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 22
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After this, health failing, and suffering from an affee- tion of the throat,1 precluding for the time the idea of
1 Dr. John McDowell.
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preaching, with the consent and advice of Presbytery, he engaged in secular business. We find him next at New Orleans, probably engaged in secular employ- ment, yet with improving health, for he was able in part to supply the pulpit of the Second Presbyterian Church during the temporary absence of the pastor, Rev. R. L. Stanton, D. D. Ile also supplied, occasionally, the Pres- byterian Church in the third municipality, then vacant. This was in 1850.
About this time he returned to Philadelphia, and was connected with the Penn Presbyterian Church, which he served as a ruling elder and superintendent of a Sabbath-school of five hundred scholars.
Mr. Harned's labors on earth closed on the 9th day of October, 1854. He died in the city of New York, of disease of the heart, cancer of the stomach, and hy- drothorax. Ifis remains were interred in the Presbyte- rian Cemetery at Abington, Montgomery County, Pa.
(35.) WELLS BUSHNELL.
1825-1863.
WELLS BUSHNELL, the son of Alexander and Sarah (Wells) Bushnell, was born in Hartford, Conn., in the month of April, 1799. His mother was a pious woman, and by a godly example and earnest precept, strove to bring up her family in the fear of God. At the age of seventeen, Wells Bushnell was living in the city of Pittsburgh, Pa., and there, and at that time, made a public profession of religion, and connected himself with the First Presbyterian Church, then un- der the pastoral care of Rev. Francis Herron, D. D.
After some preparatory study, he became a student of Jefferson College, where he graduated in due course.
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His theological education was completed at Princeton Theological Seminary. He was taken under the care of the Presbytery of New Brunswick, and licensed probably in the year 1825.
His name first appears on the minutes of the Pres- bytery of Erie, on May 24, 1826, when, as a licentiate, he presented a certificate of dismission from the Pres- bytery of New Brunswick, and asked to be taken under its care. Calls having been presented from the church of Meadville, Pa., for his pastoral labors, Luke ii. 11 was assigned him as part of trials for ordination. The ordination took place on the 22d day of June, 1826. In these exercises, Joseph Stockton (4), of the Presbytery of Ohio, preached the sermon, Samuel Tait (3) deliv- ered the charge to the pastor, and Johnston Eaton (20) the charge to the people.
This relation continued until June 26, 1833, when, at his own request, it was dissolved, in order that he might go as a missionary to the Wea Indians. The . West- ern Board of Foreign Missions" had been recently established at Pittsburgh, and as missions were about to be organized for different points in heathen lands, Mr. Bushnell felt impelled to offer himself for the work, His warm, impulsive heart was stirred to its depths with a longing desire to engage in the great work. His firm and earnest conviction was, that the voice of the Master was calling him to the work, and he resolved to sunder the tie that bound him to an attached people, and labor and toil as best he might for the welfare of the be- nighted and the dying. And so, with his family, he entered the wilds of the West. But he had overesti- mated his constitution and power of endurance. With all his self-denial and earnestness, he experienced little but excessive fatigue, and prolonged sickness of himself
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and family, until he was worn out and discouraged. His labors continued in the Indian country for one year and a half, when he felt it his duty to return to the East. No doubt his labor and self-sacrifice were accepted of the Master, even though he was permitted to see but little fruit of his labor. No doubt it was said of him as of one of old, " He hath done what he could."
After leaving the Indian country, he returned to New Albany, Ind., where his parents resided. After a sea- son of rest, he received an invitation to supply the First Presbyterian church in Louisville, Ky., in the absence of the regular pastor. He was also earnestly solicited to take charge of a new church enterprise in that city. But his views on the subject of slavery were
even at that day so strongly in opposition to this institu- tion, that he could not consistently accept. He then accepted a call to the congregation at Greensburg, Ind., in connection with one at Shelbyville, in the same State. After laboring here for one year and a half, his health failed, and he returned to New Albany. Soon after this, he returned to Pittsburgh, for the purpose of rest and recruiting his health.
Whilst in Pittsburgh, he accepted an invitation to supply the churches of Gravel Run and Cambridge, in Crawford County, Pa.
On the 3d of February, 1836, he had been dismissed from the Presbytery of Erie to that of Indianapolis. On the 11th day of April, 1838, he was received again into the Presbytery of Erie.
On the 18th day of April, 1839, he was dismissed to the Presbytery of Beaver, having accepted calls to the church of New Castle, Pa. Here he continued to labor for fifteen years and a half, with much success.
At the close of this period, a change took place in
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Mr. Bushnell's views, in regard to his church relation. He was not satisfied with the position of the church on the question of slavery. In this matter he was honest and sincere, and felt that he could no longer remain in the Presbyterian church. He accordingly severed his connection with the Presbytery of Beaver, and united with the " Free Presbyterian Church." In this new relation, he ministered to the congregations of Mount Jackson, Lawrence County, and New Bedford, Mercer County, until the close of his earthly labors. The disease that terminated in his death was cholera morbus. He died at Mount Jackson, on the 16th day of July, 1863, in the sixty-fifth year of his age and thirty-eighth of his ministry.
On the 25th of April, 1826, he was united in mar- riage to Miss Eleanor Hannen, a daughter of Dr. John Hannen, of Pittsburgh, Pa. Five children survived him, four daughters and one son.
Mr. Bushnell was a successful minister of Jesus Christ. His heart was warm, and sometimes his zeal bore down his judgment. Says one who was a co- presbyter : " He was a good minister of Jesus Christ, a very good preacher, and a good pastor. During his stay at Meadville, his labors were much blessed, and no man in these parts was more popular than he. A ready mind and a determined will rendered his conclusions often premature, but he was a dear brother and devoted to his Master's work."
Says one of his session at his first field of labor : " Ile was courteous, familiar, and pleasant in general intercourse. As a Christian, he was esteemed as sin- cere and zealous ; as a minister, his sermons were well written, and delivered with unction, and with us his ministry was much blessed."
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His end was peace. He failed rapidly at the last, but expressed his prospects as " all glorious."
(37.) THOMAS ANDERSON.
1825-1853.
THOMAS ANDERSON, the son of John and (Laughlin) Anderson, was born in Cumberland County, Pa., on the first day of the new year, 1791. Ilis an- cestors were Irish. His parents removed to this coun- try from Tyrone County, Ireland, in 1787. Thomas was raised a farmer, and at twelve years of age was talked of in the family, as the prospective student of college. Difficulties were in the way, however, and it was not until the age of twenty-one, that the way was opened up for the commencement of his studies. At the age of eighteen he became a member of the Pres- byterian church of Neshannock, Mercer County, Pa., then under the pastoral charge of Rev. William Wick. Hlis is the old story of the early ministers - poverty, struggles, discouragements : and yet over all he tri- umphed. Ile studied Latin and Greek partly at home, partly at Greersburg Academy, sometimes teaching, sometimes laboring with his hands, until he was fitted for college. He graduated at Washington College, Pa., in 1820. In his early struggles he walked several miles to the home of Mr. Wick, to borrow a Latin gram- mar. Here he first saw the lady who eight years after- wards became his wife.
After graduating, he was united in marriage, on the 11th of October, 1820, to Miss Phebe, daughter of Rev. William Wiek (2), and removing to the town of Mer- cer, took charge of the academy in that place. Here he taught for five years, paying off the balance of his
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college debts, purchased a little home in Mercer, and at the same time pursued his theological studies under the direction of Mr. Tait (3), pastor of the church in Mer- cer, copying out carefully and neatly Dr. McMillan's system of divinity, which was the sine qua non of all the earlier ministers.
He was licensed to preach the gospel by the Presby- tery of Erie, on the 28th day of December, 1825. His first sermon after licensure, was delivered January 1, 1826 ; he was that day thirty-four years of age, and had a wife and two children.
Ile commenced his ministerial labors regularly at Concord, May 7, 1826; at Big Sugar Creek, the Sab- bath following ; and at Franklin, June 11, 1826. All these places are in Venango County, Pa. He was or- dained by the Presbytery of Erie, September 19, 1826, and installed as pastor of the above congregations. In these exercises, Mr. Bushnell preached the sermon, Mr. Chase delivered the charge to the pastor, and Mr. Mc- Kinney the charge to the people.
He lived near the Sugar Creek Church at this time, rode seven miles to Franklin, and over twenty to Con- cord. In addition to these places he performed a large amount of missionary work through Venango and the neighboring counties.
On the 13th of April, 1831, he was released from the charge of the congregation of Concord, and gave all his time to Franklin and Big Sugar Creek, living at the former place. Ile was released from the charge of Franklin on the 12th of September, 1837, and probably from Big Sugar Creek about the same time.
At the division of the Presbytery, in 1838, Mr. An- derson adhered to the New School. He labored for a time after this in Beaverdam and Union, in Erie Coun-
1
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ty, and in 1843 removed to Huntington, Indiana. Here he organized a Presbyterian church in November, 1843, consisting of nine members. It was the first evangel- ical church organized in the place, and the first point of Presbyterian preaching in the county. Here he la- bored faithfully for five years, when growing infirmities compelled him to think of resigning. He was released from his charge of Huntington, January 9, 1848. In re- lation to this resignation he says, " I feel sad to think I cannot stay and work in the harvest. I have the heart but not the strength ; but what little strength I have I expect to use for missionary ends. I am not afraid of poverty and want.
"' My Shepherd will supply my need, Jehovah is his name.' "
Mr. Anderson records that whilst laboring in the Erie Presbytery for sixteen years, he preached two thousand five hundred and eighty-two sermons. On one occasion he rode twenty miles, preached, and then rode four miles further before eating. He loved to speak of his old charge in Venango County, Pennsylvania.
" My heart clings," he writes, " to my native land, my boyhood's home, my first field of ministerial labor. The impressions there made, the friendships there formed, and the associations that cluster around the phrase 'pastor and people,' are too sacred to be trifled with and too precious to be forgotten."
So he continued to labor whilst he had strength, preaching Christ to the poor and destitute, until the Master called him to his rest and his reward.
Ilis death was sudden. The circumstances attending it are furnished by his daughter.1 " After family wor- ship he retired to rest. Mother spent the night with a sick
1 Mrs. B. A. Moore.
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grand-daughter up-stairs. At the hour father usually arose, she heard him uttering a groan, and hastened to him. He remarked that he had not slept well ; that just now he had such a dreadful pain about his heart ; if he had another such attack it would kill him. She hastened to prepare warm stimulants, and send for a phy- sician, but before she returned to his bedside, 'he was not, for God took him.' If there were fears and an- guish during the long watches of that night, they were known only to Him, who ' neither slumbers nor sleeps.'
" Ile laid aside his raiment for the night, And angels clothed him in the coming light : So like his life, he passed from earth away, Quiet and peaceful - God alone his stay."
He died at Huntington, Indiana, on the 22d day of December, 1853, a few days before he had completed his sixty-third year, and in the twenty-ninth year of his ministry.
Mrs. Anderson has since rejoined him in rest. They had eight children, five of whom survive them. The eldest son, Rev. Philander Anderson, is a member of the Presbytery of Indianapolis.
Rev. A. W. Freeman, a co-presbyter, says of Mr. Anderson, " His piety was humble and child-like. His manner of conducting devotional meetings was exceed- ingly happy. As a preacher he was clear, logical, earn- est, forcible, and striking ; and had not his health been impaired, he would have been well qualified to minister to any congregation to the end of his life."
A plain stone, erected to his memory, bears the fol- lowing inscription : -
REV. THOMAS ANDERSON,
Died December 22, 1853, aged 63 years. Graduated at Washington College, in 1819.
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Ordained at Franklin, Pa., in 1826. Removed to Huntington, Ind., in 1843. The first pastor of the Presbyterian church in this place.
" Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended."
(38.) PIERCE CHAMBERLAIN.
1822-1850.
THE subject of this sketch was born on the 11th day of June, 1790, in Newark, Delaware. He was the son of Joseph and Martha Chamberlain, respectable and worthy members of the Society of Friends. In this faith he was nurtured and brought up. The grace of God, free and sovereign, was most signally manifested in his life history. For years he was tossed upon a sea of doubts and fears, with struggles and conflicts innu- merable, yet safely anchoring in the quiet harbor at last.
About the time of arriving at maturity, he became thoughtful and anxious about the interests of salvation. He read much in Quaker books of devotion, but ob- tained little satisfactory light. So great was his internal distress and agitation, that his health suffered in conse- quence. Ilis mind became morbid, and doubts were entertained in regard to a future state. He was driven almost to the verge of insanity, induced by despair. In this condition of doubt and mental distraction, the great Adversary tempted him to take his own life, and he actually repaired to the bank of a creek for that pur- pose. But the grace of God prevented. Ile reflected that this would be folly and wickedness, and lying down beneath an apple-tree, gave himself up to the most ter- rible struggle through which he had ever passed. Foiled
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in his attempt to lead him to self-destruction, the great enemy tried a new system of tactics. He suggested a doubt of the being of God. This was accepted at once, and the young man sprang to his feet and returned home full of a deceptive joy, for now he felt there was no accountability hereafter. His joy was manifest to his friends, and he seemed to be from this time com- pletely in the Devil's toils.
But all this time the grace of God was following him. His atheism soon forsook him, and he found himself in the depths of darkness and wretchedness. Going to Philadelphia, he heard the Rev. Dr. Skinner preach on the Divine Decrees. This sermon was ordered in the providence of God, for his special benefit and enlight- enment. It produced a great change in his views. Ile now beheld the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Saviour of the guilty, and the hope of the helpless. Comfort came to his mind. Peace filled his heart. The love of Christ seemed to him so great and so wonderful that he not only gave himself up to his service, but resolved to devote himself to the gospel ministry.
He attended the Academy at Andover for a short period, but health failing, he returned to his home, and worked at his trade for a time. After this he was en- gaged as clerk in a store, engaging in study at the Newark Academy, as health and strength would per- mit. Thus he advanced from one degree to another in his studies, until he commenced that of theology. This study was pursued with Rev. Dr. Skinner and others, until the 4th day of April, 1822, when he was licensed to preach the gospel by the Presbytery of New Castle. The Presbytery was induced to relax the usual rule in regard to a full course of classical study, because of the age, delicacy of health, and apparent maturity of judg- ment, prudence, and zeal of the candidate.
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Mr. Chamberlain preached for some time in his own Presbytery, the vacancies of which were numerous. He had much of the missionary spirit, and for a time la- bored in the alshouses and prisons in the city of Philadelphia, preaching the gospel to the lowly and the wretched. After continuing these labors for some few years, he was ordained as an evangelist by the Presby- tery of New Castle, and received a commission from the Board of Missions to labor within the bounds of the Presbytery of Erie.
Mr. Chamberlain first visited the shore of Lake Erie in 1826, and labored for some time in the vacant churches with much acceptance. On the 12th day of April, he accepted calls from the church of Springfield, in Erie County, and on the 16th of January, 1828, was installed as pastor of that church. But his pastoral labors were brief here. Ill health, that had stood in his way ever since he commenced his preparatory studies, com- pelled him to ask the Presbytery to dissolve the pastoral relation. This was done on the Ist day of October, 1828.
From this time, until the spring of 1836, he labored as a missionary throughout the bounds of the Presby- tery, preaching in school-houses and private dwellings, whenever and wherever he could collect a congregation to hear him. For this kind of labor he was eminently fitted, for although usually a taciturn man, he had a wonderful faculty of attracting children to him, and was always well provided with books and tracts to distrib- ute, and had a word of kindness and advice for all classes of people. In these labors in the highways and hedges, the people hung upon his words. There was a solemnity and unction in his preaching that, in that day, was most persuasive and attractive. Through
21
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these missionary labors many people were turned to the Lord.
In the spring of 1836 he received and accepted calls from the congregations of Waterford and Union. Ile was installed as pastor on the 15th day of September, 1836. After this, having given up the charge of Union, he labored at Gravel Run in connection with Water- ford for a number of years. Here his health again failed, and he was released from his pastoral charge. Ile soon after left the bounds of Erie Presbytery, and returned to his old home in Newark, Delaware.
At the time of the division in the Presbyterian church, in 1838, Mr. Chamberlain identified himself with that branch popularly known as the New School.
On his return to Newark, the state of his health pre- cluding the idea of a pastoral charge, he took charge of a Female Seminary, in the labors connected with which he employed himself until called to his rest and reward. His disease was cholera. He died on the 23d day of August, 1850, in the sixty-first year of his age, and twenty-ninth of his ministry.
Mr. Chamberlain was a man of medium size, light, thin hair, mild, blue eyes, and regular features, with an expression of great solemnity and earnest thought con- stantly manifested in his countenance. He was a good man, and full of faith. He loved the canse of Zion. As a preacher, he was most solemn and impressive. Hle dealt not so much in logic and attempts to convince the reason, as in earnest appeals to the heart and con- science. 'Ile did not so much point his hearers to Sinai as to Calvary ; nor did he so much dwell upon the jus- tice and righteousness of God, as upon his love and mercy, as set forth in the work of Jesus Christ. Ile had many warmly attached friends, all over his mission-
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ary field, and men went long distances to hear him, where he had appointments to preach. He was a man of prayer. Although not without his weaknesses of temper, yet he preserved an admirable government over himself through the grace of God.
Mr. Chamberlain was united in marriage to Miss Christiana B. Whitehill, of Strasburg, Pa. He left four or five children with the precious legacy of a fath- er's prayers, and the memory of a father's usefulness and devotion and unselfish labor in the Master's cause, to stimulate them to duty and diligence and labor. One of these children is Rev. George Chamberlain, mission- ary to Brazil.
(42.) EDSON HART. - 1867.
MR. HART most probably came from New England. Hle was received into the Presbytery of Erie, Septem- ber 22, 1830, on certificate from the Presbytery of Trumbull. He labored for a few years at Springfield and Girard, as a stated supply. After removing from the bounds of Presbytery, he acted as agent for some educational project in Kentucky. He was dismissed to the Presbytery of Muhlenburg, January 21, 1843. After this he removed to New Orleans, and was there engaged in secular business in connection with the Bible agency, until the beginning of the war, when he came north and stopped in Oldham County, Kentucky, { where he died on the 19th day of September, 1867.
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(44.) ROBERT GLENN.
1831-1857.
This brother was in a peculiar sense a child of the Presbytery of Erie. He was born within its boundaries. He was gathered into the fold of the Good Shepherd through the ministry of its members. He was licensed and ordained by it. All his ministerial labors were con- fined to its field ; and within its bounds his sleeping dust awaits the Master's call on the morning of the Resurrection.
Robert Glenn was born on the 2d day of March, 1802, in Wolfcreek Township, Mercer County, Pa. It is believed that his deepest convictions of sin, and most triumphant hopes in Christ, were received under the ministrations of Rev. Samuel Tait (3), late of Mer- cer, Pa. To him he was in the habit of going in his time of conflict and trouble, seeking instruction and advice. Often the mistake was made that is so com- mon in all religious experience, of expecting too much from the minister in the way of light and comfort. The rugged experience and matter-of-fact mind of Mr. Tait often left the young inquirer to labor and struggle and wait until he was ready to conclude that his spirit- ual adviser was without sympathy or interest in his wel- fare. But he afterwards found that the discipline was most salutary, and that in those days of trial he was but preparing for the solemn work of dealing with im- mortal souls, in the labors of the ministry. Throughout his entire Christian course he was not a sanguine Chris- tian. Ile was oftener in the Valley of Humiliation than on the Delectable Mountains. Yet withal, he felt that his feet were planted on the Rock, and whilst trembling at times as the billows dashed around him, he felt safe.
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After some preparatory study, Mr. Glenn became a student of Jefferson College, where he graduated in 1828. One of his classmates 1 at College, says, " While at College, he was one of the most sedate and circum- spect of the students ; and although cheerful, free from all the levities so characteristic of youth."
Mr. Glenn was for two years a student of the West- ern Theological Seminary. He also studied for some time under the advice and direction of his old pastor, Rev. Samuel Tait. He was licensed to preach the gos- pel, at a meeting of the Presbytery of Erie, held at Mercer, Pa., on the 2d day of February, 1831.
The intervening year and a half was spent chiefly in preaching to the vacant congregations of Amity, Mill Creek, and Sandy Lake, where, at a meeting of Presby- tery held at Mill Creek on the 12th day of September, 1832, he was ordained to the whole work of the minis- try, and installed as pastor of the congregations of Mill Creek and Amity for two thirds of his time. The remaining third was spent as a stated supply in the church of Sandy Lake. The relation to the church of Amity continued until April 3, 1850 ; that to Mill Creek until it was dissolved by death.
About the time he was released from Amity, the rela- tion to the church of Sandy Lake was suspended, and Mr. Glenn accepted calls from the congregation of Big Sugar Creek, and was installed as pastor there on the 18th day of June, 1850, spending half his time in each of the congregations of Mill Creek and Big Sugar Creek. This was his charge during the remainder of his ministry, making at Mill Creek a ministry of over twenty-five years.
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