There are now serving in the ministry at Harper's Ferry the Reverend Messrs. Marsh of the M. E. Church, and Sullivan and Farring of the M. P. Church, also, the Reverend Father Collins, Catholic priest. We have not the pleasure of much acquaintance with any of those gentlemen, but they are, we know, men of very high character. Father Collins' father we knew well—a better man never lived and we take him for a guarantee for his son's excellence. We have been thrown a good deal into company with the Reverend J. D. Miller of the Protestant Episcopal church, and in our judgment, he is a gentleman of profound learning and a high degree of polish and amiability. We always listen with high pleasure to his conversation, the more so because he never tries to convince his hearers that he "knows it all," although it is plain that he knows a great deal, and that the day is not far off when he will make a very distinguished mark. He is making it now.
In giving the names of Harper's Ferry-born clergymen we might have mentioned Father William Lynch, pastor of the Catholic church at Roanoke, Virginia, who, if not quite a native of Harper's Ferry came very near having that claim on us. He was born and brought up at Halltown, within four miles of Harper's Ferry, and those four miles deprived the ancient village of the honor of being his birthplace, and us of the credit his education would have conferred on us. He is, however, regarded by us as one of our own, and the author is as glad of the great success the good father has met and is meeting with as if he himself had made him as he made the others. From this rather extended notice of the ministers of religion to the credit of Harper's Ferry it must not be inferred that the place is not entitled to the honor of having produced other men of marked ability who adorn other professions. Some sixty years ago was born in Bolivar, a suburb of the place, the Hon. E. Willis Wilson, an eminent lawyer of Charleston-on-the-Kanawha. The civil war broke out just at the time when he had got a fair education and his studies were, of course, interrupted for a time. His native energy, however, was too much for any obstacle and as soon as the reverberation of the cannons ceased around his native place, he went to work at the study of law, entered politics, and was chosen to fill various places of honor and trust until he was elected governor of West Virginia, and was inaugurated on the same day that saw the same ceremony for President Cleveland. The election of Governor Wilson was the more remarkable for the violent opposition to him on the part of all the monopolies in the state and his was a triumph for the right as well as for himself. His administration was a model one and as he is young enough for further usefulness, the people of West Virginia will not lose sight of him.
Another native of the place has risen to eminence in the law. The Hon. James D. Butt was brought up under some disadvantages in the matter of education, caused by the civil war but, as he was young enough at the cessation of hostilities to resume his interrupted studies, he made up for lost time. He is now Referee in the Bankruptcy Court of his native district.
In medicine, too, Harper's Ferry has many sons to be proud of. William, George and Robert Marmion, three sons of Dr. Nicholas Marmion, were themselves famous physicians and surgeons, especially in diseases of the eye and ear. The second—George—died some two years ago, but the oldest—William—is still practising in Washington City, and ranks among the very highest in the profession. The youngest—Robert—is in the U. S. Navy. They were all our pupils in the long past.
Another pupil of ours is Dr. Joseph Tearney, now employed by the B. & O. railroad. He has practised a good deal at this, his native place, and, although he is yet a young man, he has, and justly has the reputation of possessing wonderful skill in his profession. Personally, he is emphatically a "good fellow" with a big, generous heart, as is well known to many a needy patient. So, with his acknowledged ability, the confidence he inspires, and the magnetism that draws every one to him, he cannot fail to become a veritable celebrity. And he, too, was a pupil of ours. He never forgets the old tie and the "old man" is very much the better for the remembrance.
We would be ungrateful indeed if we forgot Drs. Howard and Claude Koonce, young physicians, natives of Harper's Ferry and two of our old pupils. They are sons of Mr. George Koonce, prominent in the politics of West Virginia. They stand very highly in their profession and are whole-hearted young men.
