Rev. W.H. McGlauflin (1856 – 1925) Obituary

FORMER HEAD UNIVERSALIST CHURCH IN U. S. PASSES AWAY
John Raymond Memorial Pastor Is Stricken With Heart Attack While at His Desk

NEVER FULLY RECOVERED FROM BREAKDOWN IN 1925
Nationally Known Churchman Services to Be Held in This City on Friday

Rev. William Henry McGlauflin, D. D., pastor of the John Raymond Memorial Universalist Church, and among the most prominent clergymen of that denomination, died suddenly at 7:45 o’clock last night at his home, 825 Sunset avenue. Death was attributed to a cardiac attack. Dr. McGlauflin was in his seventieth year.

Rev. W. H. McGlauflin
Rev. W. H. McGlauflin

A nationally known church leader, Dr. McGlauflin served for nine years as general superintendent of the Universalist churches of America. He had filled the pulpit at the Raymond church for ten years.

About a year and a half ago, Dr. McGlauflin suffered a serious nervous breakdown, the result of a poisoning due to a throat abscess. He was away from his pulpit for about a month. A year ago he and Mrs. McGlauflin went on a cruise of the Mediterranean and also visited the Holy Land. From the breakdown 18 months ago, Dr. McGlauflin never entirely recovered. Last October he returned to his pulpit after an absence of ten weeks which was spent in a sanitarium at Clifton Springs, N. Y. Upon his return he celebrated his tenth anniversary of pastor of the Raymond Memorial church.

Rev. McGlauflin was one of the most learned of Scranton clergymen and his sudden death will be received with sincere regret by people of all creeds. He was apparently in the best of health yesterday, having spent some time with Mrs. McGlauflin in the central city yesterday afternoon. They returned home shortly before 5 o’clock. He partook of his usual evening meal and then retired to his study. At 7:45 o’clock he was stricken with a heart attack while at his desk.  Dr. Lucius C. Kennedy, who was summoned, stated that death was instantaneous.

Surviving Dr. McGlauflin, besides his widow, Mrs. Alice Coe McGlauflin, formerly of Boston, Mass., is a brother, Lorimer. of West Pembroke, Maine and a nephew, Lewis F. Brown, of Winston Salem, N.C.

 

Burial in Boston

The funeral will take place Friday afternoon at a time to be announced later. Services will be conducted at the John Raymond Memorial church, and Rev. Dr. John S. Lowe, of Boston, Mass., who succeeded Dr. McGlauflin in 1916 as superintendent of Universalists churches in America, will be in charge. The body will be taken to Boston for burial.

Born in Charlotte, Maine, October 2, 1856, the son of Thomas and Alice McGlauflin, Dr. McGlauflin was educated in the divinity school of Lawrence University, Canton, N. Y., where he took courses in Biblical languages under Professor William R. Harper. He took special studies at the American University, Harriman, Tenn., and in 1895 received the degree of Master of Arts. A year later he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from that institution. St. Lawrence conferred the name degree upon him in 1907.

In 1882 he was ordained to the Universalist ministry and held pastorates at Friendship, N. Y., from 1882 to 1887; at Rochester, Minn., 1887 to 1897; Harriman, Tenn., 1891-1896, and Atlanta, Georgia, 1896-1904. In 1912, he married Alice Gertrude Coe, of Boston, Mass.

On January 20, 1907, Dr. McGlauflin assumed the general superintendency of the Universalist churches of America. In December 1916, he resigned .from that post and was succeeded by Dr. Lowe, of Boston, who now holds that office. Dr. McGlauflin had also ‘been superintendent of Universalist churches in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.

Nationally Known

His affiliations with organizations included the Knights of Pythias of Minnesota of which he was past chancellor. From 1898 to 1900 he was chaplain of the Good Templars of Georgia. In 1898 he was selected as delegate to the convention of the International Order of Gran Templars held at Toronto, Canada. He was fraternal visitor to the same in Belfast, Ireland, in 1905.

Dr. McGlauflin was also junior vice commander of the Sons of Veterans of the Alabama and Tennessee Division from 1901 to 1904.  From 1920 to 1922 he was commander of Pennsylvania Camp, No. 500, Sons of Veterans, and in 1922 was honorary chaplain of  the 143d Pennsylvania Regiment, G. A. R. From 1902 to 1910 he was an occasional lyceum platform lecturer ,and for about ten years he also delivered lectures in colleges and high schools throughout the country.

Other gleanings from his life history follows: In 1913 he was a delegate to the Congress of Free Christianity and Religious Liberals, held at Paris, France; member of the permanent committee on temperance, Universalist general convention, 1900-1908; member of American Council. World Alliance for International Friendship Through Churches; member of Pennsylvania, commission on penal affairs; member of the National Child Labor Committee; member of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation committee; editor of the Tri-State Messenger, 1904-07; contributor to Universal Leader, Boston, Mass., and other papers; trustee of the Murray Grove Association of the Universalist Church, and trustee of the State Universalist convention.

Dr. McGlauflin was the author of “What the Universalist Church is Doing,” which he wrote in 1909; also “Faith with Power,” in 1912, as well as many pamphlets on religious and patriotic subjects.

As a resident of Scranton for the past ten years, Dr. McGlauflin was very prominent in civic affairs. At the laying of the cornerstone of the Chamber of Commerce Building last year he delivered the address. Since 1924 he has been chaplain of the New England Society of Northeastern Pennsylvania. He was past president, vice-president and secretary of the Scranton Ministerial Association; past president of the Scranton Public Forum. and president of the Unity Club of Scranton Ministers. He was actively identified with the Chamber of Commerce and was a member of the Young Men’s Christian Association. For several years he conducted community services using the stereopticon. He was a pioneer in this work and was among the first to conduct such services in the city.

Source: The Scranton Republican (Scranton, Pennsylvania)  Wed, Mar 9, 1927  Page 1, Page 4
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