Page:Historical and Biographical Annals of Columbia and Montour Counties, Pennsylvania, Containing a Concise History of the Two Counties and a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families.pdf/235

 19 6

COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES

the township lias three schools and too schol­ ars. T h e school directors o f Catawissa borough a r e : W. A. McCloughan, Charles Berger, C. E. Barw ick, Ralph Young, Herman Bucher. T he school directors o? Catawissa towndui> a r c : M ayberry Achy, J. W. Rider, J. J. Chcrington, C. M. Young, O scar Leighow. T he principal of the high school is K A. F rear and his assistants arc E lla K nittlc and Helen T he teachers of the pul>lic schools a r e : Ida W alter, H attie Abbott, Bessie Grim es, Nellie H arder, M ary Fegley, Bessie i-ong, Lucie W aters, Sarah Hamlin, M rs. Hester Derickson, Lulu C. Tyson. RELIGIOUS

The Q uaker Meetinghoxue Upon a low hill, surrounded by massive oaks and h alf hidden by their luxuriant limbs, stands the oldest place o f worship between Sunbury and Wyoming. T h is little log building at Catawissa is the first home of the sect o f Friends in Columbia county. It has never been definitely determined how long the build­ ing has stood here. It is severely plain in ap­ pearance and bears the scars o f many a tem­ pest and winter's frost. Within, the fittings are very plain and simple. A few wooden benches and a table and desk are all that the founders considered necessary to the worship o f God. A ll of these wooden articles o f fu r­ niture, a s well as the partitions which sepa­ rated the men from the women, arc handmade and have neither nail nor bolt to hold their parts together. These fittings are fo r the most part older than the edifice in which they are housed, and are o f interesting character, owing to their oddity and age. Because of the aversion of the Society to self-advertising it is hard to fix the age of the building, there being no cornerstone or other monument to n u rk the site and the date o f erection. T he first record o f services in this vicinity is that o f 1787, when William Collins, W illiam Hughes, Jam es Watson, John L ove and other Friends resident in Catawissa were granted permission to hold services at this place by the E xeter (B e rk s county) Meet­ ing. under whom they were at the time. A t the Philadelphia Q uarterly Meeting o f N o­ vember, 1795. the E xeter Friends reported the necessity o f this meeting in Catawissa, having existed fo r some time prc'ious. and at that time the monthly meeting at Catawiss.a w as definitely established. T he first official meet­

ing of the Catawissa branch w as held A pril 23, 1796, and w as attended by E llis Yarnalt, A rthur H owell, H en iy Drinker, John Morton, Jam es Cresson, David Potts, Thom as Lightfoot and Benjamin Scarlat, all o f Philadelphia; and by A m os Lee, Jaco b Thom as, Owen Hughes and Thom as Parson, from E xeter. These effected an organization by the election o f Isaac W iggins a s clerk. Among other business transacted w as the appointment o f Kllis Hughes and W illiam Ellis to prepare all m arriage certificates, and o f Jam es Watson, John Lloyd, Joseph Carpenter, Benjam in W arner, Thom as E ves, Reuben Lundy, Nathan L ee and John Hughes to carc fo r the Friends’ burying ground. T his scries o f monthly meetings continued for twelve years, but by that date the num­ ber o f members was so reduced by emigration to points further west that the n ^ l a r meet­ ings were abandoned and the meeting dissolved fonnally on Dec. 24, 1808. From that lime a few earnest members met in the building a t irregular intervals until 18 14. after which the old meetinghouse was closed and for a time abandoned to the silence of the forest that surrounded it. F o r years it stood alone and nralcctcd, the property the resort of the loose live stock of the town and a dumping ground fo r the careless villagers. But this state o f neglect w as not to be the final fate of the historic old home of the Q uakers, fo r in the spring o f 1890 there cam e to Catawissa from Elysburg a maiden lady of the sect, Mar)- Emma W alter, who had d e­ termined to make the carc of the old church and the little cemetery beside it her especial duty fo r the rest of her days. Quietly she took up the task o f clearing aw ay the luxuriant growth o f wcc<ls and grass from the graves o f her parents and the others who were laid at rest there, and cleansing the old building from the accumulations o f years, restoring it to a semblance o f its form er dignity. Among the occupants of the lot on which the church is located she found a pugnacious goat, who had appropriated the plat as his special demesne and resented her guardianship. But she used firmness and kindness and soon shut out the horned depredator, as well as the human loungers who h.id previously spent their idle hours there. But t le predacious youth of the village and the careless householder were still to be reckoned with, and finding her efforts o f no avail to restrain them she suddenly appeared one rainy day at the meeting of the town coun­ cil. quietly but firmly laid her cause before the members, and as silently departed. H er