USA > Ohio > Jefferson County > Steubenville > Century History of Steubenville and Jefferson County, Ohio and Representative Citizens, 20th > Part 70
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with their respective charges, should be formed into a separate Presbytery, to be known as the Presbytery of Steubenville." The boundaries then fixed were: Begin- ning at the mouth of Big Yellow Creek, thence by direct line in northwest course to intersection of the west line of the Sev- enth Range with the south line of the Western Reserve; thence south along said west line to the Ohio River and up the river to the place of beginning. The Pres- bytery included the churches of Richland (1798), Short Creek (1798), Steubenville (1800), Island Creek (1800), Crabapple (1801). Beech Springs (about 1802), Cedar Lick, (Two Ridges, 1802). Richmond (Bacon Ridge, 1804), Tent (Center, 1803). Cadiz (about 1817), Nottingham (about 1816), McMahon's Creek (Belmont Coun- ty, perhaps in 1806). The first meeting of Steubenville Presbytery was held October 19, 1819, Joseph Anderson, Moderator, and Lyman Potter delivered the sermon. All the ministers were present, together with Robert Brown, David Hoge, Stephen Coe, James McLean, elders. At its organiza- tion Stenbenville Presbytery contained twelve churches, eight ministers and nine hundred members. St. Clairsville Pres- bytery was formed from a portion of this territory, at Mt. Pleasant, October 3, 1838.
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THE FRIENDS AND THEIR HISTORY-EXCITING EPISODES.
We come now to the religious side of the Society of Friends, the dominating factor of the township. They were not only thrifty and industrious, but possessed de- cided religions convictions which they car- ried out in their daily life, in their dress. their conversation and their actions. Their distinction from their neighbors tended to develop a similarity of feelings and thought which induced them to form com- munities of their own, although the sense of individuality as a rule (though not al- ways) prevented them from forming com- mimistie property organizations, as did the Zoarites, Economites and others. Con-
sequently it was rarely if ever that a Quaker was found living where there were no other Quakers, and where one was found there would be pretty certain to be others. So when the first Quaker settlers came to Mt. Pleasant others naturally gravitated in the same direction. The mere fact that his co-religionists occupied one part of the county while they were absent from another was sufficient to turn the steps of the immigrant in the former direction. The Mt. Pleasant Quakers came from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Mary- land, Virginia and North Carolina, some as early as 1799, but the majority from the last named state about 1800 and later. One cause of migration from the slave states was as has been stated, their opposition to that peculiar institution. While Mt. Pleasant was the center, the overflow ex- tended northward into Smithfield Town- ship and southward into what is now Bel- mont County. Their governing body re- ligionsly was the Baltimore Yearly Meet- ing. The first Friends meeting west of the Ohio River was probably held in the autumn of 1800, near the tent of Jonathan Taylor, near what is now Concord, Bel- mont County, abont five miles from Mt. Pleasant. Taylor had camped in the forest while building his cabin. Ife, his wife and a few other individuals gathered there, and when the cabin was erected and before the puncheon floor was fully laid the meetings were transferred thither. The first meet- ing held in this cabin was on Sunday (First Day), preceding rains having made the outdoor accommodations uneomfort- able. Jonathan Taylor moved to what is known as the Updegraff farm, and in 1804 a log meeting honse was built near where Short Creek meeting house now stands, half a mile west of Mt. Pleasant. The rec- ords show that a monthly meeting opened here called Short Creek, third month, 5th, 1804, the minutes showing that, "At this first meeting the subject of pius and guarded education of the youth and state of the schools was weightily considered, and a committee appointed to give the sub-
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ject further solid consideration." Nathan Updegraff was appointed clerk, Jesse Hall and Henry Lewis from Short Creek pre- paratory meeting to serve as overseers. Hanna Trimble and Hannah Kimberly were the first Friends who traveled as min- isters in Ohio, and in 1807 a quarterly meeting was held at Short Creek, being composed of Concord, Short Creek, Ply- mouth, Plainfield and Stillwater monthly meetings. The Short Creek meeting built a house in 1806, the structure being 45x70 feet, at that time the largest church build- ing in the state, costing $2,000. It is still standing. Ten acres of land were pur- chased for a graveyard on September 25, 1806, from Norton Howard for $30, the trustees being Nathan Updegraff, Aaron Brown, Enoch Harris and Jonathan Tay- lor. Ohio Yearly meeting was set off from the Baltimore Yearly meeting in 1812, and the first Ohio Yearly meeting was held at Short Creek in 1813. Mar- riages in accordance with the established nsage of the Friends' meeting were fre- quent. On December 20, 1814, are record- ed the bans of Benjamin Lundy, the first American Abolitionist, and Esther Lewis. In 1815 the erection of the large Yearly Meeting house in Mt. Pleasant was begun and completed the following year. It is a brick building 90x62, and will accommo- date 2,500 persons. It is used for general purposes, being even yet the largest place for public gatherings in the county. The minutes of tenth month, 1813, recommend- ed Friends to continne their labor with those "who are still deficient in support- ing our testimony respecting spirituous liquors," and a committee was appointed on the subject. On sixth month, 20th, 1815, a resolution in favor of making wills in time of health was adopted.
As is known, the term Friend or Quaker has been a synonym for peaceful thoughts and actions. The scrap of history now to be related indicates that the natural man will sometimes come to the front here as well as elsewhere. While there had no doubt been differences of opinion in the
society from its rise in the Seventeenth Century, yet they held together until the yearly meeting at Mt. Pleasant on Sunday, September 6, 1828, when the Friends of America divided into two factions, one the followers of Elias Hicks, adopting the name of Friends, and the other Orthodox Friends. The meeting at which the sep- aration occurred, according to the account written by Thomas Shillitoe, who was present, was broken up in a riot. Those who had gathered in the meeting house, knowing that Hicks and those with him had come prepared to make trouble, re- fnsed them admittance to the house, where- upon Hicks and his faction held a meeting in the open air. The next day Hicks and his friends were in the house early and as soon as the meeting had fully gathered, says Shillitoe, "Elias Hicks stood up and occupied much time in setting forth his 'doctrines.' On their being requested again and ngain to sit down, the Hicksite party shouted from various parts of the meeting, manifesting such violence of temper that it appeared safest to suffer them to go on." The next day. September 8, the op- position to the Hicksites organized door- keepers for the purpose of preventing the admission of the "Separatists," who be- came so violent that it was considered the better part of peace to admit the disturb- ing element. The door-keepers being re- moved from service, "the mob, headed by two Hicksite preachers, rushed into the house like a torrent, accompanied by some of the rabble of the town." The Hicksite party prevented the clerk, Jonathan Tay- lor, from opening the meeting, and even forced him from the table, which was broken, and Taylor injured, from which injury he never recovered, it being the cause of his death. "My seat," writes Shillitoe, "being next to the clerk, a man (David Burson) of large stature and bulk came over the gallery rail almost upon me, followed by two young men. I was on the point to leave the house, but before I was on my feet one of the Separatists near me, looking up, exclaimed that the gallery over
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our heads was falling. A great crash at this moment was heard over our heads, which it was afterwards proved had been produced by one of the Separatists break- ing a piece of wood. Immediately an alarm being given. 'the gallery is falling!' from the other side of the house, there was an outery, 'The House is falling!' A sudden rush in every direction produced a sound like thunder, and brought down a small piece of plaster, which raised considerable dust and had the appearance of the walls giving way." Further confusion was caused by the Friends calling out that the aların was false, and mixed with their voices were the voices of the Hicksites de- claring that the building was falling, al- though it was observed that while the Hieksites were nrging the others to leave they made no effort to get away from the danger themselves. "I had difficulty," says Shillitoe, "until I reached the door, where the crowd was very great. Some were thrown down and were in danger of being trampled to death." "The Separ- atists having now obtained possession of the house, voices were heard above the general uproar, 'Now is the time, rush on!' When the tumult and uproar had somewhat subsided, it was proposed that we should leave this scene of riot; which, being united with Friends, adjourned." The Hicksites retained possession of the honse and the other Friends met in the open air, adjourning afterwards to the Short Creek meeting honse. The next year the Hicksites built a meeting honse, but continued to have the use of the other two honses. The Hicksites continue to hold meetings in the house erected by them in the primitive style of the Friends.
According to Shillitoe, the turbulence occasioned by the attempts of the Hicks- ites to control the Stillwater meeting, was even greater than that at Mt. Pleasant. He says: "The meeting was informed before it was fully gathered, that some persons were on their way who had been members of this select meeting, but who had been
disowned in consequence of uniting them- selves with the Separatists (Hicksites). On their making the attempt to enter the honse, and the door-keeper preventing them, they assembled on the meeting house lot, where they held their meeting, praying and preaching, so much to the annoyance of Friends that they were obliged to close the windows of the meeting house." The next day while proceeding towards the meeting house Shillitoe observed a vast crowd of people assembled; the nearer he approached the more awful the commo- tion appeared; "the countenances and ac- tions of many manifested a determination to make their way into the house by resort- ing to violent means, if no other way would effect their designs. By pressing through the crowd we gained admittance. The tumult increased to an alarming degree; the consequences of keeping the doors fas- tened any longer were to be dreaded, as the mob was begining to break the windows to obtain an entrance, and to inflict blows on some of the door-keepers. It was there- fore concluded to open the doors. The door of the men's room being opened,- to attempt to describe the scene to the full would be in vain. The feelings awakened in my mind were such as to almost over- power my confidence in the superintend- ing care of a Divine Protector. The coun- tenances of many as they entered the honse seemed to indicate that they were ready to fall upon the little handful of us in the minister's gallery, there being few others in the house, Some of their party forced open the simtters as if they would have brought the whole of them to the ground; others ran to the doors, which had been made secure, seizing them, tore them open and some off the hinges. The cracking and hannering this occasioned for the short time it lasted was awful to me, not knowing where or in what this seene of riot and wickedness of temper would end. The honse was very soon crowded to an extreme, the Separatists taking possession of one end of the men's room and Friends
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OHIO AND PENNSYLVANIA COAL MINE. AMSTERDAM
AMSTERDAM, LOOKING NORTH FROM LUMBER YARD
COMMON AND HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING; AMSTERDAM
Y. & O. COAL MINE. AMSTERDAM
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the other." Business of the two meetings then proceeded as though nothing had hay- pened.
The canse of the division was a state- ment made a year before by Elias Hicks, who was a prominent resident of Philadel- phia and a leading Friend. During a heat- ed discussion at the Mt. Pleasant Yearly meeting Hicks declared that there "was no more efficacy in the blood of Christ than in the blood of goats." This position was vig- orously contested but Hicks stood his ground, and being a fluent speaker had many followers. The subsequent bitterness between the two factions was so intense that separate graveyards were used for burials. The Orthodox Friends had Hicks- ites arrested and brought before court both in criminal and civil cases. There is the case of "Jonathan Taylor, Ronse Taylor, Isaac Parker, Jas. Kinsey, Horton How- ard, who sue for the Society of Friends, consisting of the Ohio Yearly meeting, vs. Holiday Jackson, James Toleston and Nathan Galbraith; action in trespass; $5,000 damages for disturbing plaintiff's house and injuring property. September 9, 1828." In 1831 the record shows, "judg- ment for defendant for costs." The ree- ords for 1832 show payment of $19.79 costs. The Friend, or Advocate of Truth, a Quaker magazine published in Philadel- phia, tenth month, 1828, contains reports of the "riot" at Mt. Pleasant from the Hicks- ite point of view, the writers employing the most vigorous language in denoneing the actions of the Orthodox. It was charged that Jonathan Taylor feigned injury in or- der to procure indictment against Hicks. Altogether the affair was quite different from the general idea of a "Quaker meet- ing."
But the troubles were not yet over. Abby Kelly, a disciple of the Graham system of diet and a spiritualist, lectured in Mt. Pleasant in 1840 and gained many con- verts in the society of Friends to her theories. John O. Wattles, the noted vege- tarian, also won many converts among the Friends. He was likewise a spiritualist
and would not move a finger without di- rection by a spirit. Some of his Mt. Pleas- ant converts dying, it was said they starved to death as the result of the restricted diet advocated by him, he holding the theory that eating the flesh of animals was a viola- tion of the laws of God. His wife was liv- ing at Oberlin at the age of eighty in 1898, her daughters, who were educated in Paris, teaching music in the conservatory. Mrs. Wattles had not eaten meat for fifty years and her daughters never tasted flesh, hold- ing as they do, strictly to the doctrine tanght as a religion by their father.
Another division was made by Elisha Bates. The followers of Fox did not be- lieve in baptism by water, but of the Holy Ghost. Bates, while on a visit to the Holy Land, submitted to baptism in the River Jordan, and was taken to task for this lapse from the doctrine as promulgated by the father of the meeting; but he held to the ordinance of baptism as a saving means, on which subject he wrote a book. This he afterwards renounced and the copies of the book in the hands of the Mt. Pleasant Friends were burned with cere- mony; but he again recanted and in 1844 left the Friends to become a Methodist Episcopal minister, readopting the tenets he had set forth in the book, the copies of which had been burned at his request. He had followers in each of the several move- ments, and of course took with him into the Methodist communion a number of Friends. While addressing a large camp meeting near Mt. Pleasant in 1844, Bates was interrupted by persons he had offend- ed by his various changes; boys even pelt- ing him with buckeyes. He grew angry and declared that he had left the most tranquil church in the land and now found himself in the noisiest, extremes that he could not reconcile. He then left the Methodist Church.
The Orthodox Friends continued meet- ings for worship at both Mt. Pleasant and Short Creek. Early in 1829 the Hicksites purchased land adjoining Trenton, a mile west of Mt. Pleasant, and built a meeting
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house for ordinary gatherings, but con -tinued to have the use of the houses at Mt. Pleasant and Short Creek for quarterly and yearly meetings. In 1854 the Orthodox Friends suffered another division into Gur- neyites and Wilburites, the former being followers of Joseph Jolin Gurney, who favored evangelism, and the latter disciples of Jolin Wilbur who dissented. As noted elsewhere, the Wilburites secured the boarding school, which the courts com- pelled them to surrender, and also the big yearly meeting house, the Gurneyites tak- ing the one on Short Creek. The latter, however, discontinued the use of the Short Creek house, and a tripartite arrangement was made by which all the factions could hold yearly meetings in the big house in town. It was too large, however, for ordin- ary meetings, and so about twenty-five years ago the Gurneyites built a neat brick meeting house in the village, where they now have a regular minister, organ and all the procedure of ordinary Protestant wor- ship. Their first regular minister was Rev. D. B. Updegraff, who was succeeded by Rev. J. Pennington and Isaac Kinsey, the present incumbent. A Sunday school was started May 3, 1858, with Ellwood Rateliff as superintendent, which is still in opera- tion. The Short Creek meeting house is silent and deserted, but the Trenton con- gregation still condnets worship after the primitive style of Friends. The distinctive costume is now the exception rather than the rule, and the surroundings would not be recognizable by any of the patriarchs. The Wilburites now have their headquar- ters at Barnesville, Belmont County. They also condnet services at the old meeting house near Harrisville after the primitive method. There is a meeting house at Long Run, which is only used occasionally when some one goes and preaches there.
M. E. missionaries were in Mt. Pleasant Township as elsewhere at an early date. and in 1815 a small brick church was built at the east end of the village on ground owned by David MeMasters, a local minis- ter. The house was also used for school
purposes for a number of years. In 1827 when the agitation for lay representation began, which resulted in the formation of the Methodist Protestant organization. the Mt. Pleasant congregation, possibly from the daily example of the Quakers, was al- most solidly favorable to the new move- ment, and finally joined itself to the new organization, while continuing to occu- py the oll buildings. As no title had been obtained to the property, and David MeMasters dying that year, it was conveyed by his heirs to the Methodist Protestant organization, which was formed in 1829 with William B. Evans, local min- ister; Sammel Pennington, class leader, and Anna MeMasters. Aaron B. Townsend, Mary Witherow, Mrs. Kerlin, and James Davis among the original members. The old house was taken down in 1839 and a new building 30x50 feet erected on the site. During the razing of the old building one of the walls fell on Henry Marshall and John Sidebottom, breaking Marshall's thigh and severely injuring Sidebottom. During its erection the new house canght fire from a defective fine, and the roof and plastering were destroyed, which delayed its completion until 1842, the Presbyterian Church being used in the meantime. This building was occupied by the Union Sab- bath school, started by Miss Sarah Clark, a visitor from Philadelphia, in 1843. Pinek- ney Lewis was the first superintendent, and George K. Jenkins, librarian. In 1849 Mr. Lewis having been elected state senator, he resigned, and was succeeded by John H. Mercer until 1870, when he was succeeded by Dr. T. N. Lewis until 1873; Oliver Flan- ner to 1875. when Mercer was again elect- ed. The school did considerable mission- ary work in the way of educating Indians and in other directions, For many years it was the only Sunday school in the vil- lage but now each congregation has its own school. The building was also used for temperance meetings and other public gath- erings until it was replaced by a new honse 40x60 feet in 1869, on the same lot. It was dedicated by Alexander Clark in the winter
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of that year and cost about $6,000. About 100 members were added during a revival during the winter of 1864. The local min- isters have been David McMasters, Pinck- ney Lewis, John H. Mercer and Henry Heberling. Among the traveling pastors have been Wm. B. Evans, Rufus Richard- son, Moses Scott, E. E. Scott, Wm. Callege, F. Hopwood, Z. Ragan, J. S. Thrapp, Thomas Fairchild, Jacob Nicholls, John Burns, J. W. Case, Wm. Baldwin, T. L. Scott, G. W. Hissey, H. F. Bradford, J. B. McCormick, T. L. Diddle, J. M. Wood- ward, J. D. Murphy, O. Mckeever. Rev. Mr. Schurmann is the present pastor. There is no M. E. congregation in the town- ship. About 1892 an M. P. Mission was established in Dillonvale, and a frame building erected. It is served from Mt. Pleasant.
An African M. E. Church was organized at Mt. Pleasant about 1818. A rented house at the west end of the village was used as a place of worship until its pur- chase a few years later. Becoming unfit for use it was sold and a neighboring lot purchased, on which a neat brick building was erected, which is still in use. It had at one time as high as 170 members, but internal dissensions and a division in 1871 reduced this materially. In the fall of 1871 fifteen members withdrew from the A. M. E. Church and formed a new M. E. Church, meeting in the colored school house. Their earlier ministers were Alex- ander Hargrave, 1871-3; Lewis Carr, 1874; Jacob Skinner, 1875; Jesse Hargrave, 1876-8; George Carr, 1879; Rev. Brown, 1897.
A colored Baptist Church was organ- ized at Trenton on January 10, 1844, at a meeting held in a brick house owned by Esther Sparksman. Win. Callihan was moderator, and Milton W. Kasley, clerk. The original members were George Sparks- man (deacon), John Cusans (clerk), Esther Sparksman, John and Harriet E. Williams, Frank King. Susan Thompson, John V. and Sarah Brown, Elizabeth Sparksman, John Thompson, Charlotte Duting and
Martha Sawyer. Elder Callihan closed with a discourse and the church united with the Zoar Association. On November 2, 1850, Elder Jones was called to the pas- torate at a salary of $4 a month. May 30, 1854, a committee was appointed, and a church building lot afterwards purchased from Henry Bundy for $30, the money for the first payment being raised among the members. On October 26, 1860, Madison H. Gaskins was employed as pastor at a salary of $105 for half his time. Meetings were held in the Seceder Church for about eighteen months, when a room was taken in Mrs. Sparksman's house, which was used until 1872. A frame house of worship 24x30 was built that year, costing $1,000. Elder G. L. Sedgwick preaching the ser- mon. A sabbath school was started in 1868, and two ministers have been or- dained, Jared Charles in 1866 and Madi- son Boggs in 1873. Membership about fifty.
A religious organization known as the Church of God was formed about 1890 at Long Run, and a small building erected where services are held. Two Roman Cath- olic Churches to accommodate the different nationalities have been erected at Dillon- vale, the first pastor of one being Rev. Fa- ther Smoger, since removed to Steuben- ville, and Rev. Father Danner the other.
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SMITHFIELD TOWNSHIP.
To the north of Mt. Pleasant lies Smith- field Township, even six miles square with thirty-six full sections. It was detached from Short Creek on November 7, 1805, and election for trustees held at the house of William Stewart, the commissioners be- ing Andrew Anderson, John Jackson and Benjamin MeCleary, with John Ward. clerk. The township at this time included the present Mt. Pleasant Township, from which it was detached in 1807, receiving its name from the town of Smithfield, already laid out. It is more rugged than Mt. Pleas- ant, but its limestone soil has been produc- tive of fine grain crops and has been es-
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pecially favorable to the growth of superior strains of Merino sheep and other blooded stock. Like Mt. Pleasant, the rich coal veins have produced an enormous develop- ment of that industry during the last few years.
Two squatters named Simpson and Ty- son are said to have been the first settlers within the limits of the present township. They came and built their cabins the latter part of the Eighteenth century, and left about the year 1800. They occupied land about half a mile south of the village after- wards entered by William Kirk and subse- quently owned by William Purviance, Jr. Next came the influx of Friends or Quakers between 1798 and 1800. A company of five or six families from North Carolina settled south of the present village, among them being Richard and Christopher Kinsey, Mason Miller, Richard Jelks, Malachi Jolly and - Alberson. Jolly's land was west of the Wm. Purviance farm, and adjoin- ing this on the west was school land, See- tion 16. John Morton and Cadwallader Evans came about 1802 and settled in Sec- tion 17, the former taking the southeast quarter, now Runyon place, and Evans the northeast, now Vermillion. The northwest quarter was settled by Joseph MeGrew, now Hammond. North of this Samuel Cope, of Redstone (now Brownsville, Pa.), entered a half section, and located his son Joseph, who died there and left it to his sons, B. W., William and Willits Cope. James Purviance about 1806 entered two sections east of Cope's, extending to the Wells Township line and south to Jolly's. Six of his sons and one daughter, Mrs. Sarah Sidwell, settled on the land. Thomas, one of the sons, occupied 200 acres in the northeast part, afterwards owned by Suth- erland and Hobbs. James owned 146 acres on the south, afterwards owned by John Scott. Richard had 200 aeres in the south- east corner, William 200 acres in the north- west, Sarah 120 acres, David 200, and Joseph 200 in the southern corner. Thomas and James came about 1810, and the others soon after. Farther sonth among the first
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