Blair County PA Archives Biographies.....Barron DD, Rev. David H. August 29, 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 21, 2024, 9:46 am Source: Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Blair Co, PA: Philadelphia, 1892. Author: Samuel T. Wiley REV. DAVID H. BARRON, D.D., the esteemed pastor of the First Presbyterian church of Hollidaysburg, and the oldest pastor in continuous service of the Huntingdon presbytery, is a son of John and Jane C. Ferguson) Barron, and was born at Pine Grove Mills, Centre County, Pennsylvania, August 29, 1828. His paternal grandfather, John Barron, was of Scotch-Irish descent, and came in early life from his native county of Antrim, Ireland, to Centre County, this State where he followed farming as an occupation. His son, John Barron (father), was born in Centre County during the last year of the eighteenth century, and received a good education. He followed farming until 1852, when he removed to Muscatine County, Iowa, where he died in 1857, aged fifty-eight years. He was a prosperous farmer, a consistent member of the Presbyterian church, and an old-time democrat. He married Jane C., daughter of Thomas Ferguson, of Scotch-Irish descent, and a native of county Antrim, who became one of the early settlers of Centre county, where Ferguson township was named for him. Mrs. Barron was born in Ferguson township, and reared in the faith of the Presbyterian church, of which she became a member in early life. After her husband's death, in 1857, she removed to Cass county, Missouri, where she passed away in 1874, at three score and ten years of age. David H. Barron was reared in Centre County until he was thirteen years of age, when he went with his father to what is now Fulton County, where he remained until 1852. In that year he entered Jefferson college at Cannonsburg, in Washington County, from which well known institution of learning he was graduated in the class of 1855. Immediately upon graduation he entered the Allegheny Theological seminary, from which he was graduated in 1858. In the same year he was called to assume pastoral charge of the Presbyterian church at Mt. Pleasant, Westmoreland County, and then within the bounds of the Redstone presbytery. He remained with that people until 1861. On May 26th of that year he preached by invitation to the First Presbyterian church of Hollidaysburg, and on August 4, 1861, received a call from the last named congregation, which he accepted. He was dismissed in the usual way from the presbytery of Redstone to that of Huntingdon, and preached his first sermon in Hollidaysburg on the second Sabbath of September 1861. On Tuesday, November 12th, he was formally installed by Revs. G. W. Thompson, G. W. Zahnizer, David Sterrett, and D. X. Junkin, and has continued to faithfully and efficiently serve this people from that day until the present time, a period of over thirty year. On September 1, 1858, Dr. Barron married Mary J., daughter of James McCullough, of Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania. His married life has been very pleasant, and to him and Mrs. Barron have been born four children, of whom one son and two daughters are living: James M., now book-keeper in the Baltimore office of the Diamond Match Company; Jane P., and Eliza M. In 1882 Washington and Jefferson college conferred the degree of Doctor of Divinity upon Rev. Barron for his earnest, successful, and long continued efforts in the cause of Presbyterianism and Christianity. Dr. Barron has always been a democrat in political sentiment, and is a pleasant and courteous gentleman. He is a logical, earnest, and impressive speaker, whose efforts are well receive by his hearers. He was for three years a director of the Western Theological seminary in Allegheny, and was largely instrumental in founding the Ladies' seminary, of Hollidaysburg. Dr. Barron was also instrumental in securing the erection of the present beautiful and fine church edifice of the First Presbyterian church, and its neat and handsome parsonage. The corner stone of the main building of the church was laid September 9, 1869, and in the box deposited within it are sermons of Dr. Barron and other ministers. The church was not completed until the fall of 1871, and cost about sixty thousand dollars. The membership of the church is three hundred and thirty-one, while the Sabbath school has one hundred and seventy pupils. The church structure is a monument of the faith of the members of the church and their liberality, and to the persistent and untiring efforts of Dr. Barron. Additional Comments: Originally submitted 2001. Transcribed by Cheryl Heny MHeny@Prodigy.net. This file has been created by a form at http://www.usgwarchives.net/pafiles/ File size: 5.0 Kb