USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > Honesdale > History of the First Presbyterian society of Honesdale > Part 24
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Rev. J. B. Graves raised a great storm in his time as has been shown. Rev. Dr. Rowland was quite a controversialist but he knew how to reprove without raising so much opposition. The theoretical but sweet spirited Dr. Skinner ran against the practical reformers, who were concerned less with religious theories than they were with results. Some of Dr. Dunning's masterful efforts were fulminated against the evolutionists, and finally, when the Civil War tested the Union in every fibre, all the questions growing out of that conflict were up for discus- sion. The women of the church assisted the Sanitary Com- mission and Dr. Dunning preached patriotic sermons while the flag floated over the church.
Thanksgiving Day, 1862, Dr. Dunning preached a sermon, which upon request of Isaiah Snyder, George G. Waller, H. W. Stone, R. L. Seely, D. P. Kirtland, C. King, M. D., John Tor- rey, E. T. Beers, John K. Jenkins, Stephen G. Cory, William T. Estabrook, John F. Roe, James S. Bassett, Stephen Torrey, Coe F. Young, R. J. Knapp, E. F. Torrey, H. B. Hamlin, Ezra Hand, Earl Wheeler, S. D. Ward, H. C. Hand, William Reed, H. A. Woodhouse, I. N. Foster, Miles L. Tracy, A. Strong, W. W. Weston, A. Cummings, Jacob Marsh, E. A. Penniman, C. P. Waller and H. M. Seely, was published. The battle of An- tietam had been fought and Lincoln, redeeming a promise which he afterwards said that he had made to God, had issued the Emancipation Proclamation. * Dr. Dunning's text was from Habakkuk, third chapter, second verse, "In wrath remember mercy." The nation was in peril for its sins but Dr. Dunning found much to be thankful for. "General health has been vouchsafed to us as a local community and as a state. And while thousands of the families of our land have been called to mourn over the desolations of civil war, while the bones of our countrymen bleach along our coasts, from the Chesapeake Bay to the Gulf, and in the valleys of our central and southwestern
*Hon. Isaiah Snyder criticised this sermon in articles published in the Herald, to which Dr. Dunning made no reply.
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states, rendering the very soil sacred, yet, in the good provi- dence of God these calamities of sanguinary war have not fallen heavily upon us as a local community. It is true that we have not been wholly exempt, but lightly has the scourge of war in this regard fallen upon us in comparison with some other por- tions of our land. * *
* * It has been a year of great abundance. There has been a demand for labor and labor has had its reward. Coming as we do today, to render the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to God for His mercies, we cannot if we would, shut our minds to the fact that there is now raging in our land, a rebellion, the most thoroughly organized, the most formidable in resources, the most extensive in territory, that has ever occurred in our world. For nearly two years this gigantic strife has been going on. Millions upon millions of treasure have been expended and thousands upon thousands of lives have been sacrificed, and still we cannot discern the end. Does God mean to destroy us? Has the edict gone forth, 'Raze it, raze it even to the foundations thereof?' Is this the sinful kingdom that God will destroy from off the face of the earth? That we have been and are still a sinful people there can be no doubt. Our sins are many and aggravated; we have sinned by our for- getfulness of God; we have sinned by our pride; we have sin- ned by our profanation of God's Sabbaths; we have sinned by our neglect of our political duties; we have sinned by our in- temperance; we have sinned by our covetousness, our greediness of gain; we have sinned by oppressing our fellow men. Is God therefore about to give us up to remediless ruin? While we recognize in our present calamities God's punitive hand, still we cannot believe that the end at which He aims is the de- struction of the nation, but its discipline and purification." As a ground for this belief Dr. Dunning called attention to the wonderful manner in which God had led us as a nation during the years of our history up to that time. He then argued that the question of secession had been settled. "That verdict is: The Constitution of the United States is the Supreme Law of the land." It must be remembered that this sermon was
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preached during a dark hour in our history. Dr. Dunning said: "Our experience during the past year has also rebuked our national pride and self-conceit. We have, during the past year, parted with much of our self-complacency and self-righteous- ness. We needed to be purged of our pride and self-glorifica- tion and we should be grateful to God today for this token of His mercy. The following applies to the nation today: Our rapid growth in material prosperity was undermining our virtue as a people; luxury was sapping our national vigor; true patri- otism and political justice were ebbing away. It may be that God saw that it was best for us that our career of material pros- perity should be for a time interrupted, that we should be for a time summoned away from those pursuits which have garnered up a wealth which has dug the grave of many an empire, to a a great struggle, that we needed a new baptism of suffering, to save us from the dangers which threatened us and fit us for the vocation to which as a people He has called us. May He not be thus disciplining us for greatness? May He not in the midst of wrath be remembering mercy? We presume not to interpret the purposes of God. But with the history of the past in our hands we see that this is the method in which the Great Ruler of the world has led his chosen nations on." Thus did Dr. Dunning draw from the calamities of civil war which hung like a dark cloud over the nation at that time, lessons of humility, trustfulness, courage and hopefulness. Succeeding years have fully justified the hopeful view of the future taken by Dr. Dun- ning at that time.
The intelligent congregation of the Honesdale Presbyterian church have been sensitive to all the great movements in our history during the years of its existence, and to chronicle all the discussions of these years would be to give a vivid impression of the work of the Nineteenth Century. A few epoch marking instances only can be noticed. When Mckinley was ruthlessly struck down the President appointed a day in September, 1901, as a memorial day and union services were held in the Presby- terian church presided over by Rev. Dr. Swift. There was a
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large attendance and Captain Ham Post, G. A. R., attended in a body. "Lead Kindly Light" was sung by the choir and con- gregation. Rev. J. P. Ware, rector of Grace Episcopal church, read a portion of Scripture and Rev. G. A. Place, of the M. E. church, prayed. "Some Day We'll Understand" was feelingly rendered by Mrs. C. H. Rockwell, assisted in the chorus by the choir. Addresses were given by M. E. Simons, Esq .; Rev. C. L. Perey, of the Baptist church; R. M. Stocker, Esq .; F. P. Kimble, Esq .; Rev. J. Gilpin Fletcher, pastor of the Pittston Presbyterian church, and Rev. W. S. Peterson, pastor of the Nanticoke Presbyterian church. The exercises closed with singing "America." The addresses were highly complimentary of the manhood and character of the deceased President.
In this connection let us notice the address of Rev. Dr. Swift at the dedication of the soldiers' plot in Glen Dyberry cemetery, Memorial Day, 1903. Among other things he said: "It is specially fitting today, men of Captain James Ham Post of the G. A. R., that you should do honor to him whose name you bear, who fell at the battle of Five Forks, the only soldier killed on the field of battle whose mortal remains rest in this beautiful sleeping place of the dead. A typical American soldier was he. To be true to history it must be said, on the authority of Col. Durland, that onee he deserted-deserted from the hospital, that he might share with his men the perils and the fortunes of war and lead them into battle. Says Col. Bean: 'I can truthfully say that I never knew a braver man in the hour of real danger. We rode together to and through the Chancellorsville campaign. In the gloom of that disastrous field he was undismayed. On the long and wearisome march to Gettysburg, and in that terrible battle he was ever at the post of duty. In all the great engagements and marches that followed under Sherman and Grant, in the Army of the Potomac in the Shenandoah Valley and finally to the left of Petersburg and at Five Forks where he laid down his young and promis- ing life, he was the same gallant, prompt and efficient volun- teer officer.' * * 'Twas thirty-eight years ago that he laid
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down his precious life at his country's call in defence of the Union, that the marriage bonds between liberty and union might not be severed, but he never more truly lived than he lives today in the blessed results of that awful war, the shackles of the slaves forever broken, the flag still floating over a united country. Not one single star dimmed in the blue of that flag that knows no sectionalism, that stands as never before the world over as the symbol of all that is noblest in national life, for justice, for freedom, for truth. We dedicate this fair spot by flinging to the breeze the flag that stands for liberty."
These extracts from the addresses of Dr. Dunning and Dr. Swift will show the spirit in which the pastors of the Hones- dale Presbyterian church met the issues growing out of the Civil War. There are other issues of law and order, civic right- eousness, temperance and all the old questions of greed and covetousness that Dr. Dunning mentioned are still live issues, and oppression comes in another form-that between labor and capital. There was never greater need of strong Biblical teach- ing than today. The mission of the ministry and the church will never cease as long as wrong exists in the world. One of the most hopeful signs of religious progress is found in the assembling in 1905, of 500 delegates in Carnegie Hall, New York, representing 30 denominations and 18,000,000 communi- cants, for the purpose of formulating a system of federation among the churches; so that two or three denominations shall not occupy a field that should be held by one congregation. The Young Men's Christian Association; the Society of Chris- tian Endeavor; the International Sunday School Lessons, and dividing of heathen lands among different denominations, have all tended towards union or federation in church work. One hundred years ago the denominational differences were accentu- ated to the detriment of the church, today the points of agree- ment, which are many, are magnified to the benefit of all.
WAR RECORD.
The war record of the Honesdale Presbyterian church is not as great in proportion to the number attending the church
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as members or as a part of the congregation, as it was in its sister Presbyterian churches in Mount Pleasant and Salem; but there were a number of the congregation in the army and navy.
The Honesdale Guards, afterwards known as Co. C, 6th reserves, or 35th Pennsylvania Regiment, were organized in Honesdale. Captain John S. Wright and Lieut. R. N. Torrey, of this company, were from the Presbyterian congregation, also Sergt. William H. VanKirk, Co. C, 67th Pa., Corporal Aaron K. Pruden, Co. G, 77th Pa., Graham Watts, Co. C, 67 Pa., promoted to Quartermaster Sergeant and was in Libby prison six weeks, serving in all three years and nine months. And of the 17th Pa. Cavalry there were Col. Durland, H. J. Tarble, Corporal of Co. M and hospital steward, Ebenezer T. Losey, bugler. Henry B. Hall, Co. G, 141st Pa. E. B. Freeman, Quartermaster, 9th Pa. John Bassett and Corporal Lewis Cory- ell, 4th New Jersey Light Artillery. Lieut. James H. Lord, 12th U. S. Infantry, also in battery U. S. Artillery. C. M. Ball, 2d Lieut. Co. G, 141st Pa. Hiram Dibble was in Co. D, 179 drafted militia.
Certain persons who served in the army and navy who became members of the congregation were in the wars of our country. Jabez Rockwell was a soldier of the Revolution and David Beers was in the War of 1812. Joseph Schofield was in Duncan's Battery, U. S. Army, in Mexican War, and Jesse Blaine was in Co. K, 2d Pa. Vol. in Mexican War.
Lt. Col. George B. Osborn commanded the 56 Pa. Regi- ment for a time and was engaged in twenty-six battles. He removed to Honesdale after he was elected County Treasurer where he died in May, 1905.
Stephen F. Wells, of Co. C, 112 Pa., Dr. H. G. Keefer, Assistant Surgeon U. S. Volunteers; Charles F. Rockwell put in a substitute, Archibald O'Hara, a seaman on the Santiago, who was killed at Fort Fisher. Lewis S. Collins was drafted and sent a substitute at a cost of $900. Stewart O. Lincoln served in Co. F, 50th New York Engineers. Henry Wilson was 2d Lieutenant of Co. G, 177th Pa. drafted militia.
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In September, 1862, about the time of the battle of Antie- tam the authorities at Harrisburg were apprehensive of an in- vasion of Pennsylvania and the 24th Emergency Militia was organized and reported at Harrisburg. They were there a week or ten days and returned home. Company C was commanded by Captain M. L. Tracy and among the number enrolled from the congregation were Sergt. H. M. Seely, Corporal Thomas H. Dickson, Corporal H. F. Atherton, Thomas H. R. Tracy, musi- cian, P. W. Bentley, F. E. Addoms, John S. Eno, George Fos- ter, Fred I. Keen, also afterwards in construction corps, E. A. Penniman, S. W. Powell, William H. Stone, Abram G. Sher- wood, Levi H. Schoonover, Jason Torrey, Henry F. Torrey, Isaac F. Ward, George M. Wood. The boys had their hair cropped close and called themselves "roundheads." A few days after they arrived in Harrisburg Capt. Samuel Allen came down with Company A, consisting of older men. Henry H. Roe was 2d Lieut. in this company. Stephen G. Cory and A. B. Lacy were in this company.
After the battle of Gettysburg the 28th Volunteer militia was formed for service within the state, James Chamberlain, Colonel, commanding. William H. Jessup, of Montrose, was Major of this regiment. Company B, was organized at Mont- rose and among its members were 2d Lieut. Henry F. Atherton, George Foster, Henry F. Torrey and George F. Bentley. They were mustered in June 18, 1863, and mustered out July 27, 1863. They worked on entrenchments at Harrisburg and one of their number was wounded by a shell during the bombard- ment of Carlisle, Pa.
The 35th Emergency Regiment served about the same time as the 28th Regt. H. M. Seely was Lieutenant of Co. B, and other members from the congregation were Sergt. Horace Wes- ton, Ulysses Beers, John Bassett, William H. Stanton, William H. Stone, Isaac Ward, Thomas F. Torrey, Henry H. Roe, Ad- jutant.
Commander Charles W. Tracy, who was in the navy on the St. Lawrence when the Petrel was destroyed, is now in
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Boston navy yard. J. W. Kesler was on the Mississippi with Dewey when it burned and he swam ashore. Thomas H. Dick- son was on the U. S. steamer Winona. He also furnished a substitute in the army. Fred E. Addoms served in the navy.
John K. Jenkins, H. B. Hamlin, Isaiah Snyder, M. F. VanKirk, E. A. Penniman and Coe F. Young furnished substi- tutes. Edwin F. Torrey paid $1,000 for a substitute for three years although he was not liable to the draft. H. C. Hand paid $1,100 for a substitute of which amount the borough re- funded $300.
Samuel R. Denton served in Co. H, U. S. Regulars, and died at Little Rock, Ark., September 11, 1866, and George H. Clark, who was in the same company and regiment, died in the same place three days later.
James S. Gillen was a veteran soldier of the Civil War.
Graham Watts enlisted in Co. C, 67 Regt. Pa. Infantry, December 4, 1861. In 1863 they were stationed at Berryville, in Shenandoah Valley, attached to 2d Brigade, 3d Division, 8th Army Corps. On advance of Lee's army into Pennsylvania in June, 1863, they were ordered to reinforce Gen. R. H. Milroy at Winchester. After the battle of Chancellorsville Gen. Lee came up by way of Winchester and captured about half of Milroy's forces and among the prisoners was Graham Watts, who was captured after a desperate battle at Winchester. The prisoners were sent to Staunton, Va., thence to Libby prison, thence to Belle Island and were released on parole July 20, 1863, and sent to parole camp at Annapolis, Md. The regiment lost twenty-two in Winchester battle. Watts, Charles Graham and two others came home on foot from Annapolis, a distance of four hundred miles. In October, 1863, he was exchanged and went to Brandy Station in the Army of the Potomac in a part of the Third Army Corps. In January, 1864, after Gen. Grant took command he was put into the 6th Corps, and Watts reenlisted. The regiment went through the Wilderness campaign, and in July, 1864, Washington was threatened and the Third Division was sent to Baltimore and Monocacy where a battle was fought, and the Union troops fell back to the Relay House. The balance of the 6th Corps arrived and drove Early from near Washington. In August, 1864, Gen. Sheridan raided Shenandoah Valley, and the battle of Opequan was fought where four of Watts' company were killed. The loss was 4,000 men. They drove the Rebels to Strasbourg and Sheridan outflanked them at Fisher's Hill, and they drove them to Harrisonburg. Finally they fell back to Cedar Creek. They lay on the north embankment of Cedar Creek and Gen. J. B. Gordon attacked the army October 19, 1864, and surprised the corps and captured 3,000 prisoners and all the artillery of the 18th and 19th Corps. They drove
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the Union troops back to Newtown about twelve miles from Winchester, the 6th Corps was intact but the other two corps were routed. Gen. Sheri- dan came up about 10 o'clock on the 19th. Watts saw Sheridan come up entirely alone and he had his cap in his hand and said "Turn back, we will whip them out of their boots and have our camps again." About 3 o'clock he had the lines reformed and ordered an advance. They captured about 4,000 prisoners and got all of their artillery back. In December they were sent back to Petersburg. On April 2, 1865, they charged the entrench- ments in front of Petersburg and captured five guns and 1,700 prisoners. On the same day they were sent to the right to help the 9th Army Corps. After the city was evacuated on April 6, they fought their last fight at Saylor's Creek. There they captured about 8,000 men of Lee's army. On April 9 Lee surrendered at Appomattox.
Sergt. William H. VanKirk was in this company and in its battles.
Franklin Austin Seely, son of Colonel Richard L. and Maria (Torrey) Seely, was born at Seely's Mills, now Seelyville, a suburb of Honesdale, Pa., on April 4, 1834. After graduation he began the study of law at home, but was hampered by weakness of the eyes, and so took up, in 1856, his father's business of lumbering, in which he was engaged until November, 1862. He was then appointed assistant quartermaster of volunteers, with the rank of captain, and was discharged in July, 1867, with the brevet rank of lieutenant colonel. In 1865 he was assigned to duty on the Freedmen's Bureau, and continued in the service of the bureau until its discontinuance in 1871. He had been stationed in St. Louis, Mo., since March, 1867, and continued in business there until 1873. He then returned to Honesdale, Pa., and went into business there, but was unsuccessful and in December, 1875, obtained a position as assistant examiner in the United States Patent Office. In April, 1877, he was made chief clerk, and in June, 1880, prin- cipal examiner. The special division of work of which he had charge in- cluded the subject of trade marks, and on this branch of the law, as well as on all questions affecting international relations, he became a leading authority. He died at his residence in Washington on February 6, 1895, aged nearly 61 years. He married on November 17, 1858, Mary G., daugh- ter of General Henry W. Wessells, U. S. A., who died on July 13, 1876. Their children were four sons and two daughters, of whom three sons and a daughter are still living. He next married, on September 20, 1888, Delia, daughter of Gilbert Rogers, of Waterford, Conn., who survives him.
George D. Seely, the only living son of Elder R. L. Seely, Is an expert in the electrical department of the Patent Office. He was born at Seely's Mills, May 13, 1838. Graduated at School of Applied Chemistry, Yale, 1859. Appointed United States Patent Office, July 1, 1877, In which service he is at present.
Dr. Dunning was recognized as being the ablest man among the clergymen in Honesdale and on great occasions his services were in demand. When Captain James Ham, for whom the
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Honesdale Army Post was named, was brought home dead, Dr. Dunning preached the funeral discourse. The following is from the pen of T. J. Ham, as clipped from the Honesdale Citizen, of June 8, 1905. While Honesdale was rejoicing over the sur- render of Lee the news of Captain Ham's death came and T. J. H. says:
"Captain James Ham, the intropid officer who had led Company M, of the 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry, through a score of bloody contests, was doomed to fall almost in the moment of final victory, and his sad fate plunged his townspeople into a grief as profound as their rejoicing had been unbounded. It was while he was gallantly leading a charge at the head of his column near the Southside railroad, his regiment, under Sheri- dan, being engaged in a flank movement on Richmond, that he was mortally wounded, a bullet passing through his body. He died on the cars the next night, Sunday, April 2d, while he was being taken, with other wounded officers of his regiment, to City Point, Va. His remains were forwarded to Honesdale, and interred in Glen Dyberry cemetery on the 12th of April. The funeral was a most imposing one. The body was taken to the Presby- terian church, where services were conducted by Rev. C. S. Dunning, who preached a most impressive sermon. The funeral cortege comprised not only a very long procession of carriages and an immense throng on foot, but the Masonic Fraternity and the Fire Department, of both of which bodies he was a prominent and honored member, were present in uniform, and a fine horse, equipped with cavalry accoutrements, and with the Cap- tain's military boots reversed in the stirrups, was led behind the hearse. During the sad funeral rites and the progress of the procession through the streets all places of business were closed as a token of respect to the dead. The Captain left a wife and oue son, his only other child having died a few weeks previously. He was a native of Launceston, England, and came to this country when 16 years of age. When he entered the military service he relinquished a situation as deputy in the Honesdale post office, a position which he had filled with great acceptability, and in which he had made himself deservedly popular by his efficiency and the invariable courtesy which he extended to the patrons of the office."
When Lincoln was assassinated, on the Sunday following the Presi- dent's death, the Presbyterian church, of Honesdale, was draped in mourn- ing in recognition of the National calamity. In front of the pulpit were the colors festooned with crape. The desk was covered with black cloth. In the rear of the pulpit was draped an immense flag, trimmed with black and bearing in its center a dark cross. Festoons of black also hung from the gallery. The pastor, Rev. O. S. Dunning, delivered a most impressive discourse appropriate to the occasion. Similar, though not as elaborate evidences of mourning, were displayed in the other churches, and all of the pastors alluded feelingly to the great national bereavement. On the fol- lowing Wednesday the funeral obsequies were observed by all the congre-
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gations of the place in most impressive general services in their several houses of worship, which were invarlably crowded. Every place of busi- ness in the town was closed, and stores and dwellings were very generally draped in mourning. Commencing at half past eleven the bells were kept tolling until twelve, when the ceremonies began simultaneously in all the churches. The addressses delivered were very impressive and touching. Pursuant to a call determined upon at a preliminary meeting of the busi- ness men of Honesdale held at the Allen House, on Tuesday morning, a public meeting was held at Liberty Hall on Wednesday evening. There was a very large attendance both of ladies and gentlemen. Z. H. Russell presided, with John Torrey and Earl Wheeler as vice presidents and H. A. Woodhouse and Joseph C. Delezenne, secretaries. Rev. L. H. Grennell read a portion of Scripture and Rev. Dr. Zechariah Paddock followed in prayer. Eloquent addresses were then made by C. S. Minor, George G. Waller and F. B. Penniman. All voiced the universal recognition of the fact that a good and great man had fallen by wicked hands, and that an ir- reparable loss had been sustained by the nation. After the reading by T. J. Ham, of a series of resolutions appropriate to the occasion, which had been prepared by a committee comprising himself, F. B. Penniman, F. M. Crane, William Weiss, John Torrey and John Hennigan, and their unani- mous adoption by the meeting, Rev. F. D. Hoskins pronounced the bene- diction and the commemorative services were at an end.
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