USA > Pennsylvania > Huntingdon County > Huntingdon > The Historical memorial of the centennial anniversary of the Presbytery of Huntingdon : held in Huntingdon, Pa., April 9, 1895 : 1795-1895 > Part 33
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Women had their missionary societies in all the years of the past. Meeting weekly, they sewed and prayed, a few of the faithful ones always ; and we may believe that in the book of God's remembrance their self- denying gifts and prayers are written, accepted, and never forgotten,- prayers perhaps answered in these latter years, when in God's providence the nations that have so long sat in darkness begin to see the light. But, in this day of quickened intelligence and improved methods, women have been found ready to welcome the new plans,-the monthly meeting, regular contributions, and missionary literature so full of interest. And the result shows a vastly increased scale of giving and working.
All honor to the faithful bands in our older churches which for so many years have labored and prayed, and from which often have come gifts for missions that put to shame the regular church contributions. For example, a mere handful of devoted women in the Pine Grove Church, a small and by no means rich congregation, have sent their
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yearly gift, a large sum proportionately, the money earned for the most part by the labor of their hands.
When a Presbyterial society came to be formed, the difficulties expe- rienced may be more easily understood if we remember that at that time the ability and fitness of women for such affairs had not been proved nor even thought of. Presbyterian women had been too well instructed in Bible teaching to desire to undertake work which might lead them away from the already full and wide field of usefulness so plainly laid out for them by Infinite Wisdom; they must be well convinced that, in attempting "woman's work for woman" in dark heathen lands, they were in sympathy with their Lord and Master. Then, too, the organizing and conducting public meetings with the help of parliamentary rules was no light task to those wholly untrained in such matters. But, going on, simply trusting the Divine Helper, and endeavoring to carry out his commands in his own way, the weak were made strong and the ignorant instructed. Resisting the strong current felt at one time towards break- ing away from old boundaries to give our own interpretation to Bible teaching, the women of this Presbytery have aimed to carry on their meetings and all their work according to the wholesome and decent order of our own church, and at this day see no cause to regret such a stand.
Twenty years have seen remarkable answers to the volume of united prayer offered monthly, weekly, and daily by Christian women for the conversion of the world and for the sending forth laborers into the har- vest. Highways into the great heathen world have been opening and an increasing number of workers raised up. From our own Presbytery have gone Rev. G. A. and Mrs. Landis, to South America ; to India, Rev. J. H. Orbison, M.D., and his sister, Miss Pendleton, Rev. J. M. Goheen and Mrs. Goheen, Miss McGinness and Miss Bird, now Mrs. Henry Forman ; to China, Mrs. John Butler and Miss Cunningham ; to Japan, Miss Emma Hays, for a time. Mr. Robert E. Speer, secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, is a son of the Presbytery.
Besides the money sent by the Presbyterial Society to the general fund yearly, three or four lady missionaries have been supported,-at the present time, Miss Porter in Japan, Mrs. Henry Forman in India, Mrs. Landis in South America, and Mrs. Vanneman in Persia.
A glance backward over these twenty years will reveal the same little band of united, congenial fellow-workers, who have served as officers from the beginning : Miss C. W. Stewart, Mrs. W. H. Woods, Mrs.
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Dorris, Miss Annie Irvine, Mrs. Barron, Mrs. M. H. Wilson, Mrs. Ross, Mrs. Orbison, with later acquisitions. But we miss the sweet, gentle, capable face of Mrs. 'Russell, treasurer for so long. And of those who loved the cause we treasure the memory of Mrs. Goheen, Miss Maggie Kelly, and her sister, Mrs. Graham, Mrs. Charlotte Irvine, and Mrs. Walker Woods.
In Miss Stewart's letter for 1895 she says, "Each year brings to us from our parent society calls to aid in some special work or building. The societies and bands who have answered these calls, even by small sums, have now solid investments in mission homes, schools, hospitals, and churches in Persia, Africa, San Francisco, India, Lakason in Siam, China, and Japan. All these buildings are light-houses amid the sur- rounding gloom, sending their beams far and wide, and calling to every passer-by, 'Come to the Light; it is shining for thee.'"
WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF THE PRESBYTERY OF HUNTINGDON.
President .- Miss Annie M. Irvine, Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania.
Vice-Presidents .- Mrs. Wm. Dorris, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania ; Mrs. Robert McMeen, Mifflintown, Pennsylvania ; Mrs. John Russell, Philips- burg, Pennsylvania ; Mrs. Wm. McClay, Belleville, Pennsylvania; Mrs. W. H. Schuyler, Everett, Pennsylvania; Mrs. D. H. Campbell, Mount Union, Pennsylvania; Mrs. Lucy Thompson, Spruce Creek, Pennsyl- vania; Mrs. J. W. Bain, Altoona, Pennsylvania; Mrs. R. A. Mckinley, Clearfield, Pennsylvania; Mrs. H. L. Book, Waterloo, Pennsylvania ; Miss S. D. Morrow, Tyrone, Pennsylvania ; Miss Mira Humes, Belle- fonte, Pennsylvania ; Mrs. E. F. Johnston, Vice-President at Large.
Vice-President for Bands .- Mrs. A. S. Landis, Hollidaysburg, Penn- sylvania.
Recording Secretary .- Mrs. A. M. Laporte, Tyrone, Pennsylvania.
Corresponding Secretary .- Mrs. W. B. Miller, Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Secretaries for Freedmen .- Mrs. D. K. Freeman and Mrs. H. G. Fisher, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania.
Secretary for Sabbath-Schools .- Mrs. M. W. Thompson, Altoona, Pennsylvania.
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Secretary for Literature .- Mrs. J. A. Knight, Lewistown, Pennsyl- vania.
Treasurer .- Mrs. J. M. Bailey, Third and Penn Streets, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania.
WOMAN'S WORK IN HOME MISSIONS. BY MRS. JULIA A. DORRIS.
" Go up and possess the land which I have given you."
HOME MISSIONS, as carried on in the present day, would have been, to the churches organized in this Presbytery early in the present cen- tury, a veritable foreign work, for in the midst of the wilderness as they themselves were, separated by long distances, and amid the incon- veniences of a country but partially opened, their main efforts were necessarily directed towards self-support; but as they grew stronger, while still struggling for their own maintenance, they reached out help- ing hands to the feebler churches in their vicinity, or throughout the Presbytery, that needed aid.
The mission of the church of Christ, however, is "to minister, and not to be ministered unto," and therefore we soon find these congre- gations obeying the injunction of the General Assembly, which at its first meeting, in 1789, unanimously resolved "To send forth mission- aries, well qualified, to be employed in mission work on our frontiers, for the purpose of organizing churches, administering ordinances, ordaining elders, collecting information concerning the state of religion in those parts, and proposing the best means of establishing a gospel ministry among the people. And in order to provide means for defraying the necessary expenses of the mission, it is strictly enjoined on the several Presbyteries to have collections made during the present year, in the several congregations under our care, and forwarded to Isaac Snowden, Esq., Treasurer of the General Assembly, with all convenient speed."
The collection amounted to eighty pounds twelve shillings and ten- pence. The usual salary allowed a missionary was four hundred dollars. per annum, and in a single instance fifty dollars was granted to a Rev. Mr. Ker, for the loss of his horse on a missionary tour in the frontier parts of New York and Pennsylvania. "Their salaries were small, their
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difficulties and dangers great, their labors and trials abundant ; but what- ever there is of public taste, culture, and conscience in the nation to- day, and love of order and law, is chiefly due to the self-denying toils of these home missionary workers."
It is not the province of this article to trace the work of home missions, as conducted, first by the original Presbytery, then by the old Synod, followed by the General Assembly organized in 1789, then by the " Committee of Missions" from 1802, and by "The Board of Missions," from 1816, together with the "Presbyterian Committee of Home Missions," organized in 1861, and since the Reunion of 1870, by "The Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America ;" but to gather up as far as it can be done the part taken by the women of the church in this important department of its work.
We know that they stood side by side with the fathers, brothers, and husbands of those early days, counselling, aiding, and encouraging them in their trials and privations, sharing their joys and sorrows; but their work was so identified with that of the men, in upbuilding their own places of worship and spreading the gospel of salvation to others, that no records have been kept of their distinctive share in it.
The history, then, cannot be otherwise than fragmentary, as collected from the lips of those who have heard it from the mothers and grand- mothers of past generations, and, except in a few instances, the dates are uncertain, until we come to the organized work of the present day, which it has been deemed best to record in this memorial volume, that there may be no future uncertainty as to events and dates, and especially as to the causes and influences that led up to this new and enlarged form of work.
The trials and privations of the missionary on the frontier, as it was then called, although often within their own bounds, have ever appealed to the feminine heart, so the sewing societies of the church, founded by Dorcas, while making " coats and garments" for the poor at their doors, met also at the homes of the members to make quilts, comfortables and clothing to fill boxes for the "domestic missionary," to eke out the slender pittance which the Board of Domestic Missions granted for his self-denying and laborious work.
As the members of the congregations prospered and increased in worldly goods, the log "meeting-houses" were displaced for more pre- tentious houses of worship, and here again the hands and needles of the
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women were busied in preparing fancy and useful articles for sale in fairs and bazaars, for providing carpets and pulpit furniture, or Venetian blinds, for the edifice, and sometimes for a steeple or bell, according to their wealth or ambition.
Female Bible, Tract, and Missionary Societies were formed, and where the records have been preserved we find men, as well as women, named as contributors, which it would not be amiss for the churches of our day to adopt, for, quoting Mrs. C. E. Walker, who was Secretary of the Woman's Executive Committee of Home Missions, "We do not want the work to be largely woman's but Christian work; men and women equally bearing their own share in it."
Mrs. J. C. Barr, who was Miss Eliza Cresswell, of Alexandria, speak- ing of the early work in that church, writes recently, " I have a book of Grandmother Gemmill's, who was Treasurer of a Missionary Society, which I have been told was a Foreign Society, dating from 1825 to 1835. The yearly subscription was fifty cents. Among the names of regular contributors I find Mrs. Peebles, Mrs. Dorris, Mary Allison, Mary Dor- sey, Ellen Dorsey, all paid up to 1831. The following names grouped together, marked paid, in 1828, I infer may all be Huntingdon people : Benjamin Miller, Mrs. Martha McConnell, John Peebles, Eliza Hender- son, Mary Allison, James M. Bell, Eleanor Orbison, Benjamin Morgan. In this group the first and last named each contributed one dollar. The regular contributors seem to have ceased in 1838, and probably a society was organized in Huntingdon about that time. In 1849 a Female Bible Society was organized in the Church of Alexandria, which did efficient work for several years. Petersburg and Shaver's Creek were included in the bounds of the Alexandria Church in the early days, and some of the families contributed through that society. I do not think as churches they did anything in their own bounds."
The names given by Mrs. Barr were all members of the Huntingdon congregation, and from the recollections of some of the older ladies of that church, which were noted down in 1880 by the members of the Synodical Committee of Home Missions, the date of the Missionary Society there was fixed at about 1825, when the Rev. John Peebles be- came the pastor of the churches of Huntingdon and Hart's Log, and boxes for missionaries were made up and packed at his house ; "his car- pets it is said being almost worn out by these frequent gatherings of women." One of these ladies, Mrs. William P. Orbison, remembered well that the society of which her elder sister was a member helped to
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sustain missionaries in the bounds of the Presbytery, and she herself while visiting a married sister residing in Alexandria became a member there of the little girls' society that educated two Indian boys, to whom they were allowed to give English names. Mrs. William McMurtrie, one of the older members of the Huntingdon Church, a grand-daughter of John Whittaker, an elder of the early days, has in her possession a sub- scription book of 1833, from which the following pledge is copied:
" We the undersigned, impressed with a sense of the importance of the general diffusion of gospel light, do engage to pay annually, so long as we shall conceive it to be our duty, the sum respectively annexed to our names, for the support of Mr. William Reed (or such other individual as the Huntingdon Presbytery shall choose) as a missionary among the heathen." John Peebles leads the list of subscribers, and of one hun- dred and thirty-one signatures, eighty-three are women (one being the old colored janitress, Mary Gibson, twenty-five cents); and one subscrip- tion, "The Female Benevolent Society," five dollars ; " A widow's mite," twelve and one-half cents; "A female to missions," two dollars and ninety-six cents ; the whole amounting to something over ninety dollars, for the year 1833. In 1835 the entries cease, and whether the sub- scribers no longer " conceived it to be their duty" to continue their gifts, or if the collector failed to record them, is not stated. (Rev. William Reed was one of three young men licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Huntingdon, and reared within its bounds, who offered themselves as foreign missionaries,-Reed, Fleming, and Hope. Mr. Fleming was ordained as a missionary among the " Creek Indians, West of the Missis- sippi," under the care of the American Board. Mr. Reed was appointed to Northern India from the Presbytery, one of the first missionaries under the care of the Western Foreign Missionary Society, but died in the first year of his missionary labors, 1835 .* )
Of the Bellefonte Church, Mrs. William P. Wilson, daughter of Rev. James Linn, pastor of the church, says, " In 1821 we find a record of seventeen dollars and fifty cents given by 'The Woman's Missionary So- ciety,' through Mrs. Eliza Dobbins. In later times the interest has been kept up by sewing societies, packing of boxes, etc. Before the organi- zation of our Home Missionary Society, we for many years devoted a month in the fall to packing a 'box.' These boxes were always valuable, sometimes amounting to between two and three hundred dollars."
* Gibson's " History of the Presbytery of Huntingdon," pages 101-2, 112, 114.
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Miss Annie Irvine, of Hollidaysburg, daughter of Mrs. Charlotte Irvine, one of the earnest workers in the missionary work of that church, writes, "The first home mission work done here by the women, as far as I can learn, was a box sent to Dr. Speer, at Hudson, Wisconsin, in 1861, and there has been one sent every year since."
These are a few instances of work such as was done doubtless in other churches of the Presbytery, as we know in the latter days many even of the weaker churches, as Pine Grove, Bald Eagle, Shade Gap, etc., contributed help in this way towards making the families of "the do- mestic missionary" more comfortable; and if a thorough canvas could be made, many facts in regard to it might be gleaned that would be worthy of record. As far as we have knowledge, the men, too, responded to the appeals of the women, and contributed generously to the "box" work.
The aid given, even in this desultory way, was appreciated, and grate- fully acknowledged by the Home Mission Board and the General Assembly, but with the changed condition of affairs, as the country developed, through immigration and the railroads opening up the great West, more means and new methods of administration became impera- tive. This vast army that landed annually upon our shores, bringing with them " foreign faiths and customs," must be met not only with the preacher of the gospel, but by the missionary teacher and the Christian school, that they might thus be able to reach the children, and through them the parents. Trans-continental railways had brought within reach the Mexicans and Alaskans, that had come to us with newly acquired territory, and they, with the Mormons and Indians and Mountain whites of the South, the missionaries found could not be influenced by the simple preaching of the word, and asked for teachers and schools to prepare the way before them, as they could penetrate where the minister was barred out by the prejudice of the people. The women of the church were, therefore, called upon by the Board of Home Missions and the General Assembly "to take up the school work, and act as pioneers to our regular home missionaries ;" the General Assembly of 1875 expressing "its clear judgment that home evangelization and the conversion of the heathen are one and the same work in the Lord, and therefore to be alike aided and promoted by all the godly women of the church of Christ ;" and hoped " that the women of the church would add to their work of supplying missionaries with boxes the supplying of these different classes of people with schools and teachers."
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They also " recommended a central organization to be exclusively devoted to woman's work for home missions, and the Assembly of 1876 authorized the Synods to appoint committees of women to co-operate with the Home Board in bringing this about."
" In response to this advice the Synod of Pittsburg appointed such a committee, consisting of one lady for each Presbytery. The other Synods referred to the Assembly's recommendation, but took no action." The brethren were not sure it was wise to commit such trusts to women's hands, and, moreover, did not know whom to appoint, and so did nothing.
In 1878 the General Assembly recommended, " That pastors, Pres- byteries, and Synods make special effort to present to the women of our church, by sermons or otherwise, the principles and history of these organizations, and that effort be made to secure harmony of method," etc. They also recommended "that the committees on home missions in their respective Presbyteries and Synods be instructed to promote by all means in their power this work of the women in its home mission cause." As early as the fall of 1875 the Synod of Harrisburg recommended "to the Presbyteries and churches that they encourage the formation of women's home missionary societies, and that a committee be appointed to nominate annually a committee of ladies to take charge of the preliminary organization," but Synod ad- journed without appointing such committee. "Although this action was taken in 1875, and reiterated in much the same terms in 1876, yet no appointment of ladies was made until 1878, when the Presbytery of Carlisle appointed two to be their part of a synodical committee."
The next year, 1879, the Synod of Harrisburg appointed a full com- mittee, consisting of two ladies from each of its four Presbyteries (Carlisle, Huntingdon, Northumberland, and Wellsboro'). The Synod of Erie also appointed its committee this year (1879), and the Synod of Philadelphia followed their example the next year, so that in 1880 there was a com- plete organization throughout the State of Pennsylvania.
The work done by the women of the North in connection with the Christian and Sanitary Commissions during our civil war had developed much latent talent, and demonstrated the advantage of systematic effort, and also their ability in organizing and managing Soldiers' Aid and other societies, to meet the requirements of those times, and so there were women being trained and fitted to act in the emergencies of the church as well as the state.
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"The Ladies' Board of Missions of New York" had been at work for several years, both for home and foreign missions, having entered New Mexico with the first missionary of our church in 1866; "The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church" had been working since 1870, drawing its leaders largely from those women who were interested in the home work, many of whom had been con- tributing to foreign missions through the channels of "The Woman's Union Missionary Society," founded by Mrs. Doremus.
Presbyterian women, having been educated according to a strict and literal interpretation of Paul as to their " keeping silence" in the churches, were slow to take any steps that would lay them open to the charge of " running" without being " sent," and feared lest they might lay their hands upon the ark without a warrant. But, while loyal and obedient, they have also been trained to a conscientious performance of duty, and, when sure that the command to " go forward" is meant for them, they go.
There were women, therefore, whose " hearts were stirred up," ready to respond to the calls of the Home Mission Board, the General As- sembly, and their Synods, as the children of Israel to Joshua, " All that thou commandest us, we will do, and whithersoever thou sendest us, we will go."
It was during the session of the General Assembly of 1878, at Pitts- burg, that the first convention of ladies especially intersted in home missions was held in the lecture-room of the First Presbyterian Church. The committee of ladies already appointed by the Synod of Pittsburg took an active part in this convention, and it prepared the way for the organization of "The Woman's Executive Committee of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church," which has co-operated with the Board of Home Missions so harmoniously ever since.
Space cannot be taken to enumerate the steps that finally resulted in the organization of this committee on December 12, 1878, but it has been well told by Mrs. S. F. Scovel, one of the original committee from Pittsburg Synod, in a paper which ought to have a place among the archives of the Presbyterian Church.
(For some of the information given here in regard to the recom- mendations and actions of Synods indebtedness is acknowledged to Mrs. George Norcross, of Carlisle, extracts being taken from the histori- cal paper prepared and read by her at Harrisburg, October 27, 1892, at the tenth annual meeting of the Woman's Synodical Society of Home Missions for the Synod of Pennsylvania.)
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OF THE PRESBYTERY OF HUNTINGDON.
The following official notification was sent to the members of the committee appointed for the Presbytery of Huntingdon :
" HARRISBURG, Oct. 27, 1879.
" MRS. WM. DORRIS,-You were appointed, with Mrs. W. P. Wilson, of Bellefonte, by the Synod of Harrisburg, last week in session at Williamsport, to represent the Presbytery of Huntingdon on the Woman's Committee for Home Missions of the Synod of Harrisburg. The other members of the committee are Mrs. Geo. Norcross, Carlisle; Mrs. J. C. Caldwell, Chambersburg; Mrs. W. C. Lawson, Milton; Mrs. S. A. Proctor, Lewisburg; Mrs. Henry Miner, Elkland; Miss F. A. Dyer, Covington.
" Yours truly, " T. H. ROBINSON, " Stated Clerk."
Owing to various causes, some of the ladies appointed by the Synod declined to serve; the remaining ones of the number were frequently strangers to each other, and living too far apart to meet together, con- ference and planning how to start to work had to be done by pen.
Finally, after much consultation and perplexity as to the best way, " the committee decided to act upon a recommendation of Synod, that ' conventions be held on this subject in our several Presbyteries.'" Ac- cordingly such a convention was called for the Presbytery of Carlisle, to meet at Chambersburg on February 25, 1880, to be addressed by Dr. Sheldon Jackson, the great champion for home missions, and Mrs. F. E. H. Haines, Corresponding Secretary of the Woman's Executive Committee of Home Missions,-and one for the Presbytery of Hunt- ingdon on February 26 and 27 in the town of Huntingdon. The way was not opened at that time to meet in the other Presbyteries,- Northumberland and Wellsboro'.
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