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 9
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 9
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"I will unto my mother, Mary Woodbridge, provided she outlives my wife, Ann Woodbridge, the former privileges above mentioned to her and five pound per year and her fier wood cut and holed to my house, said five pounds is to buy her cloaths or what she may think best, to be paid by my executors or by my niece Sarah Oliphant who is to have possession of my estate. After the death of my wife, Ann Woodbridge, and at the death of said Sarah Oliphant, it is to be divided equally between her children-Woodbridge Oliphant & Julit Oliphant.
"Again after my death I bind either of the above mentioned persons that may possess my real estate to give when demanded of them, or either of them, to my sister's children, Elisabeth Brown, who died last year in New York, an in lot and out lot in Mifflin town, two to each child as they are laid out in the Plot of said town.
"I likewise will one half acre of land on which the meeting house stands, and an out lot, to the Seventh Day Baptis Church now metting at Mifflin town as it is laid off in the town plot to a pepole holding the following doctrins-
"First, The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity.
"Second, The fall of Man.
"Third, Recovery only by Christ's Holy Life and painfull death.
"Fourth, The doctrin of regeneration.
"Fifth, Perseverence of Saints.
"Sixth, The ten commandment law Recorded in Exd. 20 as a rule of life and practise- The Seventh day Sabbath as a day of rest from servile labour.
"Seventh, Belivers baptism only by dipping.
"Eighth, The eternal happiness of the Saints in heaven and the torments of the wicked in hell.
"I likewise will to Hanah Merideth, daughter of Davis Merideth,
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one lot containing one quarter of an acre fronting Anon street, North West side of said street, adjoining the land of James Tate-
"I likewise appoint Cornel Zeadock Springer [and] John Oliphant excutors, and my wife, Ann Woodbridge, executrix to this my last will, "As witness my hand and seal this twentieth day of August, 1799- "SAMUEL WOODBRIDGE (SEAL) "Witness present "DAN. W. DAVID, 13th October 1814. "SAMUEL COOLEY, 30th Sept. 1814,
"JEHU JOHN."
VI.
THE NEW SALEM CHURCH.
F
FROM the time the Shrewsbury Church left its old home in New Jersey, in September, 1789, until after its arrival at New Salem, Vir- ginia, the church records are wholly silent, save for the death of William Davis, at White Day Creek, July 15, 1791.
The records begin anew as follows :--
"May the 13, 1792.
"The Church met in conference at New Salem, where the Church, or part of them, is now embodied; this being the first opportunity of coming under regular discipline in church order since we left New Jersey."
Henceforth the church abandoned the name of "Shrews- bury," and was known, first as the "New Salem," and afterward as the "Salem," Church, its present name.
Not all the company that originally set out from New Jersey, came to New Salem. Death had claimed some on the way, and others had selected homes by the wayside. Some had settled on the West Fork of the Monongahela River, alittle south of the mouth of Ten Mile Creek, where a small stream known as Lamberts Run enters the West Fork River, at a distance of less than twenty miles from New Salem.
As early as June 28, 1793, a request was presented to the New Salem Church by these settlers at the mouth of Lamberts Run, to be organised into a separate church. This request was granted, and the West Fork River Church resulted, only to go
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crashing into oblivion a few years afterward, over the precipice of "open communion."
Soon after coming to its new home, the New Salem Church was called upon to mourn the loss by death of its pastor, Rev. Jacob Davis, who in the summer of 1793, went away on a missionary journey to Fayette County, Pennsyl- vania, where he was taken sick and died, July 17, of that year. He was buried in the graveyard adjoining the Seventh Day Baptist meeting house at Woodbridgetown.
Rev. Isaac Morris soon joined the West Fork River Church. On March 8, 1795, by vote of the church, Rev. John Patterson became pastor of the New Salem Church. At short intervals, Joseph Davis, Mosher Maxson, and Zebulon Maxson were all licenced to preach ; and in 1801, John Davis was ordained pas- tor by Rev. Samuel Woodbridge of the Woodbrigetown church, and Rev. John Patterson. Two years afterward, Rev. John Patterson was debarred from communion because of a lack of loyalty to the church.
Meantime the church was kept busily occupied in dealing with members who were summoned before the bar of the church for petty, as well as for more serious, breaches of church discipline, besides performing the functions of the court of a justice of the peace. Business differences were regularly taken to the church, and members whose opinions of their respective pugilistic powers led them astray, were threated with the "awful sentence of excommunication," which appears in the records as late as November, 1822. At one time, the church ordered William Davis to make one hun- dred and sixty fence rails for one of his brethren, and Thomas Badcock (sic) was instructed not to pay a bill presented by James Maxson.
On July 8, 1798, Thomas Maxson and Jesse Maxson called upon the church to pass judgment upon the merits of a horse trade in which they were the principals. On another occasion, a member was denied the privileges of the church because he "hath challenged Salem Settlement in general for fighting, and the world at large." Again George Maxson brought complaint against several of his own brothers, con- cerning some business transactions, and the latter were
.
SALEM. LOOKING WEST. (From a photograph taken about 1900).
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THE NEW SALEM CHURCH
ordered, each, to pay the former, three bushels and ten quarts of corn.
The second church meeting held at New Salem was called "to settle some business between Brother William Maxson and Mosher Maxson; and it was agreed that William Maxson return the slait [sic] to Mosher Maxson and pay twenty- eight shillings, and Mosher to return the ax and bettle rings to William Maxson."
The church quickly recognised the need of a house of worship in its new home, and soon took steps preparatory to building one. On June 13, 1795, the size and style of house were agreed upon, and a committee appointed to superintend its erection. Whether such a house was built or not does not appear from the records. At all events, on January 10, 1796, the church instructed the deacon to arrange for Thomas Bab- cock's house for a place of worship, and in case of failure to procure that, to obtain John Davis's. On August 9, 1801, the church voted to try to buy the house in which they met for worship, and offered fifty dollars ($50.00) for it. Either this offer was rejected, or the church after a little reflection, pre- ferred to build a new house, for a week later, on August 16, the church voted to build a meeting house on the lower side of the burying ground.
Upon their arrival at New Salem, the new settlers had erected their cabins about a block-house, which they built for their mutual protection, a common kind of defence on the frontier in those times, but soon after Wayne's victory over the Indians, at the Maumee, in 1794, all danger from the savages passed away, and the settlers began to scatter to Buckeye Creek, Buckeye Run, Flint Run, Middle Island Creek, Meat House Fork, Greenbrier Run, Cherry Camp, Halls Run, etc .; so that before many years had passed, the New Salem Church, in order to accommodate the various groups of its members, some of whom were situated several miles distant from New Salem, maintained church services at Middle Island (now West Union), on Greenbrier Run, and on Halls Run. At Middle Island and on Greenbrier Run, log meeting houses were built. Business meetings were held in all three places, in turn with the village of New Salem. It is probable that communion service was likewise held at all these places.
86 SEVENTH DAY BAPTISTS IN WEST VIRGINIA · In the meantime, the Bonds from Cecil County, Maryland, had arrived and settled on Lost Creek and Hackers Creek. They were joined by other members of the New Salem church, and in 1805, the Lost Creek Church was organised.
Rev. Peter Davis was received into the New Salem church sometime between August 16, 1807 and December 28, 1815, licenced to preach in 1819, and ordained as a duly accredited minister in December, 1823, at Middle Island, by Rev. John Davis and Rev. John Greene. Rev. John Greene, in company with Deacon Zaccheus Maxson, of Truxton, New York, at this time was on a missionary visit to the churches in western Virginia. Rev. Lewis A. Davis was ordained on January 15th, following, by Rev. John Davis and Rev. John Greene.
Previous to the visit of Rev. John Greene and Deacon Zaccheus Maxson, several missionary visits had been made to the New Salem and Lost Creek churches. In the winter of 1818-1819, Rev. Amos R. Wells, of Hopkinton, Rhode Island, and Rev. Samuel Davis, of Shiloh, New Jersey, had visited them. In the following summer, that of 1819, Rev. Amos R. Wells visited them again, and then once more in the summer of 1820. In 1821, Rev. John Davis and Deacon John Bright, both of Shiloh, New Jersey, visited these churches ; and in the winter of 1821-1822, Rev. John Greene made them his first visit. These visits strengthened and encouraged both churches greatly.
Rev. Peter Davis engaged in pastoral work along with Rev. John Davis. Rev. Lewis A. Davis engaged in missionary work, giving his time largely to the interests of the Virginia churches for the first two or three years, and then transferring the field of his activity to the churches in Ohio, where he and his wife, Rebecca, transferred their membership from the New Salem Church to the Pike Church in 1833.
For a few years about this time, the New Salem Church enjoyed a season of great prosperity. From the Quarterly Meeting in November, 1829, until the Quarterly Meeting in February, 1830, a period of three months, seventy-two souls were added to the church.
In 1831, the Middle Island Church was organised with twenty-nine members drawn from the membership of the New Salem Church, and others soon followed. This church was
SALEM LOOKING EAST, SHOWING OIL WELLS IN WEST END. ( From a photograph taken in autumn of 1904).
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THE NEW SALEM CHURCH
located at Lewisport (now West Union), and included not only those who lived in that immediate vicinity, but those, also, who had settled on the Meat. House Fork of Middle Island Creek. These settlers lived at a distance of from four to eight miles from Lewisport, and included the numerous Bee families, who with the Kelleys had come from near Salem, New Jersey.
The first book of records of the New Salem Church closes with the minutes of the church meeting held April 11, 1834, and contains the history of the church for a period of eighty- nine years.
A new record book was purchased, and the first entry made under date of February 10, 1833, fourteen months before the date of the final entry in the old book.
The over-lapping of records was due to some of the troubles which overtook the church about this time and pur- sued it for a period of twenty years; and at two different times shook it to its foundations. These troubles which appear to have been more or less closely related, seem to fall into three classes, as follows :-
Doctrinal, organic, and personal.
First. DOCTRINAL. Rev. Peter Davis had aroused dis- trust as to his orthodoxy as early as 1825, by the public avowal of certain beliefs concerning the immortality of the soul. For this, he was cited to appear before the bar of the church; and pending his trial, was barred from communion. After a space of nearly two years, the trouble was amicably adjusted by a joint committee of the New Salem and Lost Creek churches, which after listening to an exposition of his views, could find nothing unscriptural in them, whereupon the charges were dismissed, and he was restored to full communion with the church.
Again in 1834, a group of the membership living on Greenbrier Run, including Rev. Peter Davis and Ezekiel Bee, refused to abide by the covenant of the church, and declared themselves in favour of open communion. This defection caused anxiety for a time, but it finally subsided, and was for- gotten in the excitement of more threatening events.
Second. ORGANIC. Early in the year 1834, complaint was made to the church, in church meeting, that two of its members had taken unlawful possession of the church book,
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and that a third member had circulated "a superscription to divide the church." At a subsequent meeting, the two mem- bers charged with seizing the church book were excommuni- cated. It was further decided that the third offender "should be dealt with for taking an active part in the division of the church."
The church was now in a state of chaos, and unable to decide for itself what its organic status was. It called in a committee, composed of members of the Lost Creek and Middle Island churches, which decided that although the seceding party was in possession of the records, it not only did not represent the original organisation, but it did not even have any accepted or legal standing, whatever, and could be treated only as a body of seceders. The decision of the joint committee was not satisfactory, and the church appealed to the General Conference, convened for its annual session at DeRuyter, New York, in September, 1834. The General Con- ference referred the questions involved to a special committee, consisting of William B. Maxson, Martin Wilcox, Daniel Coon, Joel Greene, and John Whitford. This committee reported as follows :-
"From sundry communications, it appears that a serious and unhappy difficulty exists in the Salem, Va., church, which in the opin- ion of the committee, is calculated to injure, if not to prostrate the interest and influence of the churches of our connection in that section of the country; and to us it appears that the difficulty is of a character which would render it very difficult to render them efficient aid by any written communications. We therefore, suggest to the General Conference, the propriety of sending two capable brethren to assist them in reconciling their difficulties, and restoring to them peace and good order; and that a letter be directed to be written to them, entreat- ing them to desist from uncharitable and harsh proceedings, and advising them of the appointment of the committee to visit them."
The General Conference adopted the report of the special committee, and appointed as the committee to visit the New Salem Church, Joel Greene and Nathan V. Hull, with Alexander Campbell as alternate for Joel Greene.
But one member of the committee, Rev. Joel Greene, was able to visit Virginia, in accordance with the appointment of the General Conference. He was assisted in his duties, how- ever, by Rev. Stillman Coon, who was at that time labouring among the Virginia churches.
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THE NEW SALEM CHURCH
At the annual session of the General Conference held in September, of the following year at Hopkinton, Rhode Island, Rev. Joel Greene, reported as follows :-
"The undersigned, one of the committee appointed last session to visit several Seventh Day Baptist churches in Virginia, beg leave to report that we have visited those churches, accompanied and assisted by Brother Stillman Coon, our missionary in that quarter, and after a very laborious and protracted investigation of the case of the New Salem Church, had the happiness to see those difficulties which so afflicted them and the friends of Zion in that country entirely removed and settled, the church again united and promising to live peaceably and usefully in the world.
"JOEL GREENE."
Third. PERSONAL. Disagreements and difficulties between individual members, were constantly brought before the church for adjustment ; but for the most part, they in no way disturbed the equilibrium of the church. Nevertheless at about the time of the difficulties just described, several things conspired to make one of these personal difficulties an event of portentous importance.
With the establishment of the village of New Salem by the General Assembly of Virginia, and the attendant appoint- ment of several members of the New Salem Church as trus- tees of the village, came a gradual recognition of the civil courts as the proper medium for the adjustment of business differences ; and gradually disagreements growing out of business transactions ceased to be brought to the church for settlement. The growth of sentiment in favour of this new order of things was greatly facilitated by the fact that several members of the church were elected to the office of justice of the peace, in whose courts many of these cases were tried. Jonathan Fitz Randolph and Nathan Davis were two of the more prominent members of the church holding this office. It naturally followed, then, that even the more simple legal technicalities and formalities, such as are accepted as a mere matter of course by the average citizen of to-day, were more or less confusing to the minds of the many to whom such things were wholly new and strange, and it required several decades for them to become thoroughly acquainted with the new régime.
Along with the advent of the courts, with their more for-
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mal methods of transacting business, came a demand on the part of the more progressive business men of the church, that the business of the church should be conducted upon business principles, and that the church records should be made more complete, and more accurate. Complete the records never had been; and hazy, ambiguous, and indefinite they often were. The minutes of church meetings were originally writ- ten upon loose bits of paper, which were taken home by the clerk of the church and laid away to be transcribed at his con- venience. Often they were mislaid, and the records written up from memory several weeks or months afterwards, or not transcribed at all. More often than otherwise, the minutes were not approved formally, by the church. This loose con- dition of the records was aggravated by the fact that the business meetings were held in different neighbourhoods by turn, several miles apart, necessitating several clerks pro tempore, who often acted for but a single day.
These facts will, at least partly, explain the fundamental causes of the troubles, the general details of which follow ; troubles which again threatened the stability of the New Salem Church, and which not only brought that church into unpleas- ant relations with the Lost Creek Church, and the South- Western Association, but finally compelled the New Salem church to repudiate its second book of records, covering a period of upwards of thirteen years, as, in certain vital respects, entirely untrustworthy, and to confess itself wholly unable ever to correct the errors satisfactorily.
A careful study of the records has been made by the present writer, and untrustworthy as these records are, he believes that the essential facts in the controversy are set forth in this chapter.
At a business meeting of the church held on May 20, 1831, Joshua G. Davis preferred certain charges to the church against William F. Randolph. These charges grew out of a suit at law, before Nathan Davis, Esquire, a justice of the peace, in which both Joshua G. Davis and William F. Randolph were con- cerned. At the next business meeting of the church, all but one of the charges were dismissed. This charge was after- ward referred to a committee of nine members, of which Rev. Peter Davis was chairman. This committee reported that in
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THE NEW SALEM CHURCH
their opinion, an apology was due from William F. Randolph. This he declined to make, and, according to the record, on August 19, 1831, was debarred from communion.1 After one or two further unsuccessful attempts to adjust the difficulty, William F. Randolph was excommunicated from the church, May 13, 1832. The affair remained in statu quo until August 9, 1835, when William F. Randolph appeared before the church and made a satisfactory acknowledgment. He was accordingly restored to membership, and the incident was considered closed.
On May 19, 1837, William F. Randolph called the atten- tion of the church to the lack of completeness of the record concerning the dealings of the church with him.
Accordingly, the church requested Rev. Stillman Coon, who was labouring among the churches in western Virginia at that time, and Abel Bond of the Lost Creek Church, to examine the records and report to the church.
This committee rendered its report eleven months after- ward, April 20, 1838, as follows :-
"TO THE NEW SALEM CHURCH; DEAR BRETHREN :- Your Com- mittee appointed to examine the records of the proceedings of the church in the case of the deal with William F. Randolph, beg leave to report, [that] after careful examination, we are utterly unable to ascer- tain the nature of the complaint preferred against him by Joshua Davis, neither anything definite of the travissing [sic] the case; only that a committee was appointed to act upon it, who brought him in guilty of something indefinable, upon which he was excommunicated.
"It is our opinion that every subject talen up in church meeting, should be distinctly stated, as also every act of the church thereon, and in this manner carried on to the book, so that any person reading can understand it; and we believe any church greatly in fault, that suffers their clerk to remain negligent of this duty, and now if the records can be so rectified as to make the case appear in its true colours, we would advise that it be done.
"Yours in the Gospel, "STILLMAN COON, "ABEL BOND."
The church now appointed a committee of five members, with Rev. Peter Davis as chairman, to correct the records. The report of this committee was unsatisfactory, and was not
I. This record, it will be observed further on in this chapter, was afterward discredited by the church itself.
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adopted. Then followed three more abortive attempts to correct the records.
In the meantime, William F. Randolph had been admitted to membership in the Lost Creek Church, March 8, 1840, with the result that the New Salem Church, on November 19, 1840, voted to inquire of the Lost Creek Church as to the regularity of its action. For, according to the records of the New Salem Church, William F. Randolph had been excommuni- cated a second time on February 14, 1840, some three weeks before the date of his admission to membership in the Lost Creek Church.
After a lengthy correspondence, covering about a year, the New Salem and Lost Creek churches referred the differ- ence between the two churches to a committee of six, consist- ing of two members of the South Fork of Hughes River Church ( formerly members of the New Salem Church), one member of the New Salem Church, and three members of the Lost Creek Church. The New Salem and Lost Creek churches bound themselves to abide by the decision of the committee.
This committee promptly set about its work, and on December 16, 1841, reported as follows :-
"THE REPORT OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY THE LOST CREEK AND NEW SALEM CHURCHES.
"December 6, 184I.
"Agreeable to the former arrangements of the New Salem and Lost Creek churches, the Committee appointed to adjust the difficulty existing between the two churches in regard to the reception of Bro. Wm. F. Randolph, met and the grounds of dissatisfaction were pre- sented, which was the receiving of an excluded member into the Lost Creek Church. In answer to the above complaint, preferred against us by the Salem Church, we, the Lost Creek Church, consider we are justi- fiable in receiving Bro. Randolph, both in point of legality and necessity.
"Ist. It was legal because we know of no circumstances that should debar him from the privileges of the connection; and
"2nd. We understand that the doors of the Salem Church were open for him to come in. The Committee jointly agree that the grounds of dissatisfaction with the Lost Creek Church were not of such a nature as they supposed. By comparing the dates of the records, we find that he was received before the case was re-acted upon by the Salem Church, and Bro. Randolph set back. The Committee, there- fore,
"Resolve, That by comparing and examining the records, that the
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minutes of Feb. 1840, so much as relates to Bro. Randolph, should be transferred to the minutes of the May meeting, where they seem to belong.
"And we certify that the differences between the two churches are hereby amicably settled.
"Given under our hands this the day and date above written.
"JOSHUA S. DAVIS, "LODOWICK H. DAVIS, "EZEKIEL BEE, "ABEL BOND, "LEVI H. BOND, "ELI BOND. "Committee.
From this report, it will be seen that the trouble between the two churches was due to gross inaccuracies in the records of the New Salem Church. The Lost Creek Church, as its records showed, instead of admitting William F. Randolph to membership some three weeks after he had been excommuni- cated from the New Salem Church, really had admitted him to membership while he was a member in good standing in the New Salem Church, and more than two months before the New Salem Church voted to excommunicate him.
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