USA > Pennsylvania > The Historical journal : a quarterly record of local history and genealogy devoted principally to Northwestern Pennsylvania > Part 31
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arrangements for Sabbath School, &c., the fruit of the indefatiga- ble efforts, and of the liberality of Mr. George Furst, its first elder, who in his will provided for all the debt with which it was encumbered. It is hoped that in its present alliance with Bald Eagle and Nittany it will have a more favorable career, and realize greater results than it has ever before enjoyed.
LYCOMING CENTRE CHURCH .- This church was organized in 1847, on territory hitherto belonging to the Lycoming Church. Its first elders were Isaiah Hays, Richard Hays and Isaiah Hageman. It has had a somewhat variable history-it has been at times self- sustaining, and then dependent on missionary support. The most of its territory is uninviting to settlers, and the population limited and changeable. It, however, covers a locality which has need of the administration of gospel ordinances, and should be sustained in its work, although it cannot be conveniently grouped with other organizations for mutual aid. There are some small churches within accessible distance, having a precarious existence, to which it might be a help, but from which it could hardly draw any appreci- able pecuniary support. These are, Pennsdale, organized in 1847. located near Ralston. having at the time of its organization four elders and at the present time a pastor-elect in the person of the Rev. James Dickson, but not blessed with an encouraging future: Trout Run, also very feeble and with no encouraging future, or- ganized in 1871, but seems to make no progress. There was also a church organized in this vicinity in 1871 called Mount Zion, and reporting three elders, but no longer recorded on the minutes of the General Assembly. The population in such regions as this need the institutions of the gospel, and should have them even though the means necessary for their support cannot be gathered on the field. It is the gospel rule that the strong must help the weak.
LINDEN CHURCH .- This church was organized in 1859. It is located nearly midway between Jersey Shore and Williamsport. and drew its original material chiefly from Lycoming and Jersey Shore congregations. . It never has been entirely self-sustaining, though sometimes by allying itself with some other charge it has been able to support a pastor for half his time. The late lamented James D. Reardon supplied it in this capacity for sometime imme-
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diately preceding his sudden death, and did a good work there. He was an industrious, painstaking pastor; a man whose heart was thoroughly engaged in his work; intelligent, conscientious and withal an able preacher. The day may not be very distant when this church will be able to sustain the stated means of grace, though it may have for a long time to submit to the inconvenience of hav- ing its congregation divided by the river, which, as long as it re- mains unbridged, will be difficult to cross in bad weather and always somewhat laborious.
MONTOURSVILLE CHURCH .- This church was organized June 14th, 1868. It is located in a beautiful village, which may be re- garded as a suburb of Williamsport, though not within the incor- porated limits of the city, and is doubtless destined to increase in population and business. This church was nurtured in its incipiency by the pastors of the First Church of Williamsport, among whom the Rev. William Simonton rendered it efficient service, as did also the Rev. George F. Cain: while the present energetic pastor, the Rev. S. E. Webster, has been its prudent and useful counselor. Presbyterianism did not possess pre-emption right to the soil here, as it seems to have had in many of the towns of the West Branch Valley, hence this church has been feeble from its beginning and is not yet as perfectly cast in the Presbyterian mould as might be desirable; yet it has a future before it, and may in the course of time become a self-sustaining and important organization. It has made considerable progress already, and by uniting itself with the church at Montgomery Station. its most natural ally, it has been able to sustain the means of grace for a part of a pastor's time for several years.
MONTGOMERY CHURCH .-- This church was organized in 1872. It is situated at Montgomery Station, a short distance below Muncy. . on the Philadelphia and Erie railroad; and the Catawissa. or exten- sion of the Reading road, also runs through the place. The town is small, but rather noted for its business activity and enterprise, and the church seems to partake somewhat of the spirit of the place. By uniting with Montoursville in supporting the gospel, it ought to be able to enjoy the administration of gospel ordinances at least for half of the time of a pastor.
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WASHINGTON CHURCH .-- This church is located in White Deer Valley, and takes its name from the township in which the church edifice stands. Like all the earlier churches of the Presbytery, the date of its organization is uncertain. Its existence may be coeval with that of Warrior Run and Chillisquaque, or it may have com- menced its career several years later. There is no record of its organization, either in Gibson's History of the Huntingdon Pres- bytery, or in the old minutes of this Presbytery, till the call of the Rev. Mr. Hood to its pastorate, and his installation in 1805. He continued to serve this united charge till 1819, when he resigned the Washington pastorate and devoted an additional fourth of his time to the Milton part of his charge, and Washington applied to Presbytery for supplies. During the long interval from 1819 to 1834 this church seems to have been supplied by David Kirkpat- rick one-half his time; for in the minutes of 1832 it is recorded: " Application was made from the congregations of Mifflinburg and Washington for one-half of Mr. Kirkpatrick's time, as usual, at each of those places." In 1834 the Rev. Isaac Grier (the late I. Grier, D. D.). then a young man, was called for half his time, which he accepted. The other half of his time he gave to Bethel Church, in White Deer Township, until the next spring. April, 1835, when Mr. Hood resigned the charge of Buffalo Church, after which he divided this half of his time between Bethel and Buffalo. Mr. Grier remained in charge of this church for half his time till October, 1852, when he accepted a call for all his time, and be- stowed on it all his ministerial services. This last arrangement only continued one year, when Mr. Grier accepted a call for all his time from Buffalo, in which charge he continued till his death. Mr. Grier's successor was the Rev. J. N. Boyd, who came thither from Western New York, an excellent man and a good and efficient . pastor. He did not remain many years, being called back by some family interests to his native region, where he soon after died. Mr. Boyd was followed by a Mr. Stergis, whose pastorate was very brief, and quite unfortunate for the church. The next pastor was the Rev. L. L. Haughawout, now of the Huntingdon Presbytery, who accomplished a good and worthy work there, and whose mem- ory is still held in high esteem by many of the people. The suc- cessor to Mr. Haughawout was the Rev. J. W. Boal, who resigned in April of this year, 1887. He continued in the pastorate longer
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than any one since Mr. Grier's day, and his departure, to take pas- toral charge of the Lycoming Church, was universally regretted by the people to whom his useful labors had greatly endeared him. Although this church is seldom referred to in the early transactions of the Presbytery, and seems to have stood somewhat in the back- ground when the surrounding country churches were large and prosperous, it has maintained a more successful existence and en- joyed a more comfortable old age than any country church within the limits of the Presbytery. White Deer Valley is one of those beautiful gems with which Nature has adorned herself in this interior region of Pennsylvania-a district of country pleasant to look upon and rich in agricultural resources. Its inhabitants value their homes and appreciate their religious privileges. They rally nobly around the old church; the congregations are large, the peo- ple intelligent, and work faithfully with their pastor in upholding and promoting the prosperity of the church. Few more desirable charges are anywhere to be found than this has been during the late pastorate of Rev. J. W. Boal.
BETHEL CHURCH .- This church, now and for many years extinct, may have had as carly an origin as Washington Church. It is often mentioned in the old minutes in connection with other charges, but nothing is known of the date of its organization, or the exact locality it occupied. It seems to have died a quiet death and to have been buried without an obituary. It was probably swallowed up by Washington. In 1829 a petition was presented to Presbytery from Mooresburg and White Deer for the organization of churches in those places, which was granted. This was perhaps the White Deer Township Church, which does not seem to have attained to any importance or to have existed many years. The petition for organization reads as though it was from those two places jointly, but this could hardly have been the case, as Moores- burg is in the Chillisquaque region and not far from the old church.
MOORESBURG CHURCH .- This church, which began its organized existence in 1829, has preserved its identity and maintains the administration of gospel ordinances in connection with Chillisqua- que. Its territory is limited and its growth must continue slow and small.
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BERWICK CHURCH .- The following account of this church is communicated by the Rev. D. J. Waller, Sr., as from History of Columbia and Montour Counties, April, 1887: "On Saturday, November 24th, 1827, the Rev. Joseph N. Ogden, a Presbyterian clergyman, held services preparatory to communion, in the brick church building, which appears to have been regarded as a union meeting-house at that time. A congregational meeting was held after the close of the regular services, and it was unanimously de- cided to form a distinct Presbyterian church. William Wilson and Sarah Wilson became members of this organization, having previously been connected with the church at Abington, Pa .; Daniel Bourn was received from the Old South Church, Boston, Mass .; Isaac and Abigail Hart, from Wilkes-Barre, Pa .; Mary and Eliza Pollock, from the Derry Church. The remaining members. Thomas and Eleanor Lockart, Emanuel Kirkenthrall and Rachel Beach, had been received into the church by the Rev. John P. Hudson on a former occasion. It was resolved that the articles of faith and covenant for admission of members at Wilkes-Barre and Abington be adopted and enforced in a similar manner. The organization was completed on the following Sabbath, when Daniel Bourn, Isaac Hart and Thomas Lockart were installed as elders; and at a meeting of the session, February 19th, 1828, a request was formulated for admission into the Presbytery of Northumberland. June 20th the Rev. D. J. Waller entered a minute on the records of this congregation, in which he stated that the church had been for a long time without pastoral care, and as far as the manifesta- tions of life were concerned, it was virtually extinct. The only knowledge of the facts above stated had been learned from Rev. D. Easton, of Conyngham, who sent Mr. Waller the record in which they were embodied. It contained the approval of the Mod- erator of the Presbytery, and he accepted this as sufficient evidence . of the existence of an organization, although but two or three of its original members were longer residents of the town. At Mr. Waller's request the Rev. A. H. Hand took part of his extensive charge, entering at Berwick, July 7th, 1842. He at once agitated the erection of a church building, and with such success that on the 7th of October, 1843. the completed structure was dedicated by the Rev. J. W. Yeomans, D. D., president of Lafayette College. Its appearance was greatly improved in 1881, when the building
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was completely remodeled and a tower of symmetrical proportions erected. The rededication occurred July 10th, 1881, when the Revs. D. J. Waller, S. Mitchell, D. D., C. K. Canfield and L. M. Kumler participated in the ceremonies. Many pastoral changes occurred in the years that intervened between these two events in the history of this church. Mr. Hand resigned on account of ill health, and, July 14th, 1845, a call was extended to the Rev. Alex- ander Heberton. He entered upon his pastoral duties August 1st, that year, and was installed on the 25th of November following. The Rev. T. H. Newton became pastor August 18th, 1853, having for the three years previous been seamen's chaplain at the Island of St. Thomas. The Rev. L. M. Kumler was installed pastor July 10th, 1881. His immediate predecessor was the Rev. James Dick- son. Revs. James Kennedy, William Morgan, Joseph Marr, Ed- ward Kennedy, James A. Salmon and P. M. Melick have also sustained pastoral relations to this church. The present incumbent, L. M. Kumler, has had encouraging success; the town has increased in population and wealth, and in sympathy with the improved material interests of the place. this church, under Mr. Kumler's ministry, has prospered both spiritually and materially.
BRIAR CREEK CHURCH .- This church runs back to an unre- corded date. We find frequent mention of it in the old minutes of the Presbytery, the first of which is in April, 1812, when the Rev. Asa Dunham was appointed to supply this church. It, there- fore, may be classed among the oldest churches of the Presbytery. At frequent stated meetings after this we find Mr. Dunham ap- pointed to supply this church. He was received into the Presby- tery of Huntingdon in April, 1798, from the Presbytery of New Brunswick as an ordained minister. According to the records of the Huntingdon Presbytery, he was appointed by the General As- sembly to labor with the Rev. John Patterson in Northumberland and Luzerne counties, and in 1799 he was appointed to labor at Fishing Creek. In Gibson's history of that Presbytery we find no mention of him except his admission into the Presbytery and his appointment to missionate for six months in the east end of the Presbytery, which appointment he reported himself unable to fulfil: at the time of and after the formation of the Presbytery of Nor- thumberland he took a very active part in the affairs of Presbytery
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and the care of its churches. He was made the first Moderator of the new Presbytery, and is found laboring among its poor and weak churches as a missionary-especially in the Briar Creek congregation and places in its vicinity. From the few fragments of history that remain of him, he appears to have been in some respects a remarkable man. When a youth he was a soldier in the war of the Revolution, and fought in the ranks with his father at the battle of Monmouth. He was married five times, and had the misfortune to lose his fourth wife, his mother-in-law and two brothers-in-law by, or as the result of, the burning of his house.
Mr. Dunham seems to have been to the spiritually destitute regions on the West and North Branches of the Susquehanna what the famous Daniel Baker was, forty years ago or more, to the des- titute population of the lower valley of the Mississippi-a general itinerant missionary, who traversed the territory, preaching wher- ever he could gather an audience, baptizing the children of those who desired or were willing to have them baptized, and doing needful clerical work wherever he found a call for it. He seems to have supplied Briar Creek, in part at least, for several years. In the fall of 1816 he preached his farewell sermon to these people, and when he died, nine years later, his remains were deposited in their burying-ground, where they lie, it is said, without monument or memorial stone, awaiting the resurrection of the just. He was about 73 years old when he died.
This church, though organized at a date beyond the memory of all the living, never attained to sufficient ability for independent self-support. It has always had a feeble existence and does not seem to possess much encouraging hope for the future. Doubtless a memorial of it is laid up with the Lord, and its name is written in the book of His remembrance: "And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels."
BLOOMSBURG CHURCH .- This is one of the younger among the sisterhood of churches under the care of the Presbytery, and yet, if its years be measured by the age of an individual, it would be called venerable. The Rev. D. J. Waller, Sr., who had been its pastor from 1839 to 1872, says, in his centennial sermon, in 1876, this church was "organized in 1817, with James McClure. Paul Leidy and Peter Pursell as elders, and at the same time steps.were
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taken for the erection of a church edifice." No mention is made of its organization in the minutes of the Presbytery of that date, nor of an application to that intent. At the April meeting of Presbytery, in 1818, we find this minute:
A call, directed to the Rev. Samuel Henderson, was presented to Presbytery from the united congregations of Shamokin, Bloomsburg and Briar Creek, in which said congregations promise to pay to Mr. Henderson five hundred dollars, in regular half yearly payments, in manner following, viz: Shamokin to pay one hundred and seventy dollars: Bloomsburg, one hundred and sixty dollars, and Briar Creek, one hundred and seventy dollars.
The installment of Mr. Henderson was appointed to take place at the " Briar Creek Church, on the first Tuesday of October, next ensuing, if the way be clear." This is the first mention of the ex- istence of a congregation at Bloomsburg in the Presbyterial records, and from this time onward it is spoken of as the Bloomsbury Church. As this is within the epoch of authentic history in respect to Pres- byterial transactions in this part of Pennsylvania, it must be ac- cepted as reliable. It does not prove that the Bloomsburg Church was not organized in 1817, but it indicates that there was either some irregularity about it, or an unusual neglect on the part of Pres- bytery to record the act. At the time of the organization of the church a lot for a church site and burying-ground was purchased, and steps taken for the erection of a church edifice. to be of the dimensions of 36 x 40 feet and two stories high, with deep gallery on three sides. During the erection of this building the congre- gation worshiped in the Episcopal church building, for the use of which, for one-third of the time, they paid a rent of $7 per year. This was a small sum for so great a privilege, as it must have been. in the eyes of Episcopalians, of using their consecrated house for worship, by a sect not recognized by them as a church. It was a very unchurchly transaction.
In 1822 Mr. Henderson was arraigned at the bar of Presbytery on a charge of improper conduct, preferred against him by some of his Briar Creek congregation, was found guilty and suspended from the functions of the gospel ministry. A few months after, on the petition of the people, he was restored to full standing. and continued to preach in Bloomsburg until 1824. This was the sec- ond time Mr. Henderson was suspended from the office of the ministry for conduct unbecoming his official character and position.
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He was succeeded by the Rev. John Niblock, who at the same time preached at Berwick, for two years, sustaining an excellent repu- tation as a man, and leaving behind him a cherished memory. The next pastor was the Rev. James Lewers. He was a native of Ire- land, a brother to the wife of the late Rev. John Gray, D. D., of Easton, Pa .; a typical Irishman, of quick and strong impulses, who could as readily strike a blow with his fist, under provocation, as utter a Hibernicism with his tongue. He possessed much of the sprightliness and poetic faculty of his gifted sister, and was an at- tractive and popular preacher, though not a man of high spiritual tone. Mr. Lewers was followed by a Mr. Crossby, an Eastern man, who was largely devoted to Sabbath School work. Then followed the Rev. Matthew B. Patterson, who wrought as a missionary at Bloomsburg and in the valley of Fishing Creek for a short time. He was a son of the Rev. John B. Patterson, one of the fathers of the Presbytery. He was followed by the Rev. Robert Bryson, who seems to have been a young man of much promise, but was soon overtaken by disease, of which he died. He was a son of the Rev. John Bryson, who is known to the present generation as the venerable pastor of the Warrior Run congregation, and one of the original five constituent members of the Presbytery. In 1832 John P. Hudson entered upon an engagement as stated supply to Bloomsburg, Briar Creek and New Columbia, and as a missionary in the valley of Fishing Creek. Mr. Hudson is a native of Staun- ton, in the Valley of Virginia, a graduate of the Theological Seminary at Princeton, New Jersey. and had devoted some time to giving classical instruction before he entered upon the work above mentioned. He is a fair type of the Virginia style of a gentleman, genial, companionable and possesses a reputation for accurate classical scholarship. His labors in this field were attended with good success, and the church was revived and strengthened. In the spring of 1838 Mr. Hudson received a call to the church at Williamsport, now the First Church of that city. His friends at Bloomsburg, and the other congregations which he had been sup- plying, desired to retain him, and made considerable effort to do so. They offered the same amount of salary that the Williamsport church offered, and proposed to install him in the pastorate, but he accepted the call at Williamsport. The Rev. Mr. Toby followed Mr. Hudson, in a brief ministry as a supply, and he was succeeded
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by the Rev. D. M. Barber, a popular preacher and a useful man. Mr. Barber had established a boarding school for young ladies at his farm, above Washingtonville, and he found it not expedient to give up his school, while the people of Bloomsburg wanted a min- ister to live among them; hence he withdrew, and the field was again left vacant. In 1838 a unanimous call was extended from Bloomsburg, Berwick, Briar Creek and the Fishing Creek Mission to Mr. D. J. Waller, a licentiate of the Presbytery of New Castle, who had been about one year out of the Theological Seminary at Princeton, New Jersey. They offered him a salary of $600 per year, the same that had been offered to Mr. Hudson, which was in those days considered a good and sufficient support. He accepted the call and was ordained and installed on May 1st, 1839.
Thus commenced a pastorate which lasted more than thirty years. comprehending a vast range of country, and, as Mr. Waller him- self says,* "full of labors, of trials and of love." This pastorate proved a great blessing to this extensive charge, both spiritually and temporally. The pastor held on his way bravely, amid dis- couragements of a formidable character, conquering obstacles which to many a man would have been insurmountable. and lifting the church and the community up in the scale of mental, moral and religious development, as few men could have done. Mr. Waller proved himself to be the right man in the right place throughout his long ministry in this charge. Doubtless the provi- dence of God sent and kept him there through all those years of toil and sacrifice, because he was in all respects so perfectly adapted to the exigencies of the field. He had several opportunities of changing the locality of his labors, having received calls to churches of greater apparent promise and of lighter labors than this; but he remained, indifferent to all human inducements to the contrary, where the Master had placed him till his work was done, and now in his declining years can contemplate, with comforting satisfaction, the fruitful results of his protracted pastoral life. Under his ministry the church at Bloomsburg not only became amply self sns- taining, but. at length, stepped to the fore front of all the churches of the Presbytery in the department of benevolent contributions. which position it maintained till the churches of the city of Wil-
* See his centennial sermon, 1876.
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liamsport, through the great increase of that place in population and wealth, were recently enabled to outstrip it. Mr. Waller re- signed this charge in April, 1871, and in October, 1872, the present pastor, the Rev. Stewart Mitchell, was called and installed, who has efficiently taken up and prosecuted the successful work of his predecessor. This church is not strong in the number of its com- municants, reporting only 170, but it worships God by giving of its substance to benevolent objects every Sabbath, and its liberality is worthy of the highest commendation. Last year, 1887, it gave nearly $700 to foreign missions, nearly the same amount to domes- tic missions, and with proportionate liberality to all the other ob- jects of benevolence presented by the General Assembly to its churches for their support.
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