History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 69

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904. 4n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 1438

USA > Pennsylvania > Monroe County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 69
USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 69
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 69

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

"The subseribers, inhabitants of Honesdale and vicinity, being desirous of obtaining and enjoying a preached gospel in the neighborhood, and believing it to be a means well ealeulated to promote social and individual happiness, and, at the same time, of adding greatly to the respectability of the place, do agree to pay the amounts respectively affixed to our names to Joseplı L. Kellogg, Edward Mills, Isaae P. Foster, Committee of the Presbyterian Society in this place, for the purpose of employing Rev. Joel Campbell to labor one-half of the time, for the term of one year, commencing the 1st day of January, 1829, and ending the 1st day of January, 1830, or for such portion of the time during the year as there may be funds sub- scribed, provided an arrangement can be made with Mr. Campbell to perform the above-named labor; if not, then to be applied as compensation to such other evangelieal gospel minister as the Committee shall employ.

" (Dated) Honesdale, Dec. 23rd, 1828."

This paper is signed by the following individ- uals, subscribing various sums : Alanson Blood, Edward Mills, Elam Woodward, Albert Jones, David St. John, Chas. P. Clark, Preserved Hind, David R. Stark, Levi Schoonover, Jos- eph Skinner, Benjamin Staysa, Timothy C. Staysa, Orrin Hind, Christopher Beardslee, Thomas Young, Geo. W. Dickenson, Joseph L. Kellogg, Samuel H. Benedict, Isaae P. Foster, Leonard Graves, J. B. Jervis, Charles Forbes,

William C. Rose, Revillo C. Hatch, Timothy B. Jervis, Charles Bartlett, John MeMillan, Ira Tripp, Russel Spenser, Timothy N. Vail, Alvah Adams, Stephen Torrey, Thomas T. Hayes, William Schoonover, Z. H. Russell, Joseph Spangenburg, John Malony, Jeremiah, Howell, Charles W. Smith, Chas. MeStraw, Ham- ilton Bonner, Rich. L. Seely, Amos Y. Thomas, JohnCapron, Russel F. Lord, Asa Torry, Alonzo Bentley, John Young, Stephen Kimble, Joab W. Griswold, Horaee Baldwin, Josiah Lam- phier, Stephen Brush, Nelson Blood, Allen G. Plum, Alvah Wheeler, Samuel Smith, Benja- min Garrett, Charles Comstoek, Maurice Wurts, J. B. Mills, Sidney T. Robinson.

With the funds obtained by this subscription the services of Rev. Joel Campbell were secured for half the time. He came down from Beth- any during the year 1829 and preached every Sabbath afternoon for the inhabitants of Hones- dale and vicinity. During the forenoon of the Sabbath a meeting was held and printed ser- mons read. On the 11th of February, 1829, this ehureh was organized in the boarding- house, which was afterwards enlarged and known as the Tabernacle. The following elergy- men were present at the organization : Rev. Joel Campbell, of Bethany ; Rev. Thomas Grear, of Milford; Rev. Burr Baldwin, of Montrose; Rev. James Adams, of Dundaff ; Rev. Adam Miller, of Harford. Rev. Mr. Grear opened the meeting with prayer and de- livered a discourse from 2 Corinthians 5: 20,- " Now then we are ambassadors for Christ; as though God did beseech you by us ; we pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." After the sermon Rev. Joel Campbell pro- ceeded to organize the ehureh. The following persons produced certificates from their respect- ive churches : Isaac P. Foster and Mary Foster, from the church of Montrose ; Horaee Baldwin and Olive P. Baldwin, from the church of Dundaff ; Stephen Torrey and Rebecca Schoon- over, from the church of Bethany; Luey Forbes, from the church of New Bedford, Mass .; Charles P. Clark, from the church of Canter- bury, Conn .; Joseph L. Kellogg, from the Central Presbyterian Church, New York City. These nine individuals were organized into a

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Church of Christ, designated " The First Pres- byterian Church of Honesdale." The meeting was closed with singing, and prayer by Rev. Adam Miller. At the first communion after the organization of the church Maurice Wurts, John Littlejohn and John B. Mills were re- ceived into membership on profession of their faith. Religious services were at first held in a small school-house, located a little back of John Brown's residence. This school-house was built in 1828. Afterwards an upper room in the store-house of Messrs. Russell & Wilcox was fitted up and for a time used for divine service. This building then stood by the canal, near the basin bridge. It was afterward removed and used for dwelling purposes. The building on the point, which had been erected in 1826, and occupied as a dwelling and boarding-house, having been vacated, it was arranged for relig- ious services. It was originally built sixteen by forty-eight feet, with a single roof. Early in 1830 it was enlarged by an addition of exactly the same dimensions as that of the original building. When thus enlarged, and furnished with pulpit and seats, it was known as the Tab- ernacle, and was used for religious purposes till the summer of 1837. It was in this building, when used for boarding purposes, that the first sermon ever delivered in Honesdale was preached, by Rev. Gideon N. Judd, D.D.

This church obtained its charter June 28, 1830. The contract for the erection of the building that gave place to the present church edifice is dated March 3, 1836. It was built in the summer of 1836 and was dedicated to the service of God July 20, 1837. Its size origi- nally was forty-five by sixty feet. In 1848, the edifice having become too strait for the congre- gation, it was enlarged. The edifice, in its in- creased dimensions (forty-five by eighty-two feet), was inclosed in the autumn of this year and, enlarged and beautified, was opened for worship in July of the following year.

The present commodious brick edifice, sixty- five by eighty-six feet, was dedicated June 25, 1868.

The first pastor of the church was Rev. Joel Campbell. He was installed September 16, 1830, and remained pastor till September 27, 38

1835. During a portion of the interval elaps- ing between the pastorate of Mr. Campbell and the next regularly installed pastor, Rev. Wat- ters Warren preached as stated supply.

Rev. Joshua Bascome Graves was called to the pastorate November 28, 1837. He was in- stalled January 30, 1838, and remained pastor till September 29, 1842.

Rev. Henry A. Rowland, D.D., was called to

THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

the pastorate March 23, 1843. He was installed June 15, 1843.

The pastoral relation between Rev. Dr. Row- land and the church was dissolved December 20, 1855. Rev. Thomas H. Skinner, Jr., was called to the pastorate March 18, 1856 ; was installed in June, 1856, and remained pastor till June 29, 1859. The pulpit services were conducted by various supplies till 1861, when Rev. Charles Seely Dunning assumed the duties of the pastorate. He was installed June 25, 1861, and remained pastor of the church for nineteen years.

Rev. H. C. Westwood, D.D., was installed in July, 1881, and dismissed by Presbytery in the autumn of 1883. The present pastor, Rev. H. H. Swift, came to the church in April, 1884.

The following individuals have been ruling

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

elders of the church: Isaac P. Foster, Horace Baldwin, Joseph L. Kellogg, Stephen Torrey, Stephen Brush, Solomon Z. Lord, James S. Bassett, Ebenezer Kingsbury, Richard L. Seely, Horace Tracy, William Recd, John P. Darling, Stephen D. Ward, Adonijah Strong, M.D., Miles L. Tracy, Henry M. Seely, Stephen G. Cory, William B. Holmes, Horace C. Hand, John Ball and Andrew Thompson.

The Sabbath-school had its origin in a meet- ing held in the school-house April 11, 1828. The inhabitants of Honesdale met to consider the propriety of establishing a Sabbath-school. Mr. Isaac P. Foster was appointed chairman of the meeting and Mr. Amzi L. Woodard secre- tary. It was voted unanimously to organize such a school. The following persons were ap- pointed to draft a constitution : Messrs. Stephen W. Genung, Stephen Torrey and Joseph L. Kellogg. The committee reported a constitution, which was adopted, and the school was organized April 13, 1828. The following individuals have been superintendents : Joseph L. Kellogg, Stephen Torrey, Ebenezer Kingsbury, Horace Baldwin, Willard Davis, Solomon Z. Lord, Benjamin C. Baldwin, Stephen D. Ward, Geo. G. Waller, Henry M. Seely, W. B. Holmes, G. F. Bentley and Andrew Thompson.

In addition to this central school, there were organized and sustained, by the members of this church, other schools in adjoining settlements.

At Prompton (where there is now a Presby- terian Church), Indian Orchard, Berlin, Seely- ville (where is now one of the most flourishing schools in the county), White Mills, Long Ridge, Cherry Ridge, the Glass-Factory, north- west of Bethany, and at other destitute places Sabbath-schools were, at different periods, sus- tained, and in some of these places for a course of years. The mission school of this village was organized May 29, 1859, by Isaiah Snyder, and has donc a noble work. This school was but recently disbanded. During the fifty- seven years of its existence this church has had a membership of ten hundred and twenty in number. It has now enrolled three hundred and fifty-seven members. The church has had its periods of internal strife, earnest and trying, of conflicting opinions, aggravated and intense, its

periods of deep perplexity and darkness, and yet, on the whole, has an honored history. The earliest church organization in this place, it has been one of the pillars of the truth in this com- munity. In the Bible Home and foreign mis- sionary causes and Sabbath-school agencies it has borne an honorable part, having contributed to home and foreign missions alone during the past ten years nearly fifteen thousand dollars. The church has always liberally responded to all just claims upon her, and has nobly done her part of the work of the church at large. Earnest men and devoted women have never been wanting from the earliest history of the church to the present time. Frequent and powerful revivals have marked its history, giving a new impulse to the spiritual life, and aug- menting the number of its membership. It has given three men to the Christian ministry,- Chauncey Burr Goodrich, David Torrey, D.D., and Stephen Torrey, ordained as an evangelist November 9, 1885, on his seventy-seventh birth- day

The property of the First Presbyterian So- ciety, including the church, chapel and parson- age, situated north of the Public Square and extending from Second to Third Streets, is prob- ably worth sixty thousand dollars.

REV. HENRY A. ROWLAND, D.D .- During the twelve years and a half intervening between May 7, 1843, and December 16, 1855, there did not exist in Honesdale, or elsewhere in Wayne County, a larger or more attractive per- sonality than this gentleman. Of a large frame and uncommonly fine bodily appearance, with lustrous blue eyes which seemed to reflect the depths of the soul behind them, a massive head, and lips overflowing with joyance, he was always and everywhere a notable personage. In him bleuded two eminent lines of ancestry. His father, Henry Augustus Rowland, a grad- uate of Dartmouth College, and his grandfather, David S. Rowland, a graduate of Yale College, were successively ministers of the First Congre- gational Church of Windsor, Conn., where he was born November 19, 1804. By his mother's side he was connected with the celebrated divine and metaphysician, Jonathan Edwards. He was also descended from Rev. John Warham,

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WAYNE COUNTY.

the first minister of Windsor, Conn., who had been " a famous minister in Exeter, the capital of the county of Devon," in England, and was " one of the principal fathers and pillars of the churches of Connecticut."

Windsor is the oldest town in Connecticut, having been first settled in 1635 from Dorches- ter, in Massachusetts. As early as 1633 the Plymouth people came up the river and estab- lished there a trading-house or factory. Re- ports of the fertility of the soil in the Connec- ticut Valley, and of the adaptation of the country to plantation and trade, attracted settlers across the wilderness. In September, 1636, the Rev. John Warham, who had been pastor of the church in Dorchester for six years, re- moved to Windsor, most of his parishioners having preceded him.

The Rev. Henry A. Rowland, of whom we are here principally concerned, entered Yale College in September, 1819, at the age of fifteen years, and graduated in 1823, the youngest of a class of seventy-two members. January 7, 1821, in his sophomore year, he made a public pro- fession of religion and joined the College Church. In 1824 he entered the Theological Seminary at Andover, Mass. In 1827 he was licensed to preach by the Hampden Congrega- tional Association of Massachusetts. In 1830 he was chosen pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Fayetteville, N. C., and November 24th of that year was ordained by the Presbytery of New York. Early in 1834 he was invited to the pastorate of the Pearl Street Presbyterian Church in the city of New York, and was in- stalled April 17th of that year. January 7, 1843, he resigned this charge and accepted a eall from the Presbyterian Church in Hones- dale, over which he was installed May 7, 1843. This relation continued until December 16, 1855, when he accepted a call from the Park Street Presbyterian Church of Newark, N. J. In 1859 his health became seriously impaired, and he went to Boston, Mass., for relaxation, and there he died on the 4th day of September of that year. He was buried at Newark some days later.

While Dr. Rowland resided in Honesdalc, he published a number of books, entitled to wit : "On the Common Maxims of Infidelity,"

" The Path of Life," " Light in a Dark Alley " and "The Way of Peace." These volumes were received with much acceptance by the re- ligious public, and one of them certainly was adopted by the American Tract Society, and ran through many editions.

His pulpit discourses appealed eminently to the reason, but were not formal or scholastic. In construction they were simple, bold, forcible and impressive. Sometimes, perhaps, the minor graces of style were sacrificed to energy of ex- pression or the supposed aptness of an illustra- tion.

As a newspaper correspondent he was excep- tionally successful. If there was a humorous or picturesque aspect to any matter or thing he had under treatment, he was sure to find it and portray it with the finest possible effect. The touch of his satire was delicate and most effec- tual.

The social qualities had large development in him. He was fond of innocent fun and frolic ; nor did these attributes, as he exercised them, militate against the soberer ministrations of the clerical profession. He did not wear a mask in matters pertaining to religion or to any other topic, but was always natural, easy, open and graceful, and, hence, was always ac- ceptable to those with whom he mingled in society.

The love of nature was strong in him, and his favorite pastimes closely associated him with his horse and his fishing-rod and fly. Once in the woods, or along the margin of a trout stream, or on the spacious bosom of a lake, what an exuberance of joy and delight there was in him ! The memory of such times, run- ning back through more than forty years, are to the writer hereof among his most charming reminiscences.

Nor was his joy and rejoicing of a selfish type. He certainly wanted happiness for him- self, as altogether desirable ; but he had a de- light superior to all personal gratification, and this consisted in making other people happy, unceasingly at his own pecuniary cost. His beneficences, executed with infinite graee and tenderness, have been recalled to my recollec- tion by needy recipients, with evident cmotion,

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

forty years after the benefactions were deliv- ered.

When Dr. Rowland went from Honesdale he left a void as palpable as if half the borough territory had fallen in.

REV. HENRY DUNNING was born in Wall- kill, Orange County, N. Y., January 31, 1828. At the age of thirteen he was hopefully converted to God, and soon after professsed his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He entered Williams College at the age of eighteen, from which he was graduated in 1848. He entered the Union Theological Seminary in 1849, from which he was graduated in 1852. He commenced his ministerial labors as the stated supply of the Presbyterian Church of Binghamton, N. Y., and after a year of this service he accepted a position as instructor in Hebrew at the Union Theological Seminary, which he continued to occupy until the spring of 1857, when he was married to the only daughter of Rev. Henry White, D.D.

In the following April he began preaching in the First Presbyterian Church, Franklin, Delaware County, N. Y., where he continued to labor for three years. He was regularly or- dained November 4, 1858. He was called to the church of Honesdale, Pa., in 1861, where he labored as pastor for nineteen years, when his health failed, and he felt obliged to resign his charge. In 1881, his health being im- proved, he took charge of the Presbyterian Church of Kingston, Pa., as stated supply, and continued to labor successfully in this position for three years, when failing health again com- pelled him to cease pulpit work. He had just settled in a new home in Metuchen, N. J., when the call cams to him to "come up higher." He died June 1, 1885, and his remains, being brought to Honesdale, were interred upon the 3d, in Glen Dyberry Cemetery.

From a paper prepared by a committee of the Lackawanna Presbytery we quote the fol- lowing concerning this well-known minister :

" Dr. Dunning was a successful pastor. He would have been a success in any work to which he elected to give his powers; but his tastes and his culture fitted him especially for a professor's chair. He was always a wise counselor in ecclesiastical courts. His judgment on any subject to which he had given

attention had weight with his brethren of the Pres- bytery, but he had no love for Presbyterial discussions and only took part in them under pressure. The magnetism of this dear brother who now rests from his labors, that was felt by all that came close to him, was not in his attainments as a scholar and his elo- quence as a preacher ; rather was it in the breadth and variety of his culture. It was in the simplicity, modesty and unselfishness of his character, and his broad, catholic spirit that embraced the world. While the beloved pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Honesdale, he was recognized by good men in all societies and in every walk of life as a man of God. This was apparent at his funeral, when for the time being all denominational lines were effaced. Jews and Gentiles closed their shops. The Catholic priest of the village sat with the brethren of the Lacka- wanna Presbytery in the pulpit during the funeral services in the church, and stood with them at the grave where our brother will rest until the resurrec- tion of the great day."

REV. W. H. SWIFT was born in Geneva, N. Y., Feb. 2, 1848. About thirty years ago his parents moved to Port Jervis, Orange County, N. Y., and three years later removed to Union- ville, in the same county, where Mr. Swift's boyhood days were passed. He entered Am- herst College, Amherst, Mass., in the fall of 1866, and was graduated in 1870, and immed- iately entered Union Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in 1873. In 1874 he was ordained and installed the first pastor of Memorial Presbyterian Church, at Wilkes- Barre, Pa., where he remained for ten years, when he accepted a call to the First Presby- terian Church of Honesdale. His parents were New England people, and his wife, Lizzie J. Watson, whom he married in 1873, was from New York. He is a man of ability and thorough convictions, and expresses himself with all the positiveness and convincing force of one who believes in the soundness of his positions.

GRACE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. - The first meeting with reference to the organization of an Episcopal Church in Honesdale was held at the house of Mr. Charles Forbes, February 13, 1832. The first clergyman who officiated was the Rev. James H. Tyng (brother of the late Dr. S. H. Tyng), who severed his connec- tion with the parish January 20, 1834. The parish was admitted into union with the Dio-

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WAYNE COUNTY.

cesan Convention May 18, 1833, under the name of " Dyberry " Parish, embracing "Grace Church," Honcsdale, and "Truth Church," Bethany. By the authority of the courts of Wayne County, from and after December 13, 1853, this parish is known by the name, style and title of the " Rector, Church Wardens and Vestry of Grace Church, Honesdale," the titles Dyberry Parish and Truth Church, Bethany, being dropped, the latter congregation having become extinct in 1840. The first church building was consecrated October 31, 1834, by the Right Rev. Bishop Onderdonk.

The corner-stone of the present church was

GRACE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

laid by the Right Rev. Alonzo Potter, bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania, June 23, 1853 (Rev. Richard B. Duane, rector); the new church building was consecrated by Bishop Potter, August 2, 1854. On that occasion morning prayer was read by the Rev. S. F. Riley, rector of the Church of the Nativity, Philadelphia, and Rev. J. L. Maxwell, rector of St. Paul's Church, Trenton, N. J., Rev. Dr. Winslow, of Staten Island, assisting in the lessons. After the consccration the society voluntarily voted an increase in the salary of the pastor, Rev. Richard B. Duane. In the

evening a sermon was delivered by Rev. F. S. Wiley, the former rector.

The building was designed by Henry Dudley, of the firmn of Hills & Dudley, New York, and the builder was Henry Heath, of Honesdale. The dimensions of the structure are : Outside, fifty by eighty-nine feet ; inside, forty-two by eighty-four feet. The Sunday- school and lecture-room, in the basement, are forty-two by thirty-four feet. The windows were furnished by Doremus, of Orange, N. J., and the bell (an "F"), weighing one thousand five hundred pounds, was from the foundry of Jones & Hitchcock, Troy. The stone spire of the church was designed by Mr. Dudley in keeping with the architecture of the edifice, and was built by the family of Zenas H. Russell, in the year 1879, as a memorial. The edifice . cost, exclusive of the spire, but including furn- ishings, about fourteen thousand dollars.

The church building being damaged by fire March 20, 1883, and subsequently repaired and improved, at a cost of about seven thousand five hundred dollars, was reopened November 21, 1883, communion being celebrated and a sermon delivered by Rev. F. D. Hoskins, a former rector, then of Swedesboro', N. J. The Northeastern Convocation of the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania was in session in Hones- dale at the time, and a number of clergymen were in attendance, among them being the following :

Rev. Henry L. Jones, Rev. C. H. Kidder, Wilkes- Barre; Rev. J. P. B. Pendleton, Rev. J. P. Cameron, Rev. William Kennedy, Scranton ; Rev. E. A. Enos, Towanda; Rev. W. H. Platt, Carbondale; Rev. Mr. Koehler, missionary to deaf mutes; Rev. F. D. Hos- kins, Swedesboro', N. J .; Rev. J. W. Paige, Sharon Springs, N. Y .; Rev. William McGlatthery, Norris- town ; Rev. E. P. Brown, Troy.

The rectory adjoining the church was finished in 1875.

Following is a list of the rectors of the parish :

Rev. James H. Tyng. . 1832 to 1834

Rev. Thomas West .. 1834 to 1835

Rev. Jno. Alborger .. 1835

Rev. John L. McKim .1836 to 1838

Rev. Walter E. Franklin .. 1838 to 1842

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

Rev. O. E. Shannon. 1842 to 1848

Rev. W. T. Smithett. 1848 to 1849

Rev. F. S. Wiley 1849 to 1850

Rev. Richard B. Duane ... 1850 to 1858

Rev. Uriah Scott. 1858 to 1861

Rev. S. B. Dalrymple. 1861, died Oct. 27, 1863

Rev. F. D. Hoskins 1864 to 1866

Rev. G. C. Bird.

1866 to 1870

Rev. O. W. Landreth .. 1871 to 1873

Rev. Albert C. Abrams. 1874, died May 20, 1875

Rev. E. P. Miller 1875 to 1879

Rev. T. F. Caskey 1879 to 1881

Rev. Henry C. Swentzel ... 1882 to 1885

Rev. George C. Hall 1886, present rector

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH .- The his- tory of the initiatory of " Methodism " in Hones-

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

dale is the old story of the ubiquitous " circuit- rider," holding occasional meetings in a "pri- vate dwelling," a public hall-any place that could be secured-organizing a class, attach- ing the same to the " circuit," which class be- comes the nucleus of a church of recognized influence.

Such was its history prior to 1834, at which time the corner-stone of the first house of wor- ship erected by the " Methodists" was laid, on a site presented by Jason Torrey. This edifice was unpretentious, but served its purpose well. The community it accommodated was a mere

village of a few houses, with its promising future.

The characteristic vigorousness of " Method- ism " of that date distinguished it here, and its growth fully kept pace with the development of the thriving borough.

During the year 1845 the " meeting-house " was enlarged one-half its original dimensions. Its history for the succeeding quarter of a cen- tury was characteristic of the spirit and record of universal " Methodism " of the same period- vigorous, fruitful, advancing.

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History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 69

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904. 4n Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co. Number of Pages: 1438

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904. 4n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 1438