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The ROCKY SPRING PRES- BYTERIAN CHURCH and the REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD : ยท
The FRANKLIN COUNTY CHAPTER of THE DAUGHTERS of THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION PRICE 25 cents
The ROCKY SPRING PRES- BYTERIAN CHURCH and the REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD . : : : :
The FRANKLIN COUNTY CHAPTER of THE DAUGHTERS of THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION PRICE 25 cents
Address delivered by Rev. William L. Mudge at the First Chapter Meeting September 30, 1919
THE ROCKY SPRING PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AND THE REVO- LUTIONARY PERIOD
We are living in the greatest days that the modern world has seen. Old forms of government that have existed for fifteen hundred years have fallen into ruins before our very eyes. Ruling dynasties which traced back their origin to Charlemagne have been driven from the positions of power that they have occupied for centuries. New nations are being born in our very presence and peoples who cannot remember the time when they have not been held in bondage by an alien military power are standing erect and making ready to march forward to take their places in the family of free nations.
There are revolutionary changes in the world of ideas as well as in the world of events. Loud and angry voices are being raised on every hand, urging the overthrow of the foundations of society and of the civilization which it has taken three thousand years to build. Destruction is the order of the day. Crude thinking accompanies unconsidered and hysterical action and bewildering confusion in the minds of many has been the inevitable result.
In the midst of these tremendous changes and this con- fusion of mind it is high time to attempt to strengthen our convictions in the fundamental principles of our great Re- public and as patriotic and true Americans to study the period when the foundations of our nation were laid and when the nation itself was born.
For what is happening about us is the full accomplish- ment of the American Revolution. The ideals which guided the building up of the United States and the making over of the older civilizations of Great Britain and France are the principles which we have just been defending in arms against the full force and power of military autocracy and imperialism and which have given the birth of life that has brought into being the many new and smaller nations of the
earth. Never was there a time, therefore, when as Ameri- cans we should more earnestly cultivate a true patriotism and seek not only to conserve the victory won on the field of battle but also to consecrate ourselves to the task of maintaining a free government for the sake of which our forefathers in this and in other sections of our country gave their lives.
As we have gathered on this sacred and historic spot where can we better find inspiration to guide us and give courage to our souls. For here lived and worshiped those who possessed the convictions which so greatly helped to steady and strengthened the hands and hearts of those who had such a large part in making our republic what it is to- day. Who knows but that their spirits are now hovering about us. May the consciousness of their presence both hal- low this shrine of American liberty and enable us to do our share in giving the same liberty unto the peoples of the world.
Let us first endeavor to paint the background of our pic- ture by considering the place and the times to which our thoughts are to be turned and then we will be better able to describe some of the more prominent characters and the part they took in that critical period of our national life.
The Rocky Spring Church is situated 4 miles north of Chambersburg on the road to Roxbury in Letterkenny town- ship, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. It stands on a lime- stone knoll from the base of which flows a stream of pure spring water, sufficient to furnish motive power for a small grist mill a few rods distant. It is from this spring issuing out of the rock that the church takes its name.
As there are no records the exact date of the organiza- tion of the church is not known. It must have been in exist- ence in 1739 for the following action of the Presbytery has been found: "Conococheague, November 16th, 1739. A sup- plication being presented and read requesting the Committee's concurrence that the meeting house be erected at the Rocky Spring and hearing a great deal on both sides of the question
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the committee observing that proper methods were fallen into some time ago to regulate this affair and a report of the good issue being made by Rev. Creaghead and a commission from that people together with several other circumstances too tedious here to insert, do agree and conclude that the house for public worship be erected as near to the Falling Spring as conveniently may be. Concluded with prayer."
There are some who place the actual organization sev- eral years earlier for even in 1730 there were isolated settle- ments in the Cumberland Valley such as Falling Spring Chambersburg, between Middle Spring and Shippensburg at the Big Spring, and at other points near the Susquehanna. In 1734 the Blunston license system of title came into effect and the Proprietary Government encouraged immigration. The peaceful attitude of the Indians together with the fer- tility of the soil also caused a rapidly increasing number to settle here, so that in 1736 there were settlements extending from the Susquehanna to the Potomac. With the exception of a few Germans at Greencastle and Welsh Run the people were all Scotch Irish or their immediate descendants. This, we are informed, was true of the entire valley up to 1750. The generally accepted date, therefore, of the organization of the Rocky Spring Church is 1738.
It is interesting to remember that the uniform custom of these early settlers was to avoid the choice limestone land and the towns, and settle along streams such as the Conodo- guinet and at springs and to select the higher slate lands such as lie near this church. Thus it is certain that in 1738 there was quite a settlement of people between Rocky Spring and Strasburg and around the present town of Strasburg and between Rocky Spring and Chambersburg. Among many others the following names might be mentioned. James and Samuel Henry, John Hastin, Francis and Samuel Jones, William Baird, Matthew and Robert Patton and James Culbertson.
Several sites have been mentioned on which the original church was erected but the best information seems to indi- cate that it stood on the ground occupied by the present
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building with the eastern side running parrallel with the grave yard fence and nearer to it than the present building. It was probably about thirty-five feet square when first erected and there was the same relation to the points of the compass as the present building with the front towards the South. It was made of logs, one and one-half stories high with one row of windows on the lower floor.
Because of the growth of the congregation, an addition was soon built of logs, a small square structure attached to the main building on the south and extending one-half its length. No windows were in the extension. A similiar addition was also made and joined to the other south side of the original building. According to the custom of the day, no provision seems to have been made for heating, but a study house, as it has been called, partly took care of this.
Shortly following the erection of this church we read that there was built a small rough log house, fifteen feet square. Some tell us that it joined the church on the north side but the best memories place it some distance to the northwest and on the ground occupied by the road which passes north of the church. It had a wide fire place with a large wooden chimney and could be called either a study house, session house, saddle house, or a school house for it was used for all these different purposes and stood for nearly a century. Finally it was torn down and the logs were used in the con- struction of a dwelling house near by.
Such was the house of worship in which the people of this vicinity gathered during the dark days of the Revolution. It was, indeed, a crude affair in comparison with modern church edifices but if it were standing today what a precious relic it would be. How inspiring to visit such a spot, to join in the worship and after services return home with some of the worshipers who were clad in their home-spun hunt- ing shirts and wore moccasins. May our imaginations, how- ever, make real to us what is not possible for us to do, for these times need to learn from the people of Rocky Spring their spirit of economy and straight forward thinking and God-fearing living.
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The present building was erected in 1794 by Walter Beatty when the Revolution had given birth to our nation and when Washington was still struggling with problems of the first years of our Republic. In 1797 he retired from office and returned to Mount Vernon where he died in 1799. It is interesting to remember these facts as this building no doubt witnessed many scenes during that period which must have been full of affection for the Father of their country, and also services which were deeply impressive as the people gathered for prayer and Divine guidance and assembled to pay their last tribute to the life of him who was Commander- in-Chief of the Army and later as their President was enabled to accomplish so much in helping to shape the destiny of America and through it as we can now abundantly testify the destiny of the world.
In view of this, a description of the present building will not be out of place both for preservation as an historical record and to make still more vivid the scenes and services of those stirring days.
The Church stands upon a stone foundation and is sixty by forty-eight feet in size. The walls are solid brick and no doubt were manufactured on the farm of William Beard near by where there is still a large brick house which was built three years before. The main entrance to the Church is on the south side although there are doors on the east and on the north side at the end of the aisles.
The inside corresponds somewhat to the exterior. The pulpit is old-fashioned and a circular form, above it be- ing an oval sounding-board or canopy with a star in the national colors painted on the under side, the colors show- ing beyond question the strong patriotism of those who worshiped here. A high staircase leads to the pulpit around which there is a railing. The chancel surrounds the pulpit and contains a seat on one side occupied by the elders on communion occasions and a stand used by the precentor. In the aisle are the communion tables on each side of which the communicants were seated. The custom is said to have prevailed until about thirty years ago.
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There are as many as fifty-eight pews with straight backs high enough to prevent a child's head from reaching to the top and they have pannelled doors, fastened by a wooden button on the inside. On the pews are the names of those who occupied them.
The building was heated by stoves in the aisles at least five years after the church was built, where they still remain with their long pipes leading to the attic into which the smoke escaped as there are no chimneys. Prior to that time, we have been told that the people did not thoroughly heat any of their churches.
We shall not attempt to review any of the early years of the church as interesting as they might be. We shall pass at once to the Revolutionary Period for it is then that the church began to enjoy its greatest prosperity and it is in this period that we are especially interested.
At this time the names of 327 persons are found as pew- holders and contributors. They are largely heads of families and with a few exceptions are men.
The congregation, during these years covered, roughly estimated, a territory twelve miles square, reaching from Roxbury along the north mountain to St. Thomas across to Fayetteville along the south mountain to near Shippensburg crossing the valley again to the Conodoguinet Creek near Orrstown and along the creek to Roxbury. After the erec- tion of the present church many of the members living along the Falling Spring Stream and in the Cashtown region when Chambersburg began to grow rapidly joined the Falling Spring Church and some from other parts of the congrega- tion moved there, but the greatest loss was from emigra- tion to the western part of Pennsylvania and Ohio, which commenced soon after the war, until today, after many changes, there is but one surviving member of the church, Thomas McClelland, of Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, who is also a trustee and to whom the writer is indebted for some of the historical information he is presenting.
With the back-ground before us we are now in a better position to turn our attention to the glowing record made
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by the members of the church, for the spirit of the Rocky Spring did not evaporate in memorials, resolutions and speeches but buckled on its armour to meet the enemies of the country. Though the people of this section were more remote than others from the scene of conflict and were not free from attacks by Indians they responded with remark- able promptness and loyalty.
A letter from the Committee of Cumberland County of which Rocky Spring was then a part to the President of the Continental Congress, dated at Carlisle, July 14, 1776, stated "By the intelligence we have received, we think ourselves warranted in saying that we shall be able to send five com- panies." On July 31, 1776, the same Committee said that eleven companies would be furnished and armed, and on August 16, 1776, the report was sent that "the twelfth com- pany of our militia marched today" and further "six com- panies more are collecting arms and are preparing to march."
While these volunteers from the Cumberland Valley were pressing forward in surprising numbers it is not to be for- gotten that there were then in the Continental Army a num- ber of officers and privates who, the year preceding, had entered the army and were still in the service of their country.
That the Church at Rocky Spring contributed its full quota of men can be readily seen for we read this signifi- cant statement: "The list of the members of the Rocky Spring Church at the time of the erection of the present edifice, eleven years after the war, reveals the historic fact that nearly every male member of that day had served in the War of the Revolution." We may add that there were some who also served their country in organizing their State Government and held offices under the Constitution of 1778.
Among the first of those who naturally occurs to us is their pastor and in many ways their leader, the Rev. John Creaghead, whose pastorate covered the thirty-one years from 1768 to 1799. He is described as being tall and hand- some, with rather dark hair and possessed with a musical
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voice. The sermons were well prepared, forceful and per- suasive and were delivered without manuscript with a power and eloquence which few possess. In his disposition he was affable and peculiarly winning. Every one knew him and he knew every one in the region.
His home was half a mile northeast of the church. It was built of stone, the walls of which were destroyed in 1875. It is thus described: "It was a grand old building with walls two feet thick, bent and curved inward consid- erably from the occasion of fire, the interior having been twice entirely burned out while he resided there. It had great stone chimneys, four flues in the east and a large open fireplace in the west, and with space enough to boil apple butter, bake, boil soap and butcher. A long porch extended in front. The social and elegant manners of Mr. and Mrs. Creaghead made this place one of great popu- larity for members of the congregation and their friends. Tea and quilting parties were frequently held there and the three-cornered parlor was often the scene of a merry, social throng after the husking frolic or apple butter boilings."
Being of a noble, God-fearing Scotch family, Mr. Creag- head's soul was stirred by the wrongs committed against the early colonists and by voice and example he exhorted his people to stand true to their convictions. Gathering those who were in a remote part of his congregation under the branches of a large oak in front of the home of Mr. Sharpe, one of his parishoners, he addressed them in thrill- ing tones and urged them to let their cry of "God and liberty forever" ring from mountain to mountain.
On another occasion, after appealing to his people from the pulpit, all seemed overcome except one old lady who exclaimed: "Stop Mr. Creaghead! I just want to tell ye again if ye have such a purty boy as I have in the war ye will na be so keen for fighting, quit talking and gang your- self to the war. Yer always preaching to the boys about it but I dunna think ye'd be very likely to go yourself; first go and try it." Possibly it was at this time that the whole congregation arose and declared their willingness to
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march and follow their pastor, who led them from the build- ing. This we do know, that many did leave in July, 1776, and join the army under the command of Washington in New Jersey, and Mr. Creaghead accompanied them as Chap- lain and with his company was made prisoner at Long Island or Fort Washington.
His body now rests in the adjoining cemetery, the only one of all the pastors of the church who sleeps among those to whom he ministered, and as his tablet states, he was "a faithful and zealous servant of Jesus Christ."
From the records, which give rather imperfect lists, it is beyond question that this congregation alone furnished one general, four colonels, twelve captains, and a like number of other officers. Among these none were more prominent than Captain John Rhea, for after serving as captain for various companies of the Revolution, he was commissioned Brigadier-General in 1812 and Major-General in 1814, and was a state senator and the great grandfather of Samuel Rhea, who is president of the Pennsylvania Railroad; and Major James McCalmont, the noted Indian fighter, and who was afterwards a member of the State Assembly and one of the Justices of our Courts; and the Culbertsons, for whom a monument has been erected in the cemetery and who probably represent the most distinguished military family of that time.
Besides the pastor all the members of the session held important positions in the Continental Army. Let us hear the complete roll call which will be all the more impressive after our own experience in the recent World War. Where can you find a congregation in that or any other period which has manifested more truly the spirit of patriotism? How the years as they are named speak for themselves of sacri- fices made and of deeds yet untold when each blow that was struck for freedom has ever since been echoing again and again round the world. The list of heroes is as follows : Samuel Culbertson, colonel 6th battalion, Cumberland County Associators, 1777; lieutenant colonel 4th battalion, May 10, 1780. James McCalmont, major of the 5th battalion, July,
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1776; major of 6th battalion, 1777; major of 4th battalion, May 10, 1780. John Wilson, adjutant 6th battalion, 1777. William Ramsey, private, Captain Armstrong's Company, December, 1776; ensign, 3rd company, 6th battalion, 1777. Robert Peebles, colonel of battalion of Associators, July, 1776. Robert Miller, on committee of observation, July 12, 1774. Robert Culbertson, captain 5th battalion, 1776. James Gibson, captain 4th battalion, January, 1777. John Rhea, lieutenant 5th battalion, January, 1777. William Huston, cap- tain 2nd battalion, September 1776; captain 6th battalion, 1777; captain 5th company, 6th battalion, January, 1778. Rev. John Creaghead, private in Captain Samuel Culbert- son's company, Colonel Armstrong's battalion, December, 1776. Joseph Culbertson, Robert Stockton and James Reed were privates in the same company. Samuel Patton, captain in Col. Armstrong's battalion, July, 1776; captain 3rd com- pany of 6th battalion, 1771; captain 2nd company of 4th bat- talion, May 10, 1780. George Matthews, captain Colonel Armstrong's battalion, December, 1776. John McConnell, lieutenant in Captain Matthew's company, December, 1776, captain in 8th battalion, 1777; captain in 4th battalion, May 10, 1780. William Beard, William Waddle, William Kirk- patrick, Robert Caldwell, John Machon, James Hindman and John Caldwell were privates in Captain Matthew's com- pany, December, 1776. Albert Torrance, first lieutenant 8th company, of 6th battalion, 1777, and lieutenant, March, 1778. Joseph Stevenson, first lieutenant, 8th battalion 1778. Joseph Caldwell, lieutenant in first company, 4th battalion, May 10, 1780. John Caldwell, ensign Ist company, 4th battalion, May 10, 1780. James Culbertson, captain 3rd company, 4th battalion, May 10, 1780. Reuben Gillespie, lieutenant 3rd company, 4th battalion, May 10, 1780. John Beard, ensign 3rd company, 4th battalion, May 10, 1780. William Beard, John Beard, Hugh Wylie and James Walker were privates in Captain William Hunton's company in January, 1778. Samuel Henry, private in Lieutenant Albert Torrance's company, 8th battalion, March, 1778. Thomas Kinkead, private Captain Samuel Patton's company, 6th battalion, in July, 1778.
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Others who served in the War of the Revolution, although they have only their subsequent military titles, were Col. James Armstrong, Captain James Sharpe, Cap- tain Alexander Culbertson. These with still others whose names we have been unable to obtain, composed that army of Scotch-Irish patriots whose services helped to make us a nation, for the volunteers from this county were among those who were with Arnold in the campaign for the in- vasion of Canada in 1775 and later others were made pris- oners by the superior forces of the enemy and endured for years in and near New York a captivity that was oppressive and cruel. They were also with the army under Washington at Valley Forge and when it crossed the Delaware with its floating ice in mid-winter and darkness and marched on the frozen ground with bare and bleeding feet to win the victories of Trenton and Princeton.
Others were in the desperate assault under General Wayne at Stony Point and carried the small inaccessible height without firing a single gun, taking 543 prisoners, being one of the most brilliant exploits of the war.
The same men were in the battle of Brandywine, Ger- mantown, and Monmouth, where without discipline or exper- ience, they were brought suddenly to encounter the well trained and well equipped forces of the enemy.
General Armstrong, in a communication to the State Executive, December, 1777, says: "Taken as a body, the militia have rendered that service, that neither the State nor the army could have dispensed with. They have met and skirmished with the enemy as early and as often as others, and, except the battle of Brandywine, of which, from their station, little fell in their way, have had a proportional share of success, hazard and loss of blood.
Nor should we fail to endeavor to portray their home- coming. With the war closed and liberty won, what scenes the church must have again witnessed for we are told that these veterans attended the services wearing their cocked hats and breeches and swords and hung their hats on the
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pegs around the wall, presenting a sight that must have been extremely animated and military.
They are gone now and their places here are empty but will anyone say that they do not live? Bancroft, the his- torian, tells us "The first public voice in America for dis- solving all connection with Great Britain came not from the Puritans of New England, the Dutch of New York, nor the planters of Virginia, but from the Scotch Presby- terians." Among these Presbyterians never let us forget that it was those of this valley with their zeal inflamed by the bloodshed at Bunker Hill and their pulses quickened by the memory of the persecution they had suffered who gath- ered in the early part of May, 1776, in Carlisle, then the shiretown of a county which included Franklin County and some of the men who sleep in the neighboring graveyard were there that day to lift up their voices when others were hesitating and to unanimously demand of the Provincial As- sembly that the instructions against separation from the mother country be withdrawn.
As Hon. John Stewart, Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, has so well pointed out, "If there was any earlier public demand for congressional action looking to independence, history does not record it; certainly this was the first utterance of the kind in Pennsylvania. The As- sembly heard it and heeded it. The memorial adopted at Carlisle was laid before that body on the 28th of May. On the 5th of June, after much discussion, it was referred to a committee to bring in new resolutions to the delegates in Congress. These resolutions were reported, adopted and signed on the 14th of the same month."
Surely such lives are not dead. They live in our tra- ditions and our institutions. They live in the consecrated power which has become an added force to both the nation and the world. Their blood was not lost in battle, it is coursing through our veins. They will continue to teach us and our children's children for America will be saved today not by those who feel only contempt for their founders and her history but by those who look with respect and rev-
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erence upon the great series of events extending from the coming of the earliest settlers to this valley to the achieve- ments of the American armies on the soil of France and upon that long succession of statesmen, orators, men of letters and men of affairs who have themselves been both the product and the high promise of American life and American Opportunity. The Declaration of Independence rings as true today as it did in 1776. The Constitution re- mains the safest and surest foundation for a free govern- ment that man has yet devised. Faithful adherence to these strong and enduring foundations and high purpose to apply the fundamental principles of American life with sympathy and open-mindedness to each new problem that presents itself, will give us a people increasingly prosperous, in- creasingly happy and increasingly secure.
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