Joseph S. Grimes

Joseph S. Grimes was the fifth minister of the First Presbyterian Church, New Castle.  He served the Congregation from 1861-1865.  Years later Mr. Grimes became minister of the Mahoningtown Presbyterian Church.

From Tales that Were Told:  While still an infant in arms, one of our living members being baptized by Rev. Grimes, grabbed his whiskers. She must have known he was a bachelor!

Rev. Grimes, bachelor, kept company for a time with the young lady of a certain Christian home. On each evening visit, when family bedtime came (and it came early in those days), the girl’s parents came into the “parlor” with a Bible and invited Mr. Grimes to conduct family worship. This he had done on several occasions, thereafter taking his departure at once as expected. Now as a minister Mr. Grimes advocated family worship but as a bachelor he came to feel more and more deeply that even a good thing could be carried too far. Being a minister he couldn’t openly object to the practice, yet something must be done and tactfully too. So the next time it occurred, he slowly read the 119th Psalm. There are, you know, 176 verses in this Psalm, and for length that evening his prayer matched the psalm!

Fiftieth Anniversary of the Dedication of the Church, 1896-1946, First Presbyterian Church, New Castle

Rev. Joseph S. Grimes, a native of Ohio, and, it is believed, a graduate of Franklin College, who was installed July 9, 1861, and who was pastor [at the First Presbyterian Church, New Castle] until September 27, 1865. He was a man of earnestness and ability, and his labors were attended with valuable results. He was pastor, however, during the troublous times of the Civil War, and the dissensions which then arose among the congregation resulted finally in his resignation.

Twentieth Century History of New Castle and Lawrence County, 1908, page 207

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