Shortly after the end of the Civil War, Union veterans formed a fraternal organization known as the “Grand Army of the Republic” or G. A. R.  Thousands of local “posts” were established across the country, including at least a dozen in Bradford county.  I recently learned that Perkins Post in Athens was organized in February, … Continue reading An Historic Meeting in the Church Parlors in 1870

Last Sunday (March 15, 2026) we celebrated the 35th anniversary of the date on which our congregation bought back the original Athens meeting house.  I shared the following history of the meeting house at that celebration: The Athens Universalist congregation was organized in 1849, with twelve members.  By February, 1851, they had acquired a ¼-acre … Continue reading Celebrating the Re-purchase of the Athens Meeting House

While browsing through Bradford County newspapers from the 1800s over the last ten years, I’ve seen a lot of announcements about “donation parties” for ministers.  Most of these parties were for non-Universalist ministers, but a few were for Universalists. The parties were an opportunity for members of the congregation to give gifts – food, clothing, … Continue reading Donation Parties

William Henry Harrison Gore, a descendant of the earliest white settlers of Sheshequin, was a lifelong Universalist and a member of both the Athens and Sheshequin congregations.  He served in many roles in the Sheshequin congregation in the 1880s and 1890s, including Clerk, Trustee, and Sunday School Superintendent.  When he moved to Athens in 1894, … Continue reading W. H. H. Gore and the Gold Cure Institute

When I joined UUCAS in 1998, Marion Stevens Jones was our organist.  At that time she was 90 years old and had been playing for the church for about 30 years.  Her mother, Georgie Stevens, became the organist at the Sheshequin church shortly after she and her husband moved to Sheshequin from Standing Stone in … Continue reading Marion Jones’ First Husband

I recently ran across an interesting story about the town of Kinney, Minnesota, which prompted me to write this post about the town’s namesake, Orrin Day Kinney. Orrin Day Kinney was born in Sheshequin in 1845.  He was a great-grandson of Joseph Kinney, the Baptist who, along with the Rev. Moses Park, was famously converted … Continue reading The Republic of Kinney

While reading through some of my blog posts from the last several years, I noticed that I had not yet fulfilled my promise to write about the dedicatee of the “other” flower stand. Three years ago I told the story of the Sheshequin church furniture that was designed by the Rev. Harry Means in the … Continue reading The Other Flower Stand: Tom Cook

An interesting incident occurred in the Athens Universalist church in the spring of 1892.  The Rev. Robert M. Neale, who had been engaged by the church the previous November, was refused fellowship by the Pennsylvania Universalist Convention (PUC).  The congregation would lose its membership in the PUC if they kept Neale as their pastor, so … Continue reading Robert Neale – The Rest of the Story

The Rev. Mervin C. Helfrich served the North Branch Association congregations (Athens, Sheshequin, Standing Stone, and Towanda) from 1949 to 1951.  I recently came across his ironic “Litany for a Self-Satisfied Church,” which was published in the Christian Century magazine in 1958.  The litany was noticed by syndicated religion columnist Dr. Charles L. Allen and … Continue reading Litany for a Self-Satisfied Church