Articles about UUCAS History
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
The Rev. Benjamin Brunning, who served the Athens Universalist Church from 1882 to 1884, was born in England in 1821 and emigrated to Quebec, Canada, with his parents and many (14?) siblings in 1836. His father died the following year, and the family struggled financially. In 1841, when he was 20 years old, Brunning went … Continue reading Rev. Benjamin Brunning’s Recipe for a Long and Happy Life
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
This is the second of two posts that are adapted from a reflection given at the UUCAS worship service on Sunday, March 26, 2023. In Part 1 of this series, I told a story about Joseph Kinney’s generosity. Here are two more stories about members of the Kinney family: Julia Kinney Scott’s “The Slave” Julia … Continue reading Living Our Values, Part 2
These two posts are adapted from a reflection given at the UUCAS worship service on Sunday, March 26, 2023. The early Universalists were distinguished from their “orthodox” Christian neighbors by their belief that everyone would be reunited with God after death. In the early 1800s, most Christians of other denominations believed that only a few … Continue reading Living Our Values, Part 1
