January – 100 years ago
The January 1923 issue of The Evangel, monthly magazine of The Women’s Missionary Association of the United Brethren Church, included a lengthy article titled “The Missionary-Wife” by Mrs. Grace Ressler Shively. Mary Grace Ressler (1883-1974) was the daughter of Rev. John I.L. Ressler (1854-1934) and granddaughter of Rev. Jacob B. Ressler (1821-1891), United Brethren pastors and superintendents in the Allegheny Conference. She was the wife of Rev. B. Franklin Shively (1880-1956), a United Brethren pastor in the Pennsylvania Conference. Rev. Shively is a ministerial son of Otterbein Church in Fayetteville, Franklin County.
The Shivelys met while students at Otterbein University and served briefly in Milton, PA, before entering the mission field and serving in Japan from 1907 to 1941. Home on furlough when Pearl Harbor was bombed, they avoided internment in Japan but were never able to return to their mission field. They served Otterbein Church in Emigsville, York County, 1942-46 before working for the EUB Board of Missions in Dayton, OH, and retiring in 1949.
February – 50 years ago
On Sunday, February 11, 1973, the Quincy Home formally presented to the Quincy UM Church the parsonage/apartment building that the congregation had been using to house the pastor. As reported in THE LINK, “In addition to the parsonage dwelling, this building contains two apartments and is located on a piece of ground 190′ x 278′.” The building, still standing at 8625 Anthony Highway, was used as a parsonage until it was sold on April 1, 2003. The church office had been in the basement until 1998, then the District Superintendent said it could no longer be used since there was no access to the bathroom.
The Quincy Home started in Mechanicsburg in 1893 as the Colestock Old People’s Home and was the first benevolent home in the entire United Brethren denomination. The Quincy Orphanage started in 1903 and was the denomination’s second benevolent home. In 1915 the two institutions completed a merger to become the Quincy Orphanage and Home. The orphanage was discontinued in the 1960s. Ownership of the home was transferred in the 1990s and Quincy Village continues today as part of the Presbyterian Senior Living family of communities.
