USA > Ohio > Ashtabula County > History of Ashtabula County, Ohio > Part 38
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Hon. Tracy Peck, in a historical address he delivered on the occasion of the celebration, in the year 1859, of the fiftieth anniversary of the appointment of Charles G. Ives as deacon of the church in Bristol, made the following reference to Dr. Cowles :
" Mr. Cowles entered upon and pursued his work here as a learned, pious, and faithful minister of the gospel. He was never a healthy, robust man, being always afflicted with an infirmity in one leg, which caused him to halt in his walk, and frequently suffered much from salt-rheum. He was agreeable and exceedingly interesting in all his intercourse with the people, and was accustomed to visit often in the families and the schools. He often examined the children and scholars in
# By his grandson, Edwin Cowles, Esq.
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the shorter catechism, he talked and prayed with them, regarding all this as a part of his pastoral duties, a duty which he much loved, and his love was fully reciprocated, and was one of the links which bound him to this people, to those children and pupils, in so strong, endearing, and lasting bonds of love and affection.
" Those of us here who were then children in those families or in those schools, cannot well forget those days and scenes, the remembrance of which is so sweet, so refining and elevating, nor forget the name of the Rev. Giles Hooker Cowles, so interestingly connected with them. And I have yet to learn that there has been improvement in these particulars.
"Dr. Cowles was a sound and successful minister, and during the seventeen years and eight months of his stay here there were additions to this church each year, save 1804 and 1808. The whole number was two hundred and eighteen, leaving in membership at his dismission one hundred and sixty-two. At the head of the admissions I see the name of my venerated and beloved mother, to whom, for a long while, I have felt myself indebted for several of the leading features in my life and character. Yet the great and never-to-be-forgotten year in the ministry of Mr. Cowles is that of 1799, when there was a general outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon this church, a large proportion of the community, and the hearts of the people in many places of our State and county.
" How appropriate the entry made by Dr. Cowles upon the records, where he says, ' A YEAR NEVER TO BE FORGOTTEN !"
"Then it was that the Bible was so generally read by the old and the young. Then it was that so many humble and penitent prayers were offered upon the bended knees, from hearts having great and alarming views of their sin and guilt, and pleading for mercy in and through a Redeemer's blood. Oh, how few are here to-day who were here in 1799, and experienced for the first time the sweets of redeeming grace! The refreshing influences of the Holy Spirit were so pure, and the scenes so awful, yet so rich, that I cannot, in this review, pass over them in silence. Dr. Cowles has placed upon the records, 'That the year of 1798 was one of great opposition to divine truth, and a neglect of religious and public worship seemed to increase, and but one made a public profession of religion.' Much trouble and altercation about school districts, etc. But God was pleased, in 1799, to pour out his Spirit upon the people in a remarkable manner, and produced a revival of religion which ought to be recorded for the information of posterity and to the glory of his glorious grace. The first appearance of this work was at a lecture about the middle of February. The Rev. Messrs. Joshua Williams, of Harwinton, and Joseph Washburn, of Farmington, were present, and gave some account of the revivals in some neighboring towns. Two sermons were delivered in the afternoon, and divine truth appeared to be attended with divine power. An unusual attention and seriousness were apparent in the congregation, and numbers seemed greatly affected and in tears. In the evening a meeting was held at a large school-house, which was thronged, and divine influence seemed more powerful than in the afternoon. Withiu a week nearly fifty were under conviction, and ten or twelve entertained a hope; and from the 31st of March, 1799, to May 1, 1800, one hundred were added to the church, sixty-one females and thirty-nine males.
"I suppose that there are two or three persons now here who were present at these two meetings mentioned by Dr. Cowles.
" The years 1798, 1799, and 1800 were years of excitement in this church and in the political movements of this State and nation.
" In December, 1798, the Baptist society was organized. Early in 1799, Elder Daniel Wildman, of the Baptist church, moved into town and commenced religious services, which were mostly held in his own house. His labors scemed to have a favorable effect upon his hearers, and during that year several were baptized by immersion and added to his church, two of whom were members of this church.
" The question of baptism was discussed with interest and produced great ex- citement. Mr. Cowles delivered two sermons in proof of the duty of infant bap- tism, which were enlarged and published in three sermons, together with an appendix, by Rev. Jonathan Miller, then pastor of the church in Burlington, which were circulated and read, and had a soothing and quieting influence over one of the existing elements of that day. . . .
" The council met here May 24, 1810, and, agreeably to mutual consent, dis- missed Mr. Cowles, and in their result they say, ' that they find that this church style him their beloved pastor,' and to whom the church return their thanks for the faithfulness, ability, prudence, and zeal with which he served them in the duties of the Christian ministry for seventeen years and eight months.
" I was present on that occasion, and a society meeting was holden, of which that worthy and much-respected man, Deacon Bryan Hooker, was moderator ; and, while standing in the old deacon's seat, and stating to the meeting the im- portant transactions of the day, he became so much affected and overcome that he seemed to lose the power of speech. He stood silent for a while. The tears then flowed free and abundant.
" I was then at the age of twenty-five years, and I have often thought that I never attended a meeting so deep, so solemn, and so impressive as was that. I do believe that during the remaining sixteen years of the life of Deacon Bryan Hooker, I looked upon his person and upon his private and public character and acts with more respect than I could otherwise have done; and that his whole life and character, while he lived and since his death, have appeared to me more grand and more lovely, and have had a greater effect on me, than has almost any other transaction of his life.
" Mr. Cowles and his family left this place for Austinburg, Ohio, May 21, 1811, where he was settled in the ministry, and remained until his death. His daughter, Miss Martha Hooker Cowles, of Austinburg, having heard of this movement by this church, wrote to me, and says, ' We, the younger members of the family, cannot from recollection give much information. We, of course, were always in- terested in Bristol as the place of our birth and associations of childhood, and the names of Lewis and Ives were household words to us.' She gives the names and ages of the children of her parents when they left Bristol. She also says ' that her parents and two of her brothers have passed away.'
" She sent me the following, being copies of the inscriptions on the tombstones of her parents and brother Edward, viz. :
"' Edward died in 1823, aged twenty-one years. A very dutiful, affectionate son to his parents. Thou destroyest the hope of man.
""' This was engraven on his tombstone, as expressive of my father's feelings at the time.'
"In Memory of MRS. SALLY COWLES, wife of REV. GILES H. COWLES, D.D., Died July 23d, 1830. Aged 56 years. . The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.'
" In Memory of REV. GILES Il. COWLES, D.D., Died July 5th, 1835, Aged 69 years, and the 42d year of his Ministry. . Yea, saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labor, and their works do follow them.'
" I remember the wife of Dr. Cowles. She was a woman of beauty, of superior education, and all her intercourse with others was of a high, interesting, and finished character. For a number of years I have seldom opened the present first volume of our church records but I have seen and readily recognized her handwriting, as she recorded and wrote much for her husband."
The foregoing extracts show the estimation in which Dr. Cowles stood with his people in Bristol. He was indeed a most pious and devoted minister of religion, whose sole ambition was to serve only Him who suffered to save sinners. His piety, his conscientiousness in the performance of his duty as a minister of Christ, and amiability of character were household words among the members of the church in Bristol, which has been handed down traditionally in that place. When a son of Dr. Cowles, Mr. William E. Cowles, visited Bristol, in 1875, for the first time since he left there a boy, he found not one living who remembered hearing or seeing his father, but he found many who knew of his father by reputation, and for the sake of the memory of that good pastor they, the descendants of those who sat under his preaching, tendered him a most hearty welcome.
It will be seen by the records we have quoted from that Dr. Cowles preached in Bristol for nearly eighteen years, ending in 1810, when he dissolved his connec- tion with the church. At this time Ashtabula County had been settled ten years. Owing to the scantiness of the population, no minister had yet settled in that county. What little there was of the gospel that had been expounded during that time was done by that good old pioncer-missionary, Father Badger, who was wont to make his semi-occasional visit in the various parts of the county, preaching in the log meeting-houses, barns, cabins, and frequently in God's tem- ple, under His mighty blue dome, amidst the primeval forest grove. The good accomplished by this faithful servant of Christ can only be known by searching the records on high, but a truer, more self-denying, more earnest, more conscien- tious, and more effective worker in the cause of religion than was Father Joseph Badger never lived. He has gone to that blessed land where live the just and the righteous, to meet those whom he has brought unto the Lord, and there he will reside forever. As the sequel will prove, Dr. Cowles became a most worthy co-laborer in the vineyard of the Lord with this estimable pioncer missionary. During the spring of this year (1810), Mrs. Austin, the wife of Judge Eliphalet Austin, of Austinburg, a woman of great piety, innate strength of mind, and en- ergy, came to the conclusion that they ought to have a settled minister ; that the field was ripe for a bountiful spiritual harvest, and she notified her husband that
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she would go back to old Connecticut on horseback and hunt up a minister ! And sure enough that brave woman, with all her change of clothing in a travel- ing portmanteau, started alone on horseback on that long journey to Connectieut, six hundred miles away, through an unsettled country, and ahuost unbroken forests most of the way. She arrived safely at her destination after a ride of over thirty days. We have in our mind's eye some of her great-granddaughters who, when they made a journey taking about one-half of that time, were eon- strained to take along several enormous Saratoga trunks. What would they have thought of traveling ou a thirty days' journey with their wardrobes concentrated into a portmanteau ? We cannot help drawing a contrast. In spite of their thorough modern education, their culture and accomplishiuents, and the advan- tages they had of living in the midst of a higher grade of civilization, they can never excel their good old grandmother in her piety, in all that made the true woman, in the amount of the sound sense she possessed, of the strength of char- acter she had, the remarkable energy she showed, and the heart she had over- flowing with kindness.
Mrs. Austin weut to Bristol, and was closeted with Mrs. Cowles, and there she brought up the subject of the need of a minister to preach the gospel in New Connecticut. Mrs. Cowles fell in with the idea of having her husband accept the eall thus tendered by the intrepid woman who had come so far for that pur- pose. She saw in the then far distant Western Reserve rich and cheap land, and a chance for her boys to fight successfully their way through life. The matter was broached to her busband, and he was easily persuaded to take a trip to New Connectieut, and make a prospective examination of the field which he had been invited to cultivate. Accordingly he started on horseback, and reached Austin- burg, and the result of his examination was that he coneluded to move his family there. He returned to Bristol, and in the following year, 1811, he took an affectionate leave of bis old parishioners, with whom he had been associated so long. We of this fast age are in the habit of accomplishing that same journey, with the comfort and adjunct of the sleeping-ear, in from twenty-four to twenty- eight hours, and ean communicate with absent friends (literally in no time at all) by telegraph. The leave-taking of the pastor and his family from those whom they loved so well-the numerous and affeetionate relatives, the loving parishioners, the pious and warm-hearted deaeons, and the playmates of the children-was un- usually sad and solemn. This can be appreciated when it is considered that the country they were emigrating to at that time was thirty to forty days' journey off, over horrible mud and corduroy roads, up and down steep ungraded hills, with seareely any hotels on the wayside, with the consciousness that the proba- bility was very remote indeed of any ever returning again to the scenes of their childhood, and this too at a time when it took over two months for a letter to be sent and delivered and an answer received, at an expense of fifty cents' postage both ways.
The farewell sermon preached by Mr. Cowles on the Sunday previous to his departure was very impressive, and the congregation presented a mournful appear- anee; but the doctor showed a spirit of cheerful resignation to the force of cir- eumstances. For days previous to the departure the old parsonage was thronged with eallers from Bristol, Farmington, and the surrounding towns, to bid tbe pastor and his family tearful farewells.
Dr. Cowles' family at that time consisted of himself, wife, eight children, and a hired mau. His furniture was loaded on to two wagons, and he himself, wife, and the smaller children rode in a carriage. His children were Edwin, aged seventeen years ; Sally, fifteen years; William Elbert, thirteen years; Edward, ten years; Martha, seven years; Cornelia and Lysander (twins), four years; Betsey, then an infant, aged one year. It was iu this manner that the caravan of the pastor traveled on its long journey through forest and unsettled region, for the far-distant Western Reserve.
After passing through the ordeals incident to such a journey, Dr. Cowles reached Austinburg iu the summer of 1811. There being no " hotels" in that newly-settled region, and the houses of the settlers small, and mostly of logs, for the first few days he and his family took possession of the log church or " meeting-house," as the New Englanders ealled their places of worship, which was then located at the Centre, about iu front of the present town-house. Soou the neighbors gathered from all around, and, wielding the axe only as pioneer axemen ean, in an incredible short period of time they erected a commodious log dwelling, near the site of the present homestead, for the pastor and his family to oceupy. He was installed pastor over the united church of Austiuburg and Morgan in the following September, and the entire ministry of the Western Re- serve assisted on that occasion. They were Rev. Joseph Badger, of Ashtabula ; Rev. J. Leslie, of Harpersfield ; Rev. Thomas Barr, of Euelid ; Rev. J. Beers, of Springfield; Rev. N. B. Darrow, of Vieuna; and Rev. Mr. Spencer, of Fre- donia, New York.
The members of the Austiuburg church at that time, as furnished from mem-
ory by Mr. William Elbert Cowles, were as follows : Captaiu Stephen Brown and wife, Joab Austin and wife, Deacon Moses Wilcox and wife, Benjamin Sweet and wife, Mrs. Joseph B. Cowles, Samuel Ryder and wife, Colonel Roswell Austin and wife, Deacon Joseph M. Case and wife, Mrs. Lydia Case, Deacon Sterling Mills aud wife, Moses Wright and wife, Judge Eliphalet Austin and wife, John Videto and wife, Thomas Dunbar and wife, Noah Smith, Erastus Austin, Zeri Cowles, Calvin Stone, and Abigail Case. As a missionary, receiving a portiou of his salary from the Connecticut missionary society, Dr. Cowles visited various portions of the Western Reserve, preaching the gospel.
In 1812, the year after his arrival in Austinburg, Dr. Cowles started a move- ment among his people to build a frame church edifice in place of their humble log meeting-house. Judge Austin, Joab Austin, Dr. O. K. Hawley, and Doctor Cowles led with liberal subscriptions, and the means were raised sufficient to erect and inclose the first church ornamented with a steeple on the Western Reserve, if not in Ohio. The new church was occupied in 1815, when it was in an unfinished condition, and it was not till 1820 that it was entirely completed. Until that time it was probably the finest church edifice in Ohio out of Cincinnati. The writer well remembers, when a child, traveling with his parents to visit " grandpa and grandma," in 1830, the impression the appearance of that church made on his childish mind when he saw it for the first time. He had never before seen a steeple, and he gazed at the building with a feeling of admiration akin to awe. Although only four years old, the first impression on his mind of that to him magnificent church was never effaced. On the following Sunday, when he heard the church-bell,-that beautiful-toned bell, the first he had ever heard,- on that lovely June morning, standing by the side of his invalid grandmother, a few weeks before she was taken away, his feeling of astouishment was greater than he can deseribe, and his admiration was intense for the church with that wouderful machine with a revolving wheel in the steeple for producing that mar- velous sound.
When the church building was planned it was decided at first not to have a steeple on account of the expense. The women eame forward and offered to assume that expense themselves, and their proposition was accepted.
The late Miss Betsey M. Cowles, in her speech delivered at the three-quarter centennial celebration of the settlement of the township of Austinburg, June 5, 1875, gave a vivid account, in her pathetic style, of how the good and pious pio- neer women of Austinburg went to work to raise the means with which to pay for that steeple, which we will copy :
" Seventy-five years ago to-morrow night the first woman who came to this town was the wife of Sterling Mills. She and her husband and Mr. Joseph Case were making their way to the ' Austius' camp.' But darkness overtook them amidst a rain-storm, and compelled them to stop in the wood, and all that long and gloomy night that brave pioneer womau sat upon her saddle on the grouud, with her infant in her arms. That kind-hearted and gallant man, Deacon Joseph MI. Case, the father of the orator of the day, stood through all that night by the side of that helpless mother aud held an umbrella to protect her fromu the rain. This was but one of the many incidents of the early settlement of this region that ought to be told. We should remember the hardships and sufferings endured by the settlers in those early days, and keep alive in our hearts the memory of those brave pioneer men and women.
" There was a meeting-house commeueed here in 1812 and finished a few years later, aud the old subscription paper is still in existence. The men had decided to build the church without a steeple, but the women said no, they would build a steeple themselves. I will illustrate how our venerated mothers and grand- mothers worked when they undertook anything. One of them, Mrs. Rebecca Whiting, subseribed ten dollars, and took in weaving to earn money to pay it. Another, Mrs. Naomi Ryder, who had a large family of children, wbom she took eare of well, put down her name for five dollars, which she paid by taking in sewing, making pants for about thirty-seven eents a pair, and coats for about seventy-five eents, and so ou. We thiuk her granddaughter, Mrs. Pierce, who is present, does exceedingly well for a modern woman, but she is not quite as smart as her good old grandmother was.
" Iu former time it was considered impossible to raise a building without whisky, but the women declared that it was not necessary to aid the brawny muscles of the men with whisky iu order to raise the frame of the house of God, so they gathered together and made some home-made beer, flavored with sassafras, spruee, and other herbs, and gave it to the men in the place of whisky, and the discovery was made that they got along very well without intoxicating liquor while raising the frame of that church."
To illustrate the spirit of religion that prevailed among the early settlers of Austinburg, we will allude to the prayer that was made by Dr. Cowles at the raising of the frame of the church. The foundation timber, in a square form, had already beeu laid on the brick-work. Ou this the men all stood, facing in-
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ward. forming a hollow square, and with bowed uncovered heads listened to the fervent prayer offered by the pastor, asking the blessing of God on the enterprise, on the crection and eventual dedication of the house of worship to the glory of Himself.
The architectural design of this church was copied from a church in Norwalk, Connecticut. It had a steeple about one hundred and twenty feet in height. Its spire was surmounted by a vane in the shape of an arrow with a spear-head. The rear end of the vane spread out quarter fan-shaped into seven branches. On the end of each branch was a gilt star, and in the centre of the branches was a gilt quarter-moon, which, in addition to its ornamental use, acted as a brace for the branches. This vane was a most conspicuous object on the steeple, and many of the readers will recognize it from the description we have given. The inside of the church presented a considerable amount of architectural effect. The centre of the ceiling was arched, the arch being supported by large, finely- turned wooden columns resting on the gallery, which was on three sides, and directly under these columns was another set supporting the gallery from the floor. The pulpit was a high, old-fashioned, unique affair. It was large enough to seat two beside the speaker. A portion of it was supported on two very finely-finished, fluted wooden columns. To the right of these columns was a fluted pillar-stand, three and a half feet in height, on which was placed the baptismal bowl. In front of the two columns was the communion-table. From this " tall citadel." as it was sometimes called by the irreverent, many doctrinal points have been made clear to the average mind by the great reasoning power of Dr. Cowles. From that old pulpit the infernal system of slavery has frequently been denounced in scathing language by some of the early eloquent anti-slavery orators. Some of the first sermons ever given against intemperance were preached from that pulpit, and fre- quently has it been graced with the venerable form of good old Father Badger.
From this crude description some idea may be formed of the architectural ap- pearance of this pioneer church,-the first ever erected on the Reserve, if not in Ohio, with a steeple. The bell was placed in the tower somewhere about 1825. It weighed about five hundred pounds. It is said that the sound of this bell drove away the wolves and other wild animals, for none had ever been seen in the town- ship since the bell commenced ringing out its calls to attend public worship.
This old church-historie church it may be called-was ruthlessly torn down about the year 1857, simply because there was no further use for it, the majority of the congregation preferring to attend worship, as a matter of convenience, at the " North End," and nearly all the rest went to the Eagleville church, for the same reason. The church stood unoccupied and for a period neglected by the ungrateful community for which it had done so much towards its moral well-being. From this old church had evolved directly and indirectly those grand, high moral principles, which have spread over Ashtabula County and made it what it is. That landmark, with its spire towering against the sky and its conspicuous vane, which always excited the admiration of the writer during his childhood days ; the church his honored grandfather helped to erect, and in which he officiated so faithfully for nearly twenty years ; the church in which his beloved parents were married, in which he and his brothers and sister were baptized, and in which the funeral services were held over the remains of both his grandparents, has disap- peared forever. Nothing remains to show the former glory of that fine specimen of a pioneer church, unless it may be the bell, which had been transferred to a cheaply-built and common-looking unorthodox house of worship at the " North End." Even the bell, apparently indignant at its being used against the cause of orthodoxy, and at the treatment the old orthodox church had received, became cracked, and refused to give out its former sweet tones. Can it be wondered that the writer should have some feelings of resentment at the want of apprecia- tion of that old pioneer church by those for whom it has done so much ?
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