Several years ago I wrote a blog post about the two Ballou ministers, James H. and his son Willard S., who served the Athens congregation in the late 1890s.  At that time, I noted that I had been unable to find out what became of Willard Ballou after about 1910. As it turns out, I … Continue reading The Case of the Disappearing Minister

When she died in 1985, Jane Murray Beck left a bequest of $20,000 to UUCAS for maintenance of the Sheshequin meeting house.  Over the years, we have used the “Murray Memorial Fund,” as the bequest was named, to pay for painting and other repairs to the building. According to Jane Beck’s will, the bequest was … Continue reading The Murray Memorial Fund

In 1886 the Athens Universalist Society solicited donations to pay for repairs to the meeting house.  One of the donors was identified only as “Mrs. Plubert,” who gave $5 (equivalent to about $130 today).  It wasn’t the largest donation, but still it was sizable, especially for a woman.  Who was she? When I searched the … Continue reading “Mrs. Plubert”

This talk was presented during worship at UUCAS on Mar. 14, 2021. I want to start this morning with a little bit of background on our congregation.  We are now known as the Unitarian Universalist Church of Athens and Sheshequin, but we were originally two separate Universalist congregations, one in Athens and one six miles … Continue reading History Sunday, Mar. 14, 2021

Throughout their respective histories, the Athens and Sheshequin Universalist Societies have received donations from people who were, as far as I can tell, never members of either congregation.  Most of these non-member donors were local residents, but in 1895 one donation came from a wealthy and prominent New York City financier. In 1893 the trustees … Continue reading Harry L. Horton, Millionaire New York Banker

In an earlier post about Sheshequin Universalist Society member O. H. P. Kinney, I noted that Kinney had turned to spiritualism later in life.  A disproportionate number of spiritualists in the nineteenth century were former Universalists, including a sizable number of Universalist ministers.  One Universalist minister who later became famous as a spiritualist served the … Continue reading Rev. James Martin Peebles, Universalist Turned Spiritualist

The village of Waverly, N. Y., across the state line from Sayre, Pa., was apparently a hot-bed of suffragist activity in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  In a previous post on this site, I wrote about O. H. P. Kinney, a Sheshequin Universalist Society member who had moved to Waverly and who advocated for … Continue reading Amazilla Horton Kinney on Woman’s Suffrage, 1915

The presidential election of 1880 was the closest, in terms of the popular vote, of any in U. S. history.  Republican James Garfield won the electoral college decisively, but his margin of victory in the popular vote was less than 2,000. Sheshequin Universalist Society member O. H. P. Kinney, a. k. a., “Peter Klaus,” wrote … Continue reading “Peter Klaus” on the Election of 1880

In 1867 New York State held a Constitutional Convention for the purpose of examining the existing constitution and proposing changes.  Sheshequin Universalist Society member O. H. P. Kinney, well-known in Tioga County, N. Y., as the editor of the Waverly Advocate, was selected as that county’s delegate to the convention. Kinney was an avid proponent … Continue reading O. H. P. Kinney on Women’s Suffrage, 1867

As noted in my last blog, Sheshequin Universalist Society member O. H. P. Kinney was a regular contributor to the Elmira Sunday Telegram in the early 1880s.  His weekly “Short Sunday Sermons” were published under the pen name “Peter Klaus.” One of his more trenchant sermons about orthodox Christian doctrine appeared in the Aug. 15, … Continue reading What Is Heaven?