The History of Warren County, Ohio, Part 28

Author: W. H. Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1081

USA > Ohio > Warren County > The History of Warren County, Ohio > Part 28

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As early as 1800, the Miami Baptist Association, at a meeting held at Turtle Creek, adopted the following:

Resolved, That in the future the title of Reverend as applied to ministers be laid aside, and that of Elder be substituted in its place.

This is believed to have been the origin of a custom which, for a long pe-

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riod, was nearly universal among the Baptists of Western Ohio and Indiana,. and still prevails among the Old School Baptists.

Methodist Episcopal Church. - The first sermon in Warren County by a regularty constituted Methodist minister was preached at Deerfield August 9, 1798. by Rev. John Kobler. Before this, however, Francis McCormick, a Methodist local preacher, had settled near the site of Milford, and he may have preached within the limits of Warren County before the visit of John Kob- ler. From the journal of Mr. Kobler, we learn that, on the 7th day of Au- gust, 1798, having but recently arrived in the Miami country, he set out from Mr. McCormick's house with a guide to form a two-weeks' circuit. Arriving at Deerfield, a little village, in which, he says, there might reside ten or fifteen fami- lies, he found some difficulty in finding a place to preach, for a Quaker in the town was opposed to his preaching and praying, and went from house to house to have the doors barred against him. He finally found a cordial reception at the house of a Mr. Sutton, who, he says, was a Baptist. He preached at Sut- ton's house early in the morning of August 9, and rode on six miles to Turtle Creek, where he preached at 4 o'clock on the same day at the house of Ichabod Corwin. He then passed in an eastern direction through a very thinly settled region.

After preaching at Dayton, he rode down the Great Miami, and preached, on August 13. at the block-house near the site of Miamisburg, to the inhabit- ants, whom he describes as truly poverty-stricken. He then rode of several miles to a little village called Franklin, where he was kindly entertained by Capt. Ross, at whose house he preached to the inhabitants of the place, which consisted of six or eight families.

The circuit established by Rev. John Kobler, the first regularly constituted Methodist missionary in the Miami Valley, extended from the Ohio to Dayton. The preaching-places were at private houses. At this time, the roads were so imperfect that twenty-five miles made a full day's journey on horseback. One of the preaching-places early established was at the house of Capt. Davis, on Clear Creek. This dwelling was a cabin, containing two rooms. Justice John McLean, then a boy. lived within less than half a mile of Capt. Davis' cabin, and often heard John Kobler preach, and thus writes of him: "I will never forget his appearance and manner. I was always much interested with his dis- course, and especially with his prayers. He was tall and well proportioned; his hair was black, and he wore it long, extending over the cape of his coat. His dress was neat, with a straight-breasted coat, and in every respect as be- came a Methodist preacher of that day. He had a most impressive counte- nance."

In August, 1798, John Kobler appointed Philip Hill a Class-Leader. In 1800, the conference sent no regular Methodist preacher to the Miami Circuit. There were, however, by this time, four or five local preachers within the cir- cuit. They went everywhere preaching the Word. They preached not only on Sundays, but on other days. They held two-days meetings, and kept up a system of quarterly meetings, which, by this time, were attended by large num- bers. Men and women would walk twenty and sometimes thirty miles to at- tend them. At night, the men would be quartered in barns and outhouses; the women, in the cabins. In 1802, Elisha W. Bowman, then a beardless youth, was sent to the Miami Circuit. In 1803, John Sale and Joseph Oglesby were the preachers for this large circuit.

Presbyterian Church. - The first Presbyterian Churches between the Mi- ami Rivers were under the charge of the Transylvania Presbytery of Kentucky until October, 1798. From that date, they were under the charge of Wash- ington Presbytery, so called from Washington, Mason Co., Ky., until 1810,

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S. R. Crane

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when the Miami Presbytery was formed. It is from the rocords of these Pres- byteries that the only accurate data of the history of the early Presbyterian Churches in Warren County are to be obtained. At a meeting of Washington Presbytery, at Bethel, in Kentucky, October 3, 1797, there was a verbal sup- plication for pulpit ministrations from Clear Creek, Turtle Creek and Big Prairie, west of the Ohio, and the Presbytery appointed Rev. Peter Wilson, who had a few months before moved to Cincinnati, to supply each of these three places one Sunday; and Rev. James Kemper, and Rev. William Robinson, each to supply two Sundays, on the Miamis. The preaching-place on Clear Creek was a short distance east of Franklin; Turtle Creek was at or near Bedle's Sta- tion and west of the site of Lebanon; and Big Prairie was in Butler County, above the mouth of Dick's Creek and below the site of Middletown. At a meet- ing of Washington Presbytery, at Cane Ridge, in Kentucky, October 2, 1798, a call to Rev. Archibald Steele, a licentiate from Kentucky, was presented from Clear Creek and Big Prairie Churches, the latter at this time called Or- angedale. A church called Bethany at the headquarters of Turtle Creek was received under the care of the Presbytery in October, 1800. This appears to have been a church built about two miles east of the site of Lebanon, and did not long maintain an existence.

The foregoing are all the Presbyterian Churches within the limits of War- ren County organized prior to the great revival, commonly called the New-Light revival, which, in 1802 and 1803, swept all those named as within the limits of Warren, as well as nearly every other Presbyterian Church in the Miami Valley, out of the Presbyterian denomination. None of these churches were able to secure the whole time of a pastor. All the early preachers had two or more congregations under their charge, besides preaching at private houses or in the woods at different localities. Turtle Creek Church, at Bedle's Station, was probably the largest and most influential of the Presbyterian congregations between the Miami Rivers, Cincinnati alone excepted. About the year 1798, Rev. James Kemper, the pioneer of Presbyterianism in Southwestern Ohio, and the first minister stationed in Cincinnati, took charge of the Turtle Creek Church. He was a man of much energy and industry, and was highly esteemed as a preacher and as a man. Although he had other congregations under his care at the time, he made the Turtle Creek settlement his home. He purchased a half-section of land, built a good hewed-log house and made lasting improve- ments, evidently with the expectation of remaining permanently. He did not remain long, however, as pastor of the church, or as a resident. Tradition gives two reasons for his separation from the church. One was a misunder- standing with William Bedle, one of his Elders, about a line dividing their farms; the other, that the pastor's wife wore too costly and stylish a bonnet to suit the membership of the church.

A. H. Dunlevy says: "The Turtle Creek Church was made up almost ex- clusively of plain farmers, and they determined to preserve, if possible, that plainness and simplicity of manners and dress which they conceived the New Testament enjoined on all members of a Christian Church. While all extrava- gance and gayety of dress were prohibited among male members, the women were to 'adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shame-facedness and so- briety, not with embroidered hair or gold or pearls, or costly array.' While the church existed, this plainness of dress was rigidly enforced."

THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1801, 1802, 1803, AND THE INTRODUCTION OF SHAKERISM.

The great revival at the commencement of this century was the most re- markable event in the religious history of Warren County. It destroyed every Presbyterian Church then in the county, and nearly every one in South western D

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Ohio. That denomination never fully recovered from its disastrous effects. Had it not been for that work, there is reason to believe that Presbyterianism would have been as strong in the Miami Valley to-day as it is in Western Penn- sylvania. The effects of this revival are seen to-day. It originated or intro- duced west of the Alleghanies, three different religious sects, still existing. It diverted from its usual channel the title of lands, turning from the prosperous uses of personal ownership to the unproductive charge of communism 4,000 acres of the best soil of the county.

This remarkable religious excitement began in Kentucky, and is known in church history as the Great Kentucky Revival of 1800. It soon spread into Tennessee, North Carolina, West Virginia and the Territory north of the Ohio. It originated in the Cumberland country under the preaching of Rev. James McGready, a Presbyterian clergyman, who is described as a homely man, with sandy hair and rugged features, so terrific in holding forth the terrors of hell that he was called a son of thunder. He pictured out "the furnace of hell with its red-hot coals of God's wrath as large as mountains; " he endeavored to open to the sinner's view "the burning lake of hell, to see its fiery billows rolling. and to hear the yells and groans of the damned ghosts roaring under the burn- ing wrath of an angry God." Under his preaching, several persons fell down with a loud cry and lay powerless, groaning, praying and crying to God for mercy. The excitement spread. Great camp-meetings were held-the first in the United States. Large numbers fell down and swooned, with every appear- ance of life suspended. Families came to these meetings a distance of fifty or a hundred miles. The camp-meetings continued three or four days and nights. Those from a distance slept in their wagons, in tents or temporary structures. At Cane Ridge, Bourbon Co., Ky., in August, 1801, it was estimated that 20, - 000 persons were present, many of whom were from the north side of the Ohio. It was estimated at this meeting that 3,000 persons fell to the ground under the unnatural excitement. There were at these meetings other strange physical manifestations, which increased the excitement and deeply moved the multi- tude. There were nervous affections, which produced horrible convulsions of the body and contortions of the countenance. The more shocking bodily exer- cises caused a division among the clergy as to the work. But opposition was compelled too often to succumb at the cry, "It is God's work!" At Concord. in May, 1801, seven Presbyterian ministers were present, four of whom opposed the work until the fourth day, when they, too, succumbed, and all professed to be convinced that it was the work of God.

At what time the great revival broke out in the Turtle Creek and Clear Creek settlements in Warren County is unknown. It commenced in the north- ern part of Kentucky, under the preaching of McNemar and others, early in 1801. The first large camp-meeting north of the Ohio was held at Eagle Creek. in Adams County, commencing June 5, 1801, and continuing four days and three nights. Doubtless the effects of the great awakening were felt in the region between the Miamis before the close of the year 1801. It should be borne in mind that the great revival, both in Kentucky and Ohio, prevailed chiefly among the Methodist and Presbyterian Churches. The Baptists were little affected by it.

In the spring of 1802, there came to the Turtle Creek Presbyterian Church a new Pastor, the Rev. Richard McNemar. This man was a leading spirit in the great revival. He came from Kentucky, where he had seen and assisted in some of its most remarkable scenes. To him it was evidently a miraculous work. He was tall and gaunt, but commanding in appearance, with piercing. restless eyes, ever in motion, and an expressive countenance. He was a class- ical scholar, and read Latin, Greek and Hebrew with ease. His manner of

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preaching inclined to the fervent and exciting, with much animation and vocif- eration, which gave him great power over the uncultivated audiences he' ad- dressed. He began his work at Turtle Creek with enthusiasm. He preached at different places in the vicinity of his church. His congregations were so large that. in the summer, the meetings were held in a grove near his church: and at night meetings in winter. log-heaps were built and set on fire to pro- tect from cold those who could not gain admission.

The strange physical phenomena which, from the first, attended the revival in Kentucky, followed McNemar's preaching in Warren County. The singular bodily exercises and convulsions which accompanied this revival on both sides of the Ohio, wherever there was undue excitement, have often been described by eye witnesses of unimpeachable veracity, and their accounts agree so substan- tially that all suspicion of exaggeration is dispelled. There are still living a few old persons who, in early life, saw some of this remarkable work. Mr. McNemar published a brief history of the revival. Peter Cartwright, the pio- neer Methodist preacher, in his autobiography, gives an account of what he himself saw of the work in Kentucky; and A. H. Dunlevy has published a brief sketch of the revival work at Turtle Creek. With such authorities. before us, we feel confidence in the substantial accuracy of the description of the physical manifestations we shall now give.

It was not uncommon in large meetings for large numbers to fall in a short time, and to lie unconscious, with hardly any signs of breathing or beating of the pulse. Some would lie for a short time only; others, for hours. Under McNemar's preaching at Turtle Creek, almost all the adult persons in a large congregation sometimes fell in this manner. After lying in an unconscious state, they would revive, some to sing or shout with joy, some to cry in agony. and others to exhort with strange power and feeling. "But what seemed strangest to me," says A. H. Dunlevy, " was that sometimes men and women, who never even thought seriously of religion, were stricken down as if dead for hours, and yet, on recovering, could give no acceunt of themselves during the trance, and had not as they said, any serious thoughts. or felt in any way more affected than usual. This, however, was not very frequently the case."

The jerks was the popular name for convulsions, which caused a rapid and spasmodic motion of the head, and sometimes affected the limbs and the whole body. The head would fly backward and forward, or from side to side, with such rapidity that the features could not be recognized. The looker-on would fear a dislocation of the neck, but no such injury is known to have ensued. "I have seen, " says Rev. Peter Cartwright, " more than five hundred persons jerk- ing at one time in my large congregations. To see those proud, well-dressed gentlemen and ladies take the jerks would often excite my risibilities. The first jerk or so, you would see their fine bonnets, caps and combs fly; and so sudden would be the jerking, that their long, loose hair would crack almost as loud as a wagoner's whip." The disease was sometimes communicated to those who had no serious impressions, and mocked at the revival. There were recurring fits of the strange disorder seven or eight years after the revival, and. indeed, sporadic cases at a much later period. The most graphic description of the jerks is that given by Richard McNemar. He says:

" Nothing in nature could better represent this strange and unaccountable operation than for one to goad another, alternately on every side, with a piece of red-hot iron. The exercise commonly began in the head, which would fly back- ward and forward, and from side to side, with a quick jolt, which the person would naturally labor to suppress, but in vain; and the more any one labored to stay himself and be sober, the more he staggered, and the more his twitches in- creased. He must necessarily go as he was inclined, whether with a violent

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dash on the ground and bounce from place to place like a foot-ball, or hop round. with head, limbs and trunk twitching and jolting in every direction, as if they must inevitably fly asunder. And how such could escape without injury was no small wonder among spectators. By this strange operation, the human frame was commonly so transformed and disfigured as to lose every trace of its natural appearance. Sometimes the head would be twitched right and left, to a half round. with such velocity that not a feature could be discovered, but the face appeared as much behind as before; and in the quick, progressive jerk, it would seem as if the person were transmuted into some other species of creat- ure. Head-dresses were of little account among the female jerkers. Even handkerchiefs bound tight round the head would be flirted off almost with the first twitch, and the hair put into the utmost confusion; this was a very great inconvenience, to redress which the generality were shorn, though directly contrary to their confession of faith. Such as were seized with jerks were wrested at once, not only from under their own government, but that of every one else, so that it was dangerous to attempt confining them or touching them in any manner, to whatever danger they were exposed, yet few were hurt, ex- cept it were such as rebelled against the operation, through willful and delib- erate enmity. and refused to comply with the injunctions which it came to en- force."

There were other exercises which were not so common and are sufficiently described by their names, viz., rolling, running, dancing and the holy laugh. There were instances at Turtle Creek of spinning around on the foot after the manner of the whirling dervishes of the East. The most disgusting of all the exercises was called the "barks," in which the subject not only imitated the bark of the dog, but sometimes ran upon all fours, growling, snarling and foaming at the mouth. That there were cases of this kind of brutish action cannot be doubted, but to the credit of human nature it is to be recorded that they were rare. It is noteworthy here that among the Convulsionistes of France seventy years before, there were persons similarly affected, some being called barkers and others mewers.

The subjects of these strange disorders were sincere men and women who could give no rational account of their movements and would only say they could not help it. In persons of peculiar nervous organization, overexcitement may result in actions which seem to be wholly involuntary, when there is really a hidden volition of their own, and they are influenced by sympathy with, and imitation of, what they have seen or heard of others doing under like circumstances. Psychological diseases always have been more or less epi- demic and contagious .. Emotions which do not seriously affect us when alone may become overpowering when many are affected. Thus, sympathy, "that wonderful instinct that links man to man in a social whole," in the wild excesses of popular feeling, becomes a dangerous power that seizes upon all it can reach and sweeps them round and round until they are drawn into the devouring vor- tex. Hysterical symptoms in times of great religious excitement should be promptly repressed or they may become epidemic. There is evidence that where the excesses we have described were must encouraged by the clergy and others in authority, they were most common; where they were encouraged, they were kept in check. It is narrated that a Baptist clergyman who did not believe that convulsions were the work of the Holy Spirit, seeing symptoms of the jerks appearing under his own preaching, exclaimed in a loud voice, "I command all unclean spirits to depart hence," and thus completely stayed the disorder.

Soon there were visions, prophecies and revelations among the revivalists. Their sons and daughters prophesied, their young men saw visions and their old men dreamed dreams. The new light which dawned upon them, or the

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internal manifestation of Divine wisdom, was such a favorite phrase with them that for several years the revival party were called New Lights. At a meeting of the Synod of Kentucky, September 6, 1803, at Lexington, it was proposed to enter upon a trial of Richard McNemar and John Thompson for unsound- ness of doctrine, but they resisted the action, and, with three other ministers, declared their independence and formed a separate Presbytery. John Thomp- son preached at Springdale, in Hamilton County. On the 20th of April, 1804, according to McNemar's account, the Turtle Creek Presbyterian Church, by a unanimous vote, with uplifted hands, was constituted a schismatic church. McNemar, at this time, was proud of the name of schismatic. At this time, the Turtle Creek Church laid aside the use of lead tokens on sacramental occa- sions, and thenceforward they called each other brother and sister. On the 28th of June, 1804, the ministers of the revival party, three north and three south of the Ohio, members of the Independent Presbytery, becoming convinced that all Presbyteries were unauthorized human devices, dissolved that body by writing its will and subscribing their names as witnesses. The witnesses to last will and testament of the Springfield Presbytery, as it was called, say that from its first existence, the body was knit together in love, lived in peace and concord and died a voluntary and happy death. Before the close of the year 1804, the New Lights, or revivalists, reported seven societies in Southwest Ohio, viz., Turtle Creek, Eagle Creek, Springdale, Orangedale, Clear Creek, Bea- ver Creek and Salem. They repudiated all creeds and confessions of faith except the Bible. They soon gave up the doctrine of the Trinity, and became immer- sionists. They declined to be called New Lights and adopted the name of Christians, and are to-day a distinct and respectable body. The New Light revival swept all the Presbyterian Churches in Southwestern Ohio, except those at Duck Creek and Round Bottom. The church at Cincinnati was largely tainted with the new doctrines and methods. The influence of Richard McNemar, for a time, seemed irresistible.

.The public meetings of the revivalists were often scenes of tumult and con- fusion. There would be singing, praying and exhorting at the same time. They invented what was termed the "praying match," which is stated to have had for its object the determination of " the brightest, boldest and loudest gift of prayer." According to McNemar, it was a custom when one would begin to preach or exhort and was deemed uninteresting, that he would presently be con- fronted with a prayer by some one else, and which ever manifested the greatest warmth and awakened the liveliest sensations, gained the victory and secured the general shout on his side. The Turtle Creek pastor approvingly represents his flock as " praying, shouting, jerking, barking, or rolling, dreaming, prophe- sying and looking as through a glass at the infinite glories of Zion." The whole congregation also sometimes prayed together with such power and volume of sound, that if the pastor does not exaggerate, " the doubtful footsteps of those in search of the meeting might be directed sometimes to the distance of miles around." Some time in the year 1804, they began to encourage one another to praise God in the dance. The custom of giving the right hand of fellowship to the new members having been introduced, "and, finding that it tended to increase the inner workings of the Spirit," says Richard McNemar, "it was gradually introduced as a common act of worship in concert with sing- ing hymns and spiritual songs. The whole society, young and old, male and female, would commonly unite in this mode of worship, and, taking each other by the hand, would shake not only their hands, but their whole bodies, like one churning, with such violence that the place would seem to quiver under them. This they called rejoicing, and in this worship they considered it the privilege of every one to unite who believed in the new doctrine of atonement."

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Twenty years before, there had died in the wilds of New York an illiterate woman, who had been the wife of a blacksmith until her religion taught her to abandon the marriage, relation. During her whole life, she endured great tribulation, saw visions, had frequent communications with the world of spirits, and was believed to be mad. A native of England, she had been imprisoned in Manchester for raising a tumult by street preaching. She believed that the Savior appeared to her in her prison-cell, and, in some mysterious manner, became united to her, and through her Heaven set up a church which is never to be destroyed. She gathered around her a little knot of followers, who called her Mother Ann, and styled themselves " Believers in Christ's Second Appear- ing," but they were usually known as Shakers, an appellation at which they took no offense. Coming to America in 1774, a band of eight persons, they made a settlement near Albany, and coutinued few in numbers until a great revival in 1779 occurred at New Lebanon, N. Y., which was attended with physical manifestations, not altogether unlike those just described. A number of the subjects of this revival visited Mother Ann and found the key to their religious experience. Thus did the Shakers receive their first considerable accession to their numbers.

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The History of Warren County, Ohio, Part 28

Author: W. H. Beers & Co. Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1081

Author: W. H. Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1081