History of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, Part 38

Author:
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Harrisburg : R. C. Brown
Number of Pages: 1454

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After Mr. Foster's retirement, in 1844, the members of the Wellsboro church requested Rev. S. J. Mccullough, of Lawrenceville, to write to the faculty of Auburn Theological Seminary to send them one of their young men of the class that was

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to graduate that year to fill their pulpit. In accordance with that request Rev. J. F. Calkins came to Wellsboro in May, 1844. He had graduated from Union College in 1841 and then had become a student at Auburn Theological Seminary. During the summer vacation he preached in Wellsboro, and so well pleased were the members of the church with him, that, after his graduation in August, they extended a call to him and he was duly installed pastor in September, having charge of the church in Wells- boro and at what is now Ansonia.

Mr. Calkins was a zealous and hard working minister. For nine years he held services in the court house and steadily increased the membership. As the congrega- tion was small, sufficient means could not be secured for several years to build a church. The pastor, however, labored zealously to raise funds to erect a building. A lot was secured at the corner of Main and Norris streets and preparations made to build. Lumber and other materials were collected, but disaster overtook them. The lumber was destroyed by fire, the outlook became discouraging, and for a time all work was suspended. But that great philanthropist, William E. Dodge, of New York, learning of the misfortune, promptly telegraphed the officials of the church: "Buy 10,000 feet of seasoned lumber and send me the bill." They at once took courage, lumber was procured, the work went on and the building was completed and dedicated in 1854. It cost $4,600 and was regarded as a great improvement for the time. Mr. Dodge donated the bell and it is still doing service. His lumbering interests were great in Tioga county in early times, but he was ever the friend and patron of church organizations and aided more than any other person in this section of the State.

The first elders of the church-those who shared in the trials and tribulations of Mr. Calkins-were S. P. Scoville, Chauncey Austin and W. W. McDougall. They were devout men and their memories are fondly cherished. On February 18, 1847, the Presbyterian church and congregation of Wellsboro was incorporated by act of the legislature.

Under the fostering care of Mr. Calkins the church steadily grew in strength, and in 1872 the congregation felt able to enlarge and otherwise improve the building. This was done at an expense of about $2,500. With these improvements the congre- gation were content for many years. Mr. Calkins resigned in 1879, after having been in continuous service as pastor for the long period of over thirty-five years.

The church celebrated its fiftieth anniversary February 11, 1893. The occasion was unusually interesting and the ceremonies were deeply impressive; made more so, perhaps, by the presence of Mr. Calkins, and the historical address which he read while seated in a chair. As that address gives a full history of how the church was founded, and relates his trials and tribulations during his long pastorate, the material portions are given herewith:

The Society of Friends, or Quakers, we believe, have the honor of holding the first public religious services in this village at the advent of the Morris, Bache and Norris families. About this same time that missionary hero, Elder Sheardown, made excur- sions here and down Babb's creek and up and down Pine creek, and left his disciples behind him. The Methodists gathered a little band, inspired by the mother of the Coolidges, and were the first to organize and claim the regular services of a minister. The Protestant Episcopalians, in 1838, came next with their zelous rector, Rev. Charles Breck, who came to stay ten years.

The church buildings at Ansonia erected by Phelps, Dodge & Company, and at Wells-

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boro, by the Episcopal and Methodist churches, were all built within the same five years, preceding 1841, I think.

The history of the Presbyterian church may, for the convenience of this narrative, be divided into periods of ten years each-five in all. With these decades I am connected with only about three and a half.

The Ausonia house of worship was for three or four years literally a church without a bishop. Dr. Breck preached there occasionally. So did a Mr. Pinkham, whom I never saw. Meanwhile Mr. Dodge, of New York City, and Rev. S. J. Mccullough, of Lawrence- ville, had been looking for a minister.

How came this church to organize fifty years ago ? Some one on the ground and not far away must move in the matter. Who gathered the nucleus here ? It was a woman, of course, and that woman was Mrs. Dr. Curtis Parkhurst, of Lawrenceville. He resided here temporarily as the sheriff of the county. She gathered the names of those preferring our type of worship in this town and Ansonia, and sent for her minister in Lawrenceville to weld them into a church, The next thing was a minister, and how did they get him ?

The sheriff had to report quite often to the capital of the State, and so he reported there the want of a minister for the Presbyterian church of Wellsboro. The result was the coming of a young man, son of an elder of the Market Square church, of Harris- burg, a Rev. Mr. Foster. He stayed less than a year and left before I came. I never saw him. * * * How came they by their second minister? I was at the time a senior in Auburn Theological Seminary. The spring vacation of 1844 was soon to commence. Dr. Dickinson, one of the professors, came to my room one day with a letter asking him to send a minister to Wellsboro. I hailed from Corning, the nearest town to Wellsboro of any of the undergraduates-hence his application to me. He directed me to call on Rev. Mr. Mccullough, of Lawrenceville, for an introduction to Wellsboro. I did so, and he brought me up, twenty-five miles, to Wellsboro. We arrived after dark on a Friday night and found lodgings in a little old house and a little seven by nine bedroom, aban- doned by Dr. Gibson and rented by Israel Richards, on the corner where Hon. Jerome B. Niles now lives.

On awakening the next morning I reviewed the landscape o'er and wondered how we got into this tunnel at the foot of these hills. After breakfast I told him to take me out as quick as he could. He would not do it, but introduced me to a few families and then went back to tend his own sheep. I was taken over to Ansonia Saturday night, and preached there Sabbath morning and in the court house here in the afternoon, and so continued for four weeks, going back to Auburn $50 richer than when I came. * * * So when a call reached me in the course of my last term in the Seminary, engineered by Rev. Mr. Mccullough, I accepted it. Began services September 8, 1844; was soon or- dained and installed, and on the 8th of October was married and brought my wife from Geneva here the same week, not losing a Sabbath for such business as that.

Then Wellsboro had a population of 400. There was a mail twice a week via stage from Covington, and once a week via horseback from Coudersport. * * * When we came it was a difficult question where we could live. We boarded a few weeks in two different places. Commenced keeping house in the front part of what is now the Ens- worth house. The parlor was our kitchen and dining room; the hall our pantry and cellar way; the front chamber was our bed room, study and reception room; the little bed room over the hall was our guest chamber. We, after the first year, rented a little house on Main street not far from the present Converse block. That was owned by Mary Gorrie, a milliner, before she married Peter Green. Then we moved to a little house on the corner of the lot where Mr. Converse now lives, then owned by Mr. Norris; and we shall never forget the formidable document drawn up as a lease in a most beautiful hand- writing with all the provisos and guards against injuring the rickety shanty.

Here we began to agitate the question of a parsonage. From the four points of the compass I pressed the subscriptions, scarcely $50 in cash, but in work, digging, hauling, timber, boards, plank, carpenter and mason work. The lime was hauled from near Williamsport. Mr. Bache gave the lot, and all the subscriptions of different kinds were

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estimated at $600. But the parsonage I would have, and I built it. When, six years after this, we began to agitate the question of a church, I bought the society's half of the parsonage and secured the lot upon which the church stands, paying $700 for it.

The services during the whole of the first decade were held in the court house. The order was, in the morning at Ansonia; 2 o'clock p. m., preaching in the court house; 3 p. m., Sunday-school; evening, some school house in the country. The amount of secular and missionary work I undertook this first decade seems to me at this period of life the

height of imprudence. * * * My parish extended west to Coudersport, east to Covington, north to the Cowanesque, south to Williamsport; and when I got there I challenged Drs. Sterling, of Williamsport, and Stevens, of Jersey Shore, to meet me half way, for there were souls perishing all along the line.

It was, I think, the last year of this decade that I rode over to Pine Creek through a deep snow one Sabbath morning to preach. There were not half a dozen at church. Once before there were but two. My horse was blanketed and tied to the fence. I prayed and preached and shut the Bible. I knew there were probably within two miles of me two hundred persons in houses and lumber camps. I told the few that were before me, I could not stand it. I then said, "I will preach in this house every night this week." There were three times as many there Monday evening as there were on the Sabbath. Soon the house was full. The next Sabbath I gave the same notice. And so it continued for six weeks. I always drove home every night, sometimes not reaching it till 12 o'clock, and it was one of the coldest winters I ever knew. Some of the incidents of that series of meetings I shall never forget. The church there took on a new life that lasted for years.

Mr. Ensworth had frequently suggested the practicability of building a church. But one thing is sure; if I had not had a friend at court in New York City, the attempt would have been an utter failure. I dreaded again making myself a hewer of wood and a drawer of water, as I had done in the building of the parsonage. I began with pushing subscriptions for the purpose. In the church there was but one man that could subscribe $100. In applying to Mr. Clymer, he said: "If you can get five men to subscribe $100 each, I will be the sixth." Peter Green and Robert Campbell were the last two men to make up the five; and so I had the six hundred to storm the Malakhoff. The other subscrip- tions were in smaller amounts and for materials and work.

There were then no such plans available for churches as are now so abundant. I visited far and near to find such a church as I thought we wanted. I turned myself into an architect, and have often since said if the Lord would forgive me for planning this church I would never do so again. But the sin of it, like the sin of the older fathers, must be laid at the doors of the age in which we lived as well as on the head of the builder. Nevertheless, I built as well, if not better, than I knew. Every dollar that went into it, every foot of lumber, every contract for work, the burning of the kiln of our best lumber just as the carpenters had the frame enclosed-if I do not know how much brain and brawn it cost, who does ?

The next morning after our lumber was burned, I do not know whether Tatnai and Shethar-boznai, the Apharsachites, rejoiced, but I do know our feeble folk were sad. I preached on the following Sabbath on the text, "Though I fall sometimes, I shall rise again," and Monday morning I wrote Mr. Dodge of the sermon and the occasion for it. The answer came, "Purchase 10,000 feet of seasoned lumber anywhere you can find it, and send the bill to me." It was done and our faces were glad. * * * Mr. Dodge gave us the bell. Who rang it? * * *

In the previous decade, unknown to myself, I had been chosen by the board of school directors of Tioga county, at a meeting held at the court house, to inaugurate the county superintendency of schools for three years. I was afterwards appointed by the governor of the State to supplement the term of a superintendent whose health had failed-mak- ing five years of service in this direction. This sent me galloping all over the county to every school house, and landing in Wellsboro on Saturday to occupy the pulpit on the Sabbath. Do you wonder at the patience of this people with their pastor ? Yet this pa- tience was to be more severely tried.

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In the winter of 1863 there was an epidemic of diphtheria throughout this region. In two months I had attended the funerals of more than thirty persons. I waked up one morning with the disease fastened on myself. I had two funeral engagements that day, and I sent a boy on my horse to notify the afflicted families.

I arose from that sickness weak and worthless. I had held from Governor Curtin for several months a commission as chaplain of the One Hundred and Forty-ninth Pennsyl- vania Volunteers. As soon as I was able to preach I occupied the pulpit, resigned the pas- torate, told them that I should start that week for the Army of the Potomac. The church protested, said I would die if I went. I was more afraid I would die if I stayed. I went in May and stayed till the end of the war.

A Rev. Mr. Boggs, who was engaged to supply the pulpit, had left home before my return. My resignation was not accepted. By solicitation of the officers of the church I resumed the service with increased love of pastor and people for each other and the name of Christ. *

* * The outside work of the pastor in the care and labor for other churches had grown very much for years past. This must be attributed mainly to the unusual continuance of the pastorate. Calls to funerals and to settle difficulties in churches; and more agreeable but not less laborious ones-weddings, and to assist pas- tors in and outside the Presbytery on occasions of more than usual religious in- terest.

Only seven years of this period [1873-83] did I remain in Wellsboro. It had become the custom in this place, and quite generally throughout our country, to manifest the irenic disposition of Christian churches, to unite in union services every night for the first week in January. If the occasion warranted it, these services were continued in very happy Christian fellowship for a longer time. The Evangelical Alliance, interna- tional, had first suggested this good way. * * * It was the union services of this year that issued in the largest ingathering at any one time in the history of the church -eighty persons joined. * *

In November, 1877, our home was again sadly shadowed by the death of the pastor's wife. It was after a most painful sickness of over two years, under the care of many physicians. She was taken to the seashore and returned as far as Brooklyn, whence I received a telegram to come to her. There, alone with her husband in the dark watches of the night, her sufferings ceased, we trust, forever. * * * But the shock to the pastor's nervous system, the insomnia that preceded and followed this dark day, doubt- less tinged his ministry and judgment more than he knew. And to the parish this was probably more apparent than to himself; and they with all the memories of his ministry before them were better judges than himself. It was only two years after this the clock struck and the pastorate ended in its thirty-sixth year.

There is a tinge of pathos in the closing sentences of this grand old minister's story of his long pastorate in Wellsboro, which brings to mind many pleasant memo- rics of his long and useful career. After bidding farewell to the scenes of his years of labor he was not forgotten. To use his own language: "The same kind provi- dence, through a classmate in Auburn Theological Seminary, sent the old minister to a church and people and a country so beautiful and restful that he could sleep all his worries away." This was at the beautiful village of Avon, Livingston county, New York, where he labored nearly ten years longer, and "there by the blessing of God his ministry still bore fruit in his old age." He then retired to Geneva, where fifty years before he commenced his studies for the ministry, and resided there with his two daughters-Mrs. Clara Meigs and Mrs. Stella Torrence-until his death, November 7, 1893. As he was born March 27, 1816, he passed away in the seventy- eighth year of his age. His remains were brought to Wellsboro and laid by the side of his wife, who died in November, 1877. Visitors to the Wellsboro Cemetery will find in the eastern part a rough, undressed sandstone rock, standing on end,

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with the name, "Calkins," carved upon it, which marks his resting place. This rough stone was selected by himself in life, and is typical of his rugged Christian character. In the same lot is a finely polished granite tablet which not only bears his name and the dates and places of his ministry, but the names of his wife and child. The dates of their birth and death are also inscribed thereon.

A NEW EPOCH.

In 1880 the congregation united in a call to the Rev. A. C. Shaw, D. D., to succeed Mr. Calkins. Dr. Shaw was born in the city of Rochester. His collegiate education was attained at the Rochester University, and his theological at Auburn Theological Seminary. He entered the ministry in 1864. He was, therefore, at the time of his coming to this church, in the prime of life. He was possessed of an easy and attractive manner, socially, and of more than ordinary gifts as a preacher. He at once endeared himself to his people and to the community, and has continued to serve them down to the present day with general acceptability and usefulness. The church has grown in membership and activity. Its organization, religious and charitable, has been perfected, and its interest in the general work of the denomina- tion has been increased, until it has become one of the most efficient churches in this region.

The observance of the semi-centennial anniversary marked the beginning of a new epoch in the history of the church. On this occasion the project of erecting a new building took form. The old structure had become too small. Generous offers of assistance made by two or three members of the society aroused others to make responsive efforts, and in a very short time the voluntary contributions warranted the undertaking of the enterprise. The last service was held in the old church on Sunday evening, April 15, 1894. That house of worship was endeared to the people by the struggles and sacrifices involved in its erection and they were loth to see it demolished. But it had served its day, and it was torn down and on Wednesday, April 25, 1894, the ground was broken for the new stone church. On Friday, June 8th, the corner-stone was laid with appropriate ceremonies. The plan for the new building was furnished by Culver & Hudson, architects, of Williamsport. The work went on steadily without interruption until it was completed and the beautiful structure furnished in modern style throughout. Competent judges pronounce it probably the finest church of its size in northern Pennsylvania.

A description of this neat and attractive edifice is of historical importance. It is a well-proportioned structure of Gothic style throughout. Its extreme length is 116 feet on Norris street and it is sixty-nine feet in width on Main street. The main vestibule is entered either from Main or Norris street. There is another front entrance on the uptown side and the side steps on Norris street lead to a vestibule connected with the auditorium, library and Sunday school rooms. The bell tower is seventy-two feet in height, and the smaller tower on the south corner forty-seven feet high.

The walls of the church are constructed of Ohio sandstone, rock-faced and laid in Portland cement in what is termed random range courses. The joints are tucked with gray mortar. The trimmings are of cut stone. The roof is covered with slate, and all the gutters and flashings are made of copper instead of tin.

The auditorium is sixty feet square, the arches forming alcoves on all four sides.

Anton Hard

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WELLSBORO (CONTINUED).

The room is twenty-eight feet in height. The four steel trusses which support the roof are encased in antique oak and break the ceiling, which is laid out in panels with oak mouldings. The four ornamental arches are also in oak, as is the rest of the interior finish, and in the center of the ceiling there is an elaborate piece of grille- work. The walls are tinted with different shades of terra-cotta, and the beautiful velvet carpet that covers the floor is in harmony with them. Besides the electric light brackets upon the side walls, there is a large prismatic reflector in the center which distributes the light from thirty-four electric bulbs.

There are 415 opera chairs arranged in amphitheater style on the sloping floor. The chairs have iron frames, dark antique oak woodwork and automatic seats. The pulpit stall is elaborately made in massive oak in Gothic style, and the desk is a brass rail with an adjustable book-rest.

All the important windows of the church are of stained glass, and they are very handsome. The two large windows in the auditorium are memorials. That in the front is inscribed to the "memory of Rev. and Mrs. James F. Calkins," and its inscription in the central panel reads, "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever." This window was placed in the church by friends of Rev. and Mrs. Calkins, assisted by their daughters.

The other window was furnished by Mrs. G. D. Smith in memory of her late husband. It is inscribed, "In loving memory of George Dwight Smith," and in the center, "I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in Me though he were dead yet shall he live."

The dedication ceremonies of this beautiful temple of worship took place Febru- ary 12, 1895, and were very impressive. Rev. Dr. Taylor delivered a logical and eloquent dedicatory sermon from the text found in the twenty-fifth chapter of Exodus and the eighth verse, "And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them." The building of the tabernacle in the wilderness was the rock upon which idolatry was broken. God commanded them to build a sanctuary that he might come to dwell among them. Every Christian church, from the little wayside chapel to the great cathedral, tells us that God is with us and for us.

In closing, Dr. Taylor made a tender and touching allusion to the late Rev. Dr. James B. Shaw, father of the pastor. In a sense he was standing in his place, for, had this father been alive, he would have preached the dedicatory sermon.

A statement was read from the trustees showing that the contract price of the church was $20,225. Extra work had been done and changes made in the specifica- tions costing $1,644-making the total amount paid Andrew Webster, the con- tractor, $21,869. The furnishing of the church cost $5,609.45, which included the heating, lighting, seatings, repairs to organ and $968.35 in fees and expenses to the architect. With a few estimated items, for which bills had not been rendered, the cost of the church to the trustees amounted to $27,846.45. In addition to this, however, there had been furnished without expense to the trustees, two beautiful memorial windows, the carpet, the copper on the roof and the Portland cement in the walls, amounting in all to $2,309. This made the total cost of the church and its furnishings $30,155.45.

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The trustees of the church, who carried on the work of building, are Messrs. George W. Williams, president; William D. VanHorn, secretary and treasurer; George W. Merrick, R. L. VanHorn, E. B. Young and Leonard Harrison. Mr. Har- rison, as president of the building committee, had direct supervision of the work, and he faithfully devoted his time and taste to it for many months.

At the present time the membership is about 400. The Sunday-school is under the superintendency of Arthur M. Roy, assisted by L. H. Johnson; secretary, H. E. Raesly; treasurer, Mrs. E. B. Young; librarian, Miss Luella Deane. The primary department, numbering about seventy-five, is under the management of Mrs. Shaw, wife of the pastor, who has quite an aptitude for the work. The school numbers about 375 scholars, and. the library contains 1,000 volumes.

FIRST METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

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History of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, Part 38

Author: Publication date: 1897 Publisher: Harrisburg : R. C. Brown Number of Pages: 1454

Author:
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Harrisburg : R. C. Brown
Number of Pages: 1454