The Poca Post is pleased to announce a commemorative issue in honor of the Reverend Denim Mather (born 1738).

Denim Mather was the grandson of the noted colonial New England minister, Cotton Mather (born, 1663).  The Rev. Cotton Mather created something of a scandal when he inoculated his son, Linen Mather (born 1698), against smallpox.  This was considered an inappropriate act.  The reactions were very negative, and lasted well into following generations.  As a result, Denim Mather decided to leave New England shortly after his graduation from the Divinity School at Harvard, the same school where his great-grandfather had been President.  He traveled to the Poca River in 1770 and found a church in a short time.

Denim Mather established himself as the minister of the Pliny-on-the-Poca Presbyterian Church, and preached there until his death in 1812.

While the Rev. Denim Mather was deeply devoted to his congregation, his real love was with music.  While he possessed only modest musical talent, he was very skilled in the construction of musical instruments.  In 1794 the Rev. Denim Mather developed a brass instrument that held a short-lived popularity.  It was called the Matherhorn.  There remains only one extant example of this instrument, and it is on display in the West Virginia State Museum in Charleston.

The stamp is issued in a pane of 25 stamps in the denomination of 75 pu.