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OBITUARY. — Rev. Jno. Collins McCabe, D. rector of Trinity Episcopal church of Chambersburg, who died in this place on Friday the 26th was a native of Richmond, having been born in that city on the 12th day of November 1810. He was one of the ripest scholars and most finished orators in the church to which he belonged. Before sickness prostrated him he was active and unremitting in his clerical duties and spent the best years of his life in an earnest endeavor to build up and increase the usefulness of the church in whose tenents he had an abounding and unshaken faith. The ministerial labors which devolved upon him were truly a work of love and when the hand of affliction was laid heavily upon him and pain and anguish raked his frame and drove sleep from his eyelids, his chief regret seemed to be that while his mental faculties were still clear and vigorous his physical sufferings should prevent his ministering to the spiritual wants of his people.
Dr. McCabe was a writer of great ability. He was a regular contributor to the Southern Literary Messenger when it was one of the leading magazines of the South, and had a reputation not only in this country but in Europe. He also wrote for other magazines and newspapers and contributed to the literature of the day many essays and poems that have been greatly admired. When Edgar A. Poe was editor of the Southern Literary Messenger Dr. McCabe and Poe were thrown much together and contracted a warm friendship, and it was in Dr. McCabe's album that Poe wrote his beautiful poem, Ulalume. One of the finest and probably most correct essays upon the life, character and writings of Edgar Allen [[Allan]] Poe, that ever appeared, was written by Dr. McCabe, and throws much light upon many of the apparently strange incongruities in the character of that rarely gifted poet.
Dr. McCabe was ordained a minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church by Bishop Meade in October, 1848. His first call was to the parish of Smithfield, where he remained for five years, when he accepted a call to Hampton, where he remained seven years. He was afterward a chaplain in the army for several years and then accepted a call to Middletown, Delaware, from which place he came to Chambersburg. His ministry was very acceptable to his congregation here and much good was expected to result from his known ability and his earnest christian character and thorough devotion to the work to which he was called. The climate, however, proved unfavorable to him and he was confined to the house for a great portion of the time by a painful and prostrating disease, until death finally released him from great suffering. Preparatory to taking his body to Richmond, for Interment, funeral services were held in Trinity Church in this place on Saturday the 27th when the Rev. Dr. Keeling, of St. Stephens Church, Harrisburg, an old friend of Dr. McCabe's, preached sermon from the text, “I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me: Write blessed are they which die in the Lord from henceforth; yea saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors: and their works do follow them.
The body was taken to Richmond and the funeral took place from St. Mark's Episcopal Church of that city on Sunday the 28th ult. The church was crowded to overflowing, and the solemn and impressive burial-service was read by the Rev. Mr. Dashiell, of St. Mark's church, and the Rev. Charles Minnigerode, D. of St. Paul's church, both of whom paid beautiful and feeling tributes to the memory of the deceased. The remains were accompanied to their last resting place by Lodges Nos. 19 and 51 F. and A. escorted by Richmond Commandery K. Colonel W. E. Tanner, Eminent Commander; Major John Poe, of Lodge No. 19, and Mr. Benjamin T. August, of Dove Lodge, No. 51, acting as marshals of the procession. There was a very large number who turned out to pay their last sad tribute of respect to the memory of the deceased.
Dr. McCabe was a prominent Mason and few years before his death was Grand Master of the State of Delaware.
His death has created a void which will long be felt.
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Notes:
If McCabe wrote something about Edgar A. Poe, it is not currently known. (It may be something unsigned, or purely an invention of the author of the obituary.) The statement that Poe wrote a draft of “Ulalume” in McCabe's album is probably an error for “Irene,” an early form of “The Sleeper.” McCabe is buried in Shockoe Hill Cemetery, in Richmond, VA.
There is a manuscript notation in a copy of Ingram's 1880 Life of Poe (at the bottom of page 1:141), now at the Alderman Library of the University of Virginia. The note was made by William Gordon McCabe (1841-1920):
“My father — Revd. Jno. Collins McCabe — who was then a young man, a contributor to the Messenger & an intimate of Poe's, once told me that he said one day to Poe — ‘Poe, Mr. White is greatly hurt at you having spoken unkindly of him.’ ‘McCabe,’ said Poe warmly, ‘I never said a word against Mr. White in my life.’ ‘Did you never say he was a fool?’ ‘Oh!,’ said Poe with a relieved air, ‘I did say that he was a d—d fool, but Mr. White can’t object to that — every body knows it.’ W. Gordon McCabe. March 26th. 1882.”
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[S:0 - VS, 1875] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - A Poe Bookshelf - Obituary of John Collins McCabe (Anonymous, 1875)