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MARSHALL COLLEGE
Class of 1842 Obituaries
George W. BREWER, Esq., A. M., a son of Jacob and
Mary (Angle) Brewer, was born near Mercersburg, Pa., September 5, 1819. He entered the Freshman class of
Marshall College in 1838, and graduated four years later, receiving his degree of A. M. in course in 1845. He was a
member of the Freshman Society.
He was admitted to the Franklin county bar, at Chambersburg, in April, 1844, having read law under the Hon.
Jas. X. McLanahan. In 1846 he was elected district attorney for three years on the Democratic ticket. He was State
Senator from the district composed of Adams and Franklin counties from 1856 to 1860.
He practiced law alone until April 1, 1871, when he was associated with Hastings Gehr. He was a good lawyer and
a fluent speaker.
Mr. Brewer was a Knight Templar and belonged to the
George Washington Blue Lodge, No. 56, and Commandery Continental, No. 176.
He was married December 23, 1860, to Mary Louisa
Gehr, daughter of Col. D. O. Gehr. Their marriage was blessed with one child. He died August 6, 1886, his wife
and daughter surviving him.
[H. Gehr, Esq.]
John CESSNA, Esq.., A. M., LL. D., the son of William
and Rachel (Mogart) Cessna, was born in Colerain township, Bedford county, Pa., June 29, 1821. His father was
a farmer, and John the eldest of twelve children. The family is of Huguenot descent; the progenitor of the
American branch, John Cessna, fought under William III. at the battle of Boyne in 1690, and having married an Irish girl,
immigrated to this country and settled in Bedford county long before the outbreak of the Revolution. His
grandfather represented his district in the convention assembled to draft the first constitution of Pennsylvania.
After a preparatory education in the common schools of
his native county, Mr. Cessna became a pupil in the military academy of Rev. B. R. Hall in Bedford. Here he remained
for two years and then, in February, 1839, entered the Freshman class of Marshall College. It is said that he
made the journey to Mercersburg, a distance of over forty miles, on foot, and that as long as he continued a student in
the College he went to and from his home in the same vigorous and independent manner. He was a member of the
Diagnothian Society. He graduated with honor, September 28, 1842, and immediately began the study of law, entering
his name with Samuel M. Barclay of Bedford. He supported himself while prosecuting his legal studies by
teaching; first in a public school, and then in a private academy.
From 1843 to the fall of 1844 he was Latin tutor in Marshall
College. Even to this day reminiscences are met with around Mercersburg of the times when John Cessna taught
school there.
In June, 1845, he was admitted to the bar in his native
town, Bedford. Here he took up his residence and continued to live to the end of his life. Before his admission to
the bar he was married, September 24, 1844, to Ellen Jane Shaffer, a daughter of Daniel Shaffer, a merchant of
Mercersburg.
Mr. Cessna's political career began in 1847, when Judge
Jeremiah S. Black and his eight associates on the Supreme
Bench appointed him revenue commissioner for Somerset, Blair, Bedford and Franklin counties. He was at that time
a Democrat, and in 1849 was elected to represent his party in the State Legislature. Though only in his thirtieth year,
on his re-election in 1850, he was made Speaker of the Legislature.
In 1856, at the personal request of James Buchanan, he
went to the Democratic National Convention, at Cincinnati, as delegate from Buchanan's native district. He was made
secretary of the Pennsylvania delegation, and was largely instrumental in securing for Buchanan the nomination which
made him President. In February, 186o, he was a member of the Democratic State convention, held at Reading. This
convention is memorable in Pennsylvania politics as being the first which placed a tariff plank in its platform. This
portion of the platform was in part prepared by Mr. Cessna, and was by him reported to the convention. In April of
this same year he was a delegate to the National Convention at Charleston, S. C. He was chairman of the Committee on Organization and Rules and took a most active part
in the bitter contest that led to the subsequent convention in Baltimore, in June, when Stephen A. Douglas was
nominated for the Presidency.
In 1862-63 Mr. Cessna was returned to the Legislature
and was elected Speaker a second time. Though sent by the Union Democrats, the actions of his party on the
questions raised by the war were so antagonistic to his convictions that he was gradually forced into co-operation with the
Republicans and earnestly supported every war measure of the Government. A contest for United States Senator was
at the time in progress, and the Republicans, finding that they could not elect their candidate, Hon. Simon Cameron,
came to Mr. Cessna and offered to cast their votes for him, provided he would vote for himself. This he refused to do,
and remaining with the party to which he still held nominal allegiance, he cast his vote for Charles R. Buckalew, giving
the latter the senatorship by one majority. In 1863 he
cast his vote for Curtin as governor and thus ended his career as a Democrat. In 1865 he was a member of the
Republican State convention which nominated General Hartranft for Auditor-General, and succeeded Hon. Simon
Cameron as chairman of the State committee.
In 1868 Mr. Cessna was elected to the Forty-first
Congress. As a member of the election committee he took part in nearly forty election contests arising from the
reconstruction troubles. In the same year he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention at Chicago. He was
sent to the Forty-third Congress in 1872, and served on the judiciary committee. In 1875 he was appointed Assistant
Attorney-General of the United States, but declined to accept the office. He attended the Republican National
Convention of 1876 which nominated Rutherford B. Hayes. At this convention he was chairman of the Committee on Rules.
In 1880 he was a delegate to the Republican National
Convention in Chicago, and was one of the famous " 306 " who supported Gen. Grant for a third term. At this time he
served on the Committee on Credentials. He was the chairman of the State committee and conducted the canvass
between Garfield and Hancock with his usual wisdom and energy.
In 1899 he was again elected to the Legislature and, after
an absence of thirty years, re-entered the House where his earliest prominence was achieved. He was a member of
that body at the time of his death. Mr. Cessna's commanding position as a politician was
fully equalled, if not surpassed, by his power as a lawyer. Gifted with a memory so retentive that even in the conduct
of the most intricate land cases, he never found it necessary to make any notes, he was no less penetrating in his power
of analysis, seizing the strong points of a case with wonderful tenacity, and unfolding them with an equal display
of reason and logic.
The same qualities which characterized Mr. Cessna's
political and professional life revealed themselves fully in his conduct as a citizen. He was the bitter foe of the rum
traffic, and for many years was the never-failing stand-by of the Women's Christian Temperance Union in all their
conflicts with the saloons. He was largely instrumental in the organization and building of the railroad from Everett, Pa.,
to Bridgeport, near Cumberland, Md., a distance of about forty miles, the road which put Bedford in communication
with the great Pennsylvania system on the one hand, and the Baltimore and Ohio on the other. Of this road he was
for many years president.
In early manhood he became a confirmed member of the
Reformed Church in the United States, and in full communion with the church he lived and died. For many
years he filled the office of elder, and in that office he was as punctual in attending the meetings of the consistory as
he was in the discharge of his great political and legal engagements.
Though of a strong, aggressive, pugnacious disposition,
he was everywhere known for his kindness to all, especially to the young, and to the poor and destitute.In 1845 Mr. Cessna received the degree of A. M. in
course, and in 1885 Franklin and Marshall conferred the degree of LL. D. upon him. He was elected president of
the Board of Trustees of the College, in 1865, to succeed ex-President James Buchanan, and until the time of his
death he was unanimously re-elected from year to year.
After months of painful sickness, aggravated by sorrows
and difficulties of many kinds, he died of Bright's disease, December 13, 1893. When his funeral took place all the
banks and stores of his native town were closed, and business everywhere suspended. His wife and four of his
seven children, two daughters and two sons, survive him: Daniel; Carrie, wife of R. L. Gerhart, D. D.; Mary Etta,
wife of E. S. Doty; and Harry (1887), attorney.
[Harper's Weekly, Dec. 30, 1893, 37: 1244 (Portrait); Mrs. Carrie
Cessna Gerhart; Rev. R. L. Gerhart, D. D.]
Rev. Jeremiah Haak GOOD, A. M., D. D., was a son of
Philip Augustus and Elizabeth (Haak) Good. He was born, November 22, 1822, in Rehrersburg, Pa., and died,
January 25, 1888, in Tiffin, Ohio.At the age of ten years his father died and he was adopted
by his uncle, Joseph Good, of Reading, Pa. Here he remained five or six years, attending the Reading Academy
and taking private instructions under Wm. Middlemas, a noted instructor. He was designed by his uncle for the
profession of law, and when he determined to obtain a college education it was with the intention of becoming a
lawyer.
After the death of his uncle he started, in September,
1836, for Marshall College. He spent two years in the Preparatory Department. He then entered the Freshman
class, became a Goethean, and graduated in September, 1842, as valedictorian. From 1842 to 1845 he was, by
appointment of the College faculty, sub-rector of the Preparatory Department, at the same time studying theology in
the Seminary. In the autumn of 1845 he was licensed to preach by the Mercersburg Classis, and soon after accepted
a call to Lancaster, Ohio. Here he labored as pastor from October, 1845, to the same month 1847, at the same time
conducting a high school. In the latter year he was elected by the Ohio Synod to found and edit a religious
paper. In pursuance of this appointment he removed to Columbus, Ohio, in October, 1847, and started the Western
Missionary, a semi-monthly, now the Christian World. He continued as editor till 1853.
At the meeting of the Ohio Synod at Navarre, Ohio, in 1850, he was elected, in connection with his brother and
classmate, Prof. Reuben Good, to start the projected college, now Heidelberg University, at Tiffin, Ohio. In
consequence of this call the two brothers removed to Tiffin in October, 185o; and for nineteen years he filled the chair of
mathematics in the college. Besides this he supplied several churches in the city and country: First Reformed and Grace
churches in the city, and St. Jacob's (German), Bascom's
and Salem in the country. He also started the Second Reformed church (German) of Tiffin, and was the pastor for a
number of years.
In 1869 he was elected, by the Ohio Synod at Shelby, to
the chair of Dogmatics and Practical Theology (thus becoming president) in Heidelberg Theological Seminary,
which position he occupied until a few months before his death. The last ten months of his life he was physically
unable to teach; though he held the position of professor emeritus in the Theological Seminary, to which office he
was elected by the Ohio Synod in 1887.
Dr. Good published a number of religious works: The
Reformed Church Hymnal, 1878; the Heidelberg Catechism (newly arranged), 1879; The Children's Catechism,
1881; A Prayer Book, 1881; The Church Member's Hand Book, 1882. He also assisted in preparing and publishing
The Western Liturgy, The Work of the Peace Commission, and The Directory of Worship. All his life he wrote much
for church papers.
For over twenty years he was a director of the National
Exchange of Tiffin, Ohio, and for nearly a score of years he was treasurer of the Ohio Synod. He received the degree
of A. M. in 1844, and in 1868 the honorary degree of D. D., of Franklin and Marshall College.
Dr. Good was married on December 23, 1846, at Granville, Ohio, to Susan Hubbard Root. The union was
blessed with one child, John Chrysostom Good. He graduated from Heidelberg College in 1868, and in
1870 in medicine from the Charity Hospital Medical College, Cleveland, Ohio.
[College Student, 8: 125, 126; The Fathers, 6: 381; J. C. Good,
M. D.]
Rev. Henry HOFFMAN, A. M., was born at Vincent,
Chester county, Pa., July 7, 1814. His parents were Henry and Elizabeth (Laber) Hoffman. He was baptized in infancy. At an early age he was confirmed at the Vincent
church by his pastor, Rev. John C. Guldin; and his attention was then drawn to the Christian ministry as his life
work.
He attended the Preparatory Department, at Mercersburg,
entered the Freshman class of Marshall College in 1838, and graduated with his class. He joined the Goethean Literary
Society, in which he always took a deep interest. On completing his college course he
entered the Theological Seminary, graduating in 1845, the year in which he received his
degree of A. M. in course. At college he had an humble opinion of himself and his ability, frequently.
underestimating himself to an abnormal degree.
He was licensed in 1845 by the Classis of Lebanon, and
ordained by the Classis of Westmoreland in 1846, serving the St. Petersburg charge of five congregations in
Armstrong and Clarion counties, Pa., and residing at Reedsburg, in the latter county. He remained in this field for
nine years.
He then crossed the mountains and settled at Shamokin,
in 1855, in the Classis of Susquehanna. In 1858 he accepted a call to the Berwick charge in Columbia county,
where he served as many as twelve congregations, until 1862. He then moved to Conyngham, Pa., where he served a
charge of seven congregations in Luzerne county. In 1870 he returned to Western Pennsylvania, where he
labored at Shanondale and the county round about, for five years. He was then called to his former field at St.
Petersburg, his first charge, and also his last.
July 13, 1848, he was married to Miss Barbara A.
Lotz, daughter of William Lotz of Reading, Pa. She survived her husband. They had six children, three of whom fell
asleep before their father. Those living are Mrs. Sarah E. Klingensmith, Mrs. Emma C. Campbell, both residing in
Butler, Pa., and Charles L. Hoffman, of Reading.
Fearless of the changes in the weather, he rode twenty
miles one cold November morning to attend the funeral of his married daughter, and thus contracted a severe cold,
the result of which was that he was called to follow his beloved child to that better clime where sickness and
sorrow never come, where he and she now rest in peace. He died at Monroeville, Pa., November 27, 1879. His ministry
extended through a period of 34 years, and his labors were abundantly blessed.
[The Fathers, 5: 349; Rev. Theodore Appel, D. D.; Mrs. B. A.
Hoffman.]
Henry Augustus MISH, Esq., A. M., son of George and
Catherine (Doll) Mish, was born in Harrisburg, Pa., June 14, 1823. His parents were both natives of Harrisburg,
and died there. He received his preparatory education at the Harrisburg Academy, and entered the Freshman class of. Marshall
College in 1838, graduating with his class. He was a member of the Diagnothian Literary Society.
After graduation he studied law for a time with G. W.
Harris, Esq., in Harrisburg, and then entered the Law Department of the College at Chambersburg, under Hon.
Alexander Thompson, graduating in 1846. He was admitted to the Franklin county bar at the above place. He
located in Mercersburg and practiced law until 1850 in Franklin county. During this period he was editor and
proprietor of several papers in Mercersburg, New Leaf and Mercersburg Journal, which he edited with no small degree
of ability.
Deeply interested in everything relating to the College,
in 1848 he brought to the attention of the alumni the necessity of an organ in which the professors might give their
views on important topics and, at the same time, defend themselves from attack. This resulted in the publication of
The Mercersburg Review, which made its appearance on the first of January, 1849. He established and conducted
this publication for two years, when he resigned and the Review passed into the hands of Perry A. Rice (1846). He
also published Der Deutsche Kirchenfreund, edited by Dr. Philip Schaff. During the latter part of the above period
he established and edited a weekly newspaper in Chambersburg called The Franklin Intelligencer.
In 1850-51 he disposed of his interests in the above
publications, returning, at the request of his widowed mother, to Harrisburg, where he practiced his profession for a year
or two. He was much interested in horticulture, and on account of failing health abandoned his law practice to
establish the Keystone nurseries at Harrisburg, which he successfully conducted for several years.
Upon the outbreak of the war, in 1861, he joined the
Reserve Volunteers, and served a short time, when he was honorably discharged to accept the position of private
secretary to Hon. Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State. This position not being congenial, he resigned and returned to
Harrisburg, where he resided until his death. He remained unmarried, and died suddenly, probably of apoplexy, on
December 16, 1870.
[Rev. Theodore Appel, D. D.; Geo. F. Mish, M. D.]
Source: Franklin and Marshall College
Obituary Record, Edited for the Alumni Association, Vol. 1, No.1, Lancaster,
Pa. Published by the Alumni Association of Franklin and Marshall College,
June 1897.
Obituaries
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