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Catherine "Katie" (Younkin) Lichliter was born on July 22, 1819 near Kingwood, Somerset County, PA, the daughter of John J. and Mary "Polly" (Hartzell) Younkin. She wed Rev. Levi Lichliter (1814-1862), one of 13 children of Jacob and Jemima (Campbell) Leichliter, and grandson of German immigrant Levi Lichliter. (Their surname has been spelled both ways.) He was the founder of what today is the Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church in Scullton, Somerset County. The four children they bore together were Norman Bruce Lichliter, Rev. Marcellus Deaves Lichliter, Milton Campbell Lichliter and Sarah Lichliter. They also suffered the deaths of two infants, and the fate of daughter Sarah is unknown. The 1913 book Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania Biography, Illustrated, Volume III, by John W. Jordan, says that Catherine's ancestors in Europe had "supported Cromwell, [and] were obligated to flee to this country to escape religious persecution, and found a home among the hills of New England." It also reported that Levi's Campbell forbears served at the Battle of the Boyne in the 1600s in Ireland, helping to preserve the Protestant faith in that country before Jacob Conrad Lechleiter of Bremen, Germany emigrating to America in the 1740s.
Katie is not to be confused with her cousin Susan Younkin, who married Levi's brother John Campbell Lichliter. In other examples of the intertwined Lichliter Younkin-Minerd connections, Levi's half sister, Margaret J. Lichliter, married Joel Minerd, son of Jacob and Catherine (Younkin) Minerd Jr.; Levi's niece Amanda wed Martin Miner; and Levi's brother John Campbell Lichliter wed Susan Younkin, daughter of Henry Younkin. (See a manuscript list of some of these inter-married families handwritten by the late Agnes [Miner] Miller.) The family dwelled on a farm of 111 acres, and were active in the local informal congregation of Methodist worshippers. When the group organized into what today is the Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church at Scullton, Levi donated money generously. During the final year of his life, as Levi's health declined, an administrator was appointed by the Orphan's Court of Somerset County to manage his estate.
Levi died on July 13, 1862 (or 1863) at the age of 48. He was laid to rest in the churchyard of what became Wesley Chapel near Scullton, Somerset County. An upright grave marker was placed on his grave. The following epitaph was inscribed, from the 1861 James Montgomery poem, To the Spirit of a Departed Friend: "Thou are not dead, Thou couldst not die; To nobler life new-born." Historical
booklet Catherine survived him by nine years. The year after Levi's death, on Nov. 9, 1863, she transferred a one-half acre of property from their home farm to be used for construction of the first Wesley Chapel building. Until that time, only circuit riders had conducted occasional services in the area. Their 19-year-old son Norman was named a trustee of the church. Among the other trustees at the time were Messmore Cramer, Joseph B. Critchfield, David Lichliter, John Lanning, John C. Phillippi and Jeremiah Pile. During the spring of 1876, their son Marcellus served as pastor. Eventually a frame building was constructed, measuring 36 feet in width by 48 feet in height, with three windows on each side and two doors facing the road. She died on April 16, 1871, at age 51. She is buried in the Ursina Cemetery. Read letters written by one of the Lichliter nieces, of Salisbury, Somerset County, dated Sept. 6, 1935, Sept. 1, 1936 and March 27, 1939. The Lichliter family also is profiled in depth in the 1906 book History of Bedford and Somerset Counties, Pennsylvania, Volume III, by E. Howard Blackburn, William Henry Welfley and William H. Koontz, and in the 1936 book Annals of Southwestern Pennsylvania, by Lewis B. Walkinshaw. They also were profiled in a series of articles in the Mountaineer newspaper of Normalville, Fayette County, published in September 1899 by George W. Campbell. More about the chapel is contained in the 1993 booklet Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church.
~ Son Norman Bruce Lichliter ~
When he was age 19, his father died, leaving a parcel of land to the local Wesley Chapel Methodist church. Norman eventually was named a trustee of the congregation. He married Rebecca King (Feb. 28, 1845-1878), daughter of Samuel K. and Christianna King. They produced a family including offspring Ida McFarland, Cora Felicia Miller, Charles Kingsley Lichliter, Levi Leroy Lichliter, Sadie Calista Coltrane and Oscar Emerson Lichliter. Norman was a charter member of the Ursina Lodge of the International Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF), formed July 12, 1873, and served as secretary of the organization. On Feb. 12, 1873, the Somerset Herald's Ursina Items column reported that he had "purchased the Jennings farm near this place." According to the 1884 book History of Bedford, Somerset and Fulton Counties, Pennsylvania, he was the first shoemaker in Ursina and in 1871 built a stave factory there. "The building has recently been converted into a keg factory," said the History, "owned by the Citizens' Oil Refining Company, and operated by Edward Alcott." The Meyersdale New Republican in 1954 repeated the story of Norman's stave factory converted into a keg or barrel operation. The Lichliters migrated west in the mid-1870s when their son Levi was just a boy. Norman's brother Milton appears to have joined them on this relocation.
Sadness blanketed the family when, at the age of 33, Rebecca died in Kansas on Oct. 15, 1878. Her remains were lowered under the sod of Fredonia City Cemetery in Wilson County, KS. A large upright obelisk marks her grave today. The widowed Norman remained in Joplin and in 1880 managed a mercantile store with William H. Fallis, owned by Samuel C. Cupples & Co. The partners made news in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in September 1881 when arrested on charges of fraud, a matter in which he had involved his younger brother Milton. He installed his brother as a phantom owner of the business and then went out into the marketplace to secure a host of loans. Using the funds, he and Fallis purchased goods and sold them at high markups without reporting any of the income and profits to the store's owner. Reported the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Norman in his defense said that Fallis had been in control of the scam and that he himself was nothing more than a traveling salesman. A story in the Globe-Democrat the next day said that the pair "stood high in this community, Lichliter being one of the strong pillars in the M.E. Church, possessing a deep bass voice which was heard in the choir on regular days of worship." The case went to trial in St. Louis criminal court in December 1881. Another trial was held in May 1882 on charges of perjury. The Criminal Court jury handed down a ruling of "guilty" with Norman and Fallis sentenced to two years in the penitentiary. Norman made bail in November 1882 with Joplin resident Thomas Connor putting up the funds. Reported the Joplin Herald, "Mr. Lichliter was almost a stranger to [Connor], but learning that Lichliter was a poor man and had a helpless family of five children here in Joplin, their mother being dead, Mr. Connor's heart was touched and he manifested his feelings in a substantial way. No greater kindness could be done a man than was done for Mr. Lichliter in this instance. He was a stranger in jail in a strange city, separated from friends and family. We do not know whether Mr. Connor is a church member, but any way he is entitled to the esteem of every humane person for this one act." His case was appealed in the St. Louis Criminal Court, with a restitution motion filed on Norman's behalf. His release and exoneration appear to have been granted in June 1888, with nothing more appearing in local newspapers on the subject.
Circa 1892, Norman operated some "heavy producing" zinc mines at Carterville, MO, on property owned by "Chatham." He was badly injured by a falling pulley at the mine on May 7, 1892. Reported the Herald, "Mr. Lichliter was standing on the landing board while the hoister man was hoisting a miner from the ground. When the man had been hoisted about twenty feet from the bottom the pulley broke loose from the top of the derrick and fell, striking Mr. Lichliter on the forehead, inflicting a deep wound. The blow threw him backwards heavily to the ground and his head striking some rocks he received two severe scalp wounds." He recovered and in February 1893 is known to have sold 104,680 lbs. of zinc (known as "jack") from his Chatham mine. "It was the output of one week," said the Joplin Weekly Herald, "the miners working only one shift per day." He later made his way to Prescott, AZ. There, on Aug. 5, 1902, he again was married to Jennie E. Griswold ( ? - ? ), daughter of Maria C. Griswold. News of the happy event was printed in the Clay Center (KS) Dispatch and the Joplin Globe, which said he was "the well known real estate man and [she] was formerly a teacher in the Joplin schools" at Garfield. Their first home was in Joplin, at 124 North Pearl Street. In all, Norman resided in Joplin for 39 years. Then in 1918, he and Jennie moved to Southern California, where they spent the last dozen years of their married lives together. There, he bought and sold two town lots in Huntington Beach. He also built a new home in 1922 at 650 North Chester Avenue. Circa 1929, he returned to Joplin for a visit. He was stricken by a heart attack and died in Pasadena Hospital at the age of 88 on April 11, 1930. The Pasadena Post said that "Besides his widow, he is survived by five children, all of whom reside in or near Joplin, Mo." The Joplin Globe said he was a "former pioneer resident of Joplin and widely known in this district..." A brief obituary in the Joplin News-Herald said that the body was to be shipped to Joplin for interment. But in fact burial took place in Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena near Los Angeles. Jennie outlived her husband by a number of years. She was active in the local Community Chest campaign in Pasadena. Her final fate is not yet known. In 2014, the language about Norman from the 1884 History book was reprinted in the fourth edition of In Search of the Turkey Foot Road — Unraveling the Mystery, Charting New History, Plotting the Route, co-authored by Lannie Dietle and Michael McKenzie, edited by Nancy E. Thoerig and published by the Mount Savage Historical Society in Maryland. [See page 446.] See more about this family in a letter from Edith Susan Lichliter (of Salisbury, PA) to Otto Roosevelt Younkin, president of the Younkin National Home-Coming Reunion, dated March 27, 1939. Daughter Ida Lichliter (1866-1951) was born on July 23, 1866. She relocated with her parents and family to Missouri in her youth. Ida wed Dr. Edgar W. McFarland (Sept. 7, 1860-1949). Edgar was a longtime dentist. They are known to have dwelled in Webb City, MO in 1920. On May 8, 1949, he succumbed to the spectre of death at the age of 88. Sadly, at the age of 85, Ida died in Webb City, MO on Dec. 14, 1951. Burial was in Mount Hope Cemetery in town. Son Charles Kingsley Lichliter (1869-1875) Son Levi Leroy Lichliter (1872-1953) was born on Oct. 25, 1872 in Confluence, Somerset County. After migrating as a youngster to Missouri, in about 1880, he grew to adulthood. He was a longtime salesman of educational publications for Ginn & Co.. He wedded Valeria S. Lee ( ? - ? ) and the couple made their home at 3721 Holmes Street in Kansas City, Jackson County, MO. They had at least four children: Leroy L. Lichliter Jr., Mary Elizabeth Lichliter, Katharine Valeria Lichliter and Richard Norman Lichliter, who tragically died at age two of peritonitis. The Lichliters dwelled in Kansas City in 1930 and in St. Louis, MO in the mid-1940s. When he was 75 years of age, in August 1946, Levi and son Levi Jr. traveled to their old home of Ursina, Somerset County, and were overnight guests of their cousins, Edith Susan and Almira Lichliter, daughters of Levi and Sarah A. (Smith) Lichliter of the family of John Campbell and Susan (Younkin) Lichliter. In reporting on the reunion, the Meyersdale (PA) Republican said that Levi had moved to Missouri at the age of eight and "had not been back since that time. Mr. Lichliter's father, Norman B. Lichliter, was a first cousin of the late Levi Lichliter. Accompanied by J.C. Lichliter, Sr., and Edith, they visited Mr. Lichliter's birthplace, the present home of Calvin Groff, Sr., near Confluence, where they were royally received and fully informed." Levi became ill with cancer of the colon, and died at age 80 on May 10, 1953. Interment was in Mt. Moriah Cemetery in Kansas City.
Daughter Sadie Calista Lichliter (1873-1963) was born in 1873. She married V.O. Coltrane ( ? - ? ). Their home in 1927-1930 was in Springfield, MO. Son Oscar Emerson Lichliter (1875-1967) was born on Dec. 19, 1875 in Joplin, MO. He spent nearly all of his life in the town of his birth. As an adult he moved to Springfield for employment as secretary of Drury College but was there only for a few years before a return to Joplin. In 1914, in Wichita, KS, at the age of 38, he entered into marriage with Nelle Smith (1884-1963), daughter of William Young and Annabelle (Campbell) Smith of Springfield. The pair did not reproduce. Oscar ventured into real estate, purchasing the Lichliter Building on Main Street and in 1946 acquiring the Lichliter Apartments at the corner of Pearl Avenue and First Street. Their address in 1930 was at 403 West First Street and later at 106 North Pearl Avenue. He held memberships in the local First Methodist Church and lodge of the Masons. In her own right, Nelle served as secretary for several years of the YWCA. She passed away at the age of 78 on June 1, 1963. With his health failing, he moved into a local nursing home in January 1967. There, he died at the age of 91 on Feb. 3, 1967. An obituary said he was "survived by several nieces and nephews." Burial was in Mount Hope Cemetery in nearby Webb City. ~ Son Rev. Marcellus Deaves Lichliter ~ Son Rev. Marcellus Deaves Lichliter (1849-1917) was born on April 10, 1849 on a farm near New Lexington, Somerset County. He later recalled that "I glory in my kinship. My father, on one side, was a German, my father upon the other was an Englishman. My mother, on the one side, was a Yankee, and on the other side an Irish woman." In describing his growing-up years, he once said that "When I was a boy I thought the more beef I ate and the more cabbage and potatoes I crammed down in my little stomach the sooner I would be a man." He married Mary Florence McIlyar ( ? - ? ), daughter of Rev. James Jackson and Alice (Morris) McIlyar of Butler, Butler County, PA. The wedding took place in Butler on June 22, 1876, when Marcellus was age 27. They had two children -- McIlyar Hamilton Lichliter and Alice Morris Crooks. Marcellus' relatives knew him as a "famous minister," but he also was an educator, author and lecturer, "descended from good ancestral stock -- German, English and Scotch-Irish -- grafted into New England Puritan stock," said his entry in the 1913 book, Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania Biography, Illustrated, Volume III, authored by John W. Jordan. He obtained secondary education at Mount Union College in Ohio and then taught school for several years. Yearning to pursue a career in Christian ministry as had his father, Marcellus began his preaching career in 1872 as part of the Pittsburgh Annual Conference, and remained in this role for 28 years. During that time, he was "statistician" for a decade until poor health forced him to step down.
He was an eyewitness to the aftermath of two tragic, violent events which shaped Pittsburgh's labor history -- the 1877 railroad strike which causes millions in damages, and the 1889 Homestead steelworker strike resulting in the deaths of both strikers and Pinkerton detectives.
Their home in 1880 was on 41st Street in Pittsburgh, with the census-taker spelling their name "Leithleiter." That year, Marcellus served as pastor of the 33rd Street Church, and 21-year-old Kate Cunningham lived in their dwelling as a servant. At some point in the 1890s, Marcellus served briefly as the minister of the Hopwood United Methodist Church, and "looked after the spiritual welfare of the members..." Among the other earlier pastors of the congregation was Rev. Isaac Herschel Minerd, a cousin on the Younkin side of the family. Both men are mentioned in a history of the congregation published in the April 1908 edition of the Hopwood Chronicle. Later, Governor William S. Stone appointed him as chief clerk of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, and he resided in Harrisburg, Dauphin County, PA. He was a member of the Independent Order of Good Templars, the Odd Fellows and the Masons. Circa 1911-1912, he served as chaplain of the National Council of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics. The JOUAM was a pro-labor, anti-Catholic organization which campaigned against the hiring of cheap immigrant workers and patronized only American businesses. He is known to have served on a three-member committee with chairman W.L.S. Gilchreast and J.H. Hambrick, to author the organization's secretive, "Short Form Ritual" governing membership and procedures. This 56-page, soft-cover booklet, with an original preserved today in the Minerd.com Archives, was authorized by the National Council in session at Tiffin, OH on June 22, 1911. Its introduction reads as follows:
At one hearing, he claimed the United States could not properly assimilate the vast waves of newcomers and urged Congress to restrict immigration. In one instance he went so far as to say the "moral fiber of the nation has been weakened and its very life-blood vitiated by the influx of this tide of oriental scum." His other work as a lecturer was "in great demand," said the Encyclopedia, "and he has been called into many States to address public meetings and to present flags and Bibles. Since his connection with the organization he has presented to the public schools fifty Bibles and more than four hundred flags." He also was a prolific author and was a correspondent for The American journal for 30 years. Among his printed works were "historical monographs" about early Americana covering mound builders, General Henry Bouquet, Fort Necessity, Captain Sam Brady and many more. He gave several talks over the years at the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, one on Feb. 13, 1890 on "General John Gibson." On June 27, 1916, residing in the Bellevue section of Pittsburgh, he gave another speech at the Historical Society entitled "Woman and Her Relation to American History." Burdened at the end of his life with chronic kidney problems, Marcellus died in Harrisburg's Keystone Hospital on Dec. 20, 1917. Interment was in Harrisburg Cemetery. [See the Encyclopedia profile]
Son Rev. McIlyar Hamilton Lichliter (1877-1961) was born in 1877 in Butler, Butler County, PA and was a third generation Christian clergyman. He married Gertrude Larimore ( ? - ? ), daughter of Dr. and Mrs. J.M. Larimore of Greenfield, IN. The ceremony was led by McIlyar's father. In announcing the happy event, a newspaper said that the couple "are well known in college circles, both having been graduated from dePauw university with the class of 1900... The bride had charge of the English department in the Greenfield High School last year and was a popular and successful teacher. The groom was assistant state secretary Y.M.C.A. headquarters at Indianapolis, in 1900, and is now pastor of the M.E. Church, South Fork, Pa." Their two children were Mary Florence Lichliter and Rev. James Marcellus Lichliter. McIlyar attended Duquesne College, Ohio Wesleyan University and DePauw University, receiving a bachelor of arts from DePauw in 1900. He then obtained a master's degree from DePauw in 1903. Pursuing the ministry, he began his career as a Methodist Episcopal Church minister in Pennsylvania, in Pitcairn (1900-1901), South Fork (1901-1903) and Verona (1903-1905) before transferring to Genesee, NY (1905), St. Louis (1908) and Baltimore (1913, Grace Methodist Episcopal Church).
I do not share the fears of many that the Nazi tyranny can achieve much on this continent, except, perhaps, in the field of economic warfare. Nor do I fear that the British Empire will yield no matter what may happen in the British Isles, But, let us assume that Hitler's dream of world domination comes true, what then? Even so, I know of no disaster which can ever destroy the liberty of the Christian man. McIlyar's
article, Gertrude died on Aug. 14, 1960. An obituary in the Hancock Democrat in her hometown of Greenfield said that "She served with her husband in various ministries of the Methodist and Congregational churches in Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts and Ohio. While in Newtonville, Mass., Mrs. Lichliter founded the Boston Inter-Collegiate Alumna chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma, which included Kappas from throughout the country. Mrs. Lichliter's activities encompassed a wide range of interests, and was prominent in many women's church and civic organizations." Rev. William Leath presided over the funeral. McIlyar only lived for another five months. He too passed in Akron on Jan. 16, 1961. Burial was in Park Cemetery in Greenfield, with Rev. William Meddock leading the obsequies. A memorial service was conducted in his former church in Columbus. Opined an obituary in The Philalethes, a newsletter of the Masonic order, "It is difficult to say whether his vocation was that of a minister, of an editor, of a ritualist, of a teacher, or probably, a happy and vigorous combination of all of them, which translated itself into the vocation of public servant."
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