My Genealogy Hound

REV. WILLIAM BARNES LOWER, D. D., pastor of Calvary Presbyterian church, Wyncote, and one of the best known and most popular of the younger clergymen of Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, was born November 9, 1868, in the city of Philadelphia, a son of George W. and Elizabeth A. (Barnes) Lower, who reside in Omaha, Nebraska. The former named is connected with the Omaha World-Herald. The latter named is a daughter of William Barnes, who for a number of years resided near Limerick Square, Montgomery county, and his remains were interred in the cemetery at Mainland. On the paternal side Dr. Lower is of Dutch descent, tracing his lineage to Jacob Lauer, who emigrated from Holland in 1760 and settled near Reading, Pennsylvania. On the maternal side he is of English and German descent, his grandfather tracing his ancestry to England, and his grandmother, Mary (Bergey) Barnes, was the great-granddaughter of Hans Ulrich Bergey, who emigrated from Germany in 1726 and settled in Salford township, Pennsylvania.

When William B. Lower was twelve years of age his parents removed to Ottumwa, Iowa, locating there for a time, and then removing to a farm in North Nebraska. At this early age he was introduced to farming and stock raising, and the following seven years of his life was spent in breaking prairie, planting forest trees, building fences, and other labor connected with the management of a western farm. For a period of time he taught school in Holt county, Nebraska, forty miles south of the Sioux Indian reservation. Desiring to obtain a better education than was possible under such circumstances, he left the farm and entered the University of Omaha, graduating from the academic department in 1892. The following three years he served as principal of the Bellevue public school, Bellevue, Nebraska, and through his efforts a full high school course was arranged for the pupils and approved by the school board, and the school was brought to a high grade of efficiency. During Dr. Lower’s years of study at college and his experience in teaching, he employed his vacations in traveling as the business agent of the Omaha World-Herald, this taking him into the mining and stock raising districts of Colorado, Wyoming, Dakota, Montana, and the western states in general.

In 1895 he matriculated at the Omaha Theological Seminary, from which institution he was graduated in 1898. On entering the seminary he at once received a call to take charge of the mission at Florence, a suburb of Omaha, the meetings of which were held at that time in the court house. During his middle year at the seminary the First Presbyterian church of Florence, Nebraska, was erected, and during his third year the building was enlarged by the addition of a belfry and social room. A mission chapel was also built on Poncho creek, two miles above Florence. During the year 1898 and 1899 Dr. Lower pursued a post-graduate course at Princeton (New Jersey) University. In March, 1899, he received a unanimous call to become the pastor of the Presbyterian church of Bridgeport, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, which he accepted. He was ordained to the ministry and installed as pastor of the Bridgeport church, May 12, 1899. During his very successful pastorate of two and a half years, he built up a large congregation, a new pipe organ was placed in the church, the interior of the building was thoroughly remodeled, and the edifice was freed of debt. He delivered his farewell sermon at Bridgeport on September 8, 1901. During the summer of 1900 Dr. Lower traveled through Europe, visiting Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland, Holland, England, Scotland and Ireland.

Dr. Lower received and accepted a unanimous call to the pastorate of Calvary Presbyterian church of Wyncote, having been installed by the Presbytery of Philadelphia North September 10, 1901. He entered into his work with all the vigor and ability of a promising, devoted and capable young man in the ministry, and his pastorate has been successful to a degree seldom equaled among pastors. His activity was persistent, and he established a mission known as Calvary Mission Chapel, located on Limekiln turnpike, above Washington Lane, Philadelphia. This venture met with gratifying success. The young congregation, with the aid of leading members of Calvary church, now has house of worship well furnished and free from incumbrance. The work at the chapel is in a very prosperous condition at the present time, and the Sabbath school connected therewith has a snug little building equipped with everything needful, including a library of four hundred books, with good circulation.

The first effort which was made toward the organization of what is now Calvary Presbyterian church was the calling of a cottage prayer meeting at the homes of Wyncote residents. The result of these meetings was the organization of a mission, January 15, 1891. On January 25, of the same year, a Sunday school was organized and the first preaching service was conducted by the Rev. Mr. Green. These services were held at homes in the neighborhood until a sufficient sum of money had been raised to secure a lot and erect a chapel at the comer of Greenwood and Fernbrook avenues. On Easter Day, March 29, 1891, the Wyncote Mission held services for the first time in the new chapel. Denominational lines were ignored, as they have always been, and Calvary church today owes its existence in a large measure to the generosity of Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Friends, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians. At a meeting in April, 1892, a little more than a year after birth, a petition signed by thirty persons was presented to the Presbytery of Philadelphia North, in session at Doylestown, for the formation of the Wyncote Mission into the Calvary Presbyterian church of Wyncote. On May 20, 1892, the committee on home missions, into whose hands the petition was put, met in the chapel, and Calvary church was formally organized with twenty-eight charter members, twenty-three by letters from other churches, and five by confession of faith. In June, 1893, the trustees purchased the ground upon which the manse and church was built. In September the chapel was moved to the spot upon which the church now stands. In April, 1894, ground was broken for the manse, and in September, 1896, a special building fund committee was appointed to secure contributions for the erection of a permanent church building. During the year 1897 over six thousand dollars was raised, and in April, 1898, a contract for building the new church was awarded. Ground was broken on May 9, and the cornerstone was laid July 2, with memorable services conducted by the Rev. Richard Montgomery, of Ashbourne Presbyterian church. On February 5, 1899, the first service was held in the new church, in the “Social Room,” with Sunday school services in the Sunday school rooms, where church services were subsequently held until the opening of the main auditorium on Easter Day, April 2, 1899.

The active and successful career of Dr. Lower, together with other valuable service rendered the western interests of the church, and his work as a student, having been known by the faculty of Lenox College, the faculty on June 10 expressed its appreciation of his services by honoring him with the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Those in a position to speak advisedly of the action of that institution do not hesitate to say that Lenox College did honor to itself and the church at large in thus honoring Dr. Lower. As a minister of the gospel, Dr. Lower is an indefatigable worker. He is an eloquent speaker, and bends every energy to the labor which he undertakes, whatever it be. He is a member of the Presbyterian Evangelistic Committee of Philadelphia; of the Ministerial Union of that city; and of the board of advisers of the Presbyterian Home for Widows’ and Single Women, situated at Fifty-eighth street and Woodland avenue, Philadelphia. He is a poet of no mean attainments, and as a newspaper and magazine writer he has a much wider audience than in the pulpit. He has written much for the Norristown Herald, Scranton Republican, Doylestown Intelligencer, State Journal, of Madison, Wisconsin, and other daily papers. He also writes for The Methodist, Philadelphia; The Presbyterian Journal, The Jenkintown Times-Chronicle, Christian Work and Evangelist, and Current Anecdotes. He holds membership in the Montgomery County Historical Society; Lodge No. 400, Free and Accepted Masons, of Jenkintown; Montgomery Lodge No. 57, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of Norristown ; and serves as corresponding secretary of the Bergey Family Association.

Dr. Lower married, June 4, 1902, in the First Methodist church of Norristown, Miss Ella Ratcliffe Taylor, daughter of Isaac Taylor, president of the Sterling Mills Company, of Bridgeport, Pennsylvania. They have a daughter, Mary Elizabeth, born June 25, 1903.