USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > The Old stone church; the story of a hundred years, 1820-1920 > Part 6
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In such a communication this official rose above all sectarian prejudice, but his society was forced for a dozen of critical years to seek Presbyterian workers in the west, if it spent missionary funds to found churches on the Western Reserve, hence as one has aptly put the case, "Congregationalists ought not to complain that milk from their cows was churned into Presbyterian butter."
The exceptional case of the Reverend Simeon Woodruff, who came to the Reserve in 1812, illus- trates the early disinclination of New England minis- ters to accept service so far from home. Having graduated from Yale College he attended Andover Seminary, and there became intimately associated with Samuel J. Mills and his companions, who at Williams College in 1806 had held the famous Hay- stack prayer-meeting, there pledging themselves to
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foreign missionary work, if subsequent leadings of providence indicated that course of duty. Young Woodruff had anticipated entering some foreign field, but his attention having been turned to the pressing needs of the Western Reserve settlements, he accepted an appointment to that section of Ohio.
For such a promising clergyman to go as far west as the Reserve was regarded in New England as great a sacrifice as the acceptance of a foreign field would have been viewed. The Reverend Simeon Woodruff proved, however, to be the forerunner of a splendid band of Congregational ministers who left New England between 1813 and 1830 for service on the Reserve. They were graduates of Yale, Hamilton, Williams, Bowdoin, Dartmouth, Middlebury, Am- herst, Union, Brown, and other New England colleges; while many of them had studied at An- dover, Princeton, and Hartford Theological Semi- naries. A few of these home missionaries entered educational work, and founded preparatory acade- mies, or Latin schools, long before public high schools were established.
The Plan of Union had held the scattered Chris- tians upon the Reserve in orderly communions, Con- gregationalists and Presbyterians alike making com- promises in church government, and working in practical fellowship. If at the formation of a pioneer church a majority of the "Male Members" were Congregationalists, their form of government was adopted. To that congregation the Presbytery was only a "Standing Committee," to which the members
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could go for advice; whereas in questions of doctrine the Presbytery was a "Consociation."
On the other hand the Presbytery had full power in questions of polity and doctrine over the Presby- terian churches. These sent elders to meetings of Presbytery, while to the same body the Congrega- tionalists commissioned deacons. Under the Plan of Union compact Congregational deacons and com- mitteemen were admitted to a Presbytery upon an equality with Presbyterian ruling elders. Evidently this unique arrangement had created a new type of church government upon the Reserve, and for almost a third of a century it was generally satisfactory to the ministers who had labored under its provisions. Naturally they asked why the Western Reserve should not enjoy its own ecclesiasticism, as well as New England with her more distinct Congrega- tionalism, and New Jersey and Pennsylvania with their special order of Presbyterianism? This hope of church unity through ecclesiastical evolution, how- ever, was doomed, and in 1837 the Plan of Union of 1801 ceased to exist. "High Churchism," or the pride in denominationalism, revived in the Congrega- tionalists who had come later to the New Connecti- cut, and in the Presbyterians of the eastern portions of the country.
About 1831-1832 the Congregational forces on the Reserve were augmented by the arrival of eastern ministers and laymen, who had neither practical knowledge of the Plan of Union nor any sympathy with the same. They at once became zealous to re-
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produce the ecclesiastical order of the older states from which they had come. In 1835 an attempt was made to revive pure Congregationalism on the plea that the Congregational churches "had expected to be dismissed from the Plan of Union as soon as they were able to go alone."
Then followed the "Oberlin Movement," with its more definite Congregational features, notwithstand- ing the fact that both President Mahan and Professor Finney had been Presbyterian ministers. In addition to Oberlin ultra-abolitionism there were precipitated doctrinal disputes which did not secure the sympathy of the Calvinistic Congregationalists on the Reserve. The antagonism between certain Congregational churches and the Oberlin party was as strong as that between Oberlinism and the Presbyterian Synod. It is not surprising, then, to discover that many Con- gregationalists on the Reserve found less affinity with the Oberlin party than they did with the Plan of Union Presbyterians, with whom they had long been associated in practical work. The term "Orthodox Congregationalism" in northern Ohio did not then apply to any distinction from Unitarianism, as was true in New England, but merely to the difference on the Reserve between Calvinistic and semi-Armenian types of Congregationalism.
In addition to the problem of slavery, with its dis- rupting agitations in the churches, there came the Oberlin "Perfectionism," followed by "Millerism," and premillennial extremes in general, all culminating in the fixing of the date of the Second Advent.
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Congregationalism, highly indigenous in a homo- geneous community, such as New England was, tended to produce far different results in the hetero- geneous population of the Western Reserve, where every possible reform movement was welcomed. The Oberlin movement paved the way for many advanced social, educational, and religious gains, but the various upheavals produced the opposite of Christian unionism professedly sought by its leaders.
What such agitations within the churches of the Reserve failed to effect in the abrogation of the Plan of Union the Presbyterian General Assembly of 1837 supplied from without, in bringing to an end the compact made by the General Assembly of 1801.
The original Presbytery of Hartford had been sub- divided into the Grand River, Portage, Huron, and Cleveland Presbyteries, and these constituted the Synod of the Western Reserve. As the New England Congregationalists had been too far removed to appreciate properly the early conditions that sur- rounded the Reverend Joseph Badger, so the eastern Presbyterians, whose commissioners constituted a majority of the General Assembly, failed to under- stand the Plan of Union type of Presbyterianism on the Reserve.
The General Assembly of 1837 held in Philadelphia had heard of radicalism, unionism, Oberlinism, and of eccentric evangelism in the west. Prominent Con- gregational and Presbyterian ministers of the Re- serve, still enjoying the unique fellowship of the Plan of Union, wrote articles defending the northern Ohio
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churches, as not having become involved in the extreme and disrupting agitations, but such defence produced little impression upon the Presbyterian ecclesiastics of 1837.
While the "High Church" party of the Presbyterian Church disliked the Plan of Union Presbyteries, in which Congregational deacons served on an equal basis with Presbyterian elders, the main fear of the Presbyterian hierarchy in 1837 was due to its dislike of all cooperative benevolent institutions, such as the home missionary societies.
There was also the suspicion that the extreme democratic tendencies of Congregationalism had been introduced into the Western Reserve Synod. The ruthless excision of that Synod from the Presbyterian fold, by the General Assembly of 1837, and the grow- ing demand for the establishment of strict Congrega- tionalism on the Reserve, together annulled the Plan of Union compact.
The exscinded Synod of the Western Reserve did not, however, turn to Congregationalism for fellow- ship, but in connection with the Synods of Auburn, Geneva and Genesee, also exscinded by the General Assembly, the New School Presbyterian Church was founded and flourished until the reunion of the Old and New School Presbyterian Churches was effected in 1869.
Since the abrogation of the Plan of Union the Pres- byterian and Congregational churches of the Western Reserve have prosecuted their distinct lines of denominational work, with little practical difference
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in spiritual and educational results. No one can re- view carefully, however, the sincere efforts of the early Presbyterian and Congregational settlers of the New Connecticut to evolve a distinct form of eccle- siasticism for their day and generation, without won- dering whether or not the spirit of "High Churchism," in both the Presbyterian and Congregational churches, will ever again become so weakened that the two great denominations so closely allied may ultimately be welded by a revived Plan of Union into practical, wholesome fellowship, not only upon the Western Reserve of Ohio, but also throughout the world that is to be won for Jesus Christ.
V. PASTORATE OF THE REVEREND SAMUEL CLARK AIKEN 1835 - 1861
Early in the reign of James the First in England, the Scotch people were offered special inducements to emigrate to Ireland. A large response of colonists soon made Ulster County and other portions of North Ireland exceedingly prosperous. In the course of time, however, the Scotch-Irish became sorely op- pressed, the English having destroyed their woolen trade. The new adverse conditions prompted, from 1720 to 1770, the emigration of twelve thousand a year, or a total of six hundred thousand Scotch-Irish, to the American colonies. Thus at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War the Scotch-Irish and their descendants constituted almost the largest single race in this country.
The phrase "Scotch-Irish" is a misnomer if to anyone it implies intermarriage of races. There was none in this instance, the term being wholly geo- graphical and not ethnological. It is seldom used in Ireland, where the people of the north are called Ulstermen. The Scotch-Irish, therefore, are merely the Scotch from the north of Ireland.
Throughout the American colonies this stream of emigrants scattered. Comparatively few, about twenty thousand, found homes in New England, especially along the Merrimac River and in parts of
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Vermont and New Hampshire. They had come prin- cipally from Londonderry County, Ireland; hence the founding of Londonderry, New Hampshire, where in 1754 a Presbyterian church of over seven hundred communicants flourished.
The Reverend Samuel Clark Aiken, D.D., the first installed pastor of the Old Stone Church, was born at Windham, Vermont, September 21, 1790, of Scotch- Irish parents, who diligently trained their eight chil- dren in the faith of the Presbyterian church. The father, a humble farmer, soon discovered that one of his five sons was not inclined to follow agricultural pursuits, for to Samuel farm labor proved exceedingly irksome. Having perceived the bookish tastes of the lad, instead of lashing him to manual toil, the father wisely allowed this son to follow his natural inclina- tions. The family library, although poor in size, was rich in quality. The modest collection included the Bible, the Shorter Catechism, Watt's Psalms and Hymns; while Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul had been added to the Aiken library in a peculiar way.
When only nine years of age Samuel Aiken had been given a dollar and sent to Brattleboro to pur- chase a book. No particular literary product had been specified, and the lad returned with the famous work of Doddridge. This was due, however, to the choice of the bookseller, and not to any precocious trait in the youthful purchaser. The mother to whom had been committed the religious care of her five sons and three daughters, greatly pleased over the
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outcome of Samuel's trip, proceeded at once to enlist his interest in the teachings of Doddridge. In the course of time the study awoke in the youth a deep sense of sin and of his need of a Saviour.
After preparation for college had ended, Samuel C. Aiken entered Middlebury in a class a year ahead of the one in which he graduated, ill health having forced the loss of a year. The college course, espe- cially that of a small institution of higher learning, such as Middlebury College was, introduces a pupil to a little world of itself, and no one can compute the interplay of influences there molding character. In college young Aiken was a promising youth among strong associates, the class of 1814 at Middlebury College having contained members destined to take high rank in the world. There were Silas Wright, who dying at fifty-two years of age, had filled with honor the office of governor of New York State, and had rendered for eleven years signal service in the United States Senate, along with colleagues like Webster, Benton, Clay, and Calhoun; Samuel Nelson, afterwards a member of the United States Supreme Court; Carlos Wilcox, widely known as a clergyman and poet, long before he died at thirty-three; Pleny Fisk and Levi Parsons, early missionaries to Syria; and Sylvester Larned, whose eloquence and earnestness reminded auditors of Whitefield, and who died of the yellow fever at New Orleans, where he had founded the First Presbyterian Church of that city.
Young Aiken went from Middlebury to Andover
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Theological Seminary, where he also found whole- some associates. One of these was Eleazer T. Fitch, who at the age of twenty-four became professor of divinity and pastor of Yale College, a position held with honor for forty years. Licensed to preach by the Londonderry Presbytery, Samuel C. Aiken went to New York City to serve the Young Men's Mission- ary Society, but a call soon came from the Presby- terian Church of Utica, N. Y. The trip by coach from New York City to his new field consumed three days and three nights. The Utica congregation was strong and influential, but during this first pastorate of eighteen years many exciting questions arose in central New York State, such as the new measures devised to promote revivals and the increasing con- flict between the old and new theology.
Dr. Aiken, constitutionally conservative, was not easily moved by agitations that excited many; still with all his heart he believed in revivals, and it was in the Utica Presbyterian Church that Charles G. Finney first became extensively known as a success- ful evangelist. The two men remained ever fast per- sonal friends, although Dr. Aiken had little sym- pathy with many peculiarities of President Finney's theology. In doctrinal views he sided with Nettleton; in religious work he labored with Finney.
The Utica pastorate was very successful, but hope for better health prompted a change. This decision was announced, greatly to the sorrow of his Utica congregation, and a lady member sought to dissuade her pastor from leaving Utica, by means of a poem
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portraying the hardships, evils, and general barbar- ism of the Western Reserve, including in her literary production a pathetic description of a shipwreck on Lake Erie. The poetical effusion, however, did not alter her pastor's decision.
A number of Cleveland people who had previously resided in or near Utica had highly recommended Dr. Aiken to members of the Stone Church. One admirer of the eastern minister was Mr. Truman P. Handy, who having lived in earlier years near Utica had become acquainted with Dr. Aiken. There were others living in Cleveland who had known Dr. Aiken in Utica. One of these was Mr. Alexander Seymour, who came to Cleveland in 1834 to enter the banking business. So lasting was the friendship between the two men that they purchased adjoining lots in Erie Street Cemetery, that they might not be parted in death. Furthermore the wife of Dr. Aiken was a cousin of Judge Sherlock J. Andrews, who came to Cleveland in 1825.
This first installed pastor of the Stone Church came to Cleveland in the prime of life. According to Mr. Handy's description,
He possessed a large and commanding figure, fine features, dark complexion, black hair, a steady voice and a deep mind, which when roused to its full power was possessed of surprising force.
Another intimate friend of Dr. Aiken thus de- scribed him:
In the earlier years of life Dr. Aiken was tall, erect and of symmetrical proportions. His countenance was attrac-
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tive, combining a high degree of dignity, intelligence, and amiability. In manner he was rather precise, yet cour- teous and companionable. As a preacher he was at times very able and eloquent; at other times less impres- sive, but always pleasing and instructive. When thor- oughly aroused he spoke with great power and eloquence.
Although the Cleveland parish was inferior in size and prestige compared with the eastern one that he had left, the new pastor soon exhibited the same power of drawing about him a body of business and professional men, and of laying solid foundations for religious upbuilding. The first' appearance in the Cleveland pulpit, however, was not calculated to enthuse the pastor-elect. It was upon the first Sab- bath in June, 1835, and Dr. Aiken naturally thought that curiosity alone would prompt a large congrega- tion, but to his surprise the church was only half-filled. Having expressed perplexity over the situation, he learned that the curious element in the community had gone to a horse race, held at the same hour as that of the morning service.
Two brief sessional records introduce the settle- ment of the Reverend Samuel C. Aiken, D.D., as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Cleveland :
October 25, 1835. Resolved, that the Installation of Rev. Mr. Aiken take place the second week in November, or sooner or later, as may best suit him and the Presbytery.
Again,
The Installation of Rev. Mr. Aiken over the Church and Congregation took place on Tuesday evening, November 24, 1835. Sermon by Mr. Finney.
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According to the minutes of Cleveland Presbytery the installation was conducted at "an adjourned, but well-attended meeting of Presbytery." Professor Charles G. Finney, who had just accepted the chair of theology in Oberlin College, delivered the sermon; the Reverend John Keys, of Dover, offered prayer of installation; the Reverend Daniel W. Lathrop, agent for the American Home Missionary Society for the Reserve and Michigan, gave the charge to the pastor; the Reverend Daniel C. Blood, of Strongsville, de- livered the charge to the people; and the Reverend Horace Smith, of Richfield, offered the closing prayer.
Before his installation Dr. Aiken had been on the field about six months, having preached his first ser- mon June 7, 1835. Under the greater stability of a settled pastorate church life assumed more uniform character. Uncertainties as to church government which had periodically disturbed the congregation disappeared, and the Presbyterian polity was perma- nently established, in accordance with the original charter of January 5, 1827.
Not until 1875 did elders in the Presbyterian Church begin to be elected for definite terms instead of for life. The limited term was to be not less than three years and the session divided into three classes, one to be elected annually. Elders chosen for the limited term were not divested of ordination rights if not reelected, but were entitled to represent their churches in higher judicatories when appointed by session or Presbytery. In 1885 this limited term of election was applied to deacons.
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In the case of the Stone Church, however, at the beginning of Dr. Aiken's pastorate the following action was taken June 26, 1835:
Resolved, that we elect six brethren whose terms of office shall expire in the following manner, viz., the two oldest shall go out the first year; the next two in age the second and the last two the third year. After three years their term of service shall expire according to the seniority of office and not of age. Vacancies are to be filled annually and the same individuals may be reelected.
Three deacons were elected in the same manner, so that the term of one should expire annually. This shows that the Stone Church, in respect to the limited term of service, both of elders and deacons, was far in advance of the denomination with which it was affiliated.
Dr. Aiken's pastorate commenced when radical civic changes were impending and the pioneer village was rapidly becoming a city. The population had grown to five thousand eighty, having doubled from 1833 to 1835. The earlier hardships of travel disappear- ing, emigrants were rushing from the eastern states to share in the wealth of the "far west." Lake steamers were taxed to their capacity, and the future metropolis of Ohio began to reap harvests of men and money.
Rivalry between the settlements on opposite sides of the river began to wax bitter. Josiah Barber having built his log-cabin on the west bank in 1819, the Buffalo Company in 1831 also purchased there a farm, embracing the lowlands toward the mouth of the dividing stream. These were soon covered with ware-
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houses; while on the bluffs stores and residences appeared; hotels were erected and preparations made for the founding of a city that would outrival the older one on the eastern bank.
The mouth of the crooked stream was improved for navigation, and when steps were taken in 1836 to secure a city charter for Cleveland, leading citizens made a sincere attempt to unite the rival settlements. All negotiations, however, proved abortive, and rep- resentatives of the jealous communities started post- haste for Columbus, each determined to outstrip the other in securing a municipal charter. Great was the mortification of the residents of Cleveland when it became known that the representatives of Ohio City, the younger settlement, had won the race.
Mr. James S. Clark built in 1835 a bridge connect- ing Cleveland and Ohio City. This philanthropic structure was devoted to public use until Cleveland and Ohio City had obtained charters, when each claimed jurisdiction over the connecting link, and this led to the famous Battle of the Bridge. A field- piece and weapons of various kinds were brought into action; the draw of the bridge was cut, and parts of the abutments were demolished. Ohio City's forces were led by the Reverend Dr. Pickands, who first offered prayer for the success of his followers. After three combatants had been seriously wounded, and others had been badly bruised, a Cleveland marshal transferred the war of weapons to the courts.
At the beginning of Dr. Aiken's pastorate the Stone Church was strengthened by the coming into mem-
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bership of a number of talented young men who soon took high rank in the professions. The large number of able lawyers was very marked. In 1833 Hiram A. Willson, a graduate of Hamilton College, came from New York State to Cleveland. He became judge of the United States District Court and presided at numerous famous trials, such as the Oberlin Rescue Case.
In 1834 Colonel Charles Whittlesey settled in Cleve- land. He had graduated from West Point in 1831 and remained in army service until the close of the Black Hawk War. Although advanced in years for military life he served in the Civil War until the Battle of Shiloh, when he found it necessary to retire. In 1834 he opened a law office, but no one profession could claim him. He was part owner and editor of the Whig and Herald, an author, scientist, especially gifted in geological research, and his literary works were prolific. They comprised at the time of his death one hundred ninety-one historical, archaeological, scientific and religious treatises. He was a leader in the founding of the Western Reserve Historical Society and had a reputation in Europe, as well as in America, according to the testimony of the New York Herald, at the time of his death.
In 1836 three young men settled in Cleveland. One was William Bingham, who at twenty years of age came from Andover, N. H. He entered the hardware business, and founded the noted Wm. Bingham Com- pany. His son, Charles W. Bingham, is a member of the Stone Church and for the last sixteen years has
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been a valued trustee. A granddaughter, Mrs. Dud- ley S. Blossom, is also a member this centennial year. Another young man who arrived in 1836 was Frank- lin T. Backus, a Yale College graduate, who became a member of the law firm of Bolton and Kelley, and rose to eminence in his profession. He married the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Mygatt, served as an elder in the Stone Church, while the Law Depart- ment of Western Reserve University bears his name.
The third young man to arrive in 1836 was Moses C. Younglove, whose wife was a sister of Mrs. Aiken. At first the proprietor of a bookstore and printing company, he became a prominent manufacturer and after fifty-six years' residence in Cleveland died in California.
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