is that here were not many of them, but they

did the best they could. As Rev. D.B. Lawton reported in The Christian Advocate

in 1843:

The work of God met opposition here. I found 2 or 3 cases of inveterate

hardness between brethren that continues yet though we have had the affliction

of 2 church trials. Here are 3 taverns besides some stores which retail liquid

death. But the severest obstacle is the illiberal spirit and the folly of High

Church claims. The Episcopal Church is THE CHURCH and ours is just the

meeting house. Our revival was characterized by unusual stillness, yet some

cried, “Wild Fire!” and “Delusion!” etc. The M.E. Church in Wellsborough

finished its commodious house for the worship of God last summer and are now

collecting with much difficulty to pay for it. Besides, we are building a

parsonage to be finished this summer.

The same pastor writes the following obituary:

Mrs. Pamela Cooledge, aged 50, who joined the church 30 years ago and

emigrated from Cazenovia N.Y. to Wellsborough in 1823. She was t5he first

Methodist in Wellsborough… The first pioneers of the cross made her house

their home. She watched with great anxiety the society of half a dozen for years

toiling for life, until this winter she was greatly rejoiced to see scores coming

to Christ.

The saints of the early days got their feelings hurt, too. Even at old Mr.

Cole’s, near Monroeton, Colbert in 1793 “found them unsettled in their minds. Old

man Cole desired to have his name taken off the class rtoll. His daughter Molly

was affronted because her name had not been put on the roll in its proper place by

the class leader.”

These saints differed among themselves about matters very important to

them – such as having choirs, having musical instruments in the church, having

women speak in the church (except to testify in class meetings and pray in prayer

meeting), and in some places the matter of raising money by renting pews. “Did

Williamsport District 57

Methodists ever rent pews?” you say. Yes, and right here in Williamsport District.

Listen to this taken from the quarterly conference minutes of Williamsport station

in 1859:

On motion of Dr. J.S. Crawford⁷, the following resolution was unanimously

adopted.

Whereas, the ordinary congregation of the M.E. Church in this place cannot

be comfortable accommodated in the present church edifice, and

Whereas a large number of the M.E. congregation in this place are anxious

for the erection of another M.E. church edifice in Williamsport, the current

expense of which shall be met by the rental of pews,

Therefore, be it resolved that we recommended the erection of another M.E.

church edifice in this place by voluntary contributions, the annual expense of

which shall be met by the annual rental of pews.

It appears from the perusal of this record that some of the best paying members

found that they did not get good seats when the Sunday School and the Seminary

students got there first, and this was their way of guaranteeing their places. We

have not found in the old Mulberry Street records that they ever did raise their

money in that fashion.

Considering the lack of cash, the people did pretty well. The salary

allowance was hardly ever paid in full, and in many places there was no missionary

money paid in the first quarter of the century. But the conference tried to present

the causes to the preacher, and the preachers to the people, in a stimulating manner

– and a pretty good beginning was made as soon as a charge became established.

The Centenary of 1839⁸, for example, raised money for missions and for the

educational institutions – especially for those dedicated to the education of

ministers’ children. The money which eventually came to Central Pennsylvania as

the Preacher’s Aid Society Fund was originally contributed by the people in the

Centenary of 1839.

When circuits got smaller, so that a preacher in charge could have a family

and live in a parsonage, these residences were provided very slowly and with great

reluctance at many places. Since the early allowance for a single preacher was only

half as much as for a married preacher, many charges insisted that they could not

afford a married preacher. But finally, by 1820 or 30, parsonages were rented and

then purchased or built by the charges. Furnishings were very meager, seldom more

than the bare necessities, until the conferences began to set some standards. The

⁷John S. Crawford (1808-1879) was a prominent medical doctor in Williamsport who organized

the Lycoming County Medical Society and was for a time president of the Pennsylvania State

Medical Society. He was an active member of Pine Street and later of Mulberry Street, where he

was a trustee. He was killed instantly December 15, 1879, while crossing a railroad to visit a

patient.

⁸The 1839 “Centenary of Wesleyan Methodism” marked the 100^thanniversary of the first

recorded Methodist society meeting, which occurred in Bristol in 1739.

58 The Chronicle 2025

Black River conference (in New York State) in 1842 recommends as “a convenient

amount of heavy furniture for the accommodation of the preachers” the following:

In our opinion the following articles at least should be furnished in every

charge, and that they should be of a quality to be worth the price affixed:

1 round barrel, iron hooped, painted (the rain barrel), $1.50

2 patent pails – carpeting discretionary, $25

1 cook stove and pipe, $22

1 pair shovel and tongs, $1

12 chairs, $12

1 parlor stove and pipe, $15

3 bedsteads, $14

2 rocking chairs, $5

2 looking glasses, $3

2 wash tubs and bench, $3

1 wood saw and buck, $1.50

2 light stands, $5

1 bookcase and writing table, $8

1 washboard and mop stick, 75 cents

2 cherry tables to match $10

1 wash stand, $2.50

1 bureau, $15

1 clock, $8

1 axe, 1 shovel, 1 fork, $3.25

1 pair flat irons, $1

1 pine soap barrel, $1

total cost, $150.50

It can be said that before Civil War times, only the better stations had provided all

of these luxuries and conveniences. Few parsonages were so well supplied as the

recommendations of this report. Here, again, Methodist resolutions were made –

but Methodist practice did not catch up with her policies.

It should be said somewhere in this paper that one of the great issues of the

time represented by the history of this local church was that of colonization of the

freed slaves. Dr. John Price Durbin, President of Dickinson College, and later the

General Secretary of the Missionary Society, was an active proponent of a plan to

purchase the freedom of all negro slaves and provide for the necessary expense of

transporting them to Liberia (or anywhere else where they could live their lives in

freedom). He went a little further than Abraham Lincoln’s plan. But one of the

early fund raising efforts in Pennsylvania in the 1840’s was to request each preacher

to raise $5 from each of his churches for this purpose. Northern Methodists

believed in the abolition of slavery but never so much as thought of integration.

Let me close these ramblings with this comment. Recently a cartoon

appeared showing a father with his high school son’s new history text in his hand

and calling to his wife in the next room, “Hey, Marge, twenty years ago was

history!” He was only partially right. TODAY IS HISTORY. And so may all of our

churches today, as they prepare for the Bi-centennial of American Methodism, learn

from the past and live the present so that it shall be said a century from now that

the people called Methodists are still in the business of spreading scriptural holiness

throughout the land.

Amen.

Early Methodism 59

EARLY METHODISM AND METHODISTS

ON NORTHUMBERLAND CIRCUIT¹

Setting the Stage

When Northumberland County was erected in 1772 there was no such

organization as the Methodist Church, although there were already hundreds of

Methodists in the colonies. The first lay preachers, Philip Embury and Robert

Strawbridge, came to America in 1759, just two hundred years ago. They did not

come primarily as lay preachers – although they had “local preacher’s licenses”

from John Wesley in England. Embury settled in New York and Strawbridge in

Maryland. Each organized a Methodist class about 1766. The Methodist Church,

however, was not organized until Christmas time of 1784, just 175 years ago.

It is important for us to remember that John Wesley, “the founder of

Methodism”, was the leader of a “spiritual life” or “holiness” movement which was

intended by him to remain within the framework of the Church of England.

“Methodism” as a movement dates its origin to May 24, 1738, when Wesley, an

Oxford don and a priest of the Church of England, found his “heart strangely

warmed within him” at a meeting conducted by Moravians on Aldersgate Street,

London.

Wesley was never a member of the denomination which calls him its

founder and actually strongly opposed its establishment until after the peace treaty

of 1783 when American Independence was granted from Great Britain. The

Methodist Church, then, dates her origin to December 1784, in Baltimore,

Maryland, when American preachers and lay missionaries organized a separate

denomination upon a pattern which Mr. Wesley approved but over which he no

longer had control. This was the first autonomous denomination formed in the

newly independent nation. Hence, one can see why there were many Methodists in

America before there was a Methodist Church. By 1773 there were reported to be

180 members of a society in Philadelphia and no other “societies” in Pennsylvania.

That year (1773) one of these Philadelphia Methodists took up land in

Turbot (later Mahoning) township, Northumberland County, and settled where

Danville, named for his nephew and namesake, now stands. He was Daniel

Montgomery, glazier, of Philadelphia, the brother of Colonel (later General)

¹In “early Methodism,” the Northumberland circuit covered most of that later became the

Central Pennsylvania Conference. The exact occasion of this paper is not known, but its length

and inclusion of footnotes suggest is was not an oral presentation. However, when referring to

an incident that occurred in 1784, Berkheimer states “just 175 years ago tonight” – implying a

date of 1959 and an oral presentation. Furthermore, his “here at Northumberland” implies the

presentation was made in that city. Following the pattern of the other articles in this volume of

The Chronicle, the footnotes herein will be those added by the editor to provide explanations and

updates for current readers and will be numbered 1,2,etc. Berkheimer’s original footnotes will

appear as endnotes and be numbered i,ii,etc.

60 The Chronicle 2025

William Montgomery with whom he came here. Daniel Montgomery is probably

the only one of the earliest pioneers known to have been a Methodist prior to his

coming to this area. He had been a trustee of St. George’s Methodist Church,

Philadelphia, when it was purchased in 1769.

Amariah Sutton had settled at the mouth of the Lycoming Creek in in 1770

and deeded land for church and school purposes in 1776. He was an Englishman

who came here from New Jersey and he may have been a Methodist before he came

here – but he certainly was one after 1790. It was in his cabin that the first

Methodist class was formed in what is now Williamsport. There may have been a

few Methodists in the new Northumberland County in 1772, but we have

discovered no evidence as to who they were.

The name “Methodist” was originally applied in derision to the few

members of “The Holy Club” in Oxford University who were so methodical in their

religious exercises, and the name is actually some years older than the movement

it represents. John Wesley, his brother Charles, and George Whitefield were among

the members of this small group. Their methodical habits were not applied,

unfortunately, by the American spiritual descendants to the matter of making or

preserving records. If they had been, such a paper as this would have been more

easily and accurately written long years ago. As it is, very few authentic records of

early Methodism in this area are available for present day research.

To add to the vagueness of the accounts we do have, most local church

recorders have written as though the date of the erection of a building was the date

of the origin of the organization. How many “church anniversaries” are held in

recognition of the dedication of a church building? But “the church is not a

building.” The true origin of a local Methodist Church should be the beginning of

the class from which a society or congregation can trace continuous existence. Only

a few extra-ecclesiastical records have been handed down which help to date the

origin of classes.

Fortunately, we do have available the unpublished Journal of William

Colbert, a young circuit rider who rode the Northumberland circuit in 1792 and on

later occasions up to 1798. We also have the Stewards Books of the

Northumberland circuit from 1801 to 1806 and the Lycoming circuit which was

taken from it from 1806 to 1840. We do not have other local records, but from

these previously little-tapped resources some of the material herein has been taken.

In 1790, Richard Parriott, preacher on Little Yorkⁱcircuit came into this

territory on a tour of investigation and reported there were enough Methodists in

Northumberland Countyⁱⁱand enough unchurched to justify the formation of a new

circuit. This circuit was listed as one of the appointments on May 6, 1791, with

Parriott and Lewis Browning as the preachers. From that day to this there was been

a “Northumberland” appointment listed in Methodist Conference Journals.

Early Methodism 61

Before taking up the more local phases of this story, certain background

factors relating to early Northumberland County Methodism should be reviewed.

The first Methodist preaching in Pennsylvania was that of George Whitefield, the

most eloquent and persuasive of all the early associates of the Wesleys. His

influence in Philadelphia and vicinity was tremendous. He first preached there in

1739. Benjamin Franklin, speaking of his effect upon Philadelphia hearers, said,

“It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants.

From being thoughtless and indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world

was growing religious.” Methodist historian Lednum reported that “Methodists

were in evidence everywhere and established churches were stocked with them.”ⁱⁱⁱ

The Whitefield influence was undoubtedly felt later in Northumberland

County, to which many Philadelphians came as pioneer settlers. For example,

Whitefield had once preached from the porch of the home of Moravian lay minister

Henry Antes, in Frederick township, Philadelphia County. This pious Moravian

was the father of Col. John Henry Antes², prominent in the political life of this

county as the builder of Antes Fort, her sheriff, and her representative in Congress.

Philip Antes and his sister Mary, wife of Philip Barnhart, children of Col. Antes,

became active Methodists prior to the formation of Northumberland circuit and

were active leaders in the spreading of Methodism in Centre and Clearfield

counties. One of their descendants, Mrs. Martha Barnhart Harper, who has written

an historical novel (as yet unpublished) on the life of Philip Antes, has mentioned

the possible origin of their interest in Methodism to the friendship between their

grandfather and Whitefield. She suggests the probability that they, as children, had

heard of Whitefield’s sermon at their grandfather’s home.

But Whitefield was an evangelist and philanthropist who was somewhat

estranged from the Wesleys because of doctrinal differences and his little interest

in forming Methodist societies. It remained for Capt. Thomas Webb, of His

Majesty’s Service, to plant Methodism firmly in Pennsylvania by giving support to

the Methodists he found in Philadelphia and to those he helped to organize into a

new class in 1767. By all accounts the most colorful figure in American

Methodism, the Captain always preached in his scarlet uniform. He wore a green

patch over the socket of the right eye he lost at Quebec. He placed his sword across

the pulpit Bible when he preached. John Adams, later President, heard Webb

preach in Philadelphia in 1774 and said, “He is one of the most fluent men I have

ever heard. A man of means, Webb was one of the most generous contributors to

the purchase and completion of the building the Philadelphia society purchased in

1769. This was a large unfinished church begun in 1763 by an independent

congregation of the German Reformed Church and lost by them on account of the

debt. While this building still houses St. George’s Methodist Church, Philadelphia,

and is the oldest Methodist Church building in America, the first cornerstone, still

in existence, reads, “This High German St. George Church was built MDCCLXIII.”

²See Berkheimer’s paper “The Origin of Bald Eagle Chapel” in this volume of The Chronicle.

62 The Chronicle 2025

One of the nine original trustees who took title to St. George’s Church in

1770 was Daniel Montgomery, who settled in Mahoning, taking up land there in

1773. He and his wife lived in Northumberland town in 1791 when the first

Methodist circuit was formed here – although there is no mention of them in

Colbert’s journal. Mrs. Montgomery was formerly Mollie Wallace, whose family

in New Jersey were friends of Francis Asbury. He visited her in Danville in 1813

when she was 80 years old. Two letters from Captain Thomas Webb to Daniel

Montgomery, one dated 1771 and the other dated 1772, are among the prized

possessions of the Central Pennsylvania Conference Historical Society in

Williamsport.³

Thomas Taggert and his wife Mary, nee Vanderbilt, and her Vanderbilt

relatives who settled in Mahoning also came from Philadelphia in 1777. Another

Philadelphian, David Davis, lived in Sunbury. He was later a local preacher in the

Methodist Church, and he might have been one when he came here. Colbert visited

him in Sunbury in 1798. Davis subsequently moved to what is now Beaver

township, Columbia County, and established a Methodist class in his home – Davis

Chapel⁴being erected there in 1822.

Many others from New Jersey, Delaware and eastern Pennsylvania had

undoubtedly been awakened spiritually by Whitefield or the early missionaries sent

to American by Mr. Wesley. Francis Asbury was especially successful in winning

converts in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, from which many Northumberland

County pioneers emigrated. Names prominent in the history of the church and this

county – such as Melick, Farley, Gearhart, Wolverton, Kline, Kase, Shipman,

Rockefeller, Chamberlin and Vincent – came from Hunterdon County.

The first official Methodist missionaries, Richard Boardman and Joseph

Pilmoor, were sent to America by Wesley in 1769. Francis Asbury came in 1771.

By 1773 there were ten Methodist preachers in America – all of them from England

or Ireland. That year they met together in St. George’s Meeting House,

Philadelphia, in the first Methodist Conference session held in America. They

reported a total of 1,160 members.

The Conference of 1773 reiterated the purpose of the Methodists to remain

under the direct supervision of John Wesley in England. All these missionaries

were called “Mr. Wesley’s Assistants.” The preachers were stationed for a year on

a circuit, being changed at the end of the year – except for Philadelphia and New

York where they changed every six months. The preachers were in truth travelling

preachers, or itinerants – not only traveling from place to place on their circuits, but

traveling from one circuit to another. To this day, a member of a Methodist

³The present [2024] conference archives has photocopies and transcriptions of these letters, but

the location of the original letters is not known – nor is it certain whether Berkheimer was

describing the photocopies or the originals, as even the photocopies are significant.

⁴Davis Chapel UMC was transferred to the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference in the 1970

conference realignments necessitated by the 1968 denominational union, and closed 9/30/2023.

Early Methodism 63

Conference is an “itinerant minister” vowing to go where he is sent. For many,

many years, a one year limit was the tenure of a minister on each appointment or

charge.

The avowed purpose of the early missionaries was clearly set forth by

Joseph Pilmoor in his first sermon in Philadelphia on December 3, 1769. Since

no better statement could be found I quote from that sermon:

A Statement of Methodist Purpose

1. That the Methodist Society was never designed to make a separation from the

Church of England or be looked upon as a church.

2. That it was first and is still intended for the benefit of all those of every

denomination who earnestly desire to flee from the wrath to come.

3. That any person who is so convinced and desires admittance to the Society will

be received as a probationer.

4. That those who walk according to the oracles of God, and thereby give proof of

their sincerity, will readily be admitted into full connection with Methodists.

Four other “particulars” were listed. The concluding statement is: “I told them that

we left our native land, not with a design to make divisions among or promote a schism,

but to gather together in one the people of God that are scattered abroad, and revive

spiritual religion. This is our one point: that Christ died for us, to live in us and to reign

over us in all things.”

That Methodism before the Revolution was still a movement within the

Church is evidenced by the action the Conference of 1773 took in Philadelphia.

They explicitly forbade the preachers to administer the Sacraments but insisted that

the people be urged to attend and receive them at their churches. In many places,

the English custom of scheduling no Methodist services during hours of worship in

the Established Church prevailed. John Wesley, at this time, vigorously opposed

the establishment of a separate church. It is to be remembered that he, the “founder

of Methodism,” was never a member of the Methodist Church but, to the end of his

long life, a priest of the Church of England.

In 1773 one preacher was appointed to New York where 180 members were

reported, one to Philadelphia with 180 members, two for New Jersey, four to

“Baltimore” where 500 members had been estimated for Maryland, and two to

Virginia with 100 members. The work grew amazingly under the supervision of

Francis Asbury – who was soon placed in charge of all the work by Mr. Wesley.

The new-found fervor for the work of God led many to offer themselves as

“preachers” who chief talents were their desire to testify to what God had done for

them and their willingness to “endure hardships as good soldiers of the Lord Jesus

Christ.” They were, like Asbury himself, unordained lay preachers. With very

little formal schooling themselves, they were all willing to follow the advice and

submit to the “Disciplines” of the little Oxford scholar in England whose superior

intellectual training and talents they highly respected.

64 The Chronicle 2025

The War for Independence was not a good time for Methodism in

Pennsylvania and New York, although by 1784 New Jersey had two large circuits

with almost 1,000 members between them. Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and the

Carolinas had extensive societies now active. The areas of hottest military activity

during the Revolution were not favorable to a British-born movement of any kind.

In Philadelphia, the number of members decreased from 204 in 1774 to 90 in 1781.

By the end of the war, nine-tenths of all American Methodists lived south of the

Mason-Dixon Line.

Where Methodism did thrive after the war, Dr. James M. Buckley says:

“The land was dotted with societies, none of which dared call themselves churches, and

whose members were without the Sacraments, except as they received them from the

clergymen of the Church of England who, in many instances, regarded them with

indifference^iv… Eighty-three called themselves ‘preachers’ but none dared style himself

as a minister. The word ‘pastor’ was not used among Methodists… A large proportion of

the members had not been baptized.”

At the start of the war, Mr. Wesley called all the English preachers home,

and all returned except Francis Asbury. He was forced to spend most of his time

in seclusion at the home of Judge White in Delaware. In 1777 Captain Webb was

arrested as a spy and kept a prisoner in Bethlehem. Later he was paroled and finally

exchanged as a prisoner of war and returned to England. Wesley caused much

discord and opposition to the Methodists in American with his pamphlet in which

he condemned the colonies for their effort at independence. To make the position

of the Methodists more difficult here, Wesley declared, “We Methodists are no

republicans and never intend to be.” Indeed, during the war a Methodist was

classified as a Tory until he proved himself otherwise. Small wonder the

Methodists were not increasing in numbers of Pennsylvania.

On March 19, 1776, Francis Asbury wrote in his journal:

“I also received an affectionate letter from Mr, Asbury, and am truly sorry that the

venerable man ever dipped into the policies of America… Had he been a subject of

America, no doubt he would have been as zealous an advocate of the American cause.”

Finally, however, following the Treaty of 1783, Wesley released the American

Methodists from their British connections and urged them to “stand fast in that

liberty wherewith God had so strangely made them free.”

By 1784, Wesley had commissioned Dr. Thomas Coke, a presbyter of the

Church of England, to preside over “the flock in America.” Coke, in turn,

associated himself with Francis Asbury. Upon Coke’s arrival, a special Conference

was called for December in Baltimore. Freeborn Garretson, a native-born preacher,

set out on a six week’s trip by horseback to notify the preachers and call them

together. He left on this tremendous journey about November 11^thor 12^th, 1784,

just 175 year ago tonight. Methodists call that Conference “The Christmas

Conference.” This year they are celebrating the 175^thanniversary of the founding

of the Methodist Episcopal Church which came into being at that Conference.

Early Methodism 65

Francis Asbury was here ordained both as a deacon and an elder and elected by his

brethren as a General Superintendent (i.e., a bishop).

From this point on Methodists called themselves a Church and ordination

was granted ministers so that the people could have the Sacraments. From this time

Francis Asbury (soon to be called Bishop Asbury) held sway over American

Methodists as completely as Wesley held sway in England.^vThis continued until

the day of his death in 1816.

Some Obstacles to Methodist Advance

in Northumberland County

Many obstacles presented themselves before the advance of the new church.

Soon her patriotism was no longer questioned, for most of her ministers were now

native-born and many of them had served in the Revolution. In 1789 Bishops

Asbury and Coke took the greetings of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the

assurance of her support to now President George Washington. They were the first

representatives of a religious denomination to do so. Washington’s response was

warm with his gratitude and personal blessing.

But in this part of Pennsylvania a large proportion of the settlers spoke the

German language, and very few Methodist preachers were of German (called

“Dutch”) background. On his first visit to this country, Asbury preached both in

Northumberland and in the Court House in Sunbury. Here he mentions his

problem:

“Thursday, June 27, 1793… Next morning we went to Northumberland to breakfast. It

has a little chapel that serves as a school house, belonging to the Methodists. We have a

few kind, respectable friends whose circumstances are comfortable here… In the

afternoon paid Sunbury a visit. The people here are almost all Dutch.”

Following this visit, he writes on July 3, 1793, a letter in which he states, “I have

found a vast body of Dutch on the Northumberland circuit, and Valentine Cook can

preach in Dutch. Had I known it at Conference, I would have stationed him here.”

Soon after, he sent Valentine Cook, who was probably the best educated of

the early native-born preachers, to be the elder in charge of the District of which

this circuit was a part. He was an eloquent and dramatically powerful preacher and

made a profound impression on his hearers. Colbert mentions hearing him at

Berwick and at other points on the circuit. Asbury would have sent other men to

preach in German but there were few who could do so. Actually there were only

four or five before the turn of the century, and for many years after, who were

“Dutch.” These he urged to give special attention to “the Dutch people.” They

included Henry Boehm. Jacob Gruber, Valentine Cook, and later Peter Beaver, for

whom Beaver Memorial Church in Lewisburg is named. In 1810 he wrote again

about this burden upon his heart to the eccentric but very effective itinerant Jacob

Gruber, then a presiding elder on the Monongahela District, in these words: “I have

felt a great concern for the lost sheep of the house of Germany but we have only

you two boys that can Germanize.”

66 The Chronicle 2025

Like any other American patriot, Asbury believed that the language of the

new nation should be English and would soon become so. Therefore, he

disapproved of any preacher using only the German language in his preaching.

Consequently, he refused to approve of Jacob Albright as a Methodist preacher

because Albright felt that he was called to preach only to the Pennsylvania

Germans. This, of course, resulted in Albright’s decision to help to organize a

separate denomination which was effected in this very vicinity. Later called “The

Evangelical Association” or “The United Evangelical Church,” these people were

long known as “Albright Methodists” or “German Methodists.” This language

barrier was not easy to hurdle in this part of Pennsylvania. The Methodists did not

succeed in getting over it, although numerous exceptions could be mentioned here.

The German work was carried out more successfully in many places by

“The Evangelicals” and “The United Brethren.”⁵Sometimes the effort to win these

German people was cooperative, at other times very competitive. A very

significant example could be mentioned, namely that of the Dreisbachs in present

Union County at the Union Church bearing the name of Martin Dreisbach, Sr.

Because of internal trouble, blamed largely upon an unorthodox German Reformed

pastor, the church membership decreased and interest lagged. The home of Martin

Dreisbach, Jr., became the place of worship of several Quarterly Conferences of the

Methodists, of the United Brethren (under Christian Newcomer), and finally of the

Evangelicals. John, son of Martin Dreisbach, Jr., became the first editor of

denominational literature for the Evangelical Church.⁶In 1801, moreover, Bishop

Newcomer mentions that he and another United Brethren minister spoke at the

Quarterly Meeting held at Dreisbach’s and “brother Farley, a Methodist, spoke in

English.” This was Caleb Farley of White Deer Hole Creek.

The Methodist Plan of Organization

One cannot do justice to the early Methodist circuit rider and his system of

itinerating. The first task of Richard Parriott and Lewis Browning after they were

appointed to open up a circuit in the vast expanse of Northumberland County in

1791 was not to organize churches or congregations as we think of them. The first

local organization was the class. Each class had a leader, appointed by the preacher

in charge, and the class leader’s role was a most decisive one. He was given

supervision over the members of his class, who were to meet together or report to

him weekly, if possible. The combination of two or more classes formed a

“society.” The Northumberland Circuit was composed of many societies. A class

⁵Further explanation and updating regarding these denominations may help the reader. The

Evangelical Association and United Evangelical Church re-united in 1922 to form the Evangelical

Church. The Evangelical and United Brethren denominations united in 1946 to from the

Evangelical United Brethren Church, which united with the Methodist Church in 1968 to form the

United Methodist Church.

⁶And the first church building and first printing establishment of Jacob Albright’s Evangelical

Association were erected in nearby New Berlin in 1816 – which site is now a Heritage Landmark

of the United Methodist Church.

Early Methodism 67

was supposed to be divided into “prayer bands” according to sex, whenever

possible.

Each circuit had two traveling preachers who followed each other around

the circuit at two week intervals. The itinerant and local preachers, together with

all the class leaders of the circuit, met together four times a year in a Quarterly

Meeting – always held on a Saturday or Sunday. Here all the business transactions

were made. But the chief characteristic of the Quarterly Meeting was the spiritual

fervor it maintained. If the Quarterly Meeting was held, for example, at Antes’ in

the upper end of Bald Eagle Valley, the class leaders of 1782 would travel from as

far away as Fishing Creek in present Columbia County to get there – taking several

days to get there over the horse paths of the day.

The first Quarterly Meeting of the Northumberland Circuit of which we

have any description in detail was held here in Northumberland at Thomas

Taggert’s on June 23 and 24, 1792. Three traveling preachers were present, but

none was ordained – so they could not give the Sacrament. Except for that, this

was a typical Quarterly Meeting. William Colbert writes this about it:

“Saturday 23. Brother Parriott and I rode to Northumberland where we held our

Quarterly Meeting. Here we met Brother Hill, who had come to take Brother Parriott’s

place. Brother Hill preached, I gave an exhortation^viafter him. At night I preached on

Luke 13^thchapter, verses 18,19. While I was speaking, a drunken man took a sleep.

Spirituous liquors are a great curse to the people of Pennsylvania.

“Sunday 24. We had a happy Love Feast this morning. Brother Hill preached, Brother

Parriott preached after him, and at night I preached on Matthew 5^thchapter, verse 6. And

so ended the Quarterly Meeting. Glory be to God for his wonderful works in this part of

the world.”

All traveling preachers in these early years of the Northumberland Circuit

were single men. Asbury, a life-long bachelor, insisted that when a preacher

married he must “locate” – that is, he became a local preacher. As such he could

preach and assist the preacher in charge on the circuit where he lived, but he had

no “appointment” or circuit to travel. Colbert, for example, spent six days of every

week in the saddle. He took whatever shelter and fare was offered to him in this

wilderness country and had no room anywhere to call his own. At the age of 41 he

married and “located” at Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, which was his wife’s home.⁷

Another reason for having so few married preachers was the extra cost

involved. A preacher’s allowance was then $64 per year, plus expenses. A wife’s

allowance was the same amount in addition – and few circuits were able to raise

two preachers, let alone wives. Many years passed before a “preacher’s house” was

⁷Northumberland Circuit’s other circuit riders followed a similar path. Richard Parriott (1763-

1837) married in 1804, also at the age of 41, and located – moving west and eventually settling in

Illinois. Lewis Browning (1765-1857) had married in 1793, at the age of 28, and located – also

moving west and eventually settling in Ohio.

68 The Chronicle 2025

rented for any Methodist preacher in this county and many more before a circuit

owned a parsonage.

A present-day person can hardly imagine the kind of accommodations these

early missionaries had to accept. The Taggerts, Bonhams and Montgomerys in the

“up-to-date” town of Northumberland lived in two-story houses (log) which were

unusually commodious – but they were also licensed to keep travelers, and there

was seldom any privacy for a visitor. This was the day of one room cabins. They

were used for kitchen, living room, dining room and work-shop all in one. Over

and over young Colbert complained of the noise from crying children which kept

him awake. Even from the home of his friends “the good Depews” he was glad to

escape the noise by riding to David Davis’ in Sunbury on the night of October 6,

1798. Six weeks later he had the rare good fortune at Philip Antes’ on Bald Eagle

Creek to have a room for himself for the “first time since I have been on

Northumberland Circuit.” Antes had either enlarged his cabin or built a new house.

But these were lesser hardships. We need only to mention storms, floods,

heat and cold endured year after year in trying to keep preaching engagements.

Half of the Methodist preachers between 1784 and 1847 died before they were 35

years of age and two-thirds of them before they were able to render more than 12

years of service. And to attend the Annual Conference sessions was compulsory

for every Conference member. This involved traveling for two or three weeks on

horseback to get there and probably a like journey to get to the new appointment or

charge for the next year’s work.

The Methodist Disciplines^vii

The only requirement for admission to a Methodist Society was “a desire to

flee from the wrath to come.” But to continue a member involved acceptance of

certain disciplines of personal living which were not so easy. Colbert wrote on

September 25, 1792, while at Edward Crawford’s in Buffalo Valley, “The people

in this place evidence a love for our preaching. I think if they would love our

discipline as well it would be well for them.”

He referred to those spiritual disciplines necessary to holiness of living –

but these were enforced in certain ways that seemed very rigid. For example, the

class leader was responsible for the outward conduct as well as the spiritual welfare

of his members. He must reprove, correct and assist each of them whenever he

could. Regularly, at class meetings, each would be called upon for his testimony

and perhaps his expression of penitence for wrong-doing. A member who was not

in good standing in his class would not receive a “ticket” to admit him to the Love

Feast held prior to Holy Communion. In this way the Sacrament was open only to

members who were thought worthy by their class leaders.

Love feasts were symbolic meals of bread and water, patterned after the

“Agape” (feast of love) of the New Testament which was revived by Wesley. No

Quarterly Meeting could close without the very happy time of the Love Feast,

Early Methodism 69

where the shouts of praise or the “Amens” of approval gave to Methodists the name

of “shouting Methodists.” It might be proper to inject here that all Methodists were

not required to “shout.” The fact is that most Methodists probably never shouted.

Nevertheless, no Methodists would ever reprove a fellow Methodist who expressed

happiness in the Lord with a great shout of praise. Probably many of the early

preachers tried to encourage genuine expressions of religious feelings by all their

members at some time or another. Nevertheless, restraints were also used against

extravagance and the near hysteria of some unconventional people. Wesley

rebuked several early preachers for their “screaming” as he put it. Colbert once

mentioned that the members in Black Hole Valley⁸were “the most extravagant

shouters he ever heard.” He did not say that he rebuked them – but his disapproval

was implied when he reported that at one meeting near or in Muncy the members

from Black Hole offended the members from Muncy by their noisy shouting.

The chief purpose of the Love Feast was to have Methodists express their

love for Christ, and for each other, to each other. They did this by their witnessing

and by partaking of the bread and water together. At first, each brought his own

cup or mug. Later common cups, some with two handles for easier passing to each

other, were used. Colbert refers frequently to “the happy love feast” at his

Quarterly Meeting.

Fasting and abstinence were recommended on most Fridays^viii, but always

on the Fridays preceding Quarterly Meetings. The entire denomination was called

upon to fast in compassion for the victims of the great fever epidemics in

Philadelphia on two occasions – and later upon various national emergencies.

Abstinence from spirituous beverages was taught, and a converted person

was expected to abstain from using liquor for beverage purposes. Colbert says that

even at Bowman’s at Briar Creek he offended some by condemning “whisky

drinking and distilling.” That this was taken seriously is shown by its effect after

some of the great revivals. Roland Curtin in Boggs township, Centre County,

writes to Judge James Potter, Jr., in 1803 that he sale of spirits had been seriously

affected because all of Dunlap’s men had become Methodists. He went on to say,

however, that despite this loss of trade he was still emptying his barrels tolerably

fast.

The Dress of Early Methodists

When it was stated that William Search was at one time the only Methodist

living in Sunbury, this was likely deduced from the fact that he wore plain, Quaker-

like garb. All leading Methodists of the period did so. The Methodist Discipline

forbade the wearing of “gold or costly apparel.” One would be expelled for wearing

lace, ruffles, or anything which catered to vanity. These worldly conformities were

unworthy of Methodists. They were not to be mistaken for Quakers, however, and

⁸Black Hole Creek starts near where US 15 north crosses the mountain into South Williamsport

and empties into the West Branch of the Susquehanna just south of Montgomery.

70 The Chronicle 2025

so their clothes were never drab Quaker gray. The men wore collars on their coats

and Quakers did not, and their hats – although shaped like Quaker hats – were black,

brown, blue or white, but never gray unless blue-gray. The women wore “poke-

bonnets” which might be black for Sunday but could be any other color except drab

gray.

Jeremiah Tallman, of Muncy Township, was one of the leaders of

Williamsport Methodism – being circuit steward, class leader and trustee of the first

meeting house built of logs in 1805 as well as the first brick one on Pine Street in

1826. His black hat and the bonnet of his wife are in the museum of the Muncy

Historical Society and there improperly labeled “Quaker.” They are distinctively

Methodist and not Quaker, as Jeremiah’s hat is black.

Bishop Asbury always wore a light blue suit with a white beaver hat.

Although he was the circuit rider of all circuit riders, this garb was not suitable for

most of the itinerants. William Colbert and most of the early preachers wore

buckskin breeches and plain coats, carrying a change of linen in their saddlebags

and a greatcoat to protect them from the rain in summer and cold in winter. Colbert

was known to refurbish his breeches with yellow ochre. He made his own socks

and mended his own shoes in order to live on his small allowance.

The Beginnings of the Northumberland Circuit

The same year in which John Wesley died – 1791 – two preachers were sent

to hew out of this wilderness county called Northumberland a Methodist circuit.

They were Richard Parriott and Lewis Browning, already referred to in this paper.

Parriott as the preacher on Little York circuit had made, the year before, a personal

excursion into this country and got as far as Amariah Sutton’s on Lycoming Creek,

having visited Northumberland town as well. Convinced that there was a

missionary field here and that there were some Methodists, he reported his findings

to the conference and Asbury appointed these two men as the first Northumberland

preachers on May 6, 1791.

At the same time two others were sent with a like mission to the Wyoming

Valley where Anning Owen, the Wyoming blacksmith, had been at work since

1787 or 1788. There were then only two other circuits in Penn’s Woods outside of

the Philadelphia-Chester area. They were called Little York and Huntingdon. It

should be recorded here, too, that an earlier preacher of Little York circuit came to

present Curtin in Centre County – David Combs of Little York circuit – to organize

the first Methodist class at Philip Antes’ in 1787.

Boundaries were not fixed, and these missionaries had a great deal of liberty

as to where they were to go. In a general way, Wyoming circuit would begin at

Wilkes-Barre and bear north and east. Huntingdon circuit had already reached into

present Centre County and included Antes’ as a preaching place. Juniata circuit

would later cover the valley of that name and all of the territory of present Mifflin,

Juniata and part of Perry County. These circuits were largely outside the

Early Methodism 71

boundaries of Northumberland County, leaving this entire county for Parriott and

Browning to cover.

Whether Parriott found any classes already organized when he appeared in

1790 we do not know. We do know that in that first year they reported several

classes and a total Methodist population of 250 members, although this was quite

evidently a “round figure estimate.” They left no other records that have come

down to us.

When Colbert arrived in 1792 he found classes organized at

Northumberland, Mahoning (Danville), Lycoming, Bald Eagle (Antes’), Penn’s

Valley (near Centre Hall), and probably in Shamokin Valley (between Snydertown

and Elysburg). These he distinctively mentions in his journal. There may have

been others in the 30 or 40 regular preaching places he used, although he does not

mention them as such. His records are very simple but revealing.

Arriving at Northumberland on Sunday, May 27, 1792, his first duty was to

“meet the class in the afternoon.” The following Wednesday he arrived at Henry

Benn’s in upper Penn’s Valley a little east of Linden Hall. Here he says, “I met the

class.” This class was undoubtedly the origin of Penn’s Valley Methodism. The

class was later called by the name of the leader, Robert Pennington, who is referred

to as “Father Pennington, the founder of Penn’s Valley Methodism.” On July 11

he preached at William Coxe’s in Mahoning and “received Daniel Lewis into the

society.” At Wilkerson’s in Shamokin Valley on July 13^th, “Old mother Wilkerson

has joined the society.” At Amariah Sutton’s just east of the mouth of Lycoming

Creek, a class had been started either in 1780 or 1791 by Parriott. The members

were: Joseph Biley (of Jersey Shore) leader, Rhoda Biley, Amariah Sutton, Martha

Sutton, John Sutton, Dorothy Sutton, Harman Updegrove, Eve Updegrove, Susanna

Updegrove, Hannah Sutton, Rebecca Smith, Alexander Smith, Ebenezer Still, Lois

Still and Letitia Williams. This was the origin of Williamsport Methodism.

On July 20 he “rode to John Hamilton’s in the afternoon. Here the unhappy

souls that were joined together in society I fear are going to ruin.” This was beyond

Dunnsburg on Bald Eagle Creek. Evidently he thought the class would disintegrate.

Colbert also reports that “Brother Hill had joined seven or eight together in

a little society at John Thompson’s when he was here last.” This was in Buffalo

Valley, east of Mifflinburg. John Thompson’s son Benjamin became one of the

leading stewards of the original circuit and later of Lycoming circuit. Classes were

held at his house and that of his well-known neighbor Mishael Lincoln. Lincoln

was undoubtedly the leading layman responsible for the founding of Methodism in

Youngmanstown (Mifflinburg).

In 1793 Colbert mentions the class at Ogdens on Fishing Creek near

Bloomsburg. On December 8, 1793, he “joined a class of children” at Berwick

where he finds “the Lord has done great things since I was here last.” In 1797 on

another visit on this circuit he finds only four men joined in society at Benjamin

72 The Chronicle 2025

Thompson’s “after many years of preaching here.” At Thomas Reese’s (Derrstown

– now Lewisburg) he regrets that “there is no longer preaching here.”

The Extent of the Northumberland Circuit

No adequate account of the magnitude of the original Northumberland

Circuit has ever been found by this writer. Most of the older descriptions were of

the circuit as it developed at a later period than that of Colbert’s ministry here. To

follow Colbert as he rides his circuit is to take in a vast amount of territory. On his

initial trip into this “wooden country” (as he calls it), on May 25, 1792, he writes,

“I have got into my circuit at last at Henry Moore’s near Juniata.” This was near

Mifflintown (probably about two miles east). Travelling eastward now, toward the

Susquehanna, he followed the old road to McKee’s (originally an Indian path) and

was stormstayed at Samuel Osburn’s, which was between the present Oriental and

Seven Stars in Juniata County. Taking the road up the river, he came to

Northumberland and met the people here for the first time at Taggart’s. The next

day he rode the dreary road through Buffalo Valley and the narrows into Penn’s

Valley and stayed “at Adam Harper’s, a Dutchman in Penn’s Valley” (between

Woodward and Aaronsburg. The following day he arrived at Henry Benn’s in

western Penn’s Valley where there was a class already organized. From there

across the Seven Mountains into Kishacoquillas Valley where he preached. He he

lost his horse and borrowed another “at one Wood’s” – which probably meant

George Wood, the son-in-law of Samuel Osborne, of Greenwood township. From

this place he traveled to Henry Moore’s again and preached in the Meeting House

there – very likely the Cedar Springs Church, originally erected in 1763.

Two days later he was again at Osburn’s and preached at one Patterson’s.

From there he rode to “Stropes, affectionate Dutch people” (i.e., Straub’s, the

founders of Freeburg). Then he went to John Thompson’s in Buffalo Valley and

on to Thomas Reese’s tavern near Ludwig Derr’s at Derrstown (now Lewisburg).

William Search then lived in Chillisquaque township and he preached there next.

From Search’s he went to William Pegg’s, which is half-way between present

Washingtonville and Jerseytown, and on to Joseph Ogden’s at Fishing Creek. His

next sermon was at Captain Joseph Salmon’s⁹, the famous Indian scout who lived

near Fort Wheeler (Light Street). That afternoon he preached “in a beautiful little

town called Berwick.” He observed that “religion seems to be at a low ebb in these

parts. The point farthest east on this circuit is the home of Amos Parks in Salem.

Parks, one of the Connecticut settlers, lived near Beach Haven. Turning back now,

he preached at “Christian Bowman’s in the woods” (Briar Creek). He rested a day

at Ogden’s, preached at William Coxe’s in Mahoning (Danville) and lodged nearby

⁹Joseph Salmon (1754-1822) was a regionally famous frontiersman, Revolutionary War soldier

and Indian fighter. His life was detailed as part of a seventy-eight-part series of historical articles

published in the Berwick Enterprise newspaper in 1934 and 1935.

Early Methodism 73

at John Egbert’s. His next regular place was to be Jacob Depew’s, who lived across

the river at the mouth of Gravel Run – which flows through Klinesgrove, a mile

away. From Depew’s it was a few miles over the Shamokin Hills to Shamokin

Valley to Wilkinson’s, 9 miles from Sunbury, just above where the Shamokin

Presbyterian Church was soon to be built (1794).

On Monday, June 18, he went to Milltown, and the record of that visit is

given^ixin connection with the history of the First Methodist Church, Milton. That

night he lodged at Isaac Bear’s , on White Deer Creek near the site of widow

Smith’s mill. Bear later moved to Black Hole Valley in 1796. Before going back

the Quarterly Meeting at Northumberland, Colbert circled through Buffalo Valley

preaching at John Thompson’s, William Crawford’s (East Buffalo) and Mr. Reily’s

– lodging one night at Thomas Reese’s tavern at Derrstown, just across the river

from the John Brady house.

His next trip took him along the larger sweep of his circuit, up the West

Branch Valley. His fellow preacher had evidently been serving this part of the

circuit while we worked nearer to Northumberland. The preaching places he

mentions include Stephen Fields’, in the White Deer Hole Valley, and John

Farley’s, which was to be a regular preaching place for at least 30 years. Farley’s

mill was located at present day Allenwood. Caleb Farley was the class leader there

for many years. The Farley brothers, John and Caleb, had come from Hunterdon

County, New Jersey, in 1787, where their father Mindart Farley was a Methodist.¹⁰

Next, Colbert crossed the river to Joshua White’s, north of the Muncy Hills,

and to Peter Conkle’s, south of the Loyalsock Creek, before going to Amariah

Sutton’s at Lycoming Creek. Then from Richard Manning’s at Jersey Shore to

McFaddon’s at Dunnsburg and Hamilton’s on lower Bald Eagle Creek. Then he

went to Philip Antes’ cabin near the Bald Eagle’s nest (present Curtin). Then he

crossed to Penn’s Valley to Henry Benn’s again, returning to Northumberland by

way of Beaver Dam and Penn townships (now Snyder County), where he stopped

with Benjamin Philips, the widow Myers and Hugh Gwynn. There is no reference

to him going through this Middle Creek Valley again. The Methodists never

succeeded in getting response in this territory, although the Albright Methodists

and United Brethren, whose preachers preached in German, did. Hugh

McWhorter’s, south of Chillisquaque Creek on the West Branch, was his final stop

before getting to Taggart’s in Northumberland for a rest day.

That year Colbert also preached with the same regularity at Catawissa (at

the mill, and lodged with the Quaker Samuel Boon), at Peter Hasting’s and

Abraham Swisher’s (in Black Hole Valley), at Joseph Hall’s (above Muncy), at

Martin Reese’s (on Pine Creek), at Barber’s (at White Springs in Union County),

¹⁰Hunterdon County NJ was an area where Francis Asbury ministered with great success and had

many converts. Mindart Farley (1758-1846) named another of his sons Francis Asbury Farley

(1807-1880).

74 The Chronicle 2025

at Willam Search’s (near Milton), at Henry Melick’s (near Espy), at Jeremiah

Tallman’s (near Loyalsock Creek), at Baird’s (at Liberty, near Lock Haven), at

Wilson’s (in Nittany Valley, near Salona), at Judge Potters (Potters Mills), at

Updegrove’s and Henry Thomas’ (Larry’s Creek), and at Daniel Sunderland’s

(near Elimsport). He preached regularly at Milton but never mentioned the house,

cabin or tavern in which he preached – but he did mention the Calvinists in that

place did not think well of him.

His westernmost point was at Hugh Hamilton’s in “the London Lands”¹¹of

which much of Half Moon Valley was a part. Sometimes he returned from the

western end of the circuit by way of Brush Valley, preaching at Philip Francis’, but

usually he came by way of the horse path through Penn’s Valley and the narrows

into Buffalo Valley.

The only public building he used for his services was the old Court House

in Sunbury, which was erected in the west end of the square in 1797. Prior to that

date, services may have been held in the Grand Jury Room in the old State House

which stood on the site of the present Court House.

Ten years after Colbert’s first appearance on this circuit, the Steward’s

Book indicates that the pattern was beginning to take more definite form. A number

of classes were functioning, but there were fewer preaching places and no church

building had yet been erected. Records from the April 1802 Quarterly Meeting at

John Egbert’s in Mahoning indicate the following Northumberland circuit¹²classes

and amounts collected

Northumberland (public and class)

Farley’s (White Deer Hole Creek)

Schneider’s (Elimsport)

Loyalsock (Montoursville)

Lycoming (Williamsport)

Thomas’ (Larry’s Creek)

Baird’s (Liberty, Big Island)

Helford’s (Bald Eagle Creek)

Antes’ (Boggs twp., Centre Co.)

Young’s

$6.01

0.39

1.50

1.59

3.99

0.37½

4.04

1.25

3.52

2.55

2.76½

1.00

Richard’s

Pennington’s (Penn’s Valley)

¹¹The London Land Company’s Pennsylvania claims included some landin Centre County.

¹²In April 1802, Northumberland circuit was in the “Philadelphia District.” Annual Conferences

were not defined until the following year, when Northumberland circuit was placed in the

Philadelphia District of the Philadelphia Conference. The circuit was later placed in the

Susquehanna District of the Philadelphia Conference. When the Genesee Conference was

formed in 1810, the entire Susquehanna District was placed in that Conference. The preachers

were Rev. Johnson Dunham (1771-1847), born in Massachusetts and buried in New York, and

Rev. Ephraim Chambers. Both Dunham and Chambers located in 1806 as members of the

Philadelphia Conference.

Early Methodism 75

White Springs (Union County)

Mifflinburg

Lutz’s (White Deer township)

Milton

Shrentz (Shamokin Valley)

Depuy’s

marriage fees from J. Dunham

5.00

2.37½

3.96

2.68

1.75

1.02

2.00

public collection from Quarterly Meeting 1.85

by will from estate of Mr. Stahl

donation

total

distributed

on hand

4.00

0.12

59.27½

58.02½

1.25

The five stewards for the circuit that year were Nicholas Egbert of

Chillasquaque township, Benjamin Thompson of East Buffalo township, Philip

Antes of Bald Eagle township (now Boggs township, Centre County), Robert

Pennington of Potter township and Jeremiah Tallman of Muncy township. The

disbursements reported were as follows:

Ephraim Chambers, quarterage

Ephraim Chambers, expense

Johnson Dunham, quarterage

Johnson Dunham, expense

elements (for Sacrament)

Ephraim Chambers, arrearage

Johnson Dunham, arrearage

total

$20.00

5.00

20.00

6.36½

0.40

3.13

58.02½

preachers paid in full¹³

The total membership on the Northumberland circuit was 175. The

appointments east of Danville at this time had been placed on the Wyoming circuit,

which reported 318 members. After 1806, when the Lycoming circuit was split off

from Northumberland, those appointments were placed back on Northumberland.

Of special interest is the fact that “public collections” were taken only at

Northumberland and at the Quarterly Meeting. The preachers were required to turn

in for credit on their “allowance” all marriage fees, and Dunham added $2.00 to the

treasury. The number of marriages is not given.

Then, too, the bequest of Philip Stahl has some local significance. It is the

first such legacy of record. The Stahl brothers, Jacob and Philip, came to Black

Run (now Mazeppa, Union County) in 1793 from Berks County and were the first

wagon makers in this area which became famous for its products. Jacob Lutz came

with them as a blacksmith. Class meetings and preaching were held at Philip Stahl’s

¹³Apparently the circuit had not been able to pay the preachers in full last year, as indicated by

the $3.13 each received in arrearage.

76 The Chronicle 2025

on Black Run regularly until Philip’s death in 1799. He directed his executors, his

brother Jacob and John Lutz, that “the interest on 25 pounds annually for ten years

to be paid to the ministers preaching here, or near to this, commonly called

Methodists and that to be given them at the discretion of my executor.” The amount

of $4.00 per annum, was paid to the Circuit Stewards until 1812. The estate also

gave the land upon which the original White Deer Union Church was erected,

although this was not mentioned in the will. Prior to 1799, “Stahl’s” was listed as

a Methodist class. From 1800 it was listed as “Lutz’s.” Jacob Lutz became the

leader of the class which met in that area, although he moved from Mazeppa to the

banks of the West Branch at White Deer Creek. This class was later called “White

Deer” – which likely refers to the township rather than to the hamlet. Stahl’s will

would seem to call for preaching nearing to Mazeppa in order to bring the

continuance of support.

This then completes our cursory review of “Early Methodism and

Methodists” on what became the Northumberland circuit, the core of our present

Central Pennsylvania Conference.

ⁱYork, Pennsylvania – called “Little York” to distinguish it from New York.

ⁱⁱThe county then embraced all of the territory now included in Snyder, Union, Centre, Clinton,

Lycoming, Montour and Columbia Counties in addition to present Northumberland County.

ⁱⁱⁱMembership in a regular denomination was no obstacle to being a Methodist and many

persons were called “Methodists” who remained loyal to their own churches.

^ivThere were certain notable exceptions. Devereux Jarrett, of Maryland, was most hospitable

and helpful to the Methodists.

^vAsbury continued, however, to receive the standard remuneration (or “allowance”) given to any

other Methodist preacher. In a letter to John Dickins on June 18, 1798, he wrote: ”My salary of

$64.00 per year and my travelling expenses [are] as any other preacher. When I have wanted a

horse or carriage my friends have provided for me.”

^viAfter the sermon was preached, it was customary to have any other preacher present follow

with an “exhortation.” This is an urging upon the hearers to accept the truth and to yield to the

appeal of the preacher. Laymen were licensed as “exhorters” and were asked to follow up the

preacher’s appeal with their own insistence that the people be not only hearers but doers of the

Word. Largely the appeal was to sinners to accept “pardoning grace” and take Christ as their

personal Saviour. Frequently the first step of a young man of promise toward the Christian

ministry was to grant him an “exhorter’s license”. Only ministers or exhorters were expected to

speak after the sermon.

^viiFrom Camden, South Carolina, Asbury wrote to Thomas Sargent on December 28, 1805: “We

have found that the greatest degree of good and strict discipline is consistent with and highly

conducive to a work of God. My continual cry for the presiding elders is order, order, good

order. All things must be arranged temporally and spiritually like a well-disciplined army.”

^viiiA postscript to the letter of Asbury to Jacob Gruber written on October 2, 1809, is as follows:

“P.S. If you will give the most perfect character of every circuit, and every preacher – travelling

and local preacher – on your charge, promote, if possible, Fridays, by order of and authority of

the Quarterly Meetings, as days of fasting, humiliation and intercession.

^ixSee “History of First Methodist Church, Milton, Penna.” by Chester D. Clark in the Proceedings

of Northumberland County Historical Society, vol. XIX, page 119.

The First Hundred Years 77

The First Hundred Years Of Central Pennsylvania Conference:

Some Bright Lights And Dark Clouds¹

The Central Pennsylvania Annual Conference (hereafter CPC) was born in

1868 after considerable controversy and travail of soul. The entire nation and the

Church had been in travail for some years over the issue of slavery and the Mother

Conference of American Methodism, the Baltimore Conference, often called the

Queen of the Conferences, was in the center of the controversy. The Methodist

Episcopal (hereafter ME) Church was organized in Baltimore, in a border state, but

Methodism had already spread southward more rapidly than northward.

The division of the ME Church in 1844 had seen some of the Virginia

churches attach themselves to the ME Church, South, from the old Baltimore

Conference – but most of them had remained in the mother conference, now grown

too extensive in territory. The General Conference of 1856 had passed an enabling

act granting permission to the Baltimore Conference to divide itself. In 1857 it did

this, and all of the Pennsylvania Districts together with all of Maryland east of a

line passing through the eastern part of the city of Baltimore became the East

Baltimore Conference. The rest of Maryland and a large part of Virginia remained

with the old Baltimore Conference.

Then came the Civil War, and in 1861 most of the ME churches in Virginia

declared their independence of the ME Church and cast their lot with the ME

Church, South. This seriously weakened the old Mother Conference. Before the

War had ended, the General Conference of 1864 considered a re-alignment of the

conferences, with special consideration to utilizing state lines or other geographical

boundaries, since the original boundaries were set without any general plan.

But apart form these considerations, the effect of the Civil War controversy

warranted the division of the conference. The Mason-Dixon Line was not just an

imaginary line. While most of the East Baltimore Conference members were loyal

to the Union, some were not, as was to be expected from their southern

backgrounds. A resolution declaring the loyalty of the East Baltimore Conference

to the Union in 1864 passed, but with 14 votes against it. Eight of the fourteen later

joined the ME, South. A number of CPC native ministers had already cast their

lots with the southern branch of the church, largely by reason of their serving at the

time in that area. A number of our most loyal members were against slavery but

felt that the Bible did not consider slavery a sin.

An illustration of the tensions of the times is seen in the Minutes of the 1864

session of the East Baltimore Conference when the case of Samuel Kepler was

¹Prepared for delivery at the Williamsport District Ministerium, held at Westfield October 8, 1962.

The address given covered only the first two-thirds of this paper.

78 The Chronicle 2025

being considered. Kepler had been a conference member for 36 years, serving in

recent years Williamsport, Lewistown, Bedford and McConnellsburg charges. His

loyalty to the Union was challenged before the Conference by J.B. Mann who

bluntly asked Kepler, “Did you not say to me that President Lincoln was not as

good a man as Jeff Davis?” As a result of the controversy, and in obedience to his

sincere conviction as a Christian, Kepler had already submitted his request to

withdraw fom the Conference. His letter was a lengthy and emotional farewell,

containing the following closing paragraph:

Begging, dear brethren, that you will throw over the many imperfections

you have found me to betray in my holy calling as a minister of Christ, the

beautiful mantle of heaven-born charity, I have, in conclusion, to say in all

Christian frankness, and in all good conscience before God, that, as, after

an examination of a long series of years, with an honest desire to know and

obey God’s most holy word, my views and convictions respecting the

relations of Master and Servant, as contained in the Bible, are utterly, and,

I must say, irreconcilably opposed to those which now govern the great

body of the ME Church, and which doctrines I cannot preach, without being

a dissembler before the Lord; while in saying this much I pretend to judge

no man, but only speak honestly and fearlessly for myself, and thus commit

the justifications of my own course to the unfolding pleasure of a future

Providence. I feel now I have no other duty to perform in this writing than

to respectfully request that you may be pleased to direct that my name to be

denoted “Withdrawn” upon you Journal. With the assurance of many

prayers for your spiritual progress, and requesting a continued interest in

your supplications to God on my own behalf, I am, dear brothers,

Yours, very Truly and Respectfully, Samuel Kepler

dated McConnellsburg, Fulton Co., Pa., Nov. 10^th, 1863

Anticipating change in their boundaries, the East Baltimore Conference,

now well established, at the session of 1868, just prior to the General Conference,

directed its delegates to oppose any measure to divide it into two parts. Their

delegates voted as directed, but most of them realized, after the Bishops’ Report on

Boundaries, that to restore the strength of the Baltimore Conference and to

recognize the importance of the Mason-Dixon Line as a boundary, was

ecclesiastical statesmanship and obviously necessary. That left the Pennsylvania

portion to become the CPC with its four Districts practically as they had been –

except to move four or five charges from Frederick District to Carlisle District. The

Districts of the new Conference were Carlisle, Juniata, Northumberland and

Bellefonte – an arrangement in effect until the formal organizing session of the CPC

in 1869 with five Districts: Carlisle, Williamsport, Danville, Juniata and Altoona.

So, after “fightings without and fears within” the CPC came into being in

1868 and at its first session in Danville, March 1869, there were 156 full members,

including 15 supernumeraries and 12 superannuates. There were also 25 men on

trial in first and second years. It was agreed that adjustments and transfers would

The First Hundred Years 79

be worked out in appointments so that members could belong to the conference of

their choice. Most of them remained in the conference in which they were serving

at the time.

One of the 129 effective members was a Virginian by birth who chose to

remain in this Conference. He was the son of a Methodist local preacher in

Virginia, joined the Baltimore Conference in 1856 and was an effective minister

for 51 years. He was the first minister I can remember in my home church.²He

was not only the son of a minister and the brother of a great Bishop³, but he was

also the father of a medical missionary⁴who died in Africa and the father and

grandfather of ministers of this conference. His name was Andrew Edward Taylor.

His son was Rollin S. Taylor and his grandson is Rollin H. Taylor – our host this

morning.⁵This is the only case of continuous family descent for 100 years in this

conference. Their total ministerial membership is 141 years to date. May it be

extended to an even greater record of service.

But who were the rest of these men of God of that 1869 CPC? They were

consecrated, committed, conscientious and self-sacrificing ministers of our Lord

Jesus Christ. Seventeen of them had been chaplains in the Civil War, and one of

that group remained in the Army chaplaincy until his death. William Earnshaw

later was Chief of Chaplains of the U.S. Army, and even later the National

Commander of the G.A.R. A good many of the younger members of the conference

were veterans of the War, some having been drafted from their pulpits, and others

having had their education interrupted by their war service. One had practiced law,

two had been physicians, several had been teachers in public or private schools, 23

were college graduates, 4 were theological school graduates, 7 had attended college

but did not graduate, 27 had attended Williamsport Dickinson Seminary, 6 had

attended Cassville Seminary and 3 Rainsburg Seminary. A few others had attended

private or “select schools” and numerous other locally conducted secondary schools

– some of them with high-sounding names such as Academy, Seminary or even

College.

Without any doubt, many of these first members had been urged by their

Presiding Elders who needed men to travel circuits not to waste their time going to

college or theological school, even to a secondary school, if their gifts and graces

seemed to them to be sufficient. The chief qualification, then as now, was a

²Charles Berkheimer was born in Mechanicsburg in 1896. Rev. Andrew Taylor served there

1894-99.

³“The Great Missionary Bishop” William Taylor (1821-1902) pioneered Methodist missionary

work throughout Africa.

⁴The story of missionary Jennie Taylor (1867-1897) and additional information on the Taylor

family is given in “Two Daughters of the Parsonage: A Story for the Ages” in the 2024 volume of

The Chronicle, pages 4-17.

⁵Rollin H. Taylor (1903-1982) was serving at Westfield PA when this paper was delivered at the

Williamsport District Ministerium on October 8, 1969. This was likely Berkeimer’s last historical

presentation, as he died in Williamsport on December 17 of that year.

80 The Chronicle 2025

knowledge of salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but a liberal arts

education was not necessary. Uneducated ministers were thought to be more

effectual in winning souls than the educated. The average church was probably

more critical of trained preachers than of untrained. As late as 1900, J. Edgar

Skillington was advised by the great Dr. E.J. Gray, president of WDS, not to waste

time going to college or seminary as he was then above the average in preaching

ability and personal popularity. Many a minister regretted to his dying day that his

P.E. took him out of school to take a charge.

And yet, many of these dedicated but unschooled preachers became able

and diligent scholars. Even then, in 1869, the special appointments of conference

members included:

Shadrach Laycock Bowman professor, Dickinson College

Thompson P. Ege

George A. Singer

Thompson Mitchell

Hugh A. Curran

J.F. Davis

president, Irving College

professor, Cumberland Valley Institute

president, Williamsport Dickinson Seminary

professor, Williamsport Dickinson Seminary

secretary, Pennsylvania Bible Society

I.H. Torrence

Salaries paid in 1869 averaged $650. Average for married preachers:

$827.52. Average for single preachers (and probationers and students): $256.00.

The highest pastor’s salary was at Williamsport Pine Street: $1800. The highest

P.E. salary: $1500 plus $200 for house rent and $100 for expenses.

There were only 53 parsonages owned by the churches. The total church

membership was 23,414 – with 4,826 probationers. The total S.S. membership was

32,472 scholars – with 5,664 officers and teachers. Giving to the Missionary

Society totaled $14,943.23 that year.

And who were the people of the average congregation who listened to these

preachers? The average congregation prior to 1900 was composed of more

unconverted than converted people – more non-members than members in the

public services. This made for evangelistic preaching. The preachers preached for

a verdict on the part of these people week after week. The average congregation

did not have one college graduate attending services and most did not have one

high school graduate. While some of the members were school teachers, most of

them had never been to high school – and few high schools of that day had more

than 5 or 6 months terms in the year.

This is not to say that the average church did not have any well-read or

intellectually superior members. It did. The early conference had little trouble

finding some great laymen to take an interest in the affairs of the general church.

On the other hand, many churches were controlled by laymen with only a parochial

point of view and with little interest in becoming better leaders. Ten years after the

formation of our conference, Dr. S.C. Swallow was presiding elder of the Altoona

District and wrote for The Conference News an article proposing special training

The First Hundred Years 81

for local leaders based on the idea of Civil Service as in government. He was blunt

and sarcastic, but a keen thinker and a creative leader. He says (1879), after a

lengthy discussion:

For instance, there is a circuit with 300 members and half a dozen churches,

each having a board of trustees, a nominal sexton and a representative on the board

of stewards. These members live in comfortable homes, walk on Brussels Carpets,

sit in upholstered chairs and eat with silver spoons. The houses they gave to God

and in which they worship have neither paint, carpet nor upholstery, no trees

ornament the grounds, no shades cover the windows, nothing about them attractive

except the mortgage – and only the preacher and the mortgagee interested in them.

They are satisfied to borrow a table on which to spread the Lord’s Supper and then

eat the emblem of his broken body from an earthen plate and drink his shed blood

from a beer bottle. There are trustees, stewards, sextons and ushers; committees

on missions, church extension, church records and parsonage and furniture; but the

preacher carries a rag to dust the Bible board, beckons strangers to vacant seats,

collects his salary in a truck wagon, writes all the reports for the 4^thquarterly

conference, and is compensated by a reduction of his salary at the 1^stquarterly

conference…these are the symptoms. [Note: In 1879, 99 out of 138 pastors were

deficient in their salaries.] We need the scalpel, the diagnosis and the prescription.

He calls for enlisting outstanding men of the community and converting

them. He reminds the readers that a Yale professor is calling for Civil Service

Schools where candidates for government office might be trained and says the

church should do the same.

The cheapest offices in the world today are in a Methodist church that is neither

dead nor alive. They cost the least and compensate the least. May the time come

when classes will be organized for preparing stewards, trustees, sextons and

committees to do naturally and efficiently the duties assigned them by the local

church and then, if too poor to do these duties well without remuneration, they will

be paid for faithful service.

May not the quarterly conference become a school or at least a committee of

examination without change in the Book of Discipline? Here candidates for these

offices might be examined on a curriculum of which the Bible, the Book of

Discipline and Porter’s Helps to Official Members might be the nucleus. The laws

of conveyances and the laws of tenure, the principles of architecture (touching

material, form, ventilation, acoustics, etc.) could be studies by the trustees; and the

laws of soil, soap and seatings by the sextons; while stewards could confine

themselves to the methods of performing disciplinary duties.

Less of dust, carbonic acid gas and sour-visaged sextons, and more of oxygen

and church etiquette in the church edifice will improve the matter and manner of

sermons; less fuss about salary and more beef-steak about the parsonage will make

stronger pastors and longer pastorates. Let us have Civil Service Reform.

“Them was the good old days!”

Great Issues Faced in Our Conference

One of the first programs begun in this conference in 1869 was a General

Conference ordered vote by the “male members of the local churches” on the matter

82 The Chronicle 2025

of lay representation in the General Conference. Our lay members were not ready

to risk such an innovation and they voted against it: 2806 for and 3289 against.

This was in June 1869. The ME Church, however, as a whole voted in favor of it

and a Lay Electoral Conference was held at the seat of the CPC in 1872 and two

representatives were elected. The law of the church permitted a maximum of 2

from each annual conference until 1890. But CPC laymen were surprised at the

caliber of laymen who were interested enough to take time to attend the Electoral

Conference. Many men had voted against it because of their fear that unqualified

men would attend and be elected. Nor were their fears well grounded that only the

larger churches would be influential in such a body.

The first laymen elected was John Patton of Curwensville, known as the

most active and generous Methodist in the territory. Although unschooled, he was

a business success, a congressman and a political statesman, a great supporter of

higher education – being simultaneously a trustee of Dickinson College,

Williamsport Dickinson Seminary and Drew Theological Seminary – a marvelous

supporter of the preachers and of the missionary and benevolent programs of the

church. Because of his generosity, Curwensville and Clearfield, with the old Centre

Church between them, gave the largest amount of any charge in the conference to

benevolences. He was a worthy grandson of the pioneer Philip Antes, founder of

the Curtin Church and donor of the land of the first ME church in Clearfield County.

The second elected was C.W. Ashcom of Saxton, a most pious and active layman.

This was to set the standard for the men who represented the CPC in the General

Conference.

Let me name and characterize a few of these General Conference delegates

elected by the laymen prior to 1900 when a larger number was elected.

Mordecai W. Jackson, industrialist and philanthropist of Berwick, founder

of the firm which later became the American Car & Foundry Company there, whose

special Methodist interest was the building of new churches and helping

embarrassed ones out of debt. His companion for 1876 was H.R. Mosser of New

Cumberland, a lumberman who was the father of the Rev. Dr. B.H. Mosser of our

conference.

In 1880 the delegates were Dr. Hugh Pitcarin, a physician of Harrisburg, a

newspaper man who owned the stock of the Altoona Tribune, and a nationally

known consul-general in Hamburg Germany under the Rutherford B. Hayes

administration. His fellow delegate was G.M. Shoop, one of the iron masters of

Danville and a local preacher.

In 1884, the Hon. W.F. Sadler of the Rock Chapel family was elected – a

member of the Carlisle Church and a lawyer who was later Judge of the

Cumberland County Courts. Second elected that year was another lawyer, Herbert

T. Ames of Williamsport, champion of holiness, temperance and prohibition and of

lay representation in the annual conferences. Mr. Ames was a lay representative

The First Hundred Years 83

from this conference to General Conference a total of nine times. Active in

temperance work, he was the author of the constitution adopted by the General

Conference for the Board of Temperance, Prohibition and Public Morals.

In 1888 the name of T.H. Murray, Esq., appears for the first of eight times

to General Conference and once to the Ecumenical Conference. One of

Pennsylvania’s most prominent and successful trial lawyers, he was an orator of

note and his most frequent engagements outside the courtroom were in churches

and to religious groups. His addresses have been published in three volumes. He

was born at Congress Hill near Shawville and was the most distinguished lay

Methodist of the Conference and, it was said, of the General Conference. At Omaha

Nebraska in 1892 the bishops appointed him to reply on behalf of the entire General

Conference to the address of welcome made by the Governor of the State. His

fellow electee in 1888 was Mr. S.W. Murray, manufacturer and industrialist who

established what became the American Car & Foundry in Milton. He was a great

benefactor of Methodism there and elsewhere.

In 1891 the “woman question” was the controversy of the times. Should

women be included under the name “laymen” in the Discipline? The women had

agitated the question for years. Now the Conference voted on the proposal to admit

them, but both ministers and laymen opposed it: the former by a vote of 55 to 134,

the latter (all me, of course) 2755 to 6664.

In 1896 the laymen of the conference organized a Laymen’s Association

and met for a day at the seat of the Annual Conference. This association influenced

the minister-members decidedly in many ways. They frankly discussed the

problems of ministers’ salaries and pensions along with the promotion of Sunday

Schools – and local churches gave heed to their delegates’ reports after Conference.

They opposed what they believed to be social evils harmful to the church. Included

in their denunciations were not only the liquor interests and gambling but such

diversions as roller skating rinks and movies. They proposed many innovations,

some of which were sent as memorials to the General Conference. One was to have

the laymen elect of their number representatives on the cabinet equal to the number

of presiding elders. In 1918 the laymen insisted that laymen should be elected along

with [sentence incomplete].

The laymen were an important protest group which stimulated the church

to some most important innovations. For example, not until after these laymen had

emphasized the fact that the Methodist Church and the Roman Catholic Church

were the only two ecclesiastical bodies in which laymen were excluded from the

administrative assemblies did the church finally admit laymen to the annual

conferences in equal number with the ministers. In this way they are now making

the church the more democratic body which the Methodist Protestants had seceded

to form.

84 The Chronicle 2025

One cannot overemphasize the effect of the leadership of our prominent and

well-to-do laymen. The Hon. A.E. Patton, son of our first lay delegate General

John Patton, for whom Patton Pennsylvania was named, headed the movement in

1899 to start an endowment fund for the support of retired ministers. In fact every

real advance in this field was made only with the strong support of leading laymen.

In more recent years the greatest voice for increased salaries and pensions for

ministers came from V. Max Frey of York.

One should mention that finally the women were made members of the

General and Annual Conferences along with lay men. The woman from the CPC

elected as a reserve lay delegate was Mrs. Carrie Jeffers of Newport. The first

woman to sit officially in a session of the General Conference was Mrs. W.L.

Woodcock, a reserve delegate from Hollidaysburg who took the place of S.W.

Dixon of Berwick who was called home. The first woman elected as a lay delegate

was Mrs. J. Howard Ake in 1940. It is quite obvious that women sit in the annual

conference now as lay members and they have enough votes to elect the President

of the WSCS of the Conference and other capable women as Jurisdictional and

General Conference delegates.

When this conference was in its infancy, the camp meetings of the older

days were disappearing and a new sort of camp meeting was being born. In 1869

ground was given by interested laymen for two great camp meetings.

One was near Lock Haven at Wayne Station. It was developed into one of

the greatest in the country, having a massive auditorium and 400 wooden cottages

arranged by streets. It was attended by hosts of Methodists and other hosts of the

curious who wanted to go to any place where people were gathering. The railroads

ran special excursion trains at reduced rates from Altoona and Williamsport to

special sidings near the camp. Soon the services were disturbed by scores of

picnickers out for a good time, parading up and down the camp streets. As at other

places like it, unscrupulous persons set up stands to sell what such vacationers

wanted – including intoxicants – within sight and sound of the preaching stands.

The grounds had to be policed and relief was not permanent until a state law was

enacted prohibiting anyone from selling within a mile of camp meeting grounds

without the consent of the officials. These grounds were totally destroyed by the

flood of 1889.

The Juniata Valley Camp Meeting was another along the Pennsylvania

Railroad which had the same problems. The citizens of Newton Hamilton

complained because they had to erect a town jail after the camp meeting became a

center of all kinds of activities, good and bad. The Mountain Grove Camp Meeting

in Conyngham Valley was a popular such camp with most of the objectionable

features as well as high spiritual tone among the campers themselves who had come

for religious purposes.

The First Hundred Years 85

One of the most radical moves of the CPC was to request the directors of

these camp meetings to request the railroads to discontinue Sunday excursions and

to build fences and close gates to visitors on the Lord’s Day. Ministers were urged

not to attend unless these conditions were met. Some presiding elders did not attend

the non-compliant camp meetings within their own districts. Articles from some

ministers appeared in church papers declaring that the camp meetings were doing

more harm than good. One or wo camp meetings observed the rules. Others did

not. It may be significant that the two camp meetings grounds which have

continued in existence to this day as summer assembly sites, Crystal Springs and

Patterson Grove, were erected some miles distant from the nearest railroad.

One of the oldest camp meeting grounds was lost to our conference largely

because of the controversy over what Scriptural Holiness meant. The Summit

Grove Camp near Shrewsbury became a National Holiness Association Camp

Ground and is now operated by the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church. The

“holiness movement” had become identified with a mechanical and doctrinal

dispute about the true nature of Holiness or Entire Sanctification. Like the Free

Methodists, who make this experience a test of membership, Methodists debated in

the latter half of the 19^thcentury as to what Sanctification meant. To many it came

as “the second blessing” or “second work of grace” and only this – never as a

growth in grace. During this general discussion one of our Bishops brought some

pause to the argument, and some light instead of heat, by declaring that it was now

time for Methodists to quit getting mad about holiness and start being holy in their

daily lives. Bishop Edwin Holt Hughes used to say that he believed in the first and

third, fourth, fifth and hundredth work of divine grace but was afraid of the second

after he saw what it did to some people.

Despite all of this, camp meetings were agencies of the divine grace which

the Methodist Church wisely used as a means for winning souls and reviving the

spirits of the saved. No one can estimate the good done there. Only eternity will

tell. Fifty years ago an old Shrewsbury saint declared that all of the years of effort

and prayers that would have been of plenty avail if only two persons had ever been

converted there. He referred to Mrs. Amanda Smith, a Negro girl who became the

greatest woman evangelism Methodism ever produced, and little Eugene R.

Hendrix who went to the altar at Low’s camp ground while on a visit to his

grandfather’s home. He was born in Missouri of Shrewsbury-born parents and

became the great bishop of the ME Church, South, and the promoter and first

President of the Federal Council of Churches in America. For him Hendrix College

was named.

Bishops

Let this lead us into another highlight of our history – the Bishops of the

Church who were related to Central Pennsylvania Methodism. There was John

Heyl Vincent, born in Alabama but brought up near his father’s homestead near

Milton and Lewisburg, who became the founder of Chautauqua, the author of the

86 The Chronicle 2025

Uniform Lesson series and the greatest Sunday School leader of Protestantism of

his day, one of the Bishops of the ME Church. There was Isaac W. Wiley of

Lewistown, a medical doctor, called to preach after his conversion in the

Lewistown Church, early China missioner, later editor and Bishop of the ME

Church, worker for the education of freed slaves and the one for whom Wiley

College in Texas was named.

There was Thomas Bowman of Berwick, President of Williamsport

Dickinson Seminary, President of DePauw University and Bishop of the ME

Church – serving longer as a bishop than any other until Bishop Herbert Welsh.

There was W.P., Eveland, native of Harrisburg, President of Williamsport

Dickinson Seminary, conference leader, elected Missionary Bishop of Southern

Asia. There is Fred Pierce Corson, President of Dickinson College and a member

of this conference when elected a Bishop in 1944. There was Henry B. Bascom,

converted as a barefoot 16 year old lad at Ulster PA, who became one of the ten

greatest preachers in America in his day, a leading debater for the southern cause

in 1844, and a Bishop of the ME Church South – who died a few months after his

election in 1850 without ever having presided at an annual conference.

We have already mentioned Eugene R. Hendrix. Bishop Fred B. Fisher, the

unique and forceful pastor and preacher who was elected a Bishop of the ME

Church and resigned after a few years to go back to the pastorate, was born in

Greencastle PA where his father was employed by the Cumberland Valley Railroad

Company – but he lived there only a short time. There is Bishop James Matthews,

son-in-law of E. Stanley Jones, now Bishop of the Boston Area – who was born in

Breezewood PA where his father was serving as supply pastor for a short time. And

now is our own Dr. David Frederick Wertz Bishop of the West Virginia Area.

Missionaries

While speaking about ministers native to our territory who cast their lots

elsewhere, let me mention just four of that number who became Southern

Methodists. Andrew Hunter of York became the “greatest of the great in Arkansas

Methodist History” having gone there originally to be a mission teacher of the

Indians. His friend James Graham, also of York and of Williamsport, went to

Arkansas for the same purpose but was transferred to Texas where he was one of

the Methodist pioneer pastors and educators. Christian Hartnan of Salona went to

the ME Church South in the Civil War days. William Baird of Liberty, near Lock

Haven, stayed in the southern church when division found him there and became

editor of The Episcopal Methodist published in Baltimore.

We have no brighter light than that shed by our world and national

missionaries. They surely made history. Robert Maclay of Concord PA organized

the first Methodist society in all of China, the first in Japan, and the first in Korea.

His four brothers, all from Concord, were members of the Baltimore Conference

who went to California as missionaries. W.S. Turner, one of the three preacher

The First Hundred Years 87

sons of Rev. William Turner of Jersey Shore, was a pioneer missionary in

California and Oregon. At least four members of this conference went to Wyoming

and Utah as superintendents of Methodist missions among the Mormons: J.C.

Bickel, John Leilich, Isaac Moorehead and George S. Womer.

The greatest and best loved pioneer to Montana was William Van Orsdale,

known all over Methodism as “Brother Van,” who entered the ministry from

Hunterstown Methodist Church, near Gettysburg, now sadly closed a century later.

William Nast, the father of German Methodism in the United States, first learned

of Methodism and experimental religion at a camp meeting near Newport and the

next year was discharged from the faculty of Gettysburg College after he went

forward to the mourner’s bench at a revival in Gettysburg.

Believe it or not, there was a time in the 1870’s when this Conference had

an oversupply of preachers. Young applicants for membership were advised to go

to the Midwest where churches needed pastors in Kansas, Nebraska and Minnesota.

At one time there were five young men from this conference in the Kearney District

in Nebraska who called themselves “the missionary boys” and wrote letters home

over that signature. In 1876 the only supply pastors in the conference were

assistants or junior preachers.

While speaking of our missionaries we must not forget to list the noted

missionary Dr. Frank Laubach of Benton. When he first felt the call to missionary

work he volunteered to our Board for the Philippines, but there was no budget for

that. The Presbyterians also turned him down. The Congregational Church

accepted and assigned him – and he was a most amazing servant of the Christian

Church, who still calls himself a Methodist.

Among other highlights should be mentioned the Conference News, which

was first issued in 1875 – first an 8 page monthly and later a semi-monthly,

followed by the Central Pennsylvania Methodist and finally by the Pennsylvania

Methodist. One could wish we would have such regular and interesting local church

and parsonage news today, although we have new media today that they then did

not have. These papers were published by the Conference Book Room in

Harrisburg, which was an unofficial agency controlled by Harrisburg ministers and

laymen. The Superintendent was also the editor of those respective papers.

After several editors and managers had served in this capacity, another of

the most able preachers and administrators of the conference, Dr. S.C. Swallow,

was elected as editor. Because of his preeminent interest in opposing all kinds of

corruption as he saw it, he fought the liquor interests and withheld no punches.

Indeed, he developed into one of the nation’s foremost crusaders for temperance

and constitutional prohibition. In 1904 he was the Prohibition candidate for

President of the United States. Previously he had been a candidate for state and

local offices in Pennsylvania. His keen observation of state and local government

led him to see political corruption where no one else saw it and to expose it in his

88 The Chronicle 2025

paper with no inhibition and no personalities spared. His exposure of suspected

graft in the building of the present state capitol building led to his being sued for

slander and to his conviction in the lower courts. His conviction was reversed in

the court of appeals.

He came to have terrific contempt for the Republican Party which he

thought was indebted to the saloon and liquor business, hence obliged to protect

those interests. In short, if a Methodist preacher was not for the Prohibition Party,

he was probably a Republican and therefore a “Saloon Subsidizer” – whether he be

a bishop or a brother pastor. His lack of consideration for any he opposed led to

charges and countercharges in the church. At one conference there were 9 charges

filed against preachers, including Dr. Swallow himself. Some of these were

resolved, but Dr. Swallow was convicted and suspended for a year – with a

recommendation that the Bishop publicly reprove him. He appealed the decision

and the sentence of reproof was not then carried out. By the next conference time

he had been induced to retract certain things he had said about a leading brother

and that brother was induced to withdraw his charges. These were some of the dark

and troubled years of the Conference’s history.

But we must not forget some other concerns which the conference acted

upon with reference to special needs. Our special Home Missions projects were set

up in response to the needs and opportunities presented by the large influx of

European immigrants to the anthracite coal regions. Miners from Hungary,

Slovakia, Bohemia and Poland, many of them with large families of children, were

living in the Hazleton, Mount Carmel, Shamokin and Berwick regions. The

conference in the 1890’s called this opportunity for mission work to the attention

of the Mission Board of the church and started to develop a limited program of

assistance to the poor of this group. In 1904 Bishop McCabe appointed the Rev.

Vaclav J. Louzecky, a supply pastor, to the Anthracite Mission and the work was

started. He became a member of the conference and stayed in this work until 1912.

He was followed by Rev. Francis Mika and Rev. Adam Nagay, the former working

here until 1918 and the latter until 1921. Then came Rev. George Folta into

conference membership for this work. All of these, of course, preached to the

people in their own languages. Assistants in this work then were Angelo Bonacci,

George Olejar, Joseph Gluvna and a number of missionary workers and

deaconesses.

Holy Trinity Slavic Church was built in Hazleton and a chapel was erected

in West Berwick.⁶The mission included work at Mount Carmel, Kulpmont,

Berwick, Hazleton, Shamokin and adjacent mining settlements. Deaconesses who

served here included Miss Cartes K. Swartz, Miss Leona Bartolet, Miss Emma

Tuscott who served as superintendent, and others.

⁶The story of this and other anthracite missions is told in the article “Home Missionary Edith

Orvis: The Soul of Berwick’s Unity Mission” in the 2007 volume of The Chronicle, pages 86-96.

The First Hundred Years 89

In Altoona an Italian Mission⁷was established and Italian pastors, all

members of the conference, included the Reverends Joseph Paciarelli, Nicola Di

Stefano, Ugo Crevelli and Pasquale D’Elia. The faithful and efficient Miss Sadie

Sheffer served as the deaconess there for many years. An Italian congregation was

formed and a church erected. In later years when the language problem was no

longer acute, these members joined other Methodist churches in the city and the

Italian congregation was disbanded.

Another concern of the Woman’s Home Missionary Society, and now of

the WSCS, was the need for kindergarten and mission work in the Negro section of

Harrisburg – which was started in 1910 and is still going on.

While the Indian School was operating in Carlisle, the local Methodist

church, assisted by small grants from the conference, ministered to those who were

Protestant – and three classes were held in the Methodist Sunday School there.

Our program of Religious Education was second to none in the entire

denomination after Edwin C. Keboch was appointed by Bishop McDowell as

“Sunday School Efficiency Expert” in 1916 – the first fulltime director of Religious

Education in any conference in the ME Church. As early as 1921, Dr. E.M. Stevens

reported that our Conference led all other conferences in the church in this work.

Keboch served for 32 years in this capacity, reorganizing local church programs of

Christian Education and setting up out-of-doors summer events – such as camps

and institutes and leadership training programs at the local church, district and

conference levels. The Methodist Training Camp at Newton Hamilton became the

center for summer activities where hundreds of children and youth were led into

greater and deeper understanding of their Christian faith and loyalties to Jesus

Christ.

The Methodist Training Camp was organized by an interdenominational

group of laymen and ministers, most of them Methodist, who purchased the

property of the Juniata Valley Camp Meeting at Newton Hamilton in the early

1920’s. The camps and institutes were held there under the auspices of the

Conference Board of Sunday Schools, the Conference Epworth League Institute

Commission, and finally the Conference Board of Education. Then decentralized

small group camping and youth activities took the place of the older programs of

large group activities and the property was sold to others. The four camp sites and

retreat centers⁸we now have are excellent evidences that our program of Christian

Education has kept pace with the improved insights in Christian development at all

age levels.

⁷The story of this mission is told in the article “A History of the Altoona Methodist Episcopal

Church” in the 1995 volume of The Chronicle, pages 50-63.

⁸In 1968 those Methodists sites were Camp Loyalsock, Greene Hills, Mount Asbury and Wesley

Forest.

90 The Chronicle 2025

One should mention also a hundred other highlights of considerable

magnitude in our century of history. The program of evangelism of the conference

owes much to many – but not more to any than to O. Bruce Poulson, once

Conference Evangelist. His interest in soul winning never wavered while he was,

to the close of his active ministry, a leader in moral reform. He was the chief agent

of the Pennsylvania Council of Churches for many years in the united effort to

oppose the evils of alcohol, gambling and organized crime wherever they could be

attacked by Christian methods.

A review of the comparative statistics of the denomination on the support

of World Service, formerly Foreign Missions and Home Missions and Church

Extension, would reveal the outstanding position of the CPC among the

conferences of the church. For example, for more than a decade from 1894 on, the

CPC was one of only 14 conferences paying more than its apportionment. Each

year our Conference reported an increase in its total giving, and in the first decade

of the 20^thcentury there was only one other conference which had an equal record.

Our Conference, then one of the largest in membership, gave the second highest

total to World Service although one other surpassed us in per capita giving. In later

years other conferences surpassed us in membership and in the amount of giving,

although our apportionments were always high.

For the first fifty years of our history we had no “orphanage” or Home for

Children, although in the fifth year of our history the need for one was expressed

on the floor of the conference. A committee was appointed to consider what could

be done in the matter of a Methodist Orphanage. No report seems to have been

made. To present day members of the conference there is no need to turn their eyes

to the bright lights of our Homes for the Aged and our Home for Children. We

know their good works and readily support their interests. Our earliest fathers were

timid about starting such extensive and expensive enterprises, but they might well

have been of greater faith. Thanks be to God for generous laymen and for the

people in general for their interest and support in the last half century.

Certain distinctive characteristics of the CPC in the past decades should be

mentioned in this report. First would be our uniformly strict observance of the letter

of the Discipline in almost all matters. No conference in Methodism has heard

more frequent calls for “Point of Order!” than ours, and many times they were to

point out that the matter before the house was contrary to the Discipline. Great and

wise leaders among our ministers were responsible for this. Some great names are

on the list of our members to the General Conference through the years.

Dr. David Solomon Monroe, the first secretary of the CPC, held the office

for about a quarter of a century and was thought of as “the perfect secretary.” He

served as assistant secretary of the General Conference for a quadrennium or two

and then served as the Secretary of that great body for five quadrennia.

The First Hundred Years 91

The (unofficial but effective) Parliamentarian of the General Conference

was Dr. Horace Lincoln Jacobs. He called for many points of order in the General

Conference and for more in the Annual Conference. Seldom was he ever wrong,

and never was he called out of order. A few called him “the watch dog” of the

conference of matters of Discipline and parliamentary procedure. Quite eccentric

and unconventional in some things, Dr. Jacobs was truly great in almost every area

of ministerial activities – a great preacher, a great pastor, a great administrator, a

great promoter, and a great man. He was not a narrow minded legalist by any

means.

If anybody could be his successor, that man was James Edgar Skillington –

whose opinions on parliamentary matter in General and Annual Conferences were

sought not a few times by Bishops and General Church leaders. With great leaders

like this with well-rounded strengths of leadership and specific interests in the Law

of the Church, a Conference is bound to develop specific characteristics. Thank

God for the characteristics of loyalty to the principles and program of the great

Church of which we are a part and of sane and sensible devotion to doing things

with orderliness instead of carelessness.

These are elements which we have a right to believe are Scriptural and

eternal principles of the Kingdom of God on earth. People who observe these

principles are history of one kind and people who ignore them are history of another

kind. For History is People and People are History. Thanks be to God that the

bright lights, though often dimmed, are never extinguished by the dark clouds.

92 The Chronicle 2023

The Brothers Who Were Missionaries

to The American Indians

The government of the United States cannot be proud of all the pages of her

history. This is certainly true of the policy of the early portion of the nineteenth

century which resulted in the forced migration of the Cherokees and other

American Indian tribes from their long time, lush hunting grounds and homes in

the desirable country of the southeast into the undesirable, barren wastelands of

Oklahoma and the so-called Indian Territory of the southwest. The treaties that

were made were ruthlessly broken whenever it seemed profitable for the white man

to do so. Lands once deemed undesirable became desirable to the white man and

new treaties were made, all of them favorable to the white man.

Driven from one place to another more wretched and hopeless, these

aborigines never went to any of them without Methodist preachers going with them.

The fine Indians of the Oklahoma Conference today point to this fact with gratitude

and appreciation. “The Methodist circuit riders went with us or soon came to help

us wherever we were forced to live,” they say.

Who were these Methodist preachers and teachers? At least several of them

were from our own Conference territory. Three of them can be claimed as

ministerial sons of First Church¹, York PA, although their names have been almost

lost from the pages of their church’s history. The first of this trio was the Rev.

Andrew Hunter², mentioned elsewhere with his distinguished brother William

Hunter as the “Two Brothers Who Voted against Each Other in General Conference

of 1844.” Young Andrew Hunter went out to Arkansas to teach the Indians as a

missionary and spent the rest of his life in that state where he became “the greatest

of the great in all Arkansas Methodism” and where the Hunter Methodist Church³,

in Little Rock, is one of his enduring memorials.

When Andrew Hunter first arrived at his teaching post and saw the

immediate need of other helpers there, he wrote back to York to his friends William

and James Graham, who responded to his Macedonian call and went out “not

knowing whither they went.” All three of these young men were destined to

achieve enduring fame in the lands far from their home. The honors were not

sought for, but their surrender of themselves to the Master’s service brought eternal

rewards.

Like the Hunter brothers, William and Andrew, the Graham brothers came

from a devout and respectable but poor family. The father was Scotch and the

mother Welsh. They had a large family of children and each one had to struggle

¹This congregation is now Asbury United Methodist Church on East Market Street.

²Andrew Hunter (1813-1902) was born in Ireland and came to America with his family in 1817.

³Also named for Andrew Hunter is Hunter’s Chapel near Casscoe AR. Listed as a historical site by

an Arkansas State Society, it is still in use.

Missionary Brothers 93

against poverty, but the characteristic spirit, energy and grit of their forebears was

a valued heritage to them. Their greatest distinction lay in the fact that four of the

sons became ministers of the Gospel. Philip and John were ministers in the

Evangelical Association.⁴The family home, incidentally, was at Stony Brook, not

far from York.

Now let the Rev. William Graham, D.D., tell about his beloved brother

James. “My brother James was born in York County PA on March 1, 1815… His

educational advantages were few. He belonged to the solid middle class of society.

After he was seventeen he spent three years learning the trade of a house carpenter,

in the town of York, where he was converted and joined the Methodist Episcopal

Church. His leisure was devoted to books.

“After completing his trade, and reaching his manhood, he pushed out

westward, working a little at Williamsport PA and then in Pittsburgh. All this time

he was exercised with the conviction that God called him to the ministry. He was

in communication with his fellow townsman William Hunter, and with whose

family he was intimate. Andrew Hunter, a younger brother of William, had already

gone to Arkansas Conference and represented the need of laborers there. James

Graham at last consented to go as a teacher to the Indians there, still shrinking from

his ministry.

“Accordingly in the fall of 1836, he went down the Ohio and Mississippi

Rivers to Memphis, deck passage. Thence he traveled through the swamps and

lagoons of Arkansas to Batesville, on the upper waters of the White River, where

the Conference met that year, presided over by Bishop Morris. During this journey,

as my brother narrated to me, his feet were wet every day, having to wade bayou

and lagoons for miles, especially through the Black River swamps. Bishop Morris

afterwards, in the Ladies’ Repository, gave a graphic and amusing description of

his own going on horseback to that Conference under the guidance of the

experienced frontiersmen Duncan and Steele. What the Bishop with his

companions on horseback accomplished on the back of ‘Fly’, James achieved on

foot by his Scotch grit.

“At that Conference he was appointed a teacher to one of the mission

schools among the Cherokees in the Indian Territory. After filling various

appointments in the Territory and in the state of Arkansas, he was appointed to

North Texas. When Texas was received into the Union, and the Texas Conference

was formed, his lot fell in that field, where he remained until he died, November 4,

1884.”

It is apparent that James Graham had finally surrendered to the call to the

Gospel ministry. After two years as a teacher in the mission school he applied for

⁴Through denomination unions, the Evangelical Association founded by Jacob Albright became

part of the Evangelical Church in 1922, the Evangelical United Brethren Church in 1946, and the

United Methodist Church in 1968.

94 The Chronicle 2023

a license to preach and for admission into the Arkansas Conference. In this

Conference he received five appointments, the last of which was in that part of

Texas which was in the Arkansas Conference. Here he did pioneer work which

places him among the earliest circuit riders of Texas Methodism. While on this

circuit of twenty-four regular appointments extending over three hundred miles, he

was married to “the cultivated Miss Eliza A. Wetherred, near Clarksville TX, who

shared with him all the duties and responsibilities of his educational career.” It is

said that this lady educated him, saying she preferred to take the rough diamond

and polish it to her own notion; and well she did perform her work.

After doing pioneer preaching and teaching on several circuits, in 1853 he

established the Paris Female Institute and continued for sixteen years as its

Principal and proprietor. After three years this school was taken under the

patronage of the East Texas Conference and subsequently he became a member of

that Conference. In 1869 he was superannuated on account of failing health. He

resided at Paris TX for the remainder of his life, honored and beloved as a man of

God, and as one of the earliest educators of that great State. He had formed the first

class at Paris TX, at Blossom Prairie and at numerous other points in the state. The

descendants of his first members now revered him in his declining days. By one

account, “The once pioneer, who preached in the cabins of the early settlers, now

moved a patriarch among their descendants.”

The Graham School, in the public school system of Paris, and Graham

Street in the same city are named for James Graham. The recently written History

of the North Texas Conference places him among the earliest and most effective of

its founding fathers.

William Graham was six years younger than his brother James, having been

born in York County, at Stony Brook, November 9, 1821. He died at West

Lafayette IN April 17, 1897. He dated his spiritual awakening to the age of eight

years at a time when his mother was explaining the Scriptures to him. Without

advantages other than the labor of his hands provided, he worked on nearby farms,

went to short term public schools until he had saved enough money to attend for a

period the York County Academy. This was the extent of his formal education,

and yet by diligence and native determination his personal studies gave him a

background in the liberal arts – including a scholarly knowledge of ancient

languages – so that he was numbered among the leading scholars and educators of

his time.

Licensed to preach July 20, 1844, he was admitted to the Arkansas

Conference, of which his old friend Andrew Hunter and his brother James Graham

were members. His first appointment was Fort Smith circuit and his second was

the principalship of the Fort Coffee Academy in the Mission to the Choctow

Indians. He served in this Conference until 1847, when he went to Indiana and

became a member of the North Indiana Conference – his brother James remaining

in what was by this time the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Now the two

Missionary Brothers 95

pairs of York brothers were divided: Andrew Hunter and James Graham being in

the ME Church, South, with William Hunter and William Graham being in the ME

Church.

When the Northwest Indiana Conference was organized in 1852, William

Graham was made its secretary, and he held this important post for many years.

From this time to the end of his life he was regarded as one of the most influential

members of this Conference. He served as presiding elder and as pastor of some

of the most important churches in the Conference. Twice a delegate to General

Conference, he was several other times a reserve delegate. He served for four years

as a trustee of Northwestern University and for nine years as a trustee of Asbury

University, during which time its name was changed to DePauw University. He

was also a trustee of Fort Wayne College. For some time he was a member of the

Church Extension Committee of the ME Church. Allegheny College honored him

with degrees of A.M. and D.D., and he was elected to teaching positions in two

colleges – both of which he declined to remain in his chosen work. He was one of

the organizers of the Preachers’ Aid Society of his Conference.

In 1861 President Abraham Lincoln, upon the nomination of two United

States Senators, appointed him United States Consul to Liberia – but he wrote a

letter to the President respectfully declining the honor. His last appointment was

as Agent for the Preachers’ Aid Society of his Conference.

But there were also two other Graham brothers who were ministers of the

Gospel. Philip Graham (1813-1870) was a minister in the Evangelical Association.

He is buried in Liverpool PA where he had two pastorates during his active career.

John W. Graham (1829-1898) was a licensed local pastor of the same

denomination, not being able to continue in a regular pastorate because of his

broken health, and is buried in the Evangelical Cemetery in Winterstown PA.

In the cemetery at the Stony Brook Church⁵, just east of York, are the well-

marked graves of their parents: William Graham (1781-1842) and Martha Shue

Graham (1790-1858).

⁵The Stony Brook Evangelical Church relocated to Edgewood Road in 1925 and is now Yorkshire

UMC. The church building is gone, but the Stony Brook Evangelical Cemetery remains at the

southwest corner of Eastern Boulevard and Stone Ridge Road.

96 The Chronicle 2025

EDITOR’S EPILOGUE

The contribution made by Dr. Charles F. Berkheimer to Methodist

scholarship cannot be overstated. His preliminary work in the preparation of the

definitive history of the Central Pennsylvania Conference of the Methodist Church

was mentioned in the Preface. Dr. Earl Kerstetter, who assumed the chairmanship

of the Editorial Board following Dr. Berkheimer’s untimely death, noted “This

history could not be written now if Dr. Berkheimer had not spent more than five

years in his retirement in reading, research, travel, and recording his findings of

voluminous materials.”

Dr. Frederick Maser, final author of that definitive history, states the

following about Dr. Berkheimer: “He was one of the most knowledgeable

historians of Central Pennsylvania Methodism, and his passing was a great loss to

me personally as well as to the Board. Fortunately he had already gathered a great

many facts, dates, and stories about Methodism in Central Pennsylvania, and I

leaned heavily on his findings. Most of this information is recorded in his Annals

and Origins of Methodism in Central Pennsylvania and in his Origins of Methodism

in Central Pennsylvania 1779-1869. Both of these valuable manuscripts are in the

collections of the Charles F. Berkheimer Memorial Library of the Commission on

Archives and History of the Central Pennsylvania Conference at Lycoming

College, Williamsport.”

While this issue of The Chronicle shares ten of Berkheimer’s previously

unpublished oral and written presentations, others available upon request from the

conference archives at loyer@lycoming.edu include the following:

About Methodist dress

Church deed which traces ownership back to the Creator

Family and local history as a hobby

Five sisters who married Methodist preachers

Francis Asbury's labours within Central Pennsylvania Conference territory

Lord will provide preachers

Methodist immigrants among Central Pennsylvania pioneers

Methodist martyr whose name was forgotten

Mollie Brown of Chambersburg, a Methodist Mollie Pitcher

Narrative history of Methodism in the West Branch Valley

Origins of Methodism in Central Pennsylvania 1770-1869

Prayer of a man of words

Social issues and moral reform actions of the Central Pennsylvania Conference 1869-1905

Some pioneer personalities of Berwick-Shickshinny area Methodism

Statement of Methodist Purpose

Three brothers and their missionary giving

Trustees Who Stole Their Church

Two brothers who voted against each other in General Conference of 1844