USA > Ohio > A century of Congregationalism in Ohio, 1796-1896 > Part 2
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9
Evolution of Principles.
the hardships and perils of life in the forest and upon the frontier, with the dire accompaniment of frequent Indian wars. The excitements, too, of the French War and of the Revolution were demoralizing in the extreme. Then the Puritan founders of New England were so false to the prin- ciples of their polity, or were so deficient in spiritual knowl- edge, as to feel constrained to lean upon the civil arm for support, to look to legislatures and governors for defence against heresy and moral laxity, to set magistrates to compel observance of the Sabbath, attendance upon public worship and payment of taxes for the support of the gospel. To be sure, in this they were simply no wiser than their generation. Church and state were united in all Protestant countries, even in the American colonies with one or two exceptions. Only a few Baptists, Quakers, and Separatists like the Pilgrim fathers at Plymouth, had attained to ideas of toleration and liberty which now are fast becoming universal. But this form of ty- ranny re-acted to their serious spiritual detriment upon those who gave it countenance, and besides drove thousands out of the denomination by which it was inaugurated, as well as led directly to the Half-way Covenant, whereby the churches were filled with unregenerate persons, of which the outcome was some generations of spiritual deadness, and a final wide- spread lapse into Unitarianism. Closely allied with this sad departure from the Christian way was another, that connect- ed with the rigid rule of the clergy, especially in Connecti- cut where they wielded wide authority through the consocia- tion, or standing council. The churches must not be left to themselves but must be regulated and held to righteousness by some higher ecclesiastical authority.
To these prolific sources of evil was added the sway of a hyper-Calvinistic system of theology which landed not a few in formalism and fatalism, and with the theocra- cy became largely responsible for the entering in of Univer- salism. Still another demoralizing tendency is seen in the
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Congregationalism in Ohio.
fact that at first of necessity Congregationalism took mainly the form of protest, and resistance, and rebellion as touch- ing all attempts whether of kings or prelates to trespass up- on reason and the moral sense. In the dire extremity they would die sooner than obey and conform under compulsion, even in matters non-essential and comparatively insignificant. And so deadly was the strife, so severe were the sufferings for generations, that fear of despotism became morbid, and in order to make liberty ample and absolutely secure the churches refused to unite for any purpose, and preferred iso- lation with all its weakness and peril. The nineteenth cen- tury was well started on its course before conferences and as- sociations were fashioned with no object but to further un- ion, fellowship, co-operation, spiritual quickening, and pledg- ed one and all never in the least to essay the exercise of ec- clesiastical authority. The fulness of religious freedom was hastened in its coming when Congregationalism emerg- ed from the narrow limits of the East, and entered upon its magnificent career of helping to conquer for Christ the conti- nental spaces of the Mississippi Valley and the Pacific Slope. Properly with wonder do we dwell upon the Providence which freed the Fathers from the thraldom of the Old World and bestowed the matchless opportunities of the New, but not so often and thoroughly do we appreciate the signifi- cance to the denomination of the second migration, scarce- ly inferior in importance to the first, which began with the founding of the first church beyond the Alleghenies on the borders of the Great West.
In spite of manifold drawbacks and some staggering losses, Congregationalism has had a notable history, and has attained to proportions by no means inconsiderable. In 1800 the number of churches was 850, and of members 100,000, and fifty years later these had increased to 2,000 and 206,-
II
Evolution of Principles.
000. The figures which follow set the growth of more re- cent years.
Church
Year.
Churches.
Ministers.
Members.
In Sunday Schools.
1859
2,51I
2,544
250,452
228,984
1864
2,667
2,798
262,649
277,398
1869
3,043
3,068
310,362
356,502
1874
3,403
3,278
330,39 [
385,338
1879
3,674
3,585
382,540
437,505
1884
4,092
3,889
401,549
478,357
1889
4,689
4,640
491,985
610,227
1895
5,342
5,287
583,539
677,935
Following is the growth of thirty years, as shown by Secretary Hazen's report to the National Council : When the Council met in Boston, in 1865, it represented a constituency of 2,745 churches with a membership of 262,- 649 in 23 states and territories. It has made its way in the thirty years, in- to 26 states, and is now at home in every state save Delaware, and every ter - ritory except Alaska. It has added 2,597 churches to its roll, almost doubling their number, and it has gained 322,890 in its membership, an increase of more than 122 per cent. During the same time the population of the coun- try has increased from a probable 35,000,000 in 1865, to a probable 69,000, - 000 in 1895, or 94 per cent, giving our churches a ratio of increase 28 per cent. larger than that of the population with which we have to do. In the West, California has multiplied its churches more than tenfold, from 19 to 196 ; Colorado from 3 to 57, Kansas from 32 to 187 ; Nebraska from 10 to 186 ; Oregon from 6 to 52 ; while in the four great states, which in 1865 had not even a name, all are now represented ; Washington by 113 churches ; the Dakotas, North and South, by 224 and Oklahoma, youngest born of our sis- erhood, by 63.
But not all who bear our denominational name are citi- zens of the United States. For in the British Isles, known as Independents, dwell almost as many more ; with many tens of thousands additional upon the Continent, in Austra- lia, South Africa, and the Islands of the Sea. So that if all these are included, the total would not fall much below I,- 400,000 communicants, representing a population of at least 7,000,000. But the fellowship of those who find warrant in the Gospel for absolute freedom from clerical domination and church judicatures, far surpasses such figures as these. Thus there are the Baptists a great host, and the Disciples
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Congregationalism in Ohio.
with nearly 1,000,000 members, and various smaller bodies. It would be no exaggeration to put the number of those who prefer the Congregational polity at 35,000,000.
THE SITUATION IN 1796.
As gazed upon through the long vista of intervening years the date seems exceedingly remote, and especially if we catch a glimpse of the astounding changes which during the century have been wrought in every realm. We are car- ried back to times that wear a look most ancient and prim- itive. Though Columbus had been in his grave for three hundred years, the world was as yet largely unknown. The career of Captain Cook ended in 1779, and he it was who revealed to human knowledge the myriad islands thick- strewn through the vast spaces of the Pacific. It was only in 1788 that "Botany Bay" in "New Holland" had been made a dumping ground for criminals, while "Van Dieman's Land" was occupied for the same purpose not until 1803. For generations longer Africa was terra incognita. Great Britain laid hands upon Cape Colony in 1795 and ownership was made sure in 1806. It was between exactly the same dates that Mungo Park, the first of African explorers, at the cost of life was urging his way through swamps and forests in search of the upper waters of the Niger, and Livingstone, the greatest of these, was born in 1813. The Bastile fell, and the French Revolution began its course so terribly sub- lime two years after by the Ordinance of '87 the Northwest Territory was created, and only a twelvemonth before the first settlers landed at the mouth of the Muskingum, to found a city named in honor of the unfortunate Queen who five years later met her bloody fate. The year from which this Centennial is reckoned was marked also by Napoleon's first brilliant and victorious campaign in Italy.
I3
The Situation in 1796.
In our own country the period of infancy was not yet passed. Just two decades before the Declaration was signed, Cornwallis surrendered in '81, the Confederation gave place to the "more perfect Union" when General Putnam and his companions were finishing their first winter in the wilderness of Ohio. Detroit remained in British hands until the very year under view. Washington was still President, with three years of life remaining ; the city which bears his name was not occupied as the Capital of the nation until the first year of the new century. Vermont had been admitted to state- hood in 1791, Kentucky not many months after, while Ten- nessee and the Marietta church came into being within a few weeks of the same date, so that now the General Govern- ment bore sway over sixteen commonwealths. But as yet the entire Gulf coast and the whole region from the Missis- sippi to the far Pacific coast was held by European powers. Louisiana was Spanish soil until 1800, and in 1803 was pur- chased by Jefferson from Napoleon ; and almost at once Lewis and Clark were dispatched up the Missouri, across the Rockies and down the Columbia to inspect the new posses- sions. Florida was ceded in 1819, while Texas was not an- nexed till 1845. Of the first generation of statesmen Adams and Jefferson survived nearly thirty years, and Madison and Burr a decade longer. Of the second generation John Quin- cy Adams had attained to the age of twenty-nine, Clay was now nineteen, while Benton, Calhoun, and Webster were but lads of fourteen. The famous orations at Plymouth and Bunker Hill belong away down in 1820 and 1825. Of course the third generation of public men, who figured in the days when slavery culminated in secession, were not born. No more had any save the very eldest of that shining galaxy of American writers as yet seen the light. Irving was now a youth of thirteen, Cooper a lad of seven, and Bryant an in- fant of two.
In the religious world in like manner all modern things
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Congregationalism in Ohio.
were either wholly unknown or else just beginning to appear. Thus Carey's memorable sermon which resulted in the found- ing of the first missionary society, was preached in '92, and a year later he set sail for India. The century closed be- fore his first convert was baptized. The Danish Lutheran mission at Tranquebar was established in 1706, with Schwartz as its most eminent representative, who survived until '98, and for some sixty years the Moravians had been sounding out the Gospel in divers desolate regions ; but the heralds of the Cross in the entire foreign field numbered but a score or two. The London Missionary Society dates from '95, and while the Marietta saints were covenanting together upon the banks of the Ohio the first contingent sent out was in the midst of a perilous voyage to the remote South Seas. The English Church Missionary Society was organized in '99. To conquer China for Christ, Morrison took his departure from England in 1807, and Moffat for Africa in 1818; but Fiji, the spot on earth nearest to pandemonium and perdition, was not entered with the Glad Tidings before 1835. In 1796 Mills was only sixteen and Judson a child of eight, and the American Board had no existence for fourteen years. There was no Presbyterian General Assembly before 1789. The Congregationalists were divided by state lines, and when in 1798 the Connecticut saints began to be stirred with mission- ary zeal in behalf of the new settlements they proceeded to form a society which should be all their own, and their breth- ren in Massachusetts did the same a year later. The Ameri- can Board was the earliest of our organizations with a con- stituency as extensive as the nation, was followed by the American Education Society in 1815, by the Bible Society in 1816, the Sunday School Union in 1824, the Tract Socie- ty in '25, and the Home Missionary Society in '26. Of all these except the first named, the producing cause was the astonishing emigration which, as the eighteenth century was closing, began to set in towards the roomy recesses of the
15
The Situation in 1796.
Great West. And in all this unprecedented transfer of pop- ulation the men and women who in 1788 fixed themselves upon the Ohio were the illustrious pioneers.
Of course the Jesuits and other orders of the Roman Catholic church had entered the Mississippi Valley centuries before. As early as 1762 two Moravian missionaries to the Indians had advanced as far westward as the upper Musking- um, but were presently compelled to take their departure. In 1772 Zeisberger, of the same choice spiritual fellowship, founded a mission in what is now Tuscarawas county, and for almost a decade labored among the Delawares with most encouraging measures of success in souls redeemed and helped well on toward Christian civilization. But in '81 the prosperous settlements were broken up by the commandant of the British forces at Detroit, and the people were exiled to the Sandusky. Six months later, being at the point of starvation, a large party returned to secure a store of corn which had been left unharvested in the fields ; but while at work were surprised by a company of frontiersmen from Pittsburg, and nearly a hundred, including many women and children, were ruthlessly butchered. The survivors with their faithful pastor then sought safety in western Canada upon the Thames. In '86 they started back to re-occupy their former seats upon the Tuscarawas, but were turned aside to the Huron and founded Salem where Milan stands to-day. Five years later Zeisberger and his flock felt constrained once more to escape deadly peril by flight to the Thames across the lake. Finally in '98, two years after the Marietta church was formed, the remnant is found less than seventy miles to the north, occupying the 12,000 acres lying about Schön- brunn and Gnadenhütten which Congress had granted them. In 1808 the aged missionary passed to his reward after more than seventy years of sorest travail. By 1824 the whites had so crowded in on every side that the Indians were will-
16
Congregationalism in Ohio.
ing to turn their backs upon Ohio and take their journey far towards the setting sun.
The Presbyterians had begun to cross the mountains even before the Revolution, and were now found not only in Tennessee and Kentucky, but also in Western Pennsylvania, especially in and about Pittsburg, and these latter were main- ly of the sturdy Scotch-Irish stock. In 1781 Redstone Pres- bytery was set up, which eight years later contained eight ministers and upwards of thirty congregations. In 1793 Ohio Presbytery was formed from Redstone, extending to Lake Erie and covering the frontier settlements in South- eastern Ohio. But further, within a few years of the found- ing of Marietta, settlers by the thousand floated down the stream and located at various points upon the northern bank. A Presbyterian church is found at Cincinnati as early as 1790, and a presbytery in '99. A Baptist church also was gathered in 1790, and an association in '97. The pioneer Methodist itinerant put in his appearance in 1798. Thus the Congregationalists, though as individuals clearly first up- on Ohio soil, were somewhat later than some of their breth- ren in beginning to organize for the strengthening and en- largement of the kingdom of God. From the first Sabbath the Marietta disciples maintained religious services, and after the first year were blessed with the services of a pastor, but several settlements were combined in the congregations to which he ministered, and the Indian wars which raged from '91 to '95 put serious hindrances in the way of formal ec- clesiastical beginnings.
THE GENESIS OF OHIO.
The Northwest was discovered by La Salle, Marquette and their associates, and therefore the region lying between the south shore of Lake Erie and the Ohio was claimed by
I 7
The Genesis of Ohio.
France. It was held however not for purposes of settlement, but only for the sake of traffic with the Indians. About the middle of the eighteenth century English colonies from the seaboard began to cross the Appalachians to explore, or hunt, or in search of new homes. By the close of the Revo- lution a considerable population was to be found in East Tennessee and on the Cumberland, and in the Blue Grass region of Kentucky made easily accessible from the east by Cumberland Gap. Traders and explorers had also penetrat- ed from Pennsylvania and Virginia to the Muskingum, the Scioto and the Miamis. By 1752 the signs of British en- croachment were so unmistakable that French troops were sent from Canada, and forts were constructed at Erie, on French Creek and at Pittsburg. It was to capture the latter that Braddock set out upon his ill-starred expedition three years later. But Ohio was meant for freedom and Protest- antism, and when in 1759 the Latin wås vanquished by the Anglo-Saxon race on the Plains of Abraham, the happy con- summation was made sure.
The upper valley of the Mississippi was now British terri- tory, and it became American as a result of the Revolution. For several years however the Federal Government was not able to possess and control its own. Various states, under co- lonial charters which gave them such colossal areas that the Pacific was the boundary on the west, laid claim to the entire northwest .* But one after another they were persuaded to surrender whatever rights they had. New York was the first to yield in 1781. Three years afterward Virginia accepted the
*The generosity of King Charles II was so lavish that his charter for Connecticut embraced all lands contained between the forty-first and forty- second parallels north, and from Providence plantations on the east to the South Sea on the west, with the exception of New York and Pennsylvania colonies. In excuse for the pleasure-loving monarch it should be added that according to tradition, when he inquired how far distant the ocean might be, the cute Yankee petitioner made answer that some said its waves could be seen from the tops of the highest hills !
18
Congregationalism in Ohio.
inevitable, reserving only the Military District lying between the Little Miami and the Scioto, as a bounty for her sons who had fought in the war for Independence. In 1785 Massachu- setts also gave way, but Connecticut held out a year longer, and then signed away all her western lands except a body of 3,800,000 acres located in the extreme northeast corner. This tract constitutes the famous Western Reserve, which has played such a magnificent part in the entire history of the state. Its northern line was Lake Erie, and its southern line was the forty-first degree of north latitude. The length is one hundred and twenty miles from east to west, while the width varies from sixty-eight miles on the Pennsylvania border to about twenty-five in the western portion, with an average of not far from fifty.
The French were dispossessed, and the British, and Congress now has full control ; but behold, the Indians are in occupancy everywhere, like the Delawares, Wyandots, Ottawas, Chippewas, Mingoes and Shawanese, nor have they the least intention of resigning these fertile valleys and these choice hunting and fishing grounds at the bidding of the whites. To be sure the Six Nations in 1784 by treaty at Fort Stanwix relinquished their claims to the territory, and the Ohio Indians were mistakenly supposed to have done the same the year following at Fort McIntosh. But when in due season they beheld settlers by the thousand entering from the east and south, these jealous and determined war- riors were roused to indignation, and for the better part of a decade made furious resistance to aggression with wholesale fire and slaughter. They proved more than a match for two armies sent against them, under the lead of Generals Har- mar and St. Clair. Nor was it until after Wayne's over- whelming victory at the battle of Fallen Timbers, near the Rapids of the Maumee, in 1795, that the braves consented to surrender all lands east of the Cuyahoga and the Tuscara- was, as well as all south of a line drawn from a point on
19
The Genesis of Ohio.
the latter stream near the boundary between Stark county and Tuscarawas, westward to the portage between the Big Miami and the Maumee. But even yet well nigh a third of the territory now included in the state was closed to settle- ment, including half of the Western Reserve. In 1805 by the treaty of Fort Industry this latter portion was transferred to the whites. But it was not until 1818 that the north- western section of the state was wholly freed from aborigin- al dominion, the Moravian Christian Delawares held their reservation on the Muskingum until 1824 and it was as re- cent as 1842 that the last tribe emigrated from Ohio to the west.
The next step in order for the Government was to open for settlement this imperial tract to which it had fallen heir. In 1786 the task was undertaken by Thomas Hutch- ins, the geographer of the United States. Seven ranges of townships were ordered to be laid off, each six miles square. Starting from the point where the Ohio river crosses the western boundary of Pennsylvania, in person he ran a line westward, now known as the "Geographer's Line," over the hills of Columbiana and Carroll counties, and forty-two miles in length. At each mile a post was set and on each side witness-trees were marked. Every six miles was a town cor- ner. From these corners surveyors ran the meridian or range. lines south to the Ohio, and also the east and west town lines. In '87 this land was offered for sale at auction, but on account of Indian troubles and from other causes for some years was not in great demand. In fact, two momen- tous transactions were indispensable to the genesis of the state which was to be; the fashioning of the forces which were to lead to the founding of Marietta, and the sale by the state of Connecticut of its lands on the Western Reserve. New England had already begun to overflow at an astonish- ing rate into eastern and central New York, and in the inter- ests of Christianity and civilization was making ready to dis-
20
Congregationalism in Ohio.
patch thousands of her best sons and daughters to lay the foundations of great commonwealths in the wilderness be- yond the mountains.
In 1785 General Rufus Putnam had been appointed by Congress one of the surveyors of the Seven Ranges, and had sent forward General Benjamin Tupper to fill temporarily his place. At the close of the first season the latter brought back such an enthusiastic report of the country that in March of the next year the Ohio Land Company, composed of of- ficers and soldiers, was formed in Boston, with Putnam and Rev. Manasseh Cutler among the directors, and a scheme to purchase a large tract just west of the Seven Ranges, on the Ohio, and on both sides of the Muskingum. It was near the end of 1787 before the land was secured, and the pio- neers were ready to begin their long journey through the forests and over the Alleghenies to enter the land of promise. But this notable undertaking was curiously connected in va- rious ways with a vastly greater one which Congress was con- sidering during the same months ; to wit, the framing of an ordinance for the government of the Northwest, of which Ohio was to form a part. Various hands wrought upon this immortal document, among them Jefferson, Nathan Dane, Rufus King and Rev. Manasseh Cutler, and July 13 of '87 it became irrevocable law, and the whole vast region from Pennsylvania to the Father of Waters was consecrated for- ever to freedom, intelligence, morality and religion. It was under such a celestial ægis that Putnam and his company of forty-eight reached the Youghiogheny in February of '88, constructed boats, naming one the Mayflower, descended the Ohio, and April 7 stepped ashore at the mouth of the Muskingum.
The second beginning, a hundred and fifty miles to the north, and hard by the lake, was made later by nearly a de- cade, but all things considered, was for Congregationalism in Ohio and throughout the entire West, a vastly more sig-
2I
The Genesis of Ohio.
nificant event. In this from first to last Connecticut was the chief instrumentality. In 1795 a land company, composed of some three hundred and twenty of her most substantial citizens, had purchased the Western Reserve of the state ; less 500,000 acres, constituting the "Fire Lands," which had been bestowed upon citizens who had suffered from in- cursions of the foe during the Revolution. The next year, exactly a century since, Moses Cleaveland with a party of fifty two persons, two of them women, set forth up the Mo- hawk, along the southern shores of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, kept the Fourth of July in patriotic fashion at Con- neaut, just inside of the boundaries of "New Connecticut," pushed forward the survey for which they were sent, and by the close of autumn had laid out a city at the mouth of the Cuyahoga, whose population numbered but two families dur- ing the months next ensuing.
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