USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Luzerne > History of the Presbytery of Luzerne, state of Pennsylvania > Part 15
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The work assigned Elder Charles Fuller in July resulted in the appointment, at the next stated meeting of Presbytery, of a committee to visit Scranton on the
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14th of October, and organize the eighteen Presbyterian members as a local church. This number had signed the petition on which Presbytery acted, together with quite a number more who had not been dismissed from the churches to which they belonged. In this we note that which from the beginning has characterized the Scranton church, viz., its orderly proceedings; it respects law. There were also in the petition to Presbytery the names of some whom we find to have been already active and wisely helpful in preparing the way to give life and character to the church about to be, and which they afterward strengthened and adorned when the time came for which they had waited, and they could come into the organization in an orderly way.
The committee of Presbytery consisted of Drs. John Dorrance and N. Grier Parke, the two members who had been most vitally connected with the development of the Christian life of the Lackawanna valley, the latter especially with the growth of Christian sentiment in the rising city of Scranton.
Dr. Dorrance preached the sermon of the occasion, after which the credentials of seventeen of the eighteen petitioners were presented and approved. One seems not to have been present. The names were as follows, and constituted the charter members: Seldon T. Scran- ton, Mrs. Ellen C. Scranton, George W. Scranton, Mrs. Jane H. Scranton, Nathaniel B. Hutchinson, Mrs. Rebecca A. Hutchinson, Mrs. Mary Coursen, Mrs. Sarah Coursen, Miss Mary A. Coursen, Miss Catharine Miller, Miss Temperance Miller, Mrs. Mira Fellows, Peter Clarke, James Hutchinson, Charles Fuller, Richard Hollenback, Simon Ward. These were formally constituted the First
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Presbyterian church of Scranton (so the record says), and secured the new church an hospitable home and habita- tion, though we are not informed just how the disparity between the name in the petition and in the records came about. But if common consent was not secured at the time, it has ever since been heartily accorded.
Charles Fuller, (whom we have already twice met, in receiving like honor ; first at Kingston, 1836, subsequently at Wyoming in 1847 ;) George W. Scranton, and N. B. Hutchinson, were elected ruling elders by the new church, a wise use of its organic power in its first exercise of the same. Mr. Scranton, however, declined to assume the functions of the office tendered him by his brethren, although he was so capable. The other brethren were regularly inducted into the office of representatives and rulers in the church, and long and faithfully discharged its important duties.
Another commendable act on the part of the new organization was the formal continuance of the faithful. services of the pastor of the Pittston church for the: remainder of the current year, although so anxious to. have constant ministrations, while Mr. Parke could, with his other permanent engagements, only afford them partial service. Consequently, after the organization, there were few changes in ministrations till May, 1849. Communions were observed, as they had been, from time to time.
Among those who had been active in measures: which had led up to the organization, but were waiting for their letters, were Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Platt and Mrs. Catherine S. S. Platt, who, in the summer of 1849, were fully enrolled as members, having in the meantime
14
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received their certificates. Mr. Platt was ordained as an "elder in 1871, which was, after having been twice elected to that office.
The Rev. J. D. Mitchell, who had frequently supplied the pulpit at Scranton, after the expiration of Mr. Parke's engagement, was elected pastor in August, 1849, but he did not, at that time, feel it to be his duty to undertake the work there. The call was renewed in November of the same year, and on the 16th of December he began his ministry, and was regularly installed on April 17th, 1850. His ministry was brief, but brilliant. He was received with enthusiasm, and enjoyed the hearty «co-operation of the entire church, and the confidence of the community, which was then prosperous and increasing. It was a pleasant field. The little church was already "well organized and equipped for aggressive work. The number of efficient workers was rapidly increasing. The new element entering the church readily assimilated with the compact and earnest body to which it became .attached. The years of co-operation in good works had prepared those thus associated for corporate and organic life. In lieu of numbers and wealth, there was devotion, intelligence and zeal. This, with rapid increase in numbers and temporal prosperity, was well calculated to stimulate the efforts of a minister who was already zealously affected, and to make him feel that his labors were appreciated. His salary, also, which was $600, was promptly paid, and the pastor seems to have been satisfied with the amount.
The Scranton congregation occupied, for several years, the rented hall which it had secured before the «organization of the church. In it the preaching services
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of the Sabbath, and the Wednesday evening prayer meetings were held. This weekly prayer meeting ante- dated the church. It had been started by N. B. and James Hutchinson, Charles Fuller, Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Platt, a noble band, to which many have been, from time to time added. It was and is as "the two olive trees " of Zachariah's vision to the church. Yet while unction was not withheld while it occupied the rented hall, the pastor and congregation felt that they must have a suitable sanctuary. A movement had been made in that direction as early as 1846, and a subscription of $640 was obtained towards a church building from adherents then in Scranton. Early in Dr. Mitchell's ministry, the matter was agitated vigorously and the pastor made personal solicitations at home and abroad for means to build a house of worship that would meet the demands, present and prospective, of the congre- gation. He was deeply interested in the work and went forth prayerfully in its performance. The writer remembers hearing him say that on a certain occasion he made the matter one of special prayer for success in his approach to parties whom he desired to interest in the enterprise.
With regard to the selection of a site and several other preliminary arrangements for the construction of the proposed sanctuary, the usual methodical and careful notations of proceedings in Scranton movements is wanting. They had taken place, however, and satisfac- tory results had been secured.
In all, seven thousand dollars were pledged, and eligible lots donated by the "Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company" before a beginning was made towards the
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construction of the building. Then plans and specifica- tions prepared by Joel Amsden were adopted. Whereupon the above named company agreed to take the subscriptions and relieve the congregation of the care and management of the construction, giving the congregation ten years to provide for the $5,000 needed to pay the whole cost. This meant generosity, and business. The new church was dedicated Sept. 19, 1852, "with gladsome and solemn worship, under the direction of Mr. Mitchell." The Rev. Dr. Logan, in his memorial sermon at the end of twenty-five years of the church's life, informs us that, at the end of the ten years for which the mortgage was given to the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company, that it was promptly paid and the Company itself subscribed one thousand dollars. The church was enabled to do this through the efficient and generous agency of Mr. Thomas Dickson, President of the Hudson Canal Co., and Mr. J. J. Albright, a Moravian who had joined the communion of Scranton Presbyterian church, and, like Mr. Dickson, became one of its most generous supporters.
Between the time of contracting the debt and the building of the church and the payment of the debt, which amounted to $6,300, the congregation had expended $4,000 in enlarging its church. This was demanded to accommodate the worshipers. It was done by erecting new sides to the building and making the auditorium 81 feet square. In all this work, the officers of the church gratefully acknowledged the aid afforded by the ladies of the congregation.
Much to the regret of the congregation, Dr. Mitchell was obliged to ask to be released from his pastoral office, on account of failure of health, October, 1853. His term
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of service, though short, witnessed considerable advance in church life and growth. A large and beautiful house of worship had been secured. There was an increase in membership of sixty-seven, a great increase of church attendance, and in the Sabbath Schools in which, as well as through the preaching of the Word, much seed had been sown.
Of pastor Mitchell's work, Judge Hand said, many years after it had been performed, "The Rev. Mr. Mitchell, whose eloquence has not yet ceased to ring in the ears of many here, will be remembered for his cultivated taste and his genial good humor," and, by way of refreshing the memory of Dr. Mitchell he read to the meeting a letter from the former pastor in response to the church's invitation to be present on the occasion of the quarter century celebration, from which letter we learn what were Dr. Mitchell's feelings towards the Scranton church and the Master. After acknowledging the invitation, and expressing regret that he would be unable to be present, Dr. Mitchell said: "As one who in the early part of this quarter century was identified with the interests and struggles of the then infant church, I would gladly be with you in person to share in the rejoicing of that church, now grown mature in prosperity as she has grown to maturity in years. You and I, with a few others that remain, have vivid recollections of the time when your now prosperous church and congregation (like the infant village which has now grown into the city of Scranton) were very feeble, few in numbers, and limited in means. But Jehovah was with us in that day of small things, and under his blessing the little one has become a thousand. And it is meet, upon the coming anniversary
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that the people whom God has so richly blessed should recount his mercies, and express their gratitude."
After a touching reference to beloved members of the congregation who had passed away during the twenty-five years, and a solemn appeal to such as had heard the gospel's calls and warnings through all that time and yet had not yielded their hearts to Christ, he closes with earnest and affectionate wishes for the continued prosperity of the church and the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit, and His still more abundant fruits in the hearts and lives of its members.
The whole letter-only a brief extract from which could here be given-shows what was the spirit and aim of the first pastor of the Scranton church, in his devoted ministrations to its people.
Rev. Dr. J. D. Mitchell still lives, and, since resigning his charge of the church at Scranton, has ministered in various places, as the condition of his health permitted. Soon after leaving Scranton he returned to Wyoming and had charge of the Presbyterial Institute in that place from 1853 to 1855, and was stated supply of Wyoming church during 1855 and 1856, after which he spent some time in Scranton without a formal charge.
In 1858, he became stated supply of the Binghamton Congregational church, N. Y., where he continued till 1868. He was an evangelist in Washington, D. C. during '63 and '64, doing good service in that trying time in the history of our country. Wise gospel efforts were then greatly needed in Washington. From '64 to '66, he acted as an evangelist at Binghamton, N. Y., and from '67 to '77 at Wellsboro, Pa., since which time
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he has resided in Germantown, Philadelphia, and Dan- bury, Conn. He has been honorably retired for a number of years. Lafayette College conferred upon him the degree of D. D. in 1860.
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5
XIX.
SCRANTON CHURCH
AND
THE REV. JOHN F. BAKER.
A FTER the retirement of Dr. Mitchell, Oct. 1853, the pulpit of the Scranton church was vacant till April,
1854. During this time the services were maintained by temporary supplies, and twelve persons were received into the membership of the church, all however by letter, and all except one from churches belonging to the Presbytery of Luzerne. Dr. George B. Boyd of Belvidere, N. J., was the exception.
The Rev. John F. Baker, born in Liberty County, Georgia, was the son of John O. and Frances Fabian Baker. His father was a worthy elder in the Wilkes- Barre church, and brother of the celebrated minister and evangelist, Rev. Daniel Baker. John F., with his brother, William E. Baker, was prepared for college in the Wilkes- Barre Academy, and both graduated from Princeton Col- lege and Theological Seminary, and were licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Luzerne. In all these in- stitutions, and in their examinations before Presbytery, they took a high rank. Mr. J. F. Baker was licensed April 21st, 1852. He had graduated from the college at the age of eighteen, or less. He then spent three years in teaching and general study, entering the Theological
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Seminary in the fall of 1849. He completed his course in 1852.
It is not wonderful that we find him entering upon his life work with impaired health, which greatly lessened his comfort and usefulness.
At the age of fourteen he had united with the Wilkes- Barre church, publicly assuming the vows, which his godly parents had long before taken in his behalf, to be the Lord's, and soon afterwards he gave himself to the min- istry of reconciliation. Of him a friend, the Rev. Dr. S. M. Osmond, writes : " I knew something of John F. Baker while I was in Princeton College. He had then graduated and was in the Theological Seminary. I was intimate with his brother William, who was my class- mate and a very dear friend. During the summer vacation both the brothers were at their home in Wilkes- Barre, and there I saw a good deal of John, as well as William. He was less talkative and demonstrative than his younger brother, but was intellectual and spiritual be- yond what is ordinary, with a large infusion of the poetical element in his temperament. While he was in college, and afterwards, poems of his composition ap- peared, from time to time, in the Nassau Literary Magazine, which were of a high order of merit. I never heard him preach, but have no doubt his sermons were, like himself, refined, high toned and of singular mental ability, but whether or not he would usually preach to the level of his hearers, is another question. None could be with him, even to the limited extent that I was, with- out a deep impression of his purity, his separateness from all the grosser forms of thought and life. Of his min- isterial life I have but scanty information."
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Immediately after Mr. Baker was licensed, April 2 1st, 1852, by the Presbytery of Luzerne, he entered a purely missionary field, in Mr. Webster's part of the Presbytery. He was thus far favored in having the aid of one who fully understood Home Missionary work and deeply sympathized with young missionaries.
The centre of Mr. Baker's field was Beaver Meadow. From this point he worked eastward, to Weatherly and White Haven, and northward, to Hazleton. The only organized churches in the field at this time were Beaver Meadow and White Haven. The membership of the latter was small.
In this field Mr. Baker was greatly respected by all, and loved by such as knew him intimately, but the habits of his student life, together with his modesty, made him unobtrusive, so that he did not extend his acquaintance with the people as readily as many others. Nevertheless, his work was successful and appreciated by many.
The first Presbyterian house of worship erected at Hazleton was a substantial brick structure. This was done exclusively, or nearly so, by Mr. Ario Pardee, in 1853, and was but the beginning of his generous and noble contributions to the Presbyterian church. This was before the organization of the church was effected, and during Mr. Baker's ministry.
When Dr. Mitchell resigned the pastorate at Scran- ton, the Rev. John Fabian Baker was elected as his suc- cessor, and was ordained sine titulo at Port Carbon, May 8th, 1854. Mr. Baker entered on his work at Scranton with impaired health, yet the excellence of his sermons and character secured the admiration of many. The closer confinement in his new field than in his purely
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missionary work, which was widely scattered and made it necessary that he should spend much time in the saddle, was not so favorable to his health, and it became ne- cessary, after a ministry of eighteen months, that he should ask to be released on account of failing health.
After leaving Scranton, Mr. Baker went to Georgia, and supplied several churches for a time; some of them elected him pastor. From 1858 to 1861, he was pastor of the Hebron church, Virginia. In the latter year, the Rev. Henry R. Weed, D. D., pastor of the First Presby- terian church of Wheeling, W. Va., being in feeble health, desired the aid of a co-paster, and the Rev. John F. Baker, then of Augusta county, Va., accepted a call to that position, placed in his hands by the Presbytery of Lexington. It is recorded by the session of the Wheeling church, that he discharged the duties of his office in a satisfactory manner from the first of March, 1861, until the Ist of July following, when, at a congregational meet- ing called at his request, he tendered his resignation, from considerations connected with the political state of the country. The resignation was accepted and a resolu- tion adopted, expressing confidence in Mr. Baker and testifying to his honorable motives in the course he had pursued .*
His longest period of continued service seems to have been in supplying the church of Jerseyville, Illinois, from 1866 to 1871, with the exception of a term of years dur- ing which he supplied Hickory Plain and associated: churches in Arkansas. These, with some other places oc- cupied for shorter periods, made up his ministerial charges. The author of the sketch of Mr. B's life in the
* Historical Sermon of the Rev. David A. Cunningham, D. D., 1878.
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Necrological Report of the Princeton Alumni Association. for 1886, says of him : " He was one of the most gifted men in the church, but ill health prevented him from filling the high positions for which he was otherwise qualified." He died at Austin, Ark., of brain trouble, May 9th, 1885, at the age of 57. Mr. Baker was married to Miss Fannie, daughter of the Rev. N. A. Platt, of Ros- well, Georgia, Nov. 29, 1855. She died Jan. 28, 1857. He afterwards married Miss Phebe, daughter of Mr. Joseph Steele, of Lexington, Va.
XX.
SCRANTON CHURCH
AND
THE REV. MILO J. HICKOK, D. D.
T' THE Rev. John F. Baker closed his ministry Jan. 14, 1855, and on the 29th of March the Scranton congregation called the Rev. Milo J. Hickok, who soon appeared upon the ground ; but the definite settlement of the question of his acceptance of the call does not seem at once to have been reached. For on the 14th of June a re-election was made and the salary fixed at $800 annually. His installation took place on the 8th of the following August.
The following statement with regard to Dr. Hickok's antecedents has been kindly furnished by his only daughter, Miss Julia E. Hickok, who resided with her mother in Marietta, Ohio, and is usefully and honorably engaged as a teacher in the High school of that city. She says: "My father was born at New Haven, Vermont, August 22, 1809, the third of eight children. His early life was spent upon a farm. He was graduated from Middlebury College in 1835, and from Union Theological Seminary in 1840. Between the time of leaving Middle- bury and entering the seminary, he taught at Delaware College, Newark, Delaware. He was called to the Congregational Church of Harman, New West Marietta,
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Ohio, as its first pastor, and remained there from May 4, 1842, until April 6, 1844. Then, accepting a call to Rochester, New York, he became pastor of the Wash- ington Street (now Central Presbyterian) church of that city; a relation which he sustained for nine years. His marriage to Maria Thomas, of Marietta, Ohio, occurred in 1845."
He preached for a time in Montreal; and was in 1855 installed pastor of the First Presbyterian church of Scranton, Pa. This church, to which Dr. Hickok had come as its third pastor, had been organized only seven years; but it had a conscious organic life, and right aspirations, and he would prove himself, ere long, to be the right man to be merged into its organism, and to take the leading place in directing and stimulating its functional and aggregate activities.
He was a man of a vigorous and well cultivated mind, industrious and methodical in his work, which he loved, fully comprehending its importance and the legitimate motives prompting regard for it. He had a warm heart and genial manner - calm, rather than effusive. Moreover, he came in a favorable time and under circumstances that conspired to call forth his best energies and the exercise of his sound judgment in the forward movements which he was to lead. Of the importance of these his congregation was already fully aware, and ready to render cordial co-operation in every good "word and work."
An auspicious outlook is before the new pastor. Again and again are his already successful efforts stimulated by the evidence of his people's efforts to increase his comfort and efficiency. This had all been -embraced in the scope of this church's purpose.
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It appears, from the excellent Historical record of this church, published in connection with the Anniver- sary which completed its twenty-five years of church life, that, in the earlier years, after the coming of Dr. Hickok, as in the years of his predecessors, the church grew mostly by the enrollment of members who came with certificates from other churches, rather than by conversions. But during these years, and before we learn of the faithful work that had been going on in the pulpit, in pastoral visitation, in the Sabbath Schools, in the distribution of the Word of God, and Christian literature profusely and generally scattered, and from the be- ginning of these activities, increased private and public prayer had not ceased to go up in behalf of the sower, the seed and the soil, that there might be divine quickening and greater fruitfulness. Finally, in the year 1858, on the 5th and 6th days of May, (Saturday and Sunday) ninety-five persons stood up to confess Christ as their Saviour, and with them forty-one others came by certificate from sister churches. Twenty-seven received the ordinance of baptism. These were days of gladness in the First Presbyterian church of Scranton.
Every year afterwards, during Dr. Hickok's ministry showed an encouraging increase of membership, but it was not till 1867, the last year of his active pastorate, that we find anything approximating the ingathering of 1858. On the 19th of April, fifty-seven were received into the communion of the church. Twenty-seven others united by letter during the year, or that part of it covered by Dr. Hickok's ministrations, a number of them upon profession of their faith, at the pastor's last public service in connection with the Communion, on the 13th of
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October, 1867. He had completed this last doubtles." delightful service in which he and his people commemo. rated the dying love of Jesus, and, while announcing the closing hymn, he was stricken with paralysis. He was carried from the pulpit, and was never able again to perform the active duties of his pastorate. His intel- lectual faculties were not impaired. His daughter says of him that "during the last five years of his life, his general health was perfect and his mind seemed not at all
impaired. But his speech was troublesome and his right side wholly useless. He did not, until the last year, give up the hope of again being able to preach; and to that end, wrote and studied constantly and with much pleasure. His cheerfulness and patience were wonderful. Let me quote from a tribute paid by our pastor .* 'Some- times he has thought that his life was of no service, though even then he did not repine at God's discipline. But could he have known how effectively he was impressing many of us by the grace with which he accepted the will of God, he surely would not have judged as he did.'"'
During the spring and summer immediately before his disability came, he had represented our General As- sembly as one of the delegates to the Free and United Churches of Scotland. The delight which he experienced in this honorable mission lingered with him, and afforded no little food for thought and renewed enjoyment during the subsequent months and years of restrained public activity, but he longed to preach the gospel again and go in and out among the people he so dearly loved, as he had done for thirteen years. The Hon. Alfred Hand,
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