USA > Ohio > Early history of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, Ohio : with biographical sketches of the principal agents in their religious movement > Part 9
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to give something of this inner history of one of these original members of the church in Canfield :
Myron Sacket descended from Presbyterian ancestry, in Warren, Ct. He was early in Ohio. He helped to build the first meeting-house in the center of Canfield, which was erected by the people of his ancestral faith, and in which he piously hoped to be a life worshiper. In 1817, he was married to Miss Orpha Dean, of Baptist principles, and equally conscientious. The discrepancy in their views was a trouble to them; and they sought to recon- cile the disagreement, each honestly supposing the other would yield to increased light. He brought pamphlets and sermons, which she read and considered ; she resorted to the word of the Lord in its plain teaching on the sub- ject of baptism, and the subjects strictly entitled to it. Sacket was disinclined to discussion, a man of quiet and peaceable, though of very firm habits of mind. He be- came so aroused to the investigation that he opened his Bible anew. He read the New Testament twice through to find infant baptism, noting carefully every thing bear- ing on the subject. Many times he turned back and re- read, fearing he might have passed by it. Disappointed and grieved, yet loving the truth rather than the accepted convictions of early training, he resolved now to read it for a far different purpose-which was to learn what are the teachings of the Word of God on the subject. The result was a clear and satisfied conviction that the New Testament contains no trace or evidence of authority for that practice. The struggle was hard. The very firmness of the man, which made him a pillar for long years after- ward, made the transition difficult. But the conclusion, finally reached, was never reversed nor regretted. Both himself and wife, now one in faith as well as in matrimo- nial union, put on Christ in his own holy baptism, on the same day. This was in 1819.
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After Bro. Sacket had accepted Baptist principles, an uncle from Connecticut asked him how he could degen- erate from the principles of his parental belief to unite with the Baptists, a people of much lower grade of learn- ing and position ? His answer was significant: "I read and carefully studied the Word of God for light, and find- ing no support for those principles, I was compelled to give them up."
Few men ever rendered more efficient and substantial support to the cause of the primitive gospel. His house was long a home for the people of God. The terms, " meekness and fear," applied justly to him. He was slow to accept the light which Scott brought, but step by step he came with the wealth of a ripe Christian experi- ence and sound judgment ; and was ever afterward unfal- tering in its support.
This church continued to meet in the north-west part of the township, where they built a comfortable meeting-house. At this period, William Hayden was a member of it, though his residence was in Austintown. In the month of May, 1828, the con- gregation, after full proof of his abilities in public speaking, and recognizing his zeal and knowledge of the Scriptures, gave him their sanction and ap- proval as a minister of the gospel. Thus licensed and commended to other churches, he gave himself more diligently to the work. The eminence which he subsequently attained, justified this action, and vindicated their discernment of his improvable gifts.
In the same vicinity there was forming a com- munity known as " Bible Christians." Wm. Schooley, living in Salem, was their principal preacher. These two churches-the " Christians" and the Disciples- became better acquainted, and Bro. Schooley him-
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self having united with the Disciples in Salem, these communities united as one brotherhood in Christ ; thus giving a practical illustration of the union and co-operation of Christians on the original foundation. The Flicks, the Shattoes and all, about twenty, were enrolled with the Disciples, as one people in Christ. This event took place January 23, 1830.
This church was never very numerous, about seventy being the highest number. But they kept up a respectable visibility many years. Their record for the great yearly meetings of the Disciples of the county, is highly honorable. Like many others, she has brought multitudes of converts to the fold of Christ, and has sent out her sons and daughters to carry on the good work in other lands. The church in Center, Rock County, Wisconsin, is a planting from Canfield. The Parmelys, the Deans, Orsemus and his family, while weakening this by their removal, greatly strengthened that church.
In the fall of 1827, some time after his appoint- ment as the evangelist, this church moved Bro. Scott's family into their midst, and contributed lib- erally to their support. Scott bought, and built a house, intending this as a permanent residence. But his changing field of labor altered his plans. The home talent of the church has always been her chief reliance for edification. But for many years she had the labors occasionally, and sometimes stat- edly, of the preachers of the county.
As several families resided at and near the center of the township, the church gave consent for them to form a separate congregation. Accordingly, in the spring of 1847, about twenty associated themselves
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together in that relation. They were organized by Bro. J. W. Lanphear. J. M. Caldwell and Andrew Flick were elders; Walter Clark and John Flick, deacons. They were aided by the labors of Breth- ren Pow, Applegate, Belton, Phillips, John Errett, Dr. Hillock, White, F. M. Green, Van Horn, and Edwin Rogers.
The church in the north-west part of the town- ship, reduced by removals-the old members having all gone over the river into the promised land-after struggling in feebleness for awhile resolved to unite with the body at the center. This union was effected October 6, 1867.
THE CHURCH IN AUSTINTOWN
was constituted June 16, 1828. The remains of the Baptist church, once flourishing, lay in a waste and decaying condition over portions of Youngstown and Austintown. In the winter of 1816, a revival occurred under the labors of Elder Joshua Wood- worth, a humble and devoted minister. About forty were converted ; among the converts were William Hayden, then a youth, and others, still younger, of the same family. The counselors of the church thought it necessary to have the young converts in- structed in the " doctrines " of the gospel, " election," and kindred themes. So the faithful minister, loved as a father, was dismissed, and Wm. West was called. He was more learned, but straight, cold, Calvinistic. Under his reign the kingdom was dissolved. Zeal languished under doctrinal sermons. Discipline went by rule rather than by love. Covenant meet- ings became courts. Appeals were taken, and coun-
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sels called. The lambs fled from the fold ; conver- sions ceased ; the light grew dim, and the church had but a name to live. Elder West was still in the community when Bro. Scott opened the gospel plea there, and opposed his work.
The following sketch of affairs there is from the pen of Walter Scott :
" When called about two years ago, I found the church in a state of entire prostration. For four years they had not eaten the Lord's Supper ; all was delinquency-a perfect . web of wickedness, the like of which I never had seen. It was an involved labyrinth of personal and family quarrels. For about three weeks I strove to disentangle the sincere- hearted, but in vain. Strife is like the lettings out of water-what is spilt is lost. When the threads and fila- ments of a quarrel have forced themselves like waves over the whole body ecclesiastic, that body should be dissolved. We accordingly looked upon this institution to be entirely lost, and began to preach the ancient gospel-the word of the Lord as a hammer and a fire. All hearts were im- mediately broken or burnt; and of that sinful people there have been immersed nearly one hundred and fifty .individuals. These have become a church, and are walking in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blame- less, as I hope. The Scriptures are their sole authority, and they have three bishops, bold in the Lord Jesus, and five deacons."
The religious awakening which restored the church, or rather built it anew on apostolic foundations, be- gan in Austintown, in February, 1828, soon after the great meeting in Warren. A young man by the name of Asa Jones became serious, and, expressing a wish to become a Christian, Bro. Bentley was sent for. He preached in the school-house where William
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Hayden was teaching. When the sermon closed, an opportunity being offered, the young man arose, de- clared his purposes, expressed much joy in believing, and appealed to his friends to follow him to Jesus. Next day, Bro. Bentley preached and baptized this person and eight others. John Henry and his wife were of the number.
Bentley returned home, but a work had com- menced which was soon to become wide and gen- eral. The converts were clear in their conversion, and active. William Hayden was greatly delighted by the conversion of his particular associate and neigh- bor, John Henry, a man of great weight in the com- munity, and possessed of abilities, which Hayden clearly foresaw would be likely to turn to much use- fulness.
About three weeks after this, Scott sent an ap- pointment to preach in the "Jones' school-house." He came Wednesday the 19th of March. A full house was in waiting. He hurried his audience to the line of decision, classing all the world in two parties-Christ's and the devil's. He laid the foun- dations of Christ's kingdom in the grand affair of his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, coronation, and the inauguration of his reign on earth on the day of Pentecost. Among the startling utterances of that sermon, he said : " We can have a revival of re- ligion whenever we want it! Strange! strangely marvelous ! Differing wide as the heavens from all we had ever heard! Can we obtain this glorious prize-regeneration, pardon, and peace ?" Thoughts hurried to and fro, as Scott talked on and showed that Christ's work was finished, his sacrifice com-
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plete, the "oxen and fatlings were killed," the table was spread, " all things are now ready," and had been ready for eighteen hundred years-nothing now but for sinners to hear, and come, and find a welcome to salvation by the Master of the feast.
This was gospel. "Why have I been waiting so long ? why has no one ever told me that before?" Thus reasoning and feeling, five came to the decision and yielded. That night the crowd was increased ; and next day, March 20th, twelve of us were by his hands lifted into the kingdom.
The whole country was in commotion. Converts came at almost every meeting. But the excitement was to become higher, and to penetrate a new class of society, as I proceed to relate.
AYLETT RAINES AND THE RESTORATIONISTS.
While Mr. Raines was on his tour preaching, and previous to his baptism by Bro. Williams, he came to Austintown. It was in April. He already had a high reputation, especially among the Restorationists, who were numerous. News circulated that he was coming to preach his renunciation of Universalism. A crowd assembled and filled the house. He opened on the mission of the apostles as the embassadors of Jesus Christ, the authorized expounders of his will. Their preaching was the commission carried out according to Christ's will and intention ; as they were not only commissioned by him, but miraculously assisted by the Holy Spirit, so that their preaching, as reported in the book of Acts, is the full, complete, authoritative guide in preaching the gospel, and re- ceiving sinners to the church ; that as they, in the
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opening of their mission on pentecost, and always afterward throughout the world, preached to the be- lievers that they should repent and be baptized, in the name of Christ, for the remission of sins ; this is our model to the end of time, and, consequently, no preaching which differs from this model has any authority in the Word of God. He concluded his long and argumentative discourse in these words :
"My friends, I find myself in a strait ; I am shut up in a dilemma ; and I can see no way out, with the Word of God in my hand, but through the obedience of faith in baptism. If any of you can see any other, I im- plore you in the name of my Master to show it to me."
The sensation, which was perceptible in the be- ginning of the sermon, grew in intensity as he pro- ceeded, till it heightened to a tumult. As soon as the meeting closed, persons who had come in big wag- ons, and had brought their chairs into the house for seats, jerked up their chairs, started over the benches, and hurried to their homes. The medicine was work- ing. The patients were bilious. The remedy was heroic. Raines was calm. The Disciples were happy. The Universalists, who composed the larger part of the assembly, were disappointed, grieved and cha- grined. Their champion had left them and gone over to this new and specious heresy. We can not have it thus ; we will not stop and reason calmly with him and show him his error, as he earnestly besought us. "To your tents, O Israel !" The very horses felt a touch of the excitement of their drivers !
That discourse worked miracles ; that is, if conver- sion, as we had been taught, was in every case a miracle. It had driven nails in sure places, " as nails
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fastened by the master of assemblies." Eccl. xii: II. William Hayden preached in the afternoon the same day, and baptized several converts.
The church of Austintown was one of the first in north-eastern Ohio, built on "the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner." The day appointed for collecting the disciples as a church of Christ was fair, and a large assembly convened. Scott, Bentley, and Raines were present. After a discourse in the house, we were called out upon the green in front of it. Here all the disciples, one hundred and ten in number, were disposed in a large circle. A space was open on one side of about twelve feet, in which stood the preach- ers. Thus, each member, with his right hand clasp- ing the left of the one next him, so stood, that he could see all the rest, and also the brethren to whom we owed so much under Christ, and who were, in the most solemn manner, about to form and declare us an organized church. Each of the preachers, in turn, addressed us in the most earnest exhortation, in the things pertaining to the duties of this new relation, while all stood uncovered under the open canopy of heaven. Then followed a prayer by Bro. Scott, implor- ring blessings unbounded and unending from the divine Head upon every member of his mystic body. Then the hymn :
" Lo ! he comes, with clouds descending, Once for favored sinners slain,"
led by Hayden and Henry, was sung with raptures of joy. So began the church of Austintown. It was placed under the care of William Hayden. Bro. Henry was soon called to his side; and not long
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after, Alexander Spears was chosen also to the elder- ship.
BIOGRAPHY OF JOHN HENRY.
To few men has it been granted to gain such a celebrity in so short a time as was won by this gifted man. His public ministry was only a little over thirteen years, in which time his personal labors extended from central Ohio to central Pennsylvania, and into Virginia; and his fame spanned the continent. In all that constitutes brilliancy, dash and boldness, he was a very hero. He was born in Chartiers township, Washington County, Pa., October I, 1797. It is declared of him that he sung tunes when not a year old, but he did not talk till he was four. He came with his father, Francis Henry, to Poland, Ohio, April, 1803. He married Miss Jane Kyle, January 10, 1822, and settled on new lands in Austintown the next spring.
He was a leader in every thing he undertook. In the days of military training, he was music-major of regiments. A few blasts of his bugle would start up every soldier, and the exact time of his movement infused martial valor into all around. When he turned to the Lord he quite aban- doned this practice, and turned his musical talents, which were of a high order and well trained, to gather and lead the bannered hosts of the Lord. As a farmer he did more work than any other, save one man. He excepted Wil- liam Hayden. He played on nine kinds of instruments ; his favorites were the violin and the clarionet.
He was trained under the strictest rules of Presbyteri- anism. As the "Christian Baptist " appeared, William Hayden passed the numbers over to the hands of his friend Henry, whose penetrating mind grasped the great principles it unfolded. He was ripened for the sickle of truth, so that when Bentley came, he and his faithful wife were among the converts-the first fruits of a large ingathering. . The writer has the most vivid recollection of the scene, as the excellent
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Bentley, tall and venerable, led this man of commanding form, who stood six feet two inches, then in his thirty-first year, and laid him beneath the waters of baptism after the example of the Lord.
He gave himself at once to the diligent study of the Bible. He read little else, he studied nothing else ; except, perhaps, church history. His taste was for history, and his sermons were largely historic recitals of the life and work of Christ, and the preaching of the apostles, with historic illustration from the Old Testament, delivered in so fresh, forcible, and fluent a style, that as a speaker, few equaled him in instructive and entertaining discourse. But the power of his sermons was much in the authority with which they were spoken. Without any of the studied arts of oratory, he often moved on great assemblies with a mastery that chained attention for two hours. Without rhetoric, his speech abounded in fine tropes, especially in metaphors ; and not unfrequently he arose to a pomp of diction equaled only by the finest orators.
In person he was tall, rather spare, with sandy com- plexion and sharp features, quick in movement, as in the operations of his mind, and when he walked he planted his feet with a tread which showed the firmness of the man. Cheerful, at times almost to levity, very social, kind hearted, and with wit like a polished rapier, whatever " his hand found to do he did with his might." He was in Smith- field, Jefferson County, when he was informed by a special messenger, March 12th, of the supposed fatal sickness of his wife. He would have started after the night meeting for home, but friends interfering, he rested a time. Before day dawned he was in his saddle, and that night, the 13th, he was at home ; a distance of seventy miles. The Yellow Creek was so high it nearly swam his horse. He watched his wife most assiduously, and saw her recovery; then fell a victim to the same disease, typhoid fever, after sixteen days' sickness, May 1, 1844.
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His work is interwoven with the groundwork of this cause through the whole Western Reserve. Though un- cultured, he was not rude. He was high-minded and hon- orable, and immensely popular with the people. In the early day he and Mr. Campbell met at the Plains-meeting- house, near Minerva. Many had never seen either of them. Henry preached in the morning, and the people thought it was Campbell. After an interval Mr. Camp- bell preached, and many of the hearers said : "We wish that man would sit down, and let Campbell get up, for he knows how to preach !"
There was lamentation in all the churches when he died. The feeling is well remembered and distinctly defined. It was less a murmuring, than a deep, sad, silent grief. Bro. Campbell wrote of him at the time : "Bro. John Henry, as a preacher of a particular order of preachers, had no equal-no superior. He was not only mighty in the Scriptures as a preacher and teacher, but was also emi- nently exemplary in the social virtues of Christianity. His praise is in all the churches in the Western Reserve and circumjacent country."
He was bold, brave, fearless, cheerful and animated ; the life of society, humble, generous, and of unfeigned faith ; of great power, of tremendous force, and mighty and elo- quent in the Scriptures ; he "hewed Agag in pieces, and slew kings in the day of his wrath." All prized and hon- ored him, and the remembrance of him stirs the fainting purpose to unbounded courage. Hundreds yet remember him, as with more prowess than the Knights of St. John, he would return from a successful charge, victor over legions of the king's enemies ; and the blasts of his triumph gave courage to all the faint-hearted. Though not always dis- creet, his bravery was of the first quality. He never lifted his spear but in victory. His enemies gathered near to behold the agile dexterity and massive power with which he felled to the ground the foes of God.
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His memory was as capacious as the Mediterranean. Eminently was he, as the orator has it, the " man of one book." The Bible was his store-house, his treasury, his exhaustless fountain. He read it morning, at noon and night, and all he ever read he remembered. He could re- peat it by chapters and by books. It was his book of his- tory, of archæology, of travels, of biography, of incident, event and anecdote, of moral power and religious persua- sion. Nothing in society for which he found not a coun- terpoint in that Daguerrean gallery of all truth, all duty, all motive.
Brief and brilliant his career. The most loved him-all beheld him with admiration. A11 love to cherish and honor his memory, while within a narrower circle, sa- cred and still as where mourners move, he is the idol of an affection next akin to the feeling that worships.
Forty-seven years the church in Austintown has stood against all the forces arrayed against it. It has never ceased to meet, except by voluntary ad- journment, to attend the yearly meetings. Under the wise and careful eldership of Bro. Ira McCollum, one of its charter members, and Bro. Joshua Kyle, who for many years have held the helm, she has kept her course steady and constant toward the harbor.
NEWTON FALLS.
The church in Braceville and Newton Falls was formed on Baptist principles, early in the year 1820. The origin of it, and the history of Marcus Bosworth, can not be dissociated.
Bosworth was born in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, July 11, 1794. He married Miss Elizabeth Ward, Sep- tember 9, 1814, and came to Braceville, June, 1816. In the year 1818, a revival occurred among the Presbyter-
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ians, and Bosworth and his wife were among the converts. Though trained up in the Baptist order, they were willing to worship with the Presbyterians, and they searched dil- igently the word of God for sprinkling as baptism; but they found it not. In the fall of 1819, Thomas Miller, a Baptist minister, preached at Esq. Johnson's house. By him, Bosworth and his wife were baptized. " The hap- piest day of our lives," said the venerable sister Bos- worth, who, at the age of seventy-one, recited these scenes. Next year, under the labors of Mr. Miller, was formed the Baptist church in Braceville, which called Bro. Bosworth to act as deacon. Active and warm-hearted, he improved so rapidly in speaking that the church encouraged his as- pirations to higher usefulness. He yielded to this decision, and as much as the care of his farm would permit, he gave himself to the ministry of the word.
Bosworth attended the ministers' meeting in Warren, October, 1821, and there made the acquaintance of Mr. Campbell, and heard much from him on a return to orig- inal Christianity, in its form, teaching, and models, as set forth in the New Testament. His receptive mind heard attentively and with little prejudice. Yet he prudently held these views subject to further consideration. The re- moval to Braceville, in 1825, of Jacob Osborne, gave a fresh impulse to the scriptural investigations already ad- vancing. Meanwhile Bosworth's improvement of his gifts in public discourse continuing to be satisfactory, he was ordained as a preacher of the gospel in October, 1827. Adamson Bentley and Sidney Rigdon were called by the church as the council on the occasion.
Bro. Bosworth gave himself ardently to the work of preaching. His heart was all aglow with the love of souls, and many were turned to the Lord by him. He traveled much in other counties and other States ; yet he worked on his farm when at home, to support his family. Preach- ers received little in those days for their labors. Some-
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times, in a long trip, he got less than the cost of shoeing his horse. It was the fault of the times that Bosworth, Alton, Applegate, Collins, and quite all the early preach- ers were suffered to go to the warfare at their own charges. A good wife at home, and a good Father in heaven, kept Bosworth in his saddle. Yet he was much at home, to lead his sons in the needful industries of the farm. For many years coming guests enjoyed the bountiful hospitali- ties of his home.
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