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Notes on the Remarkable Rev. Charles Garner Sr.: Part Three
Philip Ruth, Research Coordinator
July 27, 2023
During the Garners’ final years in Bellefonte, three more children joined the family: James Blaine in February 1886; Bessie Melvina in July 1888; and Estella Rosaline in September 1889. When 1890 rolled around, the Garner household on Halfmoon Hill brimmed with either ten or eleven children (depending on whether fifth-born John was still alive).
At the age of 46, Charles Garner Sr. was serving as assistant pastor at the St. Paul AME Church, under senior pastor Charles H. Brown. In that role, Pastor Garner was expected to offer an affirming “response” (a.k.a. “yea and amen!”) to any sermon or address delivered by Pastor Brown. Charles was recorded doing just that in the opening exercises of the Eleventh Annual Session of the Eastern District of the African Methodist Episcopal Sunday School Convention of the Pittsburgh Conference, convened in the St. Paul AME Church on August 5, 1890. As reported in the Tyrone Daily Herald, the keynote address delivered on that occasion by pastor Brown—titled “How Can We Best Promote the Life and Efficiency of the Sunday School?”—was followed by “the response, made by the Rev. Charles Garner,” then “music by the choir, benediction and adjournment.”
Sometime prior to February 1891, Charles Garner Sr. developed a connection with the fledgling AME congregation in the Borough of Tyrone, a two-hour train ride down the Bald Eagle Valley from Bellefonte. Among his first recorded associations in Tyrone was service as chaplain in the “reorganized Charles Sumner Literary Society.” It was further reported in the February 19, 1891, edition of the Tyrone Daily Herald that the Society, “which is composed of the colored people of our town,” would “meet every Monday evening in the A.M.E. church, corner Allegheny and Spring streets” (the meeting facility was actually a Methodist Episcopal Church, erected in 1855). Charles’ frequent visits to Tyrone turned into full-time residence five weeks later as he “accepted a call to administer to the spiritual welfare of the Tyrone A. M. E. congregation and departed for his station on Tuesday evening, [March 31],” according to a report in the Democratic Watchman. “Recognized as one of the leading colored men of our town,” Charles “was given quite an ovation on the afternoon of his departure.”
The Garner family’s exit from Bellefonte (which didn’t include Charles Jr., who stayed in Bellefonte to complete his high school education) must have been a significant loss for the St. Paul AME congregation. The Garners had been active in “the church on the hill” for at least a decade, and were the largest biological family in attendance there. Among the Garners’ final contributions to the work of the church were donations of “dollar money” to the AME Pittsburgh District’s annual collection of funds. The list of St. Paul members and attendees contributing amounts ranging from 25 cents to a dollar—recorded in Minutes of the Twenty-Third Session of the Pittsburgh Conference of the M.E. Church Held At Williamsport, Pa.. October 8th to 15th 1890—included Charles Garner Sr., his wife Mary, and their 21-year-old daughter “J[ulia] Malisa.” Also on the list were Charles’ mother-in-law Mary Ann Gilmore and his half-sister-in-law Adeline Lawson. The full roster of contributors (presented below) is an invaluable accounting of 53 Black adults in the Bellefonte district during the late nineteenth century:
St Paul, Bellefonte. Pa., — Rev. C.H. Brown, Pastor.
The following persons paid one dollar each: Sarah F. Wilson, Mary Pennington, Margaret Powel, Tillie Dorsey, Lucy Stewart, Goin Thomas, Mariah Green, Emma Green, Caroline Monroe, Adaline Lawson, Alfred Stewart, Peter Jones, Louisa Dunlap, Mary Ann Gilmore, Mary A. Johnson, Martha Jones, Thamazine Pennington, Annie Brown, George Brown, Emma Hamer, Jessie Green, Katie Miller, Mary Miller, Sarah E. Graham, Thamazine McDaniels, Katie Derry, James Carter, William Potter, A.V. Jackson, Kate Wellington, Robert H. Nelson, L. Wm. Lee. Nettie Palmer paid 60 cents. The following persons paid 50 cents each: Benjamin Williams, Celia Williams, Charles Green, Mary Garner, J. Malisa Garner, Wm. H. Mills, Celia Mills, Anna Miller, Hellen Mills, Lettie Carter, Charles Garner, Sr., John Emry, Alice Emry, Robert Randolph, Alonzo Potter. The following paid 25 cents each: Moses Jackson, Carrie Mills, Albert Washington, Joseph Mayhew, William Green. Total, $41.35.
The Garner family’s move to Tyrone reduced the St. Paul congregation and Bellefonte’s Black population by about a dozen persons. Had the Garners not relocated, Centre County’s Black population might have exceeded 480 persons in 1890, by far the largest number recorded in federal census enumerations (the next highest totals were 310 in 1880, and 376 in 1900). The Garners’ move to Blair County in 1890 thus roughly coincided with a numerical peaking of Centre County’s Black population. (An exact count of that population in 1890 is not available, largely because that year’s census records were destroyed by fire in Washington, DC, in 1921. We are attempting to compile a substitute enumeration from entries in an 1890 Centre County directory and other records, including the list of “dollar money” contributors discussed above. In two separate 1890 census compendia, the total number of Black Centre County residents was cited as 466 and 471, respectively.)
The Garner family’s welcome in Tyrone was as warm as their Bellefonte send-off, according to the following report in the April 7, 1891, issue of the Tyrone Daily Herald:
Donation Party
Rev. C. Garner, pastor of the Tyrone A.M.E. church, with his family, who reside in Stony Point, had retired for the night on Tuesday evening last with no idea that their slumbers would be disturbed. They were aroused however by loud and repeated knocking at their parsonage door, and Rev. Mr. Garner on investigation found that a dozen of the members and friends of his congregation had assembled to do him honor. . . . Each one brought a substantial evidence of their love and esteem. There was everything needed to gladden the eye and satisfy the inner man, and all the visitors were happy to know that they could do something that brought pleasure to their pastor and his family. An enjoyable hour was spent at the Parsonage wherein the congregation has provided an excellent home for their worthy minister. Good night having been said, the guests returned to their several homes doubtless supremely happy in the knowledge of the good they had done. Rev. Mr. Garner in parting said “Come again, friends; god bless you and the cause you represent.”
“Rev. Mr. Garner” and his family made their home in Tyrone for nearly five years—from early 1891 through late 1895. During that time, Charles’ wife Mary delivered a twelfth child, Daniel Lancaster, born in October 1892. That addition came as Mary was mourning the loss of her mother Mary Ann Gilmore, who had passed away a few months earlier in Bellefonte, at the age of 71. Mary Ann had died intestate (i.e., without having composed a probatable will), inducing the Centre County Orphans’ Court to appoint her only son-in-law, Charles Garner Sr., to administer her estate.
At the time of her passing, Mary Ann still owned the small lot along Bellefonte’s E. Logan Street that she had inherited from her father—the same foothold on which Charles had built his first house, only to see it go up in flames. After that fire, Mary Ann Gilmore had overseen construction of a “small 1½-story three-room dwelling house” on the site. She appears to have been living in that house, addressed as 113 E. Logan Street, when the 1890 census was recorded (a two-story house in that location is addressed today as 217 E. Logan Street). Now, in May 1892, her son-in-law Charles was responsible for selling the property in order to settle her estate. That process dragged on for at least a year. Finally, in March 1893, Charles placed ads in local newspapers announcing a “public sale of a house and lot, being the property of the late Mary Ann Gilmore, deceased,” scheduled for Saturday, April 15, 1893, “in front of the court house, at Bellefonte.” The auction was delayed by a week, but on April 22, Ellis L. Orvis, a Bellefonte attorney, submitted the winning bid of $155. The latter might already have arranged to sell the property to Charles Garner Jr. (recently graduated from Bellefonte High School), which he did two weeks later, on May 1, 1893. Charles Jr. paid $160 for the property, and apparently intended to make his home there, though in a larger, more modern house. An item in the August 31, 1894, edition of the Democratic Watchman reported that “Charles Garner Jr., came down from his home in Tyrone, on Wednesday, to make arrangements for the building of a neat frame dwelling house on the lot he purchased on East Logan Street sometime ago.”
Charles Garner Sr., meanwhile, was spearheading an effort to furnish the “Tyrone Mission” AME congregation with its own house of worship. On Sunday, June 3, 1894, he presided over the laying of a cornerstone for what would become a one-story, 15-foot-high, frame church building on the west corner of the intersection of W. 14th Street and Alley F, a few blocks north of downtown Tyrone. Several months later, Presiding Elder William H. Brown reported to the Twenty-Seventh Session of the Pittsburgh Conference that “a very beautiful church edifice, which is enclosed, and the lecture room, will soon be ready for occupancy [by the] Tyrone Mission.” The Mission’s pastor, “Rev. Charles Garner, is an earnest Christian and has so endeared himself to members of the different churches of his town, that they readily help him in every possible way. This church is situated in a flourishing town on the main line of the [Pennsylvania Railroad], and is favored with many generous hearted citizens whose hearts are in deep sympathy with our church.” (Google Street View imagery [BELOW] reveals that the church constructed under Charles Garner’s supervision was still standing—with its main windows boarded up—as recently as November 2015; by August 2018 it was gone, and industrial equipment is now parked on its former footprint.)
Pastor Garner’s activities remained of interest in Bellefonte, judging from occasional reports in the Democratic Watchman. One such item, appearing in the July 31, 1891 edition, read: “We are pleased to see that our former reverend townsman, Mr. Charles Garner, is making himself useful in his new field of labor, Tyrone, in a gastronomic as well as in a spiritual way. Thus a paper of that place says: ‘Rev. Charles Garner has gone with the camping out party to Ardenheim to oversee the culinary department and while there will serve them with refreshments alike for the physical and spiritual bodies.’ Whether as a cook or a preacher, Charley gets there every time.”
From the Democratic Watchman we also learn that Charles Garner Jr. did not follow through on his plan to build a “neat frame dwelling house” on the E. Logan Street lot once owned by his grandmother. He choose, instead, to build a residence in Tyrone. An item in the Watchman’s August 16, 1895, edition declared that “the Bellefonte friends of Rev. Charles Garner will regret to learn that he met with a mishap in Tyrone, recently, that has nearly cost him the sight of one of his eyes. He was plastering a ceiling in a house that his son Charles is building, when some lime fell in his face and got into his eyes, nearly blinding one of them.” An Altoona newspaper further reported that “the Rev. Charles Garner, pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal church, Fourteenth street, is on the sick list and, in consequence, the Sunday school picnic is postponed for the present” (Altoona Morning Tribune, August 13, 1895).
Charles Garner Jr. appears to have remained in Tyrone for at least a few more years. He was working as a porter in Tyrone’s Ward House as of April 18, 1896, when he and 19-year-old domestic servant Louisa M. Beer were granted a marriage license in Huntingdon Borough, the seat of Huntingdon County. Because Louisa was a minor, her mother, Hannah Yaw Beer, had to sign off on the marriage. Twelve days later, on April 30, 1896, Charles Jr. and Louisa were wed by a Rev. Hunter in Huntingdon. The couple’s first child, Cyrus Gilmore Garner, was born three weeks later, on May 20, 1896.
By that time, Charles Jr.’s parents and siblings had moved from Tyrone 50 miles southward to Bedford, the Bedford County seat. At the Twenty-Eighth Session of the Pittsburgh Conference, held in Wilkes-Barre in October 1895, Charles Garner Sr. had been “transferred from Tyrone to Bedford and Everett,” according to a report in the October 18, 1895, edition of the Democratic Watchman. The report further noted that Charles “had served the Tyrone Conference five years, during which time he has built a nice little church there. His new appointment is said to be a better one.” Relocated to Bedford, Charles and his family took up residence in the parsonage of the Mt. Pisgah AME Zion Church. Charles was charged with pastoring that congregation as well as the congregation in Everett, seven miles east of Bedford. An article in the December 6, 1895, edition of the Everett Press reported that “Rev. Charles Garner, the new pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church at this place and Bedford, was agreeably surprised at the parsonage at the latter place on last Thursday evening when he received a large box containing flour, meat, canned fruit, and many other palatable articles, for which he and his family wish to express their high appreciation, and hope while in the givers midst to merit the kindness.” A Press article published on September 11, 1896, announced that “Rev. Charles Garner, of the A.M.E. church, of Bedford, Pa., will hold a bush meeting in S.S. Nave’s grove, near Centreville, Bedford county, on Sunday, September 13, 1896. The Mount Pisgah Jubilee Singers, of Everett, will be in attendance. Good singing will be one of the main features. The exercises will begin at 10:30 a.m.” Some bush meetings (religious gatherings in wooded settings; known in the South as “camp meetings”) served the additional purpose of raising much-needed funds for the support of AME congregations and their pastors. Witness a report on the state of the Bloomsburg Circuit in the fall of 1898, in which it was noted that “Rev. C.N. Butts has served this church five years, and worked at manual labor and supported his family. He has done the best he could. We depend on bush meetings in the summer to raise a little money to live on.”
We have some evidence that Charles Garner Sr. held strong political opinions (he had, after all, risked life and limb to preserve the Republic), and was not shy about voicing them. An article in the October 2, 1896, edition of the Everett Press, for instance, identified him as chairman of a Committee on Resolutions of the local 111-member “Colored” McKinley and Hobart Marching Campaign Club, which had just adopted resolutions pledging loyalty to the Republican Party and its “standard bearers [William] McKinley and Garret Hobart.”
Charles Garner Sr. pastored the Bedford and Everett A.M.E. congregations for two years. At the October 1897 Session of the Pittsburgh Conference, he was appointed to the Lock Haven Circuit, with congregations in Lock Haven (Clinton County) and Jersey Shore (Lycoming County). The Garners’ move to Jersey Shore tested their mettle as never before. Here they faced all of the challenges of fostering small-town congregations with few financial resources. Most of the 123 Black residents of Lock Haven, and their 45 counterparts in Jersey Shore (as enumerated in the 1900 census), struggled to makes ends meet. The narrow range of low-paying jobs open to them hardly generated enough income to support their own families, let alone the family and work of their pastor. The Garners’ dire situation only a couple of months after moving to Jersey Shore was reported as follows in the February 11, 1899 edition of the Tyrone Daily Herald:
Were Nearly Starved.
Rev. Charles Garner, who was a soldier in the late war, and for a number of years was pastor of the A.M.E. church here [in Tyrone], with his family now resides in Jersey Shore, and if an item in the Spirit of that town is correct, they are not getting along well in the world. While here, serving the flock which is weak in numbers and purse also, Mr. Garner occasionally had to appeal to the community for help, which was always forthcoming. Following is the item referred to:
The Spirit says a four cent loaf of bread was all that he and his family of seven children had to sustain life for one day last week. This he divided among his children and ate nothing himself. The little ones could not sleep and about 2 o’clock at night their cries awoke him and when he inquired if they were cold they said “No they were hungry.” He left the house and made his wants known. He received some money that night and since then the citizens have taken steps to see that the family is well provided for.
A report on the status of the Lock Haven Circuit, submitted for the 1898 Session of the Pittsburgh Conference, read: “This circuit has three points. It is a very weak charge, and a few people. We are sorry to report that this charge is not in a good condition. Rev. Garner has been on this charge for two years. He has had a scanty living. They need a change. The circuit has run down, which you can see by the report of the pastor.”
Midway through 1899, Charles Garner Sr. was transferred to the Montrose Circuit, with congregations in Montrose (Susquehanna County), Waverly (Lackawanna County), and Pittston (Luzerne County). The Garner family moved to a rented residence in Waverly, as reflected on census schedules recorded in June 1900. A notice in the August 5, 1899, edition of the Scranton Tribune noted that “the annual bush meeting, under the auspices of Rev. C. Garner, pastor of the A.M.E. church, in Fells Grove, Waverly, Pa., tomorrow, promises to be largely attended.” A report concerning the “Mont Rose” Circuit and its “Rev. C. Garner,” submitted for the 1899 Session of the Pittsburgh Conference, read:
This circuit has three points, namely, Mont Rose, Waverly and Pittston. Waverly and Mont Rose are old points, and it will not be long before all of our people will have passed over the river into the land of rest. The few people in our church are old and feeble, hence we are not able to keep up the expenses of the churches. Yet the minister must go and preach to them as long as they live. At Pittston we have a brighter prospect than we have at the other two points, owing to the increasing growth of the town. Although we have no building here, we have about thirty people in this town. We hope some day to see a church building. Rev. Garner with his large family has had a hard time to get along. He has had sickness in his family the greater part of the year, yet he has managed to live by the aid of the good people. Rev. Garner is a good worker, and deserves great credit for holding the people together. He is much respected and beloved by his people.
The Garner household enumerated in Waverly in June 1900 comprised 55-year-old “preacher” Charles Garner Sr., his wife Mary (51), and children Joseph Garner (21), Adaline L. (18), Lydia C. (17), James B. (14), Bessie M. (12), Estella R. (10), and Daniel R. (7). Mary was said to have delivered 13 children, with only 11 surviving. Perhaps the “sickness” noted in the Garner family through “the greater part of” 1899 had led to at least one death. Charles and Mary’s daughter Mary was no longer part of the household. She had remained in Bedford, where she married 45-year-old John Graham on November 5, 1900. Mary’s new husband was described in a newspaper report of the wedding ceremony as “well known to Bedford people, having been for many years the trusted and highly esteemed farmer of the late Judge Hall.”
Charles Garner Jr. and his wife Louisa Beer lingered in Tyrone for several years following their April 1896 marriage and the birth of their first child, Cyrus. Louisa gave birth to a second son, Charles Lawson Garner, in Tyrone on June 4, 1897. Six months later, Cyrus nearly died from drinking lye, according to the following report in January 14, 1898, edition of the Democratic Watchman:
An article published in the Watchman on October 14, 1898 reported that “Charley Garner, the colored boy formerly of this place and the first colored graduate of the Bellefonte High school, has given up his position at the Ward house, in Tyrone, and is now senior partner in a steam laundry firm in that place.” Within the next year, however, Charles Jr. and his family traveled 150 miles westward to Alliance, Ohio, where Louisa gave birth to a third child, Virginia M., in October 1899 (as reflected on census schedules compiled in June 1900). Like many other newcomers in Alliance, Charley took a job in a steel works. His westward move and shift to industrial employment mirrored patterns of outmigration across northern Appalachia, but his dreams of a better life were upended on October 9, 1900, as Louisa died on or around her 24th birthday. Charley was a widower for several years, then married 28-year-old domestic servant Minnie Viola Beer, elder sister of his deceased wife Louisa, in Stark County, Ohio, on November 18, 1903.
Meanwhile, back in central Pennsylvania, Charley’s parents were again on the move. In the fall of 1902, after serving as “minister for the colored people [in the Scranton area] for several years,” the “well liked and popular preacher” Charles Garner Sr. was transferred to the Bloomsburg Circuit, according to a note in the Scranton Tribune. The Bloomsburg Circuit comprised congregations in Bloomsburg and Danville. The Garner family settled in the latter place—the seat of Montour County—and remained there for the remaining 22 years of Pastor Garner’s life. He was instrumental in the Danville AME congregation’s acquisition in 1914 of a church building at 236 Walnut Street that had been built by the Emmanuel Baptist congregation in 1893, then vacated following that congregation’s disbanding in 1908. The new home of Danville’s AME congregation was known from 1914 onward as the “Walnut Street AME Church.” (As reflected in Google Street View imagery [BELOW], the church building was occupied as of November 2022 by a health food purveyor.)
Other highlights of the Garners’ long residency in Danville, and lowlights that whittled away the family’s presence in that place by 1967, are related in Part 4 of these Notes on the Remarkable Rev. Charles Garner Sr.