USA > Pennsylvania > Dauphin County > Harrisburg > Centennial memorial, English Presbyterian congregation, Harrisburg, Pa. > Part 14
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An ancient book kept by the treasurer of the congregation gives quite a full financial history of the Church, its regular Sabbath collections, the names of the men who filled its pulpit, the amounts paid them for their service, the cost even of keeping the horse on which they traveled from
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ENGLISH PRESBYTERIAN CONGREGATION. SECOND STREET AND CHERRY ALLEY. ERECTED 1804-6.
Historical Sermon of Rev. Thomas H. Robinson. 217
their homes, the weekly expenses and the sexton's salary. The old record is full of interesting reading for one of the present day.
It is a matter however of deep regret that while we have a record of this nature, the names and salaries of the sextons, the cost of candles and candle sticks and benches, there was no record preserved, and probably none kept, through the first quarter of a century in the history of this Church of the noble men and women, who were members of it, who sat at its communion table, who attended its weekly meetings for prayer and made it a leading religious power in the growing community. There is no record of the marriages, baptisms and deaths, none of the original members of the Church, no list of those who were added to the Church during the first twenty-five years.
To the original bench of elders, Mossrs. Weir, Gilmor and Boyd, two others were added, John Stoner and William Graydon, but the date of their election and installation is not known. It was probably between 1809 and 1812. Of religious history, of revivals, of family and social life, of Christian work, but the barest account can be gleaned. We know the Church lived on and waxed stronger and stronger. We know their sons and daughters came into the Church communion. We find them there when the record opens. To us now, it is like a stream running underground and fed by numerous hidden springs, until it breaks out a strong, clear, cool river.
Names we have gathered here and there from lists of pew-holders, from collectors' records, from the treasurers' accounts, and other sources, that belonged to this ancestral
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house of ours, and they shall not be lost. Such a list of about three hundred names of men and of godly women, their fellow-workers in the gospel, is now in the possession of the Church. They belong to the first quarter century of its history .*
During the interregnum that followed the departure of Rev. N. R. Snowden, a call from the Church was extended to Rev. William Kerr, who was a frequent preacher in Harrisburg during the years 1806 and 1807. For reasons unknown he declined to accept and became the Pastor of Donegal. Five of his children in later years became mem- bers of the Church: Dr. James W. Kerr, for many years a Ruling Elder in the York Presbyterian Church; William M. Kerr, late president of the Harrisburg National Bank; J. Wallace Kerr, Mrs. Herman Alrieks and Mrs. Dr. Edward 1 .. Orth. The last named only survives and is a resident of Pittsburgh. Mr. Kerr died in the early years of his ministry.
The second Pastor of the Church was the Rev. James Buchanan. He preached his first sermon to the people on May 17, 1807, and during the rest of that year continued to fill the pulpit as a stated supply. He was a young man, not yet ordained to the ministry, but his services proved to be so acceptable to the congregation that he was called to be pastor. On September 29, 1SOS, he was ordained, and on February 13, 1809, after preaching to the congregation for nearly two years, he was installed. He remained in the pastorate until September 20, 1815, when he was released from the charge on account of ill health. His term of ser-
* For this list see Appendix, Note III .- EDITOR.
Historical Sermon of Rev. Thomas H. Robinson. 219
vice was over eight years, though as pastor he was with the Church between six and seven years only. At his installa- tion Parson Snodgrass, of Old Hanover, presided and gave the charge to the young pastor, and Rev. James R. Sharon, Pastor of Paxtang Church, preached the sermon. Mr. Buchanan was called on a salary of one hundred and fifty pounds for three-fourths of his time. The remaining fourth was given to a small congregation at Middle Paxton, or Dauphin. Fifty pounds more were given for this additional service. The whole two hundred pounds was in the old Pennsylvania currency and amounted to about five hun- dred dollars. After leaving this Church and recovering his health, Mr. Buchanan was, for twenty-one years, the greatly beloved Pastor of the Church in Greencastle. He died at Logansport, Ind., in 1843, after a ministry of over thirty-six years. Dr. De Witt and others who knew him in later years gave descriptions of him from which we draw the following portrait :
Ile was a man of tall form, commanding presence and great gravity of manner. No one could mistake either his character or his profession. He was neat and serupulous in dress and courteous in his bearing. His grave and dignified manner rebuked all levity and lightness, while his real goodness, purity and sympathy with men attracted their esteem and reverence. He was universally regarded as a good man and a man of great force of character. His ser- mons were short, compact and precise, remarkably so for that day, when sermons were often very lengthy and diffuse. Few men, it has been said, could say so much as he in so few words. He was not regarded as an eloquent preacher,
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but he was a clear, able and instructive one, and his sincer- ity and deep earnestness made him very impressive. His discourses were prepared with great care, committed to mem- ory and then delivered memoriter. He had a very low esti- mate of his own abilities. Owing, doubtless, to a deranged condition of his physical system, he was nervous and subject to fits of depression, and at times fell into states of melan- choly. While at Greencastle he became so nervous and timid that he refused, for a time, to perform marriages even between members of his own congregation. The late be- loved elder of this Church, John A. Weir, narrated the fol- lowing incident in his pastorate: Having given out a hymn one Sabbath morning, the singers of the choir, for some unknown reason, neglected to sing. Mr. Buchanan closed the service abruptly, giving, on the following day, as the reason: "If the singers could not sing, the preacher could not preach." Mr. Buchanan was always remembered by this congregation as a man and a preacher who was worthy of highest confidence and affection. And, during his brief pastorate, the Church increased in numbers, intelligence and spiritual power.
This brief account of the pastorate of Mr. Buchanan would be incomplete were it to omit one event that has resulted in very great blessings upon the Church in all its subsequent history. They may not have been publicly recognized, but the greatest forces in nature and in grace alike work silently and unseen. Some time during that pastorate, probably about the year 1812, the Woman's Prayermeeting of this Church was started. Who were its originators and early members is not known. No record was kept of its weekly
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Historical Sermon of Rev. Thomas H. Robinson. 221
meetings. It was without doubt the first prayermeeting of the kind in Harrisburg and, so far as known, in. Central Pennsylvania. Those early times were not favorable to the Christian activity of the female members of the Church. There was no men's prayermeeting in existence, and when in subsequent years the men of the church were drawn into the service of public prayer, woman's voice was never to be heard at the altars of public prayer. This meeting of the Christian women has been faithfully continued for some eighty years. It has been a quiet but mighty power in the spiritual history of the Church. The numbers attending it have never been large, but they have been the gifted and consecrated women of the Church. In times of spiritual depression and in times alike of revival this invaluable gathering of devoted women has met every week at the mercy seat, and carried thither in their hearts of love and longing the interests of this Church. Many years ago, it is not known how far back, the meeting joined alms with their prayers, and at times as large a sum as one hundred and fifty dollars have been given by it in a year to Christ's cause. Every true heart will say of this meeting "Esto Perpetua."
For four years after the departure of Mr. Buchanan, or until November 12, 1819, the Church was without a pastor and its pulpit was dependent upon irregular supplies. It did not sit down with folded hands. The history of one of the noblest organizations within this Church dates its origin in that interregnum of four years.
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In the year 1804 a Sunday-school was started in the city of New York by Divie Bethune, a member of a renowned family of that name. It has the credit of being the first Sabbath-school in America. But the honor must go farther back. In 1793 a Sunday-school was started in the same city of New York, by Katy Ferguson, a colored woman. Indeed as early as 1786 we hear of one established by Bishop Asbury, of the Methodist Church, in Hanover county, Vir- ginia. Little is known of it save that it was started.
In the spring days of 1816, several earnest women in this little Church, without a pastor, on the banks of the Susque- hanna, determined to imitate the good example set else- where and start a Sunday-school. They do not seem to have met much encouragement from their husbands and brothers. It was wholly an undertaking of the women. The first meeting for organization was held August 16, 1816, at the residence of Mrs. John Wright, then the post- office, No. 13 South Market Square. It was a two-story log house, weather boarded, and painted a dingy brown. The report of the meeting says that " a respectable number of ladies were present." There were no men in the company. Mrs. Richard T. Leech, the wife of a subsequent elder of the Church, presided, and Miss Rachel Graydon acted as Secre- tary. A constitution was adopted. The society was to be known as " a society for the encouragement and promotion of Learning, Morality and Religion by means of Sabbath- schools, at Harrisburg." The society was to be composed of persons of all the existing religious denominations then in the town. It was to be unsectarian, but it was soon found that none but Presbyterians were interested and active in
Historical Sermon of Rev. Thomas HI. Robinson. 223
it. Officers were chosen as follows: President-Mrs. Captain Alexander Graydon; Vice-President-Mrs. Richard M. Crain ; Secretary-Miss Rachel Graydon; Treasurer-Mrs. Henry Hall ; Managers-Mrs. George Fisher, Miss Abigail Wyeth, Miss Eliza English, Mrs. R. T. Leech and Miss Catharine Hubley.
By special arrangement two of them were to alternate each Sabbath in performing the duties of Superintendent. The school was opened on September 22, 1816. An equi- noctial storm of great violence was then prevailing, the day was inclement and dreary. The school met in the old academy building on Market street between Third and Fourth streets. There were present eighteen teachers and seventy scholars. There was no fire provided though the day was a cold one, and there were no seats for the teachers. They taught their classes standing and continued to do so during the first year. The names of the first teachers are given and they indicate that they, as well as the managers of the school, were all Presbyterians. They are all young ladies. Misses Juliana Fisher, Sally Hill, Sally Hanna [Jacobs], Rebecca Jones [Irvin-Allison ], Louisa Kean [Pow- ers], Juliana Stoner, Mary Hanna [Tod], Mary Miller, Elizabeth Hubley, Mary Wyeth [Mckinley], Caroline Henry, Catharine Brunson, Rachel Graydon, Maria Murray, Jane Mitchell [Dr. Thomas Whiteside], Ruth Allen [John Whiteside], Eliza Ziegler [ Hebt], and Mary Graydon [Hlub- bard]. Nearly all of them were in later years more widely known in the Church and community under their married names. They are the leaders in the large procession of
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Sunday-school teachers of the Presbyterian churches of this city for seventy-eight years. All honor to their memory.
The names of the seventy scholars of that first day's session have also been preserved .* It was a mixed school, and made up of children. Thirty-three were white and thirty-seven were black. An examination of the names in- dicates that very few of them were from the regular families of the congregation. The enterprise was of a missionary character among the neglected and poor. Of the eighteen young women of this Church who took the original classes in this school, many in after years and down to my own pastorate were famous for their good works and high intelli- gence. It is to the honor of all concerned in the school that
* Males, White .- Samuel Barnes, Joseph Russell, Peter Miller, John Young, Leonard Kline, George Geiger, James Gillespie, Charles Mc- Mullin, Henry Michael, John Maloney.
Pañales, White .- Catharine Young [Seig], Maria Newman, Susanna Vance, Catharine Stahl, Susan Weaver, Catharine Stence, Elizabeth Over, Mary Hill, Margaret Howard, Susan Lawyer, Mary Ann Michael, Peggy Ely, Julia Ann Weaver, Ellen MeMullin, Aun Myers, Ann Brestle, Ann Johnson, Mary Over, Maria Clark, Nancy Rech- kard, Peggy Whiting, Julia Aun MeMullin, Polly Fager.
Males, Black .- Charles Butler, Samuel Dutcher, Sam. Green, Eli Norwoss, David Owens, Samuel Johuston, John Fayette, Henry Fayette, George Fayette, Henry Johnstou, John McClintick, Wm. McClintiek, Charles Butler, Sr., Lerin Johnston, Geo. Carr, John Davis, Win. Crawford.
Females, Black .- Rebecca Anderson, Maria Capp, Catharine Irwin, Nancy Smith, Eliza Dutchess, Mrs. Polk, Fannie Fayette, Charlotte Owens, Judith Richard, Jane Chamberlain, Mary Ann Chamberlain Hester Dickinson, Mary Ann Dickerson, Maria Thompson, Daphna Baker, Matilda Dickinson, Mary Smith, Leah Blak, Sallie Randall, Mary Poole .- EDITOR.
Historical Sermon of Rev. Thomas H. Robinson. 225
no miserable prejudice against classes or against color ham- pered the flow of their Christian charity.
At the opening of the school a formal address was made by Dr. Samuel Agnew, of blessed memory, afterwards a Ruling Elder in the Church. And before the first year ends we find several men are named as General Super- intendents, or patrons of the school, Rev. George Lochman, of the Lutheran Church, Rev. F. Rauhauser, of the Reformed Church, Rev. James Buchanan, Dr. Agnew and William Graydon, of the Presbyterian Church. The school started bravely and soon won favor and grew rapidly. The first semi-annual meeting of the society was held in a house that stood on the spot where this Church now stands. It will be impossible to follow in detail the very interesting history of the school. New managers and new teachers came in to bear a hand in the work. The school grew rapidly. In 1818, the second year of its life, there were one hundred and seventy scholars enrolled. In this year also male teachers were added to the corps, and gentlemen were also permitted to become subscribers to its support. The women, however, held the reins of manage- ment and finely did their work. 'The receipts of the society in 1818 for the support of the school amounted to seventy dollars. This was a noble sum for those days. There is no intimation that during those early years there were any collections taken up in the classes. The report of the library during the first three years gives us some hints about the character of the teaching and expenses of the school. There were seventy-one books in the library.
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Mention is made of the following things as already owned or contributed by several donors whose names are given :
Nine dozen shorter catechisms, seven dozen testaments, one dozen and a half of spellers, three dozen and a half of primers, four psalm and hymn books and thirty-four tracts.
In 1819 the Lutheran and Reformed Churches, organized Sunday-schools of their own, and drew away many scholars. The original school now became distinctively a Presbyterian one. It had been under Presbyterian management and teaching from the outset, though in name, a union school. The change to three denominational schools took place with great harmony. The children of the Churches now came more freely into the Church schools. The original school was reduced in numbers by the exodus, but the number in the three schools was much greater than in the one.
On the first Sunday of January, 1820, the Presbyterian school opened with one hundred and thirty-eight scholars, of whom twenty-nine were black .* A few years later the
* The following are the names of the scholars :
Females, White .- Rose Wright, Sarah Dougherty, Rebecca Wills, Jane Wills, Margaret Berryhill, Catharine Clark, Sarah Curzon, Ann Keely, Elizabeth Nabb, Fanny Wagoner, Mary Ann Wright, Ellen McMullin, Mariann Capp, Emeline Armstrong, Margaret Campbell, Elizabeth Downings, Ann Mucheron, Polly Thompson, Catharine Heickel, Mrs. W., Polly Swartz, Hannah Smith, Kitty Gilespy, Lo Reeves, M. Megraw, Theodosia Graydon, E. Good. Betsey Sloan, Mary Ann Martin, Eliza Green, Sarah Floyd, Rebecca Dubbs, Mary Ann MeKinney, Mary Allison, Anne Adams, Eliza Waggoner, Mary Frazer, Maria Irwin, Matilda Kunkel.
Males, White .- Solomon Waggoner, David Waggoner, William
Historical Sermon of Rev. Thomas H. Robinson. 227
black children were withdrawn to schools of their own. We recognize now in the list of the scholars the names of the children of the Church, among them two who in later years became ministers in the Church, Rev. Charles A. Wyeth and Rev. Benjamin J. Wallace, D. D., the brother of the late Mrs. Dr. De Witt.
The school had heretofore been held in the old Academy and the court house. It was now removed to the Church on Second street and Cherry alley and occupied the audience room. After 1824, the unfinished gallery was put in order
Macchesney, C. Augustus Wyeth, Joseph Russell, George Kunkel, John Young, Joel Hinckley, Hugh Berryhill, Isaac Hyars, Michael Balsley, Samuel Lindy, Christian Lindy, Theodore Franks, Robert Harris, William Harris, William F. Bryan, Edward D. Bryan, Ben- jamin Wallace, Henry Stimmel, Albert Stimmel, Robert Elder, Henry Lyon, Lewis Wyeth, Richard Bryan, John B. Martin, Joshua E. Forster, Andrew Stewart, James Gillespie, George Johnson, Samuel Spahn, Franklin Cole, James Sloan, William Good, Peter Sowl, William Sowl, William Kelly, Lewis Kelly, John Sloan, Henry Cole, Robert MeElwee, John Wagner, Thomas Lytle, John Lytle, Joseph Sowl; Jacob Sowl, Charles Perley, Enstus Perley, Win. Reem, Irwin M. Wallace, Edward L. Orth, Richard C. Nabb, Augustus Gallaher, John Johnson, William Floody, George Balsley, Philip Linday, Joseph Wilson, William Dotterick, William Waggoner, Charles Floody, John Silsel, William Silsel, Joseph Grove, John Cannaday, John Thompson, Jeremiah Woler.
Females, Black .- Elizabeth Malson, Maria Malson, Mary Stewart Nelly Bradford, Margaret Allen. Jemima Ricketts, Sarah Rodrick, Fanny Williams, Rebecca Taylor, Dinah -- , Susan Layson.
Males, Black .- George Carr, Ezekiel Carter, Jacob Malson, Win. McClintock, Chas. Coll, Eli Noovell, John Fiatts, Edward Davis, Charles Butler, Ben. Roberts, John Gould, James Taylor, Henry Davis, William Laughlin, Harry Johnson, John Lewis, John Baptist, Thomas Watson.
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and used for the school, and by the year 1827, an annex was built to the Church especially for Sunday-school purposes. The school soon increased to its old numbers before the departure of the Lutheran and Reformed scholars and the interest of the Church in the school deepened. Annual examinations of the scholars were held, which were attended by members of the Legislature. In 1821, the old system of managers who served as superintendents alternately was abandoned and the present system of a permanent superintendent was adopted. The first to fill the office was Mrs. Gov. Snyder with Miss Juliann Fisher as assistant. Mrs. Snyder served very ably and acceptably until her death in 1823, when Miss Juliann Fisher was chosen to fill her place. In 1822, a branch school of from 60 to 70 scholars was formed at Coxestown. In 1825,* Miss Juliann Fisher, greatly to the regret of the school and its friends, resigned her position as superintendent and Miss Abigail Wyeth was chosen as her successor. By 1827, the school had increased to three hundred and fifty enrolled scholars.
* July 3, 1825 .- The following teachers "were present teaching pupils, as numbered opposite their names," viz :
Females .- Miss Graydon, 7; Miss M. Graydon, 6; Miss Wyeth, 9; Miss Hearne, 8; Miss Armstrong, 7; Miss Sturgeon, 6; Miss Rose Wright, 11; Miss D. MeKinney, 9; Miss MeGonigle, 6; Miss Miller, 9; Miss Stoner, 9; Mrs. W. R. De Witt, 8; Miss Hays, 7; Miss Sloan, 5 ; Miss Agnew, 5 ; Miss M. Mckinney, 7; Mrs. Ritchey, 10.
Males .- Mr. Mckinney, 9; Mr. Lutz, 4; Mr. D. Harris, 3; Mr. Joseph Mckinney, 7: Mr. Montgomery, 7; Mr. Sturgeon, 8; Mr. Scull, 6; Mr. M. W. Mckinney, 8; Mr. John H. Agnew, 7; Mr. H. Stewart, 1.
This is the only list of teachers that can be found between 1816 and 1825 .- EDITOR.
Historical Sermon of Rev. Thomas H. Robinson. 229
During that year the school was reduced by the departure of fifty scholars to form the Sunday-school of the newly organized Methodist Church. The school of this Church was the mother school of all the early schools of the city.
On Sunday, May 25, 1828, the infant school of this Church was organized with twenty-four scholars, whose names are on record .* Samuel W. Hays, who in 1840 became a ruling elder of the Church became its first superintendent and filled the office with great acceptance and faithfulness for nearly twenty-seven years, when he was obliged by failing health to resign. Mr. Hays was a warm friend and lover of the young and made a model superintendent.
In 1829, Miss Wyeth resigned the superintendency of the main school and Miss Juliann Fisher was again chosen, and filled the office until 1832. A new order of things was now inaugurated. Mr. Henry Cross was chosen superintendent in 1833, and filled the office for two years. During its infancy and childhood and until at the age of sixteen years it had grown into stalwartness, and had sent out from its fold three or four schools to other churches, the school was managed by the christian women of the Church. They filled its superintendency. They did it nobly and well. They have been from the birth of the school to this day of its great prosperity, the mightiest spiritual force in the
* These are the names : Catharine Murray, Cornelia J. Wright, Margaret Bennet, Julia D. Graydon, Elizabeth Harris, Harriet Thompson, Eleanor Graydon, Catharine E. Cameron, Mary Parker, Catharine Duncan, Mary Wayne, Lydia Rees, H. Thompson (colored ), Catharine Black, Isabella Buffington, Elizabeth Buffington, William Mitchell, William Ayres, John Wilson, George Whitehill, John Mar- tin, Richard T. Leech, Charles Mahon, Alexander Mahon .- EDITOR.
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religious education of the children and youth of this congregation.
Mr. Cross resigned in 1835. The following record appears on the journal of the school for that year. "Resolved that Mr. James W. Weir be appointed superintendent in the place of Mr. Cross, resigned." March 12, 1835, a prince among Sunday-school Superintendents and among religious leaders had now taken his place at the head of the school. He continued to fill the place with remarkable power and universal favor until his death on March 14th, 1878, a period of forty-three years and two days .* At his death the present superintendent, Mr. Samuel J. M. McCarrell was chosen to fill the vacant office, and has occupied it with honor to himself and blessing to the school and Church for nearly sixteen years.
It is due to the Church in this historical record that a few words should be added concerning the superintendency of Mr. Weir. It was a custom of his, a fixed law, to make a thorough preparation for the fulfillment of his duties. The school was on his heart through the busy week. At the opening of each session it was his wont to deliver a brief address in connection with the reading of the scriptures. These addresses were usually about fifteen minutes in length. They were always looked for with great interest, by the teachers and scholars alike, and were remarkable specimens of condensed thought, strikingly illustrated by happy anecdote and incident gathered from
* As Mr. Weir was acting Superintendent during the year 1834, on account of Mr. Cross's illness, he really served more than forty- four years .- EDITOR.
JAMES W. WEIR. SUPERINTENDENT OF THE SUNDAY-SCHOOLS, 1834-1878.
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Historical Sermon of Rev. Thomas H. Robinson. 231 his wide course of reading and his intercourse with men. Very seldom were they devoid of deep interest. They were never trivial or common place. At times they were pungent and powerful appeals to the heart and conscience of all who heard them. Had they been preserved by any short hand reporter, they would have ranked high in the literature of Sunday school addresses. Hle måde special preparation for the service. His thoughts were not random ones, nor were his words extempore. They were chosen and select. The school Bible which he used for years, will be found still to bear on its margins the brief notes and heads of some of his addresses. And the Sunday-school diary that he kept for years will give a great many illustra- tions of his skill in meeting this duty of the superintendent. Sometimes he would give on consecutive Sabbaths a series of connected addresses on the beatitudes, or the ten com- mandments or other themes, illustrating them with telling incidents. Sometimes he would select some particular passage in the lesson of the day and give a graphic address upon it. His Sunday-school prayers were also as remark- able as his addresses. They were fitted to the place and the occasion, and the minds he was leading to the throne of grace. Though blackboards were not in general use in his earlier days, and his own use of it was not extensive, he had one. Generally he placed upon it only a single sentence, but it was the very heart of his address. The passage which he left on the board at his death and that has been preserved and framed is a good illustration both of his facile hand and of the good use to which he put the
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