USA > Indiana > Contributions to the early history of the Presbyterian Church in Indiana : together with biographical notices of the pioneer ministers > Part 11
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On the night of the 27th of August, 1852, he had a slight attack of illness, but the next day was able to be in his seat in Congress as usual. A day or two after the attack was repeated, but relief was again obtained after a few hours. It was soon found, how- ever, that his disease, so far from being dislodged from his sys- tem, was taking on an alarming form, and that his system was rapidly sinking under it. After he became convinced that his recovery was hopeless he requested to be left alone with his wife, when he offered a comprehensive and affecting prayer, without wandering or repetition, and mentioning especially both the churches of which he had been pastor. After this he began to speak of his spiritual state, and said : "I have tried to live in peace with God and man"; but the difficulty of respiration did
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not allow him to proceed. He languished until the 3d of Septem- ber, and then gently fell into his last slumber. His remains were taken for burial to Fall River, and were received by his former charge as well as his fellow-citizens generally with every testi- mony of consideration and respect. His funeral sermon was preached by his successor, the Rev. Mr. Relyea.1
The eulogy in the House of Representatives was delivered December 8, 1852, by his colleague, the Hon. Zeno Scudder.
Mr. Fowler was married October 16, 1821, to Amaryl- lis, fourth daughter of John How Payson, of Pomfret, Conn., and niece of the Rev. Dr. Payson, of Portland, Me. They adopted two children, Mrs. President S. C. Bartlett, of Dartmouth, and her brother, Mr. Learned, of Chicago.
Besides various speeches in Congress and contributions to periodicals and newspapers, Mr. Fowler published a ser- mon at the ordination of Israel G. Rose, at Canterbury, 1825; "Short Practical Essays on the Sabbath " (anony- mously), 1826 ; a "Disquisition on the Evils Attending the Use of Tobacco," 1833 ; "Lectures on the Mode and Subjects of Baptism," 1835 ?; "History of Fall River," 1841 ; and "Papers on the Boundary," 1847.
From what Mr. Fowler did we may readily see what he was.
He had an air of great dignity, bordering perhaps a little upon stateliness ; a mind of more than ordinary capacity, always de- lighting in hard labor ; an eminently social and friendly spirit ; and a disposition to turn all his talents and opportunities of doing good to the best account.3
His mind was not of that class which takes in things intuitively. He was a severe student. His books of Hebrew and Greek and historical reference were always near by and showed marks of being often used. The bent of his mind was rather for facts than
1 Sprague's " Annals," Vol. II., pp. 649, 650.
2 These lectures received warm encomiums. See Scudder's " Eulogy."
3 Dr. Sprague, in " Annals," Vol. II., p. 650.
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consecutive reasoning. He made thorough work with historical documents. His most elaborate performance, for a single dis- course, was a lyceum "Lecture on Cotton," which was listened to by large audiences, in several manufacturing towns, with deep interest.1
Were we to review the traits of his character which were the source of his success and usefulness, none would appear more prominent than his industry, firmness, teachableness, honesty, and goodness. These were the elements which made him the learned divine, the influential statesman, and useful citizen .?
He was shortish and stoutish in physique; a short neck (ac- cording to pictures 1 frequently see ) ; a broad white neck-cloth ; with a broad squarish face, and (physically) thick head above it. He was of "ye olden style"-called in the children and cate- chized them not infrequently ; was very systematic and precise in habits and manner ; regularly went round the parish in his calls every quarter, and was a confidential adviser in every household. He made an appointment to meet a genial lawyer of his parish one afternoon at five o'clock. About five minutes before five the lawyer saw him coming near on the street and momently expected his rap. It did not come till the town clock was striking the hour. When the lawyer remonstrated because he had not sooner entered he replied that in the five minutes he had made another call. He had considerable ability. I suspect he had little or no humor. His principle was as exact for others as for him- self. He had arranged an exchange with a minister some dozen miles away. On reaching that man's house, latish Saturday even- ing, he found the minister at home, expecting to drive over the next morning. He immediately went out, got into his carriage, drove home that night, and supplied his own pulpit the next day.3
The venerable Dr. Ravaud K. Rodgers, whose year of missionary service in Indiana was contemporaneous with that of Mr. Fowler, from Athens, Ga., writes warmly of his acquaintance with him, referring to him as "a very agreeable companion, and a very acceptable preacher, whose heart was in his work."
1 Dr. Thomas Shepherd, in Sprague's "Annals," Vol. II., p. 651.
2 " Eulogy" by the Hon. Zeno Scudder, delivered in the House of Representatives, December 8, 1852.
3 MS. of the Rev. William W. Adams, D. D., Fall River, Mass.
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RAVAUD K. RODGERS, last of the quartet referred to in the beginning of this chapter, is still remembered by a few of the oldest residents of southeastern Indiana, to which portion of the state his work, in the winter of 1818-9, was mainly confined. In Madison especially, which he re- visited a short time before his death, there are very distinct traditions of the young eastern minister's force, wit, courtesy, and kid gloves. Though from Princeton, and bearing credentials from the General Assembly, his en- trance into the Madison parish, which had a settled minister, was not without opposition. Writing from Athens, Ga., March 7, 1876, Dr. Rodgers says :
It was -, as I learned, that called in question my right to preach the gospel in Indiana, and among other things charged that my views of Christian theology were very incorrect. Upon consultation with the elders of the church and some of the private members it was thought proper that I should on the then approaching Sabbath read from my commission from the board to satisfy the minds of all that I was not that impostor which Mr. - would make me out to be. He also gave it as his opinion that I had no religion about me ! I could not but think.on that point as our dear old Dr. Alexander thought when he was inquired of by an impudent ignoramus, "Do you think that you have any. religion ?" calmly replying, "None to brag of." The good people of Madison, notwithstanding all that was said, treated me with great kindness.
In another communication, February 17, 1876, referring to an invitation he had received to visit Indiana once more, he says :
I dare not even think of such a visit. I had better be preparing for a visit elsewhere. I have the pleasant hope of meeting some beyond the dark river with whom I took sweet counsel in the days when, as an inexperienced youth, I endeavored to preach Christ in the young state of Indiana.
Dr. Rodgers was born in New York City, November, 1797. His father was John Richardson Bayard Rodgers,
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M.D., surgeon of a Pennsylvania regiment in the revolu- tionary army. His grandfather was Dr. John Rodgers, so long pastor of the Wall Street Presbyterian Church, New York, and first moderator of the General Assembly. He graduated at Princeton College in 1815, in the class of Drs. Charles Hodge, Symmes C. Henry, and Bishop John Johns. After his graduation from Princeton Seminary in 1818, and the brief missionary tour in Indiana, he was settled at Sandy Hill, N. Y., for ten years, removing from there to take the pastorate at Bound Brook, N. J., which he retained for forty-four years. He was stated clerk of the Synod of New Jersey for thirty-six years, and in coun- cils of the church occupied a place of prominence. When increasing infirmities admonished him to relinquish active labor he retired to Athens, Ga., the residence of his only child, the wife of R. L. Bloomfield, Esq., where he en- joyed the serenity of a beautiful old age. His death occurred January 12, 1879. He was buried in the Bound Brook cemetery, where his children rest, and many to whom for so long a period he ministered in the gospel. -
It was late in 1818' that CHARLES STEBBINS ROBINSON, a representative of the Young Men's Missionary Society of New York City, on his way to Missouri crossed the state of Indiana, where he preached the gospel and made care- ful observation of the religious destitutions. A page from his experience on the frontier well exhibits the self-denials and sufferings from which the church and the nation have gathered so rich a harvest.
I have worn myself out in the missionary service and now I have not the means of taking a journey, the only way that remains
1 Not in 1816, as Gillett says (Vol. II., p. 397), and Roy in his " Historical Sketch of Congregationalism and Presbyterianism in Indiana." Born at Granville, Mass., May 29, 1791, a graduate of Williams in 1814, and of Andover in 1818, reaching St. Charles, Mo., December 7, 1818, Robinson made that the center of missionary operations until his death, February 25, 1828. His widow survived until August 28, 1833.
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of restoring my health ; and indeed scarcely of procuring for my- self the comforts of life as I sink into the grave, and leave my family none knows to whose care, except there is a God of the widow and the fatherless. Since I have been in St. Charles I once had, for a considerable time, nothing to eat but milk. I went to the store for necessary food, and was refused because I had not the money to pay for it. I returned to my destitute family, you may imagine with what feelings. None knew of our distress but those who felt it. It was November, the cold wind found ready entrance to our cabin, and we had no wood. I pro- cured a spade with a view of remedying the evil as well as I could, throwing up a bank around the house. I had scarcely dug into the earth a foot when to my surprise I threw up a silver dollar which had long been bedded beneath the surface. The goodness of God filled my heart, and I must say I wept plentifully at the sight of it. I could not help it. This served to furnish us with a little wood and a few necessaries. But I could not have remained there at that time had it not been for the kindness of a friend. 1
1 See Missouri Presbyterian Recorder, Vol. [., No. 6, pp. 169-71. Cf. The Home Missionary, Vol. I., p. 115 : also, Indiana Religious Intelligencer, Vol.I., pp. 285-6.
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CHAPTER VIII.
BETTER ECCLESIASTICAL SUPERVISION.
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1819-1821.
THE labor expended upon the frontier at this early period would have been much more effective had it been directed by an intelligent supervision. It was easier to detect than to remedy the difficulty, however, and many of the missionaries, choosing their own methods, were also compelled to select their own fields without trust- worthy information as to the most needy vacancies or the most favorable openings. With a desire to introduce something like system into these affairs, the Synod of Kentucky had already submitted to the General Assembly the inquiry "whether it would not be proper for a stated missionary to be settled somewhere in the western country (say on the Wabash) and for him to be constantly em- ployed in the missionary service.'' This suggestion of a superintendent of missions, had it been at once adopted, might have saved many a year of toil at a period when it was peculiarly important to economize all the energies of the struggling church.
The small number of permanent pastors was a further disadvantage. At first nearly all the missionaries came upon horseback, rode over an immense circuit, and then returned to their parishes, or to other circuits, in other states. It required but a brief experience to teach the missionary societies the waste of such expenditures. The
1 " Minutes Kentucky Synod," October 15, 1810, Vol. I., p. 193.
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fourth annual report of the United Domestic Missionary Society says :
Under a deep conviction of the prime importance of a stated ministry, and in conformity to the usage of this society from the beginning, we have expended the income of the year to aid feeble churches and congregations in the support of ministers who were already settled over them as pastors, or who had the prospect of being permanently employed to watch for souls as they that must give account. We have, accordingly, in general discountenanced the system of itineracy, which has been pursued in too many instances, in this and other countries, to comparatively little effect. It has been required of the missionaries of this society to confine their labors principally to a specified field, embracing one or at most two or three churches or congregations. Experi- ence has convinced this committee, and we rejoice to perceive in the recent usage of other domestic missionary societies, that the Christian public are beginning to be convinced that the system of charitable aid, which furnishes weak congregations with the means of supporting a settled ministry, is far more effective in its permanent results than that which embraces a wider field, and plants but does not water. The latter too often disappoints and discourages those whom it excites and interests; the former pours upon its beneficiaries a perennial stream of those saving benefits which it has already taught them to value. To maintain a permanent ministry, therefore, on as wide a field as we have had ability to occupy, has been our settled purpose.1
But this purpose was continually thwarted by the lack of men. The great majority of missionaries to Indiana were still itinerants, concerning whom Dickey observed that "from the brevity of the commissions and the ex- tensive field of operations which they embrace, the good effected has been by no means proportionate to the time and treasure expended."?
In 1819 and the two succeeding years the names of eleven new missionaries appear, but it seems that of these only a single one had at the time any intention of settling
1 " Fourth Annual Report of the U. D. M. S." (May, 1826), pp. 18, 19.
2 " Brief History," p. 18.
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BETTER SUPERVISION.
within the state, and he after a brief service was removed by death. In 1820-I came, from Tennessee, Francis McFarland, who soon went westward to Missouri ; Adams W. Platt, who returned to New York ; William B. Barton,' who settled in Woodbridge, N. J .; Ahab Jenks, from Ohio, a sturdy representative of the Connecticut society ; and George S. Boardman and John Vancourt, 2 commissioned by the Assembly. Thompson S. Harris also received an appointment from the Assembly, but preferred to go directly to the Seneca Indian Mission, near Buffalo, N. Y.
To the year 1819 belongs an old record, recalling a pioneer who until a much later day was chiefly occupied beyond the eastern boundary of Indiana. The record, signed by Lowes, Lowry, Jacobs, McLean, Decker, Brooks, Kennedy, Laremor, Harper, Gardner, etc., is as follows :
We, the undersigned, promise to pay the Rev. David Monfort the sum of money annexed to our names-the one half to be paid in six months, the other half in one year from the date (April 1, 1819), in compensation for his labor in preaching one day in every four weeks at Centre School House, four Sabbaths, the remainder on week days, for one year. In witness whereof we have set our names.3
DAVID MONFORT, son of Lawrence and Elizabeth Cassat Monfort, was born in York, now Adams County, Pa., March 7, 1790. His ancestors were Huguenots,
1 His work in Indiana, continued for about six months, was chiefly given to the Jefferson church, Jefferson County.
2 Vancourt seems to have returned his commission without visiting. the field, the vacancy being filled by Barton. Boardman was sent to Madison and the adjoining settlement, but finding the field preoccupied by Searle he itinerated chiefly on the White and Indian Kentucky Rivers. Cf. Gillett's " History," Vol. II., pp. 406, 407.
3 Centre School House was in Franklin County, Ind. While preaching there one Sabbath each month Mr. Monfort preached on the remaining Sabbaths at Bethel church, on Indian Creek, Ohio. The salary for one fourth of his time was twenty-nine dollars per annum. John Brooks and Simeon Jacobs paid in sugar.
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driven from France to Holland by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, a race whose representatives in Johnson County, Ind., may still be recognized from such names as Aten, Bergen, Bonte, Brewer, Brinkerhoff, Conover, Dema- ree, Pieterson, Seburn, Voris, Vannuys, Van Dyne, Van Dyke, etc. Young Monfort lived with his parents on a farm in Warren County, Ohio, until he passed his minority. When seventeen years of age his religious life began, in the midst of the New Light Revival. He became a member of the Presbyterian Church, and in preparation for the ministry studied privately under the Rev. Richard Mc- Nemar, near his home, and with the Rev. John Thomson, at Springfield, now Springdale, near Cincinnati. He com- pleted his literary course in Transylvania University and his course in theology at Princeton, graduating in 1817. Licensed by the Miami Presbytery, at Lebanon, April 4, 1817, he supplied Bethel church for a few months, re- ceived a call as pastor, and was ordained and installed October 20 of the same year. This pastorate continued ten years and was both happy and useful. Mr. Monfort was strong, active, of fine personal appearance, a good student, an attractive writer and speaker, and withal an excellent singer. His church became the largest in the state, with the exception of the First Church, Cincinnati. Besides the regular engagement at "Centre School House," already alluded to, he also occasionally preached during the Bethel pastorate at Lawrenceburgh, Brook- ville, Mt. Carmel, Dunlapsville, Connersville, and other points in Indiana.
In 1828 he took charge of the church at Terre Haute, where he remained but two years, in the midst of affliction and suffering. He lost his wife and daughter, and was himself visited with severe sickness, causing a lameness from which he never recovered. Returning to Ohio he spent one year in Wilmington and its neighborhood, when
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he again came to Indiana and began his long pastorate at Franklin. He was now in feeble health, but worked incessantly and with great success. Death once more visited his house, removing his second wife, Rhoda Hal- sey, of Lebanon, Ohio, immediately after his settlement at Franklin. Until 1838 he was also pastor of the Hopewell church, receiving a salary of three hundred dollars from both societies. After a service of nineteen years at Frank- lin he retired, in 1850, living for a time at Kingston, Ind., Decatur, Ill., and finally at Macomb, Ill., where he died, suddenly, of paralysis, October 18, 1860.'
Dr. Monfort ? was a man of wide and varied learning. He was trimly built, though undersized in person, had dark hair and eyes, a narrow high forehead, and was remarkably neat in his dress. His manners were engaging. Whilst always serious he was never gloomy and forbidding. He held in scrupulous regard all the proprieties and conventionalities of life. No incident is preserved to indicate that he had the slightest tendency to wit or humor. He was possessed of a sound and discriminating judgment; knew how to gain the good will of men and how to hold their esteem. His views of religious truth were clear and decided, and what he believed he preached with all the might that was in him. As a speaker his most marked characteristic was his great clearness. He was a teacher of men, excelling in doctrinal discourse, but on occasions he preached with great feeling. His manner was deliberate, calm, solemn, and earnest.3
He was thoroughly versed in ecclesiastical jurisprudence and his opinions as to principles and precedents had in the church courts almost the force of law. 4
1 Cf. " History of the Half-century Celebration at Franklin " (address of Dr. J. G. Monfort), pp. 160-4.
2 Hanover College conferred upon him the doctorate.
3 " History of the Half-century Celebration at Franklin " (Judge Banta's address), pp. 149, 150.
+ He was thrice married. Of his first wife, Phebe, daughter of Judge Isaac Spinning, of Dayton, Ohio, three children survived him : Elizabeth, wife of the Rev. John C. King, Isaac Pierson, and Lawrence. Of his third wife, Ann Ray, of Indianapolis, were the Rev. Cornelius V., Mary, wife of the Rev. Robert M. Roberts, John, Andrew, and Phebe.
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To the one Presbyterian minister who in 1819 came to take up his residence in the state a tragic interest belongs. He traveled half-way across the continent to his field on the Ohio at Madison. At that time this perhaps seemed the most important Indiana parish. Established four years previously by William Robinson, and by him irregularly supplied, though the congregation had not grown rapidly its position gave it a sort of metropolitan influence. Until a much later period Madison was the market for Monfort's future parishioners at Franklin, and even for the stragglers still further north who were soon to build their cabins in the neighborhood of the coming capital of the state. The church on the Ohio needed and was now to secure a master-workman.
THOMAS C. SEARLE came to Indiana under the auspices of the Young Men's Missionary Society of New York City. A graduate of Dartmouth College and of Princeton Theo- logical Seminary, he began his ministry at Montgomery Court House, Maryland.' Chosen in 1817 to the pro- fessorship of logic at Dartmouth he retired from that position to enter the missionary service. He was present, August 15, 1819, with Thomas Cleland and John M. Dickey, at the second communion season, of which a record is preserved in the Madison church. From that date he assumed the care of the parish. On March 4, 1820, he constituted the Hanover church, Clifty Creek forming the boundary between it and the Madison congre- gation. His New Hampshire attachments determined the name of the society, and thus also of the future college .? He was installed over the Madison and Hanover churches,
1 Cf. MS. of the Rev. Isaac Reed, who in 1829 was appointed to prepare a history of Vincennes Presbytery, and has left the notes he had begun with some assiduity to collect. With regard to Searle see also Reed's "Christian Traveller," pp. 92, 213.
2 The same circumstances likewise gave a name to the church which Mr. Searle con- stituted in Jennings and Ripley Counties, August 17, 1821, and called " Dartmouth." This organization soon disappeared in the Graham and Vernon churches.
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August 13, 1820. With great zeal and with flattering success he prosecuted his work ; but the autumn of 1821 was in a marked degree unwholesome, and the young pastor was soon prostrated with a bilious fever. Descend- ing too soon from his chamber to preside over the nuptials of a niece, he suffered a relapse, and October 15, at the age of thirty-three, he died. Over the entire community not only, but over the whole region, the shadow of this event long rested, Mr. Searle's capacities, devotedness, and popularity having justly excited the highest anticipa- tions. Of slight and trim figure, attractive in appearance and manner, he had at once become a favorite. With affectionate laudation, seldom more fully deserved, the afflicted church inscribed upon his tombstone in the old cemetery their sense of his worth : "As a man he was universally loved and respected; as a Christian he was a pattern for all ; as a scholar and promoter of learning he held the first rank; as a preacher of the gospel he excelled."
CHAPTER IX.
INDIANAPOLIS.
1821.
THE seat of government of the Indiana territory was originally at Vincennes, its oldest settlement and safest military post. By the legislature of 1813 the capital was transferred to Corydon, where, in December of that year, Governor Posey delivered his first message to the General Assembly. Having created a state government by the act approved April 19, 1816, the national Congress donated four sections of land, to be selected by the legislature, for a permanent capital. Ten commissioners were accordingly designated, January 11, 1820, to choose a suitable location near the center of the state, and three of the five who served upon the commission reported in favor of the pres- ent site.' The report was approved January 6, 1821, and at the suggestion of Judge Jeremiah Sullivan, of Madison, Indianapolis? was fixed upon as the future city's name.
When the legislative commission made their report the whole region comprising the new seat of government was still in possession of the Indians. Ceded by them to the white men, October 3, 1818, the treaty at St. Mary's, Ohio, then expressly stipulated that they should not be ejected until 1821. The reported fertility of " the new pur- chase" had, however, already begun to attract settlers.
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