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 37
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
Milicent, his wife, in consideration of the great desire they had to encourage and promote the religious worship of God, and in consideration of the nominal sum of five shillings, sold half an acre of ground, which is described as being on the great road leading from Turkey Point to Elkton, to Robert Hart, Thomas Hart, Charles Ford, Fredus Aldridge, and Zebulon Kankey, trustees of the Methodist society in Elk River Neck and their successors. It is generally be- lieved that Robert Hart gave this society the land upon which the first meeting-house stood, but this record seems to indicate very clearly that such was not the fact; and there seems to be no doubt that the meeting-house mentioned by Mr. Asbury, was built upon land donated by Mr. Aldridge and his wife. It was a small frame house, ceiled with boards and weather-boarded on the outside, and contained a quaint and curious old-fashioned pulpit.
The next Methodist meeting-house erected in the county was at North East. It appears from the land records of the county, that on the 25th of October, 1794, Jacob Jones con- veyed an acre of land, which is described in the deed as lying to the northward of the road leading from North East Church . toward Beacon Hill, to William Howell, John George, David Sweazey, Jacob Jones, John Ford, Robert Hart, and Samuel Aldridge, for the sum of £10, "in trust for the society of re- ligious people called Methodists, and their successors forever thereafter, who were to have full power and authority to erect on the said land a house for the public worship of God." This was the first land owned by the society at North East, and is the same now used for the cemetery. It is worthy of remark that Robert Hart was also a trustee of the church called by his name in Elk Neck.
Mr. Asbury, under date of the 5th of June, 1795, says he " preached in North East within the frame of a church that was just begun." He no doubt referred to the first church, which stood near the centre of the cemetery. It was about thirty by forty feet, weather-boarded without and ceiled
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with boards within, and was removed bodily in the early part of the present century to the lower part of the village, where it remained until 1837, when the house now in use was built, and it was sold to Hugh Brown. On the 12th of April, 1804, William Hunter sold a lot containing about half an acre, which is described as being a few perches to the eastward of the church and to the northward of the Metho- dist meeting-house near the head of North East River, being on the east side of the great road leading from the head of North East River to Turkey Point, together with the house and fencing thereon, to William Howell, Robert Hall, Nicholas Chambers, Sr., Abraham Keagy, and William Williams, the three former being citizens of Cecil County, and the twolatter residents of New Castle County, to have, hold, occupy, and pos- sess forever for the use and convenience of a traveling preacher of the gospel, in or belonging to the Methodist church, in charge of Cecil Circuit. This deed was witnessed by Tobias and Martha Rudulph, the former being at that time one of the associate justices of the county court. The latter was after- wards the wife of the Rev. William Torbert. This is the first parsonage in the county, of which there is any trace in the records of the court or the history of the church ; but there is no evidence that it was ever used as such, and in 1809 those of the trustees who resided in this county sold it to Thomas Cazier for $250. The trustees are called in the deed to Ca- zier the " trustees of Ebenezer Chapel," which seems to indi- cate very unmistakably that the meeting-house at North East was then called by that name. This chapel and par- sonage, though described as being east of the road to Turkey Point, stood west of where the main street of the village is now located, the road at that time being some distance west ·of where the street is at present.
The congregation which worshiped in Thompson's school- house, which stood very near where Bethel Church now stands, erected their first meeting-house sometime previous to 1790; but like the congregation at Hart's, they did not
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obtain a deed for the land upon which it stood until 1805. In that year, Richard Thompson, then of Philadelphia, formerly of this county, conveyed the lot upon which the church stood, to John Curnan, Nicholas Chambers Sr., James Ratcliff, Robert Guttery, and Tobias Biddle, " for the use of the Methodist Episcopal Church, according to the rules and discipline which from time to time may be agreed upon or adopted by the ministers and preachers of said church at their general conferences, and in future trust and confidence that they shall at all times permit such ministers or preachers as shall be duly authorized by the rules and dis- cipline of said church, and none others, to preach or expound God's holy word there, and on the further condition that the church organization should not be suffered to die by the failure of the congregation to elect trustees." In 1802 the Legislature passed an act in relation to the incorporation of Christian churches or religious societies, authorizing the male members of twenty-one years of age and upwards to draw up and have recorded a constitution or plan of gov- ernment; but the congregation at Bethel, it would seem from the foregoing extract, had not availed themselves of it. It is worthy of remark that Nicholas Chambers was also one of the trustees of the parsonage at North East. The first Methodist society that organized agreeable to the act of 1802 was called Goshen, now Ebenezer. The organization was effected on the 15th of January, 1806. The title then assumed was the Goshen congregation or society belonging to the Methodist church in South Susquehanna Hundred. The first trustees were Caleb Edmundson, William Tyson, James Thompson, Thomas Sproston, Thomas Janney, and Edward McVey. The rules and regulations were signed by the above-named trustees, and acknowledged before Samuel Miller and Jeremiah Baker, justices of the peace. Though this congregation is the first one of this denomination that effected an organization according to law in this county, there is reason to believe that it had no meeting-house until
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1827, for on the 18th of February, 1826, Thomas White sold an acre and nine perches of land to Thomas Janney, Caleb Edmundson, John Williamson, Elijah Reynolds, William Edmundson, Michael Trump, John Cameron, trusteees, in trust, that they should erect, or cause to be erected, thereon a house or place of worship for the use of the members of the Methodist Episcopal church in the United States. And on the 5th of November, 1827, Dr. James Beard sold to the same trustees a lot containing about an acre, adjoining the other one, on which a church had been built in the mean- time, "in trust that the said lot should be for the use of the members of the M. E. Church in the United States, to build thereon any house for the convenience and use of said church."
Under date of May 27th, 1800, Mr. Asbury, writing of Bethel, says: "The people sung and leaped for joy of heart; they have beaten down strong drink, and the power of God is come." The next day he says, "at the Manor chapel we had a great time; my soul was divinely re- freshed." This brief entry in Mr. Asbury's journal, throws some glimmering light on the previous condition of the people on the Manor, and leads us to infer that they had formerly been addicted to the immoderate use of strong drink.
It seems proper at this point to refer briefly to the con- dition of North Sassafras and St. Augustine parishes. Rev. Mr. Thompson, who the reader will recollect was rector of these parishes previous to the time of his death, had been succeeded by the Rev. James Jones Wilmer in 1787. He was a grandson of Hugh Jones, and had been educated in England, but returned to America in 1773, and became chaplain of the First Maryland Regiment in 1777. Mr. Wilmer left these parishes in 1788, and was succeeded by Rev. John Bisset, who had charge of North Sassafras from 1790 to 1792. He was succeeded by Rev. George Ralph, who was in charge of that parish for nine months in 1793.
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He also had charge of Shrewsbury parish, in connection with North Sassafras, and taught a school at Georgetown. He was succeeded in 1794 by Rev. Jeremiah Cosden, who was a native of the parish, and had been a Methodist preacher, on account of which he had much difficulty in being admitted to orders in the Episcopal church. He lived upon the glebe, which he cultivated, his parishioners keeping the buildings in repair, but contributing nothing to his support. Mr. Allen, in his manuscript history, re- marks that "he seems not to have been a very zealous churchman, and probably regretted leaving the Methodist church." Mr. Asbury, speaking of him in his journal, in 1795, says: "He was always very generous, and did not serve us for money," and adds, " he did certainly run well."
Mr. Cosden was succeeded by Rev. Joshua Reese, in 1801. Mr. Reese had been a physician, but had exchanged the practice of curing the body for that of curing the soul. He left this parish in 1802, having been in charge of it and St. Augustine for about a year. He was succeeded in the rectorship of North Sassafras parish in 1803, by the Rev. Henry Lyon Davis, the father of the late Henry Winter Davis, who the next year also took charge of St. Augustine parish. During part of this time, that is to say, from 1789 to 1792, the Rev. Joseph Coudon had charge of St. Augus- tine, in connection with North Elk and St. Ann's, near Middletown. He died in 1792, and this parish was vacant for two years, when Rev. Mr. Cosden took charge of it in connection with North Sassafras. The Rev. Mr. Davis seems to have had a nominal connection with St. Augustinc during the time of his rectorship at North Sassafras. During the period between the years 1787 and 1808, there is reason to believe that Methodism increased quite as rapidly on the Manor and in Sassafras Neck as it did in that part of the county north of the Elk River. Its membership were no longer confined to the poor and the lowly, but some of the most eminent persons of that part of the county were found
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among them. Prominent among these was Richard Bassett, before referred to in connection with Bohemia Manor, who came to reside upon his plantation at Bohemia Ferry, about 1795. He was one of the most influential Methodists of that period. His house was the home of the poor, weary itinerants, who always found an open door and a hearty welcome. Mr. Asbury was in the habit of stopping at his house frequently, and there is no doubt that it was owing to his instrumentality that the first camp-meetings in the county were held in a grove on his estate, about a mile north of Bohemia Bridge, in 1808 and the next year.
These camp-meetings were a source of vexation and an- noyance to the Rev. Mr. Davis, who viewed the success of the Methodists with jealous eyes. Mr. Davis was a learned man and had been elected professor of the Greek and Latin languages in Diekinson College, when he was only nineteen years of age. Being a learned man and zealous minister, he had no sympathy with the Methodists who had preached the gospel at Hersey's mill, Thompson's school-house, and Beth- esda Chapel, and had been so successful in making prose- lytes that there were none left to attend upon his own minis- trations in St. Augustine parish, the church at that time being closed for want of a congregation. In 1809, Mr. Davis, in a letter to the Bishop, says : " Already there have been several camp-meetings in the peninsula this summer. At this time there is one near Smyrna, Del. Next week one will be formed in this neighborhood, and another in Wye River in Talbot County. I am horribly afraid of the effort. Within the last two years the church has evidently declined in al- most every part of the Eastern Shore." This is rather a gloomy picture to be drawn by a zealous churchman, but no doubt it was a true one, and very probably Mr. Davis feared that owing to the zeal and success of the Methodists, the parish of North Sassafras would also fall into their pos- session. The history of that parish for the next fifteen years, and all the subsequent history of St. Augustine, show that
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the fears of Mr. Davis were well grounded, for so few were the church people and so little respect had the others for the old St. Augustine church that they not only suffered it to go to ruin, but actu illy pulled it down and used the bricks of which it was constructed in building chimneys in their houses and for other purposes, so that a quarter of a century later but very little if any part of the walls were standing. The chapel which stands near the site of the church was erected in 1841, mainly by the instrumentality of a few pious ladies of the neighborhood ; but so effectually had Metho- dism supplanted Episcopacy in the affections of the people of the Manor, that when the Bishop attended there on St. Patrick's day of that year in order to consecrate it-it being a stormy day-he was obliged, for want of an audience, to postpone the ceremony until the next autumn.
The Rev. Joseph Coudon, who, the reader will recollect, had been chosen curate of North Elk parish in 1785, was ordained two years afterwards, and the same year was in- stalled rector of that parish. The minutes of the vestry for 17SS, show that he had then been laboring faithfully in the parish for six years, and had received on an average only about £37 a year, though the subscription list for his sup- port amounted to upwards of £178. Probably part of what he did receive was the interest on the money obtained by the sale of the glebe which was disposed of in 1875, and the money placed in his hands, he being allowed to use the in- terest upon giving bond for the payment of the principal. In 17SS he was allowed to labor part of the time in St. Au- gustine parish and Appoquinimink, Delaware, which he continued to do until the time of his death, which occurred April 13th, 1792, on his farm, now owned by Rev. James McIntire, near Elkton. Mr. Coudon was succeeded by Rev. William Duke, who took charge of North Elk parish, in 1793, and the same year married Hettie Coudon, the daughter of the former rector. Mr. Duke was a native of Baltimore County, and was licensed to preach by Rev.
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Francis Asbury, when he was only sixteen or seventeen years of age. His name appears upon the minutes of the first conference, held at Philadelphia, 1774, as one of the seven ministers who were that year taken on trial. The next year he was admitted to full membership, and re- mained in connection with the conference as a traveling preacher until 1779, when he ceased to travel, and subse- quently took orders in the Episcopal church, being impelled to do so by his opposition to the erection of the Methodist society into an independent church.
Mr. Duke was a learned man, and was more of the stud- ent than the preacher. He was the author of several reli- gious and poetical works, the principal one of which was published while he resided in Elkton, in 1795. It was en- titled " Observations on the present state of religion in Mary- land," and was a valuable contribution to the religious liter- ature of that period. No person would imagine, however, after reading it, that the author had ever been a Methodist preacher, for he severely censures those who were instru- mental in obtaining the independence of the Methodist church, and intimates that the means used to effect that end were not very creditable. He also criticises the religious peculiarities and manners of the Methodists of that period, and, while admitting that in general they seemed to to seek an experimental knowledge of God, “appeals to themselves whether they do not, both by ex&m- ple and express direction, excite the people to noise and uproar; and whether they do not avail themselves, not only of that noise but also of a confined air, violent gesticulations, and other circumstances calculated rather to surprise than inform the human mind; and whether they do not estimate their success in proportion to the disorder and tumult of their audience ?" Strange language this, to be used by one who, a few years before, had been a zealous Methodist him- self, and yet there is no reason to think that he was not en- tirely sincere when he used it, for in this pamphlet he is
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more severe, if possible, in his animadversions upon the Episcopal church than he is upon the Methodists.
The fact seems to be, that the early Methodists were both noisy and demonstrative, and Mr. Duke probably left them and joined the Episcopal church because it was quieter and better suited his temperament.
After being rector of North Elk parish for three years, Mr. Duke, in 1796, resigned and went to Anne Arundel County, but returned to Elkton the next year, and soon afterwards removed to Kent County, where he taught a pa- rochial school, but again returned to Elkton in 1799, and opened a school in Bow street, and during the next three years occasionally preached at North East, in his school- room at Elkton, and in the Episcopal church near the vil- lage of New London in Pennsylvania, and at the almshouse, baptizing and burying many. It was during this interval that he wrote to Bishop Claggett, May 3d, 1801, that he preached sometimes by special appointment at home, but never dreamed of doing anything more, "for," said he, " I have made my last effort with these people." In 1803 Mr. Duke was appointed professor of languages in St. John's College, Annapolis, and had charge of St. Ann's Church, in that city, until 1806, when, the college having been de- prived of its funds, he returned to Elkton, and the next year took charge of the academy there. In 1798 Mr. Duke purchased the Belle Hill farm, which he owned for a num- ber of years. The acquisition of this property no doubt caused him to desire to be near to it, hence his oft-repeated and fruitless efforts to effect a permanent location in Elkton. This time he remained there until 1812, when he took charge of Charlotte Hall, in St. Mary's County, and became principal of the school there, but in 1814 returned to Elkton and continued to officiate as aforetime until the spring of 1818, when he was appointed principal of the Elkton Academy. He died at Elkton in 1810, aged eighty-three years.
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
So effectually had Methodism supplanted Episcopacy in North Elk parish that during the interval from 1801, when Mr. Duke ceased to minister there, until 1835, it was without a rector. Part of this time the vestry-house was used as a school-house, and in the war of 1812, the church upon one occasion was used by a company of soldiers which occupied it as a barrack while awaiting transportation to Baltimore.
Trinity church in Elkton was organized in 1832 by the efforts of James Sewell, Henry Hollingsworth and a few others, and the same year Rev. William Henry Reese was installed as the first rector. The first church building was consecrated the same year. Mr. Reese was succeeded by Rev. Henry Lyon Davis, formerly of North Sassafras par- ish, who returned to this county in 1834. Mr. Davis re- mained in charge of Trinity church but a short time, when a vacancy of two years occurred, at the end of which Rev. Henry Williams took charge of Trinity in connection with St. Mary Ann's. Mr. Williams was succeeded by Rev. Robert Lloyd Goldsborough in 1841. Mr. Goldsborough was a very zealous churchman and under his rectorship the religious affairs of the parish assumed a much better con- dition than they had been in for many years.
In 1835 a church was organized near Port Deposit, the members of which were allowed the use of the chapel lands near that place probably for the purpose or with the intention of erecting a church building. In 1839 the ves- try laid out the church land in North East, into building lots, and sold it at publie sale, from which they realized up- wards of twenty-five hundred dollars.
Though St. Mary Ann's church had been built nearly a century it had never been consecrated, and that service was performed by the Right Reverend Bishop Whittingham, on the 3d of September, 1844. In August, 1845, St. Mark's chapel near Perryville, which was built on land donated by the Misses Gale, was consecrated, and the next year Rev. Richard Whittingham, Jr., was chosen by the
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rector as deacon and assistant minister there. Mr. Golds- borough occasionally held service in the neighborhood of Lord's Factory and in 1849, the subject of erecting a church near that place was contemplated.
The first society of Methodists in the vicinity of Elkton worshiped at the house of Richard Updegrove, which was a short distance east of the town and near the State line, in 1799. The names of the members were John Pennington, Elizabeth Pennington, John Crouch, Cornelia Crouch, Richard Updegrove, Hannah Updegrove, Thomas Phillips, and Sarah Land. The names of the probationers were Sarah Updegrove, John Hitchcock, and Rachel Coudon. This society probably removed to Elkton in 1801, for in that year it is called in the records of the quarterly conference the society at Elkton, Md.
On the 20th of July, 1813, Levi Tyson, Richard Upde- grove, Benjamin Pearce, Robert Taylor, and William Kil- gore, trustees of the Elkton M. E. church, purchased half an acre of ground on High street, from Thomas Howard, for the sum of one hundred dollars for the use of the Methodist Episcopal church in Elkton.
Bishop Asbury states in his journal that he preached in Elk chapel, in 1815, and remarks that "this place, Elkton, has been founded about fifty years," and adds, "it may be visited by the Lord in the fourth or fifth generation; " from which it is plain that his opinion coincided with that ex- pressed by Mr. Duke some years before, and that the resi- dents of the town were no more inclined to profit by the preaching of the Methodists then than they were to profit from the preaching of Mr. Duke.
From these facts, it seems plain that the chapel mentioned by Bishop Asbury, which is the old brick church on High street, now cccupied by the Free Methodists, was erected about the year 1814. This chapel was subsequently en- larged, in 1842, by an addition to the north end of it, and in 1827 George Jones, John HI. Ford, Jesse Updegrove, Henry
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Jamar, Robert Johnston, Levi Tyson, and Samuel Wilson, who, at that time were trustees of the church, purchased from Levi Tyson the lot adjoining the church lot on the east, for an addition to the graveyard. In 1820 Martha Rudulph presented this congregation with a house and lot on North street, a short distance above the railroad, for the use of the minister in charge of Cecil circuit and his successors, reserv- ing certain rights and privileges in the house and garden for the use and convenience of Mrs. Elizabeth Sullivan, widow, and Miss Mary Sullivan, spinstress, who were then tenants in possession, the trustees agreeing to keep the pre- mises in "good order and neat and comely repair." This parsonage seems not to have been a convenient residence for the minister in charge of the circuit, and in 1824 Martha Rudulph, who was then the wife of the Rev. William Torbert, then stationed at Cambridge, reconveyed the property to the trustees, and so changed the covenants in the original deed as to allow them to rent the property, and apply the proceeds for the purpose of paying the rent of a house for the minister of Cecil circuit in the town of Elkton or else- where. The congregation continued to enjoy the use of this property until 1853, when they sold it to Stephen John- son, the heirs at law of William Torbert and wife, who were then deceased, joining with them in the deed.
Rey Mr. Asbury frequently stopped at Charlestown, and sometimes preached there while upon his annual rounds visiting the churches, and it is pretty certain that the Methodists had preaching there at regular intervals in the early part of the present century. As early as 1792, the Pres- bytery of New Castle had sent supplies there to preach the gospel, and they had been so well received that the town commissioners, in 1801, appropriated one thousand dollars, which had been derived from the rents of the town property, and part of which was then in their hands, for the purpose of building a church for them, and actually had purchased a quantity of lime and other material to be used in its con-
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struction, when it was discovered that they had no legal au- thority to apply the revenue of the town for that purpose. They subsequently obtained the requisite authority from the Legislature and purchased a house and lot from Colonel Nathaniel Ramsay, primarily for the use of the Presbyterian congregation, but with the understanding that, if the house was not used by them, it might be used by other denomina- tions.
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