History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 39

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666

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At this point one of the judges, Storer, interrupted the speaker with the words:

"Do you allude to the man who thinks that our ances- try runs into the animal creation?"

Upon which Judge Stallo answered:

"I allude to the followers of Charles Darwin, who has formulated (and, I think, imperfectly formulated) the

doctrine that man, too, was not placed miraculously on the highest round in the ladder of organic progression, but in some way had to scale that ladder, step by step."

It is impossible to give a perfect conception of the striking logic, the wealth of philosophical truth and his- torical illustration of this speech, by short extracts. The fine style is in accordance with the fine tenor of the ad- dress. Stallo and the whole liberally thinking population of the country had the satisfaction of seeing that the Su- preme Court of Ohio, to which an appeal was taken from the Cincinnati court, reversed the decree of the latter.

Stallo was for seventeen years one of the examiners of the candidates for the position of teacher in the public schools, and afterward one of the trustees of the Uni- versity of Cincinnati. He has, on the whole, always shown an active interest in the education of the people.

That a man like Stallo could not remain indifferent to politics, is self-evident. We mean politics in the higher sense. What here usually is called politics had no at- traction for him. Principles were only taken into con- sideration by him. Persons were only of interest to him when they agreed with or opposed his views. The party machinery, the organization of the party, in which so many public characters seek their especial vocation; the weaving of intrigues, the artificial arrangements of primary meetings and other electoral assemblies, were always to him objects of decided repugnance. But once he has accepted a political honorary office; namely, when he was chosen Elector for the Republican Presidential candi- date, Fremont, in the year 1856. He has never aspired to any political office for himself. Ambition is alien to him. As the tangent only touches the circle in one place, so has politics, so to speak, only touched him from the outside; but in great vital questions he has worked inde- fatigably with voice and pen. He joined with great en- thusiasm the Liberal Reform movements in the year 1872, but withdrew when the Liberal Convention nomi- nated Mr. Greeley, whom he did not acknowledge as a representative of his principles, especially on the question of free trade. In the year 1876, however, he approved and advocated the election of Tilden, and labored for it with the most brilliant and efficient activity. Shortly before the election he wrote a number of letters for the Staatszeitung, of New York, which contain a real treasure of healthy views on political questions. As well by their tenor as by their fine style, they excited general attention, and were reprinted in many journals.

Stallo has often been reproached with being too much of an idealist in politics, who did not take the existing situations into consideration, and was therefore unfit for a political leader. Stallo has never aspired to the char- acter of such a leader. He is not a leader, he is rather a teacher for the parties. We have enough of the real- istic politicians, who, for any price, seck the power and the booty which proceed from that only. Men who sac- rifice their principles for persons, or profess some princi- ples simply to aid some persons, so-called practical states- men, we need not seek for with a lantern. The more satisfactory is it to meet from time to time some charac- ters who do not appeal to the prejudices, the passions,

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

and the self-interest of the multitude, but to its reason and its conscience, who urge upon it that the moral prin- ciples of the States do not differ from those of the indi- vidual citizen, who call incessantly to memory the great principles of truth, upon which free States must be founded, who propose to themselves and others a high aim, to the attainment of which we ought at least to as- pire, so as to save public life from sinking down into the slime of vulgarity.

Stallo, being master of both languages, English as well as German, in the court-room, on the rostrum, and in the school-room, has the same power of conversation in so- cial circles-a rare gift, especially among the Germans. And this man of the exact sciences and the science of government has, at the same time, a very cultivated taste for the fine arts, especially for music, which has always been truly cherished at his home. His attractive exte- rior appearance bespeaks at the first glance the rare rich- ness of his intellectual gifts.

Without wishing to please or offend anybody, we dare to say that no German in America, publicly known, com- bines, like Stallo, a comprehensive knowledge with an acute judgment, deep thought with a delicate sense for the arts, incessant diligence with amiable sociality, and ac- curate understanding of the questions of the times with the talent of giving a clear and beautiful expression to his understanding, by writing and speech. But what is the most pleasing feature in this man's appearance, and gives to his actions the true consecration, is that nobody has ever doubted the purity of his motives, that nobody has ever believed that his active interest in the politics of this country had sprung from self-interested motives or from the gratification of his own personal ambition.

CHAPTER XX. RELIGION IN CINCINNATI.

THE total history of the rise and progress of religion in the Queen City, with adequate sketches of the two hundred and ten churches, more or less, now existing within its limits, would occupy at least the entire space of the two volumes devoted to this work. It is the pur- pose of the following chapter merely to detail the begin- nings of church organization in Cincinnati, supply an outline historical notice to each of the churches which have pioneered several of the leading religious denomi- nations here, and give some facts concerning the present state of religion and the churches in the city, and a few notes of auxiliary societies, for co-operative work.

Among the founders of Losantiville seem to have been a goodly number of God-fearing men-the majority of them Presbyterians, if one may infer from the type of the first religious society planted here. In the plan and survey of the village, provision was made for the dedica- tion of an entire half square, now among the most valu- able properties in the city, to the purposes of religion,

education, and burials. It included lots numbered one hundred, one hundred and fifteen, one hundred and thirty-nine, and one hundred and forty, being the south half of the block bounded by Fourth, Fifth, Walnut and Main-the same which has been continuously occupied, in part by the First Presbyterian society, the church of the pioneers, as representing the religious interest, and in part almost continuously by the educational interest, now and for many years embodied in the Cincinnati college.

The ground was not long suffered to remain unoccu- pied. As soon as the little band of Presbyterians had been somewhat reinforced and was ready for organization, an informal society was constituted and began to worship upon and near this spot. In the fall of 1790 it was visited by Mr. James Kemper, a partial licentiate of the Presby. tery of Transylvania and a ruling elder of the church at the forks of Dick's river, where he lived, near Danville, Kentucky. Mr. Kemper was a native of Fauquier county, Virginia, born November 23, 1753; married Judith Hathaway when little more than eighteen years old, July 16, 1772 ; removed to Tennessee as a surveyor in 1783, and was sent for in 1785 by friends in Kentucky, who dispatched a small brigade of pack-horses for him one hundred and eighty miles through the wilderness, that he might come to the dark and bloody ground to prepare for ministerial work. He was therefore, upon his first visit to Cincinnati, although in his thirty-eighth year, not yet a full-fledged preacher, but only allowed to preach on trial, "under the direction of Mr. Rice, while he con- tinues in the study of divinity." He was fully examined and licensed by the Presbytery April 27, 1791, and ap- pointed at once "to supply in the settlements of the Miami at discretion." This was the first appointment of the kind for any place north of the Ohio, and Mr. Kem- per was the first regular preacher of any kind in Cincin- nati. He promptly began service with the embryo Pres- byterian church here, to which he had been cordially invited, and returned in October to his Kentucky home, to bring away his family. At the same time a man named Daniel Doty, of Columbia, and another named French, were engaged to go through the deep woods and bring Mr. Kemper and family from their home near Danville to Cincinnati. His family was large, consisting of eight or nine children, besides the parents. The two men set out and followed the trace along Dry Ridge, in Ken- tucky, for sixty or more miles, reaching Georgetown the second night out. Two men had been killed by the Indians on this bridle-path only the week before, and the wayfarers kept their rifles constantly ready to meet any attack. Mr. Doty seems to have been sadly impressed, when they arrived at Georgetown, with the fiddling and dancing going on in almost every cabin, as though, he said, "they neither feared God nor regarded Indians." Perhaps the character of his mission, to escort the first settled preacher of Christ into the Miami country, had also some influence upon his feelings. They proceeded to Lexington, obtained horses from an army contractor there, went on to Mr. Kemper's residence, transported the family and their goods over the wagon road to Lime-

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

stone, where they put family, horses, and all on board a flat-boat and took them down to Cincinnati. The horses were here turned over to the contractor, and the men returned to Columbia.

Previous to the settlement of Mr. Kemper, the Rev. John Smith, of Columbia, though a Baptist, had, it. is said, occasionally preached to the people here. He was the same reverend gentleman who was afterward senator of the United States, and was virtually, forced to resign, under suspicion of complicity in the conspiracy of Aaron Burr. The earlier meetings were held upon the church lot in the open air when the weather permitted, the con- gregation sitting upon the trunks of the fallen forest mon- archs thereon, while the preacher or reader, very likely, used the upright remnant of a tree for his "stump" ora- tory. Sometimes the assemblies were in a rude horse- mill, used for grinding corn, which stood on Vine street, below Third, at the foot of the "hill;" and sometimes in private houses.

Then, and for several years, even after the meeting- house was erected, the law of the territory, as well as the law of common prudence, required every man who at- tended the service to go with a loaded fire-arm, that he might be ready to repel savage attack. At least one case is on record-that of Colonel John S. Wallace-of the imposition of a fine of seventy-five cents for failure to obey the law in this regard. It is prettw well known, we believe, that the custom of seating the men at the outer end of pews originated in the necessity of their ready and prompt movement therefrom, with arms in hand, in case of alarm during the fearful Indian period.

Mr. Kemper arrived in Cincinnati with his family October 17, 1791. The presbyterial records say at this time that he "is appointed a supply at the Mi- amis until the next stated session." When that oc- curred, April 2, 1792, it was ordered "that Mr. Kemper supply one Sabbath at the North Bend of the Miami, and that he supply the rest of his time at Columbia, Cin- cinnati, and Round Bottom. That Mr. Rice supply at the Miami settlements two Sabbaths." Mr. Kemper was as yet only a licentiate, and an ordained minister, like the Rev. David Rice, above mentioned, was necessary to or- ganize a church, ordain ruling elders, or administer the sacraments-hence this appointment. October 2, 1792, a formal call was extended to Mr. Kemper from the united congregations of Cincinnati and Columbia, and accepted. He was ordained at a meeting of presbytery in Cincinnati on the twenty-third of the same month, and constituted pastor "of Cincinnati and Columbia churches." Here he labored until October 7, 1796, when he resigned. He afterwards served the Duck creek and other Presbyterian churches in the Miami country most of the time until his death, August 20, 1834, in his eighty- first year.

The church here was not yet formally organized, when Mr. Kemper was ordained and installed as pastor. He says it was "still unorganized, because they thought the number of male members too small to select a promising session." In a letter to a friend, he writes that he had formed "an unorganized church composed of six males

and two females, in Columbia and Cincinnati. The church was one for the two places." A document found long after among the Kemper papers makes probable the date of this informal organization as August 20, 1791: but some authorities say the original arrangements for a church were made October 16, 1790, upon the occasion of a visit from the Rev. David Rice, after Mr. Kemper's first visit. Eight persons, as Mr. Kemper had it, formed the nucleus of the society. They were: Joseph Reeder, Annie Reeder, Jacob Reeder, Samuel Sering, Sarah Ser- ing, David Kitchell, Jonathan Ticknor, Isaac Morris.

The little church seems to have been incapable, by its very paucity of numbers, of organizing more thoroughly until September 5, 1793, when, there being as many as nineteen adult male members, it was practicable to select five ruling elders and two deacons, which was accordingly done. The Cincinnati and Columbia societies were vir- tually one until Mr. Kemper's resignation in 1796, when the Columbia wing was itself split into two churches-the Duck Creek (now Pleasant Ridge) and the Round Bot- tom-and is thenceforth heard of no more. When Mr. Kemper's successor, the Rev. Peter Wilson, was settled in I.798, he was pastor of the Cincinnati church alone.

In October, 1791, after the arrival and settlement of Mr. Kemper, it was agreed by the organization that an effort should be made to raise seven hundred dollars, with which, and from the timber growing upon the do- nated tract, which had been partially felled upon the lot at the corner of Main and Fourth streets, a sufficient meeting-house could be erected. A subscription was accordingly started January 16, 1792; the paper reading as follows:

We, the subscribers, for the purpose of erecting a house of public worship in the village of Cincinnati, to the use of the Presbyterian de- nomination, do severally bind ourselves and executors firmly, and by these presents, the several sums of money and commutations in labor respectively annexed to our names, to be paid to John Ludlow, Jacob Reeder, James Lyon, Moses Miller, John Thorpe, and William M'Mil- lan, or either of them, their heirs or administrators, Trustees appointed for the business of superintending the building aforesaid, payments to be made as follows: One-third part of our several subscriptions to be paid so soon as the timbers requisite for the aforesaid building may be collected on the ground where the said house is to be built. Another third when the said house is framed and raised. And the other third part when the aforesaid house may be under cover and weather-boardcd. In witness whereof we have hcreunto subscribed our names, on the day affixed to our names.

The list of subscribers is well worth repetition here, as probably exhibiting the names of nearly every male resi- dent of the place and a number of officers of the garrison.

John Ludlow,

Benjamin Valentine,

Jacob Recder,

Asa Peck,

James Lyon,

Robert Hurd,

Moses Miller,

Samuel Dick,

John Thorpc,

Robert Benham,

William M'Millan,

Joseph Shaw,

John P. Smith,

Isaac Felty,

David E. Wade,

James Wallace,

James Brady,

Robert Caldwell,

Joet Williams,

Jonathan Davies,

Levi Woodward,

Thomas Ellis,

William Woodward,

Daniel Shoemaker,

Jeremiah Ludlow, John Blanchard,

Benjamin Jennings,

James Demint, Richard Benham, John Cutter,

Jolin Gaston,

Jonas Seaman,

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

Joseph Lloyd, Nehemiah Hunt,

Reuben Roe, John Cummins, Elliot & Williams,

Cornelius Miller,

Abr. Boston,

Thomas M'Grath,

Gabriel Cox,

James Bury,

Samuel Pierson,

Thomas Gibson,

Daniel Bates,

Henry Taylor,

Benjamin Fitzgerald,

Elias Wallen,

James Kemper, Isaac Bates,

James Richards,

John Adams,

John Bartle,

William Miner,

J. Mercer,

James Miller,

H. Wilson,

Seth Cutter,

William Miller,

S. Miller,

James Reynolds,

John Lyon,

Thomas Brown,

James M'Kane,

Matthew De.isy,

Ensign William H. Harrison,

James M'Knight,

Margaret Rusk,

John Darragh,

Samuel Martin,

Daniel C. Cooper,

Moses Jones,

Francis Kennedy,

J. Gilbreath,

General James Wilkinson,

Winthrop Sargent,

Dr. Richard Allison,

Captain Mahlon Ford,

Ensign John Wade,

M. M'Donogh,

Samuel Kitchell,

Matthias Burns,

Samuel Williams,

Jabez Wilson,

David Logan,

James Lowry,

David Long,

Alexander M'Coy,

Joseph Spencer,

David Hole,

James Blackburn,

James Cunningham,

J. Mentzies,

Major Joseph Shaylor,

James Kremer,

Captain William Peters,

W. M. Mills,

H. Marks,

Matthew Winton,

Ezekiel Sayre,

Samuel Gilman,

W. Elwes,

John Dixon.

Daniel Hole,

The limit of subscription for most of these was two or three dollars; nobody gave more than eight dollars. Seven shillings and sixpence was not an uncommon sub- scription. Many who could not give money, or who could contribute something else to equal advantage, pledged useful materials, as planks or nails, and others gave the work of a day or more to the building. It was put up-one account says for four hundred dollars-on the corner lot already designated as partly cleared, one hundred feet north of Fourth street and facing Main, and so, of course, not precisely upon the spot now occu- pied by the First Presbyterian church. It was an utterly plain and bare frame building, about thirty feet front by forty depth, one story and one room, small square win- dows and battened doors, and no ornament whatever except a little semi-circle in the front gable above the door. It was roofed and weather-boarded with clap- boards, but not lathed and plastered or ceiled for some time. When first occupied, probably in October, there was no floor but the earth and no seats but boards, "whip-sawed" for the purpose, with their ends resting upon logs placed at suitable distances apart. Indeed, one story goes that the logs themselves had for a time to serve the purposes of seats, the upper surfaces being hewed to reasonable flatness. One account says that the logs were split and smoothed, and set upon pins thrust into the ground. Another version, derived from Judge Burnet, will be found in the statement of Rev. J. B. Finley, in his Sketches of Western Methodism. He says the original proprietors of the town were Presbyterians, and that "in laying out the town they appropriated the

south half of the square bounded by Main and Walnut, Fourth and Fifth streets, for the use of said society." He says further :

In the autumn of 1790 the Rev. James Kemper [David Rice] organ- ized a Presbyterian society, and the congregations met regularly every Sabbath on this square, under the shade of the trees with which it was covered, to listen to the word of God. After a few years on this spot the society erected a stout frame building, forty feet by tliirty in dimen- sions. It was inclosed with clapboards, but neither lathed, pastered, nor ceiled. The floor was made of boat-plank, laid loosely on sleepers. The seats were constructed of the same material, supported by blocks of wood. They were, of course, without backs; and here our fore- father pioneers worshipped, with their trusty rifles between their knees. On one side of the house a breastwork of unplaned cherry boards was constructed, which was styled the pulpit, behind which the preacher stood on a piece of boat-plank, supported by two blocks of wood.

The courts for the county began to be held in this building while it was still unfinished, as early as October, 1792, in which month James Mays was tried therein for the murder of Matt Sullivan and sentenced to be hanged. In this house, undoubtedly, also occurred the installation of Rev. Mr. Kemper as pastor on the twenty-third of the same month. At the same time the Presbytery of Transyl- vania held its annual meeting in Cincinnati, and very likely in this edifice-the first ecclesiastical body that ever met in the place.

June 11, 1794, the country having been quieted from further fear of Indian outbreaks by Wayne's victory, and an era of prosperity beginning to set in, it was resolved by the trustees to raise another subscription, "to finish the meeting-house, to pale the door-yard and fence in the burying-ground." The list made in pursuance of this resolve is still among the archives of the society; and, as it exhibits some additional names of early Cin- cinnatians and gives the amounts generally subscribed, it also seems to demand reproduction in these pages:

Moses Miller. $8 00

Stephen Reeder. $6 00

Jacob Reeder 8 00

William Reddeck I 00

James Lyon 5 00

Thomas Denny. 2 50

James Kemper. 8 00

Robert Mitchell 2 00

John Lyon .. 2 00

William Harris 4 00

Ezra Fitz Freeman 2 00

Christopher Dickson 4 00

David E. Wade. IO 00

Matthias Person I 00

John Brown 10 00

Nathaniel Stokes. 2 00

J. Gibson . . I

Robert M'Cray 2 00

Thomas Irwin 1 00

A. Hunt & Co .20 00

Samuel James 5 00

James Ward. I 00

Jacob Lowe 1 00

James Garrison. 1 00

Edward Kelly . I 00

Duncan Steward 1 00

John Galbraith. I 00

Thomas Underlevy. I 00

Andrew Paul. I 00

Alexander Darlington I 00

M. Winton 3 00

Martin Baum. I 00

John Adams 3 00

Enos Terry. 2 00

Robert M'Clure. 3 00

A. J. Caldwell. 1 00

William Maxwell .. 3 00

Mrs. Willcocks I 00

Robertson & Mackay 3 00

Peter Kemper 2 00

O. Ormsby 2 00

Thomas Goudy. 4 00

John Riddle.

4 00

G. Yeatman. 2 00

Job Gard

3 co

Ezekiel Sayre. 3 00

Samuel Robinson. 3 00

Nathan Moody.

3 00

Stophel Oldrid 1 00

Samuel Foster 2 00

William Irvin.

M'Elwee & Duffy 3 00

Nehemiah Hunt. I 00

Isaac Felty 3 00

John Dixon 3 co

Cornelius Van Nuys. 3 00

James Brunton 2 00

William Woodward 2 00

William Miller 2 00

Moses Jones. 2 00

D. C. Orcutt. 2 00

Elijah Craig 5 00

Frederick Coons I

Elliott & Williams 8 00

Joseph Brice. 3 00

C. Avery .. I 00

Luther Kitchell. 5 00

Samuel Kitchell. 4 00

Thomas 'Cochran,

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

Nathan Barnes. .$1 00

Timothy Scanan. $1 00

Adam Galliger .. I 00

Evan James I 00

Joel Williams. 3 00

Ziba Stebbins. 3 00

John McCay 1 00

John Miller 1 00

William Darragh 1 00

Michael Fox

I 00

James Ferguson 5 00

Miss Henderson 2 00

Thomas Kebby. 2 00

Patrick Dickey

2 00

Joseph Kennedy 3 00

Samuel Kennedy. 3 00

William Irwin

Samuel Dick. 3 00

John Hamilton. 3 00

Russell Farmer. 2 00

James Gillespie

1 00

John Welsh 1 00

Samuel Freeman I 00

Moses Bradley 1 00

George Gillespie.

I 00

Francis Kennedy. I OO

Levi Sayres. 2 00

William M. Bothero I 00

Ham. Flaugher

I 00

David Logan.

George Dougherty 1 00

William Bedell. 4 00

Noadial Albord.

75. 6d.

James Bedell. 4 00

J . Strickland 7s. 6d.

Philip Cook 1 00

Leonard Teeple. 2 00

James McKee. 7s. 6d. Benjamin Jenning . 7s. 6d.

John M'Kane. 3 00

James Brady 75. 6d.

Reuben Kemper 2 00

Starking Stafford. I 00

William M'Lain 1 00

Thomas Williams. 1 00

James M'Lain 1 00

Enos Potter 3 00

Elijah Davis. I 00

Thomas Cochran .. 4 00

Jonathan. Davis 2 00

Daniel Hole. I 00

Thomas Gibson. 8 00

Richard Hoells. 2 00

Love Marcelof 3 00

Daniel Ferrel. 2 00

William M'Millan. 8 00

John Mercer I OO

Thomas Fream. 2 00

David Bay 2 00

Samuel Williams 3 00

David Reeder. 3 00

James Lowry 2 00

Jedediah Tingle. 2 00

John M'Kane. I 00

Jabesh Phillips. 2 00

Matthias Ross. 4 00

Isaac Bates.

3 00

Daniel M'Carry I 00

Simeon Nott. 1 00

Allyn Baker 5 00

Samuel Pierson 1 00

John DeHass 1 00

Total.

$430 00

The improvements were accordingly made, and the entire four lots of the church, school, and graveyard dona- tion, some say, were enclosed with a post and rail fence.

February 18, 1795, further progress was made in the arrangements for public worship, by a meeting of the so- ciety to consider the distribution of seats or pews among the members, in accordance with a proposed plan. Two additional trustees were chosen in the persons of David E. Wade and William Bedell. It is said that entire com- pletion of the house was not reached until 1799, about seven years after it was begun, with so much difficulty were means raised and public improvements effected in those days.

Changes of pastors were about as frequent in the earli- est years of this church as in some religious societies nowadays. There was a tolerably rapid succession in the First Presbyterian pulpit, of pastors or stated supplies.

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 39

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co. Number of Pages: 666

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666