USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Historical Sketches and Eary Reminiscences of Hamilton County, Ohio > Part 12
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Christ; others collecting into circles around this variegated scene, contending with arguments for and against, and under such appearances the work would continue for several days."
Such was the state of excitement throughout Ken- tucky and Tennessee when, in 1801, Richard McNe- mar, John Thomson, and John Dunlavey, all Presby- terian ministers from Kentucky, and among the ablest within the bounds of the Presbytery, intro- duced the exercises and revivals into Ohio.
McNemar was settled at Turtle Creek, near where Union Village now is, south-west of Lebanon, Thom- son at Springfield, and Dunlavey at Eagle Creek, in Browne county. These men preached with great power and eloquence, and appealing to the passions soon aroused the whole country to the highest point of religious excitement. Their meetings were con- ducted with great irregularities and disorder, but were attended with numerous conversions to the faith and accessions to the church.
These exercises, resulting from overwrought relig- ious emotions, appeared to be involuntary and con- tagious. They affected both sexes and all classes, and embraced all ages, from the child of eight years to persons of three-score-and-ten.
These exercises assumed a great variety of forms, but were known under the general appellation of the "religious exercises." Each particular form was dis-
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tinguished by name, and was supposed to possess some peculiar merit of its own.
One was known as the " falling exercise." Persons so affected were seized with a sudden paroxysm of loud and difficult breathing, and would then fall to the ground and lay there, apparently unconscious, for a half-hour or more, and on reviving commence ex- horting, shouting, praying or singing in the most passionate and vehement manner.
The "rolling exercise" consisted in being cast down in a violent manner, "doubled, with the head and feet together, and rolling over and over like a wheel, or stretched in a prostrate manner turned swiftly over and over like a log." "This," says Mr. McNemar, "was considered very debasing and mor- tifying, especially if the person was taken in this manner through the mud and sullied therewith from head to foot."
The "jerks." This exercise began with a twitch- ing of the muscles of the neck and chest " causing the head to fly backward and from side to side with a quick jolt, which the person would naturally labor to suppress, but in vain. Sometimes the head would be twisted right and left to a half round, with such velocity that no feature could be discovered, but tlo face appear as much behind as before."
The "barks." This sometimes accompanied the jerks. It consisted in falling upon the hands and
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feet and moving about on all fours in personification of a dog, and the while imitating the bark of that an- imal. The victims of this disgraceful exercise, we are told, were often those who moved in the best cir- cles of society.
The "running exercise." A person affected with this emotion would start up in the audience and run with great swiftness as far, apparently, as one breath would permit, and then fall to the ground and lay for a half-hour or more.
The "dancing exercise." It appears that this ex- ercise was voluntary, and introduced to take the place of, or supersede some of the more ludicrous and debasing, such as the rolling, jerking, and barking.
Mr. McNemar mentions one of these dancing exer- cises performed by the Rev. John Thomson. He says : "At the spring sacrament at Turtle Creek, in 1804, Bro. Thomson had been constrained, just at the close of the meeting, to go to dancing, and for an hour or more to dance around the stand, all the while repeating in a low tone of voice, "This is the Holy Ghost. Glory !"
These exercises were regarded by many of the medical profession as a disease simulating chorea, or St. Vitus's dance, and the subject elicited considera- ble discussion in the medical journals during the first five years of the present century. One of the most faithful and graphic descriptions of this affection was
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given in a letter written by John Wilkinson,. of Marysville, Tennessee, and published in the Phila- delphia "Medical and Physical Journal," in 1805.
He says : "This disease made its appearance in this place in the summer of 1803, and increased in its effects with astonishing rapidity until the latter end of that season. Since this period the average number of subjects each season has not, I think, very greatly differed from what it was at, that time, there being but little difference in the summer and winter months.
"The subjects of these exercises are mostly of the Presbyterian sect of religionists, which are very numer- ous in this county, there being four congregations ; and of those within such ages as are usually subject to its influence, I am satisfied that one-fourth, if not one-third or one-half, are, or have been, affected under some one modification or other of the exercises. Some few Baptists have also been exercised, but it is remarkable, that I do not recollect to have heard of a single case among the sect denominated Seceders having taken it at their religious meetings."
In giving a description of the exercises Mr. Wil- kinson says: "In respect to the mode of action, or gestures, this has varied, in general, in some degree from what it was at the first appearance of the affec- tion. Indeed, at all times since it has been almost infinitely different and varied in different persons,
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and even in the same individual. It would be im- possible to give a historical account of the varieties of the affection, a few of its most prominent and dis- tinguishing features is all that I can attempt to de- lineate at present."
Then follows in minute detail an account of the different modes of the exercises, and in concluding his description says : "There are a great many other gesticulations, mostly imitative of those actions which are common in domestic life, and chiefly peculiar to the female sex, to which are added dancing and sing- ing. These make a conspicuous figure in the general system.
"The dance is usually performed by a perpendic- ular motion of the body and limbs when in an erect position, both feet rising at the same time, although sometimes the feet move alternately. The hands and arms are generally protruded and frequently ele- vated, while the head is supinely thrown back, the eyes being closed. In the meantime she makes a continual rotation of turnings and circles; and all the movements are performed with softness and a graceful elasticity. During these evolutions she gen- erally commences her tune. This is pretty uniformly the same, and in a flat key, almost every other note touching the key, and not rising more than a fifth from the key note. Then immediately succeeds something like swooning."
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Mr. McNemar relates many strange scenes and incidents connected with these revivals.
At the great meeting at Cabin Creek the excite- ment, he says, was "awful and beyond description. On the third night the number who fell were so great that to prevent their being trodden under foot by the multitude, they were collected together and laid in order on two squares of the meeting-house, which, like so many dead corpses, covered a considerable part of the floor." *
At Indian Creek, in Harrison county, Ky., a boy about twelve years old retired from the stand in time of preaching, and, mounting a log at some distance away, raised his voice in a very affecting manner, and soon attracted the main body of the audience. With tears streaming from his eyes he cried aloud to the wicked, warning them of their danger. He was held up by two men, and spoke for an hour or more with great eloquence, when becoming exhausted he raised his hand, holding up his handkerchief, wet from wiping the perspiration from his face, and dropping it, cried out, "Thus, O sinner! shall you drop into hell unless you forsake your sins and turn to the Lord;" and at that moment a great number fell as though shot in a battle, and the work spread in a manner which no human language can describe.
* The meeting in this instance, as in general, was held in the open air.
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At the Cane Ridge meeting, in 1802, the most mar- velous case of this strange affection occurred. Rachel Martin, a young woman of the neighborhood, was taken with the exercises on the third day of the meet- ing, and, after swooning, lay for nine days without eating or speaking. She recovered, however, without any serious injury to her health, if we are to believe Mr. McNemar, who relates the event as though it transpired within his own knowledge.
These wild extravagancies did not continue for any great length of time without inciting opposition. It was soon found that constant appeals to the human passions were necessary to keep alive that degree of excitement required to produce the exercises. The more deliberate and thoughtful of the ministry and laymen of the church, therefore, began to doubt their divine origin. And when it was discovered that a large proportion of those who professed conversion, through the influence of some one or all of the different exercises, returned to their normal and unregenerate condition when removed from the exciting cause, or upon the discontinuance of the religious meetings, the whole system was denounced as irreligious and dis- orderly. At the Cane Ridge meeting the Rev. David Rice, and others of the ministry, openly opposed the proceedings, and refused to attend the meetings after- ward.
Those of the ministry who adhered to the old doc-
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trines and customs of the church were the Revs. David Rice, John Blythe, Robert Stewart, John Lyle, John P. Campbell, of Kentucky, and James Kemper, Archibald Steel, and Matthew G. Wallace, of Ohio. While Robert Marshall, Barton W. Stone, James McGready, and Matthew Huston, of Kentucky, and John Thomson, Richard McNemar, and John Dun- lavey, of Ohio, were carried along with the excite- ment, and finally assumed the name of New Lights, for the reason, as they said, that God made manifest His will to each individual who honestly sought after it, "by an inward light that shone into the heart and revealed the spirit to the inner man, without any written tenets or learned expositors ;" and that all creeds, confessions, forms of worship, and rules of government invented by man ought to be laid aside.
The doctrinal differences between the two factions grew wider, and the disputes increased in acrimony, until, at the meeting of the Synod held at Lexington, Ky., Sept. 6th, 1803, Thomson, McNemar, Stone, Huston, and Dunlavey were arraigned for doctrinal heresy.
They disputed the authority of the Synod, and de- clared themselves independent of that body. They were nevertheless expelled from the ministry and the church, and each returned to his respective congrega- tion, and there renewed the work of disruption with increased earnestness and labor.
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Possessed of great eloquence and influence they took with them the greater portion of their congrega- tions. McNemar and Thomson especially possessed that peculiar magnetism that sways the populace and carries it along irresistably ; and when they left the old church, which they did during that year, the greater part of their congregations went with them ; in fact, the great body of the Presbyterians in Ohio imbibed the New Light doctrines, and all the churches of that denomination north of the Ohio were threatened with disruption, and would probably have been rent asunder, had not differences arisen among the New Lights themselves. These internal dissensions arose mainly through the influence of the Shakers, or Shaking Quakers, as they were popularly termed. These people, who had established their principal societies in Connecticut and eastern New York, having heard of the strange revivals in the west, sent three of their leading men as a mission of observation and inquiry. These men visited Ken- tucky and Ohio in 1805, attended all the principal meetings of the New Lights, and pronounced the ex- ercises a confirmation of their own peculiar tenets, corresponding, they said, with their doctrine of "the miraculous effusion of the holy spirit." Indeed, the revival exercises of the New Lights greatly simulated the faith and modes of worship of the Shakers.
The Shakers believed that the day of judgment
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was past, and the world, under a new dispensation, which they termed the second coming of Christ, and which consequently abolished the ordinance of mar- riage and required a total separation of the sexes. They professed to have communion with departed saints, and in their worship they practised a uni- form, regular dance to a "solemn hymn." They claimed to impart additional light to the revival- ists, and to instruct them in the way of the Lord more perfectly. By their teaching they made many converts to Shakerism from among the New Lights. Among this number were the Revs. Matthew Hus- ton, Richard McNemar, and John Dunlavey.
These Shakers, aided by their new and distin- guished converts, established several communist vil- lages in the western country, one at Harrisburg, Kentucky, one near Lebanon, Ohio, and afterward one or two others in Indiana.
The inroads thus made among the New Lights, while the great body of them were not affected, were great disparagements to the cause, and gave material check to its progress. Other differences arose among them which led them on to disputation and sharp controversy.
They disagreed upon the ordinance of baptism, upon the decrees, upon the atonement, and other doctrinal points, until all unity of faith and sen- timent were destroyed, and the great diversity of
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opinions led them into confusion, dissension and division.
On being expelled from the church and from the ministry, Mr. Thomson entered into the revival work with zeal and enthusiasm, and, with a rebelli- ous spirit toward the old church, was only too suc- cessful in proselyting its members to the New Light doctrines.
The real estate and other property belonging to the Presbyterian church at Springfield could not legally be appropriated by the New Lights, and Thomson and his followers, though numbering at least four-fifths of the members, were compelled to abandon the meeting-house they had so recently as- sisted in erecting. Thus driven from the house they had learned to regard as their own, and forced to seek some other place of worship, they, with com- mendable ambition, and with feelings perhaps not entirely free from revenge, erected a meeting-house of their own on the east side of the road, and imme- diately opposite the old church building, where for many years, and within hearing distance of his for- mer brethern, Mr. Thomson waged an unrelenting war upon the Presbyterian creed.
The Washington Presbytery sent the Rev. William Robertson to Springfield, who, notwithstanding his great effort to quiet dissension and induce the mem- bers to adhear to the Presbyterian faith, soon found
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the roll of the church reduced from over one hundred to six or eight communicants.
John McCormick, Benjamin Perlee, Michael Long, and James Vance, with their families, are all that can be named who remained steadfast to the old church. On the 3rd day of October, 1804, the Rev. Matthew G. Wallace was appointed the regular sup- ply, and remained in the pastoral charge until 1807, after which, and until Mr. Thomson's return in 1812, there was only occasional and irregular preaching.
Meantime the New Lights were creating the most intense excitement, and appeared to absorb the almost entire religious interest of the country. The people gathered by thousands at their meetings, great numbers were added to the church by means of the exercises, until, in 1805, they had seven large and flourishing societies, viz. : at Turtle creek, Spring- field, Eagle creek, Clear creek, Orangedale, Salem, and Beaver creek.
In October, 1803, the New Light ministers and principal layman, of Kentucky and Ohio, organized what they termed the "Springfield Presbytery," and issued a paper called " An Apology," in which they gave their peculiar views and opinions; but soon they discovered that this was susceptable of being inter- preted or construed into a sort of creed or confession of faith, and their "Presbytery a human device," without divine authority, and therefore, at the session
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held at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, they revoked their " apology," and dissolved the Presbytery by what they termed its last will and testament.
This singular document bears date June 28, 1804, and reads as follows :
"The Presbytery of Springfield, sitting at Cane Ridge, Bourbon County, Kentucky, being, through a gracious providence, in more than ordinary bodily health, growing in strength and size daily, and in perfect soundness and composure of mind, but know- ing that it is appointed for all delegated bodies once to die, and considering that the life of every such body is very uncertain, do make and ordain this our last will and testament, in manner and form follow- ing, viz .:
" We will that this body be dissolved and sink into union with the body of Christ at large. We will that our name of distinction with its reverend tittle be forgotten. We will that our power of making laws for the government of the church for- ever cease. We will that candidates for the gospel ministry henceforth study the holy scriptures, and obtain license from God to preach the simple gospel, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. We will that the church of Christ resume her right of internal government, try her candidates, and admit no proof of their authority but Christ speaking in them, and that she resume her right of trying those
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who say they are apostles and are not. We will that each particular church choose its own preacher and support him by a free offering, without a written call or subscription. We will that the people hence- forth take the Bible as their only sure guide to heaven, and as many as are offended with other books, cast them into the fire if they choose: for it is better to enter into life having one book, than having many, to be cast into hell. We will that our weak brethern, who may have been waiting to make Springfield Presbytery their king, and wot not what has become of it, may betake themselves to the Rock of Ages, and follow Jesus for the future. We will that the Synod of Kentucky examine every member who may be suspected of having departed from the confession of faith, and suspend every suspected heretic immedi- ately, in order that the oppressed may go free and taste the sweets of gospel liberty. Finally, we will that all our sister bodies read their Bible carefully, that they may see their fate there determined, and prepare for death before it is too late.
(Signed) "SPRINGFIELD PRESBYTERY.
" Witnesses, - Robert Marshall, John Dunlavey, Richard McNemar, B. W. Stone, John Thomson, David Pervance."
This decree not only dissolved the Springfield Presbytery, but put an end likewise to the harmony
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and union of sentiment among the New Lights. They became divided into numerous factions, with individual differences. McNemar, Dunlavey, and Huston, with many followers, went to the Shakers; Barton W. Stone and others joined the Campbellites, or what is known as the Christian church. A large number in Kentucky established what they termed " The Cumberland Presbyterian Church,"* and in 1811 Marshall and Thomson made application to the Presbyterian Synod, and were fully restored to the old church and to the ministry. Thus, after rebelling for more than eight years, they were again found battling under the Westminster confession of faith.
At first the New Lights were Pedobaptists, but in 1815 they renounced this mode, and held to the doctrine of baptism of believers alone, and that by immersion.
In 1812 Mr. Thomson was again called to the pastorate of the Springfield church, and such was his great personal influence that a large majority of his New Light followers returned with him, and harmony and prosperity were again restored. For twenty years, with the same zeal that had marked his efforts to disrupt and destroy, did he labor to rebuild and
* The Cumberland Presbyterians were not, strictly speaking, New Lights, they differed from them somewhat upon the decrees and the atonement, but were zealous advocates of the new revivals and exercises.
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restore the church, and in no period of his life was he more successful. Many revivals and numerous accessions crowned his efforts. In one single year (1829) sixty-two were added to the roll of mem- bership.
During these successful years he was supported by the following elders, viz .: Benjamin Perlee, Caleb Crain, Abraham Lindley, James Vance, John Watson, Jehial Day, John R. Gaston, Cornelius W. Hall, Ezekiel Moore, Caleb Brown, William Watson, and William Wilson.
Of the names of the founders and early members of the church few are now obtainable, among them, however, in addition to the above, may be named John Schooley, William Preston, James Andrews, Moses Miller, James Carnahan, Levi Sayre, John Long, Peter Cregor, John Roll, and Hatfield Williams.
The following are the names of the members of the church, at Springfield, in full communion, and of lawful age, as listed May 19, 1823, for the purpose of procuring the dividend from the ministerial fund:
John Thomson. Nat'l S. Schooley. Mary Gaston.
Nancy Thomson.
Jane Schooley. Catherine Packer.
James Thomson.
Agnes Long. Mary Fowble.
Robert Watson. John Long. Henry Oliver.
Catherine Watson. Nancy Long. Mary Oliver.
Catherine McCormick Margaret Long. John Oliver.
Jemima Swallow. Elizabeth Woodman. Jane Oliver.
John McGilliard, Sr. Nancy Conklin Eleanor Roberts.
Susan McGilliard.
Charity Van Tuyl. Anne Flag, Sr.
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Caleb Crane.
Rebecca Wallace.
Anne Flag, Jr.
Sarah Crane.
Jehiel Day.
Nancy McConnel.
Hatfield Williams.
Margaret Day.
John Robertson.
John Rogers.
Elizabeth Redick.
Elizabeth Robertson.
Betsy Rogers.
William Lowes.
Rachel Stibbins.
Jane Sayre.
Anne Lowes.
James Harris.
Mary Woodruff.
Elizabeth Case.
Hannah Harris.
Benjamin Perlee.
Abraham Lindley.
Catherine Allen. Jane Smith.
Mary Perlee.
Sarah Lindley.
Jacob Fowble.
John Schooley. Mary Schooley.
Annis Mitchel.
Jane Perine.
James Vance.
John LaRue.
Amelia Wilkinson.
Azubah Vance.
Catherine LaRu. Effy Pierson.
William Vance.
Mary Packer.
Ezekiel Crain.
Harriet Vance.
Jonn R. Gaston.
Hannah Crain.
The following are the names of persons who signed the above list as adherents to the church for the same year :
James Cogy
Isaac Swallow. Phobe Smith.
Louis Packer.
Mary Swallow.
Betsy Hazelton.
Phebe Packer. Anna Swallow. William Vance.
Ellen Williams.
Benjamin Swallow. Elenor Vance.
Jane Cogy. Daniel Turner.
Peter Davis.
Garret Williamson.
Mary Van Dyke.
Catherine Davis.
Abby Williamson.
Catherine Case.
James Roberts.
Garret Lefferson.
Peter Perlee.
Wm. Cumming.
Sarah Lefferson.
Mary Perlee.
John Roll.
David Longwell.
Geo. McCormick.
Sarah Roll.
Joseph W. Hegeman. Philey McCormick. Sophia Hegeman. J. Van Zant.
Abbey Whallon.
Sally Anne Wertwine. Margaret Van Zant.
Simon Whallon.
Nathaniel Woodruff. John Riddle.
James Whallon.
Samantha Hannally.
Catherine Riddle.
Anne Sayler.
Robt. C. Allison.
E. Cammil.
Jabel Case.
Rebecca Moore.
Elizabeth Cammil.
Isaac McFeely.
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Jane Moore.
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Isaac LaRue.
John Woodmin.
Susannah McFeely. John Whallon.
Elizabeth LaRue.
Ettey Flag.
Thos. Filton.
Benjamin Hubbard.
Margaret Whallon. John Voorhees.
Francis Filton.
Mary Hubbard.
James G. Paine.
Jacob Field, Sr.
Elizabeth Voorhees. William Preston.
Susan Schooley.
Elizabeth Field.
Sarah W. Preston. Lavinah Preston.
William Cregar.
Thos. B. Van Tuyl. Jacob Long.
Sarah Hailman.
David Conklin.
Rachael List.
Rachel Preston.
John McClelland.
Henry Mills.
Stephen Crain.
John Baldwin.
Catherine Mills.
Hannah Stibbins.
Elizabeth Baldwin.
Humphrey Ellis. Harp Peterson.
Lewis C. Freeman.
Ural. W. Gould.
Charity Peterson.
Susan Freeman.
Dorcas C. Gould.
Elizabeth Peterson.
Martha Fields.
Lydia McClelland.
Simon Mitchel.
George Shepherd. Sarah Shepherd.
Hugh Oliver.
Jacob Fowble.
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