USA > Indiana > Contributions to the early history of the Presbyterian Church in Indiana : together with biographical notices of the pioneer ministers > Part 13
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1 At the semi-centennial celebration of the Synods of Indiana, October, 1876, it had been hoped that " Father Ross " might be present. But with "Father Johnston," the only other representative of the Northern Synod whose service reached back to the .commencement of the Synodical history, he was summoned hence in March of that year. One died on the day of the other's burial.
? " Christian Traveller," p. 86.
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7th of December, 1817, all the members residing at Jeffer- sonville having removed to other churches, the Union Church held a meeting at New Albany, with the Rev. D. C. Banks as moderator, at which it was resolved that the name be changed to the First Presbyterian Church of , New Albany. At the same time four new members were received, making the whole number nine. Isaac Reed, the first minister of the society, beginning his service Sep- tember 1, 1818, continued as pastor for fifteen months. Shortly after his settlement Orin Fowler found him there, busily and usefully engaged. Upon Mr. Reed's removal the pulpit long remained vacant and the feeble church almost died, the comfortable meeting-house having been destroyed by fire. It was not until November, 1822, that the Rev. Ezra H. Day came to their aid. When inviting him to the field the session represented that it was "highly important that some effort be made speedily to save this wreck of the church and to collect this scattered flock." The pastor's arrival at once restored their courage, but almost immediately their prospects were darkened again by his sudden death.1
EZRA H. DAY was probably a native of Morristown, N. J. He was a member of Westchester Presbytery, New York. "His modest unassuming manners, his sound judgment and evident piety endeared him," says Dickey, "to the few friends who were favored with his acquaint- ance." It was, however, the will of God that he should fall at his post just as he had proven his peculiar fitness for it. A bilious fever, which at the time was prevalent in the. neighborhood, terminated his life September 22, 1823. He was of medium height, not stout, and of fair com- plexion. "Gentle, grave, and serious in his walk he made. the impression upon all that he held close fellowship with
1 Hovey's " Historical Sermon " in the New Albany Ledger, November 25, 1867, and MS. " History of Presbyterianism in New Albany," by the Rev. S. Conn, D.D.
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EXTENSION TOWARD THE NORTH.
the skies." At the time of his death he was about thirty- eight years of age. He left a wife and three children, who returned to New Jersey. He was buried in the old Lower First Street Cemetery, but the grave cannot be identified.
It was in 1822 that WILLIAM GOODELL also reached Indiana upon his agency for the A. B. C. F. M., which had sent him out to the churches to awaken an interest in the cause of missions and to raise funds for the work of the society. Dr. Rufus Anderson was afterward accustomed to say that " Goodell cut a swath through all that region," so steadily did contributions flow into the treasury from the neighborhoods which had felt his power. He was then a fervid young candidate for the foreign mission service. Those who heard him on this western tour were not surprised that he afterward became a learned linguist, a translator of the Bible, an apostle of the New Testament pattern, the fragrance of whose life, like a garden of spices, is known throughout the Turkish Empire. His biographer says :
Traveling westward into the states of Ohio and Indiana, he found in many places an unexpected interest in the cause of mis- sions to the dark portions of the world, the result of a gracious outpouring of the spirit upon the churches of that comparatively new region of country ; but in other places there was literally a famine for the bread of life, and the gospel message which he car- ried to them was heard with gladness. He wrote at the time (February 18, 1822): "There are but two settled ministers, of the Presbyterian or Congregational order, in the whole state of Indiana.1 I preached in one place where some of the people said they had heard but three sermons from Presbyterians there before." 2
Besides Ross and Day, separated in their work by
1 This was far from correct, but only proves how scanty were the means of information even for the most diligent and competent observers.
2 " Memoirs of Rev. William Goodell, D.D.," by his son in-law, Dr. E. D. G. Prime, pp. 68, 69.
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EARLY INDIANA PRESBYTERIANISM.
nearly the entire length of the state, and separated, too, by that striking diversity of providence which called one immediately from his earthly task and kept the other here until more than half a century had been completed ; and besides Goodell, the witty, impassioned, and devoted friend of the new foreign missionary enterprise, there came another from the East to Indiana, a pioneer of the pioneers, a missionary of the missionaries, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, Charles Beatty's son Charles, who, from his father, one of the founders of the church in western Penn- sylvania, had inherited the evangelistic spirit, and was hindered only by an event which suddenly changed his whole course of life from permanently identifying himself with the Indiana settlements.
DR. CHARLES C. BEATTY writes :
I was commissioned by the Board of Missions to labor as a missionary in Indiana and adjacent parts of Illinois, commencing in Wayne County, Ind. This I did the first of November, 1822, and arriving at Indianapolis toward the close of the week, was induced by friends there to spend the Sabbath, and preached twice for Mr. Proctor. On Tuesday evening I preached across the river on my way to Bloomington, preached at that place Wednesday night, and left the next day, expecting to reach Mr. Scott's, near Vincennes, by Sabbath. But in consequence of a delay at the river I preached Friday night at a small place this side and got to Carlisle, where I spent the Sabbath, preaching in the meeting-house. On Monday I went on to Mr. Scott's, from whom I received valuable information as to my field up the Wabash on both sides. He was the preacher on the Wabash, missionated much and had the care of the churches. I met him afterward on all my visits to that vicinity, Vincennes being one of my preaching points. I established a kind of circuit, and went round about three times in my four months' tour, closing it at Shawneetown early in March. Thence I passed into Kentucky, preaching on across to Shelbyville and Louisville, from which I crossed to Indiana, visiting Corydon, Washington, and Salem, and going thence back to Parke County, where I had organized two churches on the Raccoon.1 These congregations
1 Shiloh church was organized, with seventeen members, December 17, 1822. Eben- ezer church was organized, with nineteen members, January 9, 1823.
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EXTENSION TOWARD THE NORTH.
made out a call for me and I made arrangements to settle, going down with the elder to the Presbytery of Louisville, which met at Charlestown, Ind., and passing by Spencer, in Owen County, where I assisted the Rev. Isaac Reed in administering the Lord's Supper. From there I passed to Bloomington, where I preached, and so on to Presbytery. Here I got intelligence of my father's death, which ultimately changed my plans. My journal and' all my papers were left on Raccoon and were never recovered.
During my four months' service I organized three churches 1 and rode over all that western region. My farthest points north were Crawfordsville2 and the mouth of Vermillion. Mr. Balch, who had brought an emigrating church from east Tennessee to Sullivan County, had died before my visit. I knew his children and people and held a communion at Turman's Creek church with blessed results. At Vincennes I always had large congrega- tions, and they wished me to settle there; but there was no church, or church members, though I trust my ministry there had some fruits. At Terre Haute but few attended. Some were gathered at Turman's Creek, at Raccoon, and across in Illinois.
My field of labor was very new and rough, but the people were kind and always gave me the best. I was a constant singer, and I believe my singing made me more acceptable-popular than my preaching. I found but two places on my whole circuit where I could have a room to myself to study, and accordingly wrote no sermons, and but few briefs. I studied as I could. I should have been very willing to spend my life in a log cabin on Raccoon and live on the common fare of the country. I liked the people and the work ; but it would have soon used me up. All the ministers were agreeable and at the meeting of the Pres- bytery of Louisville at Charlestown, which I attended, April, 1823, it was decided to ask the Synod to set off the new Pres- bytery of Salem ; which was done, and I was then expected to be the most remote member of it.3
! The third was Union church, Vigo County, organized January 8, 1823.
2 Here Mr. Beatty solemnized the first marriage in Montgomery County, Samuel D. Maxwell, afterward first mayor of Indianapolis, being the groom.
3 Letter dated October 9, 1876. Dr. Beatty was present at the semi-centennial cele- bration at Indianapolis, October, 1876. Except the Rev. Ravaud K. Rodgers, D.D., of Athens, Ga., and the Rev. Samuel G. Lowry, of Oakland, Minn., he was at that time the only survivor of all the Indiana missionaries whose service preceded the Synodical organization.
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CHAPTER XI.
THE SHADOW OF SLAVERY. 1823.
AMONG the missionary appointments to Indiana for 1823 appears in the records of the Assembly the name of NICHOLAS PITTINGER from Ohio. This year brought also to the state Joseph Trimble and John Finley Crowe, of whom the one was permitted to give almost fifty years of toil to the Indiana church, while the other came only to die.
JOSEPH TRIMBLE, a licentiate of Carlisle Presbytery, Pennsylvania, was commissioned to service in the West by the General Assembly. He was tall, straight, and of rather full habit. At college his fellow-students observed the soundness of his judgment and his strong common sense. His considerable talents and engaging manners, together with the maturity of his piety and zeal, gave pleasing promise of usefulness. Reaching Madison in June, 1824, during the following month he received a call to the pastorate there. On the Ioth of August the Pres- bytery met in special session to ordain and install him, but he was already prostrated with a bilious fever and on the day following he died. His co-presbyters assembled at his bedside, and with prayer and the singing of a hymn commended him to God-a service which is still recalled as one of the deepest pathos and solemnity. The doubly afflicted church laid him to rest near the beloved and ac- complished Searle. Upon the modest tombstone is the following inscription :
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THE SHADOW OF SLAVERY.
In memory of Joseph Trimble, who departed this life August II, 1824, in his 30th year. Mr. Trimble was a graduate of Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, and studied theology at Princeton Semi- nary; in 1823 he was licensed to preach the gospel and visited Indiana as a missionary; in 1824 he was chosen pastor of the Presbyterian church of Madison, but on the very day appointed for his ordination was called from his labors on earth to his reward in heaven. With talents and accomplishments above mediocrity, he was distinguished for his industry and energy, piety, entire devotedness to his Master's service, and the success which at- tended his labors. For him to live was Christ, to die was gain. 1
A very different career was destined to be that of JOHN FINLEY CROWE, the founder of Hanover College, who had previously crossed from Kentucky into Indiana for mis- sionary service,2 but now came to reside within the bound- aries of a free state. Born in Green County, Tenn., June 16, 1787, his early boyhood was spent amidst the privations of frontier life. The proximity of hostile savages some- times summoned his father to the camp. In 1802 the family removed to Belle Vue, Mo., where for six years young Crowe3 led a careless and irreligious life. But a few Presbyterian families in the neighborhood having es- tablished a prayer-meeting, his conscience was awakened and he entered upon a Christian career. He was now twenty-one years of age and soon began a course of study in preparation for the ministry. His opportunities for ob- taining knowledge had been few, but he had read with avidity all the books in his father's little library and all he could borrow from others. At the age of twenty-two he left home for Danville, Ky., expecting to enter a school there, but upon his arrival he found that the school had been disbanded. In this emergency the Rev. Samuel
! The place of Searle's and Trimble's sepulture is likely to be abandoned to less sa- cred uses at no distant day. The graves are neglected. The freestone slabs are weather- beaten, moss-grown, and discolored, so that the inscriptions are scarcely legible.
2 He had organized Corydon church, Harrison County, January 2, 1819.
3 " Crow " was the orthography in all his own earlier correspondence.
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Finley, pastor of two churches near Lexington, received him into his family and gave him instruction. In 1812, becoming a student at Transylvania University, he there remained for nearly two years. Returning in September, 1813, to Missouri, he was united in marriage to Miss Esther Alexander. The young couple soon bade adieu to their friends, packed their worldly goods into their saddle-bags, and started on horseback toward Kentucky. The whole distance was traversed, through almost unbroken forests, without fear or accident. Both had excellent voices and often made the wilderness rejoice with hymns of praise. After securing for Mrs. Crowe a home in the family of a Kentucky friend, the candidate for holy orders, still riding his horse, proceeded to Princeton to complete his studies in divinity.1 After a year in the seminary, he was licensed, in 1815, by the Presbytery of New Brunswick.
Upon the return of Mr. Crowe to Kentucky he supplied the churches of Shiloh and Olivet in Shelby County. He afterward removed to Shelbyville, where, in addition to pastoral labors, he had charge of a female seminary. In each of these spheres of labor he was both diligent and successful. But the significant feature of his character appeared in the fact that at this same period he was editor of the Abolition Intelligencer, a bold and prudent opponent of slavery upon Kentucky soil. While Dickey and Martin, his future friends and companions, had already made their escape from the intolerable shadow of the peculiar institu- tion, he remained beyond the Ohio. It was not, however, to be presumed that even the most cautious defense of man's inalienable rights could at that period in Kentucky long continue to be either agreeable or safe. It was therefore a happy relief to be summoned by providence to other duties, north of the fatal border-line.
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1 " During Mr. Crowe's connection with the seminary at Princeton he resided in the family of Colonel Beatty and was private tutor to his children, especially his son Charles, preparing him for college. C. C. B."
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THE SHADOW OF SLAVERY.
In 1823 Mr. Crowe received a call to the church at Hanover, and soon removed with his family to that place, just in time to be one of the original members of the first Indiana Presbytery, now shortly to be convened. In this new field he at once entered assiduously upon missionary labors, seeking, in cooperation with his brethren, to carry the gospel to the whole surrounding wilderness. " He manifested great interest in securing laborers for this terri- tory," wrote the Rev. James H. Johnston,1 "and was instrumental in doing much for the accomplishment of this object." It was the lack of laborers, daily pressed upon his attention as he rode among the multiplying settle- ments, that from the first unconsciously urged him toward the enterprise which became the distinguishing incident of his career. If ministers enough could not be gotten from abroad, was it not possible to make them here at home? This problem burned in his bones. It never let him rest. It was the quiet but constant passion of his subsequent life, enabling him without the endowments of genius and in the use of such scanty and homely materials and methods as the frontier offered, to project and achieve an enterprise of the greatest utility.
On the first of January, 1827, he opened a school for boys in a log house on his own premises. Before the close of a week six students were enrolled, and this little school was the beginning of Hanover College and of Indiana Theological Seminary, now the McCormick Seminary at Chicago. Through manifold vicissitudes and perils he continued to guard and aid this child of his faith and prayer for more than thirty years. In connection with the school he held the pastorate of the church until 1832, when he began to devote himself exclusively to the college, either as instructor or financial agent. In 1838
1 In a letter to Professor Joshua B. Garritt, whose own MSS. have greatly aided the preparation of this sketch.
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he again assumed charge of the church, retaining it until 1847, when once more he gave all his time to the college. He continued in its service until laid aside from active duties by a stroke of paralysis in January, 1859. From this stroke he recovered in a great measure, and was able to occupy himself with the preparation of a history of the institution, in founding which his own instrumentality had 'been so conspicuous.1 Finally, January 17, 1860, in the ·seventy-third year of his age, he fell asleep.
The qualities which marked Dr. Crowe, and admirably fitted him for his task, were conscientiousness, industry, and perseverance. In early life he enjoyed few of those facilities for intellectual culture which are now common, and it was not until his majority had been reached that he turned toward a professional career. Yet he became an instructive preacher ; as a teacher he secured in a high degree the respect and affection of large numbers of intelli- gent pupils ; while his undoubted sincerity and uniform courtesy and dignity everywhere enhanced his influence. Says one of his Hanover students :2
Tall, symmetrical in form, stately and dignified in appearance, kind and paternal in manner, Dr. Crowe was my beau ideal of a Christian gentleman. He was my first preceptor and spiritual guide, after my own father, and next to my father I learned to. love him.
Dr. Edwards adds :
There have been more profound scholars ; there have been more brilliant popular preachers ; there have been few kinder, more courteous gentlemen, few more consistent Christians.3
Among the services rendered by Dr. Crowe must also be emphasized his continued advocacy of the principles
1 The MS. has not been printed.
2 The Rev. William M. Cheever.
8 Dr. J. Edwards's " Address at the Dedication of the Chapel and Library of the Sem- inary of the Northwest," p. 11.
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THE SHADOW OF SLAVERY. 1
of civil freedom. The ministers of the old Synod of Indiana, coming in the main from the Southern States, were most intelligent and positive in their opposition to slavery, and consistent in their efforts for its removal. The constitutional prudence of Dr. Crowe did not prevent frequent references to the subject upon public occasions. At the meeting of Synod in October, 1827,
a memorial on this subject, addressed to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, which had been prepared by Rev. J. Finley Crowe, was presented for our adoption and received the ready and cordial concurrence of the entire Synod. This was but nine years after the adoption by our General Assembly of those noble resolutions of 1818 in which that body had declared by a unanimous vote: "We consider the voluntary enslaving of one part of the human race by another as a gross violation of the most precious and sacred rights of human nature, as utterly inconsistent with the law of God, which requires us to love our neighbor as ourselves ; and as totally irreconcilable with the spirit and principles of the gospel of Christ, which enjoins that all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." . The object of the memorial adopted by our Synod, at the meeting referred to, was simply to call the attention of the Assembly to those strong and decided utter- ances made but nine years before, and to urge the importance of such action on the part of the Assembly, from year to year, as would prove that those were made in sincerity and truth.1
The fate of this document was like that of many similar deliverances of those stormy days. It was deftly deposited in the waste-basket by the Rev. Dr. Leland, of South Carolina, chairman of the Committee on Bills and Over- tures. 2
1 Johnston's " Ministry of Forty Years in Indiana," pp. 12, 13.
2 See Johnston, pp. 15, 16.
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CHAPTER XII. THE FIRST PRESBYTERY.
1823, 1824.
THE origin of the oldest Indiana Presbytery is described by Dickey in his " Brief History." 1 He says :2
Previous to October, 1823, the churches in the state of Indiana within the bounds of the Synod of Kentucky were under the care of the Louisville Presbytery, which generally met in the fall in Kentucky and in the spring in Indiana. By an act of the Synod, October, 1823, all that part of the state of Indiana which lies west of a line due north from the mouth of the Kentucky River was constituted into a new Presbytery, denominated the Salem Pres- bytery, which at its formation consisted of the following members, viz .: William Robinson, John Todd, Samuel T. Scott, William W. Martin, John M. Dickey, John F. Crow, and Isaac Reed. In October, 1824, all that part of the state of Illinois belonging to the Synod of Kentucky, which lies north of a line due west from the mouth of White River, was added to this Presbytery. At the same time that part of the state of Indiana which lies south and west of the following lines, viz .: beginning opposite the mouth of Green River, running due north twenty miles, thence north- westerly to the mouth of White River, was attached to Muhlen- burg Presbytery. The Salem Presbytery held its first meeting at Salem in April, 1824. All the ministers belonging to the Presbytery were present except one, who was prevented by age and infirmity.3
The following is a transcript of the records of the first meeting of Salem Presbytery :
Salem, April 1, 1824. The Salem Presbytery met agreeably to
1 For the earlier ecclesiastical relations of the Indiana Presbyterians see Appendix 11. 2 Pp. 19, 20.
8 The absentee was William Robinson.
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THE FIRST PRESBYTERY.
a resolution of the Synod of Kentucky and was opened with a sermon by the Rev. Samuel T. Scott on Ephesians iv .: 3, 4, and was constituted by prayer. Members present : Samuel T. Scott, John Todd, John M. Dickey, William W. Martin, Isaac Reed, and John F. Crow, ministers ; with Lemuel Ford, Alexander Walker, William Reed, John Holme, James McPheeters, James Carnahan, Thomas N. White, Jonathan E. Garrison, William Alexander, Peter Ryker, John Martin, Samuel S. Graham, and Andrew Weir, elders. Absent, the Rev. William Robinson. Mr. Crow was chosen moderator, and Mr. Dickey clerk. Messrs. Todd, Dickey, and Alexander were appointed a committee to prepare a standing docket. Messrs. W. W. Martin, Dickey, and White were appointed a committee to prepare a narrative on the state of religion, and Messrs. Scott, I. Reed, and Ford were appointed a committee to prepare a Presbyterial report.
Resolved, That the rules appended to the new edition of the Confession of Faith be adopted as general rules for the govern- ment of this Presbytery.
Resolved, That William W. Martin, Isaac Reed, and Samuel S. Graham be a committee to prepare a system of by-laws for this Presbytery. A call having been presented to the Louisville Presbytery by the Salem congregation for one half of the minis- terial labors of the Rev. Wm. W. Martin, which business properly belongs now to the Salem Presbytery, therefore
Resolved, That the installation of Mr. Martin be the order of the day for Saturday at 11 o'clock ; and that Mr. Scott preach the ser- mon, and Mr. Dickey preside and give the charge. Rev. William Martin and Lemuel Ford, an elder of the Charlestown church, were appointed commissioners to the next General Assembly.
Mr. Tilly H. Brown presented himself to Presbytery as a candi- date for the gospel ministry and requested to be taken under its care.
Resolved, That the request of Mr. Brown be attended to to-morrow morning, 8 o'clock. Petitions for supplies were made by the churches of Jefferson, Shiloh, Washington, Graham, Blue River, Dartmouth, and Bloomington. Presbytery then adjourned till to-morrow morning, 8 o'clock. Concluded with prayer.
April 2. Presbytery met according to adjournment and was constituted with prayer. Members present as on yesterday. The minutes of the last session were then read and Presbytery pro- ceeded to the consideration of Mr. Brown's request.
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