USA > Indiana > Contributions to the early history of the Presbyterian Church in Indiana : together with biographical notices of the pioneer ministers > Part 5
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EARLY INDIANA PRESBYTERIANISM.
This was the experience of Samuel J. Mills, the leader of the praying band at Williams College, from which sprang our modern missions to the heathen world, and who, in 1814-5, with Daniel Smith, accomplished, under the direc- tion of the Massachusetts Missionary Society, a tour of exploration through "that part of the United States which lies west of the Allegheny Mountains."' He says in his report :
Indiana, notwithstanding the war, is peopling very fast. Its set- tlements are bursting forth on the right hand and on the left. In ISIo there were in the territory 24,500 inhabitants ; now they are computed by the governor at 35,000, by others at 30,000, and by some at 50,000. Its principal settlements are on the Miami and Whitewater, on the Ohio (extending in some places twenty miles back), and on the Wabash and White Rivers. Many small neigh- borhoods have received an addition of from twenty to forty fami- lies during the last summer. When we entered this territory there was but one Presbyterian clergyman in it, Mr. Scott of Vin- cennes. He was valiantly maintaining his post there for six years past. He has three places of preaching, and although he has not been favored with an extensive revival, yet his labors have been blessed to the edification of his congregations. His church con- sists of about seventy members. Between the forks of White River there is also a Presbyterian congregation in which there are about thirty communicants, and we have lately heard that a clergyman has settled among them .? In the state of Ohio we saw the Rev. William Robinson. He informed us that he expected soon to remove to the territory and establish himself at Madison on the Ohio. It is probable, then, that there are now three Pres-
1 Associated with John F. Schermerhorn, Mills had attempted a similar service two years earlier. See " A Correct View of that part of the United States which lies west of the Allegheny Mountains, with regard to Religion and Morals," Hartford, 1814. In this rare pamphlet, prepared almost entirely from Schermerhorn's manuscripts, there is but slight reference to Indiana. "The best lands in this territory are still claimed by the Indians. . Between the falls of Ohio and Vincennes there are a few houses. . There is only one Presbyterian minister in this rapidly-settling territory."-Pp. 30, 31.
? This was the Washington church, Davies County, established by Samuel T. Scott in August of the previous year (1814), the fourth organization in the territory. The Rev. John M. Dickey had spent a few Sabbaths with the society in December, 1814, but he was not yet settled there.
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byterian clergymen in the territory. But what are they for the supply of so many thousands? They are obliged to provide prin- cipally for their own support, by keeping school through the week or by manual labor. They have therefore very little time to itinerate. The settlements on the Miami and Whitewater we did not visit, but were informed by missionaries who have occasion- ally labored there that they afford promising fields of usefulness. Probably congregations might be formed there. Places of preach- ing where considerable numbers of people would assemble might be established with short intervals from Lawrenceburgh, near the mouth of the Miami, to Jeffersonville on the Falls of the Ohio. In the vicinity of the Falls are two other flourishing little villages, Charlestown and New Albany. It is of high importance that the standard of the truth should be immediately planted there, for these places or some of them must soon become rich and populous towns. At Charlestown there is a small Presbyte- rian church. But it languishes for want of the bread and of the water of life. Leaving the river and proceeding a little further west we came to other flourishing settlements. Corydon is the
present seat of government for the territory. Salem, a county seat, has near it three other places where churches might be formed. These settlements are yet in their infancy. It is said, however, that they are able to support a minister. And yet there are people here who for five years past have not seen the face of a Presbyterian clergyman. Their hearts have been grieved at the neglect of their brethren to send them any aid. When they saw us they shed tears of joy. In that part of the territory that lies on the Wabash there are settlements both above and below Vincennes that deserve the attention of missionary bodies, partic- ularly those above, on Bussaron. An immense number of settlers have been crowding out on that frontier during the last season.
We have now given a brief view of the principal settlements in the Indiana territory. If one or two faithful missionaries could be sent into it to travel through it and search it out, to collect con- gregations and organize churches, who can tell how much good might be done? They might become the fathers of the churches there. Thousands would rise up hereafter and call them blessed.1
The date of this report of Mills is January 20, 1815.
1 " Report of a Missionary Tour through that part of the United States which lies west of the Allegheny Mountains, performed under the direction of the Massachusetts Missionary Society by Samuel J. Mills and Daniel Smith," Andover, 1815, pp. 15, 16.
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EARLY INDIANA PRESBYTERIANISM.
What was the religious condition of Indiana just as the second war with Great Britain was closing he presents with evident accuracy.
In December, 1814, WILLIAM ROBINSON, whom Mills "saw in Ohio," reached Indiana. Though directly from Miami Presbytery no doubt it was his former association with Kentucky ministers who had forded the Indiana streams and heard the bark of the Indiana wolves that turned him westward. He was a native of Ireland, but, coming to America with his father when a child, he found a home in Pennsylvania.1 There he learned the wheel- wright's trade, which enabled him afterward to defray the expenses of a literary course at Washington, Pa. About the year 1792 he emigrated to Kentucky, where he studied theology under the tutorship of the Rev. Samuel Finley. He was taken under the care of Transylvania Presbytery, October 3, 1793, and was ordained over the Mount Pleasant and Indian Creek churches, August 11, 1796.2 These churches he had himself organized soon after his licensure and he continued to preach to them through the memorable revival of 1800. On the 13th of August, 1799, he married Miss Esther Grey, a member of the Mount Pleasant congregation.
In the autumn of 1803 he removed to Montgomery County, Ohio, and immediately organized the churches of Dayton and Sugar Creek. The following year he organ- ized the Honey Creek society and labored as its minister until 1810,3 when he settled at Lebanon, Warren County. Between the congregation there and at Monger's settle- ment his time was equally divided. At Lebanon he was
1 He was a member of the " Buffalo congregation " (Davidson's " Kentucky," p. 121).
2 " Minutes Transylvania Presbytery," Vol. II., p. 107, and filed papers. "Minutes West Lexington Presbytery," Vol. I., pp. 76, 95. Cited by Davidson.
3 Gillett's " History," Vol. 11., p. 126.
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also engaged successfully as a teacher, some of his pupils afterward attaining high positions.
It was in the winter of 1814 that Mr. Robinson " came to the village of Madison to teach, and was soon engaged by the handful of Presbyterians here to preach to them."' The following year he organized a church and gathered a congregation. There was at the time no house of wor- ship2 and he was accustomed to preach in what some of the older generation still remember as the "buckeye" court- house. He also continued to maintain his school.3 Here and in the immediate vicinity, especially at South Han- over, his work proceeded until 1819. He then settled in Bethlehem, Clark County. In that village and in the sur- rounding district he preached regularly for two or three years, but in 1822 a dropsical malady proved so severe that he was almost entirely disabled for ministerial work. Sometimes, however, when unable to stand, he would de- liver the gospel message from his pulpit chair. The dis- ease making constant progress, he was at last rendered completely helpless, and in this condition he lingered for two or three years, until March 28, 1827, when, at a good old age, he died. He was laid to rest in the cemetery near Bethlehem. It was with difficulty that the unmarked grave was recently identified. 4
Mr. Robinson was one of the original members of Salem Presbytery. He was also one of the four ministers set off
1 Simpson's " History of the First Church, Madison," p. I.
" There were but two Presbyterian meeting-houses in the territory, both of logs and both near Vincennes in the "Indiana " parish. The first residence in Madison was built in 1809, but in 1709 Vincennes was a town.
8 Mrs. James H. Johnston was one of his pupils.
4 The minister upon the field wrote April, 1876 : " I can find no one who is able to point me to his grave. I found an ancient-looking grave, at the head of which there is a rough native limestone with the inscription, ' J. J. R., 1835,' supposed to be for one of his sons. By the side of it is a grave very much sunken, at the head of which is a small stone in its rough native state and uninscribed. This is supposed to be the grave of the Rev. William Robinson." According to the later testimony of a member of the family this surmise is correct.
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EARLY INDIANA PRESBYTERIANISM.
to form Madison Presbytery, and at its first meeting, April 7, 1826, he preached the opening sermon from Jeremiah xlviii. : 10.
Like other pioneers, he suffered many privations, but happily he had been accustomed in early life to manual toil. Thus he was able to supplement the meager minis- terial support while it continued, and afterward, when even that failed him with his failing health, his mechanical skill was almost his sole reliance. A wheelwright in his youth, in the " Buffalo congregation," Pennsylvania, in his old age, at Bethlehem, he turned to wool-carding. At various times he availed himself also of the scanty fees of a schoolmaster. But with thirteen children to maintain it is not surprising that "the family sometimes felt the pinching hand of poverty." The ministers of that day, doing their utmost to earn the opportunity of preaching the gospel, were content if they succeeded in saving those dependent on them from actual want.
During all his residence in Indiana Mr. Robinson seems to have also been hindered by feeble health. A pupil at Madison remembers his distressing cough in the school- room, his tall spare frame and pale face ; and when, a few years later, he transferred his residence to Bethlehem, he was soon attacked by the disease which terminated his life. It will therefore be easy to account for the statement of one who knew him at Madison,1 that "although living there several years he preached but little in the town" ; and for the impression of another that he was "less engaged than some of the ministers of his time in missionary tours."2
The qualities of the man were those which a Scotch-Irish parentage so commonly implies. He was sturdy and pos-
1 Dr. McClure.
2 He is said to have made two journeys, however, through destitute regions of the state. The only society constituted by him, according to Dickey's " Brief History," was the church at Madison.
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sibly in some instances stubborn and abrupt. Something of the old-country ideas as to the rights of a parish minister may have been born in him, and he did not care to have his labors supplemented by intruders, however respectable their commissions. A young man who ventured into the place in the winter of 1818-9, under the auspices of the General Assembly's Committee of Missions, was not warmly welcomed by the "incumbent." The minister in possession could not discern the necessity of the mission- ary's visit nor the value of his labors.
There was something of the same independent judgment in Mr. Robinson's attitude toward the new movement to promote total abstinence. The reform had few supporters, and among clergymen in the woods it was not unusual to indulge in a moderate daily dram.1 Mr. Robinson's indulgence, according to abundant testimony, was not at all beyond what the habits of the day fully approved, but his liberty, such as it was, he was disposed to defend. In a neighboring pulpit it happened that the cause of temper- ance had a very zealous and able advocate." From that quarter the whisky barrel got many a rap. When the echoes reached "Father Robinson" he declared that ais brother "might preach against whisky if he pleased, but as for himself he would drink it."
There was also a trace of Scotch-Irish thriftiness in his character. It seems that at one time he had a little "store" in Madison. 3 " By secular employments he made much of his small salary," says one. Some of his neighbors, per- haps less prudent themselves, thought he carried his thrifty methods too far. But such devices were a necessity in those days, and all the pioneers were obliged to work their way
1 Cf. Prime's " Memoirs of Goodell," pp. 18-21.
: We are fortunate in having a brief notice of Mr. Robinson from the MSS. of Father Dickey, who relates this incident and who was probably himself the preacher referred to.
$ This is the impression of Dr. McClure.
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to a Sunday pulpit, or a "sacramental four-days' meeting," or a protracted preaching tour, through much intermediate " weariness and painfulness " on the farm or in the shop or school.1 If there was any mistake in Mr. Robinson's case it was in his looking less than some are inclined to do for the falling of manna from heaven for his hungry children. His habits no doubt prevented those frequent and protracted missionary journeys which extended so widely the useful- ness of many ministers of that day.
As a preacher Mr. Robinson, while not brilliant, had ac- knowledged elements of power. He must have retained something of the unction of the Kentucky revival through which he labored. Impenitent men were accustomed to say : " He cuts to the heart. No sermons I hear trouble me like his. There is no getting away from them.""
1 Cf. " Report of Smith and Mills's Tour," p. 16.
2 MS. of the Rev. John M. Dickey.
CHAPTER V.
THE WAR OVER AND THE WORK ADVANCED.
1815.
THE war was now over. The movement of immigrants to Indiana, already in progress according to Mills's report, notwithstanding the disorders and perils of the frontier, with the coming of peace received a fresh impulse. There was increased necessity for missionary effort and the call was promptly answered. In 1815 the General Assembly sent to the territory, for brief periods of service, Daniel Gray, from the Carolinas, Joseph Anderson, a Pennsyl- vanian, and James Welch, of Transylvania Presbytery. The Pittsburg Missionary Society was also instructed to engage others for the field. But these were all mere horseback riders. However faithful, their labors were too transient for large results.
The year is signalized by the appearance of a different company. The man rides a horse, indeed ; but he has his wife and baby behind him, and his bed and kitchen stuff close by. He comes to spend his life for the people of the wilderness and to make his grave among them. It is John McElroy Dickey-plain, modest, resolute, tireless, true, sweet-voiced " Father Dickey." " His name," says Gillett, " will stand deservedly conspicuous as the father of the Presbyterian Church in Indiana."'
JOHN MCELROY DICKEY was born in York district, S. C., December 16, 1789. His grandfather, of Scotch-
1 Gillett's "History," Vol. II., p 397.
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Irish descent, came from Ireland to America about the year 1737. His father, David Dickey, was twice married, first on March 28, 1775, to Margaret Robeson, who died four months after her marriage; and subsequently, Sep- tember 4, 1788, to Margaret Stephenson. John was the first-born and only son of this latter marriage. He had four sisters, of whom one died in infancy.
His parents were in humble circumstances, but of excel- lent Christian character. David Dickey was a man of unusual intelligence, and, according to the testimony of his son, had remarkable self-control. "I never saw him angry but once," the latter declared ; " nor did I ever see him manifest peevishness or fretfulness, even in old age." No pressure of business could ever induce him to omit the customary household worship or other religious duties. For years he taught the neighborhood school, and when John was but three years of age carried him to it daily. Of such a man the wife was a true helpmeet. Like Han- nah, she had given her son to God and formally devoted him to his service. It was her habit, while at the wheel spinning flax or cotton, to gather her children about her for instruction in the Shorter Catechism. "To my mother," said Mr. Dickey, "more than to any other human being, am I indebted for what I am. In the midst of doubts, fears, discouragements, and toils, it has often been a source of consolation to know that I had a mother who, in covenant with God, gave me up to him and to the work of the ministry. If all mothers were like her, the Lord's vineyard could not long lack laborers."
Under such a home influence, the children all grew insensibly into the habits of piety, and were unable to fix the time when their early religious experience began. The son became familiar with the Scriptures, the Confession of Faith, and Form of Government of the Presbyterian Church-the reading books of that day-and the founda-
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THE WORK ADVANCED.
tions were permanently laid for the clear theological views of his subsequent ministry. At four years of age it is said that he had read the Bible through. Not much later he was acquiring a considerable knowledge of mathe- matics, under his father's instruction, and aided by a coal and pine board. He eagerly improved his humble oppor- tunities for study, until new advantages were providen- tially opened to him by the removal of the family north- ward in 1803. David Dickey, though reared in a slave state, looked upon slavery as a curse, and sought to de- liver his family from its influence ; but upon leaving South Carolina he found himself obliged by circumstances to remain in Livingston County, Ky. After assisting for two or three years in the labor of clearing and cultivating his father's land, John went to study under the direction of his cousin, the Rev. William Dickey,' about a mile from his own home. The manse, however, had but one room, and the proprietor had several children of his own. Young Dickey, therefore, built a shelter near the house where he might keep his books and study. Thus he read Virgil and the Greek Testament, remaining with his cousin for about eighteen months. A school was then opened by the Rev. Dr. Nathan H. Hall, at Hardin's Creek church, two hundred and fifty miles distant, whither he determined to make his way. His father was quite unable to assist him, but John had secured a colt on the farm and raised it, so that he was now in possession of a fine young horse. Thus mounted, with perhaps two dollars in money, he set out upon the long journey. For board and lodging he
1 The valuable notice of Mr. Dickey, in Sprague's " Annals," is marred by several inaccuracies. The Rev. William Dickey appears as Wilson; Mr. Dickey's great- grandfather is said to have emigrated from Ireland about 1740, whereas it was his grand- father, who came several years earlier than that date; Muhlenburg Presbytery is changed to Mecklenburg; the date of the organization of Salem Presbytery is set forward seven years; Columbus, Ohio, is substituted for Columbus, Ind. The appended communications from Mr. Dickey's ministerial brethren are singularly pictorial and just.
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sold his horse to a Mr. McElroy, and entered with zeal upon his studies. The horse ran away and was never recovered, but the student was already a favorite, and con- tinued a member of the McElroy household until his course at Dr. Hall's school was completed. He gave such assistance as he could in the labors of the farm, and all further compensation was refused by the hospitable host. It was thus that afterward, to avoid confusion often arising from the commonness of his own name, Mr. Dickey added McElroy to John. Soon becoming an assistant teacher in the school, he was enabled to support himself, at the same time working hard at his own course of study.
Here he remained nearly two years, when he entered upon the study of theology with the cousin who had previ- ously been his instructor, and with the Rev. John Howe, at Glasgow, Ky. He was licensed to preach by Muhlen- burg Presbytery, August 29, 1814, in the twenty-fifth year of his age, having already, November 18 of the previous year, been united in marriage with Miss Nancy W., daughter of William and Isabel (Miller) McClesky, of Abbeville district, S. C.
In December, after his licensure, he made a visit to Indiana, and spent a few Sabbaths at what is now Wash- ington, Davies County, with a church that had been con- stituted, in August of the same year, by the Rev. Samuel Thornton Scott, Indiana's first resident Presbyterian minister. There were now but two other organized Pres- byterian societies within the limits of Indiana territory- the "Indiana" church, near Vincennes, constituted in 1806, and the Charlestown church, established in 1812. A church formed in 1807, and known as the "Palmyra " church, had become extinct. There were but two Presbyterian meeting-houses, both of logs, and both in the " Indiana" parish. But two Presbyterian ministers were already
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THE WORK ADVANCED.
settled in Indiana,1 Mr. Scott and the Rev. William Robinson.
/ Mr. Dickey engaged to return to the Washington con- gregation, and accordingly, in May, 1815,2 still a licentiate under the care of Muhlenburg Presbytery, he set out for his home in the wilderness, with his wife and their infant daughter. The family and all their earthly goods were carried on the backs of two horses. His library con- sisted of a Bible, Buck's "Theological Dictionary," Bun- yan's "Pilgrim's Progress," and Fisher's "Catechism." When the ferriage across the Ohio was paid, they had a single shilling left.
Now began the self-denials and struggles of pioneer life. It was impossible to expect a comfortable support from the feeble congregation. There was little money in the neigh- borhood. Taxes were partly paid in raccoon skins, fox skins, and " wolf-scalps." People lived on what they could raise from the small clearings, by barter, and by hunting. Indians still occasioned annoyance and anxiety. Corn was pounded in mortars or rubbed on tin graters. Wheat flour was seldom seen. Fruit was rare, except the wild plums, grapes, gooseberries, and pawpaws. Mr. Dickey, therefore, aided the support of his family by farming on a small scale,3 teaching a singing-class, and writing deeds, wills, and advertisements. He also sur- veyed land, and sometimes taught school. Much of this work was done gratuitously, but it secured the friendship of the people. His average salary, including money and gifts, of which he kept a record, even to the minutest de- tail, for the first sixteen years was eighty dollars. In some way he secured forty acres of land, to which he sub-
1 The Rev. Samuel Baldridge, M. D., had, in 1810, settled at Lawrenceburgh, but before Mr. Dickey's arrival had removed to Ohio.
2 Dickey's " Brief History," pp. 12, 13.
3 The character of the man came out, however, in the style of his farming. It was so thorough and intelligent that the productiveness of his fields was proverbial.
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sequently added eighty acres. Twenty or thirty acres he cleared, chiefly by his own labor. With his neighbors' help he built his first house in the woods. It was a small log-cabin-the floor of slabs split and hewed from oak and poplar trees ; the windows small, greased paper serving instead of glass ; the chimney partly of stone and partly of sticks, and daubed with clay. In later years he erected a schoolhouse on his farm, and made sash with his own hands for the small glass then in use. He was "handy" with tools, and fashioned the woodwork of his plows and other farming implements. Often would less skilful neigh- bors work for him in the field, while he "stalked " their plows, or made them a harrow or rake. He also had a set of shoemaker's tools, mending the shoes of his family and often those of his neighbors. He could himself cut out and make a neat shoe, but "never liked the work, and avoided it if possible." Music he read with great facility, supplying the lack of books with his pen, several of these manuscript volumes being carefully kept by his children. He was not unaccustomed, on special occasions, to com- pose both music and hymns for the use of the congrega- tion. Under his management the winter singing-school became a prominent and happy feature of the life in the wilderness.
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