USA > Pennsylvania > Cumberland County > Centennial biography : Men of mark of Cumberland Valley, Pa., 1776-1876 > Part 22
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The story of the founding of Lafayette College is a romance of real life, as thrilling in its details as the stories of fiction, but we have not space for it here. Let it suffice to say, that it is a story of toil, trial, heroic sacrifice, and of wondrous perseverance under discouragements that would have crushed any ordinary man. During his presidency at Easton, the great doctrinal and ecclesiastical difficulties, which resulted in the disruption of the Presbyterian Church, approached their acme. Every friend of Presbyterianism desired that, by some process, the strife should be ended and peace restored; but none seemed willing to assume the unpleasant responsibility of using the regular discipline of the church as an instrument of adjustment. At length, George Junkin, who had been doctorated by his Alma Mater, in 1833, felt it to be his duty to step forth and secure a decision of the church courts upon the question, " Is the New School Theology to be acknowledged as being consistent with the teaching of the Holy Scriptures and the Standards of the Presbyterian Church?" He; therefore, entered for- mal charges before the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia against the Rev. Albert Barnes, a member of the same, and pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of that city. We have not space to detail the particulars of this great and important trial in its various stages, in the Presbytery, the Synod, and the General Assembly. It is part of the ecclesiastical history of the times, and is fully recited in Dr. Junkin's biography. Suffice to say, the Presbytery, by a decided majority, ac- quitted Mr. Barnes; the Synod, by as decided a majority, found him guilty of the charges, and suspended him from the ministry; and the General Assembly, by a close vote, reversed the decision of the Synod, and restored Mr. Barnes to his clerical functions, but advised some modification of his terminology. This decision of the General Assem- bly convinced the Old School that they must either tolerate a Semi- Pelagian theology in the church, or take vigorous measures for elimi- nating it. The conflict went on and resulted in the excision of certain
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Synods in 1837, and the secession of the New School party in 1838, when a clear majority appeared against them. It is due to Dr. Junkin to say, that even his opponents attested the purity of his motives, and the Christian spirit and temper exhibited by him. Mr. Barnes, himself, bore magnanimous testimony to the fairness and Christian spirit with which his prosecutor had conducted the trial. His biographer has shown that Dr. Junkin's motto, " Union in the truth," which he always avowed as the object of the prosecution, has been marvellously realized in the recent re-union of the two branches of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Barnes and his prosecutor both lived to see a steadfast approxima- tion to the simple and obvious interpretation of the standards. The former greatly modified the language of his books, and the latter re- joiced in the fact that, after the heat of the conflict was over, the great men of the New School, always sound themselves, were disposed to insist that the few erring brethren among them should pay greater regard to the nomenclature of the Standards.
In the spring of 1841, Dr. Junkin, upon unanimous election of its Board of Trustees, became President of Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio. The institution was a good deal demoralized in its discipline ; and the Trustees requested him to restore discipline and elevate the standard of scholarship. This he did very effectively and accomplished a good work for education and religion during his sojourn in Ohio. Meanwhile there was growing up at Easton and in Lafayette College, a desire that the founder should be recalled to the head of that institu- tion. In this the Trustees unanimously concurred-even those who had for a time assumed an unfriendly attitude. He was re-elected President in the fall of 1844, and such was his love for that favourite spot and enterprise, that he accepted and returned to Easton. Under his administration the College steadily grew in numbers and in influence, although still struggling with pecuniary difficulties.
Meanwhile his fame as an educator had spread over the nation, and his services were sought for elsewhere. In 1848. he was elected President of Washington College, Va., a well endowed institution, now Washington and Lee University. He felt it to be his duty to accept, and bidding another sad adieu to Lafayette and to Easton, he repaired with his family to Lexington, Va. There he spent perhaps the happiest period of his life. His toils were not arduous, at least in regard to the pecuniary interests of the College. He was surrounded by men of high culture, and his family had every social advantage. A volume, nevertheless, could be filled with interesting details of his labours in that field, for he was a man of work, wherever he was, and one whose
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public spirit led him to throw himself, heart and soul, into every scheme for doing good.
There he continued to labour until the deep mutterings of our terri- ble civil war broke upon his ear. He did all that man could to avert that calamity. He wrote, he spoke, he reasoned, he prayed against the madness of secession. His family had taken root in the South. Two of his daughters had married Virginians, the one Col. Preston, the other Major Jackson, both Professors in the Virginia Military Institute. Two of his sons were settled in pastoral charges in Virginia, and were married to Southern ladies. His property was there: there he had buried his beloved wife, a daughter, and other dear ones, and it was a sore trial to leave all. His daughter Eleanor had married the after- wards renowned Gen. (Stonewall) Jackson. Both his sons-in-law were with him in Union sentiment, up to the moment that an army was called out. Rockbridge county, the one of which they were citizens, voted more then ten to one against secession, and there was a large majority against it in the whole State. But the rabid politicians pre- vailed, Virginia seceded, the rebel flag was hoisted over his College, and George Junkin left her soil and came to the North.
His exodus from Virginia, with his widowed daughter and his niece, would constitute a touching episode in the history of the war. He was now nearly seventy-one years old. He drove his own span of horses in the family carriage from Lexington via Williamsport and Hagers- town, to Chambersburg. There he rested a little while with his friends, the Kennedys. He was now in his native valley of Cumberland, and terrible as the times were, he luxuriated in its beauties and its memories. He visited the birth place of his mother in Franklin county, he visited the room at New Kingston in which he had been born nearly seventy- one years before, and thence proceeded to Philadelphia, where, in the bosom of the lovely family of his third son and namesake, he found a pleasant home for the remainder of his days.
But George Junkin could not be idle, his heart was on fire with zeal for the Union and for that Government which his father had bled to establish, and he threw himself into the cause with all his eloquence and energies.
He wrote a book called, " Political Fallacies," in which he exposed the enormity of the doctrine of secession. He made addresses at public meetings, he wrote for the papers, and when blood began to How he went to battle fields, and to forts and hospitals to minister to the bodily and spiritual wants of the wounded and the dying.
During the autumn and winter of 1862-3, and the summer of the
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latter year, he preached for the Canal street Presbyterian Church, New York, but did not abate his patriotic labours. The people were very fond of him and parted with him reluctantly, when an attack of illness compelled him to return to Philadelphia.
When the war was over, he threw himself into the cause of Temper- ance and the Sabbath, and performed Herculean work therein. Thus he laboured on until a few days before his death, preaching, writing, traveling and lobbying in the cause of God's day, and the Temperance cause. In these years he made many visits to different parts of the land, one especially, to his native place in the valley, spending part of his seventy-first birthday in the house in which he was born.
He was also busy with his pen, and published several valuable works of small size ; such as his "Tabernacle," "Sabbatismos," "The Two Commissions," &c. But the chief labour of the last year was pre- paring for the press his Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews. This he completed three days before his death, and went to make arrangements for its publication, but these arrangements were not completed when he was suddenly called to a higher life. The work has since been published.
He died of Angina Pectoris, May 20th, 1868. His last recorded text was John XIV, I. His last audible words were " Christ-the Church- Heaven ! "
In 1856, Rutgers College conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws, but he little prized earthly titles. He was a man of God. . devout, humble, prayerful. A strong intellect, great powers of generali- zation and analysis, a keen and discriminating logic, a power of lan- guage always vigorous and clear, and often rising to the height of poetry, a glowing heart full of deep affection, a disposition firm as a rock when contending for the right, but gentle as a woman's in all social .elements, made George Junkin the great and good man that he was, for all his powers were baptized with the Holy Ghost, and conse- crated to Christ.
Amongst his published works are: A Treatise on Justification ; A Treatise on Sanctification ; Lectures on the Prophecies ; Political Fallacies : Sabbatismos : The Gospel according to Moses ; The Two Commissions ; and his Commentary on the Hebrews. Many sermons and pamphlets might be added to this list ; but it is deemed needless Cumberland valley need not be ashamed of him. He was a sojourner on earth; in Heaven he is at home.
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REV. WILLIAM SPEER.
HE early life of Mr. Speer was spent in the neighbourhood where Gettysburg was afterwards built. He was born within the bounds of and connected himself with the Upper Marsh Creek Church, and pursued his Academical studies on ground which was since marched or fought over in the great battle.
He graduated at Carlisle, at the age of twenty-four, in 17SS, and remained there until 1791, in the only Theological class taught by Dr. Nisbet, with whom he was a favourite student. He declined or pre- vented calls from several important points in the church, one of them to be a colleague of the venerable Rev. Dr. John Rogers, in the First Church, New York. His piety was of an ardent and self-denying type, and his style of preaching most searching and solemn. He accepted a call to the Falling Spring Church, Chambersburg, in 1794, but left it in 1797, on account of unwillingness of the people of that day to submit to evangelical discipline, and their persistence in customs as to the baptism of their children, and others of a kindred nature which he could not conscientiously uphold.
Being filled with a missionary spirit, he went with some excellent families to Chillicothe, the seat of the new government of the North- west Territory, a vast and wild region in which his only predecessor was the Rev. James Kemper, at Cincinnati, and thus became the first chaplain of the infant state of Ohio. Domestic afflictions compelled him to return to Pennsylvania. From 1802 till his death in 1829, his life was spent in the united congregations of Greensburg and Unity. He was a friend of missions, and an earnest and effective advocate of sound and thorough education. For many years he was a Trustee of Washington College, and was the first Vice-President of the Board of Directors of the Theological Seminary at Allegheny. Mr. Speer was the first man to move in ecclesiastical opposition to the errors and moral evils of Free Masonry ; and roused the Synod to adopt an able paper on the subject in 1820. On the committee to prepare it, of which he was chairman, were also the Rev. Dr. Matthew Brown, President of Jefferson College, Rev. Thomas E. Hughes, and Elders Thomas Hazleton and Thomas Davis. Mr. Speer was sent to the next General Assembly to advocate a memorial to it from the Synod upon the subject. There a debate of several days elicited strong pleas for
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and against the action of the Synod on the subject. It was decided against; but information was disseminated, and opposition aroused, which, within the next few years, arrayed in opposition to Free Masonry, as existing at that time, the emphatic religious sentiment of western and central Pennsylvania, then the conscience of many of the best people of western New York, Ohio, and other parts of the country, and in the end the political organization of a party which exerted much influence upon the history of the country.
Mr. Speer was the grandfather of the Rev. W. Speer, D. D., for many years a foreign missionary, but at present Secretary of the Board of Education of the Presbyterian Church, which position he has recently intimated his desire to resign with a view to continue labour among the Chinese.
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HON. THOMAS DUNCAN.
HIS distinguished lawyer and eminent judge was a native of Carlisle. His father was an emigrant from Scotland, and one among the first settlers of Cumberland county. The subject of this brief notice was educated at Dickinson College. Adopting the law as his profession, he repaired to Lancaster and studied in the office and under the direction of Hon. Jasper Yeates, then one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. On his admission to the bar he returned to his native place and opened a law office. His rise in his profession was rapid. In a few years he was at the head of his profession in Cumberland and adjoining counties, which position he maintained until he was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court of the State of Pennsylvania. This appointment was made by Governor Snyder, on the 14th of March, 1817, and was made in consequence of the vacancy on that bench created by the death of Judge Yeates, his preceptor.
After Judge Duncan's appointment to the Supreme Court he removed to Philadelphia, where he resided until his death, which occurred on the 16th of November, 1827.
At the bar Mr. Duncan was distinguished by quickness and acuteness of discernment, accurate knowledge of men and things, with a ready use 'of the legal knowledge he so largely possessed. He was also remarkably ready in repartee. An instance of this we will briefly state. Mr. Duncan's principal competitor at the bar was David Watts, Esq., a distinguished member of the Cumberland bar. Mr. Watts was a large and athletic gentleman, whilst Mr. Duncan was of small stature and light weight. On one occasion, during a discussion on a legal question in court, Mr. Watts, in the heat of his argument, made a personal allusion to Mr. Duncan's small stature, and said he "could put his opponent in his pocket." "Very well," replied Mr. Duncan, "if you do so, you will have more law in your pocket than you have in your head."
During the ten years that Judge Duncan sat upon the Bench he contributed largely to the admirable stock of judicial learning which the law reports of that period contain.
These opinions are contained in the Pennsylvania State Reports, commencing with the third volume of Sergeant and Rawle's Reports, and ending with the seventeenth volume of the same series, and they furnish an enduring monument to his great learning, industry and talents.
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AMOS A. McGINLEY, D. D.
HE subject of this brief biographical sketch was born in the vicinity of Fairfield, Adams county, Pennsylvania, in the year 1778. He was the son of John McGinley and Jane McGinley, whose maiden name was Alexander. His grandfather, James Mc- Ginley, emigrated from Ireland at an early period in the settlement of what was then York county, and was one of the four persons who purchased from Carrol the tract of land known as "Carrol's Tract." His grandmother was a Hollander. Both his grandfather and grand- mother, as well as his immediate parents, are represented as being intelligent, pious, and useful members of society and of the Presby- terian Church. Thus descended from pious parents, he was early dedicated to God in covenant. He was the subject of many prayers, and was trained up "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Nor did God fail in verifying to them his most precious promise :- " As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord ; my Spirit that is . upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever."
His conversion took place at an early period of life. We have no information in regard to the exercises of his mind when this great change occurred. But having experienced this change, it decided his future course. Having dedicated himself wholly to the Lord, and con- sidering himself called upon to do all that in him lay for the salvation of sinners and the glory of God; and as no way suggested itself to him which was so full of promise and of hope as the work of the ministry, so did he feel himself called upon to prepare for this heaven- appointed office.
Having thus dedicated himself to the Lord Jesus for this service, he commenced his preparatory studies with this in view. His classical studies were pursued under the direction of the Rev. Mr. Dobbins, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Having finished these, and occasionally teaching in order to meet the expenses incurred in receiving his education, he entered Dickinson College, then under the Presidency of Dr. Nisbet, where he was graduated in 1798. We have been told by an aged person who was present at the "Commencement " at which
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young McGinley was graduated, that his appearance was so extremely youthful, and he acquitted himself so handsomely on that occasion, in the speech which he delivered, that it was received with unbounded applause.
Completing his college course, he pursued his theological studies under the direction of his pastor, the Rev. William Paxton, D. D. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Carlisle, A. D., 1802, and having preached acceptably to the churches of Upper and Lower Path Valley, he was invited to become their pastor. He was ordained to the office of the ministry and installed pastor of these churches, A. D., IS03. These churches to which he was called, and in which he laboured the remainder of his days, are located in the northern part of Franklin county, Pennsylvania, in a beautiful, picturesque and fertile but secluded valley.
Dr. McGinley's preaching was entirely extemporaneous, or from brief skeletons which contained only the heads of the several divisions of his sermons, and they were not preserved after they had served their temporary purpose. They were very often elaborated on his way to church. His habit was to start early and ride slowly and alone, revolving in his mind the subject upon which he intended to preach. He always disliked the labour of composition, and during the latter part of his life, he ceased to write altogether. Once, on being asked by a young clergyman for a copy of one of his sermons, he told him he would have to take his head, for the sermon existed only in it.
His style was simple and unpretending, and conveyed his meaning clearly to the minds of his hearers. He studied brevity and possessed the power of seizing upon the salient points of a subject and expressing them in few well chosen words. This talent was sometimes turned to advantage in the deliberations of Presbytery and Synod. He would embody in short resolutions the main features or essential parts of matters under discussion, and they were not uncommonly adopted without change or amendment.
His colloquial talents were of a high order. He could talk to the young, and converse with those of maturer years, readily adapting his ideas and language to the capacities of each. He possessed also the faculty of making others talk, and could elicit sensible remarks from persons who were usually regarded as rather slow of under- standing. He seldom appeared to so much advantage as when engaged in animated conversation. It had the effect of awakening the higher qualities of his intellect, and in the glow of excitement caused by the interchange of thoughts with another, he would give expression
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to grander sentiments and acuter observations than any that appeared in his more formal pulpit utterances. Not unfrequently his familiar discourses were enlivened by sallies of humour, but they did not verge unduly upon levity, and were never of a nature to wound the feelings of any one. Being free from egotism, he rarely made himself or his own affairs a topic of conversation-never offensively, and only when the circumstances or occasion rendered it necessary. It seemed to give him more pleasure to bring others forward than to appear personally prominent. He was not wont to monopolise in conversa- tion, but was careful to observe the equities of it, and was as willing to listen as to talk. In his somewhat isolated situation, visits from his clerical brethren were a great source of enjoyment to him. They afforded opportunities for the discussion-always kindly-of theological and ecclesiastical questions, and the exhilaration of mind produced by these occasions, would sometimes continue very long after the visitors had departed.
Dr. McGinley's manner was uniformly polite and courteous, not arti- ficial or studied-the offspring of a kind heart. Given to hospitality, his house was ever open to the visits of his people and their friends. Seldom did a week pass without bringing company, sometimes in considerable ยท numbers, which always met a generous welcome. Young and old came and found entertainment suited to their respective ages. He sympathised with them in all their interests and affairs.
"His ready smile, a pastor's love expressed ; Their welfare pleased him, and their woes distressed."
Ile was a practical man, fertile in resources, skilful in adapting means to ends, and wise to compose difficulties. He was thus fitted to be the guide and counselor of his people, both in religious and secular matters, and was often called upon to exercise his talents in this way. They were wont to resort to him, whether it was a case of conscience to be resolved, some perplexity of business to be disentangled, or some difference between neighbours to be adjusted; and they seldom departed without being in some degree relieved of their troubles. In not a few instances, he wrote wills, and acted as administrator of estates and guardian of minor children, for which services he declined to receive compensation.
Dr. McGinley was a close observer of external nature, and quick to notice every change that occurred. His knowledge of meteorology, as it respected variations of weather, was somewhat astonishing, when it is considered that he acquired it by observation, unassisted by the
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instruments which are now used in noting changes of the atmosphere. He was the " Probabilities" of the neighbourhood, though his reports rarely circulated beyond his own family. He could, in any season of the year, prognosticate, with wonderful certainty, the kind of weather that would occur within any period of twenty-four hours. This know- ledge he utilized in such a manner, that he was seldom interrupted by the state of the weather in his business or in the performance of his parochial duties, for he had usually anticipated and prepared for its probable condition.
Overtaken by old age and the infirmities of nature, and feeling him- self unable to perform the duties of the pastoral office, Dr. McGinley resigned his charge, April, 1851, though he officiated as their stated supply until the ensuing October. For nearly fifty years he pro- claimed the glorious Gospel of the blessed God to the same com- munity, and then, sinking under the burden of years, he yielded his pulpit that others might occupy it, and hold up as he had done, Jesus crucificd, as the hope of a guilty and perishing world. He died May Ist, 1856, aged seventy-eight years, leaving the wife of his youth and three children, one son and two daughters, to mourn his loss, but living in the expectation of a blessed re-union in heaven.
"The removal of Dr. McGinley from the church militant to the church triumphant," says one who recorded his demise, "is not only a loss to that portion of the church with which he was more immediately connected, but also to the church in general. In the Presbytery of Carlisle his loss is greatly felt. He was one of its most active and influential members, one of its wisest counsellors, and most judicious ; a firm defender of the faith, and yet always kind and courteous, and conciliatory ; one whom all who knew him loved and revered; one whose memory will be embalmed with filial affection in many a heart."
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