"THE JUNKIN TENT"
"The name of Junkin has been long known and honored in the Presbyterian
church. The first of this name to settle in this region was Joseph Junkin
who had married Elizabeth Wallace. They were emigrants from Ulster, and
were married at Oxford, Pa. A little later they settled in the Cumberland
Valley and "took up" five hundred acres of land including the site of
the presnt town of New Kingston.To these parents was born a second Joseph
Junkin on the 22d of January, 1750. He had two sisters older than himself.
Mary, who became Mrs. John Culbertson, and Elizabeth, who died young;
and one sister and two brothers younger than himself, John, who died without
issue, and Benjamin, the grandfather of the Hon. Benjamin Junkin of Perry
county."
"Joseph Junkin was of the old Covenanter stock, and the "Junkin Tent"
was a well known place of worship for those who held by the sturdy principles
of this type of Presbyterianism. Here Black, and Cuthbertson, and Dobbin
and others ministered in holy things to a congregation of hardy pioneers
gathered from far and near. It is said that at this "Junkin Tent" was
celebrated the first Covenanter Communion Service ever held in the New
World."
"Young Junkin was twenty-five years of age when the clouds of war
began to gather over the infant colonies. He was not made of the stuff
to meekly bear the insolent assumption of the British Crown. He was one
of the first to enlist when the news reached his quiet home that Independence
was declared. Leaving his intended bride unwedded until the storm of war
should pass, he enlisted and went to the front. In the battle of Brandywine,
September 11, 1777, he commanded a company. In the sharp skirmish near
White Horse Tavern, on the 16th, his arm was shattered by a musket ball.
He was concealed by a patriotic Friend, and finally mounted on a horse
with a rope bridle, and a knapsack stuffed with hay for a saddle, he made
his way home, a distance of ninety miles, in three days. He put himself
under the care of Ddr. Samuel A. McCoskry of Carlisle, and paid all the
expenses attendant on his cure; but he lost a full year in his recovery."
"In May, 1779, he was married by the Rev. Alexander Dobbin, D.D.,
to Eleanor Cochran, by whom he had fourteen children, among whom we may
mention Rev. George Junkin, D.D., LL.D. and Rev. David X. Junkin, D.D.
In the spring of 1806 he removed with his family to Hope Mills, Mercer
country, Pa., where he died February 21, 1831."
Excerpted from volume 2 of the Centennial Memorial of the Presbytery
of Carlisle (1889).
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