USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > The Old stone church; the story of a hundred years, 1820-1920 > Part 5
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escaped bankruptcy or prison for debt, is a mystery to the student of pioneer times. Woe to the mission- ary who was tempted to "swap" anything, especially horses. He may have acted only as laymen did in such transactions, but the farmer who "swapped" horses with a preacher and then concluded that he had received the worst of the bargain, was certain to charge the dominie with crookedness.
Members of the Stone Church had no sooner deter- mined to exercise mutual oversight, and if necessary discipline by trial, than the clerk of the society fur- nished the first case for judicial process. Having scented impending charges, this official resigned be- fore they could be preferred. The allegations were that
In the store of Weddell and Clark he had publicly used harsh expressions toward Abraham Hickcox; that fur- thermore he had taken Abraham by the collar of his coat, apparently with the determination to fight, when he had been prevented by the intervention of those standing near; that such conduct was a disgrace to a professor of Christianity, and injurious to the cause of Christ in the place.
In this first case of discipline the accused failed to appear before the church tribunal until after the re- ceipt of a second citation, and then he declined to plead guilty on the ground that he had been actuated by righteous indignation. Suspension came, however, until the offensive conduct had been viewed in another light.
When one discovers the identity of "Abraham Hickcox" whose coat collar was roughly seized by
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the clerk of the Presbyterian Church Society, there is wonder that the aggressor did not receive the whipping. The shorter name of one of Cleveland's early characters was "Abram Hickox," the village blacksmith whose first smithy was on Superior Street, west of the site of the Rockefeller Building. Later a shop stood on the south side of Euclid Avenue east of the May Company's site, at the corner of what was known as Hickox Street, where the Ames Com- pany is now located. A sign over the door announced "Uncle Abram works here." This was followed by the print of a horseshoe, doubtless burned into the wood for good luck. After a protracted illness the sign was changed to read: "Uncle Abram still works here." A man of strong will, he was generally granted his own way. As village sexton he conducted burials in the first cemetery at the corner of Ontario and Prospect Streets, but his greatest pride centered in his service to Trinity Church, of which he had become sexton from the time of organization.
One Christmas season when the Presbyterians used the schoolhouse Sunday morning and afternoon, and the Episcopalians in the evening, this blacksmith- sexton rather bruskly warned the Reverend Stephen I. Bradstreet not to preach in the afternoon one of his long-winded sermons, as extra time was needed to decorate for the Episcopal service in the evening. When in addition to these facts relating to the unique career of Abram Hickox, one recalls Longfellow's "Village Blacksmith:"
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The smith, a mighty man is he With large and sinewy hands; And the muscles of his brawny arms Are strong as iron bands.
it seems as though the first clerk of the Presbyterian Society had manifested considerable courage when he seized Abram Hickox by the coat collar.
A more serious case of discipline was that of a member who had made dies of silver half-dollars for Painesville parties who paid two hundred dollars for them. The counterfeiters were soon arrested and the maker of the dies became known. The civil authori- ties took no action against him, but his church did. The wrong-doer confessed that he had been led by fallacious trains of reasoning; that in business he had never asked for what purpose anything he made was to be used; that if he did not accept the job some one else would, and that his family needed the money. Having admitted his error in every line of reasoning, he was ordered to reduce his confession to writing and then read it to the congregation.
Commercial transactions on the Sabbath became frequent occasions for trials. One member, the pro- prietor of a store patronized by lake and river boat- men, was accused of having sold meat on Sunday. Suspension followed until it was reported that he "had made arrangements whereby he would not have to break the Sabbath any longer." Whether or not this implied that a partnership had been effected the records do not make plain, but since then many stockholders have found refuge under a corporate
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covering, from a pursuing sense of personal respon- sibility.
Sunday travel became a vexing problem, as facilities for journeying on land and water increased, and a serious offence in the estimation of the churches. An Ohio clergyman en route to a General Assembly meet- ing remained in a coach that ran Sunday. Having returned home, he received a severe reprimand for having broken the Sabbath, instead of commenda- tion for fidelity according to the formal custom of Presbyteries.
One of the most unique cases of early discipline in the early days of the Stone Church was that of a young servant-girl, the specifications against whom were:
1st. She states that the Hair Comb in her possession and procured from C. C. Carlton & Co., has not been paid for, whereas Mr. Carlton and his clerk say that she paid for the Comb the evening of the day that she took it, thus uttering what is believed to be a falsehood.
2nd. The account she gives of the purchase of a Cape from Mrs. Findleson and Mrs. F.'s own account of it leaves ground to believe that she does not tell the truth respecting the transaction; Sarah says that she gave a dollar for it; Mrs. F. saying that she gave five dollars, and Sarah also declining to take the Cape as her prop- erty, although Mrs. F. considers the Cape as Sarah's.
3rd. She has expended money for articles of dress over and above what she can account for, thereby leav- ing the suspicion that she has obtained sums of money fraudulently, having stated before witnesses, that the whole amount of her receipts, since she has been with Mrs. . Whitaker, is $26., whereas the articles which she is
1 1
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known to have purchased exceed this sum by eight or nine dollars.
The case was that of a domestic living beyond her known income. The full explanation came when it was discovered that, having found a sum of money on River Street, the girl had proceeded to spend it, without having sought to find the loser.
Strange to relate the first case of doctrinal disci- pline was that of a woman. In 1835 Alfreda Clisbe, or Clisby, whether Mrs. or Miss, the record does not show, hurled a bomb into the camp of the "Male Members" by demanding a letter of dismission on the ground that she could "no longer walk with this church." The "Male Members" rallied from the shock of this heretical announcement, and proceeded at once through a legally appointed committee to demand from Alfreda why she could no longer walk in their company? The committee of investigation soon discovered that the lady offender had become tainted with the prevailing "perfectionism" and "unionism." To the investigating committee she boldly declared that
She could and did live without sin; that the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper so-called, and the order of ministers and churches, as they existed in the various denominations, had been done away; that the Bible was to be a guide no farther than the Holy Spirit revealed and explained its contents to the individual, and that which the Spirit taught was to be followed, even though it led contrary to what was in the Bible.
When the committee of the session reported this defiant repudiation of orthodox faith, the church
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fathers "Resolved, that Alfreda Clisbe be kindly ad- monished of her error." After the first citation given according to the book of discipline had been ignored by the heretic, a second was delivered, "agreeably to the direction of the gospel." The perseverance of the "Male Members" finally gained a signal victory. Alfreda Clisbe came into their judicial presence with the following confession :
Having been brought to the discovery of the errors which I had acknowledged as the truth of God, in oppo- sition to the established doctrine of the different churches, I have by the Grace of God been enabled to renounce and forsake them, therefore I feel in duty bound to signify the same to your committee, and as I sincerely repent for what I have said against the acknowledged Church of Christ and hope to be forgiven, I ask your pardon and also beg an interest in your prayers, that I may henceforth by watchfulness and prayer be able to walk in the straight and narrow path that leads from Earth to Heaven.
Then the penitent confessor added that
Wishing to belong to a Church of Christ, and not feeling at home in the Presbyterian Church, I should feel very thankful to you and the committee, if you would give me a letter to membership in the Methodist Church, as the doctrines and manner of worship in that Church are more agreeable to my views of the Scripture than any other.
Having rescued the misguided communicant from a medley of theological heresies, and having restored her to the Calvinistic fold of the Presbyterian Church, the brethren of that body readily commended her to the Armenian fellowship of the Methodist Church.
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Thus ended what may have been the first doctrinal trial on the Western Reserve, and from that time until the present the Presbyterian churches of northern Ohio have been singularly free from heresy prosecutions.
The increasing tendency of church members to participate in "worldly amusements" early challenged disciplinary correction or expulsion. Announcement was made in 1837 in a Cleveland daily paper that "The Theater" had opened with "new scenery, deco- rations, and a new and splendid drop-curtain, not surpassed by any other in the Union." Another
building for theatrical performances was under con- struction, three hundred feet long, seventy feet wide, and costing twenty-five thousand dollars. When com- pleted it "would rank with the principal public buildings in Western America." Theaters, balls, co- tillion parties, whether public or private, were all placed under ban by the churches. Participation in such frivolities constituted certain proof of a "return to the world," and a distinct breach of the church covenant. At one meeting of the "executive com- mittee" governing the Stone Church four sub- committees were appointed, each consisting of two deacons or elders, to visit and to remonstrate with members regarding their attendance upon "parties of vain amusements, dancing, etc."
When the fact is borne in mind that the great Methodist Episcopal Church still wrestles with the problem of revising its book of discipline, in which card-playing, dancing and theater-attendance are
0
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THE OLD STONE CHURCH
placed under ban, one can more readily realize to what extent the question of popular amusements has plagued the Christian churches.
Facilities for travel having increased, there arose an agitation over the propriety of owning stock in transportation companies operating on Sundays. The session of the Stone Church in 1836 took this stand:
Resolved, that in view of the great increase of Railroads, Canals and other objects of internal improvements we deem it a duty, both as Citizens and Christians, to lend them our means and influence, believing as we do that they are sources of great moral benefit or evil to our land; and that while we regard such objects as worthy of our attention, we deem it a paramount duty, recognizing the principles of the Fourth Commandment as obliga- tory, to decline taking stocks in such railroads, canals, and business associations, unless they respect the Sab- bath, by making it a day of sacred rest.
There is no record of disciplinary measures ever having been taken in respect to this matter, but it is known that leading members of the Stone Church, such as the late Elder Reuben F. Smith, for many years president of the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad, did all in their power, throughout their official connection with transportation systems, to lessen Sunday labor.
While churches have discontinued the strict disci- pline of earlier years, there ought to be brotherly watch and care exercised on the part of officers and members over those in danger of drifting from Christian fellowship. The fathers were faithful in seeking to restore to stated worship and to the
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observance of the Lord's Supper those growing luke- warm and careless. This was especially necessary after the large ingatherings at revival seasons, which on the whole strengthened the early churches, not- withstanding the many eccentric and superficial methods employed. It was to have been expected that some fitfully and emotionally moved would lapse in the course of time from their confession.
The "absentee roll," now printed on the blanks furnished annually for the compilation of church statistics, has become the repository of many abortive memberships that years ago would have been deemed worthy of disciplinary trials. Better is it for the peace of the congregations and for the wholesome results of Christian fellowship, that the rigid disci- pline exercised by the fathers should have given place to the "absentee roll," where there is either the per- manent decay of the unfaithful confession of Christ, or, as is frequently the case, its ultimate resurrection to life again.
Let not the reader imagine, however, that the re- ligion of the disciplinary years was based wholly upon negative precepts instead of upon positive principles. The first Stone Church manual, pub- lished in 1842, contained the confession of faith and covenant, both occupying only one-half the space required for the printing of "Hints relating to general duties." These with few exceptions could profitably be readopted today by churches. The "hints" re- lated not only to Bible reading, daily secret and family prayer, church attendance, and general duties
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relating to public worship, but also to duties such as punctuality in all business engagements, temperance in eating and drinking, cleanliness in person and dress, economy in living expenses, love for the pastor and defence of his reputation, love for the brethren, speaking ill of none, slowness in giving and in taking offence, visitation of the sick and poor, the religious education of children, avoidance of tattling and the spirit of bigotry toward other denominations, espe- cially underhanded proselytism, the duty of uniting with another church when there has been change of residence, as well as that of uniting with the church in the community to which a Christian may have come. Such were some of the very positive obliga- tions resting upon the earlier generation of Stone Church members who may at the same time have been prone to an extreme in church discipline; still modern churches have not surpassed pioneer congre- gations in codifying positive rules for the guidance of daily life and conduct.
In his sermon, "Then and now - a Contrast," de- livered at the time of the Seventy-fifth Anniversary Celebration, Dr. Haydn most cogently gave this analysis of the early church discipline:
Was it worth while? Of course it was. It is always worth while to be true to one's convictions. In this they are to be honored. They drew the line of distinction between the spirit of the kingdom of Christ, as represented by the Church, and the spirit of the world. They drew it where they thought it ought to be. The modern church draws it differently. We may think that they were narrow and bigoted, but they were not. They simply
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sought to be true to their light and to the spirit of their times, and it has never been proven that any of these things ever made Christ's people better, or saints more heavenly. But people cannot be made pious by rules and resolutions and discipline. The era of the individual conscience is here, and men must be approached on the side of reason and conscience. All in all, without any definition of spirituality in sight, I do not believe the church of 1895 less spiritual than that of 1820; and its sympathies are far broader, religion is more a life, and having to do with all days, with business and pleasure and all things else. That was a day of creed-confession at the door of the entrance to membership and com- munion. Now confession of faith in Christ and purpose to live by and for Him, opens all doors to church privileges, and this is well, for it is apostolic. I honor the Church of 1820, and 1835 and 1850 for what it was and did, and for the witness it bore, and the many noble men and women in it, but it was not all wheat. There were tares then as now. The records make these things manifest. Say not that the former days were better than these. Honor all days for the good that is in them, but take care of thine own and the record thou thyself art making.
IV. THE PLAN OF UNION 1801-1837
The history of Old Stone Church, and of all the Presbyterian and Congregational churches upon the Western Reserve, can be understood only in the light of the Plan of Union, a compact into which the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church and the Congregational Association of Connecticut entered in 1801, and under whose unique provisions the two denominations continued to cooperate for thirty-six years. This novel type of church polity was created soon after the coming to northern Ohio of the first two home missionaries, the Reverend William Wick and the Reverend Joseph Badger.
The former was the first minister to be installed pastor upon the Western Reserve. Born at South- ampton, N. Y., in 1786, his parents first moved to New York City and then to Pennsylvania, where the son graduated from Jefferson College. In 1799 he was licensed and delivered his first sermon at Youngs- town, Ohio, where in 1800 he was ordained and in- stalled over the Youngstown and Hopewell Churches of the Hartford Presbytery.
The Reverend William Wick at first received Pres- byterian aid, but later accepted an appointment under the Connecticut Missionary Society, although he continued to serve the Presbyterian Church at
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Youngstown, Ohio, until March 28, 1815, when he passed away at the age of forty-eight.
The Reverend Joseph Badger graduated from Yale College in 1785, after three years' service in the Revolutionary War. He became pastor of the Con- gregational Church at Blanford, Mass., and then accepted an appointment as missionary to the West- ern Reserve under the Connecticut Missionary Society. Having left his family in the east he traveled westward on horseback, by the way of Pittsburgh, and reached Youngstown the last Sunday in 1800. There he was heartily welcomed by the Reverend William Wick, and in the Youngstown Presbyterian Church the Reverend Joseph Badger delivered his first missionary sermon. As an itinerant minister he visited almost every settlement on the Reserve, in- cluding that of the Maumee Indians, but in 1801 he organized at Austinburgh the first Congregational church established on the Reserve. The charter members consisted of "ten males and six females."
The Presbyterian home missionary at Youngstown showed no inclination to contend with his Congrega- tional brother at Austinburgh, either over questions of doctrine or those of church government. The Reverend Joseph Badger sent for his wife and six children, the whole family to subsist in the wilderness upon a guaranteed support of seven dollars per week. A mistaken view of the western missionary's trials prompted the Connecticut Missionary Society in 1803 to reduce his salary to six dollars a week, thus placing the western missionaries upon the same
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basis of support as that granted the Vermont workers; whereas conditions in northern Ohio were entirely different from those in New England.
This heroic missionary at first accepted the salary cut, determined to trust "Him who feeds the ravens." In making a review of a year's work he wrote in his famous diary:
The Providence of God has been such as to excite my highest gratitude for His protecting care in my journey- ings, especially in perilous circumstances, in escaping the ravenous bear at night and in crossing streams dangerous to pass; often drenched with showers of rain and covered with snow. In the language of David, "I have laid me down and slept; I awaked, for the Lord sustained me."
In 1806, however, the Reverend Joseph Badger resigned his appointment under the Connecticut Missionary Society and entered the employ of the Presbyterian Missionary Society of Pittsburgh, which commissioned him to many years' service among the Indians of the Sandusky region. During the War of 1812 he served as a chaplain in the army, and was present at the siege of Fort Meigs. Toward the close of his ministerial career he became pastor of the Congregational Church at Augustus, Ohio, having retained his connection with the Massachusetts Con- gregational Association, but he was first to support the Plan of Union, and worked the greater part of his honored career under Presbyterian auspices.
Later in life he wrote regarding the leaving of the employ of the Connecticut Missionary Society :
The reasons given for reducing my pay were the very
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reasons why they should have adhered to the first agree- ment of seven dollars per week. The Vermont mission- aries were not subjected to uncommon hardships; their families were at home. The missionary could find com- fortable lodging and refreshment, with passable roads in every direction, but on the Reserve the missionary was subjected to hardships to the jeopardizing of his life and health, often traveling through the woods from ten to twenty miles, without any visible marks for a guide; often drenched and compelled to camp in the woods. Having worn out the clothing brought from New Eng- land, we were obliged to buy at the dearest rate anyone saw fit to ask; and having no means of making clothing for ourselves we were reduced to suffering. After having written repeatedly to the Society I concluded to tell my reasons for not continuing longer under its direction.
The Connecticut Missionary Society sought to make partial amends two years later by sending two hundred eighty-four dollars to the Reverend Joseph Badger. In 1844 he removed to Perrysburgh, Ohio, where he passed away almost ninety years of age.
It has often been asserted that the Presbyterians of the Western Reserve gained undue advantage over their Congregational brethren through the Plan of Union, and that the Christians who first came to the Western Reserve were almost wholly Congrega- tionalists; whereas the number of those reared Pres- byterians was by no means inconsiderable. The earliest records of the Stone Church present a mixture of Presbyterian and Congregational practices, yet the majority of the members received by letter were from Presbyterian churches, while Presbyterians from
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North Ireland, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, New York State, New Hampshire, and Vermont were numerous.
It should be borne in mind, furthermore, that Congregationalism was peculiarly indigenous to New England, and that the Connecticut type was "Con- sociated," or semi-Presbyterial, rather than the dis- tinct Independency of Massachusetts Congrega- tionalists. The Connecticut Congregationalists were also a doctrinal body, holding Calvinistic covenants and creeds which made them more akin to the Pres- byterians of the Western Reserve.
The intense yearning for Christian fellowship experienced by believers scattered throughout a remote and wild region, and the fact that the Presby- terian churches of southeastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania were more contiguous to the early settlers of the Western Reserve than were the home churches of New England, favored the modified Presbyterian polity of church government embodied in the Plan of Union.
Then there is an important "nick o' time" in the development of institutions. When the Reverend Joseph Badger should have had not only better financial support, but also the companionship of other New England missionaries, there was at that critical juncture utter failure, on the part of the Connecticut Missionary Society, to secure eastern recruits for the western fields.
From the time of Badger's arrival in 1800 until 1812 the Connecticut Society sought in vain for men,
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as the following letter from an officer of the society to a resident of the Reserve shows:
The trustees feel deeply for the people of the New Con- necticut. They appointed a number of missionaries, hoping that three or four would go into your country, but none have yet consented, and I cannot learn that they will. The truth is that our preaching people in this region have not courage or zeal enough to lead them so far. They view it as a great undertaking, and say, "We have missionary ground enough nearer home." Nevertheless Christ will provide for His flock in the wilderness. I have much hope from the plan which I suppose has been pre- sented to your Presbytery. Furnish us with suitable men, and we will pay them as we do our missionaries from this quarter.
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