USA > Pennsylvania > Cumberland County > Centennial biography : Men of mark of Cumberland Valley, Pa., 1776-1876 > Part 37
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In a sermon on the death of Professor Kennedy, preached in the College Chapel, by the Rev. Matthew Brown, D. D., President of the institution, December 27th, 18.10, he says :
"As an instructor, Mr. Kennedy was thorough, discriminating, accurate and lucid in his illustrations. As a member of the Faculty he was energetic, fearless, and always ready to share the responsibility of a disciplined government. As a preacher, he was instructive, solemn, searching and forcible. As a pastor he was laborious and faithful. As a writer he was characteristically lucid, simple and concise. "Multum in parvo," appeared to be his motto in all his productions. He wrote with great facility, and furnished for " the periodicals," a number of essays, which do him great credit. His talents were various, and in some respects of a high order. He had more of the intellectual than the aesthetic-more of argumentation than poetry in his composi- tion-more of the instructive than the pathetic.
Hle was a man of great benevolence and liberality. This feature of
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his character was not generally understood. In his wordly transactions he was exact, but when proper objects of benevolence were presented, no man in the community in which he lived was more liberal, according to his means. Besides the public contributions, in which he was always among the first, he performed many acts of private liberality unknown to the world.
Considered as a Christian, "the highest style of man," his soul-search- ing experience, his conscientiousness and stern integrity, his self-denial, his steadfast faith on the righteousness of Christ, his abhorrence of sin, his desires and endeavours after holiness, and his habitual aim to glorify God, gave "lucid proof" of sincere piety while he lived, which was confirmed in his death.
His health began seriously to decline in the winter of 1839-40. A journey to the east during the summer proved unprofitable, and he returned home to die in the bosom of his family. He looked forward to the hour of his death without dread. Still he clung to life, and although with regard to himself he had no fears, and could say, "to be with Christ is better," yet when he looked around on his wife and little children, and the prospect of leaving them exposed and unprotected in such a world as this, he greatly desired to live. At length, however, he was enabled, with sweet acquiescence, to commit the precious charge to Him who said, "Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them, and let thy widows trust in me."
His old enemy did not fail to assail him in his weak state, and when near the close of life, with doubts as to the foundation of his hope. These, however, were soon dispelled, and he afterwards enjoyed unin- terrupted calmness to the last. A few days before his release he spoke of his departure with great composure and confidence. When the weather permitted, he was usually taken out in a carriage. On returning, a day or two before his death, he said that that was his last ride; in his next remove he "would be carried by angels into Abraham's bosom." On the 15th of December, in the thirty-ninth year of his age, he died without a struggle, and "sweetly fell asleep in Jesus." His wife and two children yet survive. One of them, the Rev. Robert P. Kennedy, is Pastor of the Red Clay Presbyterian Church, near Brandywine Springs, Delaware. With him his mather and sister reside.
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CONWAY PHELPS WING, D. D.,
ELONGS to a family which is traccable through five generations to the settlement of the first of the name, in 1632, at Lynn, but more permanently at Sandwich, Massachusetts.
His father was born in Conway, in that state, but after his marriage removed to a settlement on the Muskingum, twelve miles above Marietta, Ohio. There the subject of this sketch was born, February 12th, 1809, but when he was four years of age his father removed to Phelps, Ontario county, New York, and there remained until 1833, when he died, aged sixty-five, much respected ; and for many years an elder in the Presbyterian Church.
After two years of preparatory instruction there, in an Academy at Geneva, N. Y., young Wing entered the Sophomore class in Hamil- ton College, where he graduated with a respectable standing in :828. He then entered Auburn Theological Seminary, where he graduated in 1831. He was immediately called to settle at Lodus, Wayne county, where he laboured as a licentiate during the previous spring vacation. He was ordained and installed by the Presbytery of Seneca September 27th, 1832, and retained the pastoral relation four years with success.
In the carly part of 1836, Mr. Wing received and accepted a call to a Congregational Church in Ogden, twelve miles west of Rochester, N. Y., which, however, immediately became and has ever since con- tinued Presbyterian. He remained there four years. with but little diminution of his labours, and with large accessions to his church.
In the autumn of 1838, he removed to the city of Monroc, Michigan, where many of his relatives resided, and he was for more than three years pastor of the Presbyterian Church there. The long continuance of severe labour now began to tell upon his health, and he was obliged to seek its restoration by a voyage to the island of Santa Cruz, West Indies. After a few months' residence there, he removed with his family to Tennessee, (October, 1841.) Six months were spent at Pulaski, Giles county, and at Columbia, in Maury county, in that state, preaching however to Presbyterian churches in those places. In hope that his health was now sufficiently restored to endure at least the climate of the middle states, he ventured (May. 1843.) to return north.
At the urgent call of a church in Huntsville, Alabama, Mr. Wing
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was induced to forego his preference of a northern residence, and to return after six months to that beautiful town. Though informing that people that he was conscientiously opposed to slavery, should do all he wisely could to oppose it, and could never own or even hire a slave, they persevered in calling him and in sustaining him. His own people unanimously and heartily upheld him in his course to the very last, in opposition to perpetual threatenings and secret combinations on the part of men in the political world and in the other denominations. And when he expressed to them his conscientious conviction that he could no longer remain the pastor of a slave-holding church, every effort was made by his congregation to retain him. A call from the First Presbyterian Church, Carlisle, Pa., reached him just as he had made up his mind that he could no longer continue a pastorate where public sentiment would not permit Sessions to call to account those slaveholders who offended against the laws of humanity. He reached Carlisle, April 28th, 1848, and was installed in the fall of the same year.
Since his residence in Carlisle, Dr. Wing's congregation has enjoyed a high degree of prosperity, a number of interesting revivals have taken place in it, and he has deservedly had the reputation of great fidelity to his duties and marked earnestness and ability as a preacher. Besides performing the ordinary work of a large pastoral charge, he, for one year, (1849,) at the request of the Faculty and students of Dickinson College, supplied the place made vacant by the transfer of Professor Allen to the Presidency of Girard College, and has con- stantly been occupied with works in Theological literature. In 1856, in connection with Professor Blumenthal, he published a transla- tion of " Hare's Manual of Ecclesiastical History," in the composition of which he bore a principal part. Among his other publications are articles in the Presbyterian Quarterly Review, the chief of which were two on Abelard, two on the " Historical Development of the Doctrine of the Atonement," one on "The Permanent in Christianity," one on " Miracles and the Order of Nature," in the Methodist Quarterly. He was also the writer of two elaborate articles on " Federal Theology." and " Gnostics and Gnosticism," in Mcclintock's and Strong's Cyclo- padia, and in 1868, he translated with large additions Dr. C. F. Kling's Commentary on Second Corinthians, for Dr. Schaff's American edition of Lange's Commentary.
Dr. Wing was especially active in efforts for the Reunion of the Presbyterian Church, being a member of the National Convention in 1867, and of the Assemblies in New York and Pittsburgh when the
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churches united. He was also a member of the joint Committee of Reconstruction for the re-organization of the Synods and Presbyteries. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Dickinson College, in 1857. He continued in the midst of his usefulness, re- spected and beloved by those who knew him, as an carnest Christian, a cultivated and genial gentleman, an accomplished scholar, a graceful writer, and an able, instructive and impressive expounder of Divine truth, until October, 1875, when he resigned his charge.
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Eng By ERBOMIX " ins O FEBREROANY
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COL. THOMAS A. SCOTT.
HIS gentleman was born at Loudon, Franklin county, Pennsyl- vania, December 28th, 1823, and received his education at the village school of that place. When ten years of age he went to work in a country store, near Waynesboro', and was afterward employed in Bridgeport and Mercersburg until about 1841. At this period he removed to Columbia, Pennsylvania, and entered the office of the Collector of Tolls of the State Roads and Canals. His connection with state improvements continued until 1851, in which year he was appointed to a position on the Pennsylvania Railroad. He was first stationed at the Junction, near Hollidaysburg, and was placed in charge of the business of the Company passing over the Portage road, and the Western Division of the State Canal. As the various portions of the Western Division were connected, their operation was assigned to him, and so satisfactory were his arrangements that on the completion of this Division he was made Superintendent, with an office at Pittsburgh. In 1858, further promotion was accorded him, and he was appointed General Superintendent of the road from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, his headquarters being at Altoona.
In 1860, on the death of W. B. Foster, Vice-President of the Company, Colonel Scott was elected to succeed him. Subsequent elections raised him to the position of First Vice-President, his great ability, ceaseless activity, and rigid integrity having rendered incal- culable service to the powerful corporation which he serves. En- grossed in his railway business, Colonel Scott has never allowed himself to be distracted from his legitimate pursuits by the allurements of political ambition, but when during the war the services of an experienced railroad man became an imperative need for the service of the country, he was too patriotic to shirk the responsibility, and therefore, with the weight of his other engagements upon his shoulders, he, in 1861, directed the construction of the road from Annapolis which did much to aid the troops and contributed largely to the protection of the Capital. In the fall of that year, the need of such services becom- ing more and more exigent, he was appointed Assistant Secretary of War, and continued so until 1862, when he returned to Philadelphia. lle was again called on, however, after the battle of Chickamauga, and dispatched to Louisville to aid in the movement of the 11th and
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and 12th corps, via Nashville, to the relief of Rosecranz at Chatta- nooga. This operation was so successfully performed that, in a few days, the army of the Tennessee was reinforced sufficiently to be able. to compel the full retreat of the enemy.
Returning with undiminished vigour to his usual duties, Col. Scott at once resumed his active supervision of the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1871, rival routes to St. Louis and Chicago having been brought under the same management, it was deemed expedient, for the simple and effective working of the lines west of Pittsburgh, that a separate company should be chartered, and this was accomplished by charter from the State Legislature of Pennsylvania on March Ist, 1871, Col. Scott becoming President of this company, viz : Pennsylvania Company. On the death of J. Edgar Thomson, Col. Scott was unanimously elected President of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company by its Board of Directors, and at the annual election by the stockholders held in March. 1875, he was again unanimously elected President and still holds that position. The prosperity of the great corporation with which Col. Scott is identified, has been shared with the state, the name of which it bears ; local interests have advanced, and the general interests of the state and people have been largely benefited.
The giant labours of Col. Scott would be impossible to any one not possessing his peculiar temperament and sound physique. In manner he is genial, and possessing in a remarkable degree the art of refusing gracefully, both he and the numerous applicants for favours avoid the annoyances which are so worrying and wearing to many public men. By habit he is so peculiarly rapid in his disposition of business that "Col. Scott's style" has almost grown into a byword in certain quarters. and yet this rapidity is never allowed to degenerate into hastiness ; it is the result of observation, memory, and an especial faculty for cutting mental Gordian knots without injuring the rope of which they are tied, a gift of great value and rarity. The result of such a temper- ament, and such habits, is, that extreme pressure of business does not weary excessively ; on leaving his office, Col. Scott feels that his work is done pro tem., and its cares are left in his portfolio. Another effect is that while he never regrets the unalterable, he is constantly devising new methods of conserving and advantaging the interests confided to · him-a work which would be impossible to a man burthened by cares and regrets.
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REV. MATTHEW SIMPSON CULBERTSON,
HE son of Joseph and Frances (Stuart) Culbertson, was born in Chambersburg, January 18th, 1819. He was a quick, intelligent boy : his mother had dedicated him to God, and she looked forward to his becoming not only a minister but a missionary. He was educated at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, after serving a full course of years, and whilst serving as a Lieutenant of Artillery, he made a profession of religion, and soon after laid down the sword and took up the cross.
He entered the Seminary at Princeton, N. J., where he graduated in 1844. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Carlisle, in 1844, and soon after ordained by the same Presbytery as a Foreign Missionary to China. Previous to his sailing he married Miss Mary Dunlap, of New York State. His career as a missionary was marked by extra- ordinary devotion and ability. In the midst of his labours he was taken with cholera, and after a short illness died in August, 1862. His widow and three children survive.
Among the fellow-students of Mr. Culbertson at the national military school, were Halleck and McDowell. Magruder and Beauregard, all of whom afterwards wore the insignia of Major-Generals, and bore a leading part in the most momentous war in the annals of modern history. In the progress of his course he was appointed drill officer, with the title of Captain, and also served for a time as Professor of Mathematics. When two cadets were chosen to be sent to France. at the Government's expense, to complete their education in the school which produced a Bonaparte, Culbertson was the first selected, and obtained the suffrages of all the electors. At the West Point Academy he earned for himself the beatitude of the peacemaker. Engaged to act as second for the afterwards famous Magruder, in an affair of honour, he adjusted the difficulty, and prevented a probably fatal encounter.
While at Princeton, according to the testimony of his venerable instructor, Dr. Hodge, he was regarded as among the foremost mem- bers of the institution, and when, at the close of his three years' curriculum, he, with three others of his class, embarked for a foreign mission, another of the Professors (Dr. J. W. Alexander.) singled him out, and wrote of him in these terms : " One of the four, Culbertson,
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was an army officer, and highly honoured at West Point -- chosen to go on some military mission to France."
. The Rev. W. A. P. Martin, D. D., of the same mission with Mr. Culbertson, in his funeral sermon, preached at Shanghai, China, August 31st, 1862, says :
"Of the excellencies of his character I need offer no delineation ; they are attested, with one voice, by all the Protestant missionaries, of all ecclesiastical connections in the community. 'Our devoted brother,' they say, in a paper adopted a few days after his death, 'was a man of a meek and quiet spirit, and remarkable for his singleness of aim and straightforward energy and industry in his Master's service; he resigned a commission in the armies of his country, to become a missionary to the heathen. He set before himself the highest ends, and strove, both by preaching and example, to glorify God in the salvation of his fellow-men.
"'He laboured, in connection with the late Dr. Bridgeman, for several years, with assiduity and perseverance, in preparing a revised translation of the sacred Scriptures in the Chinese language, a labour of love which he regarded as the great work of his life, and it was a source of especial consolation to him, just before his departure, that God had enabled him to complete it. He also wrote a work, entitled, "Darkness in the Flowery Land." We recognize in these traits of character, and this Christian life, the devoted missionary, whose example is worthy of our imitation.'
" Happy the grave which is crowned with such a tribute! There is but one eulogium which a good man may covet more earnestly, and that is the ' Well done, good and faithful,' pronounced by his Lord and Saviour. This blissful welcome has no doubt greeted those ears, which are now deaf to the voice of human applause."
JAMES DUNLOP, ESQ.
HE name of James Dunlop has spread widely through the Com- monwealth, as that of one of her most eminent legal sons. Like so many of the notable men of the valley, he boasted pure Scotch-Irish blood. He was born in Chambersburg, in 1795 : his father was Andrew Dunlop, Esq., a very able attorney of that place. his mother was Sarah Bella Chambers, a highly accomplished and admirable woman, a daughter of General James Chambers, who figured in the Revolutionary army, and served as Colonel at the battle of Brandywine, and a granddaughter of Benjamin Chambers, the sturdy founder of Chambersburg. His paternal grandfather. Colonel Dunlop, also participated in that memorable engagement.
Mr. Dunlop received his classical education at Dickinson College, Carlisle, graduating in 1812. Judge Grier, of the United States Supreme Court, Rev. John Knox, of the Dutch Reformed Church, of New York, and Calvin Blythe were his class-mates at college ; the first named his room-mate and special friend. His legal studies were pursued in the office of his father ; and he was admitted to the bar in 1817, at the same time with the late lamented Paul I. Hetich. Esq. Although he soon acquired a large business and an extensive reputa- tion as a lawyer, he was not content with the awards which his pro- fession brought him, and he engaged also in the manufacturing of cutlery with his brother-in-law, George A. Madeira, establishing the celebrated Lemnos Edge Tool Factory, so long known under the firm name of Dunlop & Madeira.
But realizing that his special vocation was the law, he entered on a wider field of practice, and in the fall of 1838, moved to Pittsburgh, and speedily won a leading position at its bar. In 1855, he left Pittsburgh. and took up his residence in Philadelphia. When on a visit to his class-mate, Charles F. Mayer, Esq., at Baltimore, he was stricken with paralysis, and died in that city on the 9th of April. 1856. His remains were taken to Pittsburgh, and interred in the Allegheny Cemetery.
Mr. Dunlop was a member of the State Senate from Franklin county, about 1825, and was subsequently twice a member of the Lower House. In 1838, he was a member of the Convention which reformed the Constitution of the State, when, it is said, "he distinguished himself for the learning and ability displayed in debate." He was the
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compiler of Dunlop's Digest of the Laws of Pennsylvania, and of a Digest of the Laws of the United States, works which have given him a lasting fame. In 1825, he read at a meeting of the Council of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania an elaborate article on the contro- versy between William Penn and Lord Baltimore, respecting the boundaries of Pennsylvania and Maryland, which was of such merit as to be published in full in the " Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Vol. 1.," in which may be found a brief sketch of his life.
Before the removal, by President Jackson, of the deposits from the United States Bank, he was an active supporter of the Democratic party ; but after that event, he shook off his partisan allegiance and became a formidable champion of the opposition, making a remarkable speech against General Jackson, which caused a great sensation at the time.
Mr. Dunlop was noted for his forensic power, great legal attain- ments, literary accomplishments, droll humour, and caustic, pungent wit. As a writer, he was exceptionally ready, and as an opponent exceed- ingly formidable. One who knew him intimately writes that he was a man of courteous manners, amiable and considerate, a tireless student, possessing unbounded knowledge, which he was always ready to impart ; and unostentatiously benevolent.
He was violently opposed to slavery, both politically and for humanity's sake; often helping the trembling fugitive on his flight to Canada. He was known to purchase a slave to save him from a life of bondage.
Great as was his eminence as a lawyer, thorough and exhaustless his Classical and Belles Lettres accomplishments, fluent and graceful his pen, mirth-provoking his humor, and scathing his wit, the human love which made him the protector of the oppressed, gives him a dearer and more blessed fame than all the qualities of his genius.
THOMAS VERNER MOORE, D. D.
THOMAS VERNER MOORE was born in Newville, February ist, 1818. Having received his academic education in his native village, he entered Hanover College in 1834, and afterwards became a student at Dickinson College, at which institu- tion he graduated with honours in 1838.
For a short time after leaving college, he was in the service of the Pennsylvania Colonization Society as traveling agent. His theological studies were commenced at Princeton, New Jersey, in 1859.
Mr. Moore was licensed to preach the Gospel by the Presbytery of Carlisle. In June, 1842, he was married to Sarah, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Blythe, of Hanover, Indiana. In the spring of this year he was installed as pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, Carlisle. In this charge he laboured with much acceptableness and success. In the autumn of 1845 he was chosen pastor of the church at Green- castle, where he was attractive as a preacher and useful as a pastor. During his residence at this place, he was called to mourn the death of his wife. His relation to this congregation was dissolved in 1847. with a view to his acceptance of a call to the First Presbyterian Church of Richmond, Virginia. His pastorate in that city was a great success.
" There," says Dr. Rice, " he made full proof of his ministry ; there he realized the idea of a Christian pastor : there he accomplished a great and blessed work worth living for.
"As a preacher he was uniformly elegant and attractive, persuasive and instructive, always earnest and solemn, often overwhelming in power. His discourses were perspicuous in thought and expression. His style was finished and elegant, bright with the flashes of a chastened imagination, and glowing with the fervour of a sincere piety. The hearer was ordinarily reminded of the beautiful, peaceful landscape, bathed in the pure white light of heaven, yet reflecting the fresh tints of the springtime, or the varied hues of autumn ; but at times, when the occasion demanded, he seemed to hear the rush of mighty waters, as, with a resistless torrent of eloquence, sin, and especially all baseness, were swept away to merited shame and ruin. Yet he oftener loved to bear the soul away to the blissful scenes where
' Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood
Stand dressed in living green,' ---
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where the palace of our Father stands on high, with its many mansions ; where the multitudes of the blessed sit down to the marriage supper of the Lamb."
Dr. Rice also says, in relation to Dr. Moore's authorship : "Here, in Richmond, amid the arduous labours of his pastorate, he redeemed the time to employ his elegant and vigorous pen for the instruction of the church at large, and future generations of Christians. Here he wrote and published his Commentary on the Prophecies of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi-'The Prophets of the Restoration '-which has taken its assured place among the standard works of Biblical interpre- tation. For accuracy and extent of learning, and for clearness of in- sight into the meaning of the Prophets, it will compare favourably with the works of the ablest commentators. Before committing this work to the press, he had the pleasure of receiving the hearty commen- dation and highly prized counsel of his greatly admired preceptor, the late Rev. J. Addison Alexander. It was in connection with the publi- cation of this work that the acquaintance and friendship of years deep- ened into the closest and tenderest intimacy, which was ended, only for a brief space, by the death of that wonderful man.
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