USA > Pennsylvania > Huntingdon County > Huntingdon > History of the Presbytery of Huntingdon > Part 28
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Dr. THOMPSON was a man of pleasing person and winning address. He had a sprightly and most genial spirit. Its innocent and peaceful overflowings helped to endear him to his friends, and to enliven and cheer every circle in which he moved. He had an acute, ready, and practical mind. When he applied it to a subject his thoughts were
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clear and discriminating, often exceedingly vigorous and impressive. His command of language-his plain Saxon English diction-his mi- nute and familiar treatment of his theme-his power of illustration, and his easy and graceful manner, made him one of the most popular extemporaneous speakers of his day. The leading characteristics of his preaching were plainness, pointedness, persuasiveness, and adapt- edness-especially this last. He labored to know and present to the people the particular truths he thought most suited to the occasion. He seemed peculiarly qualified to conduct and aid in services con- nected with revivals of religion. In such seasons his labors were often remarkably blessed, to his own and other churches. The recov- ery of many a backslider, and the awakening and conversion of many sinners, throughout this and other Presbyteries, attest how he was a chosen instrument of salvation to souls. While in this and other lands, many now in the ministry, remember him affectionately as their spiritual father and helper. To the Boards of our church he was a prompt and useful friend; while all the causes a good man is bound to support, especially those in his own community, received his constant and generous attention. A large and flourishing acad- emy, and a seminary for young ladies, hard by his home, owe much of their prosperity and christian influence to his efforts. In Presbytery his animation, earnestness, and diligent attention to business, and readiness of counsel, cause his loss to be deeply felt among the breth- ren with whom he immediately associated.
His pastoral labors among the people of his late charge were emi- nently successful. A church comparatively feeble when he came to it, at his death numbered near seven hundred communicants, with several flourishing Sabbath Schools and prayer meetings, and a large and efficient eldership, composed of men of prayer and work. After his death it was divided into two congregations, each sustaining a pastor. His influence over his people was marked, and will be long remembered and felt. He was a man among men wherever he was, and whatever he did. The people, and especially the young with whom he conversed on the subject of religion, whom in the hour of conviction and distress he sought to lead to the great Consoler, felt that he was their fellow, a sinner like themselves, to be "saved by grace," and one who knew the weakness of their hearts. He was a man of faith and prayer, and simple dependence on Christ. Salvation through Christ was the great theme of his preaching, and as he said.
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when dying, "he rested on Christ with a poor sinner's hope." And those who knew him best, remember him now as a childlike, unsus- pecting, kind-hearted, patient, forbearing, and forgiving christian man and minister-loving the brethren, and beloved by them all. And the Presbytery of which he was so long an active and useful member, in its last official act towards him, orders the record of this brief memorial of his life and death, with affecting sense of loss to themselves, and to the Church, in his comparatively early removal.
" The pains of death are passed, Labor and sorrow cease, And life's stern warefare, closed at last. His soul is found in peace. Soldier of Christ ! well done ! Praise be thy new employ : And while eternal ages run, Rest in the Saviour's joy."
REV. SAMUEL M. COOPER.
S YAMUEL M. COOPER was a son of Mr. ROBERT COOPER, an elder of East Kishacoquillas congregation. Of course he enjoyed the advantage of that careful religious training which pious Presby- terian parents were then accustomed to give their children. At what age he became a member of the church of his fathers, by his own voluntary act, we have now no means of knowing, but it must have been in his early youth, as he was still quite a young man when he commenced his studies with a view to the ministry. He was graduated at Jefferson College, Canonsburg, in 1836. He was received under the care of the Presbytery of Huntingdon, October, 1838, as a candidate for the ministry. Having completed his Theo_ logical studies at Princeton Seminary, he was licensed to preach the gospel by the Presbytery, April 16, 1840. Before the next stated meeting of the Presbytery he received a call to Lick Run congre- gation, Centre county, which had formerly been a part of Rev. Dr. LINN'S charge. Before his settlement he was married to Miss NANCY FORSYTHE, of Lewistown, a lady eminently suited to be a helpmate for him. He continued to be the pastor of Lick Run till the Spring of 1852, at which time the pastoral relation was dissolved at his request and with the consent of the congregation, in view of his failing health. Some years previous to this he had established in Jacksonville a Female Seminary, over which he presided with eminent success, but this, together with his pastoral labors, in a large and widely spread congregation, was too much for a constitution never very firm, and his health began to fail. Though he was greatly beloved personally, and highly esteemed as a preacher by the con- gregation, they saw the necessity of consenting to his release from their charge.
Mr. COOPER continued for a year and a half after the dissolution of his pastoral relation to Lick Run, in change of the Female Seminary :
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when he received and accepted a call to Clearfield town, Clearfield county. After serving that congregation for about two yeras, his health again failed, and on an occasion of exposure to severe cold was brought very near to the gates of death. Recovering so far as to permit of traveling, he repaired to Florida, with the hope of permanent benefit from that milder climate. He was so far temporally relieved, that shortly after his return he consented to supply statedly the con- gregation of Little Valley. Before this, however, he had returned to Jacksonville with his family and resumed charge of the Seminary, the buildings of which belonged to him. Shortly after his resumption of the Seminary, Mrs. COOPER was taken suddenly ill and died after a few hours of sickness. Heretofore she had enjoyed remarkable good health and was providentially enabled to relieve her husband of much of the burden connected with the external affairs of the Sem- inary. On the occurrence of this sad event it became necessary for Mr. COOPER to transfer the Seminary to other hands. Upon this he accepted the invitation to supply the congregation of Little Valley, as already stated. Here he labored for a year and a half or two years, when, in July, 1860, he died of pulmonary consumption, the disease which had for some years previously been preying upon his vitals.
As to personal appearance, Mr. COOPER was tall and slender, per- haps something over six feet in height, of dark hair and florid com- plexion ; in natural qualities he was mild, amiable, social, and generous. As a preacher, fully and entirely orthodox according to the standard of Presbyterianism ; always very acceptable in the pulpit and persuasive. As a pastor he was laborious and faithful; and to his conscientious punctuality in fulfilling his appointments, may be attributed the laying the foundation of the disease of which he died. He was universally beloved in his congregations, and especially by the church he served first and longest, which, of course, knew him best. It is believed that in no place and at no time, had he a personal enemy.
Mr. COOPER left a daughter and two sons ; several other children having died in their infancy. His daughter was married to Dr. HOOVER, of Lewistown, and died in May, 1870. The two sons survive and are usefully employed. Mr. COOPER died in the 44th or 45tl year of his age.
REV. DAVID D. CLARKE, D. D.
R EV. DAVID D. CLARKE, D. D., departed this life in McVey- town, Mifflin county, Pa., on the 30th of December, 1865, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. He was born near Shippensburg, Cumber- land county, Pa., completed his academical education at the school of Dr. COOPER, not far from his home, and graduated at Jefferson College in 1831, from which he received his honorary degree a few years before his death. He made a profession of his faith in the church at Shippensburg, then under the care of Rev. Dr. HENRY R. WILSON, Sr. After studying theology at Princeton, N. J., he was licensed in 1837 by the Presbytery of Carlisle. He commenced to preach in Schells- burg, Bedford county, Pa., and after laboring a few months was called to the pastoral charge of the church there in 1838. Thence in 1843 he removed to Fairfield, Adams county, Pa., to succeed the Rev. Dr. PAXTON, who was infirm, in the pastorate of the Lower Marsh Creek congregation. He remained in this field till 1856, when he went to McVeytown to take charge of the churches of McVeytown and Newton Hamilton ; over which he was installed by the Presbytery of Huntingdon the same year. He was twice married. A widow and one son, of four children by his first marriage, survive him; two daughters and a son having preceded him to the eternal world.
An illness of two weeks continuance, that terminated his life, com- menced but a few days after he had closed a protracted meeting of unusual interest.
. God at that time permitted him to see his work revived in one branch of his charge, as he had done a year or two before in another. and immediately called him away. His end was such as might have been expected-marked by the same humility, dignity, and trust in Christ he had always shown. He has left a character, as far as man knows,
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without a stain, and a memory of unwonted fragrance in every con- gregation he served. The faithfulness and earnestness of his preach- ing, the point and tenderness of his pastoral counsels cannot easily be forgotten ; while his gentleness, firmness, prudence, and wisdom in Presbyterial and ordinary social relations endeared him to all who knew him. His ministry of twenty-eight years, that had been blessed from the beginning, presents at its close most precious fruits, in the growth, order, and spiritual prosperity of the people among whom he breathed his last. Thanks be to God for the grace that forms such men, and spares them so long to the Church.
REV. JAMES C. MAHON.
[NOTE .- Though not in the exact order intended, a brief memorial of the Rev. JAMES C. MAHON is appended, who was a brother-in-law of Dr. CLARKE, whose second wife was his sister. ]
AMES C. MAHON was born in the year 1821. In early boyhood,
J having been the subject of a pious mother's prayers and counsels, his thoughts were turned to the importance of religion. His first noticeable convictions were under the preaching of the Rev. Dr. H. R. WILSON, Sr., then pastor of the Presbyterian church in his native town. These convictions were pungent, and continued, at intervals, for months. A part of his time was spent with his brother, Rev. JOSEPH MAHON, in Lawrenceville, N. J. Sometimes almost phrenzied with despair, he would say that his doom was sealed-that it was no use for him to try to be a Christian. Again, in deepest anguish, he would cry for mercy. More than once he waked his friends at mid- night to pray for him. After his return to Shippensburg there was a protracted meeting held in the neighborhood. He attended, and during its progress found peace in believing.
Feeling now that his life should be devoted to the honor of God, he determined to prosecute the studies which he had already com- menced, with the view of preaching the Gospel. He put himself under the theological instruction of the Rev. Dr. HARPER, in connec- tion with the Presbytery of Carlisle. In the Fall of 1850 he entered the theological seminary at Princeton, spent two sessions, was licensed in the Summer of 1852, and after spending a third session at the sem- inary he accepted, in the Spring of 1853, an invitation to supply the united churches of Washington and Carrolton, in the Presbytery of Miami, Ohio, where he was ordained. After some time, having occa- sion to visit his friends in the East, he accepted an invitation to supply the Church at Hunterstown, and afterwards Millerstown and Buffalo, in the Presbytery of Carlisle. Being invited to Lexington,
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Illinois, his labors in this comparatively new field, as well as in the adjacent region, have many witnesses to their fidelity and success.
Suffering from a bronchial affection, which eventually terminated his life, he relinquished this position, transferring his connection to the Presbytery of Huntingdon. He was never able to take a pastoral charge, though several times solicited, but spent the remainder of his ministerial life in occasional and missionary service, for the most part in Blair, Huntingdon and Centre counties.
Two years before his death he had been confined for several months, and ought to have refrained from public speaking; but it was his mis- fortune that he could not answer adversely to an urgency to preach, and therefore was often in the pulpit, when he ought to have been in the hands of the physician. The Sabbath before his first hemorrhage he preached twice; immediately after it he went to Shippensburg, and seemed to rally ; but three weeks after he had another profuse hem- orrhage, which so prostrated him that he never recovered. He in a remarkable manner enjoyed in his last sickness what he had so earnestly desired, the presence of Christ. A few days before his death he said-" I wonder when I shall be delivered from this bondage of corruption. I had thought that I was about to be gone. Come, Lord Jesus! come quickly ! I want to go home." He died at Shippensburg, the place of his birth, on the 15th of January, 1868, in the forty- seventh year of his age.
REV. THOMAS STEVENSON.
YTTHIS beloved brother and faithful minister of Christ was a native of Ireland, the descendant of a Scotch family, which settled almost two hundred years ago on the same farm where THOMAS was born. He was the second of six sons, four of whom have passed to that land from whence there is no returning. In early life THOMAS manifested a love for books, and while a boy became quite familiar with Sacred Scriptures. Taught from his youth to venerate the christian ministry and to worship God in the institutions of his grace, he became impressed with his need of a saving interest in Christ, and regarding himself as lost without a Saviour he professed his faith in Christ, and when eighteen years of age united with the church in which he lived and in which he died. Soon after his brother Ross came to this country and entered upon a course of study for the ministry, THOMAS greatly desired to be a co-laborer with him, and with this object in view, entered the high school of the Rev. C. ALLEN, Strabane. Under the instructions of that great classical scholar he remained two years, and in the Spring of 1839 left his father's home for the United States of America.
A kind provi lence brought him safely to this country, and about the last of May he reached the village of New Athens and entered Franklin College. Here he spent three years and six months in which time he obtained considerable distinction as a close student, a clear thinker, a fine debater, and an exemplary church member. He graduated at Franklin College in 1842, and was regarded by the Faculty as a young man of much promise. In the Fall of the same year he entered the Western Theological Seminary, where he remained until he finished his course; after which he was licensed by the Presbytery of Ohio, June 11, 1845.
The remainder of the Summer was spent in preaching to vacant congregations, among which was Montours, to which he was called
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and in which he was ordained and installed June 17, 1846. There he labored with great acceptance and much success, until January, 1854, when he was dismissed to accept a call to the 2d Presbyterian church, Spruce Creek, Pa. In this and other churches of Hunting- don Presbytery, he continued to preach a pure and precious Gos- pel until his country's cause induced him to exchange the rural parish for the military camp. The groans of mangled heroes after the second disaster of Bull Run, led him to scenes of dreadful suffering ; and after weeks spent in soothing the wounded and min- Istering to the souls of the dying, he was elected Chaplain to the Sixth Pennsylvania Reserves, September, 1862. With this regiment he performed many wearisome marches, endured incredible hard- ships, and confronted the enemy on many a battle field. When their term of enlistment expired he was elected Chaplain of the 49th Volunteers. With this regiment of brave men he marched from the Peninsula to the defence of the Capital, through the Shen- andoah Valley, in all the victories under the invincible SHERIDAN ; and in December, 1864, came home to spend a little season with his family.
After enjoying for a few weeks the endearments of home, he bade farewell to his friends, and in February, 1865, returned to the seat of war. When he returned to the Potomac army he found many colored regiments without chaplains, and his long cherished sym- pathy for that oppressed race and an ardent desire to do good amongst them, induced him to accept a chaplaincy in the One Hundred and Fourteenth Regiment, United States Colored Infantry. This regiment he accompanied through the Wilderness to the storm- ing of Petersburg and the taking of Richmond, and was among the first to enter the city. After peace had been restored and veterans were returning home, Mr. STEVENSON still remained in the army, and with his regiment was ordered to Texas, June, 1865. After many perils by sea and much sickness, they entered the estuary of the Rio Grande, and under a sun almost tropical, and in heat altogether intolerable, the troops disembarked at Brownsville. There the patience and faith, the piety and patriotism of the chaplain were subjected to the severest tests. Sick and suffering his faith was still firm, and his love for his Master's work unabated.
The most of the colored troops do not know the alphabet-they are ignorant of what are the first principles of the Gospel of Christ -- and so with the spelling book in one hand and the Bible in the
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other, the devoted brother carried on the work of preaching and teaching. In the Spring of 1866 his regiment was ordered to Ring- gold Barracks, a military post on the Rio Grande. Here his quarters were more comfortable, his prospects for usefulness more promising, and here his labors were greatly blessed. The Spirit of the Lord came down upon the camp with converting power. The chapel is crowded with devout worshippers, and more than three hundred men are asking what they must do to be saved.
About this time he writes home :- " This wonderful work of God surpasses in depth, in extent, and in power all I have before wit- nessed." But these displays of divine power and converting grace were preparing the way for the coming of the Lord in the judg- ments which soon followed in the fearful ravages of Asiatic cholera. In October this destroyer enters the ranks, and after slaying many, attacks the chaplain. After a few hours of terrible suffering the enemy is vanquished, but leaves his victim utterly prostrated. The constitution is broken and the physical form robbed of its strength. In hopes that a change of location might prove beneficial, he is taken to Brownsville, where he meets his Lord and Master, February 10, 1867, in a death most peaceful and triumphant. The state of his mind during these months of sickness and suffering may be learned from letters he wrote after a temporary recovery. In one to his brother, December 16, he writes :- " I may never see my beloved family and friends in Pennsylvania. If so, the will of the Lord be done. I am not afraid to die, Ross. I have had delightful times in this sick room. I have felt so happy from the presence of Jesus, the blessed Saviour, and from the comforts of the Holy Ghost, that it required an effort to restrain my excited feelings. I know whom I have believed ; and should I die in this half civilized land, I shall go to the believer's home in glory."
In a letter to his wife, and the last he wrote, January 23 and 24, he says :- " As to the state of my mind, with regard to which you inquire, I can say it was calm, peaceful and happy. I found it was a solemn thing to meet God, and have every good and bad work brought into judgment; but I knew that Jesus was my friend, that my Redeemer lives in glory, and having taken him as my Almighty Saviour, I felt that I was safe, and that death to me would be gain. There were several Sabbaths that I expected, and indeed, somewhat desired, that on the next Lord's day I might be
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with Jesus, associating with angels and the church of the first born, composed as it is of some whom death has ruthlessly but briefly separated."
Death had taken from him the wife of his youth, Miss S. A. PLUMER, of West Newton, Westmoreland county, Pa. Also his first born son, whose life was terminated by disease contracted in the camp; and now as he views the river, he has a blessed prospect of a re-union with them, which is to last forever and ever. In domestic relations, Chaplain STEVENSON was exceedingly blessed. He has left a devoted and interesting family. In the social circle his conversational powers shone with a pleasing lustre. In the pulpit he was edifying and comforting, his sermons full of the marrow of divinity. In the camp he was fearless and brave, tender and kind, true to his adopted country and faithful to his God. He fell at his post in the prime of his manhood; he died full of faith and the Holy Ghost, and in the grave of a soldier of the cross he sleeps till the resurrection morn, when he shall hear the trumpet call of his dearest Lord."
Thus far the memorial of the Rev. THOMAS STEVENSON was written by his brother according to the flesh, and at the same time a brother in the ministry, the Rev. Ross STEVENSON, of Corsica, Clarion county, Pa. It is only necessary to assure the reader that he need not sus- pect any exaggeration on the account of the relationship. Much more might have been told of his fidelity, bravery, and popularity as a Chaplain. As to his character as a preacher, the brother has been too brief and modest. He was one of the most accomplished and instructive sermonizers we have ever listened to; and had it not been for an unfortunate habit he had somehow contracted in the delivery, of pausing, or hesitating on the last syllable of every word of three or more syllables ending a sentence, he would have been as popular as he was an able preacher. It required the hearer to be a person of intelligence and a lover of the pure Gospel, fully to appreciate Mr. STEVENSON as a preacher. At the same time he was capable of making himself fully understood by the plainest hearer. No army Chaplain had a fairer record for efficiency and acceptability.
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THO! HUNTER, LITH. PHIL.
REV. JAS. S. ORBISON.
REV. JAMES H. ORBISON.
J AMES H. ORBISON was born zat Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, March 23, 1826. He was the youngest son of WILLIAM ORBISON, Sr., Esq. His parents both being members of the Presbyterian church, he was brought up under the strictest religious influence. From his earliest youth he was noted for his sedate and orderly habits. Besides the advantage of very godly and intelligent parents, he enjoyed the privilege during all his early life of sitting under the ministry of that amiable, excellent, and eminently godly minister, the Rev. JOHN PEEBLES. At what age he became a communicating mem- ber of the Church is not known, but it was early in life. He grad- uated in Jefferson College in 1846, and studied theology at Princeton Seminary. In June, 1850, he was licensed, and as he had devoted himself to the work of Foreign Missions, he was ordained by the Pres- bytery of Huntingdon at the same meeting. The Presbytery met on tl.is occasion in the town of Huntingdon, the place of his birth, and the residence of his parents, then living. In August following he sailed for India as a missionary under the care of the Board of Mis- sions of the Presbyterian Church. At the time he left for India he was unmarried, but married in India Miss AGNES CAMPBELL KAY, a native of Scotland, who died only a few months after their union.
In the year 1858 he returned to this country, and was married a second time to Miss NANNIE HARRIS of Bellefonte, Pa., and with her returned immediately to his field of labor in India. More than ten years after this he returned with his wife and four children to this country, hoping to resume his labors among the heathen, after recruiting his health, and providing for the education of his children. He arrived at Huntingdon on the 25th of March. On the 19th of April, 1869, he entered into rest at Bellefonte, after an illness of less than forty-eight hours. The Presbytery of Huntingdon held its
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