The Golds

An interesting piece here on the decline of mainline Protestantism, but here's the bit that caught my attention:

Early in the twentieth century, a trend toward consolidation began to take hold. Several things facilitated the trend. Those years saw, for instance, the peak of a great missionary movement in which, for two or three generations, the Protestant churches creamed off their best and brightest young people and sent them off to convert the heathen. (It is said that, as late as the 1970s, the most commonly shared characteristic among Americans in Who’s Who was “child of missionaries to the Far East.”) And out in the mission fields, a kind of practical common cause was forced on the Christians, an “ecumenism of the trenches,” which—because of the prestige of the missionaries—increasingly influenced their home churches.

Caught my eye because my aunt, Helen Harshaw Gold, was a missionary in China up to 1927(?)

What'd He Do in the War?

We know Captain John Rippey was in the Pennsylvania militia in the Revolution. But what did he do? I've never seen evidence of his participating in any battles. I think, though I'm relying on an increasingly unreliable memory, I saw some mention in the Pennsylvania archives of his possibly acting as a supply officer. (An unglamorous job, but someone has to do it. )

There's another possibility, maybe even more unglamorous but equally essential.

Prison guard.

See this post at Universal York for very good background on the prison camp in the York. The York militia definitely were guards for the camp, but no specific mention of one John Rippey.

Officers and Ministers of the Reformed Presbyterian Church

Google Books enables one to look up a lot of 19th century publications. Here's one that lists the officers and ministers of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, General Synod, with which Michael Harshaw was affiliated until 1870.
The Presbyterian Historical Almanac and Annual Remembrancer of the Church By Joseph M. Wilson: ""

Is This a Cousin?

George Rippey Stewart, that is? See this Slate post rediscovering his book.