What Rev. William's NYC Was Like

William Harshaw's church in the 1890's was on E. 86th street.  Today's NYTimes has an article on a long time resident of E. 84th Street.  Obviously William and family had long since departed for West Pittston by the time Mrs. Jacobs arrived:

WHEN Lillian Jacobs was 2, in 1911 or ’12, her family moved from the Lower East Side into a tenement building on East 84th Street, just off York Avenue, then known as Avenue A. Her parents ran a candy store on the building’s ground floor, catering to the newly arrived immigrants from Germany, Hungary, Austria and Ireland.

People came and went over the years; apartment houses were built and tradesmen’s shops disappeared, along with the family candy store. But the character of the area, and specifically this part of East 84th Street, has largely remained the same. The brownstones, built at the turn of the 20th century and flanked by trees planted in more recent years, have stayed true to the block. 

We don't know whether William was trying to evangelize among the new immigrants, or was serving those good Presbyterians who'd moved from points south, trying to keep ahead of the influx of immigrants.

More on William Rosborough

Marjorie and I have entertained the theory that William Rosborough was a relative of Margaret McCloskey, reasoning from our grandfather's being named after him and what we knew of his history.  But I finally got smart and did a search on his wife, which led me to this ebook republishing a history.(I've corrected obvious problems in the scanning. )

WILLIAM ROSBOROUGH was a represent-
ative business man of Randolph County,
and well deserves representation in its
history. He was born in Ballymena, Ireland, in 1802,
and when a youth of sixteen crossed the Atlantic
to America, locating in Cincinnati, Ohio. There
he entered the employ of a Mr. Mahard, who was
engaged in the commission business, and with
whom he continued until 1833.

In that year Mr. Rosborough married Miss Mary
Mahard, a sister of his employer. To them were
born five children. Elizabeth is now residing in
the old home in Sparta. Robert H., a railroad con-
tractor and auditor, and also a dealer in coal,
married Elizabeth McCutcheon, and they have
five children: William J., a railroad conductor;
Rachel, Robert H., Jr., .John and Allen. Martha
R., the third child of the family, is the widow of
Dr. ?eeper, who was born in Beaver County, Pa.,
in 1832, and there grew to manhood. He pursued
his literary studies in .lefferson College, and studied
medicine in the State Universily of Pennsyl-
vania at Philadelphia. He began practice in Ches-
ter, Ill., and afterward removed to Coulterville,
where he followed his profession for twenty - flve
years. His name is always mentioned in the high-
est terms of praise by all who knew him. He
won an enviable position in his profession, and
was a liberal and public-spirited citizen. Anna
J., another member of the Rosborough family, is
the wife of Daniel P. Barker, of Sparta, Secretary
and Superintendent of the Sparta Natural Gas
and Oil Company. He served in the Union army
as a member of Company K, One Hundred and
Forty-second Illinois Infantry, and at the close of
the war returned to Sparta, where he has since re-
sided. Mr. and Mrs. Barker have four children:
Albert M., now connected with the Rocky Moun-
tain News; Lewis, a student in Champaign, III.;
Mary R. and Elizabeth. Mary M., the youngest
member of the Rosborough family, is the wife of
the Rev. Hugh Y. Leiper, of Pravo, Ohio. They
have had five children: William, Hugh. Earl (de-
ceased), Donald and Mary.

In 1833 William Rosborough came to Illinois,
locating in Randolph County, where he at once
embarked in merchandising. In 1840 he removed
to Sparta, and continued general merchandising
in connection with the manufacture of castor oil.
He also engaged in the packing business, and later
in the flouring business. In 1882 he laid aside
all business cares, and after living retired for three
years, he was called to his final rest, at the age
of eighty-three. In the accumulation of property
he was very successful, but at no time did he sac-
rifice his honor for temporal benefit. He had the
confidence of his entire circle of acquaintances,
who regarded his integrity as above question.

Margaret and Michael: Their Meeting

Margaret McCloskey was about 24 in the 1840 census--she and her mother were living in Allegheny, PA, which was the town/city north of the Allegheny and Ohio rivers ("Pittsburg" was the city south of the Allegheny and north of the Monongahela, so Allegheny was just across the river.

The area seemed to Ben Franklin's correspondent an unlikely place, a pig in a poke, according to this history.

    With less than 300 inhabitants in 1800, Allegheny Town grew modestly when a glass works was started on out lot 13 (opposite the head of Brunot's Island) and a rope "walk" (factory) on Lynndale Ave. Twenty-five years later it was a struggling country village of 85 houses, thirteen of them brick, and a population of 792. To the Western Penitentiary, the Western University of Pennsylvania, the Western Theological Seminary were given parts of the Commons. In 1828, the year before the canal to Leechburg was opened, the territory "across the river" was made a borough, and on July 17, 1839--two years after the accession of Queen Victoria in England--it was made a full-fledged city. [Actual date Allegheny finally made a city was not July 17, 1839, but April 13, 1840.]

    source  The above explains how Michael and Margaret met--Western U was there.:-P
    From further down: ctually the history of Allegheny City from 1850 forward is the history of not one city, but two. To the west of Sandusky St. grew up a city of a few Irish Catholics, many Scotch Presbyterians, a hundred or more steel millionaires. Along Canal St., Irwin, Western, North and Beech Aves., and, above all, Ridge Ave., there millionaires--the Snyders, the Robinsons, Laughlins, Alexanders, Chalfants, Painters, Olivers, Byers--built immense and astounding feudal castles, owned their coaches-and-four, entertained in the grand manner. The A. M. Byers house at Ridge and Galveston, for instance, built in 1898 at a cost of $500,000, contained 90 rooms and 15 bathrooms.

Helen's Obit

link

UCC in Middletown, RI

From the 2008 April newsletter for the United Congregational Church, Middletown, RI:

"In 1930, Mrs. Ralph Gold, the wife of the new secretary of the YMCA, spoke on China where she had lived for  15 years.  She was immediately elected President of the Foreign Missions Department and served in that capacity until 1954."

and, from a description of the history of a group of wives who started by helping Navy officer wives in WWII and evolved:

"In 1970 the group became THE SERVICE LEAGUE.  They wanted to furnish the kitchen in the new church and by 1975 when we moved into the new building they had achieved their goal and named it in honor of Helen Gold, a longtime and very active church member."