Individual Details

Blair County Genealogical Society, Hoenstine Obituary Collection, vol. 56, p. 22 (1965 volume)

[photo of decedent]

REV. J.E. SKILLINGTON, D.D.

Brief Illness Is Fatal for Retired Pastor

The Rev. James Edgar Skillington, D.D., 86, of 206 W. Allegheny St., Martinsburg, former pastor of the First Methodist Church and superintendent of the Altoona District, died at 2:35 p.m. Saturday in the Nason Hospital, Roaring Spring, where he was admitted Friday, after a brief illness.

He was born in Breezewood on Dec. 2, 1878, a son of Robert M. and Elmira (McLaughlin) Skillington, and on Dec. 27, 1905, in Newville, married Louetta Hartzell.

Surviving are his wife, two children, James Jr. of Rockville, Md., and Mrs. Susan V. Priebe of Buffalo, N.Y.; seven grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and two brothers, Charles H. of Aitch and the Rev. John Walter [Skillington] of Altoona.

Friends are being received in the Martinsburg Methodist Church until 1 p.m. tomorrow.

A school teacher for two years before he was 18 years old, Dr. Skillington had actively served the Methodist Church for more than 50 years in various capacities, retired first in 1951, then as supply pastor of the Martinsburg church in 1956.

In 1900 he graduated from Williamsport Dickinson Seminary and after two years of preaching on the Loyalsock circuit, entered Dickinson College, Carlisle, where he graduated in 1905. While in college he served as pastor at Newville. Further study at Drew Theological Seminary followed and in 1922 he was accorded a doctor of divinity degree from Dickinson.

He subsequently served pastorates in Renova, Hazleton, Carlisle, Altoona First Church, as Altoona district superintendent. Bloomsburg, First Church in York and at Martinsburg.

Dr. Skillington served on the board of Lycoming College, the Methodist Home in Tyrone and the Methodist Home for Children in Mechanicsburg, as a member of the conference board for 24 years, as president most of that time. For some 30 years he was a member of the conference board of education, for 23 years a member of the board of ministerial training and for 12 years chairman of the conference committee on rules.

Dr. Skillington represented the Central Pennsylvania Conference at general and jurisdictional conferences each year from 1924 to 1952 and headed each delegation from 1926 to 1948, a record believed unequaled by any other.

Birth	2 Dec 1878	Pennsylvania, United States
Residence	1880	East Providence, Bedford, Pennsylvania, United States
Marriage	27 Dec 1905	Newville, Cumberland, Pennsylvania, United States - Louetta Hartzell
Residence	1910	Renovo, Clinton, Pennsylvania, United States
Draft Registration	1917 - 1918	Luzerne County No 11, Pennsylvania, United States
Residence	1920	Carlisle Ward 3, Cumberland, Pennsylvania, United States
Residence	1935	Same Place
Residence	1940	Bloomsburg Town, Bloomsburg, Ward 2, Columbia, Pennsylvania
Draft Registration	1942	Bloomsburg, Columbia, Pennsylvania, United States
Death	1 May 1965	Pennsylvania, United States
Burial		Newville Cemetery, Newville, Cumberland, Pennsylvania, United States

Spouse	Louetta Hartzell (1884 - 1965)
Child	Susan V. Skillington (1909 - )
Child	James E. Skillington (1919 - 2014)

Father	Robert Martin Skillington (1841 - 1931)
Mother	Elmira McLaughlin (1845 - 1907)