USA > Ohio > Jefferson County > Steubenville > The church in eastern Ohio; a history with special reference to the parishes of St. Paul's, Steubenville, St. James's, Cross Creek and St. Stephen's, Steubenville > Part 3
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In the meantime the town, which had been platted by Bezaleel Wells and James Ross, was not only growing into quite a community, but the back country was being settled, and this resulted in a strictly rural organization, which in numbers and activity for awhile seemed to over-
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shadow the village congregation, to the understanding of which we must go back a few years. In 1798 two fam- ilies, or more strictly speaking, two branches of the same family, originally from Virginia and Maryland, which had lived a few years at West Middletown, Pa., came to Ohio, crossing the river at Steubenville. They were composed of Mrs. Mary McGuire and her son, John, whose husband and father had been a member of the George Rogers Clark expedition, and later died in Ken- tucky, together with Benjamin Doyle, who had married Patience, Mrs. McGuire's daughter, and had a family of several children. Mrs. McGuire purchased a tract and built a residence in Cross Creek township, which years after became the home of the celebrated orator, William II. Gibson, and finally a part of the present county in- firmary farm. Benjamin Doyle located a short distance west of the present Union Cemetery, and built a tannery in Steubenville, finally removing into the town, where he died in 1828, leaving numerous descendants. All were earnest Church people, and that they at first attended the services of Dr. Doddridge at the Court House is more than probable. But others coming into the neighbor- hood, and the settlements extending westward, there was a desire to have the privileges of the gospel nearer home. Late in 1799, or early in 1800, Dr. Doddridge returned to Philadelphia for the purpose of obtaining priest's or- ders, and in March, 1800, he was admitted to the priest- hood by Bishop White. At the same time he took a course in medicine for the double purpose of increasing his usefulness in his field of labor and adding to his meagre and uncertain income, which was a necessity if he was to continue his work. He remained in Philadel- phia most of that year pursuing his studies, and we can be sure that he was not slow to urge the needs of his western field. It may be added here that his efficiency
JEFFERSON COUNTY INFIRMARY, SITE OF MARY MCGUIRE HOME.
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STEUBENVILLE COURT HOUSE. SERVICES 1809-1816.
OLD COUNCIL CHAMBER SERVICES IS16-189:
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in medical and scientific pursuits was fully recognized by his election as honorary member of the Medico-Surgical Society of East Ohio upon its organization in 1821, and he was in 1812 elected an honorary member of the Phila- delphia Academy of Natural Sciences.
As has been previously intimated, after his accession to the priesthood in 1800, Dr. Doddridge adopted the subscription plan for support at his different charges, and Mrs. McGuire and her neighbors, desiring regular and permanent services, on December 1, 1800, an agreement was entered into with Dr. Doddridge by which he was to visit her place every third Sunday in the month, hold service according to the Prayer Book, and perform such other duties as were incident to his office. 'The sub- scribers to this agreement were George Mahan, Benjamin Doyle, William McConnell, William Whitcraft, Joseph Williams, John Scott, Eli Kelly, John Long, George Ritchey, George Halliwell, Mary McGuire, Moses Han- lon, William McConnell, John McKnight, John McCon- nell, Frederick Allbright. This was practically the first organized parish of the American Church in Ohio, and antedates a similar organization at Boardman by about nine years.
One would think that by this time Dr. Doddridge had enough on his hands without taking the burden of additional duties. But no undertaking seemed too great for him where the Church was involved. He organized parishes in St. Clairsville, Morristown and Zanesville, and preached at other points. Of the ten parishes repre- sented in the first annual convention of the Ohio diocese four were organized by Dr. Doddridge, while he prac- ticed medicine and looked after his Virginia cures.
The field was indeed ripe unto the harvest, but it was soon evident to Dr. Doddridge that if the Church was to hold its own in this section it must complete its organiza-
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tion according to its own standards. The different con- gregations were almost in the same situation as were the Colonial Churches before and during the Revolution. In theory they were Episcopal, but in practice they were Presbyterian or Congregational so far as government was concerned, each community being a law unto itself. Whether episcopacy be regarded as a divine precept or a practical form of Church government, it was apparent to Dr. Doddridge that they must have a bishop or there would soon be no Church in a literal sense. To obtain this he bent every energy. The first idea seems to have been the proposed formation of a diocese composed of Eastern Ohio, Western Virginia and Western Pennsyl- vania. But this did not find favor. The general Church, aside from any question of resources, was as firmly wed- ded to the state idea as was the Nation. In other words when there were sufficient Churchmen in any state to sup- port a bishop they could elect their man, and after ap- proval he would be consecrated, and the state for all ecclesiastical purposes become an independent diocese. It was not until the appointment of Kemper in 1835 that the General Convention rose to the comprehension of the Church's duty to SEND bishops to the missionary field. Dr. Doddridge's first memorial on this subject was sent in 1810 to Bishop White to be presented to the General Convention, asking for a bishop, but he received no reply for about eighteen months, when he learned that the peti- tion had been ignored. Perhaps this is the less surpris- ing when we consider that when it was desired to conse- crate Dr. Hobart as Bishop of New York in the spring of 1811, the difficulty of getting three bishops together to perform that office was so great that it was feared an- other application to England would be necessary in or- der to preserve the succession. If such was the situation in one of the leading dioceses in the country it could
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hardly be expected that the far-off cry of a handful of pioneers in Ohio would be effective. In a letter to Bishop White announcing the arrival of the newly elected Bishop Chase, dated December 4, 1818, he reviews the religious situation of the western country and the great loss sustained by not acceding to the memorial sent eight years before. Among other things he says :
As a patriot, as well as an Episcopalian, I wished for that system of Christian doctrine, those forms of worship, and that form of ecclesiastical government. which bear the impress of the primitive ages, and which, of course, are best for this world as well as for the next. For the spiritual benefit of the many thousands of our Israel here, I was most anxious for the organ- ization of the Episcopal Church in this Country at an early period of its settlement. All my endeavors to obtain these objects were unsuccessful. From year to year I have witnessed the plunder of our people to increase the number and build the churches of societies, in my view, less valuable than their own. How often have these people said to me in the bitterness of their hearts: "Must we live and die without baptism for our children, and without the sacrament for ourselves?" * * *
When, in 1810, the few Episcopal clergymen in this country made application through you to the General Convention to be associated together as a separate diocese. we confidently ex- ment, it would be made. We never received the slightest in- formation respecting the fate of our petition until the arrival of a clergyman at my house from Philadelphia, whose name I do not now recollect,-in' 1812, about eighteen months after the session of the General Convention, in which the subject had been agitated. The issue of the business blasted our hopes. From that time our intercourse with each other became less frequent than it had ever been before; our ecclesiastical affairs fell into a state of languor, and one of our clergymen, wearied with disappointment, and seeing no prospect of any event favor- able to the prosperity of the church, relinquished the ministry. I kept my station, cheerless as it was, without hope of doing any- thing beyond keeping together a few of my parishioners during my own lifetime, after which, as I supposed, they and their descendants must attach themselves to such societies as they might think. best. Such was the gloomy and unpleasant pros- pect before me. How often. during these years of hopeless despondency and discouragement, have I said to myself: "Is there not a single clergyman of my profession, of a zealous and faithful spirit, who would accept the holy and honorable office of a chorea episcopus for my country, and find his reward in the exalted pleasures of an approving conscience in gathering in the lost sheep of our Israel and planting churches in this new
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world? Is there not one of our bishops possessed of zeal and hardihood enough to induce him to cross the Allegheny moun- tains, and engage in this laudable work?" Year after year you answered these questions in the negative. * * *
When, about three years ago, I heard through indirect channels, some favorable reports concerning the prospects and the extension of the Episcopal Church in the Eastern States, I determined to make one more effort, for the purpose of ascer- taining the practicability of planting churches to the westward. Accordingly, in the autumn of 1815 I made a missionary tour in the interior of the state of Ohio, going as far as Chillicothe, where I held divine service twice. I also officiated both going and returning in nearly all the intermediate towns between that place and my place of residence. The prospect which this pre- sented was not discouraging. In almost every place I found skeletons of Episcopal congregations.
The year following, in October, 1816, according to agree- ment made with the Rev. James Killbourn, at my house a few weeks previous, I went to Worthington, Ohio (about nine miles north of Columbus). During the tour I officiated eighteen times. The proceedings of that meeting are known to you. The communications which I made to you and Bishop Hobart at that time concerning them were never answered.
Last week I made a tour of six days in the southern parts of Belmont and Monroe counties, Ohio, during which I offi- ciated seven times and found one congregation in the latter county in which I baptized thirty children, and had it not been that a mistake of one day occurred in the appointment, I was informed that the baptisms would have exceeded one hundred. Many of these people had been my parishioners previous to removing to their present localities, and, together with their neighbors, had delayed the baptism of their children in the hope of receiving that rite from a clergyman of their own church. This occurrence affected me deeply.
It will be seen that although cast down by the failure of his efforts to secure additional helpers and episcopal supervision, Dr. Doddridge was not discouraged, but spurred himself to renewed energy, and in the eight years from 1810 to 1818 in his "journeyings often" prac- tically took in all of Southeastern Ohio, northward as far as Steubenville and westward as far as Worthington, nearly one-fourth of the entire state, at a time when even the best wagon roads were only mud trails, and the sad- dle horse his principal if not his only conveyance. We have heard much lately, and deservedly so, of heroes of
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the mission field, but certainly none is better deserving of recognition than this pioneer priest, who, single handed during these weary years maintained the banner of the Church northwest of the Ohio, and ministered to the body diseased as well as the spiritual needs of the scattered faithful.
Bishop Meade in his "Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia," while giving credit to Dr. Dod- dridge for his zeal and self-denying labors, intimates that he exaggerated the needs of the Church people of the western country and underrated the hostility which ex- isted among a large portion of the population. Preju- dice and hostility no doubt existed, but Dr. Doddridge, who was on the ground, was certainly better able to as- certain the true condition of affairs than Bishop Meade on the other side of the mountains. Besides the figures and the work speak for themselves.
It may be well to mention here that Worth- ington, in Franklin County, was settled in 1803 by a band of Connecticut Churchmen, who or- ganized what was known as the Scioto Company, and emigrated here from the neighborhood of New Brit- ain, Conn., as soon as they ascertained that Ohio had been admitted as a free state. Their leader was James Kilbourn, who had taken deacon's orders in Connecti- cut, but followed the business of surveying. When the town was laid out a lot was reserved for the Church, and another for an academy. While Mr. Kilbourn main- tained services at Worthington, and afterwards sat in the diocesan convention as a clergyman, his employment was in the main secular, although his interest in Church ex- tension was always active.
Having become satisfied that the time had now come for a more decided move towards securing a bishop for this section, Dr. Doddridge and Mr. Kilbourn held a con-
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ference at the former's residence in Wellsburg early in September of 1816, at which it was determined to call a meeting of the churches of this section, including West- ern Pennsylvania, to make application to the General Convention of 1817 for the appointment of a bishop. Mr. Kilbourn desired the meeting to be held at Worth- ington, to which Dr. Doddridge finally agreed, although he feared the long and difficult journey would prevent the Pennsylvania clergy from attending, which turned out to be the case, although they sent a le tter acquiescing in any step the meeting might take towards securing the object sought.
October 21 was appointed for the meeting at Worth- ington, and on his way out Dr. Doddridge stopped over at Zanesville where, for two evenings in succession, he preached to congregations which taxed the Court House to its full capacity. A parish organization was formed and wardens and vestrymen elected, who at once chose Dr. Doddridge as their rector.
We have very little detail of the meeting at Worth- ington, which lasted two days. Gen. G. II. Griswold, of that place, writing to Miss Doddridge in 1861, says :
Such a meeting was held at this place on the 21st and 22d of October of that year (1816), which was attended by the Rev. Dr. Joseph Doddridge of Virginia and the Rev. James Kill- bonrn, at that time, I believe, the only Episcopal clergymen in the West; also by a number of lay delegates. of whom I can name the following: Ezra Griswold and David Prince, who represented the parish at this place, and Mr. Cunningham from near Steubenville, and a Mr. Palmer. The two latter made their quarters at our house.
This convention. originating with the clergymen before named, was, as I understand, the first ever held in Ohio, and from which has arisen whatever success and importance, our Church has attained. As I have no copy of the proceedings of that convention, I cannot inform you what was therein done beyond the adoption of a circular. an appeal to the Church east for help, and some order for further action, or subsequent con- ventions. Dr. Doddridge held service and preached three times
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at this place, forenoon, afternoon and evening, on Sunday, 20th October, and went to Columbus and preached in the evening of Tuesday, 22d, and myself and Mr. Goodrich were in attendance at Columbus from this place. Dr. Doddridge was, as I well recollect, very popular with the people, and very generally men- tioned as probably the future bishop.
Among the items of expense in the day book of E. H. Griswold ( father of the above writer), is one charged to St. John's Church for $3.00 cash handed Col. Kilbourn for Rev. Joseph Doddridge, and $2.00 for keep- ing Mr. Cunningham, "who was a delegate from Steu- benville," two days and nights, self and horse. A favor- ite amusement in that locality at this time appears to have been bear hunting.
As a result of this meeting a circular was prepared addressed to the bishops and clergy east of the Alle- ghenies setting forth in strong terms the destitution of the Church in the west, with a final appeal, "Come over into Macedonia and help us." This was followed by numerous signed petitions from both Ohio and Virginia, asking leave to form a diocese in the western country, which were sent to Bishops White and Hobart, to be presented to the General Convention at its forthcoming session in New York on May 20, 1817. The petition from St. James's, Cross Creek, was signed by William McConnell, Robert Maxwell, John Cunningham, Samuel Tipton, Alexander Cunningham, James Cunningham, George Mahan, Widow Mahan, Andrew Elliott, John Mccullough, Gabriel Armstrong, Benjamin Doyle, Wil- liam and Thomas White, John McConnell, James Strong, Hugh Taggart, Richard White, James and John Foster, James Dugan, William Graham, Daniel Dunlevy.
If Seabury may be considered as the George Wash- ington of the American Church, Hobart may be regarded as the John Marshall. While the former by his move- ments at the right time carried the movement for auton-
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omy to successful completion, the latter by his firm stand for the Catholic faith and Apostolic Order, joined to his great ability and energy of character, was elevating the Church out of its jellyfish condition, towards its proper position. Hence there was a prospect that the important paper would at least have a hearing. 'To enforce this appeal Dr. Doddridge addressed a six-page letter to Bishop Hobart in December, 1816, reviewing the condi- tion of affairs in the west, the openings presented for missionary work, and the desire of the people for the Church's ministry. He recalls the meeting at Worthing- ton, giving the proceedings in detail, and finally "begs his Rt. Rev. Brother speedily and freely to communicate to him his remarks on the course they had taken," and, "If in anything we have done amiss, or omitted to do anything we ought to have done, pray let us know it."
To these memorials no direct reply was received, and the first information received by Dr. Doddridge as to any action by the General Convention was a letter from Rev. Roger Searle dated Plymouth, Conn., August 4, 1817. Mr. Searle had come out to Ohio in February of 1817 and remained in the northeastern part of the state through March and April, when he returned to the east. During his sojourn he organized St. Peter's parish, Ash- tabula; Trinity, Cleveland; St. Luke's, Ravenna; St. James's, Boardman, and several others. During this period he baptized 284 persons, and admitted 83 to Holy Communion, of course without or rather in advance of their confirmation. He has been referred to as the pion- eer clergyman of Ohio, but it is evident that pioneer work had been going on a quarter of century before he came to this section. The letter to Dr. Doddridge above referred to was as follows :
Rev. and Dear Brother: I wrote you both from Pittsburgh and New York. Your long silence leads me to the conclusion
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that my letters have not reached you. It was a matter of ex- treme regret to me that I could not see you on my way from the interior of Ohio. At Zanesville I learned that you were to officiate there the next Sunday, but my time was limited to be in New York at the session of the General Convention as a delegate from this state (Connecticut). At Zanesville, Cam- bridge, Morristown and St. Clairsville, I heard of your pious and zealous exertions in behalf of our beloved Zion, and I trust that the time is not far distant when I shall be permitted to unite with you in labors for . this glorious cause in Ohio.
With a view to the organization of the Church in the state of Ohio, a convention is duly appointed to convene at Colum- bus, 5th of January next, and you will have perceived from the journal of its proceedings, that the provisions of the late Gen- eral Convention are such as to have met your wishes as made known by you to the house of bishops, and to the bishops and others separately.
You will also learn from the journal that our worthy friend from Zanesville, Dr. Reed, was not allowed a seat in the con- vention. Feeling as I did, a common interest in the welfare of the Church in the West, it was then, and still is, my opinion, that that body ought to have dispensed with its general rules in reference to that individual. His deportment on the occasion was that of a Christian and a gentleman, and I sincerely hope he will feel satisfied that the convention had no reference to himself, personally, but to the general rules of the Church in its conventional capacity.
Mr. Searle returned to Ohio in November, and having learned from Dr. Doddridge that he had never received a copy of the Convention Journal, writes from Zanesville under date of December 1, apologizing on be- half of all concerned for the inadvertence, and repairing the fault by sending him a copy. He calls attention to the fact that the doctor's "communications to the con- vention were duly recognized and the measures you urged were adopted with such modifications as were deemed essential by that body."
Thus was Dr. Doddridge at last notified in this un- official and roundabout manner of the final outcome of . his efforts, while he was yet uncertain of his future status.
The petition which was taken east by Mr. Searle, and presented to the House of Deputies on May 23,
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1817, mentions nineteen parishes, including those at Steubenville, St. Clairsville, Morristown and Cam- bridge, but Cross Creek is omitted. In addition to the creation of the diocese of Ohio, a canon was passed au- thorizing Western Pennsylvania and Western Virginia to place themselves under care of the Bishop of Ohio.
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CHAPTER IV.
A NEW ERA.
The Chase Family-First Bishop of Ohio-Organization of St. Paul's-Request of St. James's People for a Bishop-First Episcopal Visitations-Large Confirmation Classes-Inter- est of the People.
For a better understanding of the proceedings which led to the formation of the diocese of Ohio and the elec- tion of its first bishop, it is necessary to retrace our steps considerably, both as to time and place. In Bucking- hamshire, England, twenty-six miles northwest of Lon- don, lies the little town of Chesham with its venerable St. Mary's Church, dating back to the year 1100. Here lived a family of the name of Chase, members of the Church of England, some of whom at least seem to have been in sympathy with the Puritans of the seventeenth century. One of them, named Aquila, came to New Eng- land in 1640. It was a saying among some of the New England immigrants that they had fled from the "Lords Bishops" only to fall into the worse hands of the "Lords Brethren," and possibly Aquilla and his wife thought so when they were arrested one day for "gathering peas on the Sabbath Day." Fortunately they escaped with an admonishment not to be caught again in such a proceed- ing. Without following in detail the movements of the Chase family, it is sufficient to say that in the latter part of the eighteenth century we find one of Aquila's de- scendants, Dudley Chase, with Allace Corbett Chase, his wife, located with a growing family at Cornish, New Hampshire, a pioneer town, in the upper Connecticut River valley, since a favorite summer home for litera-
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teurs and statesmen. Here they tilled their land, and helped to make the wilderness blossom, while they were rearing their children in a manner that qualified them for the high places they and their descendants should after- wards occupy in Church and State. Without going into family details, it is sufficient to say that Abigail, the third daughter, who was born on November 9, 1759, married John Morse, a relative of the famous telegraph inventor. To this union was born on March 21, 1791, a boy named Intrepid, of whom we shall have much to say hereafter. Ithamas, Dudley's fourth son, was born Sep- tember 27, 1762, and became the father of Salmon P. Chase, U. S. Senator, Governor of Ohio, and Chief Jus- tice of the United States. The fifteenth and youngest child, Philander, was born December 14, 1775, and in 1796 was married to Miss Mary Fay, of Hardwick, Mass.
Young Chase seems to have been destined by his parents for the Congregational ministry, and the only marked event recorded of his early life was an accident which crippled him for several months, followed by a broken leg. Tutored by his brothers, he entered Dart- mouth College in the fall of 1791, from which he gradu- ated in 1795. A change had taken place during this period. About the latter part of 1793 he happened across a copy of the Book of Common Prayer, which in those days, especially in that section, was a very scarce article. Like the professors at Yale, and Doddridge at Cannons- burg, the beauty of its composition and the dignified or- der of worship first attracted his attention, but his schol- arly instincts soon led him below these surface indica- tions. The claims of apostolic ministry, valid adminis- tration of sacraments, dignity and stability of public worship, powerfully affected not only the young man himself, but the whole family connection, and the entire
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