Armstrong County PA Archives Biographies.....Elder, Rev. Thomas McConnell March 24, 1826 - ????
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Source: History of Armstrong County, Chicago: Waterman, Watkins and Co. 1883.
Author: Robert Walter Smith, Esq.

  ...The grandfather of the well-known citizen of Dayton 
whose name heads this sketch, Robert Elder, was a soldier 
through all of those seven long years of the revolutionary 
war, and, soon after the close of that great struggle for 
liberty, moved with his family from the vicinity of 
Harrisburg to Westmoreland county, where he was one of the 
earliest settlers.  He took up an exceedingly fine tract of 
land near New Alexandria, known as 'the Richlands,' which is 
still owned by his descendants.  His son Thomas, father of 
the subject of this biography, who was two years old when 
the family settled in Westmoreland county, was born in or 
near Harrisburg.  He was reared upon 'the Richlands,' and on 
arriving at manhood's estate married Mary McConnell, a 
native of Lancaster county.  Their son, Thomas McConnell 
Elder, was born March 24, 1826, near New Alexandria, 
Westmoreland county.  After a good common school education 
he commenced a more advanced literary course under the 
tuition of the Rev. Dr. James Milligan, an old Scotchman of 
fine scholarship, who resided in the neighborhood.  He was 
for some time engaged in school teaching at this period of 
his life.  He was the first teacher of the female seminary 
at Northwood, Ohio, and principal of the Loyal Hanna 
Institute in Westmoreland county for two years.  He then 
took a collegiate course at Geneva College, Logan county, 
Ohio, and finished in 1855.  During the period he was in 
attendance at that college he exhibited something of the 
energy and influence which characterized him in after-life.  
He spent one summer in traveling in the western, eastern and 
middle states, and succeeded in raising for the college an 
endowment of $18,000.  After his course at the Ohio college, 
he spent four years at the theological seminary of the 
Reformed Presbyterian church at Allegheny City, graduating 
and being licensed to preach in 1858.  He was ordained to 
the ministry May 11, 1859, previous to which time he had 
been regularly called to churches at Baltimore and Boston.  
He was then called to Rehoboth congregation in Armstrong 
county, a charge which also embraced territory in the 
counties of Clarion, Indiana and Jefferson, and in which two 
or three pastors now preach. Subsequently he received 
another call from Boston, one from Kossuth, Iowa, and a 
number from other congregations in various localities.  Mr. 
Elder settled in Dayton about 1860.  In 1862 he became 
principal of Dayton Union Male and Female Academy, a 
position which he held until 1866.  In 1863 he was appointed 
by his church to take charge of mission schools among the 
freedmen at Fernandina, Florida, where he spent the summer 
of that year, serving also as chaplain of the 11th regt. Me. 
Vols., then stationed there.  In 1864 he was appointed to 
take charge of missionary operations in Washington, District 
of Columbia, where he remained until the spring of 1865.  
During these absences from home his place in the academy was 
supplied by subordinates.  Returning in the spring of 1865, 
he resigned his position as principal of the academy in 
1866, to take charge as principal of the Dayton Soldiers' 
Orphans' School, which he opened in the building now known 
as the Exchange Hotel.  He had labored zealously for the 
establishment of this institution, and now labors with equal 
ardor and effectiveness to insure its usefulness.  During 
the time he was principal, buildings were erected where 
those now in use stand, and the school was put upon a firm 
and sure basis, very largely owing to his efforts.  He may 
be called in fact the successful originator of this valuable 
institution.  During the second year of his connection with 
the school, in the fall of 1867, Mr. Elder met with a very 
serious accident.  While watching a game of baseball among 
the children, he was struck with great force by a heavy bat 
which flew from the grasp of one of the larger boys who was 
striking at the ball.  He was knocked senseless, and for a 
time it was thought could not recover from the effects of 
the terrific blow.  Providentially his life was spared, but 
he had received permanent injury from the concussion.  The 
shock was very severe upon his nervous system, and he found 
to his sorrow that it incapacitated him in a great measure 
for hard and protracted study.  He was thus compelled 
reluctantly to give up active duty as a preacher, which he 
had always enjoyed, and to abstain from long-continued and 
hard study.  Shortly after this accident, in the fall of 
1868, Mr. Elder met with another great misfortune - the loss 
of his second wife.  In consequence of the combined effects 
of this bereavement and of the injury which he had received, 
he resigned the principalship of the Orphans' School, 
although strongly urged to remain, in 1871.  Since that time 
he has resided in Dayton, leading a somewhat retired life, 
but giving his attention to business, and still taking a 
deep interest in all that pertains to the welfare of his 
fellow men.  He is still a stockholder in and a member of 
the board of managers of the Soldiers' Orphans' School.  In 
1880 he was the principal organizer of the Dayton 
Agricultural and Mechanical Association, and was elected its 
first president, which office he held for two years.  
Subsequently he became vice-president, and now holds that 
office.  He is also editor of the Dayton News, a recently 
established but prosperous local journal, which he ably 
conducts.

  In his chosen high calling, the ministry, Rev. Elder was 
very successful, his labors being attended with the best 
results.  He combined the advantages of broad and thorough 
scholarship with great native ability, and his discourses 
were interesting, instructive and full of force, logical and 
lucid.  He is said to have possessed marked eloquence.  The 
genial qualities of nature and the earnestness which were 
valuable in the varied labors of the minister outside of the 
pulpit have been preserved, and with his other 
characteristics command for him the respect and esteem of 
the people among whom he has dwelt, as well as render him 
useful to all with whom he comes in contact.  He is a man 
looked up to in the community where he is best known, and 
has an influence for good which is exerted in many ways, 
among others in allaying local strife and obviating 
litigation between neighbors.  As a teacher Mr. Elder has 
been almost or quite as successful as a preacher, and he is 
held in most respectful remembrance by many who have made 
the beginnings of their intellectual life under his 
guidance.  He excels most men in executive ability.

  Mr. Elder was united in marriage with Miss Tirzah Mason, 
of Westmoreland county, September 14, 1848.  One son by this 
marriage, M. M. Elder, is a successful business man of New 
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and has a most estimable wife in 
Miss Hannah Knox, granddaughter of Sheriff Chambers Orr.  
Mr. Elder's first wife died in 1851, and upon October 10, 
1854, he was joined in wedlock with his second wife, Miss 
Mary P. Lindsay, of Philadelphia, whose death, hitherto 
referred to, occurred upon September 12, 1868.  She left two 
children:  Tirzah (wife of C. S. Marshall, of the firm of C. 
S. Marshall & Co., Dayton), a graduate of Union Academy, and 
a most esteemed lady in the community, and A. W. Elder, who 
is pursuing a medical education, and has already spent two 
years at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia.

  Mr. Elder is still living in Dayton, and it is to be hoped 
may be spared for many years.  And when the time comes that 
he must pass away, this at least will be said of him, he was 
a worker of more than ordinary ability in his day and 
generation.

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