USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > Historical sketch of the First Presbyterian Church, Fort Wayne, Indiana : with early reminiscences of the place : a lecture before the congregation, Oct. 16, 1881, the semi-centennial of its organization > Part 2
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But the distinction of having first preached to the actual settlers of Fort Wayne, according to the distinctive faith and usages of the Presbyterian church. and under ecclesiastical appointment. is due to the Rev. John Ross, a native of Ireland, being familiarly and rev- erently known throughout the two Synods of Indiana as " Father Ross." This venerable servant of God afterwards died in Tipton . county, Indiana, at the age of ninety-three.
In December, 1822, Mr. Ross, then pastor of a church in the New Jersey settlement, on the west side of the Big Miami, opposite the town of Franklin, visited this post, under appointment of the gen- eral assembly to labor for three months as a missionary among the destitutions of this frontier region. The settlement here comprised about one hundred and fifty or two hundred souls, including French and half-breed families, mainly engaged in the Indian trade. The nearest white settlement was at Shane's Prairie, forty miles southeast, and except as the trace was dotted with an occasional settler, a day's journey apart, all northwest of Piqua, Ohio, was a wilderness. The missionary took passage in a light two-horse wagon with Matthew Griggs, afterwards, with his family, members of the Fort Wayne church, then of Lebanon. Ohio, and visiting Fort Wayne on a trading expedition, with hats and dried fruit. This incident, though in itself trivial, aptly exemplifies the fact exhibited on a larger scale, in all past history, down to the late commercial treaties he-
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tween the great Christian powers and China-that commerce, under the orderings of Providence, is made the means of spreading the gospel over the earth. The ship of commerce carries the missionary to India or China, and the structure of Anglo-Saxon civilization. there maintained for commercial ends, sustains him amid heathen- ism. Material interests and governmental regulations, though not so designed, thus become the scaffolding on which ministers of the gospel stand while building the spiritual temple.
Father Ross, in a letter dated November 26th, 1859, describes the peril and exposure of the first missionary journey ; how their first night's encampment in the woods, a few miles north of Dayton, was made memorable by the howling of wolves on every side ; how the snow storm afterwards met them in the wilderness with intense cold, which froze fast in the mud the wheels of their wagon ; how, failing to strike fire from the flint, the woodsman's last hope, they were com- pelled to leave their conveyance under guard of a faithful dog; how, by walking and leading their horses, the cold being too severe to ride, they reached Fort Wayne at a late hour on a wintry night; and with what kindness he was received by one who afterwards became a ruling Elder* in this church-a kindness, the remembrance of which, after the lapse of forty years, was still fresh in the old missionary's grateful heart.
Father Ross continues : "The next day being the Sabbath, I preached in the Fort morning and afternoon, because there was no other convenient place to preach in. I visited the place five times from 1822 to 1826. I was once sent out to Fort Wayne by the Synod of Ohio."
The business records of the Home Missionary Society furnish the following memorandum of the correspondence of that period :
" Allen Hamilton, post master at Fort Wayne, December 10th, 1828, wrote, saying there had been no minister there since the town was laid off. He urged their claims by saying that the canal is laid off through the place ; that there are in the town and immediate
* Samuel Hanna.
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vicinity, five hundred inhabitants, and no preaching within eighty miles, &c., &e.
In response to this appeal, Rev. Charles E. Furman was appointed a missionary for Fort Wayne. On the 20th of February, 1830, he wrote to the Mission Rooms in New York, from this place, as follows:
" I arrived here on the 13th of November. From this place, one hundred miles in every direction, it is a perfect wilderness.
This county only contains seven or eight hundred inhabitants, be- tween three or four hundred of whom live in town. 1 never knew for the same number of inhabitants in any place, so many attendants upon the preaching of the gospel. Without a library, except a very small selection of tracts, I have a small, though interesting, Sabbath School. * * There are about seven or eight who have been professors of religion in our church before, and I think a church might now be formed of at least a dozen members. *
One lady in the place has been, I trust, born into the kingdom. The people are hospitable, and have more intelligence and liberality of feeling than any similar town I have found in the country."
After preaching some six or eight months, Mr. Furman passed on to other fields.
In June, 1831, Rev. James Chute, of the Presbytery of Columbus, visited Fort Wayne, aud on the first of July following, at the request of the few Presbyterians then residing here, organized the First Presbyterian church of Fort Wayne, consisting of eleven members. On the 4th of October, 1831, the church was received under care of Miami Presbytery, whose place of meeting was some one hundred and twenty miles distant.
Of the first members of this church, two were half-Indians, who had before, in 1820, joined the Baptist church under the labors of Rev. Mr. McCoy. missionary to the Indians at this post. They were nieces of "Litte Turtle." the celebrated war-chief of the Miamis, the force of whose fierce courage, as leader of the savage hosts, our countrymen had felt on this spot in the bloody confliet with Harmar's army, in 1790, and again in the defeat of St. Clair, on the upper Wabash, in 1791. They were daughters of Capt.
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Wells, who, at the age of twelve years, had been taken prison er or rather stolen) in Kentucky and adopted by the Miami tribe.
Of Little Turtle, Col. Johnston thus wrote to me in November, 1859 : " Meshekunnoghquoh, or the Little Turtle, was of mixed blood, half Mohican, half Miami. * * I knew him intimately-the gentleman of his race. He died at Fort Wayne, and was buried, as he deserved, by the commanding officer, with all the honors of war due to his high character and rank." With great propriety, the spot which he so bravely defended against Harmar in 1790, was selected as his burial place.
Capt. Wells fought by the side of his Chief in the memorable bat- tle with St. Clair's army. Afterwards in the time of calm reflection, with dim memories still of his childhood home, of brothers and playmates, he seems to have been harrowed with the thought that amongst the slain by his own hand, may have been his kindred. The approach of Wayne's army in 1794, stirred anew conflicting emotions, based upon indistinct recollections of early ties of coun- try and kindred on the one hand, and existing attachments of wife and children on the other. He resolved to make his history known. With true Indian characteristics, the secret purpose of leaving his adopted nation, was, according to reliable tradition, made known in this manner. Taking with him the war chief, Little Turtle, to a favorite spot on the banks of the Manmee, Wells said : "I now leave your nation for my own people. We have long been friends. We are friends yet, until the sun reaches a certain height, (which he indicated.) Froni that time we are enemies. Then if you wish to kill me you may. If I want to kill yon I may." At the appointed hour, crossing the river, Capt. Wells disappeared in the forest, tak- ing an eastern direction to strike the trail of Wayne's army. Ob- taining an interview with Gen. Wayne, he became ever afterward the faithful friend of the Americans,* though living chiefly with the Miamis until killed in the Chicago massacre in 1812, having gone
* At one time Wells was Indian Agent at Fort Wayne, by appointment of the Government.
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to that besieged post on a hazardous mission for the relief of his friends.t The daughters of Capt. Wells, Mrs. Turner and Mrs. Hackley, were educated in Kentucky, and are yet kindly remember- ed by some in this church and community as ladies of refinement and intelligent piety. The house of one of them, Mrs. Ann Turner, standing on the present site of Colerick's Opera House, on Colum- bia street, was the appointed place of weekly prayer, where bless- ings were sought upon the little vine planted in the wilderness. They now rest beside their kinsman, the war-chief, in the old orchard near the junction of the rivers.
Of the little flock of eleven, whose names were enrolled at the beginning, all, pastor and people, have passed from the church be- low, save two ladies.
In all this part of the North-West, from Piqua even to the Sel- kirk settlement (now Winnepeg) in the British possessions, this, at its organization, was probably the only church of the Presbyter- ian type.
The want of a place of worship, affording reasonable comfort, was here a chief hinderance of church progress for the first six years. Six or eight different rooms were occupied in succession within this period. The religious services connected with the organization were held in the open air under a rude shelter of boards, near the june- tion of Columbia and Harrison streets, on ground now occupied by the canal basin. For a time, the little brick school room, about twenty by twenty-five feet, then standing some two hundred feet south-west of the present county jail, in a cluster of sumach shrub- bery, was the place of worship. Then the Masonic Hall, on the site of Hill & Orbison's warehouse, a room perhaps, thirty by forty fect, was occupied until driven out in June, 1833, by the advent of
+The wife of the Commandant at Chicago, is understood to have been Wells' niece.
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the first printing press ever set up in north-eastern Indiana, # for whose convenience, we may be assured, it was most willingly yielded by Presbyterians-a people who have ever stood in the front ranks of Protestantism, for the diffusion of knowledge through a free and independent press, and who, we may safely trust, will vindicate this historic claim, by being among the last to yield the freedom of dis- cussion and the untrammeled dissemination of thought, under whatever specious pretext of public good, the encroachment shall come. Next a carpenter's shop on the north side of Columbia street where R. W. Taylor's store room now stands, was for some length of time the sanctuary. At the close of each week's work, the shop was hastily transformed in its adaption from material to sacred use, by removing the shavings and adjusting the benches, minus their backs, with the work-bench for a pulpit desk. A small room on the opposite side of Columbia street, was for a short time used, as was likewise a room in the old brick tavern, in the same street, on the site of S. Bach's store room. During the summer of 1833, and afterwards in 1835 and 1836, the old brick Court House, long since gone to decay, was occupied as a place of worship. One one Sab- bath, now distinctly remembered, if not on more than one occasion, the congregation were compelled after the services had commenced to go forth from one of their humble sanctuaries, and were seen fol- lowing their pastor, with bible and hymn-book in hand, in search of a place of less discomfort; having been sorely persecuted, not by Poye or King, but by the elements, eagerly taking advantage of some outrage, against the laws of practical science, by the chimney builder. Such were the wanderings and adjournings of the little congregation until in 1837, they found a home and resting place in their own church building, the small frame forty feet square, near east end of Berry street.
This history has to-day its counterpart in many a place within the wide range of our advancing settlements, whose appeal for aid to the occupants of cushioned seats, and otherwise pleasant and com-
#The Fort Wayne Sentinel, established by Thos. Tigar and S. V. B. Noel.
near
Hunyan 7 Beaches
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fortable edifices, needs no eloquence for its enforcement, other than the simple statement of such privation and endurance.
In that little frame church, on what is now the site of the beau- tiful residence building erected in 1881 by Charles MeCulloch, Esq., were organized both the Synod of Northern Indiana and the Pres- bytery of Fort Wayne, the former in October, 1843. and the latter on the 1st day of January, 1845. Interest was imparted to the oc- casion of organizing the Synod. by the fact that the opening sermon was preached by a venerable pioneer, Rev. John Wright, of Logan- sport, who, twenty-nine years before, at Chillicothe, had taken part in the organization of the Synod of Ohio.
That was a period of progress and growth, and the frame church in a short time became too small. The enterprise of erecting the commodious edifice now occupied, was considered as early as 1844. The corner stone was laid by the pastor, Rev. H. S. Dickson, with appropriate religious ceremonies, in October, 1845. The basement of the new building was first occupied for public worship in 1847, and the upper room completed and solemnly dedicated to the wor- ship of Almighty God in November, 1852, with religious services, suited to an occasion of so much interest and joy, to all who loved the sanctuary. The sermon was preached by Rev. Thomas E. Thomas, D. D., then President of Hanover College.
A brief notice of those who have preached the gospel, is appro- priate to this historic sketch. The labors of Rev. James Chute were continued in humble, self-denying faithfulness, from the organ- ization of the church till ealled to his rest on the 28th of December, 1835. His memory is blessed. Following the death of Mr. Chute, the pulpit was supplied, first in 1836, by Rev. Daniel Jones, and after him by Rev. Jesse Hoover, a Lutheran minister, until October, 1837. Rev. Alexander T. Rankin was next invited to this field. He entered on his ministry in October, 1837, and continued to labor here until September. 1843. Rev. William C. Anderson was called to the church in the spring of 1844. Though declining to accept the call, he took charge of the church and preached for some six months, guiding it, under the providence of God, most happily
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through the period of its greatest trials and danger. In September, Mr. Anderson's health having failed, a call was forwarded to, H. S. Dickson. Mr. D. was installed pastor in November, 1845. Until this time the fixed relationship of pastor and people had not been enjoyed by this congregation-the several ministers having labored as stated supplies, In the fall of 1847, Mr. Dickson having resign- ed the pastorate, Rev. Lowman P. Hawes supplied the pulpit for about six months. In August, 1848, Rev. J. G. Riheldaffer, then of the graduating class of Princeton Seminary, accepted a call and was installed as pastor, continuing in that relation until he resigned in 1851. In November, 1851, Rev. Jonathan Edwards, D. D., was in- stalled as pastor. He resigned in July, 1855, to accept the Presi- dency of Hanover College, and was succeeded by Rev. John M. Lowrie, D. D., who was installed in November, 1856. During the vacancy before the settlement of Dr. Lowrie, Rev. J. H. Burns sup- plied the pulpit for a few months. The pastorate of Rev. Dr. Lowrie continued to the time of his death, September 26, 1867. In March, 1868, Rev. Thomas H. Skinner, D. D., accepted the call of this congregation. Dr. S. resigned September 18, 1871, to accept a call to Second Presbyterian church, of Cincinnati. February 5, 1872, Rev. D. W. Moffatt, then a pastor at Georgetown, D. C., accept- ed a call to this church. This is the ninth year of his pastorate.
The total number of admissions to membership in this church since its organization in 1831, has been-on profession of faith, 494; on certificate from other churches, 564; aggregating, 1,058; (adding the seven original members makes 1,065.) The present membership is 395. May, 1844, six members were dismissed at their own re- quest, who with others were then organized as the Second Presby- terian church of Fort Wayne. Again on the second day of Decem- ber, 1867, thirty-four members were in like manner dismissed for the purpose of being organized as the Third Presbyterian church of Fort Wayne.
For several years after the organization of the church, Presbyter- ians, Methodists, and Baptists worshipped together, their respective ministers preaching on alternate Sabbaths. The number of church- goers seemed to small too divide. It was with difficulty, moreover
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that even one place of meeting, affording reasonable comfort, could be procured. There are those yet living who can bear grateful tes- timony to seasons of marked religious enjoyment in the union meet- ings of that period, held amid these rude surroundings, with so little of the elegance, or even the convenience, with which christian con- gregations in Fort Wayne are now blessed.
In any sketch of religious progress, efforts for instructing the children in the word of God should by no means be omitted. The first Sabbath school in this place was organized in 1825, fifty-six years ago, by James Hanna, an Elder in the church of Dayton, then on a visit to his children residing here. For some years all protes- tant denominations united in the work. In 1840 the Methodists and Lutherans, and in 1842, the Baptists, established separate schools in connection with their respective churches. Thus, with some in- terruptions in the earlier times, this church Sabbath school has con- tinned for over a half century, and with the Sabbath Schools sustain- ed by other churches, not less useful, has contributed materially to the cause of morals and religion in this region.
Nor should the Ladies' Missionary Circle be overlooked. This was instituted at an early period. Many are the instances in which the families of missionaries laboring in the destitute surroundings, have been essentially relieved through their unobtrusive labors. The ladies of the church have also contributed largely through this agency, first and last, towards erecting and furnishing this church building.
Such are some of the incidents in the military and religious his- tory of Fort Wayne. Besides the chain of events bearing strictly upon the progress of the Presbyterian church, other points of his- toric interest are brought prominently to view.
First, its early occupation by European nations. France and England, each in turn, maintained a garrison here, as an exercise of sovereignty over this part of the continent. Great questions of in-
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finite reach, involving dominion, race, language, law,* and religion, have hung upon the petty display of military power at the junction of these rivers.
Second, the signal success for a time attending the struggles of the Aborigines in repelling the approach of American civilization. No other point was defended with such obstinacy and valor. Suc- cessively, La Balm, Harmar and St. Clair, were overwhelmed or driven back by savage courage and strategy. Shall we aseribe more than ordinary vigor and force to the Red men, whose place of rendezvous for war or peace was here ? Unquestionably, they were equal to any of the tribes in force and courage. Or, was there a peculiar beauty and adaptedness to Indian life, in the rivers and forests surrounding this old carrying place, inciting to daring deeds for its defense ? We are assured that no country ever filled more completely the range of an Indian's wants, or for him possessed more of the attractions of home.
Third, the persistence of the United States Government in estab- lishing and maintaining its power here. Four campaigns, three un- der Washington's and one under John Adams', administration, were directed to this point.
Fourth, when opened to civilized pursuits, enterprising men were attracted here by business facilities and commanding position. Some of these brought with them an appreciation of religious privileges-the fruits of early training,-and when the missionary came to seek the scattered sheep in the wilderness, were ready to respond by co-operative efforts. The missionary's report in 1830, represents at that date an extraordinary attendance upon the preaching of the gospel. The state of society here at the present
*The French Colonists in Canada, long after the introduction of English jurisprudence, were irrecoucilably opposed to the trial by jury. A Canadian, testifying before the British House of Commons in 1774, said, "that the Canadians had no clear notions of government, having never been used to any such speculations."-Dillon's History.
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time, with very much to be amended, in one particular, exemplifies the lasting influence of first settlers upon future character and habits. "As the twig is bent, the tree inclines." Truthfully may it by said, in 1881 as in 1860. we are comparatively a church-going people. In few towns or cities in the west is the population, Pro- testant and Catholic, in larger proportion found in the sanctuary on the Sabbath than at Fort Wayne.
APPENDIX.
NOTE A.
The following, from Fowler's English Grammar. presenting thesame gen- eral idea in a different form, was first noticed while the foregoing was passing through the press.
"The ancient tendency was to diversity, the modern is to unity of language. And if, in the early ages of the world, causes were in operation elsewhere, as well as on the plains of Shinar, which produced a confusion of tongues in the human race, we are prepared to believe that causes are now in operation which will produce an opposite result.
European and American commerce is finding its way to China and Japan' and to every region where man is found, and is thus making a common medium of intercourse necessary. The missionaries of the cross, in preach- ing one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God as the father of all, not only are promoting the sense of universal brotherhood through the race, but also the unity of language. Thus we can believe that if "one song shall em- ploy all nations, one language shall be the principal medium of inter- course."
NOTE B.
From the earliest records, the Miamies have been a leading and influential tribe. Bancroft says: "The Miamies was the most powerful confederacy of the west, excelling the Six Nations. # * Their influence reached to the Mississippi, and they received frequent visits from tribes beyond that river." Mr Gamelin, the messenger sent by Gov. St. Clair, in April, 1790, to know the mind of the Indians as to peace or war, after reading the Gov- ernor's speech to the chiefs and head men, in every village on the route from Vincennes, was everywhere desired to proceed to the Miami town (Ke-ki-on-gay.") They said, "you know that we can terminate nothing without the consent of our brothers-the Miamies." The impress of its name upon so many western rivers, shows the predominance of the tribe. The two Miamies of the Ohio will ever perpetuate it. The Miami of Lake Erie (now Maumee) was likewise named for the tribe. The St. Joseph, of Lake Michigan, was called the "River Miamies," when LaSalle erected a fort, and Henepin first raised the cross at its mouth in November, 1679. Our own St. Mary's was marked " Miamies' rirer" on the rude skeleton map, made to represent the western country at the time of Colonel Boquet's ex- pedition in 1763.
NOTE C. An Incident in Indian Life at Fort Wayne.
About seventy years ago a white man was bound to the stake for burning. The mother of the late principal chief of the Miamies, Richardville, (or Pee- jee-wa) herself a daughter of a chief, a woman of great influence in the tribe, had made fruitless efforts to save him. The savages stood around eager for the cruel sacrifice, and the torch was ready to be applied. Richardville, then a young man, had been designated as their future chief, but not yet in- stalled. To him his mother applied, and placing a knife in his hand, bade him assert, at that moment, his chieftainship. Rushing within the infurated
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circle, he cut the cords that bound the white man .- Though chagrined at the escape of their victim, all applauded, as men, savage or civilized will honor a bold and decided character, and his influence and power were from that time established. The kind hearted Miami woman contrived to seerete the white man, sending him down the Maumee in a canoe under a cover of furs and peltries, in charge of some friendly Indians. Many years afterwards, the chief, on a journey to Washington City, stopped at a town in Ohio. A man approached him, throwing his arms around his neck in greatful embrace. It was the rescued prisoned.
These facts are given on the authority of Allen Hamilton, Esq., of Fort Wayne, as they were often related to him by the chief himself.
NOTE D. PINE RIDGE, Choctaw Nation, Feb. 23, 1860.
MR. J. L. WILLIAMS, DEAR SIR :- Your letter of January 28 has just come to hand-Youf inquiries respecting Col. Josiah N. Vose, of the United States Army. * * He was stationed at Fort Towson, in the Choctaw country, from 1832 to 1840. I came to reside in this place in 1836, which is two miles from Fort Towson. During the four years of our residence so near to each other, our intercourse was frequent and most gratifying to my- self, and I have reason to think mutually pleasant and profitable.
Col. Vose and Wife were members of the Park Street Church, Boston. By request of Col. Vose, I preached a part of the time at Fort Towson, and the word seemed to be effectual to the salvation of souls. When I took charge of the church here, it was on the very frontier, not only of religion, but of civilization. The church at the time consisted of four members, two of them slaves; and westerly there was not, at that time, another Presbyter- ian professor of religion between this and the Rocky Mountains. The two first additions to our little church were two Lieutenants from the Fort. One of them, Lieut. Barnwell, from South Carolina, was a son-in-law of Colonel Vose. * The other was Lieut. Field, from Buffalo, N. Y. He sub- sequently married another daughter of Col. Vose. He was killed at the battle of Monterey, Mexico. * Gardiner Vose, a son of Col. Vose, is a minister of the gospel, and at this time a professor of rhetoric in Am- herst college.
Col. Vose was a consistent Christian gentleman to the day of his death. His example and influence were always for good, over the officers and men under his command. He took a lively interest in our missionary operations, and gave it not only his favor in every practicable way, but also his substan- tial support. Col. Vose was ever ready to conduct meetings on the Sabbath when I was absent, and to take an active part. in prayer meetings, and at the monthly concerts. The influence of such a commander, at a frontier post, among the Indians, is of inestimable value to the country at large .-- * * * More than sixty persons, including officers and their wives, sol- diers and camp women, united with the church of which I have been the stated supply. No post on the western frontier, it is confidently believed, has exerted as favorable an influence on the cause of morality and religion as Fort Towson. This is to be ascribed in a good degree to the influence of *
pious commanders. * * I shall never cease to give thanks to God for the favor he has shown us through the pious commanders that in his good providence have been stationed at Fort Towson, and in which favor Col. Vose was preeminent. *
"Blessed is the man who maketh the Lord his trust;" and blessings descend after him to unborn generations.
Yours truly, C. KINGSBURY.
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NOTE E. On the Ladies' Missionary Work.
The organization of the Ladies' Home Missionary Circle is alluded to in the preceeding historical sketch. The Circle continues its existence and work, but no full record of the amount of its contributions to home missions is attainable.
The Ladies Foreign Missionary Society was organized Dec. 1871.
The ladies of the three Presbyterian churches of this city, met December 18, 1871, and, under the direction of Mrs. Dickson, wife of a former pastor of this ehureh, organized the Fort Wayne auxilliary of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, of Philadelphia, and assumed the support of a missionary in China. During the ten years of its existence, 84874.49 have been collected by the society, of which 84000.00 have been devoted to the purpose above mentioned and the remainder to the current expenses of the society and gifts to special objeets of interest in the missionary field, for which the aid of the society has been solicited.
NOTE F.
Our Churches-In 1831 and in 1881-Their Sup- port Then and Now-A Striking Contrast.
Fron The Daily News of Jan., 23, 1880.
In eities like this the beginnings of society, religious and social, possess an interest to those who come after. My friend, Abram Barnett, hands me the following church subscription paper, circulated in Fort Wayne fifty years ago, which he recently found among the papers of his father, James Barnett, who at an early period removed from Dayton to this place, and whose wife was a sister of Hon. Sam'l Hanna. Old settlers will remember the firm of Barnett & Hanna as one of the earliest mereantile firms. The town then contained 350 inhabitants. All Protestant denominations worship- ped together, and united in calling the first settled minister. The whole town could then only promise to pay a minister $258, as shown by the following : THE SUBSCRIPTION PAPER.
We, the undersigned citizens of Fort Wayne and its vieinity, being very desirous of proeuring the services of a resident minister of the Gospel among us, do agree to pay the several sums annexed to our names in aid of the support of Rev. James Chute for one year at this place.
Fort Wayne, July 12th, 1831.
Sam'l Hanna, $15.00; Allen Hamilton, 7.50; H. Hanna, 10.00; Smallwood Noel, 10.00; David Areher, 5.00; Win. N. Hood, 10.00.
At this rate as long as he shall live in Fort Wayne.
Z. B. Tenny, 6.00; James Barnett, 20.00; A. L. Davis, 5.00; Wm. Roekhill, 5.00; Sam'l Lewis, 5.00; Abner Gerard, 5.00; R. L. Britton, 2.50; Sam'l Edsall. 5.00; L. G. Thompson, 5.00; Ann Turner, 10.00; Wm. Sutten- field, 2.00; Sam 'l Brown, 2.00; Thos. Daniels, 5.00; James McIntosh, Jr., 1.00; James Daniels, 5.00; Philip Klinger, 10.00; James D. Klinger, 5.00; Johh D. Klinger, 5.00; Wm. Caster, 3.00.
If he should remain a citizen.
Robert Hood, 15.00; H. Rudisill, 5.00; J. H. Griggs, 7.00; Rebecca Hack- ley, 5.00; Mathew Griggs, 10.00; Mason M. Meriam, 5.00; John Jeffeoat, 5.00. Hill & Henderson, 5.00; Lewis H. Davis, 10.00; Isaac Patterson, 1.00; Francis
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Alexander, 2.00; Hiram Weese, 2.00; Simon Edsall, 2.00; John B. Dubois, 5.00; Charles S. Griggs, 5.00; Wm. Wilson, 5.00; Lewis Armstrong, 2.00; John McIntosh, 5.00.
Of these 44 leading men in 1831, only Simon Edsall is living in 1881. It is gratifying, however, to state that some half dozen or more estimable ladies who, in 1831, were wives, respectively, of some of the above subscribers, are still with us.
Mr. W. P. Cooper, recently appointed by our city council to compile sta- tisties, whose report may be seen in all the city papers, sums up the total church membership in the eleven distinct denominations in Fort Wayne, at the present time, as 11,357; and the value of church structures at $472,100. Quite a wholesome contrast.
Fort Wayne, in 1831, had no church buildings, large or small. The writer attended his first Sabbath service here in June, 1832, in the back room of Judge Hanna's store, (Mr. Chute being the preacher.) Afterwards one of the places of public worship was the Masonic Hall, on the site now occupied by S. Bash & Co's warehouse. The building was a two story brick, severe- ly plain, probably 24 by 30 feet, and when contrasted with the splendid Masonic Temple, now in course of erection, is dwarfed into extreme insignifi- cance in its proportions.
Among the 44 citizens uniting in the call for a resident minister in 1831, are names that will be recognized over the State. They were men of mark. In their day they were known prominently in public affairs-men of enter- prise and force of character. Indeed to reach this point at that period, through the fifty miles of wilderness surrounding us on every side, required force of character and "push." Merchandise reached us in pirogues (large canoes, ) forced up against the Maumee current by manual labor applied "from the shoulder;"" while the flour and bacon came down the St. Mary's, (if it did come at all, ) in similar crafts, with many nights encampment on its bank>. The sluggish current of this stream and its tedious meanderings, re- quired of boatmen the exercise of two, at least, of the cardinal christian graces, Patience and Hope, for the voyage was long and cheerless.
In 1831 no church of Presbyterian order had been organized between Piqua, on the Big Miami, and the Selkirk settlement so called, on the Red River of the north, now Manitoba, at which point a few Scotchmen had formed a settlement and organized a Presbyterian church. J. L. WILLIAMS.
Fort Wayne, Jan. 23. 1880.
NOTE G.
Totals of members received and moneys contributed to benevolence by the church and of congregational expenditures for the last ten years ; taken from the reports of April, 1872, to April, 1881, inclusive :
MEMBERS RECEIVED.
Number received on examination, 113 certificate, 106
CONTRIBUTIONS TO OBJECTS OUTSIDE THE CONGREGATION.
Home Mission Board,
$6,108
Foreign
5,869
Education,
1,480
Publication, 533
Church Erection,
3,077
Ministerial Relief;
1,528
Missions to Freedmen,
729
Sustentation,
514
Miscellaneous, including Bible Society, Tract Society, &c. 4,514
24,352
General Assembly, - 305
24,657
Congregational Expenditures including poor of Congre- gation, &e., .,
60,003
Total for Ten Years,
84,660
-
$19,838
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