USA > Pennsylvania > History of the Church of the Brethren of the Western District of Pennsylvania > Part 17
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He united with the church in 1888, being baptized by Eld- er Peter Knavel, in Scalp Level, November 12. He was elected to the ministry in the Shade Creek congregation, Penn- sylvania, June 19, 1900, and installed July 1, the same year, by Elder Hiram Musselman. He was advanced to the second degree of the ministry, January 1, 1903, at the Berkey church, Elder David Hildebrand officiating. One week after his in- stallation, July 8, 1900, Brother Lehman preached his first sermon, in the Rummel church, his subject being, " Work and
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Elder Lorenzo J. Lehman and Wife.
Reward " (2 Cor. 6: 1). Brother Lehman served the Shade Creek church a number of years as its efficient secretary.
The Sunday-school was always an inviting field for Broth- er Lehman's energies. From a faithful scholar in the Scalp Level school he rose to the position of assistant superintend- ent. From 1903 to 1907 he faithfully performed the duties of District Sunday-school Secretary of Western Pennsyl- vania. Many still remember his appeals for more schools, bet- ter attendance and a larger scope of work. A brief account of his work in the interest of the schools is found in the Sunday- school chapter.
Impaired health induced him to locate in California in 1907. Here he met, and on March 30, 1909, married, Sister Ella Forney, youngest daughter of Elder Edmund Forney, of Lordsburg, California. Brother and Sister Lehman and two children are living on their ranch at Reedley, California, where they are engaged in gardening and fruit-growing. On December 12, 1915, Brother Lehman was ordained to the eldership in the Reedley church.
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ROSS D. MURPHY.
Ross D. Murphy, son of Deacon Scott and Mary (Rum- mel) Murphy, was born near Elton, Cambria County, Penn- sylvania, September 6, 1882. On his father's side his an- cestors were Irish and on his mother's, German. He was reared at Rummel, Somerset County, where he received his common school education. He received the B. E. degree in Juniata College in 1906, and the A. B. degree in 1912. The
Ross D. Murphy.
same year he received from the State Superintendent, Dr. Nathan C. Schaeffer, without examination, a permanent cer- tificate. As soon as he was old enough he began teaching school, which profession he followed eight years, teaching in Paint Township and Scalp Level Borough. He also taught two summer normals.
At the age of eighteen, in 1900, at Rummel, Ross united with the church, being baptized by Elder J. J. Shaffer. His activities in Sunday-school and general church work brought him to the notice of the church, so that when the Shade Creek
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congregation needed more ministers, November 24, 1904, Brother Ross was one of the young men called. (A. G. Faust was the other one.) Being at Juniata at the time, he was not immediately installed. He preached his first sermon in the Morning Land schoolhouse, in June, 1905.
Brother Murphy served the Plum Creek and Roaring Spring congregations as pastor at different times. He was the efficient District Sunday-school Secretary of Western Pennsylvania from 1909 to 1914. While in this capacity, his District sent him as delegate to the World's Sunday-school Convention, in 1913, held in Zürich, Switzerland. He was one of 2,600 delegates, and the only one of our brethren sent by a State District. Upon his return he gave his convention talk seventy-five times.
In the fall of 1913 Brother Murphy was called by the General Mission Board to travel among the churches of the Brotherhood in the interests of the mission work of the church, giving missionary talks and creating missionary sen- timent in general. March 1, 1914, he began this work and to the present time (August, 1915) he has covered Northern Illinois, all of Indiana, Northwestern and Southern Ohio and Middle Pennsylvania.
Of the growth of the Sunday-school work in the District during the time he was secretary, I will let Brother Murphy speak.
YEARS OF GROWTH. Ross D. Murphy.
The affairs of human endeavor, like the waves of the sea, flood and ebb in their forward and onward course. It is common for organizations and movements to fall and rise, to swing from success to apparent failure. It should not dis- turb us or even make us afraid when depressions meet us in the work of the Lord; neither should an unusual or unprayed- for success make us suspicious that spurious methods have been projected into a worthy cause.
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During the five years, from 1909 to 1914, the Sunday- schools of the District enjoyed an unexpected period of growth. These years of flood-tide movement ushered in a great epoch of activity. New life sprung up in desert places. Schools that were, according to their own statements, merely existing, took on a new coat of green and began an earnest revival for a summer growth. Live schools became more alive. If the church ever entered upon the Sunday-school era of her activity these were the initial years. Deacons and lay members, who had fallen into the habit of remaining out- side during the Sunday-school session until preaching time, talking about the weather and the crops, now came in and put their strong shoulders to the work and made it go. Min- isters accepted the responsibility of the Sunday-school as well as that of the church.
As field secretary for the schools of the District a part of the summer of 1909 was spent in visiting the schools. Be- ing the first attempt along this line only about half of the schools were reached. During each of the following four summers, however, at least two and a half months were spent in the field, in which time all the schools were reached each summer. The object of these tours among the schools was twofold; first to learn the problems confronting the schools, and second, to work out with them a solution to master these problems.
The problem of getting and holding the young people was largely solved by introducing the organized class movement. The home department took the school out into the homes. Teacher training classes produced better teachers. And so the story of new things went on until some wondered what next. Another problem of the District was a closer unity of effort. One-half of the schools did not know how the other half worked, and so the delegates of the 1910 conven- tion adopted a constitution. It provided a board of nine of- ficers. Each officer had prescribed duties, and also the Board in general. The plan worked well. A standard of excellence also was adopted. The first year ten schools reached the
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standard. This was quite an encouragement to others and the second year ten others reached the mark. Each of these schools was presented a certificate of recognition for their high attainment.
It has ever been truc that as soon as a people help them- selves to the Gospel at home their vision will enlarge until peoples of other lands are included. India was the field but who was to go ?- not some one who failed to do things at home. We sent the best we had, Sister Ida C. Shumaker, a woman of exceptional ability in teaching children, known not only in the District, but also in the Brotherhood. It was a little hard to see her go, but God always wants the best we have. Not satisfied with one missionary on the field, the fol- lowing year we sent another noble sister to the field, Olive Widdowson. The more we gave to the support of these two workers the more we had in our own treasury at home.
The names of a number of persons active during these five years could be mentioned, but where begin and where leave off? The president of the Board did a noble work. and so did the other officers from year to year, and so did those who, out in the schools, blazing the firing line, tramping the byways, gathering those in not in, persuading men and women to study the Word, organizing classes, conducting training classes-and above all, praying.
I. EDWARD HOLSINGER.
I. Edward Holsinger was born at New Enterprise, Penn- sylvania, August 10, 1878. He is the oldest son of Elder Levi F. Holsinger, of the New Enterprise congregation, Bedford County, and spent his childhood and youth with his parents on the farm.
The life on the farm, though not distasteful to him, failed to satisfy a desire to advance intellectually, and he took up the work of teaching at the age of eighteen years, in the rural schools of his home community. Successful and happy in educational work, he pushed ahead, and through persever- ance, graduated in the normal course at Juniata College in
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Prof. I. Edward Holsinger.
1902, and in the college (classical) course in 1909. Along with filling the position of high school principal, he pursued graduate study at the University of Pittsburgh, and received the master of arts degree in June, 1913, together with a special master's diploma in education from this institution. He is continuing his graduate study for the doctor of philosophy degree, and is at the present time principal of the Avalon High School.
Brother Holsinger united with the church at the age of thirteen years, and has been more or less active ever since. Early in his life he took an active interest in Christian Work- ers' Meetings and Sunday-school work. He had extensive experience as organizer, teacher and trainer of teachers, and was frequently president of religious organizations at college and elsewhere. In 1907 he was elected to the ministry. Since that time he has been used, when his school work permitted, in religious and ministerial service.
In January, 1914, at the unanimous call of the executive board of the Sunday-schools of Western Pennsylvania, he accepted the place made vacant as District Sunday-school Sec-
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retary, by the resignation of Ross D. Murphy. Since that time he has been devoting his summer months and many week- end vacations to the Sunday-schools of the District. Although continuing his school work, he visited in sixty-eight Sunday- schools, held twelve Sunday-school conventions, and organ- ized the entire District into eleven circuits for more intensive work in behalf of the schools. "Western Pennsylvania is alive and becoming even more alive spiritually," he says, " and it is a real joy to pass in and out among the workers of this great District. They let nothing stand in the way of hearty cooperation with the secretary in almost all parts of the field."
Sunday-School Mission Board.
PERRY J. BLOUGH.
P. J. Blough, son of Elder Jonathan W. and Susan (Boger) Blough, was born near Hooversville, Quemahoning Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, March 22, 1859. His sisters were Mary J., Ellen, Sarah and Annie. He also had one little brother, Andrew. His brother and sisters, Mary J. and Sarah, are dead. Perry was reared on the farm and given the best educational advantages that the public schools afforded. This was supplemented by several terms in county normal, and Juniata College, of which he has been a trustee a number of years. He taught five terms of school, after which he entered the store business. He was merchant in Hooversville twenty-seven years. He has been president of the First National Bank of Hooversville from its organiza- tion in 1902; also of the Farmers' Trust and Mortgage Com- pany of Johnstown from its organization in 1911. He has been a director in the Berlin Mutual Cooperative Fire Insur- ance Company about ten years.
While attending Juniata College, at the age of twenty he united with the church, being baptized by Elder H. B. Brum- baugh. The next spring the first Sunday-school in the Que- mahoning congregation was organized at the Pine Grove
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Elder . Perry J. Blough and Wife.
church and Brother Blough was elected assistant superintend- ent. This position he held two years in addition to teaching a class. When he located in Hooversville he was the only member of the Church of the Brethren in the town. Not being satisfied without church privileges, he fitted out a good- sized upper room at his own expense and organized the first Brethren Sunday-school in the town. He was its first super- intendent. By this time other members had come in and regular preaching services were held in this church room for about ten years, when the present church was erected.
Brother Blough was elected to the ministry in the Que- mahoning church on September 4, 1897, and exactly a year later he was advanced to the second degree. He was ordained to the eldership on September 3, 1904.
Elder Blough is one of the elders of his home congrega- tion, and in addition he has at this time the oversight of the Ligonier, Greensburg and Rummel congregations. He is a
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regular attendant at all the various meetings of the District and seldom misses an Annual Conference.
Brother Blough chose for his life companion Sister Emma Shaffer, daughter of Deacon Hiram and Frances (Berkebile) Shaffer, being married by Elder Hiram Musselman Novem- ber 30, 1884. Sister Blough was born February 2, 1865. She also was an active Sunday-school and church worker. Three sons and one daughter were born to this union. The sons, E. McGary, E. Grant and E. Percy, are graduates of Juniata College and members of the church, all of them having united before eleven years of age. After twenty-seven years of hap- py married life Sister Blough was called away June 17, 1912. She is buried in the Maple Spring cemetery.
Elder Blough has held a number of official positions in the District. He represented Western Pennsylvania on the Stand- ing Committee in 1908, at Des Moines, Iowa, and in 1913 at Winona Lake, Indiana. He has been a member of the Gen- eral Temperance Committee from its organization at Des Moines, Iowa, in 1908, and has been editor of the Temperance Bulletin for the last three or four years. He served as secre- tary of the Somerset County Anti-Saloon League several years.
When the present plan of the Home Mission Board of the District was organized, in 1895, Brother Blough was chosen a member and treasurer of the Board. This position he has held continuously ever since, twenty-one years. No one is better acquainted with the responsibilities of the Mission Board than is Brother Blough. Since the organization, at the Sunday-school Convention in 1907, of the Missionary Com- mittee of the Sunday School Association of Western Pennsyl- vania, he has been its chairman. He has done some very ac- ceptable evangelistic work in the District. He preaches an- nually about 100 sermons, a number of which are on doc- trinal subjects. For more than thirty-five years he has been a leader in sacred music.
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DANIEL K. CLAPPER.
1
The subject of this sketch was born at Yellow Creek, Bedford County, Pennsylvania, November 8, 1864. His parents were Samuel and Nancy (Kagarise) Clapper, and were of German descent. The father died in 1881, and the mother is still living.
Elder Daniel K. Clapper.
Brother Clapper's schooling was confined to the public country schools of his day. His father dying when he was but sixteen years of age, he became his mother's main help on a thirty-five acre mountain farm.
On February 16, 1881, during one of Stephen H. Bash- or's revival meetings at New Enterprise, Pennsylvania, when a little past sixteen years of age, he gave his young life to God, being baptized by Elder Charles Buck. January 25, 1885, he was united in marriage with Sister Rachel Hoover, daughter of Jonathan Hoover, a deacon in the Raven Run
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congregation, Elder J. B. Fluke, of Loysburg, performing the ceremony.
From 1885 to 1890 Brother Clapper was a tiller of the soil. November 26, 1890, he entered the service of the Penn- sylvania Railroad Company, on the Bedford division, as freight brakeman. He was promoted to the position of flag- man and conductor. The time he served as flagman was really his school term. For eight years he carried his books with him in his caboose and home. These consisted of school- books, biographies, philosophical and theological works, a Bible Compendium and the Bible.
Brother Clapper was called to the ministry at Hyndman, Pennsylvania, in the Meyersdale congregation (now the Greenville congregation), September 25, 1890, and about a year later he was advanced to the second degree. He con- tinued railroading for seven years after being called to the ministry, preaching almost every Sunday, and holding a num- ber of very successful series of meetings. For more than a year he filled the regular appointments for the Mission Board of Western Maryland, at Mt. Savage, same State, in the home of Brother Mowry, where several were baptized.
In 1907 came the call for fuller consecration to the Lord's service. This marks an important epoch in Brother Clapper's life. On the one side was a good position with the Pennsyl- vania Railroad Company at $2.50 a day. On the other side was the Lord's work, with no assurance of any support from the church. Finally, after much prayer, he decided to trust the Lord for the meals, and on Sunday morning, April 1, 1907, at six o'clock, he put his caboose away for the last time, and on April 3 he moved his family to Meyersdale, in order that he might devote himself fully to evangelistic work.
January 1, 1908, he was called by the Meyersdale church to take the pastoral oversight. This continued for about a year and a half, during which time he also served the Elk Lick congregation as pastor, in connection with his work at Meyers- dale. After his pastorate at Meyersdale several years were given to general evangelistic work, reaching west to Pitts-
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burgh, north to the Montgomery congregation, east to York and south to Mill Creek, Virginia. Up to the close of 1913 approximately three hundred souls had come to the church through his meetings.
January 1, 1914, he began work for the District Mission Board of Middle Maryland, as District Evangelist. During the year 320 sermons were preached, 467 homes were visited, 2,394 miles were traveled, and fifty-nine were added to the church. Up to October 25, there had been seventy-eight con- versions in 1915. He has hired to the same Board for 1916.
Brother Clapper has attended two Bible terms at Juniata College. He also claims the honor of being the second man in Somerset County to secure an international diploma in the teacher training course as prescribed by the Sabbath-school Association of Pennsylvania. He may be termed a self-made man. He is humble and unassuming, and is being wonder- fully used by the Lord. He continues to reside at Meyers- dale, where he was ordained to the eldership May 5, 1915.
At the Sunday-school Convention of 1907, when a com- mittee on selection and support of missionaries on the foreign field was created, Brother Clapper was elected one of that committee. During the eight years he served on this commit- tee he was the treasurer of the same. Because his evangelistic work takes him out of the District, he expressed a desire to be relieved of this responsibility, and at the 1915 convention Brother M. J. Brougher was elected his successor.
WILLIAM MOHLER HOWE.
William Mohler Howe was born May 3, 1867, at Mait- land, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, on a farm among the mountains, five miles east of Lewistown Junction. He was the tenth child in a family of six sons and six daughters, nine of whom grew to manhood and womanhood and all be- came members of the Church of the Brethren.
He was the son of Elder William and Sarah (Mohler) Howe, who were godly, industrious and exemplary to a
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Elder William Mohler Howe.
marked degree. It was with long hours of toil each day that they succeeded in providing for their large family, but they al- ways had time for the family altar, with the children all present, twice each day. Brother W. M. Howe has two brothers in the office of deacon, two sisters that are wives of ministers, and a brother, E. M. Howe, in the ministry, while his sister, Elizabeth (Howe) Brubaker, of Illinois, was prom- inent in city mission work in Chicago, Illinois, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Brooklyn, New York.
After his early years of training in the country schools he was sent, in the spring of 1883, to Juniata College, where he took a stand for Christ and was baptized on May 13 in the Juniata River. That fall, at the age of sixteen, he taught his first term of school, returning to Juniata College in the spring of '84. This program of teaching and study con- tinued until he was graduated from the normal English de- partment of the above institution in 1886. His teaching career covered six years in Pennsylvania and four years as
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principal of schools and high school teacher at New Iberia, Louisiana.
While on a visit to his home in the summer of 1893 he was elected to the ministry on a Saturday morning after the Friday night communion services, was installed at the morning service the next day, and preached his first sermon that even- ing from the text, "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me."
After another year of teaching in the South, Brother Howe returned to Juniata College for some Bible work. The middle of the school year found him assisting his brother in his country store in Maitland, Pennsylvania, and that fall (1895) he accepted the pastorate of the Amwell church, New Jersey. Before going to this first charge he was advanced to the second degree of the ministry. In the fall of 1896 he became pastor of the Sand Brook church in New Jersey, and in the spring of 1898 he moved to Norristown, Pennsylvania, where he was pastor till the spring of 1904.
In New Jersey Brother Howe supported himself in part by working on the farms and in the orchards of that State. Likewise while in Norristown he spent some time on the farm and served for years as clerk in the People's National Bank and in the Norristown Covering Company, besides spending one year in evangelistic endeavor.
On October 4, 1898, Brother Howe was married to Sis- ter Edith R. Newcomer, of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, and to this union were born his daughter, Ruth, and his son Joseph.
In March, 1905, after a pastorate of eleven months at Tyrone, Pennsylvania, Brother Howe was called to the Brook- lyn Mission, New York, to assist Elder J. Kurtz Miller, while having the privilege of attending Dr. White's Bible Teacher Training School in New York City, from which institution he was graduated in June, 1907.
It was in Brooklyn that Sister Howe's health failed, and she died on the way to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, at the home of Brother Howe's mother, at Maitland, Pennsylvania.
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Brother Howe was pastor of the Johnstown congregation from May 1, 1907, to August 31, 1914. On June 1, 1910, he was married to Sister Elizabeth Wertz, daughter of John A. Wertz, of Johnstown, and to this union were born two daugh- ters, Martha and Mary.
On June 21, 1910, Brother Howe was ordained to the eldership in the Johnstown congregation. He has from the beginning of his ministry done more than a little evangelistic work and Bible teaching in many of our State Districts and in most of our colleges. Since September 1, 1914, he has been pleasantly located as pastor of the Meyersdale, Pennsyl- vania, congregation, where his efforts are meeting with more than ordinary success.
Elder Howe has for a number of years been a member of the Home Mission Board of Western Pennsylvania. When a committee on selection and support of missionaries on the foreign field was created, in 1907, Elder Howe was elected a member of that committee, and it is he who annually reads the letters at our District Sunday-school Convention from the two missionaries supported by our Sunday-schools. He is also a member of the committee of our " District Bible, Mis- sionary and Sunday-school Institute," and is secretary of the same. He represented Western Pennsylvania on the Stand- ing Committee at the St. Joseph (Missouri) Annual Con- ference, in 1911. Elder Howe has frequently filled offices at the various meetings of the District.
£
CHAPTER IX.
Education.
The fact that Western Pennsylvania has no church col- lege within her borders is no proof that our people are not ad- vocates of education. Before the system of free schools had been adopted, our members patronized the subscription schools, and a number of our brethren taught in them.
The public school system found in many of our brethren ardent supporters. Influential brethren were elected on the township and borough school boards. Our young brethren and sisters qualified themselves to teach in the schools.
We had a number of prominent teachers among our min- isters years ago. Elder John Wise taught school thirty-two terms. He was considered well educated for his day. Elder James Quinter, a teacher of more than ordinary attainments, taught six terms of district school in Dogwood Hollow Dis- trict, Nicholson Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. As very little has been written of this period of Brother Quinter's life, permit me to quote from " Reminiscences of Elder James Quinter," by William Johnson, in the " Brethren Family Al- manac of 1910" :
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