|
|
|
|
MARSHALL COLLEGE
Class of 1844 Obituaries
Rev. Henry HECKERMAN, A. M., was born in Chambersburg, Pa., January 7, 1817; died in Bedford, Pa., April
5, 1876. His father was Jacob Heckerman, a native of Lebanon county, Pa.; his mother, Catherine Stuple, a native
of Hanover, Germany. His father died when he was seven years old. At the age of twenty he was confirmed by
Rev. Henry L. Rice. As a young man he learned the trade of cabinet-maker. He began his preparation for college in '1837 in the Preparatory School at Mercersburg. Upon
entering Marshall College he became a member of the Goethean Literary Society. He was graduated with the class of
1844. He studied theology privately, and was licensed to preach the Gospel by the East Pennsylvania Classis in May,
1845, and ordained November 26, the same year, in an old union church at Ray's Hill, Bedford county, Pa. Locating
at Bloody Run, he labored in this section as a missionary about two years.
Mr. Heckerman was married, July 29, 1846, to Miss
Henrietta Aughinbaugh, of Chambersburg. In the spring of 1847 he accepted the charge composed of the congregations
at Huntingdon and McConnellstown. He served this charge three years, residing at Huntingdon, and during his
pastorate built a church at McConnellstown. His salary in this charge was about $250 per annum, without a
parsonage, and for a year or two he taught a public school to add to his income.
In April, 1850, he moved to Bedford, Pa., where he
labored for more than twenty-one years, after which he ceased ,preaching regularly. During this time the church
in Bedford purchased from the Lutherans their share in the joint church property; the church at Buena Vista was
purchased from the Methodists, and four new churches built, one at Schellsburg, one at Bald Hill, one at Pleasant Hill,
and St. Paul's. Three other Reformed congregations had been organized as the result of his missionary labors during
these years. He baptized 620 persons, confirmed 510, married 375 couples, and officiated at 400 funerals.
In 1857 he was elected, for three years, superintendent
of the public schools of Bedford county, in which office he succeeded in raising the standard of the county schools,
and without causing his pastoral duties to suffer. Owing to failing health he was obliged to discontinue preaching
in the fall of 1871. In 1867 he engaged in the business of a druggist.
He was a man of strong character—kindly, considerate,
generous and affectionate. He was active and alive with the times, imparting his influence in the several relations of
life with a force that had its effects for good. He had two sons, the late William Bruce, and Matthew Peebles, who is
now residing at Bedford, Pa.
[The Fathers, 5: 216; Mrs. M. P. Heckerman.]
John Skiles KING, A. M., M. D., the son of Robert and
Jane (Skiles) King, was born at Mercersburg, Pa., December 20, 1826. He died June 2, 1869.
His early education was received in his native town, at
the Preparatory Department of the College. Entering as a Freshman in 184o, he was graduated from Marshall
College in 1844. He was a Goethean. He began thestudy of medicine under the direction of Dr. R. Parker
Little (1839), and received his medical degree in 1848 from, the University of Pennsylvania. He was engaged in
professional practice at Mercersburg till 1861, when he responded to the first call for volunteers and became
assistant surgeon in the 2d Reg. Pa. Vols., serving from April 21 to July 26, 1861.
Dr. King remained unmarried. He had rare gifts of
mind and person. He played the flute and sang with peculiar sweetness and expression. Burns was his favorite
poet. He died in the full strength of his manhood.
[Bates, 1 : 25; Private sources.]
Peter NEGLEY, Esq., A. M., son of Christian and
Barbara (Newcomer) Negley, was born at Welsh Run, Franklin county, Pa., August 29, 1818. He removed with his
parents to Washington county, Md., in 1832. He worked on his father's farm, attending the country school in winter,
till the age of seventeen, when he entered a store at Greencastle, Pa., where he remained two and a half years.
In 1837 he entered the Preparatory Department of Dickinson College. In the spring of 1839 he entered the
Preparatory School at Mercersburg, and in the fall, the Freshman class of Marshall College. At the end of his Sophomore
year, failing health necessitated a year's absence from college, after which he returned and was graduated in 1844.
He declined the second honor in favor of a friend. He was a member of the Diagnothian Literary Society.
On his return from college he and a friend, with a horse
and buggy, traveled from Hagerstown to Chicago, Ill. Mr. Negley began the study of law in 1846 in the office
of Hon. James Dixon Roman, of Hagerstown. He was admitted to the bar in 1849. The same year, May 8, he
was married to Laura, the youngest daughter of Martin Rickenbaugh, of Hagerstown, Md. He was a candidate
for state's attorney of Washington county in 1851, but was defeated by his Democratic opponent by 137 votes. In
1852 he became treasurer of the Hagerstown Savings Institution, and when, in 1854, it became a State
bank, he was made cashier, retaining the same position when, in 1865, it became the First National
Bank of Hagerstown. In 1864 he was elected a Republican member of the State Constitutional
Convention, taking a most active part in its deliberations, as its published proceedings show. In 1866 he purchased
a half interest in the Hagerstown Herald and Torchlight, and became one of its editors. In 1870 the U. S.
Depository of Baltimore was changed to a U. S. Sub-Treasury and Mr. Negley received the appointment as first assistant
treasurer from President Grant, which office he filled to the satisfaction of the Department for twelve years. During
1878-8o he was president of the Hagerstown Agricultural Implement Manufacturing Company, and later served as
its treasurer.
His first wife died in 1859, leaving four children:
Walter (Amherst, 1872), Charles (Amherst, 1873), William (Cornell, 1874), and Rose, wife of S. B. Loose, Esq., of
Hagerstown. In October, 1861, he married Mrs. Priscilla L. Brooks, of Cambridgeport, Mass. Hon. Peter Negley died
at Hagerstown, June 7, 1884, disease of the heart taking him off suddenly.
Peter Negley was a man of more than ordinary ability,
and left the impress of his personality on the community of which he was a member. He was a man of great sagacity
and good judgment, of warm impulses and rare social qualities. He had a high sense of honor, and his
reputation for honesty and integrity was never touched by the breath of calumny.
[Scharf, J. T. History of Western Maryland, 2: 1145 (Portrait);
Charles Negley; Miss Ida Negley.]
Rev. Nero Stout STRASSBURGER, A. M., D. D., the
eldest child of Rev. J. A. and Catharine (Stout) Strassburger, was born August 7, 1819, in the Reformed parsonage
later years, took a most active part in the agitation of the question of a new constitution for the church. As
treasurer of Lehigh Classis, from 188o, he resigned only a week previous to his death.
He was married, November 27, 1849, to Miss Diana E.
Dickenshied, a daughter of Dr. Charles F. Dickenshied, of Lower Milford, Pa. Their son died in infancy; an only
daughter, Miss Annie C. Strassburger, survives.
[Private sources.]
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
Document
Index
|
|
