USA > Indiana > Johnson County > Franklin > History of the half century celebration of the organization of the First Presbyterian church of Franklin, Indiana > Part 8
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The growth of the church was necessarily slow, but there was a gradual growth from the very first. We have seen that one member, Mrs. McCaslin, was added on examination the first year. Three were added on certificate in 1825, the second year. In 1827 seven members were added on certificate, and in 1828, four on examination. At the close of this year the membership numbered nineteen, but the year fol- lowing it went up to fifty-one. Of the new members admitted this year (1829) ten were on certificate, and twenty-one, which was greater than the whole number in the church at the close of the year before, were converts. This is the first revival which is recorded in the history of the church. From the record it appears that the good work began in January, for on the tenth of this month, which was Sunday, the ten members were admitted on certificate, and two on ex- amination. On the twelfth four more were added in like manner. On the fourth Sunday in June eight were added, and on the fourth Sunday in August eight
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more, which is thirty-one in all. The next year, 1830, thirty members were added, all on certificate, save three.
The church has now been organized for six years, and it has grown from five members to seventy-seven. Of these thirty-two are males and forty-five are fe- males. Twenty-seven have been admitted on profes- sion and fifty on certificate. During these years there has been neither pastor nor stated place of worship. Sometimes the meetings were held at Pleasant Hill, now Hopewell, sometimes the members met at pri- vate houses, occasionally in the open woods, but oftener in the old log court-house. Those who min- istered to this people then came at the charge of others ; Franklin was a missionary station. Of these missionaries, the names of Revs. Isaac Reed, William Duncan, John Moreland, Jeremiah Hill and William Wood are the most familiar to the reader of the records of these times. Of these men I have been able to learn but little ; so little that it is scarcely worth the telling. Isaac Reed lived at Bloomington, in this State, when preaching here, but subsequently moved to Illinois, and died in the city of Alton. Wil- liam Duncan was a Scotch divine, and the preacher of long, methodical, doctrinal sermons. He belonged to a ministerial school which is now believed to be ex- tinct. A dear lover of tobacco, he always preached with the "weed " in his mouth, and the younger members of his congregation counted with lively interest the number of quids taken, for thereby they could calcu- late with unfailing certainty the near approach of the end. It is said of him, upon what seems at this time
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to be good authority, that he occasionally tasted of strong drink, for the "stom ch's sake;" and, in justi- fication of the act, he said, in the language of Paul to Timothy : " For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanks- giving." After being worn out in the service, Mr. Duncan went to Ohio, and there died. The Rev. John Moreland was of Southern origin. He was tall and commanding in his person, affectionate, social, enthusiastic and eloquent. As a sermonizer he had many superiors ; but as an exhorter, he was excelled by none. The Rev. William Wood was also a South- ern man-a Tennessean ; his academic acquirements were limited, and his theological training was had under the celebrated Dr. Anderson, of Marysville, in his native State. He died about the close of the late war, while acting under the auspices of the Christian Commission in the South. The Rev. Jeremiah Hill was an Eastern man, and in his earlier years followed the sea; and, like John Bunyan, was a proficient in all the vices peculiar to his vocation. Being converted after he arrived to years of maturity, he moved to Tennessee, where he entered the theological school of Dr. Anderson, along with William Wood; and, like him, of limited scholastic acquirements, he im- bibed the theological theories of his teacher. Both were ardent and enthusiastic, and both strong in ex- hortation rather than in sermonizing. In the great controversy of 1837 and 1838 which shook the Pres- byterian Church of the United States to its very cen- ter, and which resulted in the second great division which has come upon it in its history in America,
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Wood and Hill took an active part, and they were the recognized leaders of the New School brethren in this Presbytery.
It is a fact well known to the most casual readers of western history, that about the close of the Rev- . olutionary War a strong tide of emigration set into Kentucky from the seaboard States. With these em- igrants came a colony from Northern New Jersey, principally from Bergen County-the descendants of the Dutch colonists of New Amsterdam-which lo- cated in the neighborhood of Harrod's Station, now Harrodsburg, in Mercer County. These people brought with them a Calvinistic faith, and for a time maintained their connection with the Dutch Reformed Church, of New Jersey. A missionary, Dominie Laubaugh, was sent out to them by the Classis of that State, but after a short time he returned, and the Voorheis, the Demarees, the Smocks, the Coverts, the Bantas, the Vannuys, the Bergens, the Vanarsdalls, the Brewers, the Lists, and others of this Dutch blood and Dutch faith gravitated into the Presbyterian Church .* After the lapse of a few years the Mercer County Dutchmen became restless, and a part of them . made another move, this time coming down. into Shelby and Henry Counties, in the same State, where
*From a letter received from the Rev. David D. Demarest, D. D., of New Jersey, after the above was written, I learn that Peter Laubaugh was sent out by the New Jersey Classis, in response to a request from members of the Reformed Church who had settled in Kentucky. "He was,"" says Dr. Demarest, "ordained by the Classis of Hackensack, July 2Ist, 1796, Kentucky." with a view to settlement among the people of Salt River, Mercer County, " Early in February, 1797, after a journey of about three months," he reached Mercer County, where he seems to have organized a church at once, and at the expiration of three months set his face eastward ; and though it was his intention to return to Kentucky, yet from some cause he never did.
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they located, in what is still known among Kentuck- ians of that region, as the "Dutch Tract." Here they organized a church, and old Archibald Cameron, a Scotch Presbyterian divine, of remarkable eccentricity of character, but theologically as sound to the core as old John Knox himself, long ministered unto them. The original colonizers of the Dutch tract having passed away, their children, uneasy and restless as their fathers had been before them, again took up the line of march, and this time came to our own county. The first considerable number which arrived, as ap- pears from the church records, was in 1827; and making their location in the vicinity of the "Big Spring," now Hopewell, they were joined by others, until in 1830, forty of the seventy-seven members of this church were living in that neighborhood. It now became evident to all, as well as desirable, that the church should be divided, and a separate organization established for the accommodation and convenience of those living in the country ; and, accordingly, in the spring of 1831, Presbytery, then in session at Greensburg, ordered a division to take place ; and in May, of the same year, this was done by the forty members being dismissed, who, on the 23d day of that month, duly organized the church of Hopewell .*
*When the question was first agitated among the people there was a de- sire manifested by some of the Franklin members to continue the connec- tion, and build a house of worship at a point about half way between Franklin and the present site of the Hopewell Church. The location in- dicated for the proposed house was on the high ground, immediately east of the iron bridge over Young's Creek, on the Bluff Road. A meeting was held at the house of Simon Covert, who then lived in the Hopewell neighborhood, when the proposition was discussed, and, as we now see, wisely voted down. The Hopewell people were unanimously opposed to it.
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In June, 1830, it appears that the Rev. David Mon- fort, of the Presbytery of Chillicothe, Ohio, was pres- ent on the occasion of the celebration of the Lord's Supper, at Pleasant Hill. This is the first indication we have of his presence in this country, and I think it altogether likely that he was then looking out for himself a field for his future labor. He seems to have been satisfied with the prospect, for on the first day of the following Novemb 'r, as appears by an entry upon the record made in his own hand, he "com- menced labors as a stated supply or missionary." This position he occupied until the next October, when he was regularly installed as pastor of both this and the Hopewell Church, on a salary of three hundred dollars per year. The Revs. William Sickles and Eliphalet Ken had been appointed by Presbytery as a committee, to assist in the installation, and Mr. Kent, who still survives, a hale hearty old man of seventy four years, preached the installation sermon from Jeremiah iii. 15: "I will give you pastors ac- cording to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding ;" and Mr. Sickles de- livered the charge to the people.
At this time the membership of the church num- bered sixty-six; and for us to fairly appreciate the work done during the nineteen years of Mr. Monfort's pastorate, we must bear in mind the material and moral condition of the county, at the time he came and during the time he remained. Eleven years have now passed away since Campbell and Sells came ; eight since King, Covert, McCaslin and Voris built cabins in this immediate vicinity, and seven since 14
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King, Young, McCaslin, and the wives of the two former united in the organization of the church. Settlements had now been made in all parts of the county, and all the political townships had been es- tablished, except Clarke. The county contained a population of four thousand and nineteen, as shown by the census made the year before, and it had within its borders this year about six hundred legal voters, of whom about one hundred and eighty lived within Franklin Township. Unfortunately there are no rec- ords in existence by means of which we can arrive at the population of the town of Franklin at this time, but it did not, in all probability, exceed two hundred ; though this is an estimate based upon unsatisfactory data. The people were still without a market in which to sell their surplus produce nearer than Madison, on the Ohio River, sixty-five miles away. Wheat was worth here from twenty-five to thirty-five cents per bushel; corn ten cents, and oats eight. Good work horses sold at from thirty-five and forty dollars per head to fifty and sixty ; cows at from five to ten dol- lars each, while all cotton and imported woolen goods and groceries of all kinds cost at least double the present prices. Those in the entire county who were not compelled to toil for their daily bread and raiment you could have counted off on the fingers of your right hand. The men tilled the soil during the tilling season, and cleared lands for themselves or others during the fall and winter seasons, and spent the long winter evenings in making and mending shoes for their families, or other domestic labor ; while the wo- men not only looked after the ordinary and daily af-
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fairs of the household, but spun flax, carded and spun the wool, and wove linens, flannels and jeans with which all were clothed. The statement of these facts may at first blush seem to some as irrelevant in a discussion like the one in hand; but let me remind such, if any there be, that, notwithstanding the hard fate of the members of this church at the time of which I am speaking, they nevertheless undertook the support of their pastor. Up to 1838, Mr. Monfort preached for both this and the Hopewell Church, at a salary of three hundred dollars per year-a salary so small that, were we not to appreciate the impoverished condition of the people generally, we would feel com- pelled to charge them with having been stingy and mean toward their pastor ; but when we remember the condition of the country and of the people, in- stead of blame, we are bound to give praise.
In this connection it may not be amiss to tarry a moment while we briefly pass under review certain congregational habits in vogue during those times. Up to about 1840, so far as my memory goes, it was the custom in the country congregations for the men and women to occupy different seats in the church. There was a "men's side" and a "women's side" in every meeting-house ; and, while it is probable that the modern custom of promiscuous seating came into fashion in this town church sooner than in the country, it is nevertheless certain that before and after Mr. Monfort came, the old custom prevailed here.
On the 18th of June, 1831, it is recorded that " Wil- liam G. Shelleday was elected singing clerk," and again on the 28th of March, 1834, Alban Y. Howsly
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and Cornelius Hutton were elected to the same " office." This is an office which has long been un- known in this church, and to many of the younger members, doubtless, the name carries with it but an imperfect idea of the functions appertaining to it. The "singing clerk" was a man of far more conse- quence in the old times than your modern leader of church music ; indeed, he filled a place only a little lower than the minister himself. Occupying a seat in front of the high old-fashioned pulpit, it was his duty not only to rise up facing the congregation and pitch the tune, but to "line out" each hymn as it was sung. Hymn books were not so plentiful then as now. The poverty of the people made the office of " singing clerk" a necessity.
The custom observed in celebrating the Lord's Sup- per differed materially from the custom of the present. Long tables were prepared in the aisles of the meet- ing-house, covered with snow-white cloths, and the communicants, each of whom had been presented by the officers of the church with a "token" [pieces of lead resembling in shape and size a silver dime, I have seen used for this purpose], as a sign of his or her right to eat the Supper, took their seats at this table of the Lord, and after presenting their "tokens" to the office-bearers, partook of the sacramental feast.
It would certainly prove interesting, if not instruct- ive, to pursue this theme at length and in all its bear- ings and ramifications did time permit. Great changes have taken place in the world of thought during the past half century. Men in the search of truth, in the domain of the natural sciences as well as in the meta-
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physical, have drifted from point to point until the modern view often bears scarcely any resemblance to the opinion of fifty years ago. Truth must ever be the same, be it scientific, metaphysical or religious ; but the intelligent thinker, who has learned to dis- trust the infallibility of the human intellect, is ever questioning, ever doubting and re-examining; and as a necessary consequence old views are ever being discarded or modified, and new shades of thought are continually intervening. So far as theological ques- tions are concerned, this shifting of thought is nec- essarily slower and less marked than in any other de- partment of knowledge, save mathematical; but there is, nevertheless, an element of change to be found here. Measuring time by the centuries this change is ap- parent to the most superficial student of history ; but taking a measure extending over no more than fifty years, the traces of thought-movement are not so obvious. Still this increment of time shows a change- not a change, mark you, in the leading and funda- mental doctrines of the church, but a softening down of the tints; a shading here and a lighting there, until the picture-the same in outline and detail as ever before-nevertheless presents the old ideas of theo- logical truth in the light of an advanced state of thought.
I have told you of a pioneer Presbyterian preacher who occasionally took his morning dram, and I am sure this recital must have excited the surprise of the younger members of this congregation, and set them to wondering what manner of man he was (unless, indeed, a like statement made by Dr. Tuttle, on yes-
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terday, had already prepared them for this); but when it is remembered that less than fifty years ago Pres- byterians very generally did not believe that it was morally wrong to drink the social glass, and that some of them actually did so drink, I am sure this sur- prise and wonder must disappear. Within the mem- ory of men still living, Presbyterian elders kept the decanter on the sideboard, and furnished whisky freely and without price to the electors on the occasion of standing for public office. It is due to history, how- ever, to say that this never was the rule in this county but the exception, and it is believed that no other denomination can present a better record.
Again: Who of the older men and women, who are here, have forgotten the loyalty of the people of all sects, thirty or forty years ago, to the church of their choice? Why, it once was so rare for a minister of one denomination to occupy another's pulpit, that when it did happen to occur, it occasioned a "nine days' talk." I remember a circumstance which took place in this county about thirty years ago, which illustrates the sentiment of the times and the feeling of the people. It was a bright summer Sunday morning, and a little Presbyterian congregation had met in the old " hewed log" church to sing and pray, and listen to the reading of one of Burder's sermons by one of the elders. Pending the preparatory ex- ercises, a Methodist circuit-rider rode up with a friend, and, dismounting, the people perceived he was coming in. The elders, after holding a solemn and hurried consultation, came to the conclusion that they would forego the safe and orthodox Burder, and risk this,
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to them, ranting disciple of John Wesley ; and accord- ingly one of their number -- good man, he has been dead so many years-was sent out with a flag of truce to formally invite the Wesleyan in. The preacher, who must have been a great wag, was apparently in- specting the horses hitched to the trees in the most approved jockey style ; and you may better imagine, than I can describe, the effect this conduct had upon those who formed their opinions of clerical propriety from the models furnished by the serious Monfort and the solemn Sickles. He came in, however, on the invitation ; and, after the introductory services, took as his text: " Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Then, looking straight into the solemn faces before him, said, in substance, that this was one of his favorite texts, that he had preached from it many times before, but had never yet succeeded in getting through a sermon without shout- ing; and while he intended to try and remember the place and the occasion, and forego shouting this time, yet if he failed in his endeavor, he begged his hearers would remember that he was only a Methodist cir- cuit-rider, and that, as such, he had a right to shout. Had a thunder-clap come from the clear sky then, it would have occasioned no greater astonishment than was now pictured on the faces of that little congre- gation ; but the preacher was equal to the emergency. Though he made a wonderful noise about it, yet it was conceded that his sermon was about as sound as one of old George Burder's ; and while the older heads may have criticised the arrangement and the manner of delivery, the younger took notice that he
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used the same texts and preached the same salvation that Sickles and Monfort were in the habit of using and of preaching.
Instead of that harmony of feeling among the min- isters of the different churches, and that charitable co-operation which we now expect as a matter of course, then the ministers stood intrenched behind the sounding-boards of their own pulpits, either in a state of armed neutrality toward each other, or else engaged in actual theological conflict. Sometimes they met in the hand-to-hand fight of debate; and if I have not been wrongly informed, Dr. Monfort and a Baptist minister of this town once tried their skill in this arena ; but, most generally, clergymen were content with firing at long range from pulpit to pul- pit, while the laity, a most willing soldiery, carried on a sort of guerrilla warfare from week's end to week's end.
Happily we are beyond these uncharitable years ! The wheels of time have carried us out of the gloom of that narrow, selfish sectarianism wherein could be seen nothing good save in the creed of our own pro- fessing; and now, while we may on all convenient occasions " earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints," and which we may hon- estly believe to be systematized in our Standards, we may, and we do, nevertheless, rejoice in the prosper- ity of the church whenever and wherever manifested. The vail of the temple of our prejudices has been rent in twain from the top to the bottom; the middle wall of partition has been broken down, and no longer may soldiers of the same great Captain waste their strength in contending against each other.
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But a truce to the manners and customs and habits of thought of the old times. Let us take up the thread of our narrative and briefly note some of the results of Mr. Monfort's ministry. We have seen that at the close of 1831, the church numbered fifty-five members. In 1832 twelve were added, all but two on certificate; in 1833 ten more, six on cer- tificate and four on examination, which brings us up to 1834, when the second revival came with blessings to this people. It appears that the good work began the last of February, and continued up to the end of March, during which time sixteen were added on pro- fession of their faith. This year a school-house was built on the lot which abuts this one on the east, and here the people worshiped until they built a large and rather pretentious frame edifice, for the times, on this spot in 1837. "It was built by Peter Shuck, at a cost of $816, not including the seats and pulpit," and "being the first church edifice in town it was regarded as a grand affair."
In the fall of 1838 the pastoral relation between Mr. Monfort and Hopewell was dissolved, after which he devoted his entire time to this church. At this time the following preamble and resolution were adopt- ed by the church session, viz :
" WHEREAS, By a recent arrangement our pastor is to devote his whole time in the Franklin congrega- tion ; and,
"WHEREAS, On special effort being made for the pur - pose of his support only three hundred dollars per annum has been raised for that end; and,
"WHEREAS, The session believe that on account of 15
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the state of their pastor's family, and the present state of his own health, not less than five hundred dollars per annum are sufficient for his support in this place; therefore,
"Resolved, That our representative to the next Pres- bytery be instructed, and he is hereby instructed, to lay the case before the Presbytery, for the purpose of obtaining their leave to apply to the Board of Mis- sions for the additional aid necessary to sustain our pastor."
What relief, if any, was received from the Board of Missions I have not been able to learn; but it is certain that the pastor's salary was about this time nominally raised to five hundred dollars per year.
In 1839 a third great awakening took place. From the 21st to the 28th days of July, inclusive, eighteen converts were admitted. From this on to 1842, yearly additions, both on certificate and examination, were made, but no special manifestation of God's grace appears until January of that year, when from the 5th of that month to the 19th of the month following, thirty-seven were taken into the church on profession. This ingathering brought the membership at the date of the Presbyterial report, made in April of the follow- ing year, up to one hundred and eighty-seven; but from thence on to 1851, a period of nine years, there was a slow but sure decline. New members were taken in from time to time, both on certificate and ex- amination, but not in numbers large enough to sup- ply the waste from dismissions, suspensions and deaths. And right here one of the most impressive lessons which the history of this church presents
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