USA > Maryland > Cecil County > History of Cecil County, Maryland, and the early settlements around the head of Chesapeake Bay and on the Delaware River, with sketches of some of the old families of Cecil County > Part 24
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Reuben H. Davis was the first principal. He had charge of the academy for two or three years, and was succeeded by William McCrimmen. He was principal one year, and was succeeded by Mr. Isaac Bird, and he by Samuel Turney, each of whom acted as principal for one year.
In 1820 Dr. Magraw was chosen principal, and remained in charge until the time of his death. Dr. Magraw was suc- ceeded by his son, Samuel M. Magraw, who continued in charge until 1840. He was followed by Rev. George Bur- rows, who had charge of the institution for ten years. George K. Bechtel, A. M., the present (1881) principal, was elected in 1862. This academy has sustained quite as good a reputation as its predecessor, which was established by Rev. Samuel Finley. At least twenty-four ministers of the gospel, and a large number of other distinguished men who have added lustre to the bench and the bar, and many others who have graced the medical profession, have also received a part or all of their education at this institution.
The Rock congregation, like that at Nottingham, was divided by the controversy that arose from Whitefield's preaching. The new church was organized in 1741, and this led to the erection of the meeting-house at Sharp's grave- yard, which is about a mile north of Fair Hill. Very little is known of this church, except that it was a frame building covered with clapboards. Tradition says that it was removed to a farm in the neighborhood, and converted
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into a barn. When the Old and New Sides united, in 1761, they worshiped in this house for a short time.
The New Side congregation was without a pastor for ele- ven years, when they obtained the services of Rev. James Finley, who was a younger brother of the Rev. Samuel Fin- ley, and who was installed pastor of this church in 1752. Mr. Finley also had charge of the Presbyterian church in Elkton for a few years after he became pastor of the Rock Church, but in 1760 the pastoral relation was dissolved, probably on account of the reunion of the old and new sides of the original Rock congregation, which took place the following year. During part of the time of the division of this church the Rev. James McDowell had charge of the Old Side branch, which continued to worship in the old church at the stone graveyard* near Lewisville, Pa. During his
* A tombstone in this graveyard contains this inscription : "In memory of Hugh Mahaffey, who was murdered November 18th, 1747." He lived in New Munster, on the west side of Big Elk Creek, about a mile south of where the road from Fair Hill to Newark crosses that stream, and was a blacksmith. Tradition saith that a person who lived with him beeame enamored of his wife, and that he and she entered into a plot to kill him, which they executed in this wise : While Mahaffey and wife were seated near the fire, early in the evening, the cowardly murderer, who had been momentarily absent from the room, stealthily entered it and struck Ma. haffey with an axe. The blow knocked him senseless to the floor, but did not kill him. An apprentice boy, who was in bed in the loft of the house. heard the noise, and coming down stairs, the guilty pair compelled him to dispatch his master, threatening, if he refused, to do it themselves and charge him with it and have him hanged. The body was then buried in the smith shop, where, after the lapse of some weeks, it was found, in this way: Some of the friends of the murdered man, who resided at some distance, hearing of his disappearance, came to assist his neighbors in re- moving the mystery that enshronded it, and hitched one of their horses in the shop near where the corpse of the murdered man was buried. The horse, knowing by instinet that something was buried there, or being im- patient of restraint and wishing to get loose, pawed the earth away from the corpse, which of course was discovered. No record of the trial is now extant, but tradition says that the guilty man escaped, that the equally guilty woman and boy were tried for the murder, and that the boy was hanged. Another one of the tombstones in this graveyard contains an image of a panther chiseled upon it in ba-s-relief. Another one contains the figure of a man's hand, the thumb and forefinger of which are repre- sented as holding, in order to exhibit to view, the FOUR OF DIAMONDS. Why these curious devices were placed on tombstones is a mystery that will probably never be unraveled, for the inscriptions on them shed no light upon it.
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pastorate he taught the classical school which had been founded at New London some years before by the Synod of Philadelphia, but which was removed to his residence, about a mile southwest of Lewisville, in 1752. This school was removed to Newark, Delaware, in 1767, and was chartered by the Penns two years afterwards. It was the germ from which Delaware College sprang. Mr. Finley's pastoral con- nection with this congregation extended over a period of thirty years, and so much was he endeared to his congrega- tion, that it successfully resisted his efforts to obtain a disso- lution of the pastoral relation and his dismissal from the Presbytery of New Castle for some years. He finally ap- pealed to the synod, which set aside the action of the pres- bytery, and he removed to western Pennsylvania, in 1783. Eighteen years before that time he had visited the western frontier, accompanied by Philip Tanner, one of the elders of his church, who lived in Nottingham, near Mount Rocky. Mr. Finley is said to have been the first preacher (except those who had been there as chaplains of the army) that preached west of the Alleghany Mountains. Some years after this the synod of Philadelphia sent him to western Pennsylvania as a missionary. While there upon one of these visits, he pur- chased a farm in Fayette County, Pa., and in 1772, placed his son Ebenezer, then a youth of fourteen years of age, in charge of it. Mr. Finley was twice married. His second wife was a daughter of Robert Evans, a sister of Captain John Evans, who owned the rolling-mill west of Cowantown. He resided, during part of his pastorate, on the White Hall Farm near Andora, or Poplar Hill, as it was formerly called.
It was during Mr. Finley's pastorate that the present church, which a few years ago was remodeled, was erected, as is shown by the petition of Robert Macky and George Lawson, which they presented to the court in 1766, stating that the congregation had purchased a piece of land in 1762 from Michael Wallace and David Elder, near where the westernmost branch of Elk River crossed the road leading
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from Nottingham to Christiana Bridge, and had erected a meeting-house thereon for public worship, and praying that the said house might be registered. This was in accordance with the act of Parliament requiring all places of public worship to be registered by the civil authorities.
Though the first meeting-house at Louisville had been erected previous to 1725, it was not till fifty-one years after- wards that they obtained a deed for the land upon which it stood. This land was donated to the congregation, which was then called " Upper Elk Erection," by David Wallace, but for some reason it was not deeded to them. Wallace disposed of his property in 1736, but reserved two acres which he had given to the church, and subsequently re- moved to Kent County, Delaware, where he died. On the 21st of May, 1776, Solomon Wallace, his son and heir, “in order to make good and confirm the generous and pious in- tentions of his father," deeded the land to the trustees of the church, who were as follows: Philip Tanner, of Chester County ; David Macky, John Lawson and Thomas Maffit of Cecil County.
After Mr. Finley removed to the West, the congregation was without a stated pastor for twenty-six years, during which they depended upon supplies; often they had no preaching for months at a time. Mr. Finley was succeeded by Rev. John Burton. He was a Scotchman and joined the Presbytery of New Castle in 1775, and in the fall of that year was called as pastor of the Rock Church, being at that time serving it, as stated supply by the appoint- ment of presbytery. He remained about a year, when he declined the call they had given him, and accepted one from the congregation of St. George's, Delaware. Rev. Mr. Johns states in his history of this church that he had a little farm advertised for sale, and when a cer- tain party went to buy it he told them it was a wet, sorry soil and they would starve on it. He is said to have been so absent-minded as often to drive home from church in
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other peoples conveyances, and that his parishoners had to see him safely away from church.
Mr. Burton was succeeded by Rev. Francis Hindman. He was a native of this county and spent his boyhood a mile or so southwest of Cecil Paper Mill. He was a cooper in early life, but subsequently studied for the ministry, and was called by this church and the church at New London in 1790. Owing to the fact that he was accused of conduct unbecoming a minister of the gospel he was never installed. He resided for some time in a large, old-fashioned stone house that stood until recently about three-fourths of a mile northwest of Centre school-house. While there he taught a classical school, which he subsequently removed to Newark, Delaware, where he continued to teach for many years.
Rev. John E. Latta, who is remarkable for being one of four brothers all of whom were ministers of the gospel, succeeded Mr. Hindman and remained till 1800, when he accepted a call from the congregation at New Castle. He was never installed as pastor of the Rock Church.
Mr. Latta was succeeded by the Rev. Samuel Leacock, who ministered to the congregation as stated supply from 1800 to 1804. He was followed by Rev. John Waugh, who at that time was principal of Newark Academy, and who officiated as stated supply from 1804 to 1806.
After being without a pastor for twenty-six years the congregation, in connection with New London, gave a call to Rev. Robert Graham, on the 12th of September, 1808. He was to give the Rock congregation one-third of his time. He was installed pastor December 13th, 1809. He resided at New London and had charge of the united congregations until the time of his death, on the 5th of November, 1835. During his long pastorate he frequently preached at Charles- town and was instrumental in starting the first Sunday- school at that place. In 1803 the church needed a new roof and other repairs, and such was the poverty of the con- gregation that they obtained an act of the legislature
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authorizing them to raise the money for those purposes by means of a lottery. No persons are named in the act to carry it into effect, and no bond for the performance of that duty can be found among the records of the county. It therefore seems probable that the scheme was never put into operation.
This method of raising money for church purposes may seem highly reprehensible at this time, but it was not con- sidered to be so then. As early as 1791 the vestry of North Sassafras Parish had resorted to the same method, and for a long time subsequently whenever money was needed for any purpose of public utility, such as the digging of a public well, or the founding of a village library, this method of raising money was resorted to. Those who are disposed to find fault with our forefathers for indulging in this practice, should remember that they acted under the sanction of law, and that many professing Christians of the present time find means to evade it, by resorting to cunningly devised schemes which are quite as demoralizing and uncertain as lotteries.
The church at the head of Christiana was not divided by the schism that resulted from Whitefield's preaching, but its pastor, the Rev. George Gillespie, for a short time favored the New Side, for the reason that he thought those who ad- hered to it had been treated with too much severity by the other side. Mr. Gillespie died in 1760. He was pastor of Head of Christiana church for forty-seven years, and was succeeded by Rev. John McCrery, who, in 1769, was installed pastor of the united churches of Head of Christiana and White Clay creek. Mr. McCreary was a zealous and popu- lar preacher, and well worthy to be the successor of Charles Tennent, who preceded him as pastor of White Clay Creek church.
Having thus briefly glanced at the ecclesiastical history of these ancient churches, a few words respecting the man- ners and customs of those who worshiped in them will not be inappropriate.
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The first Presbyterian meeting-houses were generally built of logs and had no fire-places in them. The churches were far apart, and the congregations that worshiped in them were scattered over large districts of country ; some of these people probably traveled a distance of twelve or fifteen miles in order to attend meeting. Many of the original members of the Head of Christiana Church were members of the church at New Castle, and no doubt worshiped there before the organization of the former church. It is said that some pious young men who lived near Deer Creek, in Har- ford County, were in the habit of crossing the Susquehanna River in a boat which they used for that purpose and kept moored to the river bank, near the mouth of that stream, and then walking the remainder of the way in order to attend the Nottingham Church. As the first meeting- houses had no fire-places in them they must have been cold, and being poorly lighted by windows must have necessarily been somewhat cheerless and gloomy. But the ancestors of many of the people who worshiped in them had been hunted like wild beasts by Claverhouse and his dragoons among the highlands of Scotland, and many of them were afterward judicially murdered by the infamous Jeffries. They had worshiped upon their native heaths and in the seclusion of their native glens at the silent hour of midnight, with sen- tries posted to give notice of the approach of the hired sol- diery, who, if they had found them, would, with merciless fury, have shot them down like dogs, or consigned them to the keeping of the gibbet or the prison. It meant some- thing to be a Christian then, and the stories of these wrongs and persecutions were yet fresh in the minds of the founders of these old churches. No wonder they made no provision for warming the interior of the houses in which they wor- shiped. The ardor and zeal of their religious convictions made it unnecessary, and had this not been the case, they were a stern, uncompromising sect that were ever ready to endure any hardship or submit to any sacrifice in order to
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enjoy the privilege of worshiping God as they pleased. So it was only after the erection of the meeting-houses that superseded the original ones, that any provision was made for the comfort of the congregations in the winter time. Then a small house in which the session met, which was called the session-house, was usually erected near the churches. A rousing fire would be made in it on Sabbath morning, and those who wished to do so had an opportunity of warming themselves before they entered the meeting- house. Foot-stoves were introduced in the latter part of the last century. They were simply tin boxes with lids, and were filled with live coals from the session-house fire, and placed on the floor underneath the feet of the worshipers. The pastors of these churches in the early days preached twice every Sabbath to the same congregation, there being an interval of an hour or so between the morning and after- noon services, during which the congregation partook of a slight repast, which they generally carried with them to church to satisfy their hunger. The members of these churches nearly all lived in rude log cabins, which were generally built in a valley near a spring. They were a fru- gal, industrious and pious people, different in many respects from those who had settled in the southern part of the county and in Elk Neck. They raised their own wool and flax, from which they manufactured their wearing apparel. They planted large apple and peach orchards, from the fruit of which they distilled their own liquor. Those of them who lived in Nottingham and New Munster disposed of their surplus wheat at Christiana Bridge, which was then a place of much importance, and contained a population of prob- ably about four hundred. Their method of transporting their wheat to this place may seem odd to those who live in this age of railroads and steamboats. When they wished to send their wheat to market they put it into bags or sacks, which were large enough to hold two or three bushels each. These sacks were placed upon pack-saddles on the backs of
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horses, upon one of which a lad was mounted, who led two or three of the animals beside the one on which he rode, and thus the curious cavalcade journeyed to the place of its destination.
Another custom that has long since fallen into disuse was much in vogue among these people, namely, the irrigation of the meadows along the streams, which were so fertilized by this means that they produced a reasonably good crop of natural grasses, which were cut for hay, where otherwise not a blade would have grown. Timothy and clover were not introduced at this time, and it was very desirable to have as much natural meadow as possible upon each plan- tation ; this no doubt led to the ill-shape of some of the early grants of land. The method of irrigating a piece of land was to construct a dam across a stream and turn the water into an artificial channel, constructed in such a loca- tion that by letting the water out of it, through openings a short distance apart, the land between the original and arti- ficial channels could readily be covered with it. This was practiced for many years by the first settlers in the upper part of the county wherever there was a stream large enough to admit of it. Many of the races that were constructed for this purpose are yet to be seen. Lime was hard to obtain, and liming was not resorted to as a means of enriching the soil ; indeed, it is probable that its use as a fertilizer was unknown to many of the people of that day. Owing to what would now be considered a very bad system of farm- ing, but which was the best their circumstances allowed them to pursue, the soil on their farms became impover- ished and many of them emigrated to the fertile valleys of the Carolinas and Virginia.
This was the case with many of the Alexanders and others of New Munster, who, about the year 1746, emigrated to Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Those of them who first settled there were joined from time to time by others of the same family until, it is said, they were at the
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time of the commencement of the Revolutionary war the most numerous people of one name in that county. Among the other families that emigrated from this county to North Carolina, where many of them and their descendants after- wards distinguished themselves by the active part they took in the affairs of the Presbyterian Church and the Revolu- tionary struggle, were the Polks, Brevards, and very proba- bly the Pattons and others, members of whose families were active participants in the convention that promulgated the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, in 1775. Abra- ham Alexander was president of that convention, and John McKnitt Alexander was its secretary. Doctor Ephraim Brevard was chairman of the committee which drafted the Declaration. He was probably a son of the John Brevard who was one of the elders of the Broad Creek Church in this county. John McKnitt Alexander was born in Cecil County, and went to North Carolina in 1754, when he was 21 years of age. He was a tailor by trade, but became a surveyor, and was one of the leading patriots in his adopted State in the trying times of the Revolutionary war, when it was overrun by the British Army and many professed patriots became traitors. Three others of the Alexander family were signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration, as was also Col. Thomas Polk, a granduncle of ex-President James K. Polk, whose father is believed to have emigrated from this county and settled in North Carolina.
There is some reason to believe that the father of ex-President Andrew Jackson was among the number of those who emigrated to North Carolina. Tradition says that he lived in an old log-house that stood near the head of Persimmon Run, just east of Cowantown, in the fourth district, and that he went with a large number of other emigrants from this county a few years anterior to the Revolutionary war. The old house in which he lived, owing to the fact that its walls were not perpendicular, was called the "Bendy House." The place where it stood was.
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long remembered and venerated by the old residents of the neighborhood, on account of tradition connecting it with the parents of the hero of New Orleans.
The emigrants from this county were the founders of the seven Presbyterian churches that existed in Mecklenburg County, in 1755, and so great was the interest taken by the Presbytery of New Castle in the spiritual welfare of these churches and others in that part of the State, that they fre- quently sent their ministers there to preach the gospel to them, the other members of the Presbytery supplying the pulpits of the missionaries during their absence. Rev. John McCrery, during the latter part of his pastorate at Head of Christiana, is said to have been absent from his charge, in the latter part of his life, engaged in missionary labor of this kind one-fourth of his time. Once, when on a visit to his old parishioners in North Carolina, he was taken sick and remained there nine months.
It is worthy of mention in this connection as an interest- ing historical fact, that Doctor David Ramsay, the author of a history of the American Revolution, though not a native of this county, at one time practiced medicine at the head of Bohemia River, and was one of the large number of eminent men who emigrated from Cecil County to South Carolina.
A few years after the emigration to North Carolina began, a similar one commenced from this region to the country west of the Alleghany mountains. Many of the emigrants settled along the Ohio River and its tributaries in south- western Pennsylvania and northwestern Virginia. The exist- ence of the strong Presbyterian element that has always pervaded soicety in that section of country, is readily traceable to the early Presbyterian churches, whose history is so closely blended with the carly history of this county. These emigrants and others of the same class from the southern parts of Chester, Lancaster, and York counties, were the first permanent settlers west of the Alleghany moun- tains.
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The emigration from these districts continued for many years. During a period of twenty years, which probably commenced about the time of Rev. James Finley's first visit to the West, it is said that as many as thirty-four families, members of the Rock congregation, chiefly young married persons, emigrated to the valley of the Youghiogheny, and settled along that stream and in the valleys along the other tributaries of the Ohio River. These families all settled within the bounds of the old Redstone Presbytery, and twenty-two of the heads of them became ruling elders in the churches of which it was composed. These Presbyterians made an indelible impression upon society in the region where they settled, which is yet plainly discernible there, and which while society lasts will remain as a witness of the untiring energy and unflagging zeal of those who planted the standard of Presbyterianism in the Western wilderness.
But the emigration from this county to western Pennsyl- vania was not confined to New Munster, and many of the inhabitants, generally Presbyterians, emigrated there from Nottingham. Among the latter were members of another family of Alexanders, whose ancestors settled in Nottingham in the early part of the last century, and who is supposed to have belonged to the same clan in Scotland to which the ancestors of the Alexanders of New Munster belonged. Hugh Alexander, a member of this family, married Mar- garet Edmisson, and migrated to western Pennsylvania as early as 1740. The Edmisson family owned a tract of land, containing 980 acres, at the mouth of Stony Run at this time. This land included the site of the mill near the junction of that stream with the Octoraro Creek.
These emigrants, having descended from a hardy and restless race, transmitted their peculiar characteristics to their offspring, who, when civilization encroached upon them and was about to circumscribe their accustomed liber- ties and subject them somewhat to the conventionalities and restraints of refined society, emigrated to Kentucky, as did
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