Blair County PA Archives Biographies.....Hamlin AM, DD, Rev. Benjamin B. April 28, 1828 - ???? ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Judy Banja http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00004.html#0000757 December 16, 2024, 1:49 pm Source: Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Blair Co, PA: Philadelphia, 1892. Author: Samuel T. Wiley REV. BENJAMIN B. HAMLIN, A.M., D.D., now presiding elder of the Altoona district of the Methodist Episcopal church, and who has served faithfully through sunshine and storm in the vineyard of his Divine Master for nearly half a century, is a son of John and Rachel (Baird) Hamlin, and was born at Kinzua, in Kinzua township, Warren county, Pennsylvania, August 28, 1828. His paternal grandfather, Rice Hamlin, resided for many years on Pine creek, in Lycoming county, and then removed to Lock Haven, Clinton county, where he died near the close of the eighteenth century. He was a lumberman, and married Elizabeth Wanzor, who lived to see her ninety-sixth birthday, which ripe old age only exceeded her mother's lifespan by one year. To Rice and Elizabeth Hamlin were born in their home near the Susquehanna river, nine children, five sons and four daughters: Jacob, Comfort, Rice, James, John, Mrs. Polly English, Mrs. Susan Le Bre, Mrs. Joanna Morrison, and Mrs. Sarah Campbell. The five sons were all remarkable men for heighth and fine physique. They were all consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal church. They all removed, about the year 1820, to Warren county, Pennsylvania, and most of their descendants are scattered over various parts of the west. John Hamlin, one of these sons, and the father of Doctor Hamlin, was born near Lock Haven, in 1795. After his marriage, he and two of his brothers-in-law went to what is now Warren county, where they purchased a large tract of land, and founded the present flourishing village of Kinzua. They built a saw mill and a grist mill, and were engaged extensively in lumbering for twenty years. At the end of that time John Hamlin returned to Lock Haven, where he was engaged for some years in the manufacture of grain cradles. He died in 1876, when in the eighty-first year of his age, and left behind him the record of a busy, useful, and upright life. He was successively a democrat, whig, and republican in politics, and served acceptably for many years as a justice of the peace. He was a steward, trustee, and class leader of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he was an active and efficient worker. He was perfectly honest and faithful to every trust reposed in him. In 1821 he married Rachel Baird. They reared a family of five children, four sons and one daughter: Rice, Rev. Benjamin B.; James, a prominent lawyer of Lewisburg, and district attorney of Union county when he died, at the early age of thirty-two years; Rev. William, who served during the late civil war as a soldier in a Pennsylvania company, and is now a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, and a member of the Central Pennsylvania conference; Fletcher, now dead; and Frances, the wife of William Gilday, and a resident of Williamsport, this State, who is an author and lecturer, and in addition to her published poem, Jockabed's Trust, and a religious volume, entitled Service and Reward, is now writing a work on Christian Science. Mrs. Rachel (Baird) Hamlin, who died in 1863, aged sixty-three years, was a daughter of Benjamin Baird, an early settler of the West Branch, on which he owned a large tract of land. He married Frances, a member of the Siggons family, which came from the north of Ireland, and a sister to Judge H. Siggons, of Broken Straw, Pennsylvania. She was familiarly known as Aunt Fanny Baird. She was a woman of great strength of mind and force of character, and was regarded as the founder of Methodism on the West Branch of the Susquehanna. Benjamin Baird, after his marriage to Frances Siggons, who was acquainted with General Washington, continued to reside on the West Branch until his death. They reared a family of six children: Benjamin; Rev. William, for some years editor of the organ of the Methodist Church South, in Baltimore; Mrs. Rachel Hamlin (mother); Mary; Mrs. Fanny Else; and Mrs. Lydia Gifford. Benjamin B. Hamlin was reared at Kinzua, and received his early education in that village. At seventeen years of age he entered Mifflinburg academy, Union county, Pennsylvania, which he attended for a short time, and after that obtained a very good education by self study and close and careful reading. He united with the Methodist Episcopal church at an early age, and later was licensed to preach. In the spring of 1848 he became a member of the Baltimore conference, and served successively the following charges: Milton, Lewisburg, Berwick, Williamsport, Liberty Valley, Lewisburg Station, High street and Strawbridge, in Baltimore city. Upon the expiration of his pastorate in Baltimore, he became pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church in Danville, Pennsylvania. In March, 1862, he was appointed presiding elder of the Bellefonte district, which then included nearly all of Lycoming and Elk, and a part of Tioga, Clinton, Centre, Clearfield, and Huntingdon counties. In March, 1866, he was appointed pastor of Mulberry Street church, of Williamsport, and three years later became presiding elder of the Juniata district. In 1873 he was stationed at Chambersburg, from 1874 to 1878 was presiding elder of the Harrisburg district, and then served as pastor of the First Methodist church of Altoona until 1881. During the next three years he served Ridge Avenue church, of Harrisburg, and then was pastor of the Carlisle Methodist Episcopal church until 1887. In that year he was stationed at Everett, in Bedford county, and in 1889 was appointed as presiding elder of the Altoona district, which position he still occupies. On October 18,1852, Doctor Hamlin married Rebecca B. Manley, in Stanton, Virginia. She was born near Plymouth, Massachusetts, and of Puritan ancestry. They have three children, one son and two daughters: Benjamin B., who married Cecelia Whiteman, of Philadelphia, and is engaged in the drug business in Harrisburg, Mary, wife of George H. Ashman, a dental surgeon and active business man of Philipsburg, this State; and Anna B., at home with her parents. Doctor Hamlin is a man of fine physique, standing fully six feet in height, and carrying well the weight of his nearly three-score and ten years. He is a close observer of men, has been a diligent student for over fifty years, and is well read upon all the important movements in the religious, the literary, and the scientific world. He is a man of pleasant address, a logical reasoner, and an entertaining and impressive speaker, who fearlessly denounces vice, folly and injustice. Doctor Hamlin served as a member of the general conference of his church in 1864, in 1872, and in 1876, and has just been elected to serve as a member of the general conference of the Methodist Episcopal church of the United States, which will meet this year in the city of Omaha, Nebraska. Additional Comments: Originally submitted 2001. Transcribed by Ruth Curfman rcurfman@home.com This file has been created by a form at http://www.usgwarchives.net/pafiles/ File size: 7.4 Kb