USA > Indiana > Contributions to the early history of the Presbyterian Church in Indiana : together with biographical notices of the pioneer ministers > Part 9
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
-
103
A NOTABLE QUARTET.
Winchester, Clark County, and was ordained in the fall of 1813. This first pastorate he held for six years, being also engaged a part of the time as teacher and editor.
But Mr. Martin was restless under the shadow of slav- ery. Neither his judgment nor conscience approved it, and he resolved to seek a settlement in a free state. 'He first crossed the Ohio upon a brief tour of observation in 1817,1 and in May of the year following removed perma- nently to Indiana. Taking charge of the congregations of Livonia, Salem, and Blue River, he resided for a year at Salem in the family of Mr. Young, an elder, when he removed to the neighborhood of Livonia, securing there a little farm. It was in this immediate vicinity that most of his subsequent life was spent, for though he several times went to other fields, the old flock always called him back, and it never was in his heart to refuse them. Livonia was his home. Until his formal pastoral settlement over the Livonia church in April, 1821, the three congregations shared his labors equally, but from that date the Blue River society was entrusted to other hands. After thirteen years of continuous service at Livonia Mr. Martin finally asked Presbytery to release him from that charge, his service at Salem having ceased two or three years before .? He removed in 1831 to Paoli, preaching there for a year, and at the same time serving the Orleans church, which he had himself organized September 27, 1818. His subsequent removals were to Princeton, Gibson County, where he labored one year ; to West Salem, where and in adjacent fields he preached until June, 1834 ; and to South Han- over, whose pulpit he supplied until the autumn of 1835. It must not be supposed, however, that Mr. Martin's influ- ence was confined to his small rural parishes. Through-
1 He then administered the communion in a grove near the village of Salem.
2 The Rev. Benjamin C. Cressy, a polished preacher and a devoted man, came from New England and assumed the care of the Salem congregation in the autumn of 1829.
.
IO.4
EARLY INDIANA PRESBYTERIANISM.
out this period, and through his whole career in Indiana, he was a tireless bishop, traveling far and near to serve the entire Presbyterian community.1
Since his departure from Livonia his former flock had been shepherdless, but their bleating was not in vain. In November, 1835, he resumed his pastorate, and on the twenty-fifth of November, 1837, occurred his second installation over this church. Eighty acres of land, one mile southwest of Livonia, were now presented to him by the congregation, and there he reestablished his hospitable home. Six years later the pastoral relation was again dis- solved (April 5, 1843) that he might remove to Bloom- ington and superintend the education of his sons.
He occupied the pulpit in that place until April, 1845, when he once more came back to Livonia, continuing his minis- try to the local society and to the contiguous neighbor- hoods until his death, which occurred September 10, 1850.2 His body rests in the Livonia cemetery.
The position of Mr. Martin among the Indiana pioneers was unique. He was essentially an orator. Of slender form, quite six feet in height, and of fair complexion, he was in youth a very handsome man and was beautiful even in age. He was emotional in his nature, full of senti- ment and of tears. His voice was both sweet and powerful. It is not strange that such gifts commanded the attention of the populace upon the frontier. Nor is it surprising that under the control of a piety 'uncommonly warm and true he was sometimes, in the pulpit, and especially during the sacramental seasons in the woods which captivated his heart and stirred him to the depths, in the highest degree eloquent. ? Earlier academical advantages, and in later life
1 In these self-denying labors he spent his entire private fortune, received mainly from his wife, and amounting to ten or twelve thousand dollars.
2 During his ministry in Indiana Mr. Martin organized the churches of Franklin, Orleans, Paoli, Palestine, Bono, Princeton, West Salem, and Vincennes, assisting also in the organization of the First Church at Indianapolis.
105
A NOTABLE QUARTET.
larger opportunities for reflection, would no doubt have pruned his fancy, but there are abundant proofs that he was accustomed to sway the multitudes at his will by his impassioned addresses.
Father Martin's face was striking-large, serious, at times sad and stern, but usually genial in expression, often lighted up by:a remarkably tender, wistful, and loving look, as though secretly yearning for your salvation. . .. In practical preaching or exhor- tations upon some of the great doctrines of the cross and in revival labors, he had few superiors in his day. His manner was grave, solemn, always earnest and often impassioned, having the "accent of conviction," so transparently sincere that every one who heard him knew that he himself had felt in his own heart the power of the truth. It was while attending the meeting of Salem Presby- tery at Livonia in 1841 that one of the brethren described to me a scene during the sessions of the old Indiana Synod at Vincennes in early times, when Father Martin preached on Hebrews xiii. : 13 : "Let us go forth, therefore, unto him without the camp bear- ing his reproach." His heart was so full of the theme, so vivid was his conception of Jesus suffering without the gate, that he was transported, and transported and electrified the whole assembly. The Synod was melted to tears and there was audible sobbing in every part of the house.1
Perhaps the prayers, even more than the preaching, of Mr. Martin will be recalled by those who remember him, as characteristic of the man. His prayer before the sermon commonly consumed three quarters of an hour. "I have timed him," says one, "when his prayer lasted an hour and five minutes." On another occasion a son of Father Dickey measured a prayer that was an hour and thirty minutes long.
He seemed like Paul ; whether in the body or out of the body he could not tell. His prayers were full of the letter and the spirit of Scripture. Petition, confession, thanksgiving, and praise, ex- pressed in the language of the Bible, poured forth like water from a living spring. The Bible was at his tongue's end. And oh, what
1 MS. letter of the Rev. William M. Cheever, who was a student at Hanover while Mr. Martin supplied the pulpit there in 1834-5.
.
106
EARLY INDIANA PRESBYTERIANISM.
unction there was in his counsels and prayers by the side of the afflicted and the dying. Many a dear dying saint before dissolu- tion has seen the gates of the City of God opening to the touch of Father Martin's prayer.
At the earliest opportunity, like other Presbyterian pio- neers, he established a school, with his own means erecting a log house for its accommodation near his dwelling. His own classical attainments enabled him to prepare for the ministry and for the other learned professions a number of young men who became prominent in important stations. The school was long known as "the Log College." In this work Mr. Martin was greatly assisted by his wife, who carried it on uninterruptedly during his frequent and pro- tracted missionary journeys.
Of the hospitality which marked the early times the min- ister's cabin near Livonia furnished a beautiful illustration. There was a tavern in the village, but it was said that the Presbyterian preacher had most of the custom. The Rev. John Crozier recalls an incident which pleasantly discloses the interior of the manse.
One Monday night, returning from Paoli, I stayed at Mr. Martin's. He had been in the harvest field but had come in early, and like Abraham had taken from the flock or the herd and prepared with his own hands what soon became a savory meal. During the eve- ning the family and guests were gathered in the little parlor, busily engaged in conversation. In the middle of the room stood a small square table on which were a Bible, one or two books of reference, a big bundle of sermons, writing materials, and a tallow candle. By this table sat Father Martin, with a high leghorn hat, worn to shade his eyes, and amidst the hum of talk he began his studies. He was soon quite absorbed in thought. After an hour or more of silent meditation, he suddenly threw up his glasses and asked his clerical visitors whether they knew what was the color of the Apostle John's hair. One of the gentlemen had never heard the question suggested before. Another thought the New Testament was non-committal as to the color of anybody's hair. The younger people ventured to express no opinion and the inquiry was soon
107
A NOTABLE QUARTET.
handed back to the questioner, who at once said that John's hair must have been black. He then began roguishly to read a pas- sage he had just found in one of his youthful manuscripts referring to the "raven locks" of the apostle now "blanched by the frosts of fourscore winters."
Mr. Martin certainly belonged to the tribe of Levi. His three brothers-in-law were the Revs. Samuel R., Thomas, and William A. P. Alexander, the latter for many years a successful missionary in the Sandwich Islands. His only sons became ministers-Samuel N. D., Dr. William A. P., and Dr. Claudius B. H. Martin. The two former went to China, where one still remains, the accomplished president of the Imperial University. Not to be outdone, five out of the seven daughters entrapped Presbyterian ministers, and Drs. Newell, Venable, and Matthews, and Messrs. Camborn and Morton have added their Levitical luster to the family renown.1
ISAAC REED was born in Granville, Washington County, N. Y., August 27, 1787. There with his parents, Abra- ham and Thankful Reed, his early childhood was passed. He entered the junior class in Middlebury College, Ver- mont, and graduated from that institution in I812.2 After completing the college course his plans were seriously embarrassed, as they had previously been, by the delicacy of his health. He attempted to teach, securing a position in the academy at Jamaica, L. I., but in a few weeks was compelled to rest. December 28, 1812, he entered the law office of John C. Parker, Esq., at Granville. A second time making the attempt to endure the labor of the school-
1 It will be seen that there were attractions for guests at the Livonia parsonage, and Father Martin was fond of making the young theologians who came to his cabin go up into the pulpit too. On one occasion three of them, hiding in separate corners of the meeting-house, were led to the desk, directed to "make their own arrangements," and then abandoned to their fate.
2 Another member of the class, the Rev. Stephen Bliss, also became a missionary in the Synod of Indiana. Cf. " Life and Times of Stephen Bliss," p. go.
108
EARLY INDIANA PRESBYTERIANISM.
room he was again compelled to desist, and resumed his legal studies in the office of Messrs. Bradish & Sedgwick, New York City. 1 With improving health, however, his original preference for the ministry as a profession was con- firmed, and while again conducting a school on Long Island he began the study of divinity under the advice of the Rev. Dr. Woolworth, of Bridgehampton. He was taken under the care of Long Island Presbytery, but, removing to Connecticut, concluded his theological preparations at Norwalk under the tuition of the Rev. Roswell R. Swan,? and received licensure at North Stamford, May 29, 1816, from the Fairfield Congregational Association. At Nor- wich, near Utica, N. Y., as a missionary of the Oneida Female Missionary Society, and at Manlius, N. Y., his labors were especially useful for brief periods. But serious pulmonary symptoms reappeared and his thoughts were turned toward the Southwest. Mounting his horse he traveled from Manlius, over the Allegheny Mountains, and in four months made a journey of nine hundred miles. His first resting-place was in central Kentucky. The month after his arrival he was "severely attacked," December, 1817, "with a bilious fever,"3 and quite natur- ally he thinks himself "greatly deceived respecting the climate." He was soon able, however, to establish a projected "preaching circuit" and early in the February following had gone over it once. He says :
It includes two Sabbaths at Lancaster, one at Point Lick, two at Richmond, another at Point Lick, and the next at Lancaster again. In these two counties there are four Presbyterian churches but no minister able to preach. I have compassion on them and lave concluded to cast my lot among them for the winter.+
The "lot" certainly did not prove to be lucrative, and
1 Cf. Reed's " Christian Traveller," p. 15.
2 Cf. " Christian 'Traveller," p. 14.
3 " Christian 'Traveller," p. 42.
4 " Christian Traveller," p. 57.
109
A NOTABLE QUARTET.
as the good man had been entirely at his own charges since leaving New York he was compelled after a few weeks to relinquish the field. Near Lancaster, March 19, 1818, in the pious but somewhat unsophisticated vein which apparently characterized him everywhere, he wrote :
After preaching the last Sabbath I dined in town and saw a large collection of blacks about a grocery, swearing and contend- ing ; and as I came out of town a large number of white boys and some young men were playing ball in the seminary yard. Oh, how is my heart pained with the immoral and impious ways of people here. To see such things take place immediately after I have been preaching, in the most solemn manner of which I am capable, how discouraging it is !1
Mr. Reed now resumed his travels, preaching in Ken- tucky wherever opportunity was offered, until July 23, in company with the Rev. Dr. Thomas Cleland, he crossed for the first time into Indiana and found a welcome at the house of Dr. D. McClure, in Madison .? Explorations of the adjacent country immediately began. At New Albany he spent five weeks. "The town was rude in appearance, had few good houses, but was fast improving and contained seven hundred inhabitants."3 Brought hither, as he thinks, by providence, the naïve and prayerful ejaculation recorded in his journal is, "O that I may be submissive !" Here overtures are made for his settlement, and having returned to Kentucky, to be ordained by Transylvania Presbytery, in Dr. Cleland's New Providence meeting- house, Saturday, October 10, before the close of the month his stated ministry in New Albany begins.
1 "Christian Traveller," p. 58.
2 In a MS. memorandum Mr. Reed makes the following reference to the pioneers already on the ground : " Six Presbyterian ministers, viz .: Wm. Robinson, very infirm ; John Todd, mild and but little known ; W. W. Martin, active, eloquent, and popular ; J. M. Dickey ; Samuel T. Scott ; James Balch, an old and blunt man."
3 " Christian 'Traveller," p. 79. The types here make the figures seventeen hundred, but this seems to be an error, as nine years later (see p. 222) the population is estimated at eight hundred.
i
IIO
EARLY INDIANA PRESBYTERIANISM.
The engagement was for one year. The salary was five hun- dred dollars. Fifteen members composed the Presbyterian church. Over most of the town plat lay thickly the trunks of trees which had been felled but were not removed. There was a little frame covered in for a Methodist meeting-house ; the Presby- terians had none. But during the year a house of worship was built. A considerable addition was made to the membership. And a Sabbath School of sixty members, the first ever formed in Indiana, was gathered.1
Thus far the missionary had no help from abroad, but at the close of his labors at New Albany,? he obtained a com- mission from the Connecticut Missionary Society. Again he became "the Christian traveler," preaching in Ken- tucky and for several weeks in Granville, Ohio. On Christmas Day, 1819, in Danville, Ky., his hand "and the hand of Elinor Young were joined in the marriage covenant, in the presence of the minister, the Rev. Samuel K. Nelson, the family of Mrs. (widow) Young, an attend- ing young gentleman and two female friends."3 He preached two years at Nicholasville during that period, in the autumn of 1821 crossing the Ohio once more upon a mission tour of about four weeks to Owen County and the frontier of Indiana. Having completed a journey to Phila- delphia, as commissioner to the General Assembly, chiefly upon horseback and in a "dearborn" wagon, he started again, September 25, 1822, for the region which seemed to attract him from all his wanderings, though here pov- erty and hardship and suffering united to cool his ardor and try his faith in God. During the four weeks' excur- sion the year before he had wisely made his way with his
1 " Christian Traveller," pp. 86-9.
1 The considerable salary promised here was not paid. The little band had promised far beyond their ability.
3 " Christian Traveller," pp. 98, 99. An older sister of Mrs. Reed became the wife of the Rev. Dr. Baynard R. Hall, another pioneer of our church in Indiana. See " Chris- tian Traveller," p. 111. In Hall's "New Purchase " Reed figures as the " Rev. James Hillsbury " (see p. 86).
III
A NOTABLE QUARTET.
brother-in-law, president of the State Seminary at Bloom- ington, "through the woods by the forks of the Eel River, to the land office in Terre Haute, . . . and entered a half quarter-section of land." 1 Here he arrived in October, 1822,2 and "settled," if a man who was half his time, in the saddle could be said to "settle " anywhere.
In explaining the motives of his return to Indiana Mr. Reed unconsciously reveals his own indefatigable and un- selfish mind :
As none others had given themselves up to settle in those new parts of the state the writer resolved to venture forward and lead in this way. His scheme for improvement was this: to locate with a little infant church already formed, to instruct and encour- age them, to appropriate one half of his ministerial labors to their benefit, and to receive from them in return as much salary as they should be able to raise, paid in their personal labor or in the produce of their farms. The balance of his time he held to be devoted to missionary service, and his plan and his practice were to spend alternately one week at home and the next abroad. The preaching places were distant from each other and most of them distant from the writer's residence and charge. The consequence was that to be punctual in the attendance upon his appointments, and to keep up the hopes of the Presbyterian people, subjected him to a vast deal of riding. Respecting this plan and this field of action, before his removal from Kentucky, he wrote to a friend, a student of theology at Princeton, "that it opened to the view of his mind such a field for Christian enterprise and usefulness as almost raised him above himself." 3
But on the "half quarter-section" there was no dwelling.
I found much difficulty to obtain labor from the people, they being hurried with their own work. As far as my own personal labor could supply this deficiency it was supplied. But with all my efforts the building progressed slowly, and to increase my difficulty the winter closed in early. We entered our house
] " Christian Traveller," p. 121.
2 " Christian Traveller," p. 139.
3 " Christian Traveller," pp. 138, 139.
II2
EARLY INDIANA PRESBYTERIANISM.
the week before Christmas and occupied it that winter, without a loft, with no plastering between the logs, above the joist plates, and with a large wooden chimney-place cut out of the end of the house and built up a little above the mantel-piece.1 Wood was plenty and well did it need to be for a situation like that. Yet many were the comforts which were mingled with those ,difficul- ties, though the trial sat heavily on my Elinor. And indeed I have often wondered since that time how I could have ever had resolution enough to have voluntarily brought myself into that situation. But now necessity pushed us on and hope cheered us with the return of spring and a better prospect in the future. Nor do I remember that I ever felt a wish that I had not ventured upon this service. It always appeared to me to be worthy of my trials in it.º
Is not this a bit of real heroism? Possibly there may be too many clergymen. But there is no danger that there will ever be too many self-forgetting men, ready to imitate such an example.
The approach of summer must have had a peculiar wel- come after such a winter in such a hut. The only creature at the "Cottage of Peace" that could have imagined " December as pleasant as May" was the missionary's horse. He had at least had a rest. But with spring came work again, the usual interminable preaching tours. Mr. Reed is now in correspondence with the "United Domestic Missionary Society." In August occurs his installation as pastor of the Bethany church. 3 To this society he gives half his time and during the alternate weeks traverses the whole wilderness around. The horse is not to be congratulated now. The mud, the forests, the swollen fords,4 the widely scattered congregations, make the necessary labor severe. Thus three years go by. Mr.
1 This is the " Cottage of Peace " of Mr. Reed's book.
2 " Christian Traveller," pp. 139, 140.
3 " Christian Traveller," p. 142.
4 An amusing description of Mr. Reed-" Bishop Hillsbury "-is given by his brother- in-law in the first edition of " The New Purchase," Vol. I., pp. 279 -83.
113
A NOTABLE QUARTET.
Reed organized more churches than any other man.1 . He is at Salem, at the first meeting of the Salem Presbytery, April, 1824. During the year he travels twenty-four hun- dred and eighty miles .? At "sacramental meetings," licen - sures, ordinations, installations, he is sure to be present, in every corner of the southern half of the state. The exposure and suffering implied we can now scarcely conceive.
Meanwhile the missionary's pen is busy. He sends com- munications to eastern newspapers. He prints his first little book. He contributes to the local press.3 Other publications are issued under the sanction of Presbytery. A dedication sermon is published.4 He diligently keeps the journal which now constitutes " The Christian Trav- eller." The log house in Owen County is the center of a most tireless activity. Every opened path of usefulness is pursued to the end.
Until the close of 1825 these labors continue. Mr. Reed is then released from his pastoral charge. For two years "he had not received a dollar in money from his congre- gation." The claims of his family required him to "depend on farming as a business " or seek another field. He still clings to the Indiana woods. Possibly he may move "further up White River." His journal describes his tour in the spring of 1826.5 This proves to be his last missionary work before leaving Indiana. The conclusion he finally reaches is to return with his family to the East, 6
1 See "A Ministry of Forty Years in Indiana," by the Rev. James H. Johnston, p. 5 ; "Quarter-Century Discourse," by the Rev. P. S. Cleland, p. 14.
2 " Christian Traveller," p. 145.
3 See Western Censor and Emigrants' Guide, Indianapolis, June 7, 1824, and July · 20, 1824.
4 "Christian Traveller," pp. 144, 147, 148, 150.
5 " Christian Traveller," pp. 177-84.
6 It is probable that Mrs. Reed's judgment was not opposed to the removal Her mother, Mrs. Aun Young, the " Mrs. Glenville " of Hall's "New Purchase," Chapter XXXII., had recently died at the "Cottage of Peace." In the wilderness there was little opportunity for the education of her children. This latter consideration would have great weight with one whose ambition was as persevering as hers. It is said that at one time hopes were entertained of a brilliant dramatic career for one of her children.
1
.
I[4
EARLY INDIANA PRESBYTERIANISM.
a congregation at Moriah, N. Y., having desired him to visit them. His allusion to the early stages of this journey of a thousand miles strongly suggests the discourage- ments with which the missionary had been accustomed to contend.
It was Wednesday, the 31st of May, when we left Indianapolis and entered the woods in the road to Centreville. To a traveler with a wheel carriage, in so new a road as this, through a coun- try where the settlements are so few and distant, some difficul- ties might be expected at any season of the year, but at present they were numerous and truly discouraging. The country is moist and the soil very rich, and the road but partially cut out. Over the small streams log causeways had been made, but the high waters of the spring season had raised them and floated the logs in every direction, so that at these places the cut-out way was utterly impassable. The resort was to turn into the woods and choose some other place to venture through the waters and wet grounds, till we were beyond the entire causeway, or at least the raised part of it. Often at these places, and at others, from the length of the stretches of deep mud, had Mrs. Reed to get out with the youngest child in her arms, and the oldest walking with her, and thus to make her way on foot, while I had to lead the horse by the check-rein, walking before him, and frequently with the mud and water deeper than my boots. In many places it appeared extremely doubtful when the horse went in whether he would ever be able to come out. Thus we traveled for three days, in one of which, starting at eight o'clock in the morning and traveling with the utmost diligence till sunset, we made only thirteen miles. And this was the second day of June.'
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.