USA > North Carolina > Sketches of North Carolina, historical and biographical : illustrative of the principles of a portion of her early settlers > Part 22
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The following extract from a letter respecting his last hours, shows the spirit of the man :- " He had lain for several hours with his eyes closed, speechless, and apparently insensible. One
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of his friends requested to ask a question. Although it would have seemed hopeless to expect any remaining intelligence, he had a curiosity and desire to make a last effort to arouse him. Placing his mouth near his ear, he asked, in a loud tone of voice-' Where is your hope now ?' The dying man opened his eyes, and raising both hands, extended his arms upwards, as if pointing toward that heaven which had been the object of his fervent prayers, and to which he had constantly looked forward as the place of his ever- lasting rest." In a short time he entered into that rest.
Rev. John Matthews, a member of the Hawfields church, who, like Pattillo,commenced preparations for the ministry later in life than is usual, became the Pastor of Nutbush and Grassy Creek, having received a call April, 1803. His preparatory studies had all been under the direction of Dr. Caldwell, of Guilford, and his license given him by the Presbytery of Orange, at Barbacue, in the month of March, 1801, in company with Duncan Brown, Hugh Shaw, Murdoch Murphy, Murdoch McMillan, Malcolm McNair, and E. B. Currie, all like himself pupils of Dr. Cald- well. The two first are still living in Tennessee.
Mr. Matthews left these congregations in 1806, and removed to Berkeley county, Virginia. From thence to Jefferson county ; and is now Professor in the Theological Seminary at New Albany.
Leonard Prather supplied them for a short time : but was soon deposed for intemperance.
His successor was the Rev. E. B. Currie, who left Bethesda and Greers in 1809. He was also a pupil of Dr. Caldwell. He served them till about the year 1819, when he removed to Haw- fields, and served that congregation and Crossroads till about the year 1843, when his infirmities induced him to give up his charge.
In 1822, Rev. S. M. Graham entered upon the duties of pastor to these congregations, and served them a number of years ; he now holds the chair of a Professor in the Union Theological Seminary.
THE CONGREGATIONS OF HAWFIELDS, ENO, AND LITTLE RIVER.
Settlements of the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians began along the Eno and the Haw rivers, about the time that the colonies settled in that part of Lunenburg county, Virginia, now called Charlotte, on Cub Creek and the adjacent streams, which was about the years 1738 and 1739. It is supposed that these settlements, and those in Duplin and New Hanover, were the places visited by Robinson, who is supposed to be the first Presbyterian missionary
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sent from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, that visited North Caro- lina. No other notice remains of his visit, but the fact that he did visit these parts, and underwent great hardships, from which his constitution scarcely recovered. In all probability the " sup- plications " for ministerial visits that were laid before the Synod of Philadelphia, then the only Synod of Presbyterian clergy in, the United States, came, in part, from the bounds of Orange county, North Carolina. The troubles and distractions that at- tended the divisions of the Synod soon after, prevented, or in- terrupted for a time, missionary operations to any extent, and then increased their number and their energy.
Mr. John Thomson, who was appointed to correspond with the supplicants, a member of Donegal Presbytery, visited them in person in 1751. On his journey to Carolina, the arrangement was made with Mr. Pattillo and another young man, to return with him to Pennsylvania, and commence their studies in prepara- tion for the ministry. Mr. Thomson made a long stay, and in the meantime the young man relinquishing his design of study, and Mr Davies giving Mr. Pattillo an invitation to his house, the design of going to Pennsylvania was abandoned. There remain no memoranda either of the correspondence of Mr. Thomson with those desirous of ministerial labor, or of his visit to them. Neither is there any document that may give any particular ac- count of the visits that were made by the various missionaries sent out by the two Synods of New York and Philadelphia, till the years 1755 and 1756, when Hugh M'Aden, a licentiate of New Brunswick Presbytery, made a tour of a year, a concise journal of whose journeyings and preaching is still preserved, and makes part of another chapter. He visited the settlements on the Eno, and preached for them the second Sabbath of August, 1755, lodging at the house of Mr. John Anderson, whose grandchildren, some of them, still live on the Eno. After a visit to Tar River, he returned to Mr. Anderson's, and on the fourth Sabbath of Au- gust preached at the Hawfields. Of the Eno settlement he says, they were " a set of pretty regular Presbyterians," who appeared at that time in a cold state of religious feeling. Of the Hawfields settlement, he says, " the congregation was chiefly made up of Presbyterians, who seemed highly pleased, and very desirous to hear the word." The next year they applied to Hanover Pres- bytery for supplies.
These congregations on the Eno and the Haw appear to have been not altogether regular in their ecclesiastical matters, for,
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according to the statement of an old elder of the Eno church, Mr. James Clark, who died a few years since, Mr. Spencer and McWharter, in their mission to Carolina to organize and regulate the congregations, attended to the organization of Eno. How- ever, this might refer only to their boundaries and separate action. The first elders were Thomas Clark, John Tinnier, and Carus Tinnier. The names of the first elders in Hawfields have not been preserved. Mr. Pattillo was the first settled minister of these two congregations, which have been the mothers of those now surrounding them, Little River, New Hope, Fairfield, and Cross Roads. He came in 1765, and left them in 1774.
The second pastor, the Rev. John Debow, from the Presbytery of New Brunswick, began to preach in these two congregations, as a licentiate, about the year 1775, and was ordained about the year 1776. His remains were interred in the grave-yard that sur- rounds the Hawfields meeting-house. Under his ministry there was a revival of religion, and a goodly number were added to the churches. His death took place in the month of September, 1783.
The next regular minister that remained with these congregations for a time, was Jacob Lake, the brother-in-law of Mr. Debow. During his ministry the congregation of Cross Roads was organ- ized, being made up of parts of Hawfields, Eno, and Stony . Creek. He left the congregation about the year 1790.
His successor was the Rev. William Hodges, who is said to have been a native of Hawfields. Becoming hopefully religious under the ministry of Mr. Debow, he commenced preparations for the ministry. After the death of his spiritual father, he be- came discouraged, turned his attention to other things, and mar- ried and settled in the congregation of Hawfields. During the excitement which prevailed under the preaching of James M'Gready, on Stony Creek, and along the Haw River, in 1789, 1790, and 1791, Mr. Hodges felt his desire to preach the gospel revive and spring up with greater force than ever. Being licensed by the Presbytery of Orange, he went heart and hand with M'Gready in the work ; differing, however, so much in his manner of preaching, that the people styled him the "Son of Consola- tion," and M'Gready, Boanerges. In 1792 he was ordained pastor of Hawfields and Cross Roads, by Orange Presbytery. During his ministry many were gathered to the church. About the year 1800 he removed to Tennessee, and was there an active agent in the " Great Revival " that spread over the South and West.
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CHURCHES OF ORANGE AND GRANVILLE COUNTIES.
His successor was William Paisley, under whose ministry the great revival of 1802 commenced, at the Cross Roads, an account of which is given under the head of James M'Gready, and the Great Revival. The first camp-meeting in the South was held at Hawfields, in October, 1802, and grew out of the necessity of the case. The community was greatly excited on the subject of religion, and multitudes, some from a great distance, assembled at Hawfields for the fall communion services. The neighborhood could not accommodate the numbers assembled, and their anxiety to hear the gospel was too great to permit them to return to their homes ; they therefore remained on the ground, camping with their wagons for three or four days, getting their necessary supplies as they could. So great was the interest excited, and so great the enjoyment, and the profit supposed to be derived from the meet- ing, that the example was followed extensively throughout the whole upper country of North Carolina. The custom of spending three or four days encamped at the place of worship, during com- munion occasions, extensively prevails to this day. Near most of the churches, that follow this habit, cabins are built for the ac- commodation of the worshippers, and for the season the whole neighborhood give themselves up to the exercises of the meeting. In Hawfields, the interest and attendance are yet unabated.
After serving the congregations about twenty years, Mr. Paisley removed to Greensborough ; and is still able to preach occasion- ally, though, through infirmities of age, he has declined being pastor of a congregation.
His successor, the Rev. Ezekiel B. Currie, passed his early life in several different congregations in Orange and Guilford counties, but chiefly on the Haw River. His father lived for a time in Alamance congregation, in Guilford ; from thence removed to Sandy River, in the upper part of Orange, near Randolph. During the war of the Revolution, on account of the hostility of the tories in that neighborhood, he was compelled to leave his home, and hide himself. Making a visit to his family he was dis- covered and seized by the tories, wounded, and left for dead, and his property carried away. The scars of these wounds, received in this attack, he carried upon his head to his grave. After being broken up on Sandy River, he removed to Haw River congrega- tion, whose place of worship was about three miles north of Gum Grove, the old burying-ground being still visible.
A remark made by an old gentleman who had sat silently by the fire-side, while young Currie and others were making merry one
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evening, was blest to awaken him to the danger he was in as a sinner. When the company were about to break up, the old gen- tleman turned to him and said-" Young man, when will you turn to serious things ?" This troubled his mind greatly. His con- version he attributes, under God, to the ministry of Mr. M'Gready, for whom he entertained the highest regard through his whole life. His education he obtained from two sources, Dr. Caldwell of Guilford, and Mr. M'Gready. The latter taught school at his residence, between three and four miles below High Rock, about mid-way between his two places of preaching, Haw River and Stony Creek. The principal part of his instruction, however, was from Dr. Caldwell.
In the month of March, 1801, at Barbacue church, Cumber- land county, Messrs. Ezekiel B. Currie, John Matthews, Duncan Brown, Murdock, McMillan, Malcolm McNair, Hugh Shaw, and Murdock Murphy, were licensed to preach the gospel by Orange Presbytery. These had all received their education principally under Dr. Caldwell, and were influenced more or less by M'Gready, to seek the ministry. All were actors in the great revival of 1802, and onwards. Four of them are still living ; two of whom are honored with the title of D.D., Brown and Matthews. Two of them were particularly useful in building up the churches that now constitute Fayetteville Presbytery, McMillan and McNair.
Soon after his licensure, Mr. Currie went to Bethany church, in Caswell ; to which Greers was soon united. After spending about seven years in these congregations, he was removed to Nutbush and Grassy Creek, in Granville ; and from thence, in the year 1819, to Hawfields and Cross Roads. About the year 1843 he withdrew from the pastoral charge of these congregations, on ac- count of the infirmities of age, but still lives to preach occasion- ally, and to witness the successful labors of his successor in these two congregations, constituting one of the largest and most inte- resting charges in North Carolina, which has been blessed with revivals from its origin.
After Cross Roads was united with Hawfields in the service of a pastor, Eno, which had at first been its partner, was united with Little River, which became a distinct congregation about this time, under the charge of Rev. James H. Bowman, in the year 1794. In the great revival in 1802, and onwards, he gathered a goodly number into his two churches. His ministry closed in 1815.
His successor was Samuel Paisley, half-brother of Wm. Pais-
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ley, and son of an Indian captive, who commenced his labors here in 1816. In 1821 the congregations were blessed with a revival of religion that brought numbers into the church. After some years of service, Mr. Paisley left them, and is now ministering in Moore county, a member of Fayetteville Presbytery.
The Rev. Messrs. Professor Philips, of the University, Elijah Graves, afterwards a missionary, Daniel G. Dock, Thomas Lynch, and finally, John Paisley, each served the congregation of Eno for a short time. The last finished his earthly course in the congre- gation. Of him a member of the congregation thus writes : " His labors, no doubt, were blessed, during his short stay with us. The good seed he has sown seems to be springing up; and even some sheaves ready to be gathered in; for in a few days we expect a goodly number to come forward in that old church, and declare themselves to be on the Lord's side." After expressing a desire that his name may be remembered, he goes on to say, "he was not only a preacher in the pulpit, but his daily walk and private conversation savored of the spirit of his Master. His Bible classes were large, and his examinations extremely interesting. But O, sir, we can't tell why it was that he so soon finished his work. His Master called, and he, with his lamp trimmed and burning, was ready to go. His disease, perhaps a complicated one, baffled the skill of some three or four eminent physicians. The anxiety mani- fested by his congregations, and all who knew him, was great in- deed. But it was the Lord's doing, and we must submissively say, 'Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.'" The aged minister goes down like a shock of corn fully ripe; the youthful servant leaves us in amazement, and wonder, and tears.
The Eno and Hawfields congregations, extending from Hillsbo- rough to the Haw River, were the scene of many of the doings of the Regulators. Not a few of the people were engaged in the proceedings of these slandered, yet brave men. Understanding their rights of person and property, they could not restrain their indignation under the complicated and long-continued impositions of those who, acting under the protection of the crown, exacted unheard of taxes from honest, unsuspecting men ; selling the same piece of land to different individuals, and receiving the pay from all, without redress ; exacting pay over and over again from the same individuals for the same tract, under various pretexts ; and setting at defiance all law and order. If these people had not resisted, they would have been onworthy of their ancestors and the religion they professed. That many base and unprincipled men took ad-
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vantage of the disturbance and distress, to commit heinous offences against the peace of society, and in defiance of all law, is a thing to be lamented, but not to be charged too severely upon men who were willing to live peaceably, and would have been loyal had not " oppression driven them mad."
Tryon's march the day before the Regulation battle, was through these congregations ; and the heavy oath of allegiance was exacted as the price of their property and lives, after the governor's victory. Upon the conscientious part of the community, that oath sat with a galling weight ; although many felt themselves relieved by the fact that the king could neither enforce his laws nor defend his subjects ; yet some suffered under its influence during the whole war-not daring to take up arms for their country, and not disposed to enlist among her enemies. Such people often suffered the ill-deserved odium of being tories, and felt the ill-effects of a bad name. Few real tories were found in the Presbyterian population of Orange. The most vehement enemies that Cornwallis met, had been under the instruction of Presbyterian ministers. The first settled minister of Hawfields and Hico sat in the first Provincial Congress of Carolina, and on alarms, met with his people, to encourage them by precept and example, to defend their country and their religion. Cornwallis found Hillsborough and its neigh- borhood little less inviting than Charlotte, which he named " the Hornets' Nest ;" and very few grown men from Hillsborough to the Haw, were unacquainted with service in the camp, and marches, and plunderings, while his lordship remained in Orange. And in the future history of Carolina, the war of the Regulation will stand prominent as the struggle of liberty and justice against oppression, not less glorious than Lexington and Bunker Hill, for the principles displayed, though less honored for the immediate effects.
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CHURCHES IN GUILFORD COUNTY.
CHAPTER XVII.
REV. DAVID CALDWELL, D.D., AND THE CHURCHES IN GUILFORD COUNTY.
THE congregations of Buffalo and Alamance, the two eldest and largest of the Presbyterian denomination, and probably of any other, in the county of Guilford, have had the singular privilege of enjoying the regular ministrations of the gospel, with little inter- mission, for more than eighty years in conjunction with each other, dividing the Sabbaths-and from two men. The time of the ministerial relation of the Rev. Messrs. David Caldwell and Eli W. Caruthers with these congregations, extends from about the time of the organization of Alamance, in the year 1764, to the present day ; an incontestible evidence of their stability, and the irreproachable lives of their pastors.
" A Sketch of the Life and Character of the Rev. David Cald- well, D.D.," by Mr. Caruthers, his successor in the ministry, replete with various information, gives all of importance that can be collected, concerning the early life of that venerable man, who finished his course in the one hundredth year of his age, and the sixty-first of his ministry.
David Caldwell, born March 22d, 1725, in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, was the son of a respectable farmer, in good worldly circumstances, and of unblemished Christian character. After receiving the rudiments of an English education, he was bound apprentice to a house carpenter, and served till the legal period, the age of twenty-one. After working at his trade, as a journey- man, for about four years, at the age of twenty-five he was admitted to the communion of the church, on a profession of his faith. As soon as the hope in Christ was formed in his heart, he began most earnestly to desire an education for the purpose of becoming a minister of the gospel. His thirst for information became a passion, and his desire to be useful in the ministry increased to intense earnestness, and he resolved to sacrifice time, and labor, and his portion that might fall to him from his father's estate, to satisfy these strong desires of his heart. With unwea- ried perseverance, he pursued the object of his desire, and received
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his degree of Bachelor of Arts, from Princeton College, in the year 1761, the year that President Davies died. He was then thirty-six years of age.
Some part of his preparatory course was under the tuition of Rev. Robert Smith, of Pequa, the father of John B. Smith, so fa- vorably known in Virginia as President of Hampden Sydney Col- lege, and of Samuel Stanhope Smith, known both at Hampden Sydney and Princeton. After receiving his degree he resorted to school-teaching, as he had often done before, and passed a year in that employ at Cape May. Returning to Princeton, he was en- gaged in the duties of a tutor in College, and in the study of theo- logy in preparation for licensure. He was taken under the care of New Brunswick Presbytery at its meeting in Princeton, Sept. 28th, 1762, having given the brethren " good satisfaction as to his motives in wishing to enter the ministry." After repeated trial of his proficiency and aptness to teach, he was licensed by that Pres- bytery on the 8th of June, 1763.
He left no account of his Christian experience, or of the trials and labors undergone in the course of study, preparatory to his entrance upon the work of the ministry. Some anecdotes which have been treasured up as having fallen from his lips, illustrate his spirit. In order to obtain some necessary funds, he sold his undi- vided patrimony to his brothers ; and in order to encourage them to make greater efforts to raise the money, and prevent all objec- tion, he rated his share much below its real value. The agreement was verbal, but at the settlement of the estate he confirmed it in writing, making a journey from Carolina expressly for that pur- pose. While in college he pursued his studies in a manner that must have been ruinous to most men, often passing the night in the summer season, without either undressing or lying down, sleeping with his head upon his crossed arms, under the open win- dow ; an evidence of a strong constitution and untiring persever- ance, rather than of genius or prudence.
After supplying various vacancies in the bounds of the Presby- tery, from the time of his licensure till the following summer, Mr. Caldwell visited North Carolina. The records of the Synod of New York and New Jersey have the following minute at their meeting in Elizabethtown, May 23d, 1764: "Several supplica- tions from North Carolina were presented, earnestly praying for supplies, which were read and urged with several verbal relations representing the state of the country." After speaking of the ap- pointment of Mr. Charles Jef. Smith and Mr. Amos Thompson as
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1
missionaries, the minute proceeds-" Mr. David Caldwell, a can- didate, of New Brunswick, is appointed to go as soon as possible, but not to defer it longer than next fall, and supply under the direction of the Hanover Presbytery." This Presbytery at that time was the only one south of the Potomac in connection with the Synod, and its boundaries on the south were indefinite. There was an independent Presbytery in South Carolina.
While Mr. Caldwell was in the course of his preparatory studies for college, a company of his friends emigrated to North Carolina, and took their residence on Buffalo Creek and Reedy Fork ; and before their departure from Pennsylvania, made overtures to him, that, upon his being licensed, he should visit them in their new abode for the purpose of becoming their preacher. In about a year after he commenced preaching, he was sent as a missionary by the Synod to the south, and passed through the congregations and settlements in the upper part of Carolina, and, among others, the settlements of his old friends. The emigration had been con- tinued, and many pious people having come to the wilderness, the congregation of Buffalo, whose place of worship is about three miles from Greensborough, had been organized according to the rules of the Church. Settlements had been formed on the Ala- mance, and in 1764, the year of his visit, the Rev. Henry Pattillo, who was afterwards the minister of Hawfields and Little River, organized a church called Alamance, whose preaching-place is about seven miles from Greensborough, and about the same dis- ยท tance from Buffalo.
These two congregations united in desiring Mr. Caldwell for their minister ; though of different sentiments about the late divisions in the Presbyterian church, both were orthodox in their creed, and firmly attached to the Presbyterian forms ; but the Buffalo church was composed of members that were of the Old Side, as they were termed, and the Alamance of those who sided with New Light or New Side, or as they sometimes distinguished themselves, followed Whitefield. This division into Old Side and New Side is by no means to be considered as similar to the divi- sions made some years since in the Presbyterian church under the names of Old and New School. The latter division was, in a great measure, brought about by different sentiments on important theological subjects ; the former principally by a difference about the nature of revivals and proper measures to be used, and also the proper qualifications for the ministerial office. The full and
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