USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 40
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Mr. Kemper remained pastor of the church, as before stated, until October 7, 1796. Rev. Peter Wilson, after an interval, served the church over two years, from about the middle of 1797, until his death July 29, 1799. Then came the Rev. Matthew G. Wallace, brother of Captain Robert Wallace, of Covington, and of Mmes. Burnet,
Baum, and Green, of Cincinnati, who was installed pas- tor October 7, 1800, after preaching to the church six or seven months. October was a notable month to the pas- torate in this society. He served, as pastor and supply, until April, 1804, from which time the church had no settled pastor for three years, chiefly on account of diffi- culties produced by the "New Light" doctrines. Among the preachers of this period here, Rev. John Davies is remembered. At last, in the early summer of 1808, came the Rev. Joshua L. Wilson to the waiting people, and staid a long time.
In 1807 the church was regularly incorporated by the State legislature, under the title of the First Presbyterian society. Ten years before this, December 28, 1797, it is said that Judge Symmes conveyed the dedicated lots regularly to the trustees, Messrs. McMillan, Ludlow, Lyon, Wade, Reeder, Miller, and Thorpe. The next year the number of communicants was eighty, which was doubled by July, 1815.
The preachers of those early days gave full considera- tion for their meagre salaries, at least in the particular of length of sermon. Mr. L'Hommedieu, recalling the reminiscences of 1810, says in his pioneer address of 1874: "Our preachers, in some cases, gave us sermons from one and a half to two hours long, and sometimes took an intermission of fifteen minutes and went on with their discourse."
During the pastorate of Rev. Dr. Wilson, in 1812, a movement was started for a better and more commodious house of worship. It was agreed to raise another sub- scription :
I. To erect an edifice for public worship in Cincin- nati.
2. That each, by self or proxy, should have an op- portunity to purchase a pew therein at public auction, crediting his subscription and twenty per cent. of amount paid in cash, but none of the money to be refunded.
3. The pews to be subject to an annual tax for sup- port of a minister in the congregation.
4. Pay to be in cash, material, produce, manufact- ures, merchandise, or labor, as may be accepted by the treasurer, under the direction of the trustees or the build- ing committee, one-fourth in sixty days after public notice in the Cincinnati newspapers, one-fourth in six months, one-fourth in twelve months, one-fourth in eighteen months, and complete the whole in one year and eight months after the first public notice.
This subscription list should also be perpetuated, as indicating, not only the great change which twenty years had brought in the personnel of the community, but the much greater ability to subscribe liberally. It is accord- ingly copied here :
Jacob Burnet .. $500 00
J. Carpenter. .$100 00
Martin Bum 500 00
Wm. Lytle, in land. 1,000 00
Jos. Ruffner 300 00
Dan'l Symmes 400 00
Hezekiah Flint 100 00
David E. Wade 400 00
James Conn. 100 00
Jesse Hunt 400 00
Joseph Warner. 75 00
Jacob Wheeler 200 00
Leonard Taylor. 75 00
Lucy Zeigler. 400 00
John P. Spinning. 75 00
James Ferguson 400 00
Rob't Merrie. 75 00
Joel Williams, in land .. 400 00
Peter M'Nicol. 75 00
Azarias Thorn. I OC
Abel Sprague. 2 00
Kennedy Morton I 00
James Campbell 1 00
Caleb Mulford
I 00
John Miller 1 00
Abraham Parker. 2 00
1 00
Joseph M'Knight. 2 00
T. Hole. 8 00
William Cummins. 3 00
Robert Kepe. 3 00
Thomas Kennedy. 6 00
Samuel Creigh IO CO
John True. 1 00
Ferd. Brokaw 1 00
Israel Ludlow .10 00
Alexander Lewis. 2 00
Benjamin Davis 1 00
C. Park 200 00
A. Andrew. I 00
150
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
.N. Longworth (on condi-
Jeremiah Reeder. $ 75 00
Thomas Ashburn . $100 00
David Wade. .$ 50 00
tion that a sum above
A. Moore, painting and
H. Bechtle 100 00
Benj. Coop. 30 00
$12,000 be raised), cash,
glazing. 100. 00
John Jones. 50 00
Solomon Sisco. 25 00
$200. . .$250 00
Sam'l Stitt 200 00
Francis Carr. 200 00
Zacheus Biggs 100 00
Andrew Hopple. 50 00
Sam'l W. Davies 50 00
Casper Hopple. 200 00
Griffin Yeatman 200 00
Sam'l Lowry. 200 00
W. Parr. 200 00
John Kidd. 200 00
Robert Caldwell 1 50 00
John Armstrong.
200 00
Jeremiah Hunt 100 00
David Kilgour. 200 00
Dan'l Mayo, Newport. 50 00
Henry Hafer.
50 00
Oliver Ormsby. ICO 00
Wm. Irwin.
200 00
Jacob Williams
200 00
John Andrews. 50 00
Geo. P. Torrence ICO 00
O. M. Spencer. 100 CO
Sam'l Ramsay. 100 00
John Riddle. 250 00
Ichabod Spinning 100 00
A. Hamilton. 50 00
Isaac Bates ICO 00
Clark Bates 100 00
Ez. Hutchinson 100 00
Wm. Stanley 300 00
Sam'l Newell 100 00
Wm. Corry 100 00
Elias J. Dayton 100 00
Chas. L'Hommedieu ICO CO
Win. Ramsay
100 00
James Riddle. 250 CO
Joseph Prince.
150 00
John B. Enniss 50 00
John S. Gano 100 00
Dan'l Drake 75 00
Wm. Ruffin 100 00
Robert Allison. 75 00
John H. Piatt 100 00
Francis West 50 00
J. Watson, painting work 50 00
J. N. Gluer 25 00
Thomas Boal. 100 00
Jonah Martin. 50 00
Joseph M'Murray. 100 00
Arthur Ferguson 30 00
James Dover. 30 00
Nath. Edson, lime 50 00
Isaac Anderson, 12 cash,
Josiah Hally 50 00
1/2 material or work. ... 100 00
Andrew Mack 50 00
Jacob Baymiller 200 00
Arthur St. Clair, jr 125 00
Thomas Graham 300 00
W. Noble. 150 00
Davis Embree.
75 00
Geo St. Clair, painting
and glazing 75 00
Charles Marsh 25 00
Wm. H. Hopkins 25 00
John Gibson, jr 50 00
Jabez C. Ferris. 50 00
Stephen Butler 25 00
Sam'l Kidd 50 00
John Heighway. 25 00
Rob't Archibald. 75 00
Thos. Sloo, jr
30 00
Total. $16,745 00
This eventuated in the building of the celebrated "two-horned " church, so familiar a landmark here in the early day, and sometimes mentioned in the narratives of distinguished travellers. It was situated just in rear of the old building, which continued to be occupied while the construction of the new edifice went on. It was of brick, but plain, with two square towers, crowned with cupolas, flanking the front, which gave it the well-known title. It is reputed to have cost $16,000, and not to have been entirely finished until about 1815. The Cin- cinnati Directory of 1819 thus describes it :
The church belonging to the First Presbyterian Society stands upon the public square fronting on Main strect, and has two cupolas, one at each corner of the front. It is a very spacious bricl. building, 85 by 68 feet. Its height from the ground to the eaves is 40, and to the top of the cupolas 80 feet. In the rear of the building is an octagonal pro- jection for a vestry. The inside is divided into 112 pews, and five broad aisles.
THE CHURCH OF THE PIONEERS (FIRST PRESBYTERIAN).
The lower part of the turrets were used for staircases, which were entered without passing into the house. The design, although a great improvement on the old build- ing, was not considered in very good taste. Dr. Drake, giving a description of it in 1815, while saying the edifice was "very spacious," also said that " the aspect of the building is low and heavy" The pulpit and platform were built into the projection in the rear of the church, and the minister, before he was called to take part in the services, sat on the rear of this platform, behind a purple curtain.
When the old frame had outlived its usefulness to the Presbyterians, it was purchased by the Rev. William Burke, for use by an independent or Radical Methodist church, and removed to the west side of Vine street, about half way between Fourth and Fifth streets, where
the east end of the Emery Arcade now is. Here it stood, commonly known as Burke's Church, until the spring of 1847, when it was broken up, and the timbers, most of which were still perfectly sound, and other material, used for framing five cottages at and near the northwest cor- ner of Clark and Cutter streets, in the part of the city then called "Texas." Three of these cottages are now standing, or were at a very recent date. One sill was retained by Mr. Burke and cut up into memorial canes for himself and his pioneer friends.
The Rev. Joshua Lacy Wilson, D. D., under whose ministrations the new structure was built and the church interests otherwise greatly forwarded, was a native of Bedford county, Virginia, born September 22, 1774. He was taken with his father's family to Kentucky in 1781, where in due time he undertook a course in theological
John Brown 25 00
Wm. Woodward. 300 00
Nathan'l Reeder. 200 00
Jesse Reeder. 200 00
Wm. Betts 200 00
Elmore Williams 300 00
John S. Wallace, 200 00
Pat Dickey 200 00
Sam'l Perry 200 00
A. Dunseth 200 00
John M'Intire. 100 00
John Mahard. 50 00
John Cranmer 50 00
Sam'l Yonars, carp. w'rk 100 co Wm. Casey 50 00
Alex. Johnston 30 00
W. C. Anderson 50 00
Jos. B. Robinson 100 00
Joseph Jenkinson ICO OO
15I
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
study and was ordained to the ministry by the Presbytery of Transylvania. His first pastorate was over the Bards- town and Big Spring Presbyterian churches in 1804, when he was thirty years old. In June, 1808, he took charge of the First Presbyterian church in Cincinnati and remained pastor thereof during the long term of almost thirty-eight years, or untilhis death March 14, 1846, in the seventy-second year of his age and the forty-second of his ministry. His remains rest in Spring Grove Ceme- tery, and his memory is an abiding part of the annals of religion in Cincinnati.
The Hon. E. D. Mansfield, in one of his publications, bears the following testimony to the character of Dr. Wilson :
The city he found a village of one thousand inhabitants, and left it, at his death, with one hundred thousand. In this period Dr. Wilson maintained throughout the same uniform character and the same in- flexible firmness in principle. He was a man of ardent tempera- ment, with great energy and decision of character. The principles he once adopted he held with indomitable courage and unyielding tenac- ity. He was not only a Presbyterian, but one of the strictest sect. It is not strange, therefore, that he contended with earnestness for what he thought the faith once delivered to the saints, and that in this he sometimes appeared as much of the soldier as the saint. In conse- quence of these characteristics, many persons supposed him a harsh or bigoted man. But this was a mistake, unless to be in earnest is harsh- ness, and to maintain one's principles bigotry. On the contrary, Dr. Wilson was kind, charitable, and in those things he thought right, liberal. Among these was the great cause of popular education. Of this he was a most zealous advocate, but demanded that education should be founded on religion, and the Bible should be a primary element in all public education.
In 1827 the church was considerably remodeled and improved. The next year was characterized by a very great and notable revival, which had the honor of a day of commemoration service a half century later, when about fifty persons converted under its influences were still living, and about half of these were present. In the sermon preached on that occasion by the Rev. Dr. S. R. Wilson, of Louisville, son of the pastor of 1808-46, who was a boy of ten years at the time of the revival, and was one of its converts, he presented the following interesting reminiscences :
Let us represent to our minds some of the more striking features of the city at that time and of this place, where occurred that mighty work of the Spirit and Word of God. You must dismiss from your mind all the magnificence of to-day ; reduce its population, and im- agining this beautiful plateau covered to a large extent with trees, dotted with houses and garden-plats, while the environment of hills is covered with woods that form a beautiful background. The streets were shaded, and the heat which we now feel from building and pave- ment was not felt then. Take away this building and the surrounding buildings, and place there (to the right) a large spice surrounded by tombs and tombstones, among which children played till the bell called them into the church. The church building accommodated one thou- sand two hundred persons on the lower floor ; five hundred or six hun- dred more could be given room in the broad and long aisle, while the gallery had sittings for one thousand two hundred or one thousand five hundred. The pulpit was alnost as high as the choir, and back of it was a vestry-room for prayer-meetings and Sunday school.
During the winter of 1827-8 more than ordinary relig- ious interest was manifest in the church assemblies, and at a meeting of the Cincinnati Presbytery early in April it was unanimously resolved :
First-That the members of this Presbytery will spend a portion of time in special prayer between sunset and dark, every evening.
Second -That those who have not already engaged their people in this agreement will use their best endeavors to do so.
Third-That twilight prayer shall have for its objects revivals of re- ligion in our own hearts, in our families and churches through all this country, and throughout the whole world, that the kingdoms of this world may become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.
Soon afterwards the assistance of two Tennessee cler- gymen-the Rev. Messrs. James Gallaher and Frederick A. Ross, who were doing successful evangelistic work in Kentucky-was obtained, and they came about the mid- dle of June. Both were effective preachers; but one of them, as in the later days of Moody and Sankey, Whittle and Bliss, and other pairs of lay-preachers, had a power- ful auxiliary in a splendid voice for singing. What fol- lowed is best told in the words of Mr. Ross, in a letter which he wrote from Huntsville, Alabama, for the com- memoration service, when he was in his eighty-second year :
From Wednesday, when we began, until Monday, there was, seem- ingly to us, not the slightest impression made, and, being totally dis- couraged, we told Dr. Wilson Monday morning, after breakfast, we had made up our minds to go back to Kentucky the next day, if the meeting that night should be so thinly attended and so without life as the previous ones had been. Dr.' Wilson then suggested that the "anxious seat" had never been tried in Ohio, and that he had been afraid of it. But he was now persuaded, from the prudent way we had used it, to see what effect it would have that night. Accordingly, after the sermon, he, I well remember, placed a chair in front of the pulpit, stood on it, and simply said in substance that he had told us that he had made up his mind to try the measure. Gallaher then gave one of his rousing appeals. Twenty came. The spirit was in Cincin- nati. He had heard the Macedonian ery and had come over the river.
The next morning there was an inquirers' meeting at nine o'clock, in Dr. Wilson's house, when it was determined that at the night service we would defer the appeal to the impenitent, and request Christians of the church to come, who felt they had backslidden or were cold in duty. Of course when the call was made the very best members were soon on the bench-Mr. Wilson the first one. The effect, as expected, was great and delightful. That huge building showed that night the interest already felt.
We had to go Wednesday to Maysville, Kentucky, but engaged to lecture on the Tuesday following. We did so, and the Wednesday thereafter we began our work in Cincinnati in the moral certainty that the city was moved. That Wednesday was the Fourth of July. But God had ordered, and every soldier and all the patriotic gunpowder rejoicings went boldly out of town, and it was calmer than any other day, hardly a shop open, and every one free to hear the gospel under conditions most favorable.
Suffice, the meeting, preaching, and inquiries went on with great power. The church was filled, floors and galleries, and a little court, leading from a side door into the street, was frequently so jammed 'twas hard to get in or out.
On the next Sabbath one hundred and fifty were admitted to the First church, and, I think, about the same number the next Sabbath in the Second church.
I can not recall, for I write entirely from memory, how many weeks we were in Cincinnati and the neighborhood, spending one series of meetings in Dayton. But 'tis my impression, when we finally took our leave, five hundred, or thereabouts, had made profession in Cincinnati alone.
On Sunday, July 27th, fifteen persons had been re- ceived into the First church by letter, eighty upon the knowledge had of them as occasional communicants in the church, and three hundred and thirty-three on pro- fession of their faith-nearly or quite all as a result of this revival. The congregations had frequently num- bered three thousand, which was then one-seventh of the entire population of the city. The church had now over six hundred communicants.
The church building now occupied by this society on Fourth street, a few doors west of Main, near but not upon the site of its other churches, was built in 1853, at
152
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
a cost of sixty thousand dollars. Its most remarkable fea- ture is a lotty spire, two hundred and eighty-five feet high -ten feet higher than that of Trinity church, New York- surmounted by a huge gilt hand, pointing heavenward. During 1880 the audience-room of this house was thoroughly repaired and refitted.
The records of the Second Presbyterian church, of Cincinnati, begin January 29, 1816, although its organi- zation was not completed until the next year. It was at first mainly a colony from the First church, and included in the society, then or subsequently, some of the most solid men in the city, as Judge Jacob Burnet, Martin Baum, John H. Groesbeck, Timothy S. Goodman, John T. Drake, Jonathan Bates, Nathaniel Wright, Henry Starr, and the like. Of the first eleven members, how- ever, only four were men. The society worshipped in various places about the city, at private houses and school- rooms, for about two years. In 1817-18 a small frame house was put up for the church near the northeast corner of Walnut and Fifth streets. Modest and inexpensive as was this building, its erection was not accomplished with- out trouble and anxiety. Once the work stopped for want of lumber, of which there was none in the city. At a prayer-meeting soon after, the Lord's help to forward the work was earnestly asked, and the next morning the eyes of the brethren were gladdened with the sight of a raft of lumber in the river, from which an ample supply was obtained very cheaply. The purchase of a lot of window-sash at half-price, which the contractor for the new court-house had upon his hands, also aided to get the house up rapidly and at small cost.
The society was formally incorporated on the 11th of February, 1829, and laid the corner-stone of a new church on the following 13th of May. A lot had been bought on the south side of Fourth street, between Vine and Race, from the Bank of the United States, for five thousand dollars, and the building itself cost thirty thousand dollars, which was raised with much difficulty. Indeed, much of it was not raised for years after the building was erected and occupied. Only one out of four installments for the ground had been paid when the last fell due, May 1, 1831. The bank obtained judgment in ejectment, but allowed the church to remain; and in January, 1838, a deed was given by the society and note and mortgage given for the balance due, then amounting to four thousand three hundred and sixty-seven dollars. The building, however, went up with reasonable speed, was dedicated May 20, 1830, and occupied for forty-two years, or until April 28, 1872, when, with fitting memo- rial services, it was abandoned for the fine edifice now used, on the southwest corner of Eighth and Elm streets.
Among the earliest preachers to this church were the Revs. Samuel Robinson, William Arthur, and John Thomson, father of Rev. Dr. W. M. Thomson, the dis- tinguished Syrian missionary and writer upon the Holy Land. The application of the church to the presbytery for a minister to supply them, included the offer of a salary of five hundred and fifty dollars a year.
Rev. David Root was the first settled pastor. He was
called September 4, 1819, but did not take up his work here for more than a year, remaining then continuously until the spring of 1830. He was paid, nominally, one thousand dollars per year, but is not believed to have realized more than two-thirds of that amount, at a coin valuation. Dr. Lyman Beecher, president of Lane Semi- nary, was the next pastor, and underwent his trial for heresy, upon the prosecution of the Rev. Dr. Wilson, in his own church building. During his pastorate of nearly eleven years, five hundred and forty persons were admit- ted to the church, two hundred and forty of them on profession of faith. Beecher was then in the prime of his splendid powers-"original and somewhat peculiar," says Mr. Wright in his Memorial Address, from which we abridge this narrative, "both in manner and thought. In preaching, his most striking passages seemed the inspira- tion of the moment-when he raised his spectacles to his forehead and his sparkling eyes to the audience, and something came forth which struck us like electricity. He was deeply reverential at heart, though sometimes his strong, abrupt language seemed almost to belie it; as on one occasion I remember he said in prayer, 'O Lord, keep us from despising our rulers, and keep them from acting so that we can't help it.'"
Later pastors were: The Revs. John P. Cleveland, August 2, 1843, to December, 1845; Samuel W. Fisher, April, 1847, to July, 1848, when he resigned to take the presidency of Hamilton College; M. L. P. Thompson, March, 1859, to May, 1865; James L. Robertson, May, 1867, to November, 1870; and Thomas H. Skinner, D. D., the present incumbent of the pastorate, who was called July 12, 1871, and entered upon his duties with the church in the ensuing November.
The additions to the church, from its beginnings until April 1, 1872, were one thousand eight hundred and seventy·six, including eight hundred and forty-seven on profession. Its benevolent contributions, for ten years ending April 1, 1857, reached the large sum of seventy thousand six hundred dollars, and for ten subsequent years seventy thousand and ninety dollars. In addition over nine thousand dollars a year was raised, during part of this time, for the regular expenses of the church. The George street Presbyterian church, afterwards the Seventh street, was colonized from this church in the spring of 1843. The church on Poplar street, near Freeman, is the outgrowth of a mission school, established, with several others, by the Young Men's Home Missionary society, which originated in the Second church in 1848. Mr. William H. Neff was its first president. Its labors were then directed to the support of a missionary in Iowa; but when his work became self-supporting the society devoted its energies to the founding of mission schools in the city and other useful labors. The Ladies' City Missionary society is of this church. The Young Men's Bible society also originated with it; and the Young Men's Christian Union, as well as other religious and charitable enterprises in the city, has been greatly aided by its members. The Sunday-school of the church has been a strong arm from the beginning. It numbered about three hundred when its first report was
NOSSENTICONY
Charles S. Muscrofts
153
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
made to the Sunday-school Union fifty-three years ago (1827). A second Sabbath school, for afternoon ses- sions, was organized in February, 1870. A German mis- sion-school was established at the corner of Thirteenth and Walnut streets in 1846, and numbered among its early superintendents Messrs. E. S. Padgett and Peter R. Neff, and Dr. W. H. Mussey. Other mission-school enterprises have been successfully undertaken from time to time, independent of those under the auspices of the Young Men's Home Missionary society.
The Third Presbyterian church was an offshoot from the First in the early part of 1829. The meeting of the session of the First, to grant letters to such as wished to join the new organization, was held January 22d, of that year. Two elders and about forty others from that church formed the colony which started the Third, which erected a building on Second street.
The First Presbyterian Church on Walnut Hills was founded in 1819. The Rev. Peter H. Kemper, a rela- tive of James Kemper, the pioneer preacher in Cincin- nati, was the first pastor, and for many years the pasto- rate was held by members of the Kemper family. The Lane Seminary Presbyterian church, organized in 1831, was united with this January 6, 1879, by a committee of Presbytery consisting of the Rev. Drs. J. G. Monfort and Z. M. Humphrey, and the late Elder A. H. Hinkle. The corner stone of the new edifice for this church was laid September 13, 1880, on the northeast corner of Gilbert avenue and Locust s : street. The membership of the church is about three hundred. Rev. George H. Fuller- ton is the present pastor.
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