USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Luzerne > History of the Presbytery of Luzerne, state of Pennsylvania > Part 21
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The Wyoming congregation had, in the early part of Mr. Stevenson's ministry, erected a comfortable house for their minister on lots donated by Mr. David Perkins and his daughter, Mrs. Mary Jane Carpenter. In 1858, for six months, the Rev. Frederick La Rue King, a Princeton man but a minister of the Dutch Reformed church, supplied the Wyoming pulpit.
The Rev. Henry Rinker became pastor and principal at Wyoming May, 1859. Mr. Rinker was one of Dr. Dorrance's young men, who entered the ministry from the Wilkes-Barre church. He had graduated from Prince- ton College in which he stood high for scholarship. He spent two years in the Seminary at Princeton, after which he taught two years in Mt. Holly, New Jersey, and was ordained by the Presbytery of Albany as an Evangelist, February 15, 1853. After a term of two years there in mission work he was engaged two years as teacher and stated supply at Windsor, N. Y., and from 1857 to '59 was stated supply at Burdett, N. Y.
Mr. Rinker only remained in Wyoming till 1861, when he accepted the principalship of the Collegiate Institute of Newton, N. J. From 1863 to 1865 he was chaplain in the U. S. army. After the war he resided in Stillwater, N. J., till 1875. He was pastor in Dickinson, Pa., 1875-81, where he seems to have had a good measure of success. He now resides in Carlisle, Pa.
After the resignation of Mr. Rinker at Wyoming the church was again supplied for a year and a half by the pastor of the Kingston church, the Rev. Dr. H. H. Welles.
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In the fall of 1868 the Rev. A. B. King was called. He was born in Morristown, N. J., and bore the name of Albert Barnes, a former honored pastor in that city. He graduated from Princeton College, and studied theology in Union and Princeton theological seminaries. He was ordained by Monmouth Presbytery October 22, 1861, and served as pastor at Oceanic, N. J., for two years, then supplied the Dutch Reformed church at Gilboa, N. Y., in 1862-63. He became the pastor of the church and principal of the Institute at Wyoming in the fall of 1863. This pastorate continued ten years, or three years beyond the life of the Luzerne Presbytery. His princi- palship terminated in 1869, when, as we have before seen, the Rev. A. G. Harned took his place in the school. Mr. King's pastorate was the longest this church has ever had.
Wyoming church has always had a good session and able ministrations, and while the membership has never been large, it has been composed of excellent people and loyal Presbyterians. Reuben P. Lowrie was enrolled as a member of this church up to the time of his ordination.
Another who spent several years as a teacher in the Presbyterial Institute and was also ordained as an Evan- gelist September 17, 1864, had been a member of this church, viz., the Rev. James Potter Hughes. He was a graduate of Princeton College and Seminary. Mr. Hughes, however, has made teaching his life-work, and has uniformly been regarded as a successful instructor, having the ability to influence young people in the right direction. Many of them, under his cheerful and efficient management, have been prepared for college, for business and teaching. He has taught at Edge Hill, Princeton,
20
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Cape May, N. J., and Logansport, Ind. From this latter place he was called to the principalship of the Bellefonte Academy in 1868, and for three years supplied Bald Eagle church in connection with school work; but since then has confined his attention to the Academy and the care of his family of eight children, his wife having been called to her heavenly home. With all these duties, cares and trials, he still speaks of the goodness of God as sustaining him and enabling him to meet his daily duties and bear his trials.
XXXI.
THE CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF POTTSVILLE AND ITS PASTORS.
A FTER the ministry of the Rev. William Wilson Bon- nell in Pottsville, covering the years from 1846 to 1848, during which time the Presbytery of Luzerne organ- ized the Central church in that city, as the result in part of his work there, we do not find that the services were very constant or regular in the new church. Services, however, were rendered for longer or shorter periods by various ministers, among them we may name the Rev. J. D. Mitchell and Rev. E. D. Saunders, of Philadelphia, where he conducted a school for boys on property which he afterward gave to the Presbyterian church as the site of the splendidly equipped hospital which now occupies it.
During this long period of irregular ministrations the membership of the church could not be expected to grow, and doubtless material which might have been gathered under more favorable circumstances was scattered or lost. After the Rev. Samuel Fisher Colt was elected pastor the church only reported 24 members; this was in 1857.
Mr. Colt was born in Patterson, N. J. He graduated from Lafayette College and Princeton Seminary, and was ordained by the Presbytery of West Jersey June 17, 1841. He was three years stated supply at May's Landing, N. J., when he became pastor of the church of Wyalusing,
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Pa. He labored successfully there till 1852, when he became principal of the Susquehanna Collegiate Institute at Towanda, Pa. This position he occupied till 1857, at the same time supplying the Wysox church. Early in 1858, as pastor-elect of the Central church of Pottsville, he came into the Presbytery of Luzerne. He was a man of talent, zealous and laborious in his Master's service. His success in Pottsville was good, in view of the condi- tion of things when he entered the field, the disturbed condition of the country, and the fact that he spent more than a year as chaplain in the army during his pastorate there. The church had a membership of 120 when he left it in 1864 to act as secretary of the Eastern Committee on Freedmen, at the same time supplying the church of Troy in the Presbytery of Susquehanna. After a time he was induced to take charge once more of the school at Towanda, which, after four years, he again resigned in 1870. His last ministerial charges were Wysox and La- port, as stated supply. Having during his ministry studied medicine, he, during the later years of his life, practised the healing art in connection with the supply of mis- sionary churches.
His was a busy life, and not without special cares, sorrows and bereavements. He was twice married and had a large family, most of whom it is understood, with his second wife, survived him. Their loss in the death of the genial and kind husband and father must have been very great. The church, too, lost an earnest and faithful worker. His death occurred at Wysox, Pa., December 17, 1893.
For some months after Mr. Colt left Pottsville, the Second church was vacant. The next pastor was a
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distinguished man in the Presbyterian church, the Rev. Dr. William S. Plummer, whose coming was a result of the terrible national agitation which had also determined the direction of the departure of the last pastor. The great conflict did not to any great extent affect the personnel of the Presbytery ; but sectional agitations bore into its bounds important allies in prosecuting its work. The sentiments which moved them from their former moorings and activities were opposite, but those which animated them in their work in the Presbytery were concurrent,
fixed and strong, for they were strong men. They were respectively, the Rev. Drs. A. A. Hodge and William S. Plummer. The latter from 1865 to 1867 was the second pastor of the Second church of Pottsville. He was born in Green Co., Pa., educated in Washington College, Va., and Princeton Theological Seminary, and was ordained by the Presbytery of Orange. Dr. Plummer did mission- ary work in southern Virginia and in North Carolina ; then was pastor of the Presbyterian church of Petersburg, Va .; afterwards, successively, he sustained the same relation to the Presbyterian churches in Richmond, Va., Baltimore, Md., and Allegheny, Pa., from 1854 to 1862, filling also, during the same time, the chair of Didactic Theology in the Western Theological Seminary of the same city.
As an evangelical preacher, Dr. Plummer had few superiors. His services were in demand in conducting protracted meetings, and were greatly blessed. In Mr. Moody's most successful meeting in Philadelphia, he was greatly aided by Dr. Plummer, not only by his preaching, but especially by his public responses to questions addressed to him with reference to great
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scriptural doctrines and vital questions of Christian experience. These answers, thus drawn out, were of inestimable value to inquiring souls. Dr. Plummer wrote much on practical religion, and was for many years an almost constant contributor to the American Messenger, the American Tract Society's popular publication. Even the brief ministry of such a man must have been exceed- ingly helpful to the Second church and the community at Pottsville.
In 1867 he accepted a professorship in the Columbia Theological Seminary, S. C., the duties of which were performed till 1880. On the 22nd of October of that year, he ceased from his earthly ministry, in Baltimore. Few men in the Presbyterian church in this country have received more of its honors. Before the separation of our southern brethren, he moderated the General Assembly, 1838; and again, in 1871, that of the Southern Assembly. He was a Director of our oldest theological seminary, and Professor of Systematic Theology in two Seminaries. The honorary degree of D. D. was conferred on him by Washington, Pa., Lafayette and Princeton Colleges ; that of LL. D. by the University of Mississippi.
Very soon after Dr. Plummer left for the South, the Rev. Prentiss DeVeuve was called to the place made vacant by his departure. He was born in Staten Island, N. Y., July 28, 1833, was a graduate of the College and Seminary of Princeton, N. J., and ordained by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, His first pastorate was at Ewing, N. J., and after seven years he was removed to the Second church of Germantown. After spending two years with that church, he became a member of the Presbytery of Luzerne, and was installed pastor of the
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Second church of Pottsville, where he was popular, and seems to have gained the entire confidence of his own people as well as those of the First church in that city. His pastorate, however, was short, though significant.
The Second church, as might have been expected, was smaller than the First, which was older, and belonged to the New School branch of the general church. But even at that time the question of reunion was engaging the attention of both branches, and what occurred under Dr. DeVeuve's ministry was in anticipation of such a consummation, and evidently prompted by the desire to accelerate the union of the divided church. The history of what took place in Pottsville with reference to this matter has been given to me recently by the Rev. Jacob Belville, D. D., and is so fully and frankly set forth by that brother's communication, that I prefer to allow him to present his statement in his own words. He was familiar with the facts of the case, and was soon after their occurrence brought face to face with the results of what proved to be an unsuccessful attempt to unite the whole Presbyterian element in Pottsville. His wise and pacific management no doubt did much to make those results less disastrous than they otherwise might have been.
Dr. Belville says : " After Dr. Plummer, Rev. Prentiss De Veuve was called to the pastorate. The Rev. Isaac Riley, afterward of Buffalo, N. Y., was the pastor of the First church of Pottsville. It was not long until he was called to be co-pastor with his father-in-law, Dr. Parker, of New York City.
"Before leaving Pottsville he and Mr. DeVeuve, with leading men in each church, believing that the
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interests of Presbyterianism, and the cause of Christ in Pottsville would be promoted by a union of the two churches, and that orthodoxy would be safe in either Old or New School connection, arranged a plan of union between the two churches which was adopted by both. It was agreed that the members of the two churches should all take their certificates to a new church to be organized by the Third Presbytery of Philadelphia, (N. S.) to which the First church then belonged; that they should be organized under the charter of the First church and should occupy the property of the First church; that Mr. DeVeuve, then pastor of the Second church, should be the pastor of the new church, and that Solomon Foster, and Hiram Parker, then elders of the First church, with Thomas Russell and Henry Strauch, then elders of the Second church, should constitute the session of the new church. The pastor was always to be chosen from the Old School branch, and the property of the Second church was to be sold, and the proceeds held as a nucleus of a fund for the erection of a larger new church building. All this having been arranged, and in accordance with it the certificates having been given, the Rev. Mr. De Veuve appeared in Presbytery at Kingston in April, 1868, and informed us of the facts, and asked that Presbytery would acquiesce, by granting him dismission to the Third Presbytery of Philadelphia, and striking the name of the Second church of Pottsville from the roll.
" This was done by a vote of the Presbytery almost if not entirely unanimous. It was done very cordially by those of us who were earnest in our desire for the reunion of the Old and New School, which was then in progress, while those who were not favorable to the reunion, if they
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did not oppose, assented, though very reluctantly, to merg- ing the two Pottsville churches, inasmuch as it seemed an accomplished fact. The Presbytery of Luzerne having taken this action, to which I have referred, the certificates were presented to the Third Presbytery of Philadelphia, with request for organization, under the plan of union agreed upon. Accordingly the new church, called the First church of Pottsville, was organized, and a committee of Presbytery was appointed to install the pastor at an early date. The members of the First church all gave up their pews. Then pews were selected by the alternate drawing from each church, and so the new church was housed in the building of the First, with the idea that it would soon be displaced by a new and commodious struc- ture for which the nucleus of a fund had been already secured, in the sum of $8,000, accruing from the sale of the old Second church property. The two churches, thus merged into one, worshiped together as such for several months. The two sessions of the new organization met frequently as the session of the new organization, but when the time came for the installation of the first pastor, Mr. De Veuve, after conference with him and with the elders and people, the committee appointed for the pur- pose decided that "the way was not clear," and the installation did not take place.
" Mr. De Veuve withdrew and the Rev. J. W. Schenck, then of the Dutch Reformed church, having united with the Presbytery of Philadelphia, Old School, was called, accepted and was installed ; nevertheless a very consider- able proportion of those who had belonged to the Second church, with two elders, having become dissatisfied with the new organization, withdrew from it, secured again the
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property, which had been sold, and in the fall of 1868 applied to the Presbytery of Luzerne to be reorganized again as the Second church of Pottsville. This was con- tested till the fall of 1869, when it was granted on the ground that, inasmuch as the First church had belonged to another body, the action of the session of the Second church in giving certificates to all its members for the purpose of forming with it a new church in that body, was unconstitutional, and therefore null and void. One of the elders of the Second church, Thomas M. Russell, had, on the organization of the new First church, been appointed its treasurer, and as such had possession of the funds accruing from the sale of the Second church prop- erty. For this a suit was instituted by the trustees of the First church, which was decided in their favor in the Schuylkill county court, but was appealed.
" Very soon after the reunion of the Old and New School bodies was effected, and the two Pottsville churches came under the care of the Presbytery of Lehigh. Efforts were at once made for an amicable settlement of difficul- ties, as the result of which the funds in question were yielded by the First church to the Second. Hostile feel- ings gradually subsided, and the relations between the two churches are now as pleasant as could be expected in view of the residue of human nature always to be found in the body of the church militant.
"I became pastor of the First church on May Ist, 1873, and continued till October Ist, 1894. I can hon- estly say that during that period I did all that lay in my power to promote harmony and concert in good doing. In the mean time Pottsville has grown and promises, in the not distant future, much larger growth, and there
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seems better reason for two Presbyterian churches than ever before."
The Rev. George W. Smiley, D. D., was the first pastor after the reorganization of the Second church of Pottsville. He was received from the Congregational body, and had been pastor of the Second Congregational church of Philadelphia. He came into the Luzerne Pres- bytery in March of the year during which it was con- nected with the Lehigh Presbytery, and continued pastor of the Second church of Pottsville till he was called to higher service, June 29th, 1883, in the 64th year of his age. In view of the condition of things when he entered on his work he seems to have had a successful ministry.
XXXII.
CONYNGHAM VALLEY CHURCH.
T' HE part of this valley in which the Presbyterians had their principal place of worship, was in Sugar Loaf Township, at Seybertsville. The whole valley had been pre-empted by Mr. Webster, and occupied, as we have seen, by Rev. Daniel Gaston, the Rev. Darwin Cook, and others ; but later and longer by the Rev. John Johnson.
Although never installed as pastor, as Mr. Gaston had been, Mr. Johnson's ministry was remarkable, in view of the fact that he had received no special training for it. A tailor by trade, and a member of the Rev. Dr. Gray's church in Easton, he had shown considerable zeal as a lay worker, and, in connection with some of the pious students at Lafayette College, had conducted religious services in the more destitute communities of the suburbs of Easton, and with such success as to call the attention of ministers and other Christians to his work.
On account of the difficulty of securing and sustain- ing a minister in Conyngham Valley, Mr. Johnson was invited to undertake evangelistic work there. The Presbytery of Luzerne was so well pleased with his services and success, that he was given a license to preach about 1850, and subsequently, without the usual exami- nations, he was ordained to the full work of the ministry, this being regarded an extraordinary case. We have seen him in the pulpit with Dr. Charles Hodge, assisting in
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performing the highest ministerial functions, and doing his part with, perhaps, more freedom and unction than if he were able to realize the trying ordeals through which others had passed before reaching the position which he was occupying. He preached with ease and sometimes with much force. His pastorate proved to be one of the longest in the Presbytery, being about twenty years, through the whole of which he retained the affection of his people, and that of the Presbytery. He was fond of reading, especially sermons, and he had an excellent memory. A brick house of worship was erected at Sey- bertsville, and many members were received from time to time, but stated worship was not continued at Drums, in Butler Township, and no church was organized there ; a part, however, of the Presbyterian element, found a church home at Seybertsville. Mr. Johnson helped to hold the ground for the Presbyterian church at Hazleton before the organization of a church in that town, and he seems to have been one of the instruments used in pre- paring the way for the organization of the Upper Lehigh church. In writing the history of Luzerne Presbytery, it is proper to say that the country churches, as the cities within its bounds grew, were greatly depleted by the drafts made from their membership by the business centres, and it became difficult for these country congre- gations to hold their own. This was true of Conyngham Valley, as of other places. Mr. Johnson, in 1871, left his charge in Luzerne for one in Northumberland Pres- bytery, which he held for ten years. He then returned to Easton, where he died May Ist, 1890, aged 78 years.
XXXIII.
THE CHURCH OF NANTICOKE
AND
THE REV. JACOB WEIDMAN.
T HE Rev. Jacob Weidman came into the Presbytery in the summer of 1859. He had just graduated from Princeton Seminary. He had taken his degree of A. B. in Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, before he was nineteen years old, having been born in Lebanon, Pa., Dec. 20, 1837 ; and now at his twenty-second year, he is found taking hold of his life-work with us. He had labored as stated supply for a short time at Tamaqua, before coming to Nanticoke. The field to which he was then introduced has already been before us.
We have seen that that part of the valley of the Sus- quehanna was originally settled by a different class of people from those who had taken possession of the land north of Hanover and Newport Townships, in Luzerne County, Pa. But Dr. Dorrance speaks of them as ex- cellent people, many of them staunch Presbyterians. The first church organized on this ground, however, was German Reformed. While for a time it was prosperous, unfortunate occurrences marred its prospects, and the congregation and its house of worship fell into decay.
The pastors of Wilkes-Barre, especially Mr. Gilder- sleeve, gave some attention to this community, and after he
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resigned his pastorate, he did special Missionary work for a time in Hanover and Newport townships, and with his successor, Dr. Nicholas Murray, organized the Presby- terians in the general community and without church connections, together with a number then dismissed from the Wilkes-Barre church, into " The church of Hanover and Newport." This organization was effected Nov. 27, 1829. John Schleppy, Anderson Dana and Henry Styes, were the first elders.
Mr. Gildersleeve did not continue long with the new organization, and after he retired services were very irregularly held. They were afforded, for the most part, by the. Rev. Messrs. Rhodes, of Northmoreland, Corss and Snowden, of Kingston. After the Rev. T. P. Hunt came to Wyoming Valley, he was frequently on the ground, and then also Darwin Cook, with whom the people of Nanticoke where anxious to make a permanent engagement.
We find Presbytery sending a committee in April, 1860, to look into the condition of the field to which Mr. Weidman had been sent the previous year. This com- mittee consisted of Rev. Dr. Dorrance, Mr. Hunt and Elder Collins. What they found, or what they did not find, led to the unanimous conclusion that it was nec- essary to reorganize the church. This they proceeded to do. The new body, included the members of the former church still on the ground, and five members from the Wilkes-Barre church, with three other persons on profession of their faith. John Fairchild was elected, ordained and installed elder. The name of the church was at this time changed to that of Nanticoke.
We see in these transactions that something had been
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done already by the young Missionary. The next year the congregation took measures to provide a sanctuary.
It was completed in 1863, in troublous times. Thus stakes were being driven ; preparation for effective and permanent work is secured, but, unhappily, we find, after all this, Nanticoke church is reported vacant for several years after Mr. Weidman's retirement in 1864. Hence, of course, the Nanticoke congregation does not report much progress for some time.
Mr. Weidman does not seem to have had a special charge for a time after leaving Nanticoke. In 1867 he became pastor of the church of Bristol, Pa., where he re- mained till 1873. He was then pastor of the Brainard church, Easton, Pa., till 1880. Afterwards he was stated supply of the South Bethlehem church for five years. He then resided for two years in Pottsville, Pa., laboring
as an evangelist. He was, during the years 1887-88, in charge of the White Haven church. His last pastorate was at Clifton Heights, Pa. Mr. Weidman was regarded as a man of sound judgment, well informed and devoted to his work-a useful an honored minister of Christ .*
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