USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Historical Sketches and Eary Reminiscences of Hamilton County, Ohio > Part 16
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cause to harmonize with the members, and resigned his charge on the 26th of August, 1849, having labored something less than four months.
For more than a year following the church was without a pastor, being supplied occasionally by Elders C. B. Phillips, Jamison, and Daniel Bryant.
ELDER J. S. GOODMAN.
In October, 1850, J. S. Goodman, a licentiate from the First church, at Detroit, Michigan, was called and preached for the church until November 15, 1850, when he was ordained, as before mentioned on page 249. In December, 1852, Mr. Goodman was relieved, at his own request, to accept a call in the service of foreign missions, and was sent to Bexal Station, West Africa, where he remained but three years, having contracted the terrible malaria inci- dent to that climate, and was compelled to return. For a time after his return he resided at Lockland, but with health too feeble to resume the ministry except as an occasional supply at vacant places. Subsequently he moved to Michigan, where he still resides engaged in other pursuits.
ELDER L. C. CARR.
In January, 1853, and soon after the retirement of Mr. Goodman, Elder L. C. Carr became the pastor. He was born August 13, 1814, at Silver
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Lake, Pennsylvania. When very young his parents moved to the Western Reserve, Ohio. His education was as liberal as that section of country then afforded. IIe joined the Baptist church at Jefferson, Ashtabula county, Ohio, and was baptized by Elder Bailey, then pastor of that church.
In 1830 he engaged in teaching in the public schools, which occupation he followed for near two years. In 1832 he entered the Grand River Institute, where he remained for four years, when his father's financial circumstances became such that he was compelled to withdraw and resort to teaching again. Ilaving in the meantime decided that it was his duty to preach the gospel, he entered Grandville Theo- logical Institute in 1841, and commenced the study of theology under Dr. Jonathan Going. In 1843 he was ordained an elder of the Baptist church at Bir- mingham, Erie county, Ohio. In 1844 he was settled at Chordon, Geauga county, Ohio, where he remained until 1845, and was then engaged as traveling agent for the American Tract and Bible Society, at which work he continued for three years, the last year being devoted to evangelical labor, his field being New York, Canada West, Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. He was afterwards appointed by the Home Mission Society, and took charge of the small interest in Bellefountaine, Ohio, where he remained until the little church could nearly support itself. While
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there he received a call from New Carlisle, Clark county, Ohio, at which point he remained for five years, when he accepted the pastoral charge of the Lockland church. There he continued two-and-a-half years in earnest and very successful labor. In July, 1855, he left Lockland, at his own request, to accept a call from Moline, Illinois, and was the means of organizing and building up the present church of that place. During his charge the present meeting-house was built, and he spent there six busy and successful years. He next went to Jerseyville, Jersey county, Illinois, where he remained four years, after which he retired from pastoral labor for about three years on account of ill-health. After his restoration he spent three years as pastor of the church at Griggs- ville, Pike county, Illinois; then three years at Tam- aroa, Perry county, Illinois; then for a time at Bethel church, St. Clair county ; and last at Collins- ville three years, when his health entirely failed him, and he was compelled to retire permanently from the ministry. He has since resided with his son, H. M. Carr, at Alton, Illinois.
Mr. Carr has been a very able, faithful, and 'zealous preacher, and wherever he labored his efforts were greatly blessed, and crowned with abundant success. Mr. Carr was married September 14, 1843, by the Rev. Dr. Going, to Miss Mary E. Starr, of Grand- ville, Ohio, and is the father of four children. The
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eldest, H. M. Carr, with whom he now resides; 2, a daughter, now the wife of Rev. J. M. Stifler, D. D., of New Haven, Conn .; 3, the wife of C. Simmons, of Salem, Nebraska; the last a daughter, residing with her sister, Mrs. Stifler, at New Haven.
ELDER GEORGE E. LEONARD.
After Mr. Carr's retirement the church was with- out a pastor until May 25, 1856, when Elder George E. Leonard accepted a call, and remained until December, 1857. Of Mr. Leonard's history and ministerial service the writer is unable to give any information. He was comparatively a young man while at Lockland, with fair talent and flattering promises of a high and honorable position in the ministry.
ELDER JOHN B. SUTTON.
During the following winter and spring a young licentiate, named Wild, supplied the pulpit. In June, 1858, Elder John B. Sutton was called, and served as pastor until June, 1860.
Mr. Sutton's advantages in early life were quite limited, he obtained nothing more than a common school education, and, for a number of years after arriving at the years of manhood, he followed the business of a stone mason. His natural ability was above the ordinary, however, and, though embar-
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rassed for want of more liberal attainments, he was an acceptable minister. It was during his pastoral charge that the meeting-house was rebuilt, and dur- ing the time, while there was no marked or decided progress, the church maintained its usual prosperity.
ELDER J. W. B. CLARK.
Sometime in October following the retirement of Mr. Sutton Elder Clark accepted a call from the church. Mr. Clark is a native of the state of New York, born at Rushford, in 1831. He graduated from Allegheny College in 1855. For the next two years was prin- cipal of the Randolph Academy (now Chamberlain Institute), New York. He commenced preaching and reading theology in 1857. Settled in Ashtabula, Ohio, in May, 1858, and was ordained August 26th of that year. In the middle of his third year at Ashtabula he was called to Lockland, and preached his first sermon November 18, 1860. He remained at Lockland three years, at the end of which he moved to Rochester, New York, where he took the regular three years' course in the Theological Semi- nary of that place. Graduating in 1866, he accepted a call to Portsmouth, Ohio, and in 1870 was called to Albion, New York, where he remained for eleven years, preaching two sermons each Sunday; and when, in 1881, he received a unanimous call, without solicitation and without being asked to visit them,
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to the Third Baptist church, at Haverhill, Massachu- setts, where he would be required to preach but one sermon of a Sunday, he gladly and promptly ac- cepted.
Haverhill is an old town, having been settled in 1643, and some of its churches are more than two hundred years old. The First Baptist is one hun- dred and sixteen, the Second about forty, and the Third, of which Mr. Clark is pastor, is twenty-two years, but is the largest of any in the city of any denomination.
During the first year of Mr. Clark's pastorate at Lockland the war broke out, and in a very short time every young man in his congregation had gone into the army; this, with the constant excitement that was kept up on account of the war, left his, as it did all other churches throughout the country, in a weakened condition, and an almost barren field for labor, yet his sermons, noted as they were for ability and perspicuity, seldom failed to draw an audience respectable in intelligence and numbers, and his subsequent success and eminence was no surprise to his friends at Lockland. Mr. Clark is remembered by the writer as having broad and liberal views of religion, and was always most deeply concerned in all subjects of public interest. While he was no politician, he held decided opinions upon all political questions, and it did not astonish those who remem-
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bered him in former years to learn that during the Presidential campaign of 1880, while living at Albion, New York, at the urgent request of Mr. Arthur, he took the stump and made twenty-one speeches for Garfield and Arthur, all able and effective.
JOSEPH R. POWELL.
From November, 1863, until the following April the church was again without a pastor. Elder Powell was then called and served for two years. Mr. Powell was a native of Wales, born at Thlanetha, South Wales, August 30, 1828, soon after which his father, William Powell, came to the United States to view the country, and after a few months spent in traveling over different sections, he sent for his family, and thereupon his wife, Sarah, with five children, crossed the ocean, and joined him in the spring of 1830. They settled first in New Jersey. In 1832 they went to Nashville, Tennessee, where they resided until 1842. From there they moved to Wheeling, West Virginia, then to Pittsburg, and then to Ironton, Ohio, where the father and husband; William Powell, died in November, 1864, and the mother, Sarah Powell, in 1866, he at the age of sixty-six and she at sixty-seven years. Both were members of the Baptist church before coming to this country.
Joseph was baptized into fellowship with the church
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at Nashville, Tennessee, when but ten years of age. In 1850 he entered upon a course of study under his brother, then pastor of the Baptist church at Frank- lin, Tennessee, and at the same time principal of a select school. He remained there until 1854, a part of which time he was engaged in teaching a select school and vocal music. From there he went to his parent's home, at Wheeling, where he continued teaching, and afterwards taught about one year at Ironton. In 1856 he entered Fairmount Theological Seminary, Ohio, to prepare for the ministry. He prosecuted his studies there and at Rochester, and in Nathaniel Colier's study, until 1859, when he was ordained at Franklin, Ohio. In April, 1864, he was called to Lockland, where he labored until April, 1866, when he became discouraged and dissatisfied with his work and sought another field of labor. From there he went to New Vienna, Ohio, where he is now (1881), in his third pastorate year. In the meantime he had served as pastor of the following churches, viz: Hillsboro, Highland county; Wash- ington, Fayette county, Newtonsville and Milford, Clermont county ; Duckcreek, Mount Lookout, and Pleasant Ridge, Hamilton county, Ohio.
Mr. Powell has been twice married, first in 1860 to Miss Hannah M. Robertsham, a native of England. She died at Lockland in 1864. In 1865 he married Miss Kate E. Patton, of East Walnut Hills. Twice
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he was compelled to suspend his pastoral labors on account of bronchial troubles, but has been constantly in the work since 1876.
ELDER DAVID E. OWEN.
Mr. Owen was next called, his term commencing in September, 1866. He was also a native of Wales, but the writer regrets that he has failed to obtain the necessary information to make up a sketch of his life and ministerial work. While at Lockland he was a very popular and highly esteemed man and minister, and it was with universal regret that he resigned his pastoral charge in April, 1869, to accept a call in, as he believed, a more useful field of labor. He went to Newark, Ohio, where, for many years, his labors were abundantly successful.
ELDER JOHN BRANCH.
On the 28th of January, 1869, the church extended a unanimous call to Mr. Branch, then of Painted Post, New York. Mr. Branch served the church but one year, retiring June 30, 1870. He went back to New York, and afterwards removed to one of the Southern States.
ELDER F. D. BLAND.
Mr. Bland was called while living at Peru, Indiana. He remained pastor of the church at Lockland two
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years and four months, closing a very successful pastorate in February, 1873, and went to Keokuk, Iowa.
ELDER A. S. MOORE. Alphaus
Mr. Moore was called to the pastorate of the Lockland church in March, 1873, and remained almost six years, retiring in December, 1878. His father, the Rev. John L. Moore, was a distinguished Baptist minister, for many years connected with evangelical work in Ohio and other adjoining states, and died a few years since in Kansas. A. S. Moore, the subject of this sketch, was born in Dayton, Ohio, March 22, 1839, and was educated at Dennison Uni- versity, graduating in 1859. At the breaking out of the war of the rebellion, he enlisted as a private soldier on the 16th day of April, 1861, in the Second Regiment O. V. I., and on the 29th day of August following was mustered as Captain of the 44th Regi- ment O. V. I. He was promoted to Major May 1, 1863, and to Lieu .- Colonel of O. V. Calvary April 2, 1864, and to Colonel of that regiment May 1, 1864. He participated in the battles of Bull Run, Lewis- burg, Knoxville, Lynchburg, Winchester, Fisher's Hill, Cedar Creek, and in a large number of lesser engagements. At Lynchburg he received a severe wound in the breast by a shell, from the effects of which he has ever since been a great sufferer. The
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war being closed, he resigned June 5, 1865, and engaged in teaching school until July, 1871. In December, 1869, he was married to Miss Belle C., daughter of Judge D. H. Morris, of Troy, Ohio.
He,was ordained to the Baptist ministry in Octo- ber, 1871, became pastor of the Baptist church at Lockland, in March, 1873. From Lockland he went to Salem, Columbiana county, Ohio, where he re- mained as pastor of the Baptist church of that place until June, 1881, when, from the steadily increasing effects of the wound he received at Lynchburg, his health failed him, and he was compelled to resign his pastorate and give up the ministry. Soon after- wards he went to North Topeka, Kansas, in the neighborhood of which place he purchased the farm upon which he now resides, and which he expects to make his future home.
Mr. M. is an able minister, an earnest and consist- ent christian, and his long term of service at Lock- land gives ample evidence of his popularity and success.
ELDER JOHN D. GRIEBLE.
Mr. Grieble was called to the pastorate in January, 1879, and retired May 9, 1880. He came from Philadelphia, and returned again to that city, where he now resides. The writer is unacquainted with his history.
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ELDER JOSEPH WOLFF DAVIS.
Mr. Davis, the present pastor, was called to the Lockland church in October, 1880. His father, Jonas Abraham Davis, was a London Jew, the story of whose conversion to christianity has been widely sold through the Southern States, in a little book entitled, "Judaism Excelled." Ordained a Baptist minister and being of a roving disposition, he chose for himself and family an itinerant life, traveling through the country in a vehicle drawn by one horse. It was while thus living that Joseph was born, June 17, 1842, strange enough, in an old hotel which stood on the state line in the town of Orangeville, part in Trumbull county, Ohio, and part in Mercer county, Pennsylvania. Three weeks after this event the family began their travels again, and during the subsequent fourteen years the story of the boy, Joseph, is but little more than the story of his parents' wanderings, who trar- eled over twenty-seven of the United States and through England and Ireland.
Up to this time his education had been gathered as birds find crumbs. At the age of fourteen his father located for a time at Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Joseph was put to school, and where he remained five years, making rapid progress. He joined the Baptist church at Minneapolis, and was baptized at the hands of his father, February 6, 1860. In 1861, being
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dissatisfied with a life of dependence upon the limited means of his father, and desiring a higher education, he left home, choosing Cleveland, Ohio, as his objective point, and reached that city with an outfit of seven dollars in his pocket. There, for four years, through many trials, supported only by his determined energy and perseverance, he obtained a liberal education, and at the close of the war of the rebellion he was found principal of an academy of a high grade, at Medina, Ohio (since developed into the State Normal School of that place). Physical inability had pre- vented his entering the army ; but now, the war being ended, the demands of patriotism seemed to call him to the education of the Freedmen, and he was one of the first on the field at Petersburg, Virginia. During the short labor of one yes he was robbed, publicly whipped, his school attacked by the mob, and saved only by a quarrel among the rioters themselves. At the close of the year, small-pox becoming epidemic at Petersburg, the Pennsylvania Freedman's Relief As- sociation, under whose auspices Mr. D. worked, called all the teachers home from that point. With one of these teachers, Miss E. L. Robinson, from Fox- boro, Massachusetts, he had formed an acquaintance, which, ripening into an attachment, resulted in their marriage at Cliffton Springs, New York, June 17, 1866. He continued teaching, hoping to make that a life work, and excel in it, but failing health com-
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pelled him to seek out-door employment, and he engaged for a time in selling books, from which he accumulated a considerable sum of money, but in the spring of 1868 he became the victim of a sharper, who reduced him to absolute penury. Moving into a one-room house on the hill side at Corry, Pennsyl- vania, with his wife and one child, they subsisted for one month on five dollars. For three months his struggles continued, kind friends kept the wolf from the door, but his most unremitting efforts to find even the humblest employment failed. In this hour of trial a messenger of mercy came in the person of Rev. W. R. Connelly, pastor of the Baptist church at Corry, whose council and kindness, in the language of Mr. D. to the writer, "were blessed to me in making this time of to be God's opportunity: Extra the long buried conviction, 'woe is me if I preach not the gospel ' returned with multiplied force." Within a fortnight Mr. Davis and wife were received into the Baptist church at Corry, and he licensed to preach. His first pastorate was at Portland, New York, where his labors were successful to the building up and strengthening of the church. 1
The Harmony (now the Chautauqua) Association, becoming interested in one who had gone directly from the street to the pulpit, volunteered to send Mr. D. to the Theological Seminary, at Rochester, New York, where he graduated with marked credit
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in the class in 1871. He was then called to the church at Franklin, Pennsylvania, and although his pastorate lasted but fifteen months it was the longest in the history of that church. He next went to Gar- rettsville, Ohio, where, after a residence of four years, preaching without an interval of a single Sunday, he accepted a call from the Market Street Baptist church, at Mansfield, Ohio. His work there was arduous, but not without recompense. A pastorate of three years, followed by six months as supply. closed his engagement, and he next settled at Lock- land, as before stated, in October, 1880.
Here both his associations and his memories of the past are agreeable, if not always pleasant. In Cheviot, near by, one of his childhood homes, his only sister, two years his senior, lies buried, while friends of his early years are frequently met in Cincinnati and other surrounding towns.
Small of stature, and somewhat deficient in tone and volume of voice, Mr. D. is not prepossessing as a public speaker, yet he is fluent in language and clear in his reasoning. As a preacher he is no re- vivalist, the logical bias of his mind, which at one time almost merged him in infidelity, clings to him still; not emotional, but eminently convincing; those whom he leads are brought by intelligence to an acceptance of the truth. He acts upon the mandate, " Prove all things, hold fast that which is good."
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A few only of the prominent events connected with the history of the Lockland Baptist church have been given, and it is not deemed expedient to extend the notes of its record beyond the year 1860. From that time its history is well-known and is of much less interest. No records are to be found of a date prior to 1841; and what are preserved have been so imperfectly kept that it is exceedingly difficult to ascertain the membership at any given time, and in many instances quite impossible to obtain the dates of the accessions and baptisms.
The church has had its share of the disputations, bickerings, criminations, and recriminations among its members, that are common to all human organi- zations; but all these, being more or less of a per- sonal character, are of little interest to the public, and therefore not included in these sketches.
MILLCREEK BAPTIST CHURCH.
This church was constituted in 1811, and would have been mentioned in its proper order of time but for the hope of procuring the church records, which have been preserved from its organization, and are now in the hands of the church clerk.
The present members have determined, however, that the proceedings shall not be made public, and have refused the writer permission to examine the
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records, the only instance of the kind that has come within his experience. If the suppression of its history be the settled intention of this church, the object in preserving the records is not clear or appa- rent-their entire distruction would seem more effec- tually to accomplish that purpose.
The first meeting-house was built in 1812 upon a lot purchased of Samuel and Phebe Johnson, and conveyed by deed dated October 21, 1812, to John Runyan and John Williamson, trustees of the Baptist church of the West Fork of Millcreek. This lot was a part of section 32, in Springfield township, and was near the border of Colerain township, and a short distance south-west from the point where the village of Mount Pleasant was afterwards laid out. . Among the leading members were Benjamin and Jacob Skillman, Jacob R. Compton, Jonathan Larri- son, John Williamson, John Runyan, and William J. Cock.
In 1816 there were fifty-seven members reported to the Miami Association, and the church was among the most prosperous belonging to that body. The following year thirty-one were reported, and in 1818 but sixteen members were found upon the church roll, showing a rapid decrease, whether from internal dissensions or some outward cause, the church min- utes can only reveal. In 1829 another lot was pur- chased and a new meeting-house erected, this time on
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a lot containing one-and-a-quarter acre, in section 4, Colerain township, about two-and-a-half miles north- west of the old site. The lot was deeded by Jacob and Sarah Williamson to Jonathan Larrison, William J. Cock, and Jediah Hill, trustees, by deed dated May 11, 1829, and the church entered upon another period of prosperity.
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This church went with the anti-mission party in the separation of 1836, and still adheres to the old- school doctrines.
The terms mission and anti-mission, as applied to the question that gave rise to that great controversy, expresses but feebly its real cause. The Sunday school was made the ostensible ground of dispute, but these schools had been supported in the church for many years. When first introduced they were more secular than religious in character, the main object being the gratuitous instruction of the youth whose circum- stances deprived them of the means and opportunity of obtaining even the rudiments of an education. These schools were founded in London in 1782, but were not introduced into the United States until about the year 1816, and very few in the west before 1825. They were opposed from their first conception by a large portion of the ministry and other sabba- tarians of all denominations upon the ground of their being non-religious, and therefore a desecration of the Sabbath. But this did not seem to involve
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any essential point of doctrine, and their support in the church was acquiesced in by those who did not fully approve of them. The question of missions, too, was quite similar ; missionary work had long been supported, and was, indeed, the pride of the Baptist church, without a thought that it involved the deeper and more essential questions of partial and general atonement. But the great religious revivals in the west, and the sudden conversions attending them, together with the openly avowed doctrine of free grace by the New Lights and Methodist, induced among the Baptists and Presbyterians a deeper thought and a more earnest consideration of the subject of Sunday school, missionary, and other like societies ; and then it began to be perceived that these societies were incompatible with the stern doctrines of election and partial atonement. Thus, it became a question involving one of the cardinal principles of the church. Each attempt at reconciliation incited discussion, and widened the breach between the fac- tions, until separation became absolutely necessary.
Looking back, as we now may, upon the history of the anti-missionists, or, as they term themselves, "Old School Baptists," to the time of this separation, an.l considering that, both in numerical strength and influence, they were at that period incomparably greater than their late confreres, the New School party, their present comparative weakness and feeble
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influence presents a sad and striking contrast, and can be accounted for only upon the ground of their persistent adherence to the old doctrines of election, partial atonement, and close communion, which, though ever so well supported they may be by the scriptures, are in direct conflict with the popular spirit of the age, that is becoming less exclusive and more liberal in all things. The world is tending to universality and equality, and will no longer accept of doctrines that are limited or partial in their appli- cation, however sanctioned and sanctified by time.
MONTGOMERY M. E. CHURCH.
At Montgomery and throughout the neighborhood there existed at an early day very strong prejudices against what was termed the Shouting Methodists. This prejudice was entertained not only by the non- religionists alone, but by many church members of other denominations, especially that class of Presby- terians and Baptists who adhered to the rigid doc- trines of Calvinism, and had so bitterly opposed the introduction into their own churches of that mode of worship and manner of conversion known as the religious exercises, which, in many respects, was quite similar to the mode and manner of worship adopted by the western Methodists. These exercises, or, as sometimes termed, "Kentucky Revivals," were dis-
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carded from Hopewell Presbyterian church, and also from Carpenter's Run Baptist church, and were believed by a majority of the people of the neighbor- hood of Montgomery to be mere hypocritical pretenses, or feigned and wicked performances, that should be discountenanced by all christians and lovers of good order. Hence the strong antipathy towards that class of religionists who persisted in keeping up these praying, singing, shouting, and boisterous exercises. Therefore, when in 1818, Joseph A. Reeder and his wife, Olive, came to Montgomery and opened a little tailor shop, and announced themselves as Methodists, they were looked upon and treated either as hypo- crites or religious monomaniacs. While at family prayers, crowds of young men and boys would assem- ble around their house and shout in mockery, "Amen, glory," etc.
It was not long until Mr. Reeder and his wife were joined by others in the neighborhood, and a Methodist class was formed, which met at Mr. Price's, a short distance outside the village. This class con- sisted of Mr. and Mrs. Reeder, Mrs. Sarah Price, and two sisters, the daughters of Mr. Eli Duskey, who lived on what is now known as the Hyatt farm, a short distance south of the village. On the 4th day of July, 1819, a regular society was formed, consisting of the persons before mentioned, with the addition of Mary Slaback, Elizabeth Slaback, Hester
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Bowman, Hester Anderson, and Nancy, wife of David Mills. They had preaching every fortnight by the Revs. Samuel West and Henry Matthews. These meetings were held at the house of Mr. Eli Duskey, where they were often interrupted and greatly annoyed by the rough young men of the neighborhood. Upon one occasion the crowd who had surrounded the house obtained a long pole, to the end of which they fastened pins, and, while the worshipers were upon their knees engaged in prayer, they pricked them through the open windows. They used every means that their imaginations could suggest to annoy and disturb the meetings. They shouted, mocked, and made such hideous uproar that the little society was compelled finally to discontinue its meetings for several years.
In 1828 the society was reorganized, and though the meetings were kept up regularly, there was the same disturbing element in attendance to annoy and perplex them.
The boisterous manner of conducting these meet- ings, the shouting, singing, and clapping of hands by the members inspired a spirit of rowdyism among the young men especially, with whom it was not uncom- mon, while the society was engaged in singing or at. prayer, to mock with cat-calls, bleating in imitation of the calf, and other ludicrous outcries.
With this feeling prevailing in the community
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against them the Methodist made but little impres- sion upon the congregation, or the unconverted por- tion of it who attended the meetings only to ridicule and make sport of the proceedings, until an incident which, though trivial and unimportant in itself, proved to be the prelude to a great revival in the church, and forced upon the community a general respect for that previously contemned denomination. A room had been fitted up over the tailor-shop of Mr. Reeder, where the meetings were held, and where near a hundred persons could be accommodated. At an evening prayer meeting held at this place, and attended by an unusual number of the rowdy ele- ment, whose conduct provoked the members to the highest point of religious zeal, the whole congre- gation seemed moved by enthusiasm. "Sister Slay- back" was called upon to lead in prayer. As she proceeded she became more and more fervent and earnest, until reaching a state of great excitement, she exclaimed, "O, Lord, have mercy on the heaven- daring, God-provoking, hell-deserving sinners of Montgomery." This with the loud and earnest re- sponses from the members of "Amen ! glory !" etc., produced such a thrill of emotion throughout the audience, that the whole band of scoffers were thrown into consternation, and, as Mrs. Slayback proceeded, one who had been among the foremost to mock and ridicule came forward, and, falling upon his knees,
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with hands and face uplifted in the attitude of prayer, exclaimed, "O, God, have mercy upon me, a hell- deserving sinner." During the evening several others came forward to ask the prayers of the church, and the meeting was continued to a late hour. A num- ber who subsequently became zealous and faithful members of the church claimed that evening as the date of their conversion. From this time forward the Methodists were permitted to worship unmo- lested, and the society continued steadily to prosper until the winter of 1837-8, when a great revival added more than a hundred to the membership. In the spring of 1839 the society completed and dedi- cated its meeting house, since which time it has held a prominent place among the religious societies of Montgomery.
The foregoing comprises a history, so far as the writer has been able to collect it, of all the churches organized in Springfield and Sycamore townships prior to 1820, and in accordance with the original design of the work. But as the plan of the work has since been enlarged so as to embrace a history of the entire county, other church organizations will be noticed in their proper order, and as a part of the history of the towns and settlements in which they were constituted.
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The following table exhibits the number of churches, ministers,. and members of the religious denominations in the United States, according to the most recent statistics.
Denominations.
Churches. Ministers.
Members.
Adventists
80
120
10,000
Anti-Mission Baptists
900
400
40,000
Baptists
24,499
14,954
2,102,034
Church of God, Winebrennariians.
400
350
30,000
Congregationalists
3,509
3,333
350,658
Disciples, Campbellites
2,366
2,000
350,000
Dunkers
500
1,200
50,000
Dutch Reformed .
505
542
78,666
Episcopal, Protestant.
2,900
3,278
281,977
Episcopal, Reformed
60
5,000
Free-Will Baptists
1,471
1,294
74,851
Friends (Quakers)
800
100,000
German Reformed
1,380
714
151,651
Lutherans
5,301
3,040
676,509
Mennonites.
120
90
20,000
Methodist Episcopal
16,099
11,308
1,688,783
Methodist Episcopal, South
3,439
765.337
Methodist Episcopal, African
1,418
214,806
Methodist Episcopal, Zion African
1,500
190,900
Methodist Episcopal, Colored
638
112,300 .
Methodist Evangelical Association
828
105,013
Methodist, Free
224
19,232
Methodist, Independent.
23
12,500
Methodist, Primitive .
199
3,332
Methodist, Protestant
1,314
113,405
Methodist Epis'l Union, Am. Colored
101
2,550
Methodist, Wesleyan
250
25,000
Moravian
75
9,212
Presbyterian, Cumberland
2,000
1,239
100,000
Presbyterian, North
5,269
4,901
567,855
Presbyterian, South
1,878
1,117
114,578
Presbyterian, Reformed
153
128
10,250 .
Presbyterian, United .
798
625
77,414
Roman Catholic (entire population ) .
6,920
4,873
6,000,000
Seventh-Day Baptists.
75
82
7,336
Six-Principle Baptists
20
12
2,000
United Brethren
3,078
1,952
143,841.
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