390 AUTHENTIC HISTORY 



judicious and enliglitened views of his father, husbanded by the refined tastes and 

 Christian virtues of his mother, born and nurtured in the Church, were the influences 

 that surrounded the earliest years of liis hfe. At the chartered Academy of Wilkes- 

 bai're, an institution equal to any of its contemporaries, he received his education. He 

 was destined for the bar and pursued his legal studies for a time under the late Charles 

 Chauncy, Esq., of Philadelphia. Soon after commencing the practice of the law, he 

 felt an invincible desire to enter the Church. He applied for holy orders, and was ad- 

 mitted by Bishop White to the Diaconate in 18231 and to the Priesthood in 1824. He 

 began his ministry at St. John's Church, Pequea, Lancaster county, in 1823, where he 

 remained about two years. After a brief residence at Easton, Pa., where he had charge 

 of Trinity Church, he returned to his first cure, which he held until 1827, when he was 

 invited to take charge of St. James', Lancaster. After the death of Rev. Mr. Clark- 

 son, the Eector with whom he was associated, he was elected in his place and filled that 

 position until his death; for on his elevation to the Episcopate, his parishioners, dread- 

 ing to sever the relations so long and so happily sustained, prevailed upon him to con- 

 tinue them. In 1845, the clergy elected him Bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania, 

 but the Laity refusing to concur, he cordially supported the nomination of Rev. Dr. A. 

 Potter, who was eventually chosen. In 1848 he was elected Bishop of the Diocese of 

 Indiana, but his strong attachment to Lancaster controlled his decision to decline. In 

 May, 1858, he was chosen, and in August of the same year, consecrated Assistant 

 Bishop of Pennsylvania. 



His death took jjlace on Saturday, August 3, 1861, between 8 and 9 A. M. He had 

 left Pittsburgh at 6 A. M., by the Allegheny Valley Railroad on a visitation to the 

 spiritually destitute "Oil District." After the train had proceeded about nineteen 

 miles, an injury to the road caused by a late freshet and a land-slide nearly two miles 

 beyond, induced some of the passengers to walk the distance; the Bishop was among 

 the number. Unable to keep u]) with the others, he was missed when the train was on 

 the point of starting, and was subsequently found lying by the road-side, his face 

 buried in his hat, stretched out at full length, "a corpse, without signs of bruise or 

 stx-uggle; his watch, purse and i^apei's untouched." The majority of physicians con- 

 sulted, ascribe his death to apoplexy, but his family physician to disease of the heart. 



The remains were at once taken to Lancaster, where they arrived on Sunday morning, 

 August 4th. The funeral obsequies took place at St. James', Lancaster, on Tuesday, 

 Aiigust 6th, at 5 o'clock, P. M. Two Bishops, some seventy Clergymen, all the resident 

 ministers of other communions, and a vast concourse of citizens were present. 



Bishop Bowman was twice married. His first wife, Susan, daughter of the late 

 Samuel Sitgreaves, Esq., of Easton, Pa., bore him three children, one of whom, a 

 daughter, survives. His second wife, Harriet R., daughter of the late Rev. Joseph 

 Clarkson, Rector of St. James', died some years ago. 



The Bishop's body lies in the churchyard of St. James', by the side of his departed 

 friends. 



Buchanan, 2 James, the Hon. Was born in Franklin county on the 23d day of 

 April, 1791. His birth-place was a wild and romantic spot in a goi-ge of the Cove, or 

 North Mountain, about 4 miles west of Mercersburg, and bearing the peculiar, but not 

 inappropriate name of "Stony-batter." His father, .James Buchanan, senior, was a 

 native of Ireland, and one of the most enterprising, intelligent and influential citizens 

 of that part of the State. His mother, Elizabeth Speer, remarkable for her superior 

 intellect and genuine piety, was born in the Southern part of Lancaster county. 



Five years after his birth his parents removed into the town of Mercersburg, then 

 recently laid out, where he was brought up and fitted for college. He entered Dickinson 

 College, Carlisle, then under the Presidency of the Rev. Dr. Davidson, in the year 



lAugiist 25th, 1S23; on the same day of the month he was consecratec] Bishop in 1S58. 

 2 Written by the Rev. E. Y. Buchanan, T). T>., brother of the deceased. 



