USA > Ohio > Erie County > History of the Presbytery of Erie : embracing in its ancient boundaries the whole of northwestern Pennsylvania and northeastern Ohio : with biographical sketches of all its ministers and historical sketches of its churches > Part 15
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Mr., now Dr.1 Wylie, was twice married. His first wife was the fourth daughter of Rev. Joseph Smith, of Redstone Presbytery, and so famous in its annals. At the age of ten she was received into the church ; and after a life of earnest, consistent piety, fell asleep in Jesus, some years after her husband commenced his labors in Newark.
From this marriage there were five daughters and one son. The son, the late Rev. Joseph S. Wylie, after a ministry of usefulness and success, died in Florence, Pa. Ilis second wife was a widow lady, Mrs. Moody, like himself, with a large family. She was from Port- land, Me., and had been a member of Dr. Payson's church. This second marriage proved eminently a happy one, and added greatly to Dr. Wylie's comfort and happiness.
In the fall of 1854, Dr. Wylie went for a time to Port Gibson, Mississippi. Although this was chiefly for the benefit of Mrs. Wylie's health, yet while there she was attacked by another form of disease, and died a peace- ful and happy death. This bereavement was a most distressing one to Dr. Wylie. He felt alone in his old age, and was well-nigh crushed beneath the blow.
1 Received the degree of D. D. in 1850, from Muskingum College.
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In the following spring he returned north, and took up his abode in Wheeling, where he continued to reside until called to join the church triumphant. Just before leaving Mississippi, he had fallen and fractured the bone of his thigh, which rendered him a hopeless cripple for the remainder of his life. He was, while residing in Wheeling, frequently carried to different churches, where he preached in a sitting posture, and to the sat- isfaction and edification of his hearers.
Although his afflictions were severe during the last years of his life, yet he bore them with exemplary pa- tience and resignation to the Divine will. As the time of his departure approached, his faith and hope were sensibly brightened. He felt the peace of God flowing into his soul like a river, and longed to enter the rest and peace of the Good Land. The time for which he had watched and waited so patiently, came at last. It was on a Saturday morning, in the sweet month of May, that he was called to go up and spend the eternal Sabbath ou Mount Zion. His death took place on the 9th day of May, 1858, just before he had completed his eighty-second year.
As a preacher, Dr. Wylie stood deservedly high amongst his contemporaries. He was a man of more than usual ability. Indeed, in his power of body and mind, he had few rivals in the faculty of stirring the deep emotions of the heart, and leading the minds of his audience captive to his subject. An eminent min- ister in New York testifies to his power of cloquence in these words : "He was preaching at Chartiers, on the text, 'Now have they both seen and hated both me and my father.' Now I have heard, within the last ten years, almost all our great preachers, of all denomina- tions, but never, to this hour, have I heard a sermon
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comparable to that of Dr. Wylie, for overpowering grandeur and awful sublimity.
Says Dr. Joseph Smith, his relative, and perhaps bet- ter acquainted with his inner life than any other por- son : " llis tall stature, his peculiarly solemn and ex- pressive features and tones of voice, his perfectly inimitable tenderness and pathos, mingled with great personal dignity, gave him unwonted power. The fer- tility of his mind, and the rich exuberance of his thoughts, seemed, at times, to indicate an exhaustless fountain of truth and pious affections within. If any other public speaker ever rose higher in his wonderful flights, we can form no conception of it."
Dr. Wylie was eminently a social man. He excelled as a talker. In this most difficult and rare accom- plishment, he shone preeminently ; still he had a seri- ous fault in the matter of conversation - he monopo- lized the entire time. Others were generally content to sit by and listen, and be amused and instructed and edified, as the case might be, by his exuberant flow of words and often sparkling scintillations of thought. Perhaps his chief fault in speaking and preaching and praying was indulging in strong figures and swelling hyperboles, so that there was too great a strain upon the minds of the hearers in following him. He did not excel in simplicity and plainness.
His piety was sincere and earnest. It was of the heart and outward life. It was the secret spring of action, always operative, always effectual in toning down the asperities of his nature, and impelling him to con- stant effort in labor and zeal in building up the King- dom of Christ.
Ilis influence in the community where he lived was most valuable. He was a great leader of public opin-
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ion, and moulded it to his own views and convictions of right. Before him, vice in every form stood abashed. The most wicked and profane respected and reverenced him for his truth and goodness. But with all his calm dignity and solemn presence, there was nothing haughty or repulsive about him. Children were attracted to him by a kind of magnetism, that they alone understand and appreciate.
He was a kind, sympathizing pastor. In the time of affliction and distress and bereavement, he was a min- istering spirit of kindness and sympathy, pointing to the sweet promises of the gospel, and pleading God's great mercy and faithfulness and love.
His correspondence shows that he was a man of prayer, and lived near to God; and that there was a gradual ripening for heaven, as well as a longing de- sire for its blessed rest.
The following extract of a letter from Rev. Dr. Weed to Rev. Dr. Joseph Smith, sheds light on the closing days of his life : ---
1. " He spoke little of his ailments, but much of the love of God, and of the ineffable consolations flowing from the riches of Divine grace, abounding to the chief of sinners.
2. " His expressions were habitually characterized by a childlike humility, and a filial confidence in God as his Father and Redeemer. lle seemed to enjoy the grace of assurance in a high degree, and without inter- mission.
3. " He was favored with most exalted views of the infinite perfections of God, and the transcendent glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. These were the favorite and absorbing themes of his discourse.
4. "The gospel was confirmed in his experience as a
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manifestation of the mercy of God. It made him, in despite of all things else to the contrary, eminently a happy man, and a joyful sufferer. No one could be long in his presence without feeling the demonstration of the divinity of the Christian religion.
" Finally, his case was a practical refutation of the charge so often reiterated - that Calvinistic views of theology are adverse to cheerful and joyous experience, that they sour the heart and overhang the mind with gloom. Yet these were thoroughly his views, and it was from these he derived his richest and sweetest enjoy- ments. I will only add, that he seemed to us all as verily ' a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.' "
(8.) JOIIN BOYD. 1801-1816.
JOHN BOYD was the son of John and Mary (Fulton) Boyd, and was born in Ireland, in the year 1768. ITis parents emigrated to this country in the year 1772, and having settled in the bounds of Salem, Westmoreland County, Pa., his father became a ruling elder in that church. His was a priestly family, having no less than four sons in the gospel ministry - John, Abraham (9), Benjamin (17), and James (21). The eldest two were born in Ireland, the younger two in this country. But little is known of the early life of John Boyd. No doubt he worked patiently on the farm during his first years, and was content with what Providence sent him. His studies were pursued under the direction of John McPherrin (16), who was his pastor. How long these studies were prosecuted is not known. He was licensed to preach the gospel, by the Presbytery of Redstone, on the 23d day of April, 1801. For one year he
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preached as a licentiate, most probably within what was soon to be the bounds of the Presbytery of Erie.
At the first meeting of the Presbytery of Erie, held on the 13th of April, 1802, he presented a dismission from the Presbytery of Redstone, and was taken under the care of the new Presbytery. Ile had already ac- cepted calls from the congregations of Slate Lick and Union, in what is now Armstrong County, Pa. John vi. 53, was assigned him as a subject for a trial sermon in view of ordination. His brother Abraham was re- ceived under the care of Presbytery at the same time.
Mr. Boyd's ordination took place at Union, on the 16th day of June, 1802. In the ordination exercises, William Wick (2), preached the sermon from 2 Corin- thians iv. 5, and Samuel 'Tait (3), delivered the charges. This pastoral relation continued until April 17, 1810, when, at his own request, he was relieved.
At the meeting of the General Assembly, in May, 1809, there occurs this record in the report of the Com- mittee on Missions, in the recommendation of the ap- pointment of missionaries, " The Rev. John Boyd, a missionary for two months on the head-waters of Alle- ghany, and the borders of Lake Erie."
For a short time, Mr. Boyd supplied the churches of Amity and West Liberty, but his health having failed, he felt constrained to seek some more favorable loca- tion, and was accordingly dismissed from the Presby- tery of Erie to that of Lancaster (now 'Zanesville), on the 4th day of October, 1810. Shortly after this he was preaching at Wills Creek, in the southeastern part of the State of Ohio. Afterwards he became pastor of the churches of Red Oak and Strait Creek, in the bounds of the Presbytery of Chilicothe. It is said that the cause of his leaving these churches, was a difficulty
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that grew out of the "Sunday Mail " question. IIe signed a petition for, and advocated the cause of, stop- ping the mails on the Sabbath. For this, he was branded by some of his elders and people as a traitor.
Ile next settled as the first pastor of the church of Bethel, in the Presbytery of Oxford, and was said to be the first Presbyterian preacher west of the Miami River. But his ministry here was brief. Five months after his settlement, he was attacked by bilious fever, and died at Indian Creek, near Hamilton, Ohio, on the 20th day of August, 1816, in the forty-eighth year of his age, and the sixteenth of his ministry. "Just be- fore his departure," says a writer in the " Weekly Re- corder," " he was blessed with a transporting view of the excellence of the gospel." Ilis remains lie at rest in the grave-yard of the Bethel Church. On the Sab- bath evening, just before his departure, some of his neighbors having gathered in to see him, he raised up on his couch and thus addressed them : " I have been in congregations where I was afraid to preach Christ, but if all the world were here, I would speak to them of the preciousness of the gospel, and the ability and willingness of Christ to save all who come to him."
Mr. Boyd left a widow and eight children, four sons and four daughters. Ilis widow died, October 12, 1840. ITis eldest son JJames died in his twenty-sixth year, just as lie was about entering the ministry.
(9.) ABRAHAM BOYD.
1800-1854.
This was the second son of John and Mary ( Fulton) Boyd, and was likewise born in Ireland, in December, 1770. Hle was but three years of age when his parents
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emigrated to this country. In connection with this emi- gration, he frequently related the following circumstance, related by his father, as illustrating the particular provi- dence of God towards his children : When about leav- ing Ireland for America, having reached the port from which they were to sail, it was discovered that the two little sons, John and Abraham, had the small-pox. The officers of the ship refused to receive them on board, and sailed without them. The ship foundered at sea. The Boyd family took the next vessel and arrived in safety.
Abraham Boyd pursued his studies at the Cannons- burg Academy, and was licensed to preach the gospel on the 25th day of June, 1800, by the Presbytery of Ohio. He was received by the Presbytery of Erie at its first meeting, April 13, 1802, and having accepted calls from the congregations of Bull Creek and Middle- sex, in Armstrong County, Pa., he was assigned James iv. 17, as the subject of a sermon as part of trials for ordination. This service took place at Bull Creek, on the 17th of June, 1802. Rev. John McMillan, being present as a corresponding member of Presbytery, preached on the occasion, on Mark xvi. 15, 16, and de- livered the charges. This relation continued at Mid- dlesex until 1817, and Bull Creek until June 25, 1833. After leaving Middlesex, he gave half his time to Deer ยท Creek, from 1817 to 1821.
An anecdote of Mr. Boyd is related in connection with his early ministry. He was passing through the woods on the Sabbath, on his way to preach. In the depth of the forest he encountered an Indian tricked out in his feathers and war paint. He saw that he was observed, and to flee would be in vain, so he knelt down at the roots of a large tree, and in full view of the sav-
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age, and began to pray, expecting each moment to be pierced by an arrow. When he arose from his knees, the Indian had departed, and he was safe.1
Mr. Boyd lived to a good old age, residing upon his farm, preaching the gospel when able, until the close of his life. Ilis death took place on his farm, near Taren- tum, Pa., on the 14th day of August, 1854, in the eighty- fourth year of his age, and the fifty-fifth of his minis- try. The day previous to his death, he sent for his only surviving sister, saying that he expected soon to die, and wished to see her. She came the same even- ing. He was in his usual health, although he had been declining for some tine. The next morning, appearing as well as usual, he attended to family worship, select- ing from Watts' Version, Psalm 39, "'d part -
" God of my life look gently down," etc.,
and sung with a cheerful voice throughout. In half an hour from this time, as he sat conversing with his sister, he received a stroke of paralysis and never spoke after- ward. He died the following night.
Mr. Boyd was twiee married. His first wife was Eleanor Hallis, of Washington County, Pa. The mar- riage took place March 29, 1798. By her he had nine children, six daughters and three sons. Mrs. Boyd died in the year 1816. In the next year, he married Mrs. Scott. By her he had three children, two daugh- ters and one son. The second Mrs. Boyd died in 1848.
Mr. Boyd was a plain, practical man. His aspirations were simple and limited to the one great matter - preaching the gospel of Christ, and recommending it to his people. Like nearly all of the pioneer ministers, he labored on the farm as well as in preaching the gos- pel. 'There were two reasons for this: the people
1 Rev. R. Lea.
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were poor and could not raise a sufficient salary for their ministers, and in the early days land was cheap and easily obtained.
Mr. Boyd was a spiritually minded man, an earnest preacher, and a strict disciplinarian. He was also a man of great power in prayer, and seemed to grow in grace as he grew in years.
(10.) WILLIAM WOOD.
1801-1839.
WILLIAM WOOD, son of Samuel and Isabella (San- key) Wood, was born in York County, Pa., on the 27th day of March, 1776. Samuel Wood, his father, was born in London, England, in 1749, came to America in 1768, and married Mrs. Isabella Sankey, in York County, Pa. He died in Butler County, in 1817, leav- ing four children, William, Samuel, Benjamin, and Isa- bella. Of these, the subject of this sketch was the oldest. Of his early life little is at present known, In due course of time we find him at the Cannonsburg Academy, enjoying what advantages he might obtain there. And then, as a matter of course, he is soon seeking Dr. McMillan's log-cabin, and studying theol- ogy. From the seanty library, and the doctor's lec- tures, he is seeking furniture for the great work. No doubt, with others he copied, with patient labor and pains, those lectures that were the theological library of so many of the earlier ministers of the West, and which contained the very marrow of divinity. Many of those old manuscript systems have come down to our day and are worthy of being read, not only by the the- ological student, but by the pastor of years.
Mr. Wood was received by the Presbytery of Ohio
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as a candidate for the gospel ministry, on the 26th day of December, 1800, and on the 29th day of October, 1801, licensed to preach the gospel. The field was large ; the harvest inviting, and the call for laborers earnest; and having spent the winter amongst the vacant churches and missionary pointi, he was dis- missed to put himself under the care of the Presby- tery of Erie. By this Presbytery he was received on the 20th day of April, 1802. Having accepted calls from the congregations of Plaingrove and Center, in Mercer County, he was ordained and installed pastor over these churches at a meeting of Presbytery held at Plaingrove, on the 3d day of November, 1802. The trial discourse was on Titus ii. 11, 12. Rev. Robert Lee (5) preached on the occasion, on Mark xvi. 15, 16, and Dr. McMillan, a member of the Presbytery of Ohio, who was present as a corresponding member, pre- sided and delivered the charges.
In these churches Mr. Wood labored earnestly. He was dismissed from the charge of Center on the 24th day of August, 1808, after a pastorate of six years, and from that of Plaingrove on the 7th day of October, 1816, after a pastorate of fourteen years. These pas- torates terminated his labors in the Presbytery of Erie.
On the Ist day of April, 1817, he was dismissed to the Presbytery of Hartford (Beaver), being prepared to accept calls from the congregations of Hopewell and Neshannock. Over these churches he was installed pastor on the 22d day of October, 1817. At Hopewell he labored for eleven years, being dismissed on the 25th day of June, 1828.
Mr. Wood died at Utica, Licking County, Ohio, on the 31st day of July, 1839, in the sixty-fourth year of his age, and the thirty-ninth of his ministry. He was
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a man of more than ordinary ability, and in many a more favorable sphere of labor would have shone as a preacher ; but poverty and untoward circumstances kept him down, and his light was buried up in compar- ative obscurity. IIe was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Donald, of Washington County, Pa., May 17, 1798. They had twelve children, two of whom were physicians, the elder, John D., settled in Franklin, Pa., the younger in Pulaski, Pa., both now deceased. Mrs. Wood died at Utica, Ohio, April 20, 1843.
(11.) JOSEPH BADGER. 1786-1846.
THE name of Joseph Badger will long be remem- bered in Eastern Ohio. Ile was the great missionary of the Western Reserve, and one of the pioneers to regions further west. He was a most remarkable man, eminently a man for the times in which he lived. God chose him in the furnace of affliction, and prepared him as he did Israel, by wandering in the desert, for the great work that was before him.
Joseph Badger was born in Wilbraham, Mass., on the 28th day of February, 1757. Ile was the son of Henry and Mary (Langdon) Badger, and a descendant, in the fourth generation, of Giles Badger, who emi- grated from England about the year 1635.1 His pa- rents were pious, and their son was carefully educated at the fireside in the principles of religion. Here, 110 doubt, the seed was sown, that having lain for a long time dormant, eventually germinated and produced a bountiful harvest.
When he was nine years of age, his parents removed 1 Sprague's Annals, iii. 473.
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to Berkshire County, Mass., a place at that time without schools or other means of intellectual culture, and so most unfavorable to the mental culture of the future pioneer missionary. The straitened circumstances of his parents too, induced the necessity of labor and toil; yet withal his natural genius was stimulated to invention, and the way was opened for a preparation most useful to him in after life.
At the age of eighteen he entered the army, just three weeks after the battle of Lexington, and received his first lessons in military life. His whole life was to be one of service. During his first two years, he was an attendant upon the chaplain of his regiment. He was present at the battle of Bunker Hill, and afterward for some time with General Arnold in Canada. In this campaign he served as usual in divers capacities. In the hospitals he was an excellent nurse ; in the commis. sary department he was an accomplished baker; when the master of transportation required it, he could re- pair the broken wagons, and when the noise and shock of battle prevailed, he could handle the musket with energy and precision. In this service he was attacked with small-pox, and afterwards with chills and fever, yet through all his exposures and dangers he was merci- fully preserved.
In two years from the period of his enlistment, he was discharged and returned to his friends. Here he found an expedition organizing to pursue the British troops that had two days before destroyed Danbury. Of course young Badger joined this expedition, and par- ticipated in two sharp engagements, when he returned to his friends. Shortly after this he enlisted again, and was appointed orderly sergeant. At the expira- tion of his teri, he found that the two hundred dollars
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of Continental money that he had saved was so depre- ciated that it would not buy him a suit of clothes.1 But this did not distress him. He at once engaged in weaving, continuing the business until he had woven sixteen hundred yards of cloth.
His mind now thirsted for knowledge, and he deter- mined to spend some time in the acquisition of the elementary branches of study, spelling, writing, and arithmetic, intending afterward to return to the army.
There were no schools in the neighborhood, and he put himself under the instruction of Rev. Jeremiah Day, father of President Day of Yale College, and entered his family as a boarder. Hle studied during the winter, and resorted to the loom in the spring to recruit his exhausted finances.
But a change came over his mind here that had a most important influence on his future plans. His mind became deeply impressed with religious truth. There was no great distress or excitement, but a gradual change, that seemed to operate upon his heart, until he believed he had experienced a thorough change of heart. The light was faint at first, but continued to increase until his soul was filled with peace.
All thoughts of returning to the army were aban- doned, and having made a profession of religion in the church of his patron, he entered upon a course of study preparatory to entering college. His progress was slow, and although well-nigh discouraged by the narrowness of his means, he yet persevered, sometimes weaving, and sometimes engaged in teaching school. " Yet still," he says, " I dug away like a miner after gold."
With frequent interruptions from sickness, and labor- ing for his livelihood, he at length entered Yale Col-
1 Gillett's History, ii. 132.
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lege in 1781, as a Freshman. During his first term he taught a singing school, and was so much discour- aged that he notified President Stiles that he would be obliged to leave college. "O no, Badger," was his reply, " you must not leave. You may go and teach, study and earn, and pay your bills as well as you can."
So the earnest, patient man struggled on. Some- times he taught school. Sometimes he rung the Col- lege bell, and performed other labors about the Hall until his Senior year. During this year he constructed a planetarium, that cost him three months' labor, and for which the College authorities gave him an order on the steward for one hundred dollars. He was gradu- ated in the fall of 1783.
The next year he taught a school, and studied theol- ogy under the venerable Rev. Mark Leavenworth, and in due course was licensed to preach the gospel by the New Haven Association. During the next winter he supplied the church of Plymouth, Conn. On the 24th day of October, 1787, he was ordained pastor of the church of Blandford, Conn. He was pastor of this church thirteen years, and was dismissed October 21, 1800, to accept the commission of the Connectient Mis- sionary Society, to labor as a missionary in the Western Reserve of Ohio, or New Connecticut, as it was then called.
Ile set out on his westward journey on the 15th day of November, alone and on horseback. He was sont :- times detained for days by the rain and snow. His progress was slow, from the badness of the roads, which, as he approached the close of his journey, were mere bridle-paths, and for nearly two hundred miles he was obliged to lead his horse. He was obliged to swim the Mahoning River in Ohio, but at With
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