MARSHALL COLLEGE
Class of 1853 Obituaries
  

He pursued, his theological studies, in connection with his college work, and the year of his graduation he was licensed to preach the Gospel, October 18, 1853, by the Synod which was in session in Philadelphia. On May 24, 1854, he was ordained by the Classis of Virginia. For two years he labored as a missionary at New Market and Mt. Jackson, Va. From 1856 to April, 1859, he served the Strasburg charge, in Franklin county, Pa. In July, 1859, he accepted a call to the Schellsburg charge, in Bedford county, Pa., and remained the pastor till 1863. While serving this charge he was principal of the Schellsburg Academy for one year.

In the fall of 1863 he removed to Sugar Grove, Ohio. The Classis of Tuscarawas, noting the growing English element in the Schellsburg charge, organized an English congregation and, in June, 1867, Rev. Hannabery was called to the pastorate of this new charge, which he accepted. Rev. Hannabery organized English interests in Shanesville, Rowsville and Evansville. He found thelabors of his charge very arduous, and in June, 187o, accepted a call to the New Providence charge, in Lancaster county, Pa. This charge he served acceptably until 1875, when he removed to Fairview, Butler county, Pa. He remained here until 1879, when the Board of Home Missions sent him to Ridgely, Md., to organize a congregation. Quite a number of Pennsylvanians had settled in Caroline county, in and about Ridgely. Here he labored heroically and made many sacrifices for the cause. He secured by donation two building lots from Rev. George Ridgely, a retired Episcopalian minister, on which he erected a neat church, which was dedicated in July, 1882. In raising the money and building the church he overworked himself and undermined his health. December 31, 1882, he preached his last sermon, and on February 27, 1883, he quietly passed away.

Rev. Hannabery was married July 31, 1856, to Miss Anna M. Kinsey, of Hazelton, Pa. His widow and daughters, Laura and Elizabeth, reside at Easton, Pa.; his son, John K. (1877), at Ridgely, Md.

[The Fathers, 6: 114; John K. Hannabery; Rev. J. M. Souder.]

In the fall of 1853 he taught in an academy at Manchester, Md. After a course in the Theological Seminary at Mercersburg, he was licensed to preach by the Synod convened in Reading, Pa., in October, 1856, and was ordained in May, 1857, at Stoyestown, by the Classis of Westmoreland. He continued to labor within the bounds of thisclassis until 1861, when he became principal of the Westmoreland Collegiate Institute, at Mt. Pleasant, Pa. On August 18, 1864, he was married to Sarah Ann Ennentrout of Reading. In 1866 he removed with his family to Oakland, near Pittsburg, Pa. In 1873 he went to Wilkinsburg, Pa., and subsequently to Philadelphia.

In October, 1873, the Board of Missions of the Tri-Synodic Compact completed its organization, and Rev. Levan, who, up to this time, had filled the office of missionary superintendent in the Pittsburg Synod, was elected superintendent of the missions of the Tri-Synodic Board. He served a term of four years. The office was new to the Church, and in its experimental stage, and the labors arduous, and delicate, requiring much skill and tact in the management of its affairs. The Superintendent was equal to the responsibility, and at the expiration of his term the missions and the missionary operations were in a greatly improved condition.

In 1878 he removed to Wilkes-Barre, Pa., where he took charge of Zion's Reformed church. This church, during his pastorate, became an important center for church extension in the historic Wyoming Valley.

He was a frequent contributor to the Reformed Church Messenger and The Reformed Quarterly Review. August 8, 1888, he began a series of articles for the Messenger under the caption of " Wyoming Papers." These papers appeared weekly until January 18, 1894, when he became the leading contributor to the editorial page. His articles for the Review were numerous, and each indicated scholarship and literary ability. He also contributed several valuable articles to the Pennsylvania German Society, of which he was a charter member, and in which he always took the deepest interest.

He received the degree of A. M., in 1856, and, in 1891, the degree of Doctor of Divinity, from his Alma Mater.  At the meeting of the Eastern Synod, in October, 1894, convened in Harrisburg, Pa., Dr. Levan was elected president.

He expired suddenly, at his home in Wilkes-Barre, November 13, 1894. His wife and their three children, Anna M., Louis E., and Kate G., survive him.  

[Miss Anna M. Levan; Rev. John P. Stein.]

He received his primary education in the common schools, and then attended the academy at Germantown, Ohio, under the principalship of Rev. Jacob Pentzer, a minister of the Presbyterian Church. He entered the Freshman class of Marshall College in 1849, and graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in 1853. He belonged to the Goethean Society. After completing his theological course he was licensed to preach by Lancaster Classis (Ohio 
Synod), November 6, 1854, and ordained by Miami Classis at its annual meeting at Millville, Ohio, October 14, 1855, as missionary to Cincinnati. Here he organized the Second Reformed church, known afterwards as the " Church of the Cross," and served it from 1855 to 1869.

After having resigned the pastorate of the "Church of the Cross," which dissolved and became extinct, he purchased of Rev. Theodore P. Bucher, the Christian World, and all pertainings thereto, and was elected editor by the Board of Publication, October 16, 1869, which action of the Board was confirmed by the Ohio Synod in June, 1870. The paper was published in Cincinnati from October, 1869, to September, 1878, when it was removed to Dayton, Ohio, where the publication was continued under his supervision nearly two years longer. He served as editor from October, 1869, to April 1, 1880. In this department he exerted himself to the utmost of his ability, but financially the paper was a failure. While in Cincinnati he also published and edited the Heidelberg Teacher, Lesson Leaves, Leaves of Light, a Sunday-school paper, and The Companion of Praise, the first hymn and tune prayer-meeting and Sunday-school book of the kind for the Reformed Church.  After having severed his connection with the Christian World, in 188o, he removed with his family to Chicago. In Dayton, he published The Pastor and People, a bi-monthly paper, as an aid in church work and preaching, which he continued to publish in Chicago under the name of The Chrysostomian, but this publication soon had to be  abandoned, and he engaged in other work.  Rev. Mease received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Heidelberg College in 1868.

Dr. Mease, after the death of his wife in Chicago, removed to Beatrice, Neb., in 1889, to reside with his only son and daughter. He was in bad health, but he improved in the new climate. He hoped to be able to preach again. Early in 1891 his son, on whom he depended for support, died and a year later his daughter, with whom he had made his home. He then only longed for death to reunite him with his family, of which he was the last. He died in the Deaconness Home Hospital, near Lincoln, and was buried in Wyuka cemetery at Lincoln.

[The Messenger, Sept. 1, and 8, 1892 (latter article from Christian World); Rev. T. F. Stauffer.]

In the year 1868 he delivered the Alumni oration, on the " State as an Element in Civilization," which was published in the Reformed Quarterly Review. The same year he was elected a member of the Board of Trustees of Franklin and Marshall College. He was a faithful and efficient member.  In 187o he was the Republican candidate for Congress, and though his district was strongly Democratic, his popularity was so great that he lacked only a few votes of an election. The exertion called forth during the campaign was probably too great for Mr. Oliver's strength. He took sick with typhoid fever, and died March 1o, 1871, in the midst of his rising fame. His death was universally lamented.

[Bates, 5: 1268; Rev. Theodore Appel, D. D.]

After graduation he succeeded his father in the lumber business, continuing therein until 1866. On the reorganization of the Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Lancaster, in 187o, he was appointed general agent with power to issue new policies. During the year 1870 he was superintendent of the Lancaster and New Danville Turnpike Company.

In 1876, at the time of the Philadelphia Centennial, he was a member of the firm of Peters and Burger, which contracted for fourteen Centennial buildings, among which were: Annex to Memorial Hall, Woman's Pavilion, Pennsylvania State Building and Pennsylvania School Building.   In 1880 he became a partner with H. S. Shirk, his brother-in-law, in the Stevens Cotton Mill, Lancaster, from which business he withdrew a few years before his death. He died August 16, 1887.

The father of Jacob G. Peters was a lifelong Democrat, and though in a county strongly Republican, was elected on the Democratic ticket to the Legislature in 1862. The son followed in the politics of his father until the. Civil War, when he became a Republican. In that party he was very active, being elected Assemblyman in 1868, and serving frequently as a delegate to its conventions. He served for a long time as a director of the Millersville Street Railway Company, and was chairman of the managing committee.   From 1863 until his death he was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Millersville State Normal School. He belonged to the Masonic fraternity. Mr. Peters was a man of great adaptability, untiring energy and was very popular.  Rev. J. A. Peters, D. D., president of Heidelberg University, is a cousin of the subject of this sketch. Mr. Peters married Mary Ann Hamilton, November 12, 1859. They had four children: Fannie, Elsie Ione, Mildred and Carlotta. Elsie Ione, who is Mrs. Herbert Cochran of Philadelphia, is the only child now living.

[Rev. H. H. Ranck.]

December 28, 1886, Prof. Ruby was married to Miss Mary E. Titzel, of Mechanicsburg, Pa. Prof. Ruby had literary ability and a taste for poetry.  While at college he wrote many pretty lines. His best  college effort was a poem—" Napolean's Retreat from Moscow," delivered at Mercersburg on the occasion of the anniversary of the Goethean Literary Society, March, 1853. He wrote many other poems, his last being "Spring, a Pennsylvania Idyl."

He died suddenly, March 12, 1896. He left his home in his usual good health to go to the college. When near the  ,institution he was seen to totter and fall, and by the time a physician could be summoned, he had expired, death being due to apoplexy. He is buried at Peace Church, near Shiremanstown, Pa., where his ancestors have been buried for many generations. He is survived by his wife. Prof. Ruby was a Mason.

[Bates, 1: 734; The Ursinus College Bulletin, Memorial Number, April, 1896, 12: 97-125 (Portrait); Prof. M. Peters; Rev. H. H. Ranck.]

Soon after reaching his majority, he turned his attention to study, with a view of preparing for the holy ministry. He spent one year at the preparatory school at Mercersburg, and then entered the Freshman class of Marshall College. He graduated at the first commencement of 
Franklin and Marshall College, in 1853. He was an active member of the Diagnothian Literary Society, and was one of its orators at the first anniversary of the Society held in Lancaster.

From Lancaster he went to take charge of a private school in the Valley of Virginia, where he remained a year and a half, and then entered the Theological Seminary at Mercersburg, and completed his course. He was licensed by the Mercersburg Classis, at Shippensburg, Pa., in May, 1856, and subsequently ordained to the holy ministry by Lancaster Classis.

Columbia, Lancaster county, Pa., was his first field of labor. He remained in this charge only a short time. His second charge was in Westmoreland county, Pa., as the English assistant of the venerable Father Voigt. This charge, during his pastorate, grew to such proportions that it was divided and sub-divided a number of times. Each time his humble spirit allowed himself to be assigned to the weaker part of the field. While in Westmoreland county his residence was at Latrobe.

In 1871 he was commissioned by the General Synod's Board to serve them as missionary at Wyoming, Kent county, Del. Here a vigorous and deserving mission had been established. He was the first pastor of this mission, and the first Reformed minister regularly settled in that State.

In the latter part of October, 1871, he was granted a vacation to visit friends of his former charge and his early home in Pennsylvania. On November 9, though quite unwell, he started for his field of labor in Delaware. When he arrived at his brother's home in Philadelphia he rapidly grew worse, and in a day the dread disease of smallpox made its appearance. He lingered until November 17, 1871, when his earthly career ended. He was never married, but lived a life of rigid self-denial and self-consecration to the cause of the Lord. He is buried in Glenwood cemetery, Philadelphia.

[The Fathers, 4: 42o; Rev. Geo. B. Russell, D. D.]