Second Presbyterian Church
In 1847, under the able ministry of Rev. Henry R. Weed, sixteen members from the First Presbyterian congregation formed the Second Presbyterian Church in Centre Wheeling. Samuel Ott and William B. Quarrier, ordained elders of the First Church, were elected and installed in the new congregation. The first service was held in the Masonic Hall on February 6, 1848.
The names of the first elders, Samuel Ott and William B. Quarrier, appear on a memorial window in the church, along with that of another early Elder, Alexander Hadden. Ott (1793-1868) was one of the pioneer merchants of Wheeling. In addition to being involved in banking and insurance, he partnered with others to operate a successful hardware business. Following his death in 1868, his sons brought William Heiskell into the business as a partner. The firm’s name, Ott-Heiskell, can still be seen on the side of a large warehouse near WV Northern Community College. Navy veteran William B. Quarrier (1800-1862) was a banker and the son of a Scottish immigrant who was a colonel in the American army during the Revolutionary War.
Alexander Hadden, the third elder who was memorialized in Second Presbyterian windows, was also a successful businessman. Sadly, his 25-year-old son Richard didn’t heed the temperance efforts of the church. Richard and a friend – James McLane – got into a fight in March of 1862, with McLane fatally shooting Hadden and then remorsefully committing suicide. According to published reports of the incident, “this terrible affair was the result of drinking” by both men.
Early Trustees of Second Presbyterian included brothers Jacob and Thomas Hornbrook. [Jacob Hornbrook was later a delegate to the First Wheeling Convention in 1861, which ultimately led to the formation of the state of West Virginia. During the Civil war he came to be known as the “soldiers’ friend,” regularly traveling to places where Wheeling troops were stationed, taking care packages to them and bringing back their pay to ensure support for their families at home. Thomas Hornbrook was the Surveyor of Customs at the Port of Wheeling at the time the Civil War began. His office was in the Custom House, now known as West Virginia Independence Hall. At the beginning of the war, he refused to turn property over to the Governor of Virginia and allowed the Union to store guns and gunpowder in the basement of the building. His summer home is now Wheeling Park.
Second Presbyterian founders purchased the property of William Chapline at Market and 20th Streets, and the house that stood on the property, with a few alterations, was used for the first services until the Greek Revival-style, brick church – originally stucco-covered – was completed in early 1850, just months after the Wheeling Suspension Bridge was finished. According to legend, the church was built, at least in part, with slave labor. During construction of the spire, ropes and tackling failed, causing the spire to fall to the street below. It fatally injured a man who had just come by looking for work.
Princeton-educated Rev. Cyrus Dickson, D.D. (1816-1881) accepted the call to become the first pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, and a Board of Trustees and a Building Committee went to work. Redick McKee was the superintendent of the Sabbath School beginning in 1848. Margaret Dickson, daughter of the first pastor, recorded her recollections of the building at the time. “The large audience room was lighted by lard oil lamps, and the great chandelier in the centre and the two tall candelabra on either side of the pulpit, made by the famous firm of Cornelius in Philadelphia, were objects of great admiration….The pulpit was at the south end, and [there was] a long white desk with a crimson velvet cushion on which lay the Bible and a large, handsomely bound copy of ‘Psalms and Hymns’.” The Elders used two brass collection boxes attached to long wooden handles, carrying them down the middle and up the side aisles and passing into each pew to receive the offerings. The offerings were usually of coin, as in those days no bank notes of less value than five dollars [approximately $135 in today’s money] were allowed in Virginia…
“On the Sabbath morning … after reading the Scripture authority and inviting ‘all members of sister churches in good standing in their own, to unite with us in this Supper of ‘our common Lord,’ the request was made that no one would leave the house, but all remain until the close of the service.” The communicants occupied the middle pews, “the others withdrawing to the side or gallery [while communion was served]. The solemn impressions produced by those changes were too deep to be erased, and were – in many instances – the means of awakening souls. None of the thirty-four communion seasons under the first pastorate passed without additions to the membership. The Session kept watchful oversight of the flock, and a degree of discipline was maintained which would seem very rigid in these days.”[i]
The first communion service in the new church was held on March 24, 1850; the congregation numbered 164. Later that year, the Board of Trustees discussed the propriety of introducing gas into the church to replace oil lamps, and a petition was sent to City Council to have “a nice dubble pathway of flag stone laid across the street in from of the church.” At the time, parishioners rented pew space. (The envelope method didn’t replace pew rental until 1888.) An interesting side note: in December 1851, the trustees voted to purchase a coat, “worth not more than $10,” for the church sexton, George Gaunt. It seemed that Gaunt had to come to Centre Wheeling from Bridgeport to perform his duties because no free African Americans were allowed to live in Virginia at that time.
Rev. Dickson served from the founding of the church until 1857. During his 8 ½ years of service, membership in the church had grown to 390. Rev. Dickson was replaced by Rev. Richard Varick Dodge (1821- 1885), who served during the next five years. Yale- and Princeton-educated Rev. Dodge had previously been a minister in Springfield, Illinois, and from that time, he and his wife were personal friends of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. During an illness while in Wheeling, Mrs. Dodge received get-well wishes from President Lincoln and is said to have also received a gift of a shawl from Mrs. Lincoln. Dodge himself was active in West Virginia statehood conventions during the Civil War, leading invocations and the singing of the Star Spangled Banner. Also of note during Reverend Dodge’s tenure, the Wheeling YMCA was organized in the pastor’s study in 1859, although its building, located across Market Street from the church, wasn’t constructed until 1910. Later in his career, Rev. Dodge served at the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Wheeling, was Principal of Linsly Institute, and was hospital chaplain for the Union Army before moving to California.[ii]
The Civil War years must have been an interesting time for the church. One of the early members, active on the “subscription” committee, was John Goshorn, a slave owner and ardent secessionist (and a great, great, great grandfather of Bob Mead). Among the slaves owned by Goshorn was Lucy Bagby. When Lucy escaped and fled to Cleveland in early 1861, Goshorn and his son William traveled there and testified in a court case demanding the return of their property. The Goshorns won the case and brought Lucy back to Wheeling. It is believed that she was the last slave brought back to the “south” under the Fugitive Slave Law. Apparently John Goshorn also ignored temperance efforts by the church – his death certificate shows his cause of death as alcoholism.
Rev. Dodge was followed by Rev. John Moffat (1816-1875). Born in Scotland, Moffat was orphaned at a young age. He first found work as a shepherd and then in the mercantile business before immigrating to America in 1835, at age 19, arriving with no funds “except for a sovereign that had been loaned him by a fellow passenger.”[iii] He worked in a quarry in New York for a time, then moved to Ohio and began teaching and then studying for the ministry. He began preaching in 1840 at age 34 and served in several Ohio Presbyterian churches, including ones in St. Clairsville and Bellaire, before coming to Second Presbyterian in 1863. [He is a direct ancestor of Stuart Bloch – Rev. Moffat’s granddaughter Jessie married Jesse Bloch, Stuart’s grandfather.] After serving for eight years at Second Presbyterian, health issues resulted in only part time work by John Moffat, with his son, James Moffat (1840-1916) serving as co-pastor. James Moffat eventually succeeded his father at Second Presbyterian and ministered there until 1881. It was during the Moffats’ tenures that an addition was built on the south end of the building. James Moffat left Wheeling in 1881 to become president of Washington and Jefferson College, in Washington, PA.
Church and Sabbath School membership grew over the next few decades. Records indicate that the Sunday School enrollment at the time of the church’s semicentennial in 1898 was 230. Surnames of church members at that time included those of such well-known Wheeling families as Hupp, Dalzell, Klieves, Handlan, Speers, Vance, and Wilson.
199 new church members were added on Easter Sunday, 1912, alone – not long after Billy Sunday’s evangelical visit to Wheeling. Church-sponsored activities included the local Anti-Saloon League, a Men’s Club and a Women’s Association, Young Couples’ Class, Young Ladies Sewing Society, Kings Daughters, and shared support of a medical missionary in China, along with lawn fetes and church suppers. A grand centennial celebration was held in 1948.
By 1970, the church tower and exterior stucco covering had been removed, and the congregation had dwindled down to about a dozen members. Although the church was still financially stable, the remaining members decided to sell the church building to the Wheeling Christian Church. That church sold the property in the fall of 2008 to the current owners, the Near Earth Observation Foundation. The goal of the current owners is to use the building as an urban observatory and an educational facility for teacher professional development, presentations, public events such as theatrical plays, and other similar activities.
A disastrous roof collapse occurred on September 22, 2011. Subsequent inspection found that three of the main roof trusses had been cut and modified when the sanctuary ceiling had been raised to accommodate a new chandelier – perhaps during remodeling in 1872 and/or 1913. Those cuts may have contributed to the roof collapse, although excess roofing material is currently believed to have been the primary cause. The current owners are in the process of repairing the roof, with financial assistance from the WV State Historic Preservation Office. The main damaged truss was removed just before Christmas, making way for the replacement. Of note is the fact that some of the wood being used for the repairs is coming from local trees that were downed by the derecho that sped through the valley a couple of years ago.
One of the notable features of the church is the original George W. Coffin bell from 1850. [That company also made bells for Union ironclad ships during the Civil War.] It is believed to be one of the few remaining bells that were rung on June 20, 1863, when West Virginia officially became a state. It was rung again on June 20, 2013, in celebration of the state’s sesquicentennial.
[i] The Chronicle of a Century. Second Presbyterian Church, 1848-1948.
[ii] Obituary Records of Graduates of Yale College, 1885. http://mssa.library.yale.edu/obituary_record/1859_1924/1884-85.pdf
[iii] Moffat, Charles and Norma. Family Histories of Moffat, McNeelan, Crangle, Pierson, Angel, Lichtenwalter. 1990.
Prepared by Jeanne Finstein
