USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > Honesdale > History of the First Presbyterian society of Honesdale > Part 25
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TEMPERANCE.
The Honesdale Presbyterian church was organized in the days when nearly every one drank intoxicants occasionally. In fact it was hardly possible to have a house raising, barn rais- ing or even a church raising without providing a sufficient quantity of whiskey or rum. The merchants all sold it and rolled it out on the towpath of the canal by the barrel. It was customary to have something to drink at weddings and christen- ings and in many homes there was the sideboard, with its decanter filled with liquor. This was particularly true in the Eighteenth Century. In 1804 Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Phila- delphia, called attention to the effects of alcohol upon the people, and about 1832-3 Rev. Lyman Beecher preached six sermons on the subject of temperance that attracted much attention, then along in the forties came the Washingtonian movement which has been followed by the "Sons of Temperance," "Good Tem- plars," and the woman's crusade, resulting in the "Womans' Christian Temperance Union." These efforts work through moral suasion. Political efforts have been made, through Lo-
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cal Option, Constitutional Amendments, and the Prohibition party.
A number of the founders of the church were merchants, and as such sold whiskey the same as the other merchants; but about the time of the Washingtonian movement Elders Foster and Brush signed an agreement not to handle liquor in any way, and that was probably the first temperance pledge signed in Honesdale. B. B. Smith, H. A. Woodhouse, F. B. Penni- man, C. S. Minor and others were temperance men. John Tor- rey and Stephen Torrey were men of strictly temperate habits. In fact the ministry and eldership of the church have been composed of temperance men, to the extent that they have been men of temperate habits and a number of them have been total abstinence men. It would be an anomaly to see a drunken Presbyterian minister or elder. In this respect the churches generally have improved greatly. The first pledges were against alcoholic drinks, while the lighter wines and beer were allowed to be drank. H. A. Woodhouse, who lived through that movement, said, "We found that this was a slow but a sure way to make drunkards." Temperance people soon abandoned such reformation and adopted the total abstinence principle; and the Prohibitionist went one step further and announced total abstinence for the individual and prohibition for the state.
During the campaign, about 1854, when the question was referred to the people, H. B. Beardslee, editor of the Herald, and F. B. Penniman, editor of the Democrat, stumped the county together in favor of the movement. Later on there was a local option movement and some of the townships voted for the movement and others against it. When the constitutional amendment was voted on, the movement to organize the county in favor of the amendment came from a meeting called by Rev. Stephen Torrey that met in the Lecture Room. This meeting was not largely attended, but an organization was effected which led to the subsequent organization of every township in the county. The most aggressive men in the congregation for the Prohibition party were B. B. Smith, H. A. Woodhouse, Elias
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T. Beers and J. A. Bodie. The first two in particular were county leaders of the movement as long as they lived. These reformers complained that the church did not sustain them any more freely than it did the Abolitionists, which is true as far as making the question a partizan matter is concerned, but the church is a temperance body in its practice, and there are signs that this great cause, which was temporarily set back during the Civil War, is gaining ground again. The church must do its duty in this matter. Our pastor occasionally treats this subject from the pulpit and there are Sunday school lessons arranged and taught with reference to this appalling evil. A number of the women of our church are also connected with the W. C. T. U. in connection with women from other churches. The church has hardly measured up to its opportunities on this great question. However it has done something, the session September 19, 1837, at a meeting when Rev. Watters Warren was moderator and elders Foster, Brush, Baldwin, Lord and Torrey were present, it was resolved that session will procure and use the unfermented fruit of the vine at the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, if it is practicable to obtain such a prepara- tion. This action has never been repealed and it is the law of the church to this day.
At the time of the local option movement Dr. Dunning made an address in the Court House in its favor, which was unanswerable by those who opposed the measure. H. M. Seely also favored the law, and he declared from the bench at one time that he never made an application for a license while practicing at the bar, that is also true of R. M. Stocker, W. H. Lee and M. E. Simons.
At the time the constitutional amendment was being agi- tated, in 1889, the following paper was circulated:
We, the undersigned citizens of Honesdale and vicinity, unite in a call for a non partizan, non sectarian citizens' meet- ing, to be held at the Court House, in Honesdale, February 26, (1889), at 7:30 p. m. for the purpose of listening to the report of delegates from the Harrisburg convention to be held Febru-
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ary 19, 1889, and to devise means and perfect plans for carry- ing on the prohibition amendment campaign. Friends of the movement throughout the county are invited to attend. This call, which resulted in the organization of the county for effi- cient work for the amendment, was signed by Rev. Stephen Torrey, Andrew Thompson, R. M. Stocker, Rev. W. H. Swift, W. A. Gaylord, Rev. H. C. McDermott, W. H. Lee, H. C. Hand, Rev. L. O. Grennell, Ulysses Beers, H. B. Hall, J. S. Gillen, J. A. Bodie, E. C. Mumford, W. T. Moore, David Bodie, J. Adam Reitenauer, S. Frank Cory, John Torrey, George Foster, H. S. Salmon, William, J. Ward, Daniel Weston, Charles E. Knapp, Joseph N. Welch, G. Watts, J. A. Brown, O. M. Spettigue, E. G. Reed, G. F. Wilbur, S. W. Powell, D. H. Menner, Buel Dodge, Cyrene Dodge, S. A. Terrel, C. S. Minor, F. B. Penni- man, Rev. John B. Sumner, George W. Twitmyer, S. J. Foster, W. H. Stone, John R. Brown, Fred G. Brown, Charles F. Bul- lock, H. A. Woodhouse, J. J. Curtis, Thomas Crossley, W. B. Holmes, A. E. Davis, Benjamin F. Haines, W. P. Schenck, F. P. Kimble, E. A. Penniman, Eben H. Clark, M. E. Simons, P. S. Barnes, Stephen G. Cory, Alonzo T. Searle, W. H. Dimmick.
At the meeting which resulted from this call the county was organized with Hon. William M. Nelson as chairman and R. M. Stocker as secretary. The publication of the Honesdale Lantern as a campaign sheet from the Independent office, edited by the secretary of the committee, was endorsed and sustained. During the campaign the very best men and women in the county were engaged in sustaining the amendment.
Intemperance is an undoubted foe of morality and religion and the church must wage unceasing warfare against it. The staunch members of the church have also maintained the sanc- tity of the Christian Sabbath. Law, order, temperance and morality are the natural ontgrowth of Christianity.
Honesdale Presbyterian church has given to the ministry Chauncy Burr Goodrich, David Torrey, D. D., Stephen Torrey, John H. Sinclair, George W. Seaman, George N. Snyder, Fran- cis A. Dony, Alfred C. Hand, and A. R. Pennell. About Good-
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rich, Seaman and Sinclair but little is known. Mr. Sinclair was a teacher in the Academy for a number of years. F. A. Dony was a newspaper editor and a Methodist preacher for several years. He died a few years ago. Brief biographies of the others are given. This church has also given such men as Hon. Alfred Hand and Charles W. Hand, Thomas H. Dickson and A. W. Dickson, also Henry W. Dunning, as elders to other influential churches. A. W. Dickson received his training here and joined the church at Philadelphia soon after leaving here. Among those born in Honesdale were Rev. James S. Dickson, who was baptized in Honesdale church, and Henry A. Rowland, son of Dr. Rowland, who did honor to the church and the town by his great scientific attainments. Others who have gone from us have shown the character of their training by the good work they have done in the communities where they have lived.
Rev. David Torrey, D. D. was born in Bethany, Wayne county, November 13, 1818, being a son of Major Jason Torrey. He moved with his father to Honesdale, where he passed his boyhood and prepared for college. He entered Amherst Col- lege, Massachusetts, in 1840 as a sophomore, graduating at the head of his class in 1843. His theological course was begun at Andover Seminary and finished at Union Seminary, New York. Between his graduation from college and his entry into the seminary he taught school for something more than a year in Honesdale. Among those whom he then prepared for col- lege were several who subsequently won distinction in profes- sional and business life, among them being Hon. Alfred Hand, Hon. Henry M. Seely, both judges of the courts of Pennsyl- vania, Henry B. Hyde, who founded and developed the Equita- ble Life Assurance Association, of New York, Edwin F. Torrey, of Honesdale, and others. Doctor Torrey was married in 1848 to Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. Heman Humphrey, D. D., LL. D., at that time president of Amherst College. He filled pastorates successively in the Presbyterian churches of the fol- lowing places: Delhi, N. Y., Ithaca, N. Y., Ann Arbor, Mich., Cazenovia, N. Y. In the latter place, after a number of years
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retirement from active duties of the ministry, he died in 1894. During his whole mature life Doctor Torrey was a very frequent visitor in Honesdale and often preached in the Presbyterian church. He occupied the pulpit statedly during several sum- mer vacations of its pastors, and for a number of months prior to the installation of Rev. Dr. Swift. The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by Hamilton College, in which he held the chair of Metaphysics for a year after his retirement from the active ministry. For a long time he was one of the Commissioners and Examiners of Auburn Seminary. He en- tered the ministry from the Honesdale Presbyterian church of which church he became a member December 28, 1839. His son, James H. Torrey, is an elder in the Second Presbyterian church at Scranton, Pa., and a lawyer of high standing in Lack- awanna county.
Rev. George Niver Snyder, son of Isaiah and Margaret Hasbrouck Snyder, was born in Honesdale, March 27, 1844. He united with the Presbyterian church June 30, 1858, and was graduated from Hamilton College in 1868. He took the regular course in Union Theological Seminary, graduating in 1871. During his last year in the seminary he supplied the pulpit of the Reformed church of Elmsford, Westchester county, N. Y., and after finishing his course was installed pastor of that church in June, 1871. He married Miss Sarah Scott, daughter of C. M. Scott, of Honesdale, November 15, 1871. He was now equipped for service, but sickness came and he returned to Honesdale where he died November 2, 1872. Mr. Snyder was a bright young man and seemed to have a fair future before him, but the grim reaper death gathered him away from earthly duties soon after he was prepared for usefulness. His widow married Rev. James R. Hoadley, who is doing a good work in one of the down town Presbyterian churches in New York City.
Rev. Alvin Ross Pennell was born in the township of Pau- pack in 1867, the son of Jonah Pennell, one of the earlier set- tlers in that part of the town know as Purdyville. Alvin Ross, the youngest son of a large family, began his education in the
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common schools there and in his early teens, was sent to the Waymart Normal Institute to receive his high school training. After having studied there under Prof. J. F. Dooley for aperiod, he engaged for a few months in teaching. Then he entered Wyoming Seminary to pursue a regular course of study which was completed in 1891; in that year he was graduated from that institution with honors, having completed the classical course. In his youth he had united with the only Protestant church in the town where he resided, the Methodist Episcopal church. Having felt a call to the Gospel ministry he united by letter with the Presbyterian church of Honesdale in the year 1890, and the following year was taken under care of the Pres- bytery of Lackawanna as a candidate for the ministry. He entered the regular course of theological study at Auburn Semi- nary, New York, in the fall of 1891 and was graduated with a class of thirty in the spring of 1894. Before his graduation he had received a call from the Presbyterian church at Cato, N. Y. There he was ordained and installed by the Presbytery of Cayuga, June 15, 1894. There he remained and did a success- ful work for five years, until the fall of 1899, when he was called to the pastorate of the First Presbyterian church of Holyoke, Mass. This is a large and thriving church and dur- ing his pastorate large additions have been received and a debt of $8,000 on the church, from the time of its erection, has been provided for. He was married October 17, 1894, to Evelyn Dessie Groner, of the Honesdale Presbyterian church. She is an active worker with her husband in the affairs of the church life.
Hon. James R. Dickson was born in Montgomery county, Pa., in 1811. He became a resident of Honesdale in 1846, hav- ing prior to that for some time been engaged in the wholesale drygoods business in Philadelphia. He formed a partnership in a general store with Henry Dart on his arrival in Honesdale, and afterwards engaged in a flour mill with Jeremiah C. Gunn, who later retired and was succeeded by Charles T. Weston, the firm becoming Dickson & Weston, which subsequently became
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THOS. H. DICKSON
HON. ALFRED HAND A. W. DICKSON
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E. F. Torrey and Company, Mr. Dickson being the company. In 1861 Dickson bought an interest in a tannory at Aldenville and removed there with his family, but finding the association uncongenial sold out to his partner and returned to Philadel- phia where he resided until his death in 1870. He was of Scotch-Irish ancestry, by inheritance and conviction a Calvinist, and a Democrat by instinct and party affiliation; conservative by nature, generous in his impulses, kind in his disposition and a friend of the poor and needy, he was one of nature's noblemen, a man to respect, to admire and to love. Although deprived in his youth of educational advantages, he had by an extensive course of reading, acquainted himself with good literature and was familiar with the writings of the best authors. While a resident of Wayne county he was known as an upright citizen of public spirit and enterprise. He was a member of the Pres- byterian church and a trustee for a time. He also took an interest in education and was a trustee of Honesdale Academy. In 1856 he was elected Associate Judge of the county and was appointed an aid on the staff of Governor Packer with the rank of Colonel. James R. Dickson married Caroline Louisa Stuart, daughter of James Stuart, for many years an elder of "Old Pine Street church," Philadelphia. Their children were Thomas Hunter, Alexander Walker, Anna Moore, Elizabeth Walker, Martha Mitchell and James Stuart Dickson. Taken together they are as clean cut and fine a family as ever lived in Hones- dale.
Thomas H. Dickson, son of J. R. Dickson, was born in 1840 and united with the Honesdale church in 1857. He ob- tained his education at Honesdale Academy and under private tutors. From 1857 to 1863 he was in the employ of Thomas Cornell & Co., and C. F. Young. From 1863 to 1865 he was in the U. S. Navy. He has been in the transportation business since 1870 and is representative of the Northern Pacific rail- road at St. Paul, Minn. He was ordained an elder in Mac- alester church, St. Paul, in 1876, and has been Commissioner to the General Assembly, at Cincinnati, 1885; Portland, Or.,
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1892, and Winona, Ind., 1898. Director and President of St. Paul's Y. M. C. A. for several years, trustee of Macalester College, 1891-1901, and president of the board the last four years. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. C. R. Gregory, in 1870, and has had five children. The youngest son, Thomas H. Dickson, Jr., is teaching and intends to become a medical missionary. Thomas H. Dickson is a man of character and influence, a son of our church of whom we need not be ashamed.
Alexander Walker Dickson was born in Philadelphia, Feb- ruary 7, 1843, and came to Honesdale with his parents when he was only three years old, in 1846, and returned to Philadel- phia in 1861 and united shortly afterwards with the Tenth and Arch street Presbyterian church, under the ministry of Rev. William S. Plumer, D. D. He went to Scranton in 1865 and was with the Weston Mill company until 1900 when the Del- aware & Hudson railroad purchased the property for a depot site and the company went out of business, then Mr. Dickson organized the Dickson Mill and Grain company, of which he is president. He was ordained an elder in the First Presbyterian church of Scranton, February 19, 1871, under the pastorate of Rev. S. C. Logan, D. D. He has been honored by Pres- bytery by being chosen as a Commissioner to General Assem- bly five times, attending the meetings at St. Louis, Detroit, Pittsburg, Minneapolis and Philadelphia. He has been a mem- ber of the Presbytery's executive committee for work among Foreign Speaking People since its organization in 1893. He was one of the charter members of the Thirteenth Regiment, N. G. P., when it was organized in 1877, and was a member of the Scranton Board of Trade for twenty-one years, being its president two years. He has been one of the trustees of the East Stroudsburg Normal school since its organization. He has one son, Rev. Spencer Cole Dickson, pastor of the Presby- terian church at Point Pleasant, N. J., and one daughter, the widow of Dr. Blanchard, resident of Scranton. Of the influ- ences he was under while in Honesdale he writes: "The first Sabbath school teacher I remember was Miss Anna Lord, daugh-
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ter of Russel F. Lord, who married Frederick Tracy, of Mans- field, O. She was a lovely woman and had a great influence over her boys. I remember the class was all in tears when she left us. A later teacher was Mrs. Bennett and afterwards G. G. Waller, Esq. My recollections of Dr. Rowland are of the pleasantest sort. I think he had a strong influence for good upon me, as had Stephen Torrey, of blessed memory, and that most lovely Miss Ada Torrey, afterward wife of Dr. Grant, Bey, of Egypt. Altogether as I look back upon my young life in Honesdale and the old church and Sunday school, I am grateful 'that my lines were cast in pleasant places,' and that I grew up under most excellent influences at home, in school, in Sunday school and church."
Rev. James Stuart Dickson was born in Honesdale and baptized in the Presbyterian church. That staunch Presby- terian journal, the New York Observer, in an editorial Decem- ber 29, 1904, says: "The college board, December 15, received a report from its committee on secretary, unanimously nominat- ing for that office the Rev. James Stuart Dickson, pastor of Woodland church, Philadelphia. He was elected by ballot, without a dissenting vote, and will soon begin his service of the church and the board in the college cause. The board is now fully organized, its members and committees taking hold with vigor and wisdom of the work before them, and Mr. Dick- son will enter upon a rare and great opportunity to influence the future policies of the board and the welfare of our Presby- terian colleges. Mr. Dickson was born in Honesdale, Pa., July 19, 1859. He was graduated from the University of Pennsyl- vania in 1880, and went at once to the Princeton Theological Seminary, to prepare for the ministry; he received his instruc- tion in theology under Dr. A. A. Hodge. Among his class- mates will be found the name of the Rev. James Walter Lowrie, formerly of Peking, and later of Paotingfu, China, who rendered very distinguished services in the days of the Boxer outbreak. Mr. Dickson was ordained by the Presbytery of New Bruns- wick, October 9, 1883, and installed as pastor of the church at
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Dayton, N. J. He was called in 1886 to assume the responsi- bilities of a city pastorate, and was installed over Woodland church, Philadelphia, at a critical juncture in its history. He addressed himself at once with characteristic energy to the work of ridding the church from the burden of debt, and soon had the pleasure of seeing it free from embarrassment and in the enjoyment of marked prosperity. Under his administration the church has become distinguished for its thorough organiza- tion, and missionary activity. Every department has felt in- cessantly the power of his personality, and been stimulated to activity. His preaching has been marked by perfect loyalty to the Word of God, by intense earnestness and a high degree of spirituality. His pastoral labors have been performed with loving zeal and untiring activity during the eighteen years of his peaceful and happy relationship to his people. He has been for a number of years a useful member of the Board of Publication and Sabbath school Work; and has recently been elected a director of Princeton Theological Seminary. When the trustees of this institution undertook in 1902 to raise a fund of $100,000 for the endowment of a chair in memory of the life and services of Prof. William Henry Green, they turned to Mr. Dickson as the man most fitted to carry the undertaking to a successful issue. They were not disappointed in their ex- pectations. The work was done with promptitude and efficiency. The larger work to which he is now called is one which will put his ability to a new test, but he brings to it the prestige of success, a courageous spirit, a wide acquaintance with men, tact and skill in dealing with them, and a strong physical constitu- tion, capable of protracted labor. If Presbytery consent to dissolve the pastoral relation it will be a sad day for the con- gregation; but it will have the consolation of knowing that it is releasing him for a work of much wider extent, and of supreme importance for the welfare of the church."
Henry White Dunning, son of Rev. Dr. Dunning, was educated in the private and public schools of Honesdale and Williston Seminary, Easthampton, Mass., from which institution
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he was graduated in 1878. He became a member of the class of 1882 at Princeton. He read law in the offices of William H. Lee, Esq., of Honesdale, and Hon. H. B. Payne, of Wilkes- Barre, Pa., and was admitted to Luzerne county bar June 5, 1882, since which time he has been engaged in practicing his profession, which is principally corporation practice, although he does a general law business. He was married June 17, 1896, to Miss Elise J. Sandoz, a native of Switzerland, a woman of superior culture. They have two daughters, Louisa S. and Dorothy A. Mr. Dunning was elected an elder of the First Presbyterian church, of Wilkes-Barre, in January, 1901. He is one of the sons of the church who reflects credit upon it. He frequently comes back to Wayne, spending his summers at Bethany. His brother, Edward P., is a prosperous business man, located in Chicago. Mrs. Dunning owns a handsome residence in Wilkes-Barre and her daughters, Miss Kate A. and Miss Maria W. Dunning, reside with her. Mrs. Dunning is remembered in Honesdale as a careful woman in her family and as having been helpful to her husband in many ways during his memorable pastorate of Honesdale Presbyterian church.
The Hand family of Honesdale are descended from John Hand who came to Southampton, L. I., prior to 1644. He settled at Easthampton and was one of the pioneers in found- ing the new settlement. He came from Etanstede, Kent county, England. Ezra Hand was of the seventh generation from John Hand, and was born August 9, 1799. He had meager advan- tages for schooling, but like most of his contemporaries had suf- ficient schooling to be able to do business. June 1, 1829, he married Catharine Chapman. They came to Honesdale in the summer of 1831, and he went into the tanning and mercantile business with Foster & Roe. Their store was where the Key- stone block now is. About 1834-5 Hand and his brother-in- law, Daniel P. Kirtland, entered into partnership and erected the store on the corner of Main and Eleventh streets, now owned by Henry Freund. They conducted the mercantile business until 1864 when Horace Hand purchased the business. Ezra
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