First Presbyterian Church
Philipsburg, Pennsylvania
Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
let them say among the nations, “The LORD reigns!”
1 Chron. 16:31
photo by Will Rishel
The monthly happenings of the Philipsburg First Presbyterian Church
and her surrounding community
509 East Presqueisle Street
Philipsburg, Pennsylvania 16866
March 2016
(814) 342-0812
Volume 45 Number 3
[email protected]
www.firstprespburg.org
Thoughts from the Heart
This is one of my favorite stories that I always remember as Holy Week and Easter
approach. May it touch you with the depth and meaning of what Christ did for each of us.
When A.J. Gordon was pastor of a church in Boston, he met a young boy in front of the
sanctuary carrying a rusty cage in which several birds fluttered nervously. Gordon inquired,
"Son, where did you get those birds?"
The boy replied, "I trapped them out in the field."
"What are you going to do with them?"
"I'm going to play with them, and then I guess I'll just feed
them to an old cat we have at home."
When Gordon offered to buy them, the lad exclaimed,
"Mister, you don't want them, they're just little old wild
birds and can't sing very well."
Gordon replied, "I'll give you $2 for the cage and the
birds."
"Okay, it's a deal, but you're making a bad bargain."
The exchange was made and the boy went away whistling, happy with his shiny coins.
Gordon walked around to the back of the church property, opened the door of the small
wire coop, and let the struggling creatures soar into the blue.
The next Sunday he took the empty cage into the pulpit and used it to illustrate his sermon
about Christ's coming to seek and to save the lost -- paying for them with His own precious
blood. "That boy told me the birds were not songsters," said Gordon, "but when I released
them and they winged their way heavenward, it seemed to me they were singing,
'Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed!’"
You and I have been held captive to sin, but Christ has purchased our pardon and set us at
liberty. When a person has this life-changing experience, she or he will want to sing,
"Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed!"
And so are we, my dear and precious church family!
Blessings,
Katie
Holy
Week
Services
PALM SUNDAY (March 20)
Parade of Palms
Senior Choir Cantata at the 10:30 AM Worship Service
MAUNDY THURSDAY (March 24)
Senior Choir Cantata at Windy Hill 6:45 PM
Sacrament of Holy Communion at the 7:30 PM Worship Service
EASTER (March 27)
Sunrise Service at 7:00 AM in Westminster Hall
Easter breakfast in Westminster Hall following the sunrise service
Sunday School – 9:30 AM – Egg Hunt
Morning Worship Service – 10:30 AM in the sanctuary
Holy Week Services
Palm Sunday
We will kick off Holy Week in our 10:30 a.m. worship with our children’s Parade of Palms
and our beautiful love offering of Sally and the choir, our cantata. Join us for music that
will turn the rush of the last few weeks of Lent into moments rich with touching meaning
and overflowing joy and excitement.
Maundy Thursday
We will gather at 7:30 p.m. to observe this Holy night that remembers the institution of the
Lord’s Supper by Jesus as he prepared to go to the cross. We will also remember his words
from the cross with a selection of powerful readings by our Session Elders. This portion of
the service is also known as a Tenebrae, or service of darkness. As we progress through
the last sayings of Christ from the cross through scripture, the candles will be extinguished
one by one until, with Christ’s final words, the lights are turned off and the chancel area
stripped of cloths and decorative items. Then the lights and the last candle, The Christ
Candle, will be extinguished. In the darkness, as we remember Christ’s death, we will hear
the haunting and beautiful presentation of Were You There? sung beautifully by Jill Reed.
When Pastor Katie relights the Christ Candle to foreshadow the resurrection, we will depart
in silence and wonder.
Easter Sunday
We will offer two different services of worship. The first at 7:00 a.m. in Westminster
Fellowship Hall will be a more contemporary presentation of Easter and also feature a
wonderful breakfast prepared by Dick Wood, Dave Dixon, Jeff Eyet and their helpers.
Pastor Katie will sing Hear the Bells Ringing by Keith Green.
Between the two services at 9:30 a.m. we will have a huge Easter Egg Hunt on the third
floor. We want our children to love Easter and love Jesus!
Our second service will be at 10:30 a.m. in our beautiful sanctuary. There we will see Easter
lilies, tulips, and azaleas lovingly and artfully arranged by Jill Blake. We will relight the
Christ candle and enjoy beautiful music offered to God by our Senior Choir.
Pastor Katie will have a special Children’s Sermon and Message at each service in which
she will portray the Angel on the morning of the Resurrection of Jesus.
Join us and invite your neighbors and friends and families.
What’s the Connection?
1. Jesus Christ paid the supreme price to forgive our sins. That message should be
especially meaningful to us during these seasons of Lent and Eastertide. Our response is
to accept His charge to spread the message of His sacrifice and our forgiveness to
others.
2. I think First Presbyterian Church of Philipsburg is one of the most beautiful old churches
I’ve ever been in. It’s majestic, yet still somewhat rustic in nature; its grandeur is awe
inspiring.
3. Equally inspiring is a renewed spirit that I’ve seen in the congregation and a renewed
commitment to service and mission to the community.
So, what’s the connection between the above three items? Let me add an emphasis to a phrase
in item #2: “one of the most beautiful old churches I’ve ever been in.”
Our church leadership has always done an admirable job in maintaining our beautiful church
facilities, so that this building can be the base of our operations in glorifying God and in
spreading His word through outreach to the community. But buildings require care, especially
old ones. You’ve just given freely to our three-year organ restoration project, which is just
wrapping up. Thank you, so very much. We now need to embark on a capital improvement
campaign to address some issues with our facilities that are not quite as glamorous or obvious
as our grand pipe organ.
Historically this church was built, and all renovations over the past 100 years have been
incurred, with little or no debt. Perhaps that’s a throwback to the stereotypical Scotch-Irish
Presbyterian sense of thrift. We’d like to continue that tradition.
There was a joint meeting of Session, Trustees, and the Stewardship Committee on Monday
evening, February 22. The purpose of that meeting was to finalize a five year facilities
improvement plan (that had been developed by Trustees) and to prepare a plan for a Capital
Campaign to fund those improvements. Those
improvements range from the immediately necessary,
like roof repairs above the Fifth Street entrance, to items
more of a “wish-list” nature, like replacing the sound
system in the bell tower so that First Presbyterian can
once again peal out its message to the community.
You will be hearing much more about the needs of our facilities and the capital campaign to
fund those needs in the very near future. In the meantime, please pray about what you can do to
support these efforts. Also, please pray for the very capable leadership of this church as it
leads us into the future.
May God’s blessings continue to be poured out on this church family and on this community.
On the Isle of Patmos, John, the beloved disciple,
mused and reflected. "How can I tell the marvelous
story of our Lord's life, death, burial and
resurrection?" The answer became the Gospel of
John, the basis for Joy in the Morning.
This innovative new musical setting of the timeless
Easter story juxtaposes striking new melodies and
traditional hymn tunes to produce a vibrant,
energetic work of meditation and praise. Joy in the
Morning is exceptionally inspirational and deeply
moving for the choir and congregation alike.
The Senior Choir at First Presbyterian Church will present this cantata at the
10:30 AM service on Palm Sunday. Dick Kithcart will serve as the narrator,
and featured soloists include: Holly Kithcart, Lisa Holden, Dan Nelson, Karen
Wood and Jill Reed.
There will also be a presentation of the cantata at Windy Hill on Maundy Thursday at 6:45 PM.
The 23rd Annual Nittany Valley Handbell Festival
will be held on Saturday, April 2, at 7:00 PM at the
State College Area High School North Building
653 Westerly Parkway, State College.
The conductor will be Fred Gramann, Director of Music at
the American Church in Paris, France.
Westminster Bells will practice all day with choirs from Area II, which
includes New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Ontario, Canada. There
will be a combined concert at 7 PM, and we would appreciate your support!
This year we will be one of the solo choirs, and we will present The Lord's
Prayer with Pastor Katie as the vocal soloist.
♫
First Presbyterian Church is buying enough copies of The Presbyterian Hymnal for
the choir to use. If you would like to donate a copy “in honor of” or “in memory of” a loved
one, please notify Sally or Pastor Katie. The price is $15.00.
♫ Looking Ahead: The Westminster 4 will sing the National Anthem at the Altoona Curve
baseball game on Sunday, August 4. Mark it on your calendar!
SUNDAY, MARCH 13
Annual Ministerium Lenten
Luncheons
There are four more opportunities to
participate in this year’s luncheon and
worship services, with the theme, “The
Names of Jesus.” These noon hour
fellowship lunches are held in Westminster
Hall every Wednesday during Lent.
Wednesday, March 2
Lunch will be provided by the First
Evangelical Lutheran Church, and Pastor
Noel Myers of the g-Free Church will speak
on “Jesus, the Word”.
Wednesday, March 9
Lunch will be provided by the Grace United
Methodist Church, and Pastor Kaye Hute of
the Lutheran Church will speak on “Jesus,
the Lamb”.
Here’s what’s happenin’
March 4-6: Relentless Retreat for College
Students/ Young Adults
(part of Krislund’s Training Emerging Leaders
Series)
March 16-17: Candles and Candlesticks
(the first of Krislund’s OLLI courses)
March 22-23: In the Kitchen at Krislund
(part of the Kruisin’ at Krislund Series)
March 24-26: Rock the Camp
(open to all middle and high schoolers)
April 13: Nature at Krislund
Wednesday, March 16
Lunch will be provided by the Trinity United
Methodist Church, and their pastor Rev.
Brenda Leigey will speak on “Jesus, the
Corner/Living Stone”.
(the second of Krislund’s OLLI courses)
Wednesday, March 9
Lunch will be provided by St. Paul’s
Episcopal Church, and Pastor Dan Winters
of the Gospel Tabernacle will speak on
“Jesus, the Lord”.
April 25-26: Healthy Congregations, Part I
Come and enjoy good food
and good preaching.
April 19-20: Dancing with the Stars
(part of the Kruisin’ at Krislund Series)
(part of Krislund’s Theology for Ministry and
Life Series)
For more information on any of these
programs, go to www.krislund.org, or
telephone (814) 422-8878
Summer Camp brochures are available at the church and on-line.
Read descriptions of the various camps. On-line registration is now open.
Visit the new website at www.krislund.org for more information.
Meet our new Secretary/Treasurer
Georgie Goss Myers
For some of you it will be a case of “getting reacquainted” with
Georgie, because she grew up in our church and was very good
friends with Jenny Gray in her youth. Georgie remembers the
good times she had in youth fellowship at the Owens’s camp.
She also fondly remembers participating in junior choir under
Tom Schreffler, and particularly remembers Laura Scott in
Sunday School.
Georgie joined St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church in
Hawk Run when she married her husband Irv. They have three
grown children: Tracy (with three grandsons in Buffalo), Renee
(with two grandsons in Maryland), and Dan, who recently moved
back home. And, of course, mom Barb is currently at Windy Hill.
Georgie retired five years ago after a 35 year career with the Philipsburg-Osceola Area School
District. She started out in the main administrative office, before transferring to the Ninth Street
elementary school, then to the high school, and finally to the maintenance office.
In her “free time’, besides visiting her grandchildren, Georgie enjoys being active. She loves to
walk, play golf, and bowl. She is also a member of two pinochle clubs. Georgie and Irv now live in
North Philipsburg near the old Long’s bus garage.
There’s a bit of a learning curve in taking over the newly combined secretary/treasurer position
less than six months after it was created and following the previous person. Georgie says, “Just
bear with me,” as she shakes the rust off after being away from the action of an office for five
years.
WELCOME
Presbyterian Youth Fellowship Calendar
March 6
6:00 PM pizza dinner and play
practice
March 13 1:30 PM meet at the manse to go to
see Young Messiah at the
theater.
March 20 10:30 AM help younger children with
the Parade of Palms at
6:00 PM pizza dinner and play
practice with no scripts
March 27
Easter 9:30 AM help with the egg
hunt
6:00 PM No evening youth meeting. It
is a family day.
Peelin’ Spuds for the
Annual Meeting Dinner
Youth Dinner Theater
At a date still to be selected this spring, the youth
will be presenting their annual dinner theater.
Tickets are available from members of Christian
Education for $20.00 each. The entertainment will
be a mystery dinner with the characters spread
around the room at tables with the guests. You will
be welcomed to Café Flambé and asked to help
solve the mystery. Come join us for a fun night of
good food and entertainment and support the youth
of First Presbyterian and their mission trip to West
Virginia in July. In the words of the old south, come
“let the good times roll.”
College Age Lunch – Sunday, March 6
Pastor Katie will meet the college age young adults in our church at the Elks to have lunch
at noon. Let’s catch up on what is new in your lives and enjoy fellowship together.
Stephen Ministry Retreat
Pastor Katie will be leading our Stephen Ministry Retreat on March 18-19. We will start at
6:30 p.m. on Friday evening and finish on Saturday with lunch out together. (This will be a
sleep-in-your-own-bed retreat.) We will be studying Grief and Dying and other serious
topics using movie clips to make a deep subject more engaging and meaningful. We have
five students and have been enjoying our time together on Tuesday evenings.
First Presbyterian Church of Philipsburg’s Women’s Retreat
We have reserved the Resurrection Lodge at Krislund for our women’s retreat this coming
May on the 20th and 21st. The theme will be Being a Mary in a Martha World. There will be
crafts, good food, spiritual exercises, laughter, exchanging secret sisters, and wonderful
fellowship. It will begin with dinner at 6:00 p.m. on Friday evening and end with communion
about 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. Get it on your calendars now.
Jimmy pix here??
The following is an article taken from the website www.buildfaith.org. Please feel free to
peruse the website yourself.
Sunday School Activity: Life-Size Scrabble
Posted by Gail Jackins on July 27th, 2015
“I decided to create Scrabble for Sunday
School as a special treat, or a year-end
celebration, or special event.”
Scrabble for all Ages
My family has a tradition of playing Scrabble every Christmas. It’s a long-standing annual ritual. We
block out time, buy special snacks, and sit down to compete. When the kids were younger, we adults
helped them figure out words. Now those “kids” are parents. Soon, they’ll be helping my generation
figure out words!
A Sunday School Treat
I decided to create Scrabble for Sunday School as a special treat, or a year-end celebration, or special
event. I adapted a rules a little bit. Sunday School Scrabble is intended to be a team endeavor, to help
engender a sense of helpfulness and esprit-de-corps among the students.
Making it a team game is important, as not every child is good at spelling. A child with dyslexia can be
creative at coming up with words, or placing them on the board, while other children can spell
wonderfully. I put the points on each tile, to spark those children who are good in math or competitive
to gain points. Other rules are as follows:


In the actual Scrabble game, no proper names are allowed on the board. Bible names are
allowed in Sunday School Scrabble.
I added the two-minute-play rule to keep the game moving. Some of our family Christmas
games have gone into the wee small hours of the morning, but Sunday School only has 45
minutes!

The “mercy” rule is to keep the game going. It’s torture when a player is stuck with all vowels,
or difficult consonants like “Q” and “Z”, so it’s merciful to have the chance to get all new
letters.
Making the Tiles
I made the tiles on cardstock and laminated them. I wrote the letters with huge markers. The letters
could be printed on normal paper on a printer, or other material could be used for the tiles – such as
floor tiles or carpet samples … whatever is square. Below is the list of tiles and quantities.








2 blank tiles (scoring 0 points)
1 point: E ×12, A ×9, I ×9, O ×8, N ×6, R ×6, T ×6, L ×4, S ×4, U ×4
2 points: D ×4, G ×3
3 points: B ×2, C ×2, M ×2, P ×2
4 points: F ×2, H ×2, V ×2, W ×2, Y ×2
5 points: K ×1
8 points: J ×1, X ×1
10 points: Q ×1, Z ×1
Basic Rules
(Feel free to adapt for your context or group.)
1. Divide into no more than four teams of people.
2. Tiles are face down in a tub or box.
3. Standard Scrabble formation rules apply. Each team receives 7 tiles to start the game.
4. Proper nouns are permitted if they are the name of a Bible book or a Biblical person.
5. Words can be found using smart phones, and justified using smartphones and standard dictionary
sites.
6. One person (teacher) keeps score and keeps time. Teams are given 2 minutes to place a word, or
forfeit their turn.
7. Mercy rule. If all teams are stuck with letters they don’t want during the course of the game they
can agree to “mercy” and everyone gets to switch out tiles from the box, with the supervision of an
adult.
8. Once all tiles have been claimed the game is over. All teams then add up their scrabble points and
discover the final winner.
Last month we talked a little bit about the “early days” of Philipsburg. We’ve also talked about the
importance of transportation to the lifeblood of a town, and also to a congregation. The first
settlers in Philipsburg in 1797 would have used trails blazed by the Cornplanter Indians living in
the area. The previous year, Abraham Bradley had made a large map of the United States
showing the roads of the new nation. The Pennsylvania portion below shows that vast areas of
central and northwestern Pennsylvania were largely wilderness, accessible mainly by river and
stream.
You might notice that Centre and Clearfield counties are not even listed on the map. Centre
County was created in 1800, from parts of Huntingdon, Lycoming, Mifflin, and Northumberland
counties, and Clearfield County in 1804 from parts of Huntingdon and Lycoming counties.
Henry Philips had purchased a large tract of this wilderness land in parts of what are now
Centre, Clearfield, and Cambria counties on behalf of the Philadelphia branch of his family’s
shipping business, based in Manchester, England. Philips hired Charles Karl Stegner Trcziyulny
to survey the land. Trcziyulny was a Polish born nobleman, trained as a military engineer, who
had given up his title to come to the United States several years earlier. He is credited with
laying out the plan for “Moshannon Town” (Philipsburg) and Osceola Mills. It is likely that he also
laid out the turnpike to Milesburg in 1798, which was completed six years later, so that Henry
Philips could more easily get goods from his general store in Milesburg to the new community.
Additional roads were built from 1820 – 1822, at the height of Hardman Philips’s efforts to bring
prosperity to the area, to facilitate transportation into and out of Philipsburg. The Philipsburg
and Susquehanna Turnpike led from Philipsburg through Clearfield to Curwensville, and a turn-
pike was also completed to Bellefonte. A state route to Indiana (town) was authorized in 1825.
The map below, published in 1889 by the League of American Wheelmen, shows the increased
number of highways that were built in Pennsylvania during the 19th Century.
On this inset you can also trace the routes of the above mentioned turnpikes, and also note how
many towns grew out of the wilderness of central Pennsylvania during that same century.
Travelers going south from Philipsburg
through Osceola Mills toward Altoona would
have had a layover at the Logan House
stagecoach stop in Tyrone.
The system of turnpikes did help Philipsburg grow and develop during the first few decades of
the 19th Century. But last month we saw how the difficulty in getting industrial goods to market
had stagnated Philipsburg’s economy and growth for over two decades from the 1840’s to the
1860’s. It also contributed to the decision by Hardman Philips to divest his Philipsburg assets.
That was at the same time that the Philipsburg Presbyterians had called their first pastor, Rev.
Mr. J.W. Murphy, a call which lasted less than three years.
The Philipsburg congregation was to lie as dormant as the town for the next twenty years. The
transportation problems were solved when the “iron horse” finally rolled into Philipsburg. The
segment of the Tyrone & Clearfield Railroad between Tyrone and Philipsburg was completed in
1863. (The Tyrone & Clearfield Railroad was later taken over by the Pennsylvania Railroad. The
New York Central Railroad was also to serve Philipsburg in later years.) This ushered in an era
when many businesses, residences, and hotels were to be constructed in Philipsburg. In
addition, rail access supported the growing coal, timber, and clay industries. On November 29,
1864, “The Town of Philipsburg” was incorporated as a borough. The first borough officers and
school board directors were elected during the next year. Also in 1864, the first bank appeared
in Philipsburg. And of course with “progress” comes taxes. In 1866, a tax of 10 mills was levied
for the building of a new school on Sixth Street.
And Presbyterians were also stirred into action during this time frame. The eleven remaining
members of the congregation got together under the direction of previously installed elders
George Stiner and William Roberts. They were able to convince Huntingdon Presbytery to
reorganize the Philipsburg congregation on September 27, 1862, to serve the spiritual needs of
the people. (When we celebrated our centennial and sesquicentennial anniversaries, we used
this 1862 date as the date of our founding.) And we were also able to call our next pastor!
Philipsburg’s economy was not the only one to stagnate during the mid-19th Century. Ireland
was to suffer an even bigger blow. The Irish Potato Famine (1845-1852) was a period of
starvation, disease, and emigration that devastated Ireland. Approximately one million people
died during the famine, and another million emigrated, reducing the country’s population by
about 25%. One of those immigrants was a young man who stepped off the vessel Probus onto
the docks of Philadelphia on November 7, 1848. His name was Washington Orr Wright. He had
been born on June 12, 1826 (or 1829 – conflicting references), in Ballymoney, County Antrim,
in Northern Ireland. (“Ballymoney” means homestead on the peatland.)
Two years later, at the time of the 1850 Census, we find him just
across the state line in Newcastle County at the northern tip of
Delaware. Wright is living at a private boarding school for boys
operated by another Irish immigrant, Rev. Samuel Maxwell Gayley.
The school has 18 students, including a couple of Rev. Gayley’s own
children, aged 8 – 17, most hailing from Pennsylvania and Georgia.
Rev. Samuel Maxwell Gayley
Wright and another Irish immigrant, William McElwee, are also listed as students, but since they
were in their early twenties, they likely also acted as tutors for the younger students. After
leaving Rev. Gayley’s prep school, Washington Orr Wright entered Lafayette College in Easton,
PA, graduating in 1857. Wright worked for three years in a factory and teaching school to raise
money for his further seminary studies.
After graduating from Princeton Seminary in 1863, Washington Orr Wright was licensed by New
Castle Presbytery, which covers Delaware and Maryland’s eastern shore. He made his way to
central Pennsylvania, where he began work as a licensed evangelist within Huntingdon
Presbytery. Shortly, he met Isabella Gilliland. She had been born in Bellefonte, the daughter of a
moderately wealthy “lumberman”. When her mother died and her father remarried, the family
moved to Snow Shoe. 38 year-old Washington and 21 year-old Isabella were married on
December 29th that year. The marriage would last 37 years, until his death in 1900, and they
would give birth to eight children, four boys and four girls, spread out over the next twenty-four
years.
Rev. Washington Orr Wright was ordained by Huntingdon Presbytery on June 13, 1864, and
immediately assigned to the newly reorganized Presbyterian congregation in Philipsburg. The
call was a yoke with the Morris(dale) Church. (Wright had served these two congregations
during the previous year as a licensed stated supply.) This relationship was terminated at Rev.
Wright’s request four years later, on April 15, 1868, between the births of their second and third
children.
Rev. Wright remained active in Huntingdon Presbytery for the remainder of his pastoral career.
He remained based in Milesburg, and he served churches in Milesburg, Bald Eagle,
Moshannon, Snow Shoe, Kylertown, and Lick Run. He represented Huntingdon Presbytery at
the 1875 General Assembly in St. Louis. At the time of the 1880 Census, Rev. Wright’s younger
sister Jane resided with them in Milesburg. At about age 70, Rev. Wright had some serious
health problems, but continued to work throughout them. He retired on April 12, 1900.
Washington, Isabella, and five of their children (aged 11 to 26) moved to Philadelphia. Four
months after his retirement, Rev. Washington Orr Wright died, on August 26. He is buried at
Mount Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia. The last reference I’ve been able to find shows that in
1911, Isabella and three of the children were still living together in Philadelphia.
Incidentally, Paul Springer delivered a Moment for Mission during a January worship service
about the challenges of maintaining a perpetual care cemetery these days. Mount Moriah
Cemetery, where Rev. Wright rests, was incorporated in 1855 and was once one of the elite
cemeteries in Philadelphia. The grounds cover 380 acres and contain over 85,000 graves.
However, it was officially closed and abandoned in 2011, and a 2014 blog posting states that the
grounds are overgrown with poison ivy and brambles, and the monuments are swallowed by
vegetation. The cemetery is located on the county line between Philadelphia and Delaware
Counties, adding to its jurisdictional woes.
Something of national importance was happening in the years
just prior to and during the first half of Rev. Orr’s tenure at our
Presbyterian Church. The raining of Confederate artillery
shells on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, began the most
divisive era in our nation’s history, to be ended four long years
later at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. In the
middle of that time frame, just 120 miles from our doorsteps,
over 50,000 casualties were to be suffered at the three-day
Battle of Gettysburg in early July, 1863. The US GenWeb
Project lists 207 veterans of American’s Civil War buried in the
cemeteries of our small borough.
The Battle of Gettysburg
More “town” history – North Park
The founders of Philipsburg had laid out a town commons, at the intersections of Centre and
Presqueisle Streets. We now call this area North and South Park. At first this commons was little
more than a field for grazing sheep and cattle. Improvements to the area took a major step
forward in the late 1880’s. We’re going to look at those in this article, because some of those
improvements were done to honor the Civil War veterans of Rev. Washington Orr Wright’s era.
One major improvement was the town hall built in the middle of North Park in 1887. The building
was also used as the home of Hope Fire Company.
In front of “Town Hall” in North Park, you’ll find two small
artillery pieces, placed there to honor Philipsburg’s veterans.
These pieces were made by Cyrus Alger and Company of
Boston. Cyrus Alger was a major supplier of arms during the
War of 1812. He was one of the best metallurgists of the time,
and he held numerous patents for improved processes in
weapon making. The first gun ever rifled in America was
made at his Boston foundry in 1834. One of “our” weapons
was manufactured in 1837, the other in 1853.
A mile marker originally erected in 1888 also
sits in front of the borough building, bearing the
following distances:
Side “A”
Bellefonte
Lewistown
Harrisburg
Lancaster
Philadelphia
28
57
112
148
209
Side “B”
Curwensville (stone eroded)
Brookville
53
Franklin
97
Meadville
122
Erie
159
(This marker was originally erected just one year before the publication of the League of American
Wheelmen map shown on a previous page.)
Another historic item of note in North Park is the fire
bell. It may have rung on June 30, 1876, when the
most disastrous fire in Philipsburg’s history destroyed
more than 20 buildings, both timber and brick,
stretching three blocks from the borough building
along Presqueisle Street (including the Moshannon
House Hotel) to North Front Street.
Moving across East Presqueisle to South Park
In 1898, a memorial was erected in South Park to honor Union soldiers who had served in
the Civil War, the era during which Rev. William Orr Wright served as our pastor. It consisted
of a bronze thirteen foot tall soldier and a fountain. Unfortunately, the first memorial statue
fell prey to vandals. The present six foot tall Barre Vermont granite soldier and fountain were
dedicated on Memorial Day in 1911.
South Park also contains two Civil War era “Parrott Rifles”. These are the “cannons” that you
see flanking the soldier statue in the center picture above. When we hear the term “rifle”
today, most of us think of a long bore shoulder gun typically of a size used by hunters to bag
a deer, for example. However, the term “rifle” originally meant to cut spiral grooves into the
bore of an armament to improve the accuracy of its projectile.
“Our” artillery pieces have rifled bores. Arms of this type
were used extensively in the Civil War. They were
invented by Captain Robert Parker Parrott, a West Point
graduate, who resigned his commission in the army in
1836 to manufacture weapons at his West Point Foundry
in Cold Springs, New York. He invented these cannon in
1860 and patented them in 1861. One major improvement
of this weapon was a unique way of attaching the large
cast iron band around the breech (at the back of the
cannon in the picture), which helped prevent the metal gun
from fracturing when fired. But still, its safety record was
not good, and their use was completely discontinued about
1889. Several hundred “leftover” Parrott Rifles today grace
battlefield memorials, county courthouses, museums, and
other public parks.
Rev. John Haskell Sargent
Next month we will focus on a pastor with a rather diverse story. Born in a Massachusetts
seaport, he left home to enter college at the tender age of 14, began his pastoral career in the
South just before the Civil War began, and taught at an orphanage in Manhattan before
making his way to the comparative wilderness of Central Pennsylvania.
MARCH BIRTHDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES
BIRTHDAYS
st
1 – Lynn Gilham
nd
2 –Joe Bloom
Judy Gearhart
th
5 – Don Blake
Ann Rishel
th
7 – Pastor Jimmy Hopper
th
12 – Cooper Butterworth
Kaden Baker
th
13 – Ella Cochran
ANNIVERSARIES
th
14 – Isaiah Dixon
th
18 – Morgan Coleman
th
19 – Brandy Wood
th
20 – Sarah McCliment
st
21 – Brad Wood
nd
22 – Will Rishel
th
25 – Jason Rishel
th
27 – Virginia Colley
th
28 – Ethel Cipollini
nd
2
– Ed & Edie Good – 31 years
th
16 – Jim & Ilo Warg – 54 years
LONG TERM CONCERNS
Joan Timchak
Winnie Eckley
Tom Owens
Jean Brocail
Lisa Walther Johnson
Leona Good
Kellie Vaux
Jim Hopper
Sue Betts
Dick Dixon
Matthew Eyet
Cindy Baker
Mark Masse
Taylor Wilkinson Pelton
Esther Long
Walter (Pete ) Conklin
Eileen Ledger
MONTHLY CONCERNS
Catherine Kanour
Dot Davidsen
Tara & Kevin & baby
Doris Kyler
Lois Belko
Glenda Bonaducci
Laura Shore Mack
Paul Heggenstaller
Nancy Rice
Rob Reed
Judy Gearhart
Family & Friends of Sandy Foster
Family & Friends of Connie Kelly Preston
Family & Friends of Joseph Kovalcin, Sr.
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March 2016
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
1
Stephen
Ministry
Training
2
Lenten
Luncheon
noon
Stewardship
meeting 6PM
Fri
3
Soap Pantry open Pastor’s
Sabbath
Worship
Committee 6PM
Sat
4
5
11
12
17
18
Soap Pantry open Pastor’s
Sabbath
Westminster Bells
6:45 PM
19
Westminster Bells
6:45 PM
Senior Choir 7:30
PM
6
Sunday School
9:30 AM
Morning Worship
10:30 AM
7
Deacon
meeting
7:00 PM
8
Stephen
Ministry
Training
13
Morning Worship
10:30 AM
14
15
Session
meeting
6:30 PM
16
Lenten
Luncheon
noon
Knitting class
6:30 PM
Youth 1:30PM
10
Westminster Bells Pastor’s
Sabbath
6:45 PM
Knitting class
6:30 PM
Youth 6PM
Sunday School
9:30 AM
9
Lenten
Luncheon
noon
Senior Choir 7:30
PM
Senior Choir 7:30
PM
St. Patrick's Day
20
PALM SUNDAY
Sunday School
9:30 AM
21
Trustee
meeting
6:30 PM
22
Stephen
Ministry
Training
Morning Worship
10:30 AM
Sr. Choir Cantata
Lenten
Luncheon
noon
23
24
25
Easter Cantata at Pastor’s
Windy Hill 6:45
Sabbath
PM
Knitting class
6:30 PM
Evening worship
Maundy Thursday
Youth 6PM
27
EASTER
Sunrise Service
7AM
Sunrise breakfast
Sunday School
9:30 AM
Morning Worship
10:30 AM
28
29
Stephen
Ministry
Training
30
31
Knitting class Westminster Bells
6:30 PM
6:45 PM
Senior Choir 7:30
PM
Good
Friday
26