Introduction
Born: August 12, 1812, New York City.
Died: December 29, 1899, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Buried: Mount Vernon Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Born: August 12, 1812, New York City.
Died: December 29, 1899, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Buried: Mount Vernon Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
At age 14, MacKellar entered the printing company of Harper Brothers.
In 1833, he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and joined the type foundry of Johnson & Smith as a proofreader. He subsequently became a foreman, then a partner, in the firm, which from 1860 was known as MacKellar, Smiths and Jordan.
The immortal to heaven,
The mortal to earth!
Let each be re-given
To the home of its birth.
The infidel lieth
Who rashly avers
That, when the soul flieth,
Extinction is hers.
The mind we inherit
Hath God for its sire;
The breath of His Spirit
Can never expire.
And he that believeth
Is heir to a throne
The Comforter giveth
To children alone.
My sorrowful brother,
Hath Heaven from thee
Taken one and another,
Till lonely thou be?
Look upward and onward
Afar in the skies;
See, bent on thee downward,
Angelical eyes.
They bid thee, Come hither!
Our sweet brother, come!
In thy journeyings thither,
Thou nearest thy home.
Fond spirit! thy pinions
Prepare for thy flight
To thy Father’s dominions
Of love and delight.
Art thou become tearful
Because of the gloom
Beheld by the fearful
Who look in the tomb?
What though the dark valley
Be darker than night?
Thy faith in Him rally,
And thou shalt have light.
A dayspring of glory
Shall break on thy ken,
Unfabled in story,
Unfancied by men.
George McKellar
Rhymes Atween-Times, 1872