USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Luzerne > History of the Presbytery of Luzerne, state of Pennsylvania > Part 13
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XIV.
THE REV. WILLIAM RENWICK GLEN
AND
SCHUYLKILL VALLEY MISSIONS.
THE Rev. William Renwick Glen, was born in Scotland, January 12, 1812. He had acquired, after completing his rudimentary education, a practical knowl- edge of the trade of a machinist, and while prosecuting it at Matteawan, N. Y., for the support of his family, he so inspired the Presbyterian church in that place with confidence in him as an intelligent and upright man, devoted Christian and loyal Presbyterian, that it elected him a ruling elder. His acceptable and efficient per- formance of his duties as an elder led the Matteawan church to undertake to provide for his education in preparation for the office of the gospel ministry; and after he had mastered such preparatory study as fitted him to meet the requirements of the church, we find him entering Princeton Theological Seminary in 1845, to which place he had taken his family, then consisting of his wife and several children.
Mr. Glenn stood well among his fellow students and the professors, faithfully meeting all the requirements of the Institution, and graduating with his class in the spring of 1848. He soon afterwards entered upon mission work in Schuylkill Valley ; Joseph Mitchell, Esq., and
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PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE.
other Presbyterian friends in Philadelphia providing for the support of the mission. His field included New Philadelphia, Middleport and other coaleries between Tamaqua and Port Carbon. A church was organized, soon after Mr. Glen entered upon his work, designed for the general field, named the Schuylkill Valley church, and a house of worship was erected at Middleport. December 10th, 1850, Mr. Glen was ordained as an evangelist and continued to have charge of the mission till 1852. In the earlier part of his term of service there was considerable encouragement, and doubtless much good was done. The mines did not prove profitable, perhaps owing to the peculiar irregularity of the coal strata, not so well understood at that time as now ; operations were suspended and the people moved away from the several villages. The church, however, was long continued on the roll of Presbytery, and reported ten members in 1858. The name appears afterwards in the Minutes of the General Assembly, but no number of members is given.
We learned above that Dr. Bittenger left Tamaqua in 1850,* and it seems probable that Mr. Glen gave a part of his time from 1850 to 1852 to that church, and during that last named year he became the regular pastor at Tamaqua. He was released in 1856 to take the pastoral charge at German Valley, New Jersey.
There was substantial growth in Tamaqua during Mr. Glen's ministry. He was an acceptable preacher and diligent pastor. The Rev. Richard Webster says of
*After the Rev. B. F. Bittenger removed from Tamaqua in 1850 the Rev. Marten Lowrie Hofford succeeded him for two years, or 1851-1852. A graduate of Princeton College and a student in the seminary in that place and a licentiate of the Presbytery of Philadelphia North.
12
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PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE.
him, in writing to a young minister whom he was counselling to imitate Mr. Glen : "Where there is no fluency it is decidedly a duty to write the whole sermon in a fair, large hand and read it over, so as to be entirely familiar with it, and use it in the pulpit. This is the method of Dr. Green. Mr. Glen uses the same method and his style of preaching is generally and greatly admired."
Mr. Glen was pastor of the German Valley church from 1856 to 1868, when he was called to Bloomington, Ill., where he was formally installed in 1869 and continued till 1871, after which he supplied the church of Heyworth, Illinois, one year. His last pastoral charge was the Monticello church in the same state, beginning 1873. Becoming infirm, he resided in Frankfort, Indiana, from 1875 to 1880, when, on March 3Ist, he «ceased from his earthly labors.
He was a good and useful minister, whom the writer Iknew well as a classmate and co-presbyter, but we have 7been long and widely separated, and the condition in `which he left the loved ones of his family we are not able tto state.
XV.
THE REV. JOHN JERMAIN PORTER
Khimed for
making me AND THE
KINGSTON CHURCH.
E VER since the Kingston church stood alone, it had been ministered to by men educated at Princeton Theological Seminary, with the exception of Mr. Gilder- sleeve who was from Rutger's Seminary. The Presbytery of Luzerne was, from the beginning, in very close correspondence with that institution, and was able generally to secure the men suited to the work needed in its various and diversified fields. Those who knew the professors of Princeton Seminary at that time, knew that very few unworthy men, or men not fully devoted to the Master and his service, could go through the course of study there without having been led to subject themselves to the most careful examination of their motives and qualifications for the work of the ministry. As a natural result, the students had been led to the most diligent improvement of their time and opportunities. Their work and their responsibility were therefore not lightly esteemed. The expectation of favorable results indulged by the good men who had projected the Presbytery, from the recruits it secured from time to time to their number, were seldom disappointed, as from year to year they laid their hands on one after another of the Princeton students.
middle
Sum 1190
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PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE.
We have seen that on the second of November, 1847, one had been thus set apart by the Presbytery ; then again, on the ninth of the same month, another was ordained with prayer and the laying on of hands. This candidate had the specific call of one of its oldest churches, a mother church, which had recently given a large measure of her strength to a daughter that had assumed new church life and personality.
Yet Kingston church, with her diminished strength, calls to her pastorate the Rev. J. Jermain Porter, who was not a novice. He had been carefully and thoroughly trained, and was a man in whom there was "an excellent spirit," even the spirit of the Master himself. He was born in Ovid, N. Y., March 20, 1821, graduated from Union College 1843, and from Princeton Seminary 1847. The Kingston congregation received Mr. Porter very cordially, and, with their diminished strength, rallied nobly to his support. And, although he succeeded a minister of no ordinary pulpit ability, he was able to satisfy the people, and saw evidence of progress in the church during his ministry. He looked after neighboring communities. A new Sabbath School was started in Mill Hollow which, with some interruptions, has been con- tinued ever since, and ultimately became the forerunner of the Bennett Presbyterian church. Mrs. Porter and her sister Miss Hall, were to the young pastor efficient helpers. in his work.
Mr. Porter was not only an excellent preacher and pastor; he was also an efficient presbyter. Possessed of a. missionary spirit, he deeply sympathized with the brethren who were doing pioneer work. On one occasion, while at Kingston, he and Mrs. Porter, accom-
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panied by Mr. and Mrs. Wm. C. Gildersleeve, drove on a winter day eighteen miles to call upon a young missionary and his wife, to cheer them in their work. Mr. Gildersleeve, believing the young family would be aided by possessing a cow, left them the means with which to procure that necessary help to comfortable and economical living. This visit had much significance to the novices in missionary work.
While Mr. Porter remained only three years with his first charge, his ministry greatly benefitted the congregation at Kingston. He also secured from them that affectionate regard which, in their more prosperous days, led them to invite him to revisit them and preach the dedication sermon of their new and greatly superior house of worship, which was set apart for the service of God on the 30th day of January, 1876.
From Kingston Dr. J. J. Porter was called to supply the . Westminster church, Buffalo, N. Y., July, 1850, where he remained seven years. In 1857, he became pastor of the Union church, St. Louis, Mo. In 1864 he left St. Louis to become pastor in Watertown, N. Y. His last pastoral charge was Phelps, from 1881 to 1891. Retiring, he resided at Watertown. Hamilton College, N. Y., had honored Mr. Porter with the degree of D. D., in 1867. He still lives, but is retired from the active work of the ministry after a long, honorable and successful career.
XVI.
THE REV. CORNELIUS RUSTER LANE, D. D.
T HE Rev. Cornelius Ruster Lane, D. D., was a member of the same class in the Theological Seminary as Dr. Porter and Dr. Bittenger who came into the Presbytery a little in advance of him. Mr. Lane was born June 27, 1820, at Pluckamin, N. J., of Christian parents, and so carefully and tenderly trained from infancy that he never lost that child-like simplicity which, when maintained, adds beauty and strength to any life, and reflects honor upon the Christian nurture which secures it. Mr. Lane lost his father in early life, but his excellent Christian mother, who had no other children, was never long separated from him during his lifetime.
He was graduated from Lafayette College, Pa., 1843, and engaged for a time in teaching, after which he entered Princeton Theological Seminary, 1844, in which he was a diligent and successful student, enjoying the esteem and confidence both of the faculty and his fellow students. He continued his studies beyond the usual three years' course. Having a fondness for mathematics, he acquired the habit of aiming to secure that which is equivalent to mathematical demonstration, in all the conclusions which satisfied him in his examination of any matter which was to him a subject of reflection or decision. His mind was trained for profound investi- gation. He loved study.
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PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE.
This was the man who, in the summer of 1848, was invited to take charge of Tunkhannock church, and its outposts through the county of Wyoming, still a comparatively new county, which had been recently carved out of Luzerne.
The church at Tunkhannock, as already noted, was organized in 1833, but had made little progress, simply holding its ground, and had not sallied out in aggressive work. Its pulpit supplies were frequently changed; most of them living off the field; the services were not frequent, and were sometimes interrupted.
Among those who ministered to the Tunkhannock church were Isaac Todd, from 1833 to '35. He supplied Northmoreland at the same time. The Rev. George Printz, then pastor at Wyalusing, had bestowed labor upon Tunkhannock before the church was organized. After Mr. Todd the Rev. James Cole spent some time in this field in 1837. Rev. Sylvester Dana, Rev. James G. Hand, and Rev. B. Wall were on the ground between 1837 and 1845. The Rev. John Whelen Sterling preached there during 1846. The time spent by each one and the date of service do not appear. Mr. Sterling spent about a year on the field, after which he went to Wisconsin where he was regularly ordained, Oct., 1846. In Wisconsin Dr. Sterling did a noble work as a minister and a Christian educator, in connection with our denominational college at Waukesha, and in the State University at Madison. His Alma Mater, Princeton College, bestowed on him the degree of Ph. D. and LL. D. He died at his post in the University of Wisconsin, March 8, 1885.
The Rev. Oren Brown supplied Tunkhannock, at
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PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE.
least a part of the time, between Dr. Sterling's time and the coming of Mr. Lane.
Although Mr. Lane, in College and the Seminary, had been one of the closest students, and a lover of the more abstract sciences, yet when he entered upon his ministry, he was ready to take up cheerfully and dili- gently, every part of ministerial and parochial work. To him it mattered not whether the duty was easy or dif- ficult, he never slighted the easy work nor was he deterred by the difficult.
As an illustration of this, he once said to the writer, " I would prepare as carefully to preach if I was to ad- dress a congregation of Comanche Indians, as for the most refined city church." He began as a Home Mis- sionary. He was ordained as an evangelist, Nov. 30, 1848, the tenth in order of ordination in the Presbytery. He generally preached three times every Sabbath, twice in Tunkhannock, once in Meshoppen, La Grange, or some other point ; and to reach these outposts, he usually walked. Nor did he ever complain of the task. He loved the Master. He loved his work. He loved his fellow men. He never entertained an idea that he could do more for humanity by something aside from the gospel of Christ. He loved the Presbyterian church, the doc- trine and polity by which it is characterized ; yet no man had a more catholic spirit or co-operated more cordially with his fellow Christians of every name, not only in dis- tinctively Christian work, but in any philanthropic and moral enterprise. With regard to the mission of the Presbyterian church, or the good it had, under God, ac- complished in the world, Dr. Lane held that its influence for good has been as great beyond as within its own pale.
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PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE.
He received the Calvinistic system of doctrine cor- dially, as that which is revealed in the Scriptures and is in accord with sound philosophy. He thoroughly under- stood it, and the history of doctrine as it has been advo- cated or opposed in all ages. And from his study of history, he came to the conclusion that the agents who have been successful in the uplifting of humanity, the permanent advance in morality, in civil and religious liberty, have been animated by Calvinistic or cognate views or sentiments of doctrine and philosophy, although not always connected with a knowledge of the true and living God.
Although a profound and abstract thinker, Dr. L's sermons were simple and comprehensive statements of Scriptural truths sustained by reasons which, to minds trained to thinking, amounted almost to demonstration ; but to others, perhaps, needed more of familiar illustra- tion to keep the attention duly fixed. He, however, during his first term of service in Wyoming county, ex- erted such an influence, and left such an impression on the church and community, that when he was called away to another field, it was with great reluctance that the peo- ple saw him depart with his estimable wife and his good mother ; and as soon as they discovered any reason to hope that he might be induced to return, they put forth such efforts to have him do so as proved successful. After two or three years he did return as pastor-elect of the Tunkhannock church. He was principal of the Luzerne Presbyterial Institute at Wyoming during its most prosper- ous period. Of this Institution we will have more to say.
During Mr. Lane's absence from Tunkhannock, the Rev. Augustus Theodore Dobson supplied the church
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PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE.
there, in connection with Northmoreland. Mr. Dobson was, at the time, a licentiate, and, like Mr. Lane, had graduated at Lafayette College and Princeton Theological Seminary. After leaving Tunkhannock he was ordained by the Presbytery of Long Island and installed pastor of the Moriches church from Oct. 30, 1853 to 1869. He was afterwards, from '69 to '81, pastor of the Third church of Chester, Pa. ; then of the Darby church from '82 to '85. In all these churches he seems to have done good work.
During a part of 1852, Dr. Lane acted as agent of Lafayette College, and at the same time was stated supply of Warren church, Susquehanna Presbytery.
In 1853, he returned to his work at Tunkhannock and was formally installed pastor, which relation he sus- tained till 1871, or after the Presbytery of Luzerne ceased to exist. Soon after his return to Wyoming county, he accepted the office of County Superintendent of Schools, which position he filled so well that he was subsequently called to serve another term. By doing this work in the schools, he not only furnished valuable ser- vices to the cause of public education, but also thus enabled the mission he occupied to have preaching and pastoral services all the time. He also relieved our Board of Domestic Missions from assisting in sustaining a mission church and its out-posts.
The growth of the church at Tunkhannock was not rapid, but its gradual and steady progress was of such a character as to give it stability. A good Sabbath School had been maintained from the beginning, though the for- mal history of it has not been preserved, nor is it at all probable that it was, during its entire history, conducted as a Presbyterian school.
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PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE.
The evidence of growth and vigor appears in the gathering of the friends of the congregation on the 4th of July, 1867, to lay the corner stone of a new house of worship which had been projected, and, something like a year afterwards, in the coming together of another and larger congregation to dedicate the completed structure to the worship of Almighty God. The old sanctuary was not worn out, for it was destined to shelter another wor- shiping assembly. The Baptists bought and used it. It had become unsuitable for the Presbyterian congregation, which had erected it in 1834, at a cost of $2,000. The new one had been built at five times that cost. This work was not done without the careful and prudent business ability of the pastor being called into requisition, and now it stands as a monument to his usefulness and success at Tunkhannock. Others appear in different parts of his wide field. For while there had been preaching from time to time since 1815 in the general neighborhood of Meshoppen, and somewhat regularly, more recently at the same place, by the Rev. J. W. Sterling and Rev. H. H. Welles, yet the work connected with the organization of a church of our denomination there, and in securing for the congregation a house of worship, was accomplished during Dr. Lane's ministry. The formal organization of a church took place in 1850. Seventeen members were enrolled, and Messrs. Edward Storm and Robert Clayton were the first elders. The house of worship was secured for the congregation at a cost of $1,200. Subsequently it was furnished with a fine bell worth $225. While these- material things show the prosperity of the work of Dr. Lane, his best monument is the influence he exerted upon the hearts and lives of the people.
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PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE.
As a presbyter, he was promptly and uniformly at his post, fully comprehending the work to be done and having settled in his own mind what he regarded as the best methods for its accomplishment, he was prepared to be an intelligent leader in Presbyterial meetings. He was, however, the last man to assume leadership, and always cheerfully acquiesced in the will of the majority, for he respected the opinions of others.
The Rev. Dr. N. G. Parke, who knew him longer and more intimately than the writer, says of him in a memorial sermon, soon after Dr. Lane's work ended : "In the Presbytery of Luzerne there was no more cheerful worker than Dr. Lane, and no one more ready to help his brethren. He was rarely, if ever, absent from a stated meeting of Presbytery when able to be present, and his thorough knowledge of ecclesiastical law made his counsel in Presbytery very helpful. His voice in our ecclesiastical courts, and everywhere else, was always for peace. He was a man of peace. He had his own views, and he was not afraid to defend them, but he never did this in an aggressive way."
Dr. Parke says with reference to Dr. Lane's work as a pastor and teacher, "It is now a score of years since Dr. Lane left Tunkhannock, but the work he did here* as an educator, a pastor, a preacher, a kind neighbor, a sympathizing friend and counsellor, a cheerful companion, an intelligent, upright citizen, a loving husband and father, remains, and will remain. A generation has indeed grown up here, who knew him not, but those who were his boys, who where at home in his study, and in his bible-class, and whom he taught to think, and who
*This sermon was delivered at Tunkhannock.
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PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE.
felt the moulding power of his life, have not forgotten him. They are stronger, broader, wiser and better men because of the influence that has gone into their lives from his life."
In view of Dr. Lane's studious life, habits of profound thought, thoroughly trained mind, and his intense interest in all the important questions which agitated his generation, he did not use the press with the frequency and to the extent that might have been expected of so capable a writer. What he has published shows his ability in that direction.
His paper on "The Will", originally published in "The Reformed Quarterly Review", July, 1885, is a clear, strong treatise, and if not, in every particular, a demonstration, it is, nevertheless, the production of a "master of sentences" on that subject. He had evidently thoroughly canvassed the quesion, as treated in the whole range of literature. His pamphlet is worthy of careful study. He wrote other articles for the above named Review, and various other magazines.
Dr. Lane was still a member of the Presbytery of Luzerne, when, at the Reunion, it was merged into the Presbytery of Lackawanna and Lehigh. He was elected Professor of Mathematics in Wilson College in 1871, and removed to Chambersburg, Pa., much to the regret of his brethren with whom he had been so long and lovingly associated. No one had been held in higher esteem by all who knew him. He retired from his professorship in 1876, but continued to reside in Chambersburg, quietly doing such evangelistic work as his health and oppor- tunities enabled him to undertake, in the meantime pursuing such studies as were most congenial to him.
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PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE.
Hanover College had conferred on him the degree of Ph. D. in 1875, and Franklin and Marshall College that of D. D. in 1887. These honors were deserved.
Mrs. Lane had entered into her heavenly home before her husband. The Doctor left two daughters to mourn his departure. His eldest daughter, Mary, married George Miles Welles, M. D., and resided with her hus- band in Wayne, Pa. Her sister Jane is unmarried, and resides in the homestead in Chambersburg, which her father had bequeathed to her. Three children died in infancy. Mrs. Lane's maiden name was Stroud.
XVII.
BERWICK AND PORT CARBON.
B ERWICK and Briar Creek churches were set off by the General Assembly to the Presbytery of Luzerne from that of Northumberland, but after a few years they were restored to their former Presbytery, and while their history will more properly belong to Northumberland Presbytery, yet during the time they were in association with Luzerne, important Presbyterial functions were ex- cised in connection with these congregations, especially Berwick, where at least two stated meetings of Presbytery were held while it was under the care of this body, one ordination administered, and ministers received with reference to the field embracing-it is supposed-both congregations.
At its first meeting, the Rev. Aaron H. Hand was received from a Presbytery in Michigan. Dr. Hand was born in Albany, N. Y., Dec. 3, 1811. He was graduated from Williams College 1835, and from Princeton Seminary, 1837. He was stated supply at Berwick some three years. He had previously held the same relation to the churches of Marietta and Roswell, in Georgia. After leaving Berwick, he was the honored and useful pastor of the Greenwich church, New Jersey, for nearly twenty years. During that time he was honored by Lafayette College with the degree of D. D. He died in Easton, Pa., March 3, 1880.
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PRESBYTERY OF LUZERNE.
The church at Berwick was served by the Rev. Alexander Heberton as pastor from 1845 to '48. This brought him a second time in connection with a number of his former co-presbyters, then in the Presbytery of Luzerne, but formerly in Susquehanna. Of course the church had from Mr. Heberton a faithful and efficient ministry. After Mr. Heberton left to become pastor at Williamsport, Berwick, in 1848, secured the services of the
REV. JAMES FERGUSON KENNEDY,
a recent graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, who, while he had preached for more than a year at Fayetteville and Waynesboro, Pa., was still a licentiate. He was born in Warren county, N. J., Sept. 27, 1824, and we find him a graduate of Lafayette College in 1839, or when sixteen years old. After leaving college he engaged in the study of medicine for a time, but his mind seems to have been turned to the ministry, for in 1844 we find him in Princeton Seminary, where he was a diligent and successful student, standing high in scholarship and general excellence of character. After preaching for some months in Berwick, he was ordained and installed by the Presbytery of Luzerne, Dec. 12, 1848. Mr. Kennedy's was the eleventh ordination .* Thus he entered upon a promising career, as he was well furnished for and devoted to his work; but in 1850 he was obliged to relinquish it at Berwick on account of failing eye-sight. He did not, however, cease from preaching after leaving Berwick church. For the next four years he was stated supply at Fayetteville; at the
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