BIO: Justus A. MELICK, Dauphin County, PA

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Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, 
Containing Sketches of Representative Citizens, and Many of the 
Early Scotch-Irish and German Settlers.  Chambersburg, Pa.: 
J. M. Runk & Company, 1896, page 266.
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  MELICK, REV. JUSTUS A., was born, of pious Methodist parents, in 
Light Street, Columbia county, Pa., March 7, 1823, and thus at his 
death had completed by a few weeks sixty-three years of earthly 
pilgrimage.  From early childhood he gave evidence of a devoutness of 
spirit in the daily reading of the scriptures and in a fixed purpose to 
lead a pure and upright life.  It was not, however, until he was 
student in the academy at Harford, Pa., possibly in his twentieth year, 
that he received the assurance of his acceptance as a child of God.  
This so changed the current of his thought that he cheerfully 
surrendered his cherished plan - to adopt the profession of law - and 
gave himself to the ministry, to which he felt called of God.  After 
graduation, with honor as valedictorian of his class, he attended, for 
a term of years, the Genessee Wesleyan Seminary, at Lima, N. Y., as 
preparative to his life work.
  In 1848, with twenty-four other young men he was admitted on trial in 
the Baltimore conference.  In 1850, at Alexandria, Va., he was received 
into full connection in the conference and ordained a deacon by Bishop 
Morris, and in 1852 was ordained elder, at Cumberland, Md., by Bishop 
James.  His first appointment was Bellefonte circuit, as junior 
preacher, being a colleague of Rev. Thompson Mitchell.  His subsequent 
fields of labor were as follows:  1849, Clearfield; 1850, Lycoming; 
1851, Berwick; 1852-3, Luzerne; 1854-5, Lock Haven; 1856-7, Great 
Island; 1858, Manor Hill; 1859-60, Birmingham; 1861-2, Woodberry; 1863-
4, Williamsburg; 1865-7, Newberry; 1868-9, Bloomsburg; 1870-1, Jersey 
Shore; 1872-4, Hollidaysburg; 1875-6, St. Paul's, Harrisburg.   Here in 
the second year of his pastorate his health began to fail, and at the 
Williamsport conference in 1877 he became supernumerary, and a year 
later settled down into the most sorrowful conviction of a Methodist 
preacher - work done, supernumerated.  The next eight years were spent 
in Harrisburg, cheered by the loving associations of a bright and happy 
home, the esteem of the church, the love of his brethren and the 
confidence of the whole community, doing such work at his strength 
would permit.
  Rev. Jesse B. Young, his pastor during the last year of his life, in 
a memoir read at the memorial service held in the Grace church, 
Harrisburg, reviewed the character and achievements of Rev. Melick, 
paying an eloquent tribute to his unselfish devotion and loyalty to the 
cause of Christ.
  Rev. Melick was twice married.  The wife of his early manhood was 
Miss Emeline E. Patchin, of Clearfield county, Pa., to whom he was 
united, October 28, 1851, and who shared for eleven years the toils and 
deprivations of his early itinerancy.  She died in 1862, leaving him 
with three little children. He was married, secondly, in 1867, to Miss 
Emily Dunmire, who by her devotion to him in the years of their wedded 
life, and by her faithful and motherly care of the children, now grown 
to a beautiful, active Christian manhood and womanhood, has shown her 
eminent fitness for the delicate and responsible trust.
  His end was calm and peaceful, and his funeral was held in Grace 
Methodist Episcopal church, Harrisburg, March 25, 1886.  A deeply 
affected and sympathetic congregation filled the spacious edifice, and 
a large number of ministers of his own and other denominations by their 
presence expressed their appreciation of his worth and work.