A history of Washington County, Maryland from the earliest settlements to the present time, including a history of Hagerstown, Part 65

Author: Williams, Thomas J. C. (Thomas John Chew)
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: [Chambersburg, Pa.] : J.M. Runk & L.R.
Number of Pages: 622

USA > Maryland > Washington County > Hagerstown > A history of Washington County, Maryland from the earliest settlements to the present time, including a history of Hagerstown > Part 65

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Soon after the end of the Civil War, extensive improvements were made in St. John's Lutheran Church on South Potomac St., one of the oldest and historic churches of Hagerstown. From the beginning, the Lutherans have been the largest body of Christians in Washington County. The improvements referred to above marked the be- ginning of the pastorate of the Rev. Dr. S. W. Owen, who took charge of the church in Novem- ber, 1869, and continues to this day, thirty-six years later ministering to the largest congregation of Christians in Washington County; a brilliant preacher, greatly beloved by his flock, and respect- ed by all the people of the town, among whom he has been for all these years a conspicuous figure. In May, 1870, Dr. Owen preached his last sermon in the ancient church, as it had been originally built. The work of improvement occupied about a year, and services were resumed in April, 1871. The church was greatly enlarged, the lower floor being fitted up for the Sunday School and entire- ly new furniture being supplied for both church and Sunday School room. At the same time the double bells, which had become cracked, were ta- ken down and replaced. One of them was cast in London in 1788, and the other in Boston in 1824.

St. John's is not the first church building of this Lutheran congregation. The congregation was organized in Hagerstown in 1770, only eight years after the town was laid out, and while it was still an unpretentious village. Nevertheless, the constitution then adopted was signed by sixty members, who must have constituted a large por- tion of the adult population of the town. The first pastor, down to 1772, was the Rev. Mr. Wild- ban. Three or four years after the organization of the congregation, namely about the year 1774 and 1775, during the pastorate of the Rev. Mr. Young, the first church was built. In 1782 an organ was purchased.

In 1793, the pastor was the Rev. Mr. Gohring. He was followed in 1794 by the Rev. J. George Schmucker, who continued in the charge for six- teen years resigning in 1810. Mr. Schmucker when he came to Hagerstown was but a youth of twenty-two years, and looked young for his age, so much so that he was known as "the boy preacher." HIc was a preacher of uncommon power and elo- quence. When he died, between 1840 and 1850, one of his successors, the Rev. Benj. Kurtz wrote of him in the Lutheran Observer as follows :

The first charge of the Rev. J. George

395

OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.

Schmucker was Quickel's and several other eoun- try churches in York county, Pa. But scarcely had he labored there a year, before Providence plainly indicated that there was another and a greater work for him to do in a more important department of Christ's vineyard. The Lutheran Church at Hagerstown, Md., together with four affiliated country congregations had become vacant, and in obediencce to a unanimous call from them, he removed to Hagerstown in 1794, being then a little more than 22 years of age. Here he labored 16 years with his characteristic zeal and fidelity ; and tho' one of the most distinguished and able divines of that day preceded him in the charge- we allude to the learned, impassioned and eloquent Gohring, yet he creditably sustained himself to the entire satisfaction of a people accustomed to the highest style of evangelic preaching. That which one would think must have affected lim unfavorably in contrast with his popular predecess- or, in reality worked to his advantage. He was at that period an unusually small man, slight, pale, and emaciated from unceasing application and severe mental discipline. His manner out of the pulpit was unassuming and rather timid; and his whole appearance seemed to indicate the immature youth of seventeen or eighteen, rather than the full grown man of twenty-two.

But when he stood up in the pulpit they be- held in that same boy preacher all the maturely expanded symmetrical proportions of an accom- plished minister of Christ, intellectually, morally, religiously and officially. Now he was no longer the pale thin visaged, shrinking youth, but the full-developed and fearless man of God, the un- flinching champion of the cross. The fire of his piercing black eye, his improved complexion, his animated countenance, the deep emphatic tones of his sonorous voice, the living truths which he explained with such solemnity and impressiveness, and enforced with such a chain of manly argu- ment and close logical reasoning, and withal, the overpowering conviction with which he himself evidently felt every thought to which he gave ut- terance; all this invested him with a power in the sacred desk and secured to him a degree of attention and a command over his audience, which but few men in his day possessed. Now all thoughts of physical infirmity and personal di- minutiveness were forgetten, and it was the anointed one of the Lord, the impressive preach- er, the cogent reasoner, the learned exponent of

God's word, the bold undaunted proclaimer of sal- vation by faith in the blood of atonement, that was alone beheld and listened to with profound attention and intense emotion. Thus, while his services as minister compared well with those of his eloquent predecessor, his less prominent exter- ior in fact gave him an advantage.

When our young minister arrived in Hagers- town, he found religion at a very low ebb. Mr. Gohring had only been there one year, when he returned to York, from which place he had been called, and his labors had been too few and far between in some five or six churches, to produce any material and permanent change for the bet- ter. The German Reformed, Episcopalians and Presbyterians were in no better condition. The Methodists had just commenced their operations. * *

* * Presbyterians were very leisurely keeping the Sabbath and waiting God's time; while Lutherns and German Reformed thought themselves quite as good as their neighbors, though it is absolutely certain they were not a whit better than they ought to have been. Sunday schools, Bible classes, prayer meetings, weekly lectures, &c., had not yet been introduced. There were no stoves and no lamps in the churches, and night meetings were regarded as "new measures" and as tending to fanaticism, though for dancing, play- ing cards, &c., they were thought to be very ap- propriale. Conversion was a strange word, and revivals were unknown. Methodists indeed, and they alone, talked about conversion, and some few among them, we presume, knew from personal experience what it meant. In other churches also, the Lord doubtless had his chosen few, but they were like the gleanings of the olive tree, two or three on the topmost branches. The cock-pit, the race course, the long bullet lane, the dog and bear fight, &c., were more numerously attended than the house of God. On the whole, darkness comparatively covered the land and gross dark- ness the people.

Such was the state of things when our young preacher located in Hagerstown. He had an ar- duous task to perform; but he entered upon it with energy, prosecuted it with fidelity, and per- severed in it for sixteen years. One of his church- es was 2 miles distant ; another 5; a third 6; and the fourth 10. Besides these, he frequently preached in school houses and private dwellings, in barns, at cross-roads, at funerals, &c. When he was to fill an appointment in one of his coun-

396

HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD

try churches on Sunday morning, he was wont to visit the neighborhood on the preceding Saturday; call a meeting at some farmer's house in the eve- ning, and preach to the collected neighbors with a simplicity and an earnestness, which God blessed to the conversion of many obdurate sinners. On such occasions he was not content to dispense the Word in the usual formal manner. After he had finished his sermon, he pushed aside the little table before him containing the Bible and hymn book, walked out among the people, and with a countenance beaming with love and kindness, took his seat beside them and entered into a heart searching conversation with each person individ- ually, respecting the great work of regeneration by the Spirit and preparation for eternity. His meetings were thus often kept up till a late hour and until the whole audience were bathed in tears ; sobs and groans of contrition were heard through- out the room. These were emphatically "anxious meetings," and sometimes half the seats in the room were "mourners' seats." The scoffer sneered, the infidel derided, and the worlding foamed and threatened, but the disenthralled, regenerate sin- ner blessed God for sending them the "boy preach- er."

Dr. Schmucker resigned in 1810, and the next pastor was the Rev. Solomon Schaeffer who continued four years and died and was buried un- der the floor of the church where his ashes yet remain. He is described as "a splendid man. -splendid in his large, elegantly moulded form, its full-grown, manly and fair proportions, his noble countenance, perfect complexion and digni- fied movements, as well as in his fine intellect and superior preaching powers. He was not in any respect a whit behind his universally cstecmed two brothers in the ministry, the one then located at Harrisburg, Pa., and the other at Frederick, Md. He too had his sobriquet, and he was as often called the 'pretty preacher' as by his proper nanie. But his was a stormy timc. English preaching was introduced during his pastorate; and those who know how strong are the prejudices of the Germans in favor of their vernacular, with what pertinacity they cling to the language and usages of their fathers, and oppose every- thing new, may imagine the anguish of mind en- dured by the man of God in his faithful efforts to achieve the greatest amount of good to his

people. The church was thrown into a vehement agitation, which had scarcely yet subsided when God suddenly delivered him from all his trials and took him to himself in a glorious heaven, where all nations and kindred and tongues con- spire to celebrate His praise and honor His name in a language alike understood by all. He died universally respected and loved, in the bloom of life, the full vigor of manhood, after having pre- viously to his last illness, always enjoyed the full plentitude of health, in the spring tide of effic- ient ministerial labor, and amid the most flattering prospects of long-continued and progressive useful- ness. Besides the amiable wife of his youth, he left an only child who became a Lutheran minis- ter."*

Writing of Captain George Shryock, a corres- pondent of the Hagerstown Herald and Torch- light, in 1870, gives a quaint description of St. John's Church in the olden time. Capt. Shryock had left his home in Washington County for a time, and gone to live in Westmoreland County, Pa. "In the year 1803" says this correspondent, "he returned from Pa., and commenced the manu- facture of pumps. On his return he found St. John's Lutheran Church on South Potomac street erected, the foundation of which was being laid when he departed in 1796. His father furnished all the laths for the building. The first pulpit in the Church was elevated to the height of twenty fect, six-sided, of a shape similar to a wine-glass and entered by a door. From it on the South side a circular stairway led down into a latticed room very small in its dimensions, set apart for the use of the minister. Above the pulpit was suspended a pyramidal sounding board with an opening of five feet. Within this opening was seen a large eye emblazoned, emblematic of the 'all seeing cye.' The church was uncarpeted and unheated. At that period of the Church's history, any one who should have derived the comfort of a fire while listening to the preached word, would have at once been deemed guilty of sacrilege and gross impiety. So for many winters thereafter, the con- gregation sat with pious exaltation in the cold and comfortless church during Sabbath services. The collection bags were attached to rods about ten feet in length, under each bag hung a silken tassle, and in the cords of the tassle a little bell. When therefore the worthy deacons passed through

*Rev B. Kurtz, in the Lutheran Observer.

397

OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.

the aisles collecting the one thing necessary to the support of the ministry, and came to him that slept, the tinkle, tinkle of the bell awoke the slum- being saint or sinner to the monetary wants of the church. The observance of the Sabbath was not as general as at the present day; Cock fighting at the Big Spring or Yellow Spring, now Ladle Spring, horse racing, bull baiting and other worldly amusements were the cause of much ab- senteeism from Sabbath services. Captain Shry- ock said the only and most effectual way by which the regular attendance of the church's most wealthy male members was secured, was by elect- ing them to the office of elders and deacons. Rev. George Schmucker, D. D., was the first pastor of the church and preached in the German language. He was succeeded by Rev. Solomon Shaeffer who died in 1815 and his remains were interred in the central portions of the church, where is to be seen a memorial slab covering his grave. Rev. Benj. Kurtz, D. D., was his successor. In 1808 Cap- tain Shryock married Elizabeth Lewis, daughter of Captain Wm. Lewis, and in the same year both became members of St. John's Church. In 1820 he was a lay delegate to the first General Syn- od of the Lutheran Church in America meeting in Hagerstown, and most remarkable to relate the last survivor. In 1813 he served as Captain in Ragan's Regiment, Stansbury's Brigade, in which David Artz, lately deceased, was 1st Lieut .; 2nd Lieut. Posey; Ensign or color bearer, Christian Fechtig. After the repulse at Blad- ensburg, the Company on its arrival at Baltimore, was detailed to support Roger's Battery."

Capt. George Shryock, so long connected with St. John's Clurch, and who died shortly before 1870, wrote in his old age the following account of himself:

"I am one of three survivors of a large family of eleven children, born in -and near this town, between the years 1770 and 1793. It wants but three years of one hundred since the first was born, and she died in her 80th year ; the second in the 82nd; the third in the 61st; the fourth in the 83rd; the fifth in the 82nd ; the sixth in the 62nd ; the seventh (himself) still lives, 84 years of age; the eighth died in infancy ; the ninth in the 66th; the tenth still lives, 81 years of age; the eleventlı still lives at 74 years of age. It is a little re- markable that although father and self have pass- ed more than one hundred years in this place and he rearing a family of ten children, yet there is

no one but the infant above mentioned that lies in any of the burying grounds belonging to the two families. I am now (five years ago) eighty- four years old, yet I have never followed father nor mother nor sister nor brother nor child of my own to the grave. It is strange things will strike us as being remarkable, but the other day I hap- pened to see an instrument of writing signed by fifteen men forty-seven years ago. My name ap- pears thereon and the last on the list, I find that I am the last and only one left on the earth, the rest have all passed away and I am still here."

The correspondent above referred to, added the following:

"George, son of John and Mary (nee Teagar- den,) Shryock, was born in 1783 in the Manor. In 1787, the family moved into Hagerstown and resided on Franklin street, opposite the Oak Spring. In 1796 his father, brother John and self went to Westmoreland County, Pa., which was at that time a very thickly wooded section of country, and was then receiving its first settlers. In one day with the help of a few neighbors they builded a log house in the woods. After harvest the family was removed thither. The wagon, which conveyed the household goods to their new home, was the first one entering the County. All of the hauling of the settlers was done on heavy wooden sledges and their commercial relations with the settlements, as the distant towns and cities were termed, were sustained by pack-horse trains. These consisted of twenty-five or thirty mules or horses tandem each fastened to the tail of the one preceding, a bell upon their necks and the goods strapped or hung across their backs. This was a year after the Whiskey Insurrection."

The pastors of St. John's have been as fol- lows :

Rev. Charles Frederick Wildbahn, 1769; Rev. John George Young, 1773-1793; Rev. J. G. Schmucker, D. D., 1793-1810; Rev. Solomon Schaeffer, 1810-1815; Rev. Benjamin Kurtz, D. D., LL. D., 1815-1831 ; Rev. S. K. Hoshour, 1831 -1834; Rev. Charles F. Schaeffer, D. D. 1834- 1840; Rev. Ezra Keller, D. D., 1840-1844; Rev. Frederick W. Conrad, D. D., LL. D., 1844-1850; Rev. F. R. Anspach, D. D., 1850-1857; Rev. Reuben Hill, D. D., 1857-1860; Rev. J. Evans, 1860-1867; Rev. T. T. Titus, 1867-1869; Rev. S. W. Owen, D. D., 1869 ---

When the pastorate of Dr. Owen began in 1869 the church officers were as follows :

398

HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD

Elders-John Cook, Samuel Seibert, Treas .; Peter J. Adams, Sec'y., Lewis Schindel, David Ridenour, J. J. Luther, William Marr, Daniel Huyett.

Deaeons .- Matthew S. Barber, John H. Kaus- ler, John D. Middlekauff, J. Hanson Kridler, Luther Nichols.

Thirty-five years later the officers were:

Elders-Jaeob F. Maisaek, Geo. B. Oswald, See'y., William Danzer, David W. MeCoy, M. P. Moller, O. J. Young.

Deaeons-John L. Bikle, deeeased, William H. Fridinger, George W. Fridinger, John H. Jones, John S. Kausler, Treas., George P. Lani- bert.

Of the officers of 1869 all but one or two had died before Dr. Owen celebrated his thirty-fifth anniversary. Jolin Cook was one of the leading and active citizens of Hagerstown, who took part in establishing the Hagerstown Agricultural Im- plement Manufacturing Company, and was promi- nent in many enterprises. Matthew S. Barber was treasurer of Hagerstown during the Civil War. In 1867, he was elected Register of Wills and served six years. Then he gave his attention to the Hagerstown Bank of which he had long been director and then became vice-president and then President upon the death of William T. Hamilton. He was a man of great business capacity, a large property owner, and distinguished for his aecurate judgment and his eivic virtues. He died in 1893. John H. Kausler was cashier or teller of the Hla- gerstown Bank for forty years. In 1866, he was elected cashier and in 1873 resigned, and becaine teller in order to make way for his brother, Joseph Kausler, who became cashier in his place. John Kausler retained his place in the bank until his death in 1896. He was greatly beloved by the people of Hagerstown for his unfailing piety and charity. John Henry Kausler was a son of Jacob and Catharine (Shall) Kausler, born in Hagers- town in 1823. His wife was Prudenee Chaney.

Mr. John S. Kausler succeeded his fath- er in the church and in the bank and inherited his virtues and popularity as well as his offices.

John L. Bikle, who at the time of his death in 1904, was a deacon in St. John's, was also cashier of the Hagerstown Bank. Mr. Bikle had won for himself a high reputation as clerk of the Board of County Commissioners, through a num- ber of years, and upon him the Board largely relied for the administration of the affairs of the County.

He possessed great business ability, ineorruptable honesty and an exceptional faculty for inspiring confidenee and making friends. His eapaeity in dealing with the affairs of the County attracted the attention of William T. Hamilton, President of the Bank, and he was engaged as book keeper. When Edward W. Mealey resigned the place of cashier, Mr. Bikle succeeded to it. There al- most seems to have been some connection between St. John's Church and the Hagerstown Bank, for another of the elders, George B. Oswald, was for a number of years before he became elerk of the Cireuit Court, the book-keeper for the bank.

Rev. Dr. S. W. Owen who has been pastor of the largest congregation of any denomination in Washington County for not less than thirty-seven years, down to this writing in 1906, was born in Franklin County, Pa., near the town of Scotland, on September 13, 1837. His parents were Jolm W. and Elizabeth (Kieffer) Owen. Dr. Owen at- tended a public sehool in Franklin County of whielı his father was the teacher. His father died when Dr. Owen was eighteen years of age. He then went to Richland County, Ohio. where he taught school and studied law. Before entering the bar, he determined to study for the ministry, and en- tered the Missionary Institute of Theology, now the Susquehanna University, in Snyder County, Pa., about 1860. IIe graduated in 1863; was li- censed to preach in 1864, and was ordained that year by the West Pennsylvania Synod.

His first charge was at Centreville, Cumber- land County, Pa. In 1866, he went to Woods- boro, Frederick County, Md., where he was pastor of five congregations. In November, 1869, he be- came pastor of St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Hagerstown, which plaee he has occu- pied down to the present time. In that time the congregation and all its activities have been greatly enlarged ; the church has been remodeled three times, the improvements costing over $60,- 000. Dr. Owen is an eloquent preacher and has always been greatly beloved by his eongregation. He is President of the Susquehanna University ; a director of the Home for the Aged in Wash- ington D. C .; has been president of the Maryland Synod two terms, and a delegate to the General Synod of the United States eight or ten times. In 1892, the degree of Doctor of Divinity was eon- ferred on him by Newbury College, S. C. In 1862 Dr. Owen married Miss Cordelia .1. Levers, daugh- ter of Colonel and Mrs. Joseph Levers, of Mon-

399

OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.

tour County, Pa. They had five children, three of whom grew up, namely Clarence W. Owen, of Chicago; Newton S. Owen, of Jolictt, and Eva May, the wife of N. J. Brandt, of Hagerstown.

Just before the accession of the Rev. Dr. Owen to the pastorate of St. John's, in 1868, about sixty or seventy members left to organize themselves into a separate congregation. They bought a lot on Franklin street from E. M. Recher, for $3,500, and built upon it a church at a cost of $32,000, work upon which began Oct. 1, 1868. The Rev. T. T. Titus, then pastor of St. John's, accepted the pastorship of the new church, which increased in numbers, and is flourishing, prosperous and doing a good work down to this day. The first trustces of Trinity were Martin Startzman, Wilson L. Hays and Frederick J. Posey. The building com- mittee were Dr. J. E. Herbert, Lewis L. Mentzer, F. J. Posey, Jonathan Schindel, Otho Swingicy and George W. Stover. The church was dedicated October 3, 1869.

On the night of May 29, 1879, the Washing- ton House, the principal hotel of Hagerstown, was burned down. The fire broke out in the dead of night while the hotel was filled with guests. Mrs. George Middlekauff was the proprietress at the time. Several of the guests were slightly injured. Two, F. B. Snively, of Shady Grove, Pa., and J. E. Troxell, of Hancock, were fatally burned. J. H. Exline and Solomon Jenkins, of Hancock, were seriously injured. The rest escaped uninjured. The building was insured for $21,000. The Wash- ington House was built on the site of the old Globe Tavern, one of the historic hostelries of Hagers- town in 1856. It was in its day a pretentious building. It was situated on Washington street, opposite the Hagerstown Bank, where the Baldwin House now stands. The owners of the Washing-

ton House were a company of which J. Dixon Ro- man was president. After the Washington House burned, the company acquired the adjoining lot, and added it to the site upon which the Baldwin House was erected. It was named after Mr. C. Co- lumbus Baldwin who married Mr. Roman's daugh- ter, and represented his interest in the property. The Baldwin was built by Mr. Baldwin, Edward W. Mcaley, Dr. Josiah F. Smith, David C. Ham- mond and William T. Hamilton. With the hotel, a fine theatre, the Academy of Music, was included and it attracted to Hagerstown actors and plays of merit.

Although he was the owner of a considerable interest in the Baldwin House, William T. Hamil- ton, not long after it was built determined to build a hotel in Hagerstown which would be superior to almost any other in the State outside of Baltimore. He rightly believed that such a hotel would be of vast advantage to the town. He acquired the old Antietam House, which occupied the lot on Wash- ington street where under various names a tavern had been conducted from the early history of the town. This lot not being large enough, Mr. Ham- ilton bought the stone house adjoining, which was also a historic building. In it Nathaniel Roches- ter was living when he moved away to the Gen- essee country, in western New York, and in it he had founded the Hagerstown Bank. The Antie- tam House was supposed, at the time of its de- molition, to be about a hundred years old. At one time its name was the "Southern and West- ern." Again it was called the Bell Tavern. The Hotel Hamilton cost about $125,000. It was opened for guests in 1887 and George W. Har- ris was the first proprietor. Mr. Hamilton's ex- pectation that it would be of advantage to the town was entirely justified by the event.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

A history of Washington County, Maryland from the earliest settlements to the present time, including a history of Hagerstown, Part 65

Author: Williams, Thomas J. C. (Thomas John Chew) Publication date: 1906 Publisher: [Chambersburg, Pa.] : J.M. Runk & L.R. Number of Pages: 622

Author: Williams, Thomas J. C. (Thomas John Chew)
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: [Chambersburg, Pa.] : J.M. Runk & L.R.
Number of Pages: 622