History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 120

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1592

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Dr. McKibbin graduated at Princeton College in 1869; studied law 1869-70 with Furman Shepherd at Philadelphia, and then took a course of theology, gradu- ating at Alleghany Seminary in 1873. His pastorates have been with the Seventh Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, 1873-74; the Central Presbyterian Church, St. Paul, Minn., 1874-79; the Second Presbyterian' Church, Pittsburgh, 1880-88; the First Presbyterian Church, Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, 1888, where he still remains, honored and beloved by the membership of this church, the strongest and most. active Presbyterian organization in Cincinnati. He was married, September 10, 1874, to Miss Nancy McCullock Patterson, daughter of Joseph Patterson, who was a grandson of Rev. Joseph Patterson, one of the pioneer Presbyterian pastors of western Pennsylvania. Her mother was Mary Baird, daughter of Hon. Thomas

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H. Baird, for many years on the Bench of Washington County, Penn. Both branches were Presbyterian, from whom Mrs. McKibbin inherited her mental and moral excellence and those virtues and graces which adorn the highest type of Christian womanhood. Dr. McKibbin is a man of strong personality, his mind vig- orous and active, his memory retentive, with the happy faculty of hasty logical classi- fication of reserve stores of information. His pulpit ministrations and public addresses show careful preparation and positive convictions. As an orator he is magnetic, persuasive, logical and eloquent, sometimes moving his audience to tears. His manner is often impassioned, but so flexible as to yield to the play of thought consistent with rhetorical expression. His ability and influence are recognized by his brethren in the ministry, and he is frequently called upon for lectures and addresses. He was appointed by the General Assembly as a delegate to the Pan- Presbyterian Council at Toronto, Canada, in 1892, and was chosen by the commit- tee to read an important paper which excited great attention and interest. He was appointed by the Cincinnati Presbytery as chairman of the prosecuting committee in the notable Smith heresy trial in 1892 and 1893, which he conducted with great skill and wisdom to a successful termination. He is a member of the American Academy of Social and Political Science; president of the board of directors of the Western Tract Society; was for many years a director in the Western Theological Seminary at Allegheny, until 1889, and his services are sought on committees engaged in Christian and Philanthropic work in the city of his residence. He is yet in the prime of life, with a future of increasing usefulness before him. - [Pre- pared by E. R. Monfort.

REV. JAMES W. MAGRUDER, pastor of Wesley Chapel M. E. Church, No. 66 East Fifth street, Cincinnati, was born September 13, 1864, at Marion, Obio, son of Thomas J. and Elizabeth (Fribley) Magruder. His father was a native of Virginia and came to Ohio with his brother; they had one horse, which they rode alternately, and thus made the journey with comparative comfort. Thomas J. Magruder was a saddler and harness-inaker. His wife was a native of Tuscarawas county, Ohio, of German-American descent, and they had four children: Charles O .; Mary R., wife of E. J. Short of Bellefontaine, Ohio; a child who died in infancy, and James W.

The last named attended the Marion public schools, graduating at the high school in 1881. In the autumn of that year he entered the Ohio Wesleyan Univer. sity, Delaware, Ohio, graduating in 1885. He was then a student at Drew Theo- logical Seminary, Madison, N. J., two years, during which time he took a full three- years' course, which was rendered possible by previous preparations, and graduated in 1887. On September 21, 1887, he married Mamie E., daughter of Jesse W. and Charlotte (Mumford) Dann, of Columbus, Ohio, where Mr. Dann was an exten- sive manufacturer of carriage and wagon woodwork and a director in the Citizens' National Bank. On their bridal day Mr. and Mrs. Magruder started for Cambridge, England, where he spent a year in the study of the Greek New Testament under Canon Westcott, now Bishop of Durham. They spent seven months in travel in Great Britain and on the Continent, and then returned to America. Mr. Magru- der's first experience in pastoral work was obtained during his vacation in 1886, when he supplied the Methodist Church on the Huntsburg (Ohio) Circuit. In April, 1888, he took charge of a vacant church at Madrid, St. Lawrence Co., N. Y., where he remained ten months, and then supplied the pulpit at Camp Washington, Cincinnati, for three years. In 1892 he assumed his present pastorate. Mr. and Mrs. Magruder are the parents of one child, Marguerite. He is independent in politics, with Republican proclivities.

REV. ROBERT A. GIBSON, rector of Christ Protestant Episcopal Church, Fourth street, Cincinnati, was born July 9, 1846, at Petersburg, Va., son of Rev. Churchill J. Gibson, D.D., and Lucy F. (Atkinson) Gibson, natives of Virginia, and descend- ants of early English and Scotch pioneers of that State.

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His education was begun at the private school of Charles Campbell, the well- known Virginian historian, where he was prepared for the Episcopal High School near Alexandria. This institution was broken up during the Civil war, and for one year he attended Mt. Laurel Academy, Halifax county, Va. For two years he was a student at Hampden-Sidney College, but left it in June, 1864, to enlist in the Rockbridge Artillery, a company in the First Virginia regiment, commanded by Lieut. - Col. Hardaway until the close of the war. This regiment surrendered at Appomattox with the main body of Lee's army April 9, 1865. In the following year Mr. Gibson taught in Greensville county, Va. In 1866 he resumed his studies at Hampden-Sidney College, graduating therefrom in 1867, and at the Theological Seminary, Alexandria, Va., in 1870. For two years he was the missionary of the convocation for a number of destitute points in the valley of the James and Appo- mattox. In October, 1872, he became assistant to the Rev. Joshua Peterkin, D. D., rector of St. James Church, Richmond, continuing in this position six years. Dur- ing the last four years, however, he had charge of Moore Memorial Chapel, which, as a result of his labors, was raised to the dignity of an independent parish. From 1878 to 1887 he was rector of Trinity Church, Parkersburg, W. Va., and in 1887 he assumed his present charge, in which he has been most efficient and successful. He married Susan Baldwin Stuart, daughter of Hon. Alexander H. H. Stuart, of Staunton, Va., a member of Fillmore's cabinet and member of Congress. They have five children: Alexander Stuart, Lucy Fitzhugh, Frances Peyton, Mary and Churchill.

REV. JOHN JUNKIN FRANCIS, D. D., Presbyterian clergyman and treasurer of the advisory board of the Presbyterian Hospital and Woman's Medical College, resi- dence No. 61 Mound street, Cincinnati, was born June 6, 1847, at New Wilmington, Penn., son of William M. and Eleanor (Junkin) Francis, natives of the North of Ireland and Pennsylvania, respectively, and of Scotch-Irish origin. The father came to America in 1830 and engaged in farming. He was lieutenant-governor of Pennsyl- vania when the Civil war broke out. He reared a family of eight children, six liv- ing, of whom our subject was fifth in order of birth.

He was reared on a farm, educated in the public schools and Westminster Col- lege at New Wilmington, Penn., then attended Eastman Business College, of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and graduated in 1869 at the Western Theological Seminary. He was then appointed pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Freeport, Armstrong Co., Penn., from 1869 to 1879; then went to the Birmingham (Penn.) Presbyterian Church from 1879 to 1885; he then occupied the pastorate of the Central Presby- terian Church, of Cincinnati, Ohio, from 1885 to 1891, when he entered upon the duties of his present position, and devotes spare time to literary work. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from the Western University of Pennsyl- vania in 1887. Dr. Francis is editor of "Mills Meetings Memorial Volume," cor- respondent for the New York "Independent " and "Presbyterian " of Philadelphia, Penn, and also writes occasionally for several other religious journals. He is lec- turer at Hanover College, Indiana, on English literature, and is a member of the board of trustees of Oxford College, Ohio; also of Scotia Seminary, Concord, N. C. He was one of the vice-presidents of the Committee of Five Hundred in the work for municipal reform in Cincinnati in 1889, was three times a member of the Pres- byterian General Assembly at the meetings held at Baltimore, Saratoga and Detroit. He has lectured before many of the leading colleges on subjects of science and lit- erature. In his early manhood he was the editor of a local paper. When sixteen years old he enlisted in the Union army as a ninety-day man, serving for three months in West Virginia. He is a member of the Royal Arcanum and United Workmen, and politically is a Republican. He was married, October 26, 1869, to Miss Louise C., daughter of Dr. Samuel P. and Isabel (Staten) Cummins, natives of Pennsylvania. Two children have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Francis:

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Robin W. C., a student at Princeton College, and Nellie M. C., a student at Barth- olomew's Classical School of Cincinnati.

REV. DAVID MCKINNEY, pastor of the First Reformed Presbyterian Church, was. born in Philadelphia May 20, 1860, son of William and Margaret (Ritchie) McKin- ney, both natives of Kilrea, County Derry, Ireland. The family is connected with the Reformed Presbyterian Church, in which faith the subject of this sketch was. reared.

He attended the public schools of his native city, studied under a private tutor two years and attended the University of Pennsylvania two years, relinquishing his college course to enter the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Presbyterian Church at Philadelphia. Here he took a four-years' course in theology. On April 3, 1883, he was licensed to preach the Gospel, and during the summer of that year supplied churches in Brooklyn, Philadelphia and southern Illinois. In March, 1884, he completed his theological studies, and in the following autumn accepted a call from the Reformed Presbyterian Church at Elgin, Ill., and was ordained in Sparta, Ill., October 2, 1884, by the Western Presbytery of the Reformed Presby- terian Church. In the spring of 1886 he resigned this pastorate, and spent the fol- lowing year preaching at various points from New York to Kansas. On June 1, 1887, in company with Rev. C. M. Alford, of Wheeling, W. Va., he embarked for. Europe, and spent six months in the British Isles and on the Continent. Upon his return he preached at Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Cincinnati through the ensuing winters. On April 1, 1888, he received a call to the First Reformed Church of Cin- cinnati, located on Plum street, opposite City Hall, in which he was installed June 19 following. Mr. Mckinney was secretary of the Committee of Five Hundred, which conducted the famous campaign for municipal reform in 1889, chairman of the advertising committee of the Mills meeting; is a member of the executive com- mittee of the Evangelical Alliance of Cincinnati; in 1892 was moderator of the General Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church at its sessions at Cedarville, Ohio, and is president of the board of examiners of its Theological Seminary loca- ted at Philadelphia. He married, June 3, 1891, Carrie Haines, daughter of Dwight B. and Lida (Reed) Chapin, of Cincinnati, and they have one child, David Earl Chapin, born June 12, 1893.

REV. REINHOLD KOESTLIN, pastor of the Evangelical Protestant Church of Colum- bia, was born in Metzingen, Wuerttemberg, Germany, May 22, 1845, and is the eld- est of four surviving children who blessed the union of Dr. William and Louisa (Heerbrand) Koestlin, the former of whom was a physician there, afterward oberamt's arzt in Backnang, Wuerttemberg.

Our subject graduated from the College of Humaniora, in Stuttgart, and the University of his Kingdom in 1866, and served for two years as a lieutenant in the Second Sharpshooters Battalion of Wuerttemberg. He immigrated to the United Stated and landed, on the 20th of February, 1869, at New York, proceeding from there to Baltimore, where he engaged in the newspaper business. Subsequently he entered the ministry of the Evangelical Church, and in 1871 took charge of his first pastorate, in Princeton, Ind., where he remained for one year. He then removed to Lawrenceburg, Ind., remaining there nine months, and removing again, he went to North Amherst, Ohio, where he remained for three years, thence going to Middle- town, same State, where he built a church and organized a new congregration. In 1877 he was called to St. John's Church, in Newport, Ky., where he remained five years. In 1882 he removed to Alexandria, Campbell Co., Ky., and on July 2, 1893, took charge of his present parish. Mr. Koestlin was married, in September, 1868, to Anna Newman, who died September 9, 1890, and to them were born three chil- dren, two of whom survive, viz .: William, who resides in Newport, Ky., and Fred- erick, residing with his father. Rev. Koestlin's eloquence is proverbial, and those who have heard him have felt the better therefor. He is also as eloquent theoreti-

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cally as oratorically, having written many magazine and newspaper articles of more than usual merit.

The surviving members of our subject's family are as follows: Eliza, Stephanie and Hans, all of whom reside in Germany. The father of Mr. Koestlin died Febru- ary 2, 1888, aged seventy. In 1842 he visited the United States as medical officer of an immigrant ship, aud remained some six months in Philadelphia, awaiting the return of the vessel, which had proceeded to Rio de Janeiro. His mother died May 19, 1887. The grandfather of our subject, Rev. Nathaniel Frederick von Koestlin, D. D., was a prelate of the Evangelical Church of Wuerttemberg, in Stuttgart, Wuerttemberg, and passed away at the age of eighty years. The great-grandfather was also a prelate of the Evangelical Church of his country, and died at the age of eighty-four, while administering the rite of confirmation to a large class, and while in the act of placing his hands on the heads of the two little girls last to be con- firmed.

REV. F. W. ADOMEIT, pastor of Zion Evangelical Church (Protestant) on Bremen street, was born in Koenigsberg, Germany, and is the second eldest of three children who blessed the union of Gottlieb and Carolina (Mantwill). Both father and mother were natives of Koenigsberg. The father died in 1867, and the mother in 1865.

Rev. F. W. Adomeit was educated in the high school of Koenigsberg, where he was graduated. He came to the United States in 1873. At first he made his way to St. Charles, Mo., where he was ordained a minister of the Evangelical Synod of North America the same year, by Rev. A. Baltzer, president of the Evangelical Synod, and Right-Rev. Bishop Goebel. He resided in that city for six years, and was pastor of St. Paul's Church. Leaving there in 1879, he went to Henderson, Ky., and officiated as pastor of Zion Church, in that city, for five years, after which he removed to Cincinnati and entered upon his duties as pastor of Zion Church, the position he now occupies. Rev. Adomeit was united in marriage, in 1873, with Augusta Priddat, a daughter of Julius and Amelia (Eckert) Priddat, both natives of Koenigsberg, Germany. They have had born to them nine children, six of whom survive: Mattie, Talitha, Erich, Hugo, Florence and Curt. Rev. Adomeit is a member of the Evangelical Synod of North America.

OSCAR WEGENER, pastor of St. Luke's German Evangelical Protestant Church, East Third street. The German Protestants of the neighborhood of this church, before hav- ing organized a congregation and built a church of their own, had to walk very far to attend the services of a church of their denomination, the nearest being located at Twelfth and Elm streets. Therefore they assembled in several meetings to establish a German Evangelical Protestant Congregation, and after some preliminaries suc- ceeded, in a meeting held January 22, 1865, when eighty-four members joined the new congregation, which was called "St. Luke's German Evangelical Protestant Congregation," and the following officers were elected: President, George Elsen- hoefer; treasurer, Phil Kauther; secretary, Henry Pirrman. Now the new congre- gation was looking for a church of their own, and in a meeting held March 8, 1865, a committee was appointed to buy a Baptist church on East Third street, opposite Parsons, which was known as "Mueller's Church," and had to be sold for want of members. The interior of the church was rebuilt to obliterate the Baptist character and to accommodate the structure more to the Evangelical Protestant way. The new congregation purchased an organ, erected a gallery to put it in, and in 1871 built a steeple to give the church a better appearance. In 1869 the congregation leased the lot adjoining the church and erected a parsonage. Ten years later they bought the lot.

The following ministers have served the congregation: J. C. Goebel, February, 1865, to February 1, 1867; being sick, he had an assistant, Rev. J. W. Marcussohn, from April 15, 1866, who stayed after Rev. Goebel left, till September 1, 1867. Rev.

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J. Frederick Abele, September 1, 1867, to June 1, 1869; he had to resign on account of sickness. Rev. Fr. Menzel died in August, 1871. Rev. Adolphus Baur, Novem- ber 19, 1871, to August, 1872, Rev. Charles E. Kuester, September, 1872, to April, 1877. Rev. Paul Gottfried Gerber, April 8, 1877, to April, 1888. Rev. H. Taeger, April, 1888, to February, 1892. Rev. H. C. Fack died September 25, 1893. The present minister, Oscar Wegener, was elected October 1, 1893. He was born in Salzgitter, Province of Hannover, Germany, January 28, 1855. After having been educated at the College and University of Goettingen, he graduated in 1878, and passed his second examination (pro ministerio) in November, 1880. He was ordained November 11, 1880, and served as minister in Germany till 1884. Then he came to. this country and preached in Jeffriesburgh, Franklin Co., Mo., till August, 1891. He came to Cincinnati from Harrison, Ohio, where he served as minister of a Ger- man Evangelical Protestant Church. The present officers of the Church are: John Feyen, president; Edward Kass, vice-president; Louis Allinger, secretary: George Brand, financial secretary; John Kattenhorn, treasurer; John Wernke, Henry Rem- bold, Fred Fuchs, Adam Seibert, trustees; Fred Beiser, J. Castang, elders; E. Kass, J. Castang, Louis Burck, trustees of the Sunday-school. [Contributed.

EWALD HAUN, pastor of the E. P. St. Peter's Church, corner Main street and McMicken avenue, Cincinnati, was born March 24, 1865, in Stralsund, Germany, son of Carl and Bertha (Franz) Haun, both also natives of Germany. His father, who was employed in the post office at Stralsund, died in 1870; his mother resides in Luedenscheid, Germany. They were the parents of four children: Alma Haun, residing at Droyssig, Germany; Agnes Haun, teacher in Luedenscheid; Franz Haun, residing in Horn, near Hamburg, Germany, and our subject, who came to America in 1890.

Mr. Haun received his education at Stralsund, also in the Theological Seminary at Basel and University of Basel. He was ordained by the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Ohio in 1890. He was for three months pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church at Beaver Falls, Penn., thereafter until June, 1893, pastor of St. Mark's Evangelical Protestant Church at Homestead, and dedicated this new church there at the time of the world-known riot. Since July 1, 1893, he has been pastor of St. Peter's German Protestant Church at Cincinnati. He married, March 13, 1891, Eugenie, daughter of Dr. Christ (M.D.) and Julia (Girardet) Krebs, of Swiss ancestry. They are the parents of two boys: Ewald and Burkhard. He is a mem- ber of St. Peter's Young People's Association, and of the I. O. O. F.

JOHN BAPTIST PURCELL, son of Edmund and Johanna Purcell, was born February 26, 1800, in Mallow, a town at the junction of the Cork railroad, running to Kil- larney. It is situated on the bank of the beautiful Blackwater river. The "Annals of the Four Masters " locate the Purcells. There were two branches of the family în Kilkenny and Limerick-one near Ossory, between the Barrow and Nore rivers, in the former, and one not far from Croom, in the latter. It is a well-known name in Dublin, and throughout the south of Ireland. It is a southern Irish name, The parents of Archbishop Purcell were industrious and pious. They gave their chil- dren the best education the country afforded.

In his eighteenth year the subject of our sketch left the "fair fields of Erin" for the land beyond the wave. Although his parents were comparatively poor, they had well to-do relatives, and it was expected, as John from his childhood was a very devout child, that they would furnish him the means to complete his studies at May- nooth, the principal Catholic ecclesiastical college in Ireland. They did not do so. In his eighteenth year he arrived in America, with a pair of rosy cheeks, bright eyes, a big heart, and a head stocked with Latin and Greek. He was determined to- win the crown of the priesthood. In those days classical learning was in high repute among the leading men of this country. He knocked, one fine day, at the door of the Asbury College, Baltimore, and asked for a certificate as a scholar. The

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Faculty examined him; he received his certificate of capacity, and was almost imme- diately engaged as a private teacher by a family in Queen Anne's county, Md. His piety and thorough latinity soon became known to the Faculty of Mount St. Mary's College, near Emmitsburg, Md. He entered it as a student, in June, 1820. His career during the subsequent three years was brilliant. In the fall of 1823 he received from Archbishop Mareschal, the third Archbishop of Baltimore, the four Minor Orders for the Catholic Church. On the 1st of March, 1824, he sailed from New York for France in the company of Rev. Dr. Brute, afterward first Bishop of Vincennes, Ind., to complete his studies in the Seminary of St. Sulpice (the solitude), at Paris and Issy, until May 21, 1826, when he was ordained in Notre Dame Church with three others. Among the number was the beloved Archbishop of Rheims, Lnd- wig Eugene Regnault, who was born on the 21st of February, 1800. Remembering the auspicious day, the venerable man invited Archbishop Purcell to come over to La Belle France, and celebrate his Golden Jubilee. In the same year, with the roses on his cheeks, and full of ardor as a young priest, he paid a visit to his parents. in Mallow, on the Blackwater, in company with the Rev. Samuel Eccleston, afterward the fifth Archbishop of Baltimore. In the year 1827 he returned to the United States, and was, on his arrival at Mount St. Mary's, appointed professor of moral philosophy. He also assisted his friend, Father Brute, in the instruction of the students of theology, at the same time attending to his regular duties as priest in the confessional and pulpit. Soon afterward he became president of the College, and while acting as such, two events of great importance took place. As president of the institution he succeeded in having it chartered as a college by the Legislature; the other event was that he, also as president of Mount St. Mary's College, had occasion to receive, from New York as an alumnus, him who in 1864 became Arch- bishop of New York, and subsequently our cardinal. Archbishop Purcell was exactly seven years, four months and seventeen days a priest on the 13th day of October, 1833, when he was consecrated Bishop of Cincinnati, by Archbishop Whitfield, in the Cathedral of Baltimore. The assistant Bishops were the late Bishops Dubois and Kenrick; his friend, Father Eccleston, who accompanied him to Ireland in 1826, preached the consecration sermon.

Ardent and zealous to perform the duties now imposed upon him, the young Bishop, during the week following his consecration, took part in the Second Provin- cial Council, held at Baltimore, after which he set out for Cincinnati, the new field of his future labors; and in order to do this he was compelled to borrow three hundred dollars from his friends in the East. On his arrival he in nowise found things in a flourishing condition. The Catholics of that day in this city, both English and German, had but one church, the Cathedral of St. Peter, Sycamore street, the pre- sent site of St. Xavier's. which was destroyed by fire in 1882. Knowing, however, that the field laid out for his labor was of fertile and productive soil, he applied to the work his erudite and persisting mind, deeply imbued with the importance of his task. Soon experiencing that the German element promised to constitute a strong and highly influential portion of the Catholic population, he at once set about build- ing a separate church for them; and to carry out this project he sacrificed a valuable piece of real estate, left to him by his predecessor. Going from house to house, he gathered contributions for this holy and praiseworthy design, and in one year he had the consolation of consecrating the first German Catholic Church in Cincinnati, the Church of the Holy Trinity, which was destroyed by fire in 1852. The entire diocese, embracing the State of Ohio, then comprised sixteen so-called churches, few of which, however, deserved the name, as they were mostly blockhouses or con- structed of logs, in the pioneer style, or, at the best, plain frame structures. These have long since disappeared, and given place to larger edifices and buildings more in accord with the Catholic idea of a house dedicated to the worship of the Living God. Late in the fall or winter of 1836, during a session of the Ohio College of

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History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 120

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1592

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1592