USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > Shrewsbury > A history of Seventh Day Baptists in West Virginia : including the Woodbridgetown and Salemville churches in Pennsylvania and the Shrewsbury church in New Jersey > Part 34
USA > Pennsylvania > Bedford County > Salemville > A history of Seventh Day Baptists in West Virginia : including the Woodbridgetown and Salemville churches in Pennsylvania and the Shrewsbury church in New Jersey > Part 34
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"A forward character in the association wrote thus in the Recorder, April 30th :- 'I believe war to be as great an evil and far more criminal than either rum-selling or slavery, and if either reform is most important, it is that of peace.'
"Here we have the published sentiment of one who stands appar- ently among the most officious members of our own body. He ranks war, rum-selling, and slavery somewhat together, but says decidedly that war is far the most criminal. Others of the body, all, for aught we know, may entertain the same views of the comparative magnitude of these evils, all of which are common. Now, although war, rum- selling, and many other great evils are prevalent, as must be admitted by all, yet of eighteen churches comprised in the body, one alone is singled out, and of the very many prominent evils, one only is inquired after. With a knowledge of all these facts, who can fail to see that inequality is practised ?
"The second article of the constitution says 'The object of this association shall be to promote the piety, order, and increase of the churches belonging to it and the cause of our Lord Jesus Christ gen- erally in the world.' This is as it should be. The letter of our cove- nant is right, intended doubtless to bear equally upon every church, for the good of the whole, but the present movement deviates from the rule laid down. It gives the appearance of partiality and is manifestly at variance with both the letter and spirit of the compact. Here the act is illegal. This will still be more fully seen by a little further examination.
"'What would the church do with a member who would buy or sell or hold a person as property?' is one interrogation put to us.
"Now, the thirteenth article of the constitution expressly forbids the exercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the churches leaving each to 'manage its own concerns of all matters of discipline without being amenable to any other body.' This clause of the law of the body shows at once that it is illegal to press such questions as the one above
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quoted, this association having no province even over acts of church discipline past, much less a right to reach ahead after what perchance may be in the future.
"Was not such an act forbidden by covenant agreement? There is rather too strong a spirit and principle of aristocracy betrayed in it to be tolerated by a free people, especially the Christian church. The voice of inspiration cautions against 'being lords over God's heritage."
"We now notice something of the imposing feature of the act of pressing these questions upon us. As before mentioned, it is admitted that the statements of our representative were satisfactory to most of the members of the association. This we fully believe (for enough has been said by the delegates and others, as may be seen by tracing the history of the matter) to satisfy every reasonable inquirer and we are glad to say that we are persuaded that reasonableness character- ises a large majority of our brethren in the association. Much has come to our knowledge to raise and confirm this belief. For all these many sympathising brethren, we do now, and hope we ever shall entertain deep sentiments of kind Christian affection, though forced to a non-compliance of a resolution passed under their notice. Per- haps all did not sanction it. We trust they did not.
"Is this catechising system adopted and carried through in a coo- sistent manner bearing equal on every church as it should? The church at Lost Creek and the sin of slavery is not all that is to be noticed. The association has much more to do. First inquire of this that, and the other church; does it 'have or hold any sympathy in any sense with Sabbath breakers, profane swearers, those who go to 'war, rum-sellers,' high-way robbers, and so continue on until each church in the body is separately interrogated. Then again inquiring of each branch separately what it would 'do with a member' who was' guilty of this, that, or the other sin, following on until every church and the whole catalogue of misdemeanors are gone over. In short, adopting the system, we enter a laborious uphill road, crossing the laws by which we profess to be governed, beating strongly toward usurpation and tyranny. The act of putting these questions is not only an encroachment upon liberties guaranteed, but imposing, because it gives the appearance of distrust of the truth of much that many have said before, amounting virtually and very near directly to a high impeachment upon the veracity of our representative, on whose feelings and reputation we place far too high an estimate to countenance of give strength to such a censure by answering the questions.
"We have, as a church, voted him our thanks for his services in attending the meetings of the association and an approval of his course as delegate, and although we may stand ever so ready to give the desired answers full and clear when justice and propriety demand. yet to answer now, under existing circumstances, would be an open foreseen act of ingratitude, to which it would be cruel to descend.
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"These are some of the considerations that brought us to the con- clusion that it is not duty to fill the request.
"Was it proper to extend such inquiries and that we should be disposed to answer them?
"We see no probability of good resulting, unless perhaps it might be a slight gratification to a few ultra-abolitionists, whose pre- judices we suppose are so deeply set, that they perhaps will never know when they have said and done enough to defame and oppress southern dwellers, and such a good or gratification we think will have no tendency to promote the true interest of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the world, which agreeable to our profession, should be the prime motive of our lives and labour. To this duty we are solemnly bound by the social compact into which we have entered, as is explicitly stated in the constitution of the body. No self gratification or other sinister motive should be indulged in, most certainly not at the expense of the feelings and reputation of others.
"More might be added in justification of the position we take, but enough is said, perhaps, to give some idea of our views and feelings.
"We therefore leave this point with the brethren of the associa- tion, to be disposed of as their pleasure may dictate, and pass (as painful as the thought may be) to the subject of separation. While, as in the present case, sundering covenant relations is frequently a source of grief and tears, yet it is sometimes the most prudent course. How can any body of people walk together, with pleasure or profit, when peace and union are broken up by convulsions of useless strife and discord? A house divided against itself cannot stand. Was our church located in a more northern clime disclaiming, as we do, senti- ments and practise of slavery, we think present difficulties might not have been raised. Existing facts lead us to this conclusion. We are slow to believe that it is the condition of the two coloured people with Brother Bond, that causes these ruptures, for it is well known that a remedy of any supposed wrong existing there has long since been spread out ready to the hands of any and every benevolent friend to change, at Brother Bond's expence, the condition of these people at their pleasure and that of their friends, if it can be done for the better ; but great as the sound of sympathy and charity from the north for Mother Charlotte and her son has been, it all proves cold as winter in the region from whence it comes. Though the way is opened and made easy, no bencfactor appears, leaving us to conclude that it is not the condition of these people, but a local dislike, a sectional preju- dice, that keeps up dissatisfaction, which, though we believe it dwells in the bosoms of but few (perhaps very few) yct we have no dis- position to contend further with the prejudices of these men, believing it would be fruitless, as well as unpleasant to do so.
"We therefore withdraw, that we no longer be a party in war among covenant brethren. The contest proves not only unpleasant and fruitless, but sadly disastrous; all this too with little or no visible
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cause, more certainly without any good reason; nothing new or more unfavourable as to the real facts in the case has come to light since our reception, yet variance and division enlarges. When we entered the compact, one individual alone raised the dissenting voice. Since that, a number of brethren, two churches, and one other association at least have raised the denouncing cry in high and degrading tones through the columns of our denominational organ, evincing to the world that neither gospel duty, weighty and sacred as it is, nor chris- tian covenant, however solemn and binding, prevents brethren among us from defaming one another in the most public manner. Moreover, our own association, at its recent session, not only virtually refused to rebuke these things or give us redress in any form, but have shaped matters still more unfavourable by refusing to adopt the major- ity report of her own select committee, prepared for the purpose of alleviating the matter, and by an over-act adopted another in its stead, urging imposing superfluous duties upon us, such as are not required of any other church.
"Under this state of things, Christian sociability and fellowship is broken. Our usefulness to each other and to the cause as co- workers, paralysed if not destroyed. By the union, our hearts were lifted with the hope that by the blessing of our heavenly Father, we might labour together much for the edification and mutual benefit of each other as well as for the furtherance of our common cause in the world; but alas, these anticipations, bright and promising as they were, soon began to darken and now close in sad disappointment Isolated, weak, and destitute as we are, we choose rather to retire than remain where prevailing contention wounds the feelings and reproaches the cause. The time and labour of our minister is too much appreciated, his feelings too much regarded, for us any longer to spend money in sending him away to meet with those whose manner of reception have already pierced his heart, as well as others with deep sorrows, unmerited affliction, as well as sad disappointment.
"Under the weight of the foregoing considerations, the church, June 12, 1857, resolved to request a release from the association, desir- ing no longer to be a member thereof. You will please, therefore, lay this communication before the association at the earliest opportunity. No further delegation or correspondence as an acting member of that body need be expected.
"Although thus withdrawing from the association, we feel under high and lasting obligations to many of its members, and desire cor- dially to tender to such churches and brethren as have favoured us with their friendship (and we believe they are many), expressions of deep and heartfelt gratitude for their kindness and brother-like deportment toward us.
"Written and forwarded agreeable to church order.
"WILLIAM F. RANDOLPH, Special Committee,
"To JAMES BAILEY, Corresponding Secretary, "of the Eastern Association."
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The reply of the Lost Creek Church was received by the association at its annual meeting with the First Hopkinton Church in May, 1858, and was referred to a special committee consisting of Joseph Potter, William B. Maxson, and Walter B. Gillette.
The report of the special committee was as follows :-
"The special committee to whom was referred a letter from the Lost Creek Church, Va., stating that said church had voted to with- draw from the association, respectfully report, that they have duly considered the question, and recommend that the association take no other action upon the subject than to adopt the following preamble and resolution :-
"Whereas, The church at Lost Creek, Va., has given notice of its vote to withdraw from the association; and,
"Whereas, The letter from that church containing such notice, leads us to conclude that their withdrawal is based mainly upon a supposition that the association discredited the statements made last year by their delegate and that there was something inquisitional in the resolution adopted by the association, requesting from the church a formal and authenticated statement of her sentiments and practise in relation to human slavery; therefore,
"RESOLVED, That we hereby disclaim any intention in the resolution adopted last year, either to discredit the statements made by the delegate of the Lost Creek Church (which statement he informed us was not official), or to catechise that church discour- teously or unnecessarily, assuring them that our only intention was to obtain from them such official information as seemed to us neces- sary in view of what had been written and spoken on the subject to remove the impression that was upon some minds, that the spirit of slavery existed in that church."
This report was discussed at length, and after an unsuc- cessful effort to have a substitute for it adopted, the whole matter was referred back to the special committee, and George B. Utter and William C. Whitford added to the committee. The committee re-presented its original report, which was adopted.
The New Salem Church, it should be observed, took no formal part in this controversy with the Eastern Association, of which it will be remembered the New Salem Church was a member also, although that church had joined with the Lost Creek Church in sending Rev. Samuel D. Davis as a delegate for two consecutive years to the annual sessions of the East- ern Association held at Shiloh and New Market, New Jersey.
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It was perfectly clear, however, that the New Salem Church strongly sympathised with her sister church in what they both regarded as persecution of the latter, concerning slavery. From the date of the final action of the Eastern Association upon the withdrawal of the Lost Creek Church, the New Salem Church maintained an attitude of dignified silence as a member of that association, for a period of nine years, or until the year 1867, after the Civil War had been closed and slavery forever banished from American soil.
But the feeling engendered by so bitter and so intense a controversy could not die out all at once, and it was not until the occasion of the visit of Rev. Sherman S. Griswold at Lost Creek in May, 1881, that it was made entirely clear that peace and harmony were wholly restored, and that the slavery ques- tion among Seventh Day Baptists had become wholly a thing of the past. So far as records accessible at the present time show, not more than two members of the Seventh Day Baptist churches of western Virginia took up arms against the Gov- ernment of the United States in behalf of slavery. With these exceptions the Union was upheld and loyally supported! by the entire membership of all these churches.
Situated as they were on the very border line between the north and the south, where political feelings, always intense. were many fold so at that time, it was but natural that any and all persons not definitely known to have voted for the success. ful candidate for the presidency of the United States in the campaign of 1860, should be regarded with doult. and many were arrested upon suspicion and confined in the county jails or carried away to Camp Chase or other government prisons. On one occasion, a posse of officers called at midnight at the home of the loyal clerk of the New Salem Church for the ostensible purpose of arresting him and taking him away to prison as a suspicious character. To their disgust, they found him at the Township Hall, performing his duty as a loyal citizen of the United States in helping to conduct a federal election, whose returns must be made out before the commissioners of the election were permitted to leave their post of duty for sleep. The churches of this a. ciation were all represented in the Federal Army.
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APPENDIX
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
REV. JOHN DAVIS.
REV. JOHN DAVIS was the son of William Davis, whose biography appears in the first chapter of this book. He was born in or near Philadelphia, in the year 1692. Probably about the year 1710, he accompanied his parents to .Westerly, Rhode Island, where he was baptized May 25, 1713, by his father, and admitted to membership in the Westerly Church on the 22d of the following June.
In the year 1715, he was married to Elisabeth Clarke, the daughter of Joseph Clarke, Jr.
On November 9, 1743, the Westerly Church called him to ordination as a Gospel minister, but he declined to accept ordination.
Soon afterward, he removed to Shrewsbury, New Jersey, in company with his father, and other members of the family.
On June 19, 1746, the Shrewsbury Church, of which he was a constituent member, called him to ordination, and arrangements were made at once to send him to Westerly to be ordained. Accordingly, five days afterward, taking a letter written by Joseph Maxson in behalf of the Shrewsbury Church, to the church at Westerly, making known the wishes of the former church, he set sail for Westerly, where he arrived safely after a week's voyage. Here the letter was read to the Westerly Church at the Sabbath service on July 12. The Westerly Church at once voted to grant the request, and on the afternoon of the following day, he was ordained. The ordi- nation service was conducted by Rev. Joseph Maxson, assisted by Rev. John Maxson and Deacon Clarke.
He returned to Shrewsbury, but after serving the church about eight years as its pastor, he died at Manasquan, in the town of Shrewsbury, August 18, 1854.
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REV. JACOB DAVIS.
REV. JACOB DAVIS, a son of James Davis, a grandson of Rev. William Davis, and a nephew of Rev. John Davis, born at Shrewsbury, New Jersey, in 1748.
He was baptized and received into the Shrewsbery Church, by Rev. Jonathan Jarman, in the year 1772; and was afterward licenced to preach. On the 19th of June, 1774. the church gave him a formal call to ordination. The ordination service, which was conducted at the home of Thomas Babcock. by Rev. Jonathan Dunham and Rev. Jonathan Jarman, prob- ably took place on February 27, 1775.1
The War of the Revolution claimed him as a chaplain, but he obtained frequent furloughs, and came home to min- ister to the wants of his flock. It was under his leadership that the church erected its first house of worship amid the perils and hardships of war, and it was to him that the deed for the church lot was entrusted for safe keeping.
When the Shrewsbury Church emigrated to western Vir- ginia in 1789, he accompanied it to its new home, and amid all the vicissitudes and hardships of life in a wilderness, be never faltered in the path of duty. Often with his pack upon his back, amid constant danger from the Indians, he travelled on foot from New Salem to the West Fork River, thence on to White Day Creek, and finally to the Woodbridgetown Church in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. It was upon one of these journeys in July, 1793, that he was taken sick at Wood. bridgetown, and died on the 17th of that month. He lies in an unnamed grave at Woodbridgetown.
His wife was Mary Davis, a daughter of William Darit. who in turn was the son of Rev. John Davis, the son of Rer. William Davis, the founder of the Shrewsbury Church.
To Jacob and Mary Davis were born the following chil. dren (order uncertain) :- Jacob, Zebulon, Samuel, Cran. dall, Mary (Polly), Lydia, and Elisabeth.
There are reasons for believing that Jacob Davis studied at Brown University.
REV. JOHN DAVIS, 2D.
REV. JOHN DAVIS, 2D, was born May 1, 1754, in Shrews. bury, Monmouth County, New Jersey. He was the son of
I. Vid. pp. 18-19 supra.
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William Davis, who was the son of Rev. John Davis, who, in turn, was the son of Rev. William Davis, the founder of the Shrewsbury Church.
John Davis, the subject of this sketch, was a brother of Mary Davis, wife of Rev. Jacob Davis, preceding.
He was elected a ruling elder in the New Salem Church, on November 16, 1799. On the same date the church licenced him to preach, and also voted that he should be ordained. Arrangements were made for the ordination service to take place on the 8th of the succeeding June, but owing to the absence of ministers who were expected to be present, the service was postponed. It took place, however, at some time between January II and May 10 of the following year, and was conducted by Rev. Samuel Woodbridge of the Wood- bridgetown (Pennsylvania) Church, and Rev. John Patterson.
At once he began service for the New Salem Church as its pastor ; and from the date of the organisation of the Lost Creek Church, in 1805, he was pastor of that church also.
With the exception of a short period about the year 1811, when, for a short time, he removed to the state of Ohio, where he was a member of the Mad River Church, he ministered to the wants of both the New Salem and Lost Creek Churches, until his death, which occurred June 22, 1842, in the eighty- ninth year of his age. He was buried in the graveyard on Broad Run, about two miles west of Jane Lew, in Lewis County, Virginia.
He established his home on the Brushy Fork of Elk Creek, some ten miles distant from the Lost Creek Church. He sus- tained an intimate relationship with the Baptists on Brushy Fork, as well as on Broad Run.
Abram VanHorn, Sr., a native of Holland, came from the vicinity of the Woodbridgetown Church, in Pennsylvania, and settled near the home of Rev. John Davis, on Brushy Fork. The former had a family of five children,-three sons and two daughters. Through the influence of Rev. John Davis, the oldest son of Abram VanHorn, Sr., Job, as well as several of his (Job's) family embraced the Sabbath, as follows :- His son-in-law, James Kennedy ; his son William, who was married ; his son Abram, Jr., who was unmarried; his daughter Abby, who married Abner Batten, afterward a deacon in the Lost
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Creek Church; and Betsey (Elisabeth), who married Moses Hoffman, for several years clerk of the Lost Creek Church. Abram VanHorn, Sr., who was at first sadly disappointed at the course of his son and grandchildren, at length became reconciled to what they had done, and finally embraced the Sabbath himself.1
Rev. John Davis was a soldier in the War of the Revolu- tion, and drew a pension for that service. For several years previous to his death, he was too enfeebled physically and mentally to preach. At the time of his death he was the oldest minister among the Seventh Day Baptists.
Some of his children were as follows :- Rev. Lewis A. Davis; Sarah, wife of Jacob Davis, 3d, and grandmother of Rev. Lewis A. Platts; Amy, wife of George Davis, and grand- mother of Rev. Darius K. Davis, the son of Eliona Davis ; Zippa, wife of Samuel F. Randolph, the son of Jesse F. Ran- dolph; Mary (Polly), wife of William F. Randolph, and mother of Rev. Lewis F. Randolph, and grandmother of Rer. William L. Burdick.2
REV. LEWIS A. DAVIS.
REV. LEWIS A. DAVIS, a lineal descendant in the fifth gen- eration, of William Davis, the founder of the Shrewsbury Church, was a son of Rev. John Davis, 2d, in this line, and was born in western Virginia, August 20, 1801.
When he was about eighteen years of age, he was baptized and became a member of the New Salem Church.
In his twentieth year, he visited the Seventh Day Baptist churches in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, and attended the annual session of the General Conference at Hop- kinton, Rhode Island. He then visited Ohio, and pursued private studies for a short time under the tuition of a clergy- man, whom he paid with a half month's labour. He was soon obliged to abandon his studies, however, when he returned to Virginia.
On February 18, 1821, he was granted licence to preach. and on January 15, 1824, he was ordained a Gospel minister.
1. For this information relating to Abram VanHorn, Sr., and his son Job and family, the author is indebted to Rev. Richard C. Bond.
2. For information relating to the children of Rev. John Davis, the author is indebted to Rev. Boothe C. Davis, and his father, Rev. Samuel D. Davis.
(25)
REV. LEWIS A. D.AVIS.
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The ordination service was conducted by Rev. John Green, assisted by Rev. John Davis and Rev. Peter Davis.
For some time, he engaged in general missionary labour in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana, travelling from place to place on horseback.
Having decided to remove to Ohio for his home, a com- mittee of the Lost Creek Church followed him after he had started, and induced him to return. He remained nearly a year longer in Virginia. He finally decided, however, to make his home in Ohio, and on August 16, 1833, the New Salem Church granted him and his wife, Rebecca, letters of dismissal to join the Pike Church of Ohio.
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