USA > Indiana > Contributions to the early history of the Presbyterian Church in Indiana : together with biographical notices of the pioneer ministers > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23
41
THE FIRST MISSIONARIES.
few miles northeast of the Littell settlement,1 but the first house of worship was subsequently erected on the east bank of Silver Creek, near. Mr. Littell's farm, where it became widely known as the Regular Baptist church at Silver Creek. There it still stands, the oldest Protestant church in the state.2
The Methodists came only a little later. The Rev. ' George K. Hester says :
It is believed that the first society formed in the state was organized at Father Robertson's.3 This must have been in the spring of 1803. Then came McGuice and Sullivan. In 1805 Peter Cartwright+ preached in " the Grant," and in the fall of IS05 Asa Shinn and Moses Ashworth preached there. In 1807 the work on this side of the river was organized into Silver Creek cir- cuit with Moses Ashworth for their preacher.5
The "Church of Indiana,"" the oldest .Presbyterian society in the state, was organized by the Rev. Samuel B. Robertson, in 1806, the service being held in the barn of Colonel Small, about two miles east of Vincennes. Though not large, the congregation was composed of ex- cellent material. William Henry Harrison, the young governor, had married a Presbyterian wife, and was him- self a steadfast friend of the society. Its members were, however, chiefly from Kentucky. Well instructed at home, by the occasional visits of Rannels, McGready, Robertson, and Cleland their duty to the faith of their
1 Near Charlestown, Clark County.
2 " Pioneer Preachers of Indiana," by Madison Evans, p. 43.
3 Five miles north of Charlestown. "The first Methodist was Nathan Robertson, who moved from Kentucky to Charlestown in 1799."-Stevens's " History of Methodism," Vol. IV., pp. 152, 153.
4 Cartwright seems to have considered the society he organized in 1808, in the Busroe settlement, the first among the Methodists. See his "Autobiography," p. 55.
5 See Holliday's " Methodism in Indiana," pp. 37, 38.
6 This society was divided into " Upper " and " Lower " Indiana churches by Vin- cennes Presbytery, April 6, 1842. The former retains its original designation. The latter became the " Indiana " church by act of Presbytery, April 15, 1847. The two fragments have equal claims to antiquity. A third division of the membership of the original society became the nucleus of the church which was organized in the town of Vincennes in 1832.
·
42
EARLY INDIANA PRESBYTERIANISM.
fathers had been kept in mind, and they were now to be greatly favored in securing a pastor whom they could love and trust, and for many years retain in a most successful service.
SAMUEL THORNTON SCOTT, to whom belongs the dis- tinction of having first settled as a pastor within the terri- tory, came to the "Indiana" church in 1807. His early years were spent in Woodford County, Ky., near Lexing- ton, where he married Miss Margaret Dunlap. He pur- sued a literary course at Transylvania Academy and studied divinity with Dr. James Blythe. Before the com- pletion of his education he came to Vincennes as a teacher. To this work he was probably summoned by former ac- quaintances, now removed to the neighborhood from Kentucky-the Dennisons from near Lexington and the Buckanans from Gallatin County. 1 He thus became, if we except the French priests, one of the first of the great army of Indiana schoolmasters. December 31, 1803, he received licensure from West Lexington Presbytery, and having preached at various places within its bounds by Presby- terial appointment, he was ordained and installed pastor of Mount Pleasant church December 28, 1805. At a meet- ing of his Presbytery in October, 1807, he is reported absent upon a missionary tour to Knox County, Ind., whither the Assembly of 1806 had commissioned him for three months. This was probably the occasion upon which, while fording the west fork of White River, he lost his hat and his shoe, and was restored to a clerical and presentable condition by General Harrison, to whom he had letters of introduction. Returning home Mr. Scott at once arranged his affairs for a permanent removal to In- diana. He was dismissed from the pastorate of the . Mount Pleasant church October 10, 1808, and soon after
1 " Life and Times of Stephen Bliss," by S. C. Baldridge, p. 71.
.
43
THE FIRST MISSIONARIES.
began the twenty years of continuous service in Knox County, which only his death, December 30, 1827, ter- minated.
Mr. Scott long held his post in the wilderness alone, unsupported except by brethren whom on special occa- sions he called from Kentucky. He "had erected a rude platform in the woods, and supplied a plentiful amount of rustic benches, and thither his fervent spirit had gathered the people for religious worship. Here in this sequestered sylvan sanctuary God had been pleased to show his faithful servant his glory in times of spiritual blessings, and the whole romantic scene was sacred."1 This outdoor pulpit was known as "the Presbyterian Stand." Here it was that McGready sometimes addressed and overpowered great congregations.2 Subsequently, under the pastor's diligent labors, there were three preaching stations in his parish, and no doubt the toil imposed by his isolation in so wide a field shortened his days.
This patriarch of Indiana pastors was of a very social temperament, a fine talker, and a good preacher. With old and young he was always a favorite. He diligently catechized the children, meeting them on Saturdays at pri- vate houses.3 So scrupulous was he in observing the Sabbath that he once declined a carefully-dressed haunch of venison, prepared for him by a parishioner who had had a Sunday hunt, and thereby secured the man's life-long enmity. He was fond of "log-rollings" and "corn- huskings," where, if occasion permitted, he was sure to perpetrate some innocent practical joke. By one' whom
1 " Life and Times of Stephen Bliss," p. 75.
2 The records indicate that meetings of the session previous to 1815 were held at "the Stand."
3 At one of these appointments he was late. On his arrival he explained that he had sent his only hat to Vincennes to be pressed, and forgetting it until the hour of starting, had been compelled to despatch a messenger to a colored man, his nearest neighbor, to borrow a hat.
4 The Rev. John Crozier.
44
EARLY INDIANA PRESBYTERIANISM.
in 1825 he baptized at Paris, Ill., he is remembered as a man of medium height, of rather full habit, about fifty years of age, and wearing goggles.
Mr. Scott's family consisted of two sons and two daugh- ters, Sallie Anne, Alexander Dunlap, Nancy Anne, and Samuel Thornton. The younger daughter became the wife of her father's successor, the Rev. Samuel R. Alexan- der. She died at the homestead, two and one half miles northeast of Vincennes, the estate having passed into the possession of her husband.1
1 The burning of the old parsonage destroyed many valuable MSS., with which have perished authentic details of Mr. Scott's career and of the local history. Mr. Alexander coming to the parish in 1828, the year after the death of Scott, continued to cultivate either the whole or a portion of the field for more than thirty years and until age com- pelled his retirement. His death occurred February 17, 1884.
CHAPTER IV.
HINDRANCES AND DISORDERS INCIDENT TO WAR.
1807-1814.
NATURALLY the first foundations were laid by the Pres- byterians in the midst of the oldest community in the territory, comprising as it did among its prominent citizens representatives of families beyond the southern border which had been conspicuous for their attachment to the church. It will, however, be remembered that while the French occupancy of Vincennes long preceded any other settlement by the whites on the northern bank of the Ohio, there was at a very early day a considerable population upon the "Clark grants," comprising nearly all of Clark County. There, not far from Charlestown, a second little band of Presbyterians was gathered in 1807.1 It was called the "Palmyra" church, in accordance with what seems to have been a decided taste for antiquities in that region, where Bethlehem, Memphis, and Utica still hold their place amidst such modern and homely names as Muddy Fork and Bennetsville. This organization, which soon became extinct and was merged in the later society at Charlestown, was effected by the Rev. James Vance, who had been associated with Cameron in the previous unful- filled commission to Indiana from Transylvania Presbytery. Early in 1807 Samuel B. Robertson was again appointed by the Presbytery "to attend in Knox County, Indiana territory, in order to answer the prayer of a petition from that place."? In 1809 James H. Dickey, bearing a name
1 Dickey's " Brief History," p. 4.
2 " Minutes Transylvania Presbytery," Vol. III., p. 184.
45
46
EARLY INDIANA PRESBYTERIANISM.
which his kinsman was by and by to render famous in the annals of the Indiana church, made a hasty missionary tour to the territory, crossing the border from Kentucky, the Egypt whose granaries then and for years afterward gener- ously supplied the famine of the Word.
From a more distant region, however, a stalwart young minister came in 1810, and contrary to his design was de- tained at Lawrenceburgh. He was the second Presbyterian clergyman who settled within the state, and on that account, as well as for his ability and zeal, deserves a recognition which he has hitherto failed to receive.1
SAMUEL BALDRIDGE, the third of twelve children of Scotch-Irish parents, John and Margaret (Ferrel) Bald- ridge, was born near Guilford Court House, N. C., March 21, 1780. When he was about fourteen years of age the family removed to Cook County, Tenn., and settled on the French Broad River. As he approached manhood his brother James, the eldest of the children, in company with him built a saw and grist-mill on Clear Creek, an affluent of the French Broad. At this period occurred his conver- sion. Thereupon making known a desire to connect him- self with the Presbyterian Church, his father, a determined adherent of the Covenanters, interposed, and assured his son that such a step should disinherit him. As Samuel persisted in following his convictions of duty the threat was executed.
In 1778 Samuel Doak, a man of strong faith and ardent zeal, having graduated at Princeton three years before, settled on the Holston, in the midst of a few families of Scotch-Irish emigrants from Virginia, organized a church, and in a log building on his farm opened a school. Thither, about thirty miles from home, the young convert went, and in due time graduated from Dr. Doak's
1 There is no mention even of his name by Dickey, Johnston, or the other local historians. See, however, Monfort's " Presbyterianism North of the Ohio," pp. 8, 10.
K
47
HINDRANCES INCIDENT TO WAR.
academy, already chartered and known as "Washington College." 1 On the first Tuesday in September, 1805, being a candidate under the care of Abingdon Presbytery, he and two others, Reuben White and Alexander M. Nelson, were "directed to turn their attention to the study of divinity under the inspection of some member or mem- bers of Presbytery and they were allowed to prepare and deliver exhortations."? January 23, 1806, he married Lucinda Doak, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Doak, a lady of attractive person and of unusual intelligence and piety. He was licensed at Salem church, Washington County, the pastoral charge of his father-in-law, on the 5th of October, 1807, and on the eleventh of the subsequent October was ordained and installed pastor of the Rock Spring and Glade Spring congregations.
Meanwhile his father had removed, in 1808, to Ohio, and Mr. Baldridge, appointed commissioner to the General Assembly in 1809, visited him at Hamilton. The beauty and fertility of the region, together with his growing aversion to slavery, induced the young man to resign his pastorate in Tennessee and request a dismission to the Presbytery of Washington, Synod of Kentucky. With his wife and two children he came across the great wilder- ness of Tennessee and Kentucky, transporting all the household effects in wagons. They reached Lawrence- burgh, Ind., in safety in the summer of 1810, and were welcomed there by old friends from east Tennessee.3 Mr.
I The Rev. Arthur T. Rankin, long a Presbyterian "bishop " in Decatur County, whose father's "little red house " at Ripley, Ohio, was a famous station on the " under- ground railroad," and whose mother was a Doak, well remembers the coming of his uncle Baldridge, on his bob-tail bay horse, to visit at the Ripley parsonage. He says that at the Doak Academy ambition was stimulated to the utmost by personal rivalry. The man who could first hasten through the curriculum was the first to receive his degree. At one time there was an eager strife for precedence between John Rankin and Samuel G. Lowry, whose name appears later in the Indiana history. By the hardest work the former got through first and became for a time the latter's tutor.
2 " Minutes Abingdon Presbytery."
3 Mr. Chambers had been a ruling elder there.
48
EARLY INDIANA PRESBYTERIANISM.
Baldridge was induced to remain in the settlement. It was missionary ground. The fertile valleys of the Ohio and Whitewater were attracting a large and enterprising population, but there were neither church organizations nor houses of worship. In order to secure a maintenance the missionary procured a large dwelling and opened an English classical school, like his former preceptor accus- toming his pupils, during the recitations and at the table, to converse in Latin. Before he had connected himself with Washington Presbytery that Presbytery was divided, October 11, 1810, and Joshua L. Wilson, Matthew G. Wallace, William Robinson, James Welch, and himself were constituted into the Presbytery of Miami. He was appointed to supply statedly the vacancies at Lawrence- burgh and Whitewater. In this work he continued for two years, maintaining his school and preaching in private houses and under the forest's roof as he found oppor- tunity. He also studied medicine at Lawrenceburgh, and became a successful physician, with a considerable practice.
Presbytery directed him, September 12, IS12, to spend two weeks in the vacancies above Dayton, "the barrens of Ohio," at his discretion. October 5, 1813, he was dis- missed to the Presbytery of Washington, which received him at the spring meeting of the following year, when, April, 1814, he became stated supply of Washington and London. At the latter place he had several students in medicine. In 1815 he supplied London and Treacle's Creek. He was dismissed April 8, 1818, to the Presbytery of Lancaster, and the following spring took charge of the churches of Salt Creek (now Chandlersville), Buffalo (now New Cumberland), and Pleasant Hill (now New Con- cord), and was the next June installed as pastor. This relation continued until April, 1823, when he was released from Buffalo and Salt Creek congregations, remaining pas- tor of the Pleasant Hill church for another year. In 1824
-
49
HINDRANCES INCIDENT TO WAR.
he removed to Jeromeville, whose pulpit he supplied. Here he built a residence, apparently designing to make the place a permanent home. He continued a lucrative practice of medicine. He also supplied the Perrysville and Rehoboth congregations, and preached occasionally at many other points, a service in which he delighted. But here two misfortunes came. August 18, 1825, he lost his wife, and soon after was compelled to relinquish his prop- erty, held as security for another's debts.
In the summer of 1828, having previously, May 25, 1826, been united in marriage with Mary, daughter of Jonathan Coulter, Esq., of Perrysville, he returned to Indi- ana and settled at Eugene, Vermilion County. April 4, 1832, he was dismissed to the Presbytery of Vincennes, having removed to "Honey Creek parsonage" and taken charge of Honey Creek and New Hope churches. Says his son : 1
My first recollections are connected with that old parsonage. It was a hewed-log building, and stood at the edge of a grove of wild cherry and mulberry trees. Fronting a wide low prairie, it looked out toward Sullivan, then known as Prairieton. The whole region was at times overflowed by the Wabash and looked like a sea. A June freshet once came within a few yards of the door. In this romantic and secluded spot it was that the great calamity of Dr. Baldridge's life occurred-an attack of palsy. He had just left a patient and was mounting his horse at the gate when the blow fell. He was taken home in an unconscious state and so remained for several weeks. Subsequently he woke as from a sleep. When he was able to sit up he one day noticed the books in his library, and after surveying them in silence at last asked what they were. My mother tried in vain, by reading their titles, to recall them to his mind. He subsequently asked that a book might be laid upon his lap, but even the letters were a mystery. My mother has said that she then had a full sense of the bitterness of her grief, and that she could never, yielding to his importunity, sit down with a book to teach him his alphabet
1 The Rev. Samuel C. Baldridge, D.D., Hanover, Ind., who has furnished MSS. for the narrative of his father's life.
50
EARLY INDIANA PRESBYTERIANISM.
without uncontrollable weeping. One day, however, as she was going through the weary task her husband suddenly turned to her with dilated eyes and exclaimed, " I see it all." From this time the past gradually yielded up its lost treasures. But his power was gone.
He now removed to Paris, Ill., where he bought a farm and lived for some years. He afterward exchanged it for land within the bounds of New Providence church, between Paris and Terre Haute. "Here the family lived for some years, learning how God can supply all our need. ‘He gave us bread to eat and raiment to put on.'" About 1840 Dr. Baldridge was invited to the church in Kalida, Putnam County, Ohio. He had preached occasionally before-" could not live without preaching"-but had no regular work since 1830. For a time he also preached at Dillsborough, Ind. Thence, about 1843, he removed to Ox- ford, Ohio, to give a son the advantages of the university, but thinking that the president was too little emphatic in his attitude toward slavery, he left Oxford for Hanover, Ind., in 1844. Two years later his home was finally broken up by the death of his wife, who had exhibited great pru- dence and cheerfulness in the midst of trial, and he found a resting-place at the house of his son, the Rev. Samuel C. Baldridge, where he died February 29, 1860. His re- mains were taken to Hanover, where they lie buried with his second wife.
Dr. Baldridge was adapted to his era. It was easy for him to move. Attachment to localities never hindered him. He rejoiced to preach in new and destitute regions, in pri- vate houses, and the summer woods. There are abundant testimonies to the power and ability of his preaching. At Jeromeville his overflowing congregations were gathered from the whole district around, many walking ten miles to hear him. After the lapse of sixty-six years a sermon preached in a private house near Lawrenceburgh was re-
51
HINDRANCES INCIDENT TO WAR.
membered vividly by one who was present, perhaps the sole survivor. He was recognized by his fellow-laborers as a "born missionary," and his zeal and energy were honored by frequent appointments to the most arduous itinerant labors. He accepted joyfully the heat and burden of the day. He was of the same spirit, had the same vigor of constitution and the same delight in preach- ing that characterized the Gallaghers and Nelsons and Hendersons-that whole generation of evangelists that sprang up in east Tennessee under the training of Dr. Doak. "I have heard him say," writes his son, "that in his prime after a hard day's ride as a physician it would rest him to preach in the evening."
Dr. Baldridge was an accomplished conversationalist. His Irish spirits were exuberant. His life began with bril- liant promise, but the sun went down at noon. With the single exception of Mr. Scott, at Vincennes, he was the first Presbyterian minister to become a resident of Indiana. He preceded William Robinson nearly four years.
In 1811 (as also in 1819) the name of STEPHEN BOVELLE appears as a missionary to the state from the General Assembly. He had received licensure October 10, 1794, from Transylvania Presbytery, but his career was a checkered one. 1
The following year the Charlestown church in Clark County was constituted by the Rev. Joseph B. Lapsley, a nephew of Cleland, an amiable young man, and a recent graduate of Lexington, Va." But society was already in commotion on account of the opening war with Great Brit- ain, a strife which sterner motives than those of patriotism brought home to the scattered settlements in the Ohio valley. The forests were still the haunts of savages, willing
1 " Minutes Transylvania Presbytery," Vol. II., pp. 139, 178, 186, 187.
2 " Life of Cleland," p. 76.
52
EARLY INDIANA PRESBYTERIANISM.
now, as often before, to sell themselves for British promises to Britain's emissaries. It was not a period for successful evangelistic labor. The war, however, summoned from Cincinnati to Fort Wayne a young man whose name has just been mentioned among the original members of Miami Presbytery. "When General Harrison, in Sep- tember, 1812, marched to the relief of the garrison here, then besieged by the Indians, the expedition was accom- panied," says Judge Jesse L. Williams, "by Rev. Mat- thew G. Wallace, as chaplain of the army. If, as may be presumed, he preached to the soldiers while here, his was the first proclamation of the gospel, in Protestant form, on this ground."' More than a century earlier the voice of the Romish priest had doubtless been heard at "Kekionga," and the rites of religion had been celebrated there, but not until the French had long been expelled and the English were once more struggling for their lost dominion was the Bible brought by a Protestant minister to this ancient home of the red man.
MATTHEW G. WALLACE afterward returned to Indiana to hold for years an important pastorate. A licenciate of New Castle Presbytery, the successor of Peter Wilson at Cincinnati, where he preached from April, ISoo, to April, 1804, previous to 1809 he had supplied the churches at Springfield and Hambleton, and in 1814 he had charge of the congregations at Hamilton, Seven Mile, and Dick's Creek, Ohio.2
About the year 1831 two brothers named Wallace were suc- cessfully operating a saw-mill near where now stands Hulman's mammoth distillery [Terre Haute], and it having come to the knowledge of the people that their father was a Presbyterian minister, a subscription was circulated and a year's salary made up whereupon the Rev. Matthew G. Wallace was invited to
1 " Historical Sketch of the First Presbyterian Church, Fort Wayne," p. 12.
2 Gillett's " History," Vol. II., pp. 126, 151.
-
53
HINDRANCES INCIDENT TO WAR.
preach for one year. This was all done before the people had ever seen Mr. Wallace. He was a man of positive, severe char- acter and kept charge of the church under many embarrassments, and notwithstanding various divisions, for nearly twenty years.1
In the winter of 1850-1, overtaken by the infirmities of age, Mr. Wallace resigned his pastorate, his death oc- curring July 15, 1854.
Though McGready, Robertson, Kemper, Vance, James H. Dickey, Bovelle, Lapsley, and Wallace occasionally preached the gospel in the territory during the seven years subsequent to Scott's settlement at Vincennes, and though for two years Baldridge was residing at Lawrence- burgh, it is evident that little was accomplished or attempted in behalf of the people north of the Ohio until peace was reëstablished. Under its pastor's care the "Indiana" church prospered in a quiet way, but the Palmyra society died and the Charlestown flock remained shepherdless. No doubt the accounts preserved by Bishop and Davidson2 of the irreligion and disorder which char- acterized this period in Kentucky might be repeated with increased emphasis concerning the newer Indiana settle- ments. A Kentucky town containing two or three thou- sand inhabitants, and which ten years after sustained three large churches, could not now collect a congregation. for a missionary who visited it.
The negroes were standing in the streets laughing and swear- ing ; the boys playing and hallooing; the men in the outskirts of the town shooting at pigeons, of which immense flocks were fly- ing over the place ; the more respectable class of gentlemen riding out for amusement. In short, the only peculiar mark of attention by which the Sabbath day was distinguished was that there was more noise, more profanity, and more wickedness than on any other day of the seven.
1 Sterrett's MS. "History of the Presbyterian Church in Terre Haute."
2 " Memoir of Rice," p. 109. Cf. Davidson's " Kentucky," Chap XI. See also " The Western Sketch-Book," by Rev. James Gallagher, pp. 21, 22.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.