Pennsylvania USGenWeb Archives

Centennial History

of Methodism

in Clearfield, PA

1810 - 1910

George W. Rheem

transcribed for the Clearfield County PA USGenWeb by

Ellis Michaels

CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF METHODISM IN CLEARFIELD, PA.

CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF METHODISM IN CLEARFIELD, PA.

CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF METHODISM IN CLEARFIELD, PA. 

CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF METHODISM IN CLEARFIELD, PA.

George W. Rheem

CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF METHODISM IN CLEARFIELD, PA.

CENTENNIAL HISTORY

OF METHODISM

IN CLEARFIELD, PA.

1810 - 1910

CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF METHODISM IN CLEARFIELD, PA.

THOS. H. MURRAY,
AMERICUS H. WOODWARD,
WALTER C. STEPHENS,
JOSEPH B. MCENALLY,
HARRY B. POWELL,
GEORGE W. RHEEM,
Committee.
Clearfield, Pa.
 

CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF METHODISM IN CLEARFIELD, PA.

CONTENTS.
The Historian, 7

The Trail, 10

Thomas Holt Murray, 13

Chapter I Centennial History of Methodism in Clearfield, Pa., 1810 - 1910, 17

Chapter II The History, 21

Chapter III, 44
Letter of Rev. L. M. Gardner, 56

Chapter IV, 67

Chapter V, 82

Chapter VI Conference Session, 101

Chapter VII, 131
Death of Ai Fitch Boynton, 137
Our Financial System, 150
Churches of the Town—
Presbyterian, 151
Lutheran, 152
Protestant Episcopal, 153
Baptist, 154
United Brethren, 154
Memorial Address of Hon. J. B. McEnally, 155
Dr. W. A. Stephens' Address, 161

Chapter VIII
Statistical Sheets, 164.
Missionary Collections, 165
Trustees of Clearfield Methodist Episcopal Church, 1860-1909, 167
Baltimore Conference, list of Preachers, 171
Receipts and expenditures of Trinity Methodist Epis-
copal Church, from April 1, 1909 to April 1, 1910, 174.

Appendix
Official Lists and Membership of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church in Clearfield, Pa., September, 1910, 175
 

CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF METHODISM IN CLEARFIELD, PA.

Page 7

THE HISTORIAN

  I was born in the borough of Carlisle, Pa., July 20th, 1833, and educated in the common schools of that place. graduating from the fifth grade, or high school, in my fifteenth year. I was employed by my uncle, Jacob Rheem, as bookkeeper in his warehouse until past my seventeenth year. That year, 1850, in October, my father and family moved from Carlisle, in covered wagons, into Karthaus township, 150 miles, taking the whole week and half of the Sunday morning, reaching our destination in a snowstorm in the dense pine forests of that township on Three Runs. We remained there all winter, enjoying the life of lumbermen, until March 1851, when my uncle, Jacob Rheem, who owned the tract, sold it, when the family moved to Clearfield, then a town of 503 inhabitants, seventy-five dwelling houses, five churches, one court house, one academy, no public schools, five stores, one jail, four hotels and population of county 12,586. I found the people to be of such a hospitable disposition as to compel me to fall in love with them and their beautiful mountain town, and as the town has grown the love has only intensified, and hope it may continue so as long as life may last.
 

  My early Sunday School life was looked after by my parents, and I was too young when I commenced to have any distinct recollection of it, and continuing in it I renewed it with the Methodist Episcopal School here on the second Sunday in May, 1851, and have been connected with it for over fifty-nine years, in every position. My
 

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membership in the Church commenced the same year, and I have followed closely in its services. This naturally gave me an intimate knowledge of its life, and this was a prompting reason with the committee to have me be the historian. I served as secretary of the Board of Trustees and kept the records for forty-six years, and have in my possession all of the written records since 1825, and as I have gathered history I have compiled it, with the approval of the other members of the committee, as to cherish the hope it may meet the approval of its readers and be of some value to the Methodists of the county. There will be no individual profit whatever, but whatever may be realized over its cost will inure to the benefit of the Ladies' Aid Society to help them pay up the small balance of the $2,600 they so nobly subscribed to the building of our present Church.
GEO W. RHEEM.
 

CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF METHODISM IN CLEARFIELD, PA.

Page 9

Rev. Morris E. Swartz, D. D., 1906
The present pastor

CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF METHODISM IN CLEARFIELD, PA.

Page 10

THE TRAIL

  Locating the material for this history, and securing the photographs of all of the preachers who served us since 185o, involved a correspondence reaching to Jacksonville, in Florida, and to Kansas City, in Missouri, and into New York State, and from one end of Pennsylvania to the other, including the Warren Insane Asylum. In addition td the records in my possession, I was favored by the Rev. Horace L. Jacobs, D. D., of Altoona First Methodist Episcopal Church, with the loan of books, and from Mrs. Ann Goodfellow of bound volumes of Conference Minutes dating back to 1773, which was the beginning of the Baltimore Conference, in which territory we belonged. In collecting the photographs, as they will all appear in the book, I had twenty-seven to look after and had no trouble in locating the living ones, but to find the dead ones, I had to find the living friends, and by an incessant correspondence I located every family and have succeeded in securing the twenty-seven photographs. In addition to these I am glad to be able to say that I had a photograph taken from an oil painting of Rev. Joseph S. Lee, the father of Asbury W. Lee, who was the preacher in charge at the dedication of the old Cherry Street Church, in 1839. This history commenced with the circuit in 1810 and the name of every preacher sent in charge of the circuit appears in the statistical chapter until 185o, when new circuits began to be formed and
 

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Then as each began the date is given and the name of the first preacher that served them; and of the original great circuit then in Clearfield county there are now twenty circuits and stations, and the history ends with the building of the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church in Clearfield, which was the objective point.
G. W. R.
 

CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF METHODISM IN CLEARFIELD, PA.

Page 12

Thos. Holt Murray

CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF METHODISM IN CLEARFIELD, PA.

Page 13

THOMAS HOLT MURRAY

  The subject of this sketch was born in Girard township, Clearfield county, Pa., April 5th, 1845.
 

  He is the second of nine children born to Alexander and Isabella Holt Murray. His father was one of the pioneer settlers of Girard township.
 

  In January, 1863 he entered Dickinson Seminary, at Williamsport. A break in his health prevented his remaining for the full year, but in September, 1864, he returned and resumed his studies. He engaged in making timber, and rafting the same at different times and became a very successful pilot in running rafts down the river. He also taught schools in Covington township and in Curwensville prior to his re-entering the seminary. While he was a student at the seminary he began the study of law with the late General Robert Fleming, of Williamsport. He finished his studies and graduated from the seminary on June 19th, 1867. He saved some money by selling some books and after all his expenses were paid he returned home in possession of $150.00. He registered as a law student in the office of the late H. Bucher Swoope, June l0th, 1867, and continued his studies until May 24th, 1869, when, after a public examination in open court, he was admitted to the bar of Clearfield county.
 

  He opened an office for the practice of law June 30th, 1869, in Clearfield, Pa.
 

  He associated with him the Hon. Cyrus Gordon, September 22nd, 1874, and this continued until January, 1894, when Mr. Gordon, having been elected president judge, he associated then with Allison 0. Smith, and
 

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January, 1904, when Mr. Smith having been elected to the office of president judge, he formed a new partnership with his son-in-law, James P. O'Laughlin and his son, Hazard A. Murray, which law firm exists at the present time. His practice is not confined to Clearfield county, but his reputation as a first class lawyer has secured for him a practice which includes many very important cases in many other counties. He entered the lecture field in 1871, and continued for about 25 years, never allowing engagements of this kind to interfere with his law practice. He has published two volumes of his lectures and speeches. On the 9th of July, 1872, Mr. Murray was married to Jennie Reighard, of Williamsport, Pa., who passed away August 7th, 1907. She was a woman of remarkable force of character. To her he chiefly attributed his success and was a most valued adviser, as well as his companion for over thirty-five years.

  He became identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church while a student at the seminary. When he came to Clearfield in May, 1868, he became an active and influential member of that Church, and has served as president of the board of trustees for many years. He has been a Sunday School teacher for over 4o years, and with his present class for 36 years. He has been honored as a lay delegate from the Central Pennsylvania Conference since 1884 to six consecutive General Conferences of the Church, a record unequalled by any other layman in the Methodist Episcopal Church in America. By his power as a debator, he has become prominent in these great assemblies, and has been identified with many of the vital questions with which it has dealt during these years. Among these questions are: The Admission of Women as Delegates: The Separate Seating of the Lay Dele-
 

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gates; The Continuance of the Itinerant System; The Relation of the Epworth League to the Church. He was elected by the General Conference of 1896, a member of the "Commission on Federation" between the Methodist Church north and that south. This commission was composed of three bishops, three ministers and three laymen from each side. He continued a member of that commission twelve years. Its power was enlarged from time to time by the two General Conferences which created it, so as to include the relation of these two Churches to other Evangelical Churches and important action was taken by which there was union between these two Churches and other Churches in respect to their forms of worship, the method by which admission could be had from one to the other, and also affecting their missionary work, their publishing interests and in other respects, so far as it seemed practical, the work of these Churches, both at home and in foreign fields was secured. Mr. Murray was selected by his Church as a delegate to the Methodist Ecumenical Council, composed of all the branches of Methodism world-wide, which met in the city of London in September, 1901. He made several important addresses before that body. He has been a trustee of Dickinson Seminary, Williamsport, Pa., since June, 1884. He has also been a member of the State Sabbath School Association for many years. He was for some years first vice-president of the Association and of late years has been a member of the State Executive Board. He has been successful in his profesison and other enterprises and has made his religion and his means of practical use whenever opportunity offered.
 

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Page 16

Cherry Street Methodist Episcopal Church, 1839

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Page 17

CHAPTER I
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF METHODISM IN CLEARFIELD, PA., 1810-1910
 

  At a meeting of the Trustees of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, held March 18th, 1907, it was thought advisable to have a history of the Clearfield Methodist Episcopal Church written. In order to get the matter in proper shape, a committee consisting of Thos. H. Murray, Americus H. Woodward, Joseph B. McEnally, Walter C. Stephens and Geo. W. Rheem, was appointed to take the matter in consideration. Owing to adverse circumstances some members of the committee were unable to give it prompt attention until May 18th, 1909, when a meeting of the committee was called at the office of Thos. H. Murray, when he and Walter C. Stephens and Geo. W. Rheem were present. Inasmuch as Jos. B. McEnally, in his eighty-fifth year, was unable to be present, and in his present condition of health would probably never be able to give it any attention, it was thought advisable to add another person to the committee, and the name of Harry B. Powell was suggested and placed thereon. (Since the above was written Jos. B. McEnally died, January 5th, 1910, and his obituary is published in this book.)

  The objective point of this history is Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, in Clearfield, Pa., and the possibility for such a history depends largely on what each member of the committee, and other members of the Church, can and will do to help. In view of the fact that Geo. W. Rheem was the oldest in membership but one, Mrs. John
 

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W. Shugart, and was very familiar with the progress of the Church for over fifty-nine years, and has in his care all the official records of the Quarterly Conferences back as far as 1825 and the Trustee records of the station since the incorporation of our Church in 1860, and was the Secretary for forty-six years, it was thought he was the proper person to collect and compile a creditable history, subject to the approval of the committee, he consented to do the work to the best of his ability, depending on all persons interested to aid him in every way possible.

  This preamble is the beginning of such a history. In connection with the introduction, Mrs. Ann Goodfellow, one of the oldest sisters in the Church, in her eighty-fifth year, placed at our disposal two bound volumes of Minutes of all our Annual Conferences from 1773 to 1839, these books having been the property of her father-in-law, a pioneer of Methodism in this county—Isaiah Goodfellow. From these books we are able to find who were the first Methodist preachers that blazed their way into the wilds of Clearfield county and the years in which they came. From these books we have a continuous line of appointments and the names of the preachers, with these lapping into our own records, the line is an unbroken one up to the present time. And in addition to this Geo. W. Rheem, the collector, opened up a correspondence with all the living ministers who served their appointments amongst us in the years gone by, asking them to freshen their memories and add to this history their mite, which has made it the more interesting.

  Methodism in this county, and in every other place, did not always have smooth sailing, and of this experience some things will be written that will show up the rough side and may touch tender spots in some persons, but it has not
 

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been done with any thought of giving offence, but only to show how in the midst of obstacles and hindrances the early Methodists maintained their integrity. The failings of our own people have not been covered over, else the history would not be complete.

  One more thought and this preliminary statement is done. It has been necessary in many instances to mention names of persons directly concerned in many transactions of our Church life, some of our own and others not of our membership. We hope that because some persons are spoken of in an especial manner that no one will think this is done to the disparagement of any others, for to the whole membership belongs the credit of making our Church history. And then if the names of any of your committee have been brought frequently into prominence, please do not think there is any egotism on our part, but this had to be done to leave no doubt as to what the real history is; then some items are inserted that are perhaps not historical, but in their way will no doubt be interesting to the readers and will break the monotony of what might otherwise be dull reading.

  In this, as in all the other interests of our Church, Divine guidance has been sought and the work done.
 

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