USA > Indiana > Decatur County > Kingston > Seventy five years : anniversary proceedings of the founding of the Presbyterian Church, Kingston, Indiana, held in the church edifice, December 17th and 18th, 1898 > Part 3
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"As the Jews claimed the children's children to the third and fourth generation, so will we. Rev. Harry Nyce is a baptized member of this church, while Rev. Benjamin Nyce was a member of the church at Clarks- burg. Rev. Harry Nyce is now at Peru, Ind., and Rev. Benjamin Nyce is at Lockport, N. Y. Rev. Edward Adams is a missionary in Korea. H. B. Hamilton, son of S. H. Hamilton, preached in Kansas a short time before his death ; and Emmet Robison, son of Samuel D. Robison, is preaching in St. Joseph, Mo. Rev. E. A. Allen, of Kokomo. Ind., studied for the min- istry while a member of this church. There were two other colored ministers, Rev. Andrew Jackson Davis, and Peter Prim, who died before his studies were completed.
" While our church still clings a little to the Pauline theory that women must not preach, she is very glad to use them as missionaries. Of these, we have Mrs. Annie Adams Baird in Korea, and Mrs. Cap Hamilton Henry in Egypt. Misses Eva and Rose Rankin have both taught mission schools in Utah. Miss Jean Rankin served the Woman's Board of Home Missions in the industrial department of Washington College, Tenn., while Miss Hannah Evans did the same at Huntsville, Tenn., and Manchester, Ky.
"A list of the ministers is as follows: Harrison Thomson, Wallace Thomson, Andrew Jack, John Harney, S. H. Parvin, Austin Thomson, Eberle Thomson, Theophilis Lowry, Geo. D. Parker, T D. Bartholomew, E. A. Allen, Harry Nyce, Benjamin Nyce, Edward Adams, H. B. Hamilton, Emmet Robison, with three colored ministers, A. J. Davis, Thomas Ware and Peter Prim.
"The foreign missionaries are Thomas Ware, Andrew Jack, Edward Adams, Annie Adams Baird, Cap Hamilton Henry. The home missionaries are Eva Rankin, Rose Rankin, Jean Rankin, Hannah Evans.
"Some one has said that a preacher without a good wife is like a pair of shears with only one blade. If this be true, we in justice should mention those of this church who have made good ministers' wives. These are the names : Margaret Donnell Rankin, Almira Thomson Lowry, Melissa Hamilton Nyce, Cassandra Donnell Walker, Mary Wilson Hendryx, Lizzie Shelhorn Allen, Annie Adams Baird.
CHURCH OF TO-DAY. Paper by Rev. R. A. Bartlett.
"I know you will appreciate the intention which I express to make these remarks brief. Brevity is the best thing in an address, next to brain. The speaker need not be deficient in the former, if he is in the latter. We hear much said to-day about the decadence of the country church. It has in many places only a nominal existence. Like the old mill by the stream, it has seen its best day. In other places the country church is in a precarious con- dition. There are a number of reasons for this.
"People tire of country life, and coveting the modern conveniences, social and religious attractions of the town, move there and settle for the rest
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of their lives. They do this, notwithstanding the fact that 'God made the country and man the town.' We country preachers do not envy our town and city pastors these sturdy, vigorous Christians ; but we are sometimes put to our wit's end to fill up the gap made in our membership. Town churches would soon become extinct were it not for country Christians. In country districts, too, where the population is sparse, the ravages of death are more keenly felt. The staunch paying member is removed by death, and it is difficult to fill his place with one like him.
" The Kingston Church in the last few years has lost by removals and deaths. Still, we have made some progress, and the church of to-day is united and harmonious. Our audiences every Sabbath are well maintained.
" The finances are efficiently managed, and all expenses of the church are paid monthly. In one week the people subscribed $450 toward church improvements. In addition to this, the furnace was moved and remodeled, the basement excavated and cemented, as you have seen it. All of this shows a commendable degree of activity, and reveals the fact that we are far from being decadent. We have one hundred and forty-two members on the roll. The Sabbath-school has an enrolled membership of one hundred. During the past four years, we have received sixty-nine members, raised for benevolences $1,835, and for congregational expenses $4,160. The women are organized into Home and Foreign Missionary Societies and are doing a good work for the Master.
"The Y. P. S. C. E. numbers forty active members, and the Junior Society twenty. The officers of the church are capable and faithful men, and have always co-operated with the pastor. We hear the complaint that the church in some places is manless. This is not true of the Kingston Church. We are blest with men who are willing to give their time and ener- gies to the work of the Lord. During the progress of repairs, the men of this congregation gave cheerfully of their time and money to the work.
"What shall I say of the faithful women? Time would fail me if I should attempt to enumerate their virtues. They do not excel simply in the direction of providing a good dinner. One feels like endorsing the remark of the distinguished Adam Clark, that 'you could set down one woman as the equal of seven and one-half men.' There is doubtless much truth in this, even if his moral equation cannot be proven mathematically.
"Our choir, while it has lost by weddings and removals, has always co- operated with the pastor. While I do not wish to deny any member of the choir the sweet delights and joys of wedded life, I hope the next weddings will not invade that corner of the sanctuary.
"The church has as nice a company of young men and women as you will find anywhere. They are not of the simple kind, that make a specialty of frivolity in and out of the church. They are sensible and kind-hearted, and are ready to do their part to advance the interests of the church. In short, the church of to-day is full of hope, trusting in the Head of the church.
"Pray for us that we may be divinely guided, kept from strife, and filled with the spirit of the Lord of Life. A church of power is made up of lives in whom Christ is a living reality. On the three superb arches of the Milan Cathedral, these three inscriptions are written : 'All that which pleases is but for a moment ; all that which troubles is but for a moment ; only that
REV. B. M. NYCE.
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is important which is eternal.' May the Christ who gave Himself for us help us as a church to believe with the whole heart 'only that is important which is eternal.' "
Rev. Harry Nyce, of Peru, then delivered the concluding address, from the text, "Thou Hast Kept the Good Wine Until Now." The sermon was a very inspiring one, and was delivered with great earnestness and power. It was listened to with rapt attention by a very large audience, filling the audi- torium and gallery.
Benediction pronounced by Dr. Rankin.
THE SEVENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY SERMON,
PREACHED BY THE REV. A. T. RANKIN, D. D.,
SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 18, 1898.
".Psalm 48: 13-14.
"To-day, December 18, 1898, marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the organization of this church. Rev. John A. Moreland, a Presbyterian minister held in high esteem in Kentucky, a man deeply imbued with the spirit of his Divine Master, visited this vicinity and preached at the house of Mr. Henry on the farm now owned by Mrs. Wesley Thorp. After the sermon, the Presbyterians present associated themselves together in a church This was the first Presbyterian church in the county, and so far as I can find out, the first church in the county. I believe it was the grandest thing the fathers did for this neighborhood ; and under God it has proved a blessing to the county and the State ; to our country and the world. With Clarksburg and Memorial to the northeast, and Greensburg, Forest Hill, Union and Sardinia to the southwest, the county map might be made with a band of light diagon- ally across it.
"Many members have gone with your greeting to other towns, and minis- ters reared here have preached in numerous other counties. One could travel from Greater New York to San Francisco and stop over every night with some former Kingston Christian family. And of your members, foreign mission- aries have gone to western Africa, to Egypt and Korea, till your religious domain girths the world ; and like the British Empire, the sun never sets upon it. But these things were mentioned particularly in the papers and speeches yesterday, so I dismiss them to remark :
" Ist. That the time in the history of this church is the most interesting period in the past. No seventy-five years equal it. And nearly as much has been done for the world through the church as during all the preceding cen- turies of the Christian era. Applied science, practical invention, improved machinery, are the product of Christian thought, and are evidence of Chris- tian civilization. Note the facilities for traveling and transporting products, as steamboats and steamships, railroad communications, mails, telegraphs and telephones, tools and implements for shop, factory, farm and home, by which one man or woman does the work of several.
" It was on the 18th of December, 1860, that I came to Decatur county, and thus, this day that marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the church
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also numbers the thirty-eighth year of my work with and recollections of the church. You would judge from my text that I wished to speak chiefly of what has come to pass during these years. 'Walk about Zion, and go round about her ; tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, con- sider her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generations following.'
"I remark secondly : They have been years full of great events. They are unparalleled. The true history of those times is stranger than fiction. Beginning with 1860, it is probable that since the birth of Christ no like part of a century has equaled it in the production of that which is wonderful. The events in history, the discoveries of science and the productions of art have been on such a magnificent scale that if I had proclaimed them when I got off the cars thirty eight years ago to-day, instead of employing me as your pastor you would have thought of calling two esquires to send me to an insane asylum. Had I said prophetically what history tells the generation following the one that called me, who could have believed it? I came to stay till the beginning and end of the Civil War; and to see your members sign the muster roll on this communion table, and fight till the most gigantic rebellion ever known was put down ; the unity of the country decreed ; free- dom given the slave ; the ballot put in the black man's hand, and the doors of the public schools opened to his children ; the fugitive slave law repealed, and the constitution of the United States amended as at present ; Fred Douglas, marshal of the District of Columbia ; B. K. Bruce, registrar of the U. S. Treasury ; former slaves elected to Congress, and the way opened for black men in the regular army to cover themselves with glory, as the 24th did on San Juan hill.
"Who would have thought I came to stay till Russia set her serfs at liberty, and France became a republic, and Von Molke led the sturdy Germans to the conquest of Paris ; till a man can preach the gospel in Rome, China and Japan with greater safety than Wendell Phillips once spoke in Cincinnati ; till heathen governments send commissioners here to learn the secret of our strength, and students to gather the curriculum of our colleges. Morse had years before made electricity on land, ask from Washington and Baltimore, ' What hath God wrought?" but who imagined that during my stay with you the first Atlantic cable pronounced a success should be grappled up and made, in competition with others, to tell us what Kitchener did on the Nile the day before, or Dewey in the Phillipines?
" While we had many railroads in 1860, we had none that reached across the continent. I buried one of your number in that beautiful cemetery over the way who drove from here to Council Bluffs and returned without cross- ing a railroad or hearing a whistle. Another drove to Oregon and back, and one sitting with you to-day drove 1,000 or 1,500 miles farther than that miraculous journey. I hear the Mormon elders tell of from Omaha to Salt Lake. Were my friend to lay aside the cares of farm life a few days, he could find rest and recreation in going in a few days over the same route that took months before.
"Again, who would have been believed had he foretold the improvements in facilities for farming? Compare the first reaper even with the great harvesters now drawn by three or five horses, doing the work of twenty men with sickles in the olden time. Then in planting time, I remember a few
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men who, after the ground had been marked both ways, could walk between two rows and drop them ready for the coverers. Now one man with two horses, sitting on a spring-seat planter, does the work of six men.
" Then who would have thought of speaking in a natural voice to a friend miles away and recognize the tones of answer as if the lips moved against the ear. What a time saver the telephone is to you farmers. You want to borrow a harrow, ring up your neighbor a mile away, tell him what you want and request him to bring it over. Then when you are done with it, have a pleasant chat with him and let him know that he can have it when he comes. So easy to save his coming twice. Then with your houses heated and lighted by natural gas, and water for all purposes pumped by the wind, you never hear on a hot day, 'bring a pail of water or an armful of stovewood, quick.' You turn a faucet for one and a thumb-screw for the other. Now, without stop- ping to go over in detail a long catalogue of improvements in other things, and the wonderful events of the Civil War, the more wonderful achieve- ments in the war with Spain, the things done in the realms of politics, in morals and religion ; without stopping to count the millions given for benevo- lent purposes, it is safe to say no man would have believed the half already told, had I prophesied it on December 18, 1860, much less had he dreamed it December 18, 1823.
"I remark thirdly : Just as wonderful things have come to pass in this vicinity. Things as marvelous, as unexpected, as incredible, humanly speaking, have transpired in the development of the Kingston Church. Suppose, when Thomas Hamilton and Addison Donnell took me out to one side, after I had preached, in ten days, half the sermons I had written, and asked me if I would preach here and at Clarksburg to the only Free Presby- terian churches in Indiana for $600 a year and the use of that little parson- age, and when I answered yes, I had added, and will stay with you till you give me more than three times as much rather than do without preaching, and one of your number will give annually one-third as much as all offer ; till the three little churches come together as three globules of mercury into one, and the 'Free,' 'New School' and ' Old School' Presbyterians lose their prefixes and become Presbyterians together.
" As many came to us from the M. E. Church as from the Old School Pres- byterian. Yes, I will live in that little parsonage till you build a two-story brick front for $2,000 and buy that seventeen and a half acres for $1,5co and put up that new barn ; till Memorial is gathered and you contribute over $2,500 to build a church for them; and Clarksburg repair their building and beautify the grounds at a cost of over $1,200, and gather $400 as a nucleus for a parsonage fund. Till that cemetery be endowed and made one of the most beauti- ful spots on earth, in which to bury our dead. And then till you purchased the principal corner lot in the town and erected this beautiful building, which has been renovated and we rededicate to-day to the worship of God. When it was first dedicated, having no need for ourselves, we took up $120 for church erection. It was so unprecedented a thing that the board sent us a blank to fill with the name of a life member. It was unanimously voted to put in the name of T. L. Donnell, one of the building committee.
"Then who would have thought I would have stayed till four of your number would furnish $5,000 cash endowment to help pay the minister's salary for all time? It was given when they were in perfect health, and two
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of the donors still live. One of your members finished the chapel at Han- over and endowed a chair in memory of her mother, whose picture adorns this platform ; another sitting before me gave them $1,000 in memory of Prof. Harrison Thomson, who hoed corn with him as a barefoot boy. An- other gave Whitewater Presbytery $1,000 permanent home mission fund to help this corner of the State forever ; and $1.000 to endow a chair at the table in Park College, on which some student can sit three times a day forever and gather nourishment for the body while seeking food for the mind. Now, without stopping to add together the many dollars we have expended at home in church and Sabbath-school work, and the sums gathered at special and in stated collections to help God's cause in other places, which would make a vast sum indeed, what has been done in these permanent ways is gratifying.
"The text bids me 'Walk about Zion, that ye may tell it to the generation following.' I am speaking to the generation following that noble band, and to many young families just starting in life who need but to look over this community to see that 'there is that scattereth and yet increaseth.' And look on other communities that have made no such provision for moral, intellectual and religious training to see that ' there is that that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty.' Look upon this beautiful building, fresh from the frescoing and painting brush, that may stand for a century a monument to the liberal givers of Kingston, and as you go to your home, look upon the fine farms ou every side, that speak of the industry and frugality of the pioneers, and say with David, 'The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places ; yea, I have a goodly heritage.'
"Taking in the whole range of thought in this discourse, and I have never seen a spot of earth that surpasses that which may be seen from the tower of this building, and there is no reason why you young people may not make the future Kingston Church surpass the one of the olden time. This house is the fourth evolution from the first log meeting-house, that stood over the way, and some are here to-day whose self-sacrifice helped build every one of the five, and these large brick dwellings were evolved from the little log cabins with puncheon floors and clapboard roofs. But the builders, with but a step between them and the grave, look across the valley of the shadow of death to the upper and better sanctuary where they will worship, and to the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; and bequeath to you this place of worship and your dwellings here, with desire that you make the next seventy-five years of church history surpass the last."
REV. DANIEL GILMER.
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THE DIAMOND JUBILEE OF KINGSTON CHURCH.
" Let the people praise thee, O God ; Let all the people praise thee."-Ps. 67: 3.
REDEDICATORY SERVICE.
DOXOLOGY.
(Congregation standing.)
OPENING RESPONSE.
Pastor-Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary ; praise Him in the firm- ament of His power.
People-Praise Him for His mighty acts : praise Him according to His excellent greatness.
Pastor-Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet : praise Him with the psaltery and harp.
People-Praise Him with the timbrel and dance : praise Him with stringed instru- ments and organs.
Pastor-Praise Him upon the loud sym- bals : praise Him upon the high sounding cymbals.
People-Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.
INVOCATION. (Congregation seated.)
HYMN.
Great is the Lord our God, And let His praise be great ; He makes His churches His abode, His most delightful seat.
These temples of His grace, How beautiful they stand !
The honors of our native place, The bulwarks of our land.
In Zion God is known, A refuge in distress ; How bright has His salvation shone Through all her palaces !
Oft have our fathers told, Our eyes have often seen,
How well our God secures the fold Where His own sheep have been.
In every new distress We'll to His house repair,
We'll think upon His wondrous grace, And seek deliverance there.
(To be read in unison. )
Lift up your heads, O ye gates ;
And be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in.
Who is this King of Glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates ; even lift them up. ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in.
Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of Glory.
HYMN.
(Congregation standing.)
How beauteous on the mountains,
The feet of Him that brings
Like streams from living fountains,
Good tidings of good things ;
That publisheth salvation, And jubilee release,
To every tribe and nation,
God's reign of joy and peace !
Lift up thy voice, O watchman ! And shout from Zion's towers,
Thy Hallelujah chorus,-
"The victory is ours !" The Lord shall build up Zion
In glory and renown,
And Jesus, Judah's lion,
Shall wear His rightful crown.
Break forth in hymns of gladness,
O waste Jerusalem ! Let songs, instead of sadness,
Thy jubilee proclaim ;
The Lord, in strength victorious,
Upon thy foes hath trod ;
Behold ! O earth ! the glorious
Salvation of our God !
SCRIPTURE LESSON.
SPECIAL MUSIC.
REDEDICATORY PRAYER-PASTOR.
OFFERTORY.
REDEDICATORY SERMON-DR. A. T.
RANKIN.
HYMN.
(Congregation standing.)
Zion ! awake, thy strength renew, l'ut on thy robes of beauteous hue ; And let the admiring world behold The King s fair daughter clothed in gold.
Church of our God ! arise and shine, Bright with the beams of truth divine ; Then shall thy radiance stream afar, Wide as the heathen nations are.
Gentiles and kings thy light shall view, And shall admire and love thee, too ; They come 1 ke crowds across the sky, As doves that to their window fly.
CLOSING RESPONSE.
Pastor-Grace be unto you, and peace, from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven spirits which are before His throne.
People-And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood.
All-And hath made us kings and priests unto God, and His Father ; to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever, Amen.
BENEDICTION.
REV. A. T. RANKIN, D. D.
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LIST OF ORIGINAL MEMBERS OF SAND CREEK CHURCH, AT KINGSTON.
ELDERS :
Samuel Donnell, John Hopkins,
John C. McCoy, Wm. O. Ross.
Paul Brown,
Nancy McCoy,
Hetty Jones,
Hannah Brown,
Sally Hopkins,
Elizabeth Henry,
Elijah Mitchel,
Charity Hamilton, Jane Throp,
Fidelia Mitchel,
Aron Ardery,
Jane Hamilton,
Thomas Hamilton,
Samuel Donnell, Jr.,
Polly Hamilton,
Robert Donnell,
Caty Robison,
David Henry ,
Clarisa Donnell,
Alexander McCoy,
Nancy Donnell, Jr.,
James Donnell,
Sarah Gageby,
Jane Hopkins,
Betsey Donnell,
Thomas Hendricks,
Caty Hopkins,
Josiah Collins,
Elizabeth Hendricks,
Elizabeth R Ross,
Nelly Collins,
Margaret McCoy,
Julian Donnell,
Robert Thorne,
Nancy Antrobus,
John Antrobus,
Lydia Thorne,
Samuel D. Henry,
Isabella Antrobus,
Thomas Donnell,
Robert Hamilton,
Polly Antrobus,
Nancy Donnell,
Polly Hamilton,
Spica Thomson.
Polly Hamilton, Sr ,
NOTE.
The following persons have filled the office of ruling elder in the Kingston church since the division in 1837, in addition to those given in the body of this paper as serving previous to that time. The dates of their election and retirement have been as carefully verified as is possible after this distance of time. Although the church for a year or more after the division was con- nected with the Congregational body, it immediately elected three elders- Samuel Donnell, John C. McCoy and Thomas Hamilton. The two former had served as elders in the old church since its organization in 1823, until dropped from the session on account of their anti-slavery sentiments in 1836. Thomas Hamilton, elected in 1829, had retired at the same time and for the same reason.
The list is as follows :
Samuel Donnell, elected 1837, resigned 1844; John C. McCoy, elected 1837, died 1865 ; Thomas Hamilton, elected 1837, died 1880 ; John C. Don- nell, elected 1844, died 1883; Andrew Robison, Jr., elected 1844, died 1853 ; J. C. Adams, elected 1854, resigned 1869 ; Jesse G. Donnell, elected 1866 ; J. A. McCoy, elected 1866, removed from neighborhood 1889; G. D. Parker, elected 1866, removed from neighborhood 1867 ; J. B. Hopkins, elected 1869 ; S. H. Hamilton, elected 1881, removed from neighborhood 1885; Wm. H. Scott, elected 1881, died 1885 ; R. H. Evans, elected 1885, died 1891 ; J. B. Robison, elected 1886; Samuel Jackson, elected 1895; W. K. Stewart, elected 1895.
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