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MARSHALL COLLEGE
Class of 1861 Obituaries
Samuel Gray BOWMAN, only son of Daniel B. and
Anna (Gray) Bowman, was born at Ephrata, Lancaster county, Pa., February 29, 1840. Mr. Bowman's paternal
ancestor was one of the founders of the historic town of Ephrata. His preparatory training was received at the high
school at Lebanon, Pa., where the Rev. J. M. Titzel (1854) was one of his teachers. He entered the Sophomore class in
1858, and was graduated in 1861. He was an active member of the Diagnothian Society. After graduation he clerked
for awhile at the St. Charles furnaces, Columbia, Pa., and in the fall of 1862 became the principal of the Girls' High
School of Columbia. After a ten days' illness, he died January 26, 1863. His early death defeated the promise of a
brilliant career in the profession of law, which he had chosen.
[Miss E. Katharine Bowman.]
Rev. William Frederick Philip DAVIS, A. M., son of John
and M. Catherine Isabella (Vandersloot) Davis, was born in Paradise township, York county, Pa., October 1, 1831. He
was baptized in infancy by his maternal uncle, the Rev. F. Edward Vandersloot. Having learned the trade of a
saddler he followed this occupation for several years to earn the means for his education. He fitted for college at
Mechanicsburg, Pa., and subsequently at York, under the instruction of Prof. Geo. W. Ruby (1848). He entered the
Freshman class and was graduated in 1861. He was a member of the Goethean Society.
He completed the course of theological studies in the
Seminary at Mercersburg in 1863. Mr. Davis was licensed by Zion's Classis in the spring of 1863, in the fall, ordained
and installed as pastor of the New Oxford charge, Adams county, Pa., and continued his labors in that field for eight
years. From 1871 to the time of his death, June 11, 1883, he was pastor of the Sinking Spring charge, composed of
five congregations, near Reading, Pa. He lies buried in the Charles Evans cemetery, Reading.
He married Miss Ellen E. Myers, of York, Pa., October
22, 1863, and with her had ten children. The following survived their father: N. Myers, William S., Paul B., John
H., Louisa B., and Martha V. G.
[The Fathers, 6: 175; Rev. John P. Stein.]
Rev. Frederick FOX, son of Heinrich and Caroline
(Orth) Fuchs, was born July 7, 1835, at Zuschen, of the principality of Waldeck, Germany. His mother died when
he was five years old. His father was a well educated man and gave his son the advantage of the best schools of
his native town. At the age of fifteen, Frederick and his brother Henry came to America, to Baltimore, to see their
brother William, engaged in the cooperage business in that city. He joined his brother in business, but later took
charge of the cooper shop in connection with a large flour mill at Hopewell, York county, Pa. In the meantime
William had become a colporteur for the American Tract Society, at Cincinnati, Ohio, and had studied for the ministry.
Frederick received books from William by which his
religious life was largely influenced. He joined his brother at Cincinnati and likewise became a colporteur for the
American Tract Society.
In 1856 he came to Lancaster with the purpose of
preparing for the ministry of the Reformed Church. The Revs. Dr. Rust and C. Daure were interested in him and
extended him the necessary aid. After spending nearly two years in the Preparatory Department he entered the
Freshman class in 1857 and was graduated in 1861, speaking the German oration at commencement. He was a member of
the Goethean Society.
He completed his theological course at Mercersburg two
years later. In January, 1864, he was licensed to preach by the Lancaster Classis and a month later ordained in
Salem church, Harrisburg, Pa., and installed pastor of the Second Reformed church of that city. He remained there
two years, marrying in the meantime, on November 10, 1864, Mrs. Sarah Grace Delley, nee Wickes, of Lockport,
N. Y.
In April, 1866, Mr. Fox and his wife went to the Pacific
coast, reaching San Francisco May 19, after a four weeks' journey, via Nicaragua. He was desirous of establishing
Reformed churches in those regions. Owing to the inability of the Board of Missions to give him support, for a time,
he was cast on his own resources, and was engaged as agent for the California Sabbath Society. Later, for one
year, he was engaged as a missionary for the Presbyterian Church, and while thus engaged founded the Emanuel
Presbyterian mission in San Francisco. He organized the first Reformed church on the Pacific coast, April 11, 1869, in
San Francisco. He established the First Reformed church at Stockton and labored at Oakland, San Antonio, San
Pablo, Alameda, Mt. Eden, and other places around the San Francisco bay. July 13, 1873, he established Salem
Reformed church at Napa City, to which place he had removed, and the following year built a church. While at
Napa City he also preached at St. Helena and Sonoma.
Mr. Fox traveled extensively and wrote much for the church
papers in the interest of these western missions. His work was interrupted by the death of his wife, which occurred
at Napa City, March 18, 1877. Mrs. Fox was an enthusiastic missionary worker. She employed young Japanese
as domestics, among whom was Masataka Yamanaka, who was converted and baptized, and subsequently educated at
Franklin and Marshall, graduating in 1885. Largely through the efforts of Mr. Fox Japan was chosen as the
field for foreign missionary operations by the Reformed Church.
Mr. Fox returned to the East in 1878. Till 1879 he
supplied the pulpit of Zwingli church, Harrisburg. He then engaged in canvassing the Reformed churches throughout
the East for money in support of the Pacific coast missions.
In 1880 he was called to organize the Second Reformed
church of New York City. Several years later he built the Martha Memorial Reformed church on West 52nd St. On
December 16, 1889, he died suddenly of heart failure. Mr. Fox was married a second time. In January, 1883, he was
married to Miss Anna M. Heiser, of New York city. Of the four children by this marriage, three survive.
[College Student, 10: 104; Mrs. Irving M. Pierson.]
Rev. Harrison Henry William HIBSHMAN, A. M., D.
D., elder son of Hon. Allen Porter and Hannah (Wike)
Hibshman, was born November 25, 1837, at Schaefferstown, Lebanon county, Pa. He was baptized in infancy by Rev.
T. H. Leinbach, and confirmed in his youth. While a boy he assisted his father, who was then a surveyor and
conveyancer. He removed with his father to Durlach, Lancaster county, Pa., and after attending public school
received private tutoring which prepared him for the Freshman class of Franklin and Marshall College in the fall of
1857. He was a member of the Goethean Literary Society and of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, and was graduated in
1861.
In the fall of 1861 he entered the Theological Seminary
at Mercersburg, Pa., and was graduated in one year. He then enlisted and served as a private in the Civil War for
six months. Returning home he was licensed and ordained by Lancaster Classis in 1862, and commissioned by the
Board of Home Missions to Jenner X Roads, near Pittsburg, where he began his ministry. In the spring of 1864
he was commissioned by the Board of Home Missions to Shamokin, Pa., to organize a Reformed congregation. He
effected an organization with eight members, and labored here with success for four years, during which time he
built a church and collected a large sum of money from the Church at large to pay for it.
In August, 1867, he accepted a call to St. Luke's
Reformed church, Trappe, Montgomery county, Pa. Here he bought ground for a new church to be built in the future,
and for a parsonage, which was built during his pastorate. While here he became identified with the interests of
Ursinus College, was one of its founders, secured the site at Collegeville for the institution, and was a member of the
Board of Trustees for twenty-one years.
In March, 1869, he received a call from the Waynesboro
charge, Waynesboro, Pa., but the consistory of St. Luke's congregation declined to accept his resignation. In June
of the same year, the Waynesboro charge renewed the call, which he and the Classis felt he should accept. From July,
1869, Dr. Hibshman labored nine years in the Waynesboro charge, erecting a fine church and Sunday-school building.
In the fall of 1878 he accepted a call to the Mt. Bethel charge, Northampton county, Pa., consisting of four
congregations. During this pastorate he organized the congregation at Bangor, Pa., where he built a neat brick
church and purchased a tract of land as a cemetery for the town, and from which the congregation secured an income.
At the close of his pastorate the charge was divided into two, each having a pastor.
In January, 1883, Dr. Hibshman accepted a call to Grace
Reformed church, Tiffin, Ohio, which he organized with seventy members. A lot was purchased, a large
parsonage and church edifice erected; and the Sunday-school grew so rapidly that it was necessary to build a large
Sunday-school chapel thoroughly equipped. He labored successfully for ten years in this charge.
In August, 1893, he accepted a call to Zion's Reformed, church, Stroudsburg, Monroe county, Pa. In 1895, the
beginning of the third year of his last pastorate, he built a parsonage, but occupied it for a few weeks only.
Dr. Hibshman received the degree of A. M. in course
from his Alma Mater; and the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Ursinus College in 1879.
He was appointed by the General Synod, at Lebanon in
1890, chairman of the committee to revise and improve the constitution of the Reformed Church. He was a member
of General Synod's committee to complete and publish the Reformed Church Hymnal, which was adopted by
the General Synod in 1890. For several years he was a member and secretary of the Board of Trustees of
Heidelberg College, Tiffin, Ohio, and filled the chair of dogmatic theology for a time in the Theological Seminary of that
place. He was at one time assistant editor of the Reformed Church Messenger, and contributed many articles and
sermons to the different church papers and periodicals. He published a pamphlet on " The Origin and Glory of the
Reformed Church," in 1894.
He was married April 14, 1864, to Miss Alice J. Clark, of
Lancaster, Pa. Their marriage was blessed with six sons and one daughter, who with the wife survive him: Rev.
Edwin Clark (Ursinus College, 1886), pastor of St. Luke's Reformed church, Trappe, Pa.; Allen Porter,
Eschbach, Pa.; Rev. Albert Helfenstein (Heidelberg College, 1888), pastor of the Reformed Church, Shippensburg, Pa., Rev.
Henry Eberly (Woorster University, Ohio, 1892), Newburg, N. Y.; Walter Strickler (Woorster University, 1892, M. D.,
Medico-Chirurgical College, Philadelphia, 1896), Philadelphia; Roy Super and Margaret Murray Hibshman, residing
with their mother at Stroudsburg.
Dr. Hibshman was a member of he Knights Templar, and for many years chaplain of his commandery. He died
suddenly, of neuralgia of the heart, at the residence of his son, Allen Porter, at Eschbach, Berks county, Pa., April
11, 1896, and is buried at Trappe, Pa.
[Mrs. A. J. Hibshman.]
Henry Harrison HIBSHMAN, son of Allen Porter and
Hannah (Wike) Hibshman, and brother of Rev. Dr. H. H. W. Hibshman, was born at Schaefferstown, Lebanon
county, Pa. At the age of fourteen, in 1858, he entered the Sophomore class, graduating three years later. He was a
member of the Goethean Society. After graduation he was engaged in teaching Latin and Greek in the Andalusia
Academy, near Philadelphia. He possessed strong powers of mind which were just beginning to unfold when death
closed his career at the age of twenty. He had enlisted in the State militia, but not being able to endure the heat and
fatigue of marching, he was taken sick with fever and died in a hospital in Washington, D. C.
[Mrs. A. J. Hibshman.]
Rev. Levi Conrad SHEIP, A. M., son of John and
Hannah (Snyder) Sheip, was born in New Britain township, Bucks county, Pa., December 30, 1833. The Sheip family
was of Swiss descent, and the pioneer settled in Bucks county in the early part of the last century. Mr. Sheip attended
the district schools, and in his early boyhood was a student at the Union Academy in Doylestown, Pa. He began
teaching in the schools of the county at an early age, continuing therein until he entered Frederick Institute,
Montgomery county, where he prepared for college. He entered the Sophomore class of Franklin and Marshall College in
1858, and graduated with his class in 1861. He was a member of the Goethean Society, and was elected master
orator by his class. He received the degree A. M. in course.
In the fall of 1861 he opened a boys' school in
Temperance Hall, Doylestown, but in 1862 entered the Reformed Theological Seminary at Mercersburg. Returning to
Doylestown in 1863 he re-opened his flourishing school for boys.
In 1864 Goshenhoppen Classis licensed him to preach,
and in the same year he was ordained in the church of which he' subsequently became pastor. He then received a call
from the Riegelsville Reformed church, but his school interests obliged him to decline. In 1865 he accepted a call from
the Reformed church at Bloomsburg, Pa. This was his first ministerial charge. He served this congregation
faithfully two years, when he became principal of a private school in West Philadelphia. After teaching a year he was called
to Salem Reformed church in Doylestown, and December 1, 1868, assumed the charge, which he occupied
continuously until his death. For a quarter of a century he was chaplain of Doylestown Lodge, No. 245, Free and Accepted
Masons.
Rev. Sheip never lost his interest in educational
matters. In 1869 he opened a school for girls in Masonic Hall, which he conducted in connection with his pastoral
duties. The institution met with such success that, in 1871, in company with Professor Henry H. Hough, now of
Washington, D. C., he erected Linden Female Seminary in Doylestown. The Seminary opened in the spring of 1872
with a large attendance and continued until 1879. Though its existence was brief, it exerted a lasting influence for good
upon the characters of those who entered it as students. In the fall of 1879 he became principal of the borough schools,
and remained in that position until the erection of the school building in 1890, when he resigned.
He travelled extensively in Europe in 1885, and his
lectures, based upon materials gathered abroad, were always popular and interesting. He translated from the German,
The Greek Maid at the Court of the Emperor Nero, by Ferdinand Schmidt, and The Gold-seeker, by Franz
Hoffman. Of late years his favorite pastime was a study of the German language and literature, and the political and
religious history of the German people.
Rev. Sheip was found dead in bed in his apartments in
the Meyers' building, Doylestown, on the morning of February 18, 1897. Although he had not been feeling well for
several days, there was at no time any fear of serious results. The evening before he had attended a meeting of
the festival committee of the church. He was very much interested in the new church under construction, the lecture
room of which was to be dedicated on Sunday, February 21.
The cause of his death was heart failure. He was never
married.
[Philadelphia Ledger, Feb. 19, 1897; Philadelphia Record, Feb.
19, 1897; Reformed Church Messenger, Feb. 25, 1897 (Portrait); Private sources.]
Rev. William Henry Harrison SNYDER, A. M., son of
John and Jane (Howe) Snyder, was born at McConnellstown, Huntingdon county, Pa., December 9, 1836. He
prepared for college mainly at Mercersburg, Pa., in the school of Rev. John R. Kooken, beginning in 1855. He
entered Franklin and Marshall College as a Freshman in 1857, and graduated in 1861. He was a very active member
of the Goethean Literary Society, and at one of the anniversaries of the Society was the Goethean orator. The
subject of his oration was, The Poet's Mission. At graduation he received the second honor, the Franklin oration. He
received his A. M. in course.
From college he went direct to the Theological Seminary
at Mercersburg in the fall of 1861, graduating in 1863. The same year he was licensed to preach by the Synod in session
at Carlisle, Pa.
His first charge was at Akron, Ohio, which he served
eleven months, leaving in December, 1864, to become pastor of Salem Reformed church, Harrisburg, Pa., which he
served from December, 1864, to December, 1886, when he removed to Bellefonte, Pa., which charge he served up to
the time of his death.
On April 20, 1865, he married Miss Naomi Erisman, of
Lancaster, Pa., and on April 20, 1889, on the 24th anniversary of his marriage, he died of typhoid pneumonia, at
Atlantic City, N. J., whither he had gone for recovery from a medical treatment which had greatly reduced him. He was
buried in Lancaster. A wife, a daughter, Mary, and a son, Paul, survived him.
He was secretary of the Tri-Synodic Board of Missions
of the Reformed Church from the time of its organization in 1874 to the time of his death. His records were always
neat and accurate. He was a clear thinker, a correct reasoner, a good
theologian, a good sermonizer, a faithful pastor, and a true friend.
[College Student, 9: 155, 157; Rev. A. C. Whitmer.]
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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