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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE
MORRIS
Gc 977.202 R49h
PUBLIC LIBRARY and are FORT WAYNE & ALLEN CO., IND.
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r
GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02482 4929
Gc 977.202 R49h Morris, Benjamin Franklin, 1810-1867. Historical sketch of Rising Sun, Indiana, and the
Rising de -
STORICAL DISCOURS
BY
EV. B. F. MORRIS.
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MIL
INDIANA COLLECTION
HISTORICAL SKETCH
OF
RISING SUN, INDIANA,
AND THE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
Forticth Anniversary Discourse
DELIVERED SEPT. 15, 1856,
.
BY REV. B. F. MORRIS.
CINCINNATI: MOORE, WILSTACH, KEYS & CO., PRINTERS. 1 25 WEST FOURTH STEEET, 1858.
Allen County Public Library 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
CORRESPONDENCE.
RISING SUN, IND., Oct. 1856.
REV. B. F. MORRIS-Dear Sir :- The undersigned, a Committee appointed by a meeting of the citizens of Rising Sun and others, respectfully request a copy of your interesting Historical Discourse, delivered the 15th of September 1856, on the Fortieth Anniversary of the Presbyterian Church in this city, for publication. Yours Respectfully, ISRAEL EVANS, A. C. PEPPER, D. G. RABB.
MESSRS. EVANS, PEPPER AND RABB-Gentlemen :- The Discourse is at your dis- posal. It was prepared to preserve the Pioneer Annals of Rising Sun, and the Pres- byterian Church in a permanent form for the use of a future historian, and the profit and pleasure of the citizens and vicinity and their descendants. Hoping its publica- tion will subserve the public good and promote the cause of Christianity, I yield to your request and commit it to the press. Yours very truly,
Rising Sun, October 20th, 1858.
B. F. MORRIS.
EXPLANATORY NOTE.
Circumstances, needless to narrate, have postponed the publication of this Discourse till the present time. It is now published with slight alterations, as when first pro- nounced, and prepared for the press.
October 20th, 1858.
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DISCOURSE.
These forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee : thou hast lacked nothing. Deut. ii., 7.
Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years. Deut. viii., 2.
THE VALUE AND USES OF HISTORICAL ANNALS.
1. HISTORIC ANNALS are the way-marks of human progress. The un- folding events which men and communities evolve need an imperishable record. This record is the embalming process that preserves the precious treasures of the past from oblivion, and transmits them, in their original freshness and form, to future ages. Every age has its special materials, out of which is formed the completed history and moral structure of hu- man society. Not only is the philosophic progress of society developed and determined by the memorials of the past, but men and their acts, in every form of social organization, are perpetuated and made transparent. Events are the moral types of men, the symbols of their lives and ehar- acters, through which are seen and felt the fresh and flowing streams of human influence, and in which are reflected the ruling sentiments of soei- ety. Treasures, thus symbolical of the activities and developments of the race, are not only worthy of perpetual preservation, but are essential to complete the historie progress and lessons of the world. If buried in the waste of ages, there are no indices to read the past, no landmarks to traee the track of time, and know the forming influences of human des- tiny. Every chapter, therefore, snatched from oblivion, and inserted in the great volume of history, is an addition to the aggregate historieal treasures of the world.
2. They are " sunny memories " of scenes, fragrant with delightful and profitable remembranees to our personal experience.
Our elevated personal enjoyments flow, mainly, from two sources; one from the duties, activities and scenes of the present ; the other from the fresh and vivid remembrance of the past. The past is a field through which all, in retrospection, love to roam, gathering in their own hearts,
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and reproducing in their own recollections, the scenes and stirring events in which they participated, and which, in remembrance, yield a rich har- vest of personal enjoyment.
As the sun, retiring beyond the western hills, sometimes bathes every object he leaves behind with a fresher beauty, and a more attractive inter- est, so age will reproduce upon the tablet of the memory glowing views of past scenes, affording richer enjoyment than when men mingled with interest and activity, in them. This is a law of social and moral compensation that more than repays for the flight of time, and the decay of the physical powers. In the evening of life, when neglected by the busy generation that moves around them, a review and a remembrance of the past affords the most exquisite enjoyment. In this personal experience there is a duplicate of life, a two-fold existence, the last even better and sweeter than the first-the best of the wine of life reserved for the last of the feast, for the aged.
3. Past records and remembrances also have their genial and beneficent influences for the rising generation.
The solid texture in the life and character of each generation is woven mainly from the materials created and fashioned by the one preceding. The type of life, the ruling sentiments of the soul, and whatever goes into the composite form of character, come mainly from influences that flow from the generations that have gone before. There is ubiquity and formative power in the unconscious influences that elevate character, and direct the destinies of every generation. These influences originate and derive their mastering power from written annals, or the remembered experience of those who, in manhood and in the evening of life, give to the new generation a true narrative of the past. Influences thus imparted never lose their power. It is a tuition by which all the grand and sol- emn interests of existence are educated and directed ; and hence, there is an impressive solemnity connected with historical annals and past remem- brances that impress them with a value worthy of preservation and appreciation.
4. They have a significant and important relation and use to the future.
Preparation for right action and a true course in life is one of the most commanding obligations of human existence. We must live right now, so that we may act right in the future. This consummation is greatly aided by the moral teachings of the past. The dividing line be- tween right and wrong; the true principles and pathway of success ; dangers to be avoided ; wisdom and prudential sagacity, all that forewarns and forearms and qualifies for right action, may be derived from the facts and lessons of the past, communicated by oral experience, or through his- toric annals. "It is the capacity of looking back on past experiences, which gives us the power of foreseeing the future, and thus of looking both before and behind, for sources of enjoyment," and for a true direc- tion in the moral course of life. This fact, in God's system of moral
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education, gives meaning and authority to the Divine injunction, "RE- MEMBER THE DAYS OF OLD; CONSIDER THE YEARS OF MANY GENERA- TIONS; ASK THY FATHER AND HE WILL SHEW THEE; THE ELDERS AND THEY SHALL TELL THEE."-Deut. 32: 7. "TELL YE YOUR CHILDREN OF IT, AND LET YOUR CHILDREN TELL THEIR CHILDREN, AND THEIR CHILDREN ANOTHER GENERATION."-Joel 1: 3. In this light historic annals assume an importance equal to the value of the moral interests of men and society, as effected by the moral education of the rising gen- eration.
5. They embalm the acts and memories of the dead.
The great forest of humanity, like a forest of oaks, falling before the march of civilization, is, one by one, leveled by the axe of time. The oak of human life, stately and strong though it be, has no perpetual charter. A century, at most, it must fall, and pass away. Shall it have no record in human remembrance, or on the historic page? Shall those who have been joint laborers in the great work of human progress and achieve- ments, after having nobly finished their work, the fruits of which their children enjoy, die and be forgotten ? They were the first workmen in the fields of human labor, and the first builders on the structure of human society. These cultivated farms ; monuments of industrial art; improve- ments in social life ; Christian schools and churches; all the triumphs in our Christian civilization had their inauguration and first unfoldings from those who have passed, or are passing away. Wearing out in the work, they left its completion to the generations that should succeed them. Shall their children let their names and memories perish ? Every gener- ous impulse and affection of our nature answers, No! Our cherished remembrances shall ever cling to the services and memories of the men and women who were the pioneers in opening these forests, and in plant- ing the foundations on which to rest the superstructure of all the institu- tions of a Christian civilization. Enshrined in the casket of our memory and love, they shall have a perpetual record.
This is one of the noble uses of historic annals. They revive and preserve the memories of the dead : who they were; what they did; when they passed away ; and what influences they left behind. Hence the fact that both sacred and profane history embalm the services of those who consecrated themselves to the work of human progress and improvement, and every age augments the volume of moral influence that is active and transforming on all the issues of personal existence and the interests of humanity. "Being dead they speak."
6. Historic annals are the means to measure social progress, as con- trasted with after eras in the history of social civilization.
Society, as it circles outward from a common center, has a tendency to degenerate from its original and higher type, into one of a lower standard and tone.
It is a historical fact, that every receding circle of emigration has
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diminished forces for the work of building and completing a perfect state of society. There is not, it is true, an entire absence of Christian and social agencies to begin the work of social construction. God, in His Proviuential arrangement, bears upon every wave of emigration, some good seed to be cast into the opening soil of new settlements, transform- ing and raising it to a higher level of social civilization. These elements O1 tahsiormation are sufficient to begin the work of social construction, anu ale poweriul enough to counteract and control the antagonisms that tend to social degeneracy and disruption. They are active in their conmet with evils, and attractive in social sympathy and power. Plant these Christian and social elements of regeneration, in any new and forming society, and they are the nucleus around which will crystallize thie fvices necessary to carry society forward toward comparative perfec- tion.
in this work there is, too, a genial flexibility in the materials to be worked into the social structure. Pioneers, though not educated in the highest culture of refinement and virtue, have a genial and facile nature, a pumiuve and noble simplicity, that make them easily susceptible to the power of social and Christian transformation. Pressed by common de- Penuencies and dangers together; possessing habits and feelings not made rigid vy artificial formalities; and indulging in all the frankness and reciprocities of social fellowship, they are hexile to the forces of Chris- tian improvement and elevation, and thus give assurances that the rising fabric of human society will be a structure, solid in strength and ornate in beauty. This encouraging fact belongs to the history of emigration, and has its special verification in the rapid and enlarging circles of emi- grauon in our own country.
The panoramic scenes that move over the face of society, from its be- ginuing to its more completed state, present, by contrast, the varied pic- tures in the progress of society. They are the tableaux that personate men, habits, manners, opinions, the social and moral agencies that belong to ine forming eras of society, and give data to determine the contrasted improvements of society.
1. Another special and important use of historic annals and personal remembrances is the exhibition of the nature, progress, and triumphs of Christian truth.
'The structure of all human society must, if its foundation be solid and its superstructure symmetrical and safe, rest on Christian truth. This fact is demonstrated in the philosophy and necessity of society. There is no other agency of sufficient power to expand, vitalize, harmonize and direct the forces that underlie and build the great fabric of society, but Chris- tian truth. Facts are abundant, luminous and convincing in demonstra- tion of this proposition.
It is the creative power of all other means of civilization. In the firs eras of society, it is a fact which all history confirms, that Christian m an
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can only create, multiply and sanctify the means of expansion and im- provement. Its light opens the morning of civilization, and diffuses its genial influences through all the formations and eras of society. Educa- tion, social refinement, moral training, object of taste, implements of industrial art, the creations of science applied to human labor and com- fort, physical achievements, material progress, civil law, political insti- tutions, and benevolent organizations spring into existence and vigor- ous action by the presence and genius of Christian truth. Such is the necessity of this agency to the formation of true society,'that no suc- cessful effort has ever been made in Christendom, to organize and develope the elements of society without its co-operation.
Nor are these the best triumphs of Christian truth. It is, also, the basis on which stands, as on the Rock of Ages, the system of doctrinal Christianity. Hence any historical expansion, or any spiritual progress and results of Christian truth, are the data to determine the nature and the practical workings of all the cardinal doctrines of a true Christianity, which in its spiritual power and progress works for the regeneration of humanity. Society and men, as they emerge from spiritual death into spiritual life, are the demonstrations of the nature and results of a true system of doctrinal Christianity. This, doubtless, was one reason why God enjoined a remembrance of the days of old, and recalled the recol- lections of His chosen people so often and so earnestly to a review of His past dealings with them. " Walk about Zion and go round about her: tell the towers thereof; Mark ye well her bulwarks; Consider her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generation following."-Psalm 48: 12, 13.
8. This suggests another great and valuable use of historic annals and personal remembrances, which is to demonstrate the active presence of God in human history and society.
" Historic truth," says Bancroft, " may be established as a science ; and the principles that govern human affairs, extending like a path of light from century to century, become the highest demonstration of the super- intending providence of God. Universal history does but seek to restate " the sum of all God's works of Providence.'"
A devout and thoughtful mind will recognize and adore God, as he gives revelations of himself in human history, and in every onward move- ment of the race. The laws that originate and direct the successive tides of emigration ; the selected localities that receive the first imprints of civil- ization; the classes of men who are borne on the advancing waves of a pioneer emigration; the introduction of Christian elements that secure a social and a moral crystallization ; the practical means that mold the first plastic forms of society, all are to be acknowledged as under the creating and directing Providence of God. Not a stone in the foundation, not a timber in the rising superstructure, not a pillar that supports or orna- ments the edifice of human society, but what God has supcrintended its preparation, and fitted it for its place. If an infidel historian,
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acknowledged as he did, the intervention and presence of God, loom- ing grandly out from the material ruins of the Roman Empire; we ought to see, and feel, that God is in all the forward and forming movements of human society. And this is the sublime use of human history. As the Book of nature declares the presence and the glory of God, so the historic annals of the human race declare and demonstrate that God is in human history.
The Patriarchs, Historians and Poets of ancient Israel, give a living per- petuity to this great fact, and thus realize the words of inspiration, " One " generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts." And this is the reason of the injunction of the motto of this Historical Discourse, " These forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee : thou hast lacked nothing. Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years."
THIS CHRISTIAN JUBILEE,
Then, is a work hallowed by every feeling of past remembrances, by every motive of gratitude, every impulse of patriotism and piety, and is invested with the Divine sanction and example. This day is commemorative of the historic progress and events of the past, in which you and your chil- dren, and your children's children, have a personal and lasting interest.
This day completes forty years of existence to the Presbyterian Church of Rising Sun, and is, therefore, invested with all the sacred solemnities of religion, and is worthy to be celebrated and canonized as a Christian Jubilee. Forty is a sacred and symbolical number, and is historical and commemorative in its associations. Forty years was the Temple in build- ing ; forty years David reigned in Jerusalem; forty years God led the Israelites in the wilderness ; the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem, over all Israel, was forty years ; forty years the land had rest ; Moses was forty years old when he fled from the court of Pharoah; forty years after the Lord on Mount Horeb commissioned him to return to Egypt; these forty years hath the Lord thy God been with thee : thou hast lacked nothing; thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years. There is, therefore, a peculiar appropriateness in this church, commemorating its Fortieth Anniversary.
Forty years ! What a panoramic picture they present! What events and changes cluster and brighten in the pathway of such a period ! How great the transition that comes up for review and remembrance ! How full of interest to the noble band of pioneers, who yet linger among us, and whom we greet this day with a cordial welcome! How instructive to the generation that has risen by their side! Their history will record God's goodness, and men's achievements, and thus lead you gratefully to remember God in all the way in which he has led you these forty years, and to reproduce, on the historic canvas, scenes and acts of men who, on
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these green and sunny banks of the Ohio, first inaugurated the era of pro- gressive civilization and improvement.
THE PIONEER HISTORY,
And settlements of this beautiful region, date back to the year 1798, two years prior to the present century. It was then in the uncultivated and romantic beauty of nature. The genius of art, nor the forces of civilization, had not yet touched the soil, nor waved their transforming enchantments over the scene. Indian history and romance, their carni- vals and songs of victory, their deeds of martial heroism, their light canoes that once swept gaily over the tranquil bosom of " La Belle Re- viere," their hunting expeditions through these wild and native wood- lands, their domestic tales of love rehearsed around the altars of their rude wigwams,-all belong to the unwritten past.
A Christian Jubilee can but pay a tribute to the memory and ashes of a noble race that receded at the approach of civilization, and perpetuate, if not their names and heroic deeds, their existence, at least, to coming generations.
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The era of civilization opens every where with the presence of a few adventurous Pioneers, who, as sovereigns of the soil, erect their log-cabins, fell the forests, and open the earth to the light of the sun, and fit it for agricultural tillage and production. This is introductory to the presence of the compass and chain of the legal Surveyor. He is, indecd, the Herald of legal and social order; the mediator and peacemaker of fami- lies and neighborhoods. The compass and chain are the types of an ad- vancing civilization, and in their practical uses have done much for the restoration and preservation of order. Thanks to the genius of him who invented this symbol of civilization !
In the spring of 1799, Benjamin Chambers, a government officer, planted the surveyor's compass, and carried the measuring chain over the land on which stands the present city of Rising Sun. He was a native of Chambersburgh, Pennsylvania. His father was a prominent patriot and officer in the Revolutionary war, and the family was distinguished for in- telligence, social position, and Christian virtues.
Little incidents change the destinies of families and communities. It was so in the history of Benjamin Chambers. In June, 1796, an enter- prising and intelligent young man tarried in the town of Chambersburgh. He had been on a tour of exploration in the far West, and had visited Fort Washington, where now sits as Queen, the populous and commercial city of Cincinnati. His romantic narratives, combined with his manly heroism and high intelligence, won the heart of Charlotte Chambers, a young lady of fascinating manners, of finished accomplishments, and of great social attractions. Israel Ludlow, one of the noble band of Pio- neers who settled in and near Cincinnati, in November, 1796, was married
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to Charlotte Chambers, and she left her elegant home for a Western one, at Ludlow's Station, six miles from Fort Washington. Her varied ac- complishments, her Christian virtues, the noble services she rendered to the forming civilization of the new country, and her unwearied benevo- lence, are fresh and fragrant in the memories of many living ; and in Chris- tian associations which send forth streams of sanctified intelligence.
That seene of plighted love in Chambersburgh was the first link in the chain of causes that brought Benjamin Chambers to this new field of enter- prise. He surveyed this plot of ground in 1799, with other adjacent tracts, and it was patented to him and Lewis Davis by the Government, on the 21st of October, 1807, the Patent, bearing the signatures of Tho- mas Jefferson, President of the United States, and James Madison, Secre- tary of State. He built a double log cabin on the river bank, above the old cotton Factory, and in 1803 planted an apple and peach orehard, which for many years afforded abundant fruit to the pioneers and their descend- ants.
Mr. Chambers removed his family here in 1803, and remained till 1809, when he exchanged these lands for others owned by John James, in the vicinity of Lawrenceburgh. He was commissioned by the Continen tal Congress an ensign in the First Pennsylvania Kegiment, in 1778, when not 15 years of age ; and in 1779 was made Lieutenant, and was, from the date of his first Commission, in active service till the close of 1780. He was distinguished for gallant bearing on the field of battle, and his mature life by high intelligence and courtly manners. His society was agreeable and fascinating to all. He was twice married, and each time to the daughter of Presbyterian clergymen. His second wife was the daugh- ter of the Rev. James Kemper, who was one of the first pastors of the First Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati. She was a lady of great beauty and charming manners, and their married life was notable for his devotion and for their mutual happiness. He became a Christian in early manhood, and attached himself to the Presbyterian Church. His religion, says his daughter, Mrs. Penn, of Missouri, he clung to with unwavering trust and faith; he was a diligent, reverential student of the Bible, and a rigid observer of the Sabbath. He was chosen an Elder in one of the first, if not the very first, churches established in the Upper Missouri, a place that he filled to the satisfaction of his brethren for the remainder of his days. The evils of intemperance on the frontier roused him to set his protest against the then universal habit of drinking ardent spirits, and he resolutely discarded the practice of either drinking himself or tempting others to do so. Sorrow and distress of every kind had his ready sympathy.
I will relate one characteristic anecdote : A poor minister in our church, not having the gift of preaching with much effect, was sent by the Synod through our wild country, in a small strong wagon, with Bibles, Tracts, ete., to sell to those who would buy, and give to those who would not.
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