USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > Elwyn > Two hundredth anniversary of Middletown Presbyterian Church, Elwyn, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, celebrated, September 11th, and 12th, 1920 : historical sketch and information with illustrations > Part 1
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TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
MIDDLETOWN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
1720 - 1920
CELEBRATED, SEPTEMBER II and 12, 1920
Two Hundredth Anniversary OF Middletown Presbyterian Church
Elwyn, Delaware County, Pennsylvania Celebrated, September IIth and 12th, 1920
Historical Sketch and Information With Illustrations
Prepared by the Publicity Committee
REV. WILLIAM TENTON KRUSE, Pastor
Historical Sketch of The Middletown Presbyterian Church of Delaware County, Pennsylvania
By WILLIAM TENTON KRUSE, Pastor
The church here and its burial ground is a spot where much history has been enacted. The organization antedates by fifty years and more the Re- voluationary war and the Declaration of Independence, and the site is within five miles westward of where William Penn first landed on the shores of the
THE PRESENT CHURCH
Delaware. Indian chief, British red-coat, and colonial soldier have alike pressed foot unon its sacred soil. Here sleen patriots of the Revolutionary and civil wars, ministers and physicians, and noble men and women from the various walks of life who served well their God, their country and their generation.
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Interior of Church 1920
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For two centuries now, however, the soldiers of the Great King have preempted this sacred spot for Divine Worship and the sacred rites of Christian burial. The historical facts here enacted are abundant and if they had only been adequately preserved would be of surpassing interest. Early in his ministry here the present pastor picked up two Indian arrow-heads in perfect preservation which after long years had worked their way to the surface. Unlike those arrow-heads all the early records of the church have been lost never to be recovered. Tradition long handed down has it that they perished in a fire in the year 1802 that destroyed the home of the pastor, Rev. Thomas Grier, on the Middletown road near where the Bonsall house
now stands. The subsequent records earlier than 1846 either were never properly kept or have somehow disappeared, and with a like fate since the 175th Anniversary observed in 1895 the records of the Board of Trustees dating from 1846, in which much valuable information regarding the changes made in the building since 1798 was recorded, were destroyed in the fire which consumed the home and fine library of James W. Howarth, Esquire, secretary of the Board for thirty years on the night of December 12, 1906. Only the Sessional records from the beginning of Dr. Dale's ministry in 1846 are left in possession of the congregation,
However, we know a group of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians were settled in this locality by 1720, and true to their conscience and convictions they soon brought the church with them. Among them we know were McClel- lans, Lindsays, Blacks, McMinns, Linns, Millars, Hunters, Caldwells, etc., etc. The principal fact relied on along with all the confirmatory circumstances that establish this date is the life-long testimony of Mrs. Mary Ann Howarth, inother of the late James W. Howarth, Esquire. She was born in 1809 and died in 1892. She always said the church was organized in 1720. Her memory would link up with those living at the time the early records were destroyed by fire in 1802. Moreover, Dr. Smith in his History of Delaware County mentions the fact that there stood in the grounds here a stone bearing the date of 1724. That stone has disappeared as others are known to have dis- appeared. Nor is it at all likely that that stone marked the earliest inter- ment here, for in those days it was the exceptional thing for a grave to be marked by any engraved stone at all. And if God's people begun t > bury here it is certain that they had already begun to worship here.
With this introduction this sketch will center around four heads:
1. The acquisition and occupancy of this site. Nothing definite is known prior to 1751. But in that year on the 2nd and 3rd days of August, Henry Caldwell and his wife (widow of Robert Mcclellan) and the whole family of McCellans, consisting of six sons and five daughters (four of them with their husbands jointly) passed title for the orgininal piece of ground of about three-fifths of an acre together with the "frame building" thereon to a Board of six Trustees, namely John McMicheal, William Lindsay, John McMinn, James Lindsay, Joseph McCloskie and Samuel Black. The deed was accompanied by a Declaration of Trust on the part of these six men (the original parchment of which we still have in our possession) that, "by the direction and appointment of the members or persons belonging to the Pres- byterian Society at Middletown under the care of the Synod of Philadelphia and members of the Presbyterian of New Castle," they hell the property in trust only "for the benefit, use, and behoof of all persons members of and be- longing to the said Presbyterian Society at Middletown to perform divine ser- vice in and upon according to the cannons and ecclesiastical constitutions of the kirk of Scotland, and for a place to bury their dead."
This evidently was only making legal and placing on record what for
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Interior of Church After Renovation 1895
Interior of Church as Rebuilt After Fire of 1879
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years had been done by generous sufferance of the owners who now became the donors.
In 14762 two of the members of this Board of Trustees having died, or re- signed, their places were filled and the Board enlarged to nine members, as follows, William Lindsay Hugh Linn, James Lindsay, John McMinn, James Black, Charles Linn, Joser h Heng hill and 'thomas 'Tiin.ble. To this enlarged Board on the 10th day of May in that year was deeded, for the consideration of "the sum of three pounds good and lawful monel," by Robert McCellan and Agnes his wife nearly an acre of additional ground, no doubt with the view and in preparation for the erection of the stone building which was effected in 1766.
On August 27th, 1822, the Board of Trustees, then consisting of Robert McCellan, Henry Forest, John Craig, Samuel Black, Andrew Lindsay, James Craig and Aaron Huston, took title of Peter Scravendyke, of Philadelphia, "tallow chandler" the deed says, for one-half acre and fintcen square perches of land for the sum of seventy-five dollars for the purposes set forth in the Declaration of Trust of 1751 and rehearsed in the Indenture made in 1803 when the entire property was reconveyed by the surviving Trustees of 1762 to new ones then chosen, which parchment Indenture is in the nossesion of the church and was recorded in the Recorder of Deeds Office for Delaware County, May 6,1811.
Again, on August 15th, 1850, the Trustees then existing, namely, Henry Forest, William T. Crook, Samuel Riddle, John C. Beatty, Joseph H. Hink- son, I. Engle Hinkson, Thomas T. Williams, Bernard Vanleer and John Cochran, took title of the heirs of Robert Fairlamb, deceased, for three acres at a cost of four houndred and fifty dollars. This land constituted the newer portion of the cemetery which was plotted and laid out in 1850.
These several grants and purchases made a total of about five and one- quarter acres contained in the church site and burying ground, and the present Trustees have just recently on June 18th, 1920, taken title in the name of the church to three additional acres to be plotted and added to the cemetery, thereby enlarging the church grounds to eight and a quarter acres.
2. The Buildings that have stood there. Previous to 1729 it is not cer- tain that there was a church building of any kind, the congregation then small and struggling meeting as they were able to secure preaching at the home most probably of the owner of the ground where now the church build- ing stands, doubtless the most active and earnest srinit among them and wh se name as appears from the old Deed of Trust executed in 1751, already refer- red to, was one Robert Mcclellan. For that Deed of Trust sets forth that in August of that year, Elizabeth the widow of Robert Mcclellan, who by a second marriage was at that time the wife of Henry Coldwell, and her eleven children by her first marriage, six sons and five daughters, had on that date by deed conveyed the plot of ground and the "frame building" thereon to six Trustees for the use of the Presbyterian Society there worshipping as a place of worship forever. Of course, it is possible and such seems to have been the early tradition that there was erected here a small log church from the beginning; if so, it was this rude log structure that in 1729-1730 was super- ceded by the "frame building thereon" as named in the Deed of Trust. At least we have the definite record of the action of the Presbytery of New Cas- tle in April, 1729, as follows: "The Presbytery agrees and concurs in Brandy- wine and Middletown in their building a house at Middletown, agreed on by both, provided they continue a united congregation until Presbytery see cause to make a separation, and that they be equally supplied." This joint rela- tion of Middletown with Brandywine seems to have been continued until 1768. The motive and encouragement for this new and more commodious frame
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building in 1730 is obvious; for Middletown thereby was enabled for the first time to secure, at least, one half of a pastor's stated labors. There is no doubt but that at that time a frame church building was erected here, and Rev. Robert Cathcart became the first pastor under this joint arrangement with Brandywine.
The frame building served the uses of the congregation until 1766 when it was replaced by a more substantial and commodious stone structure. Those stone walls of 1766 remain hard as adamant through all the changes of the years in the edifice of to-day. In that year "James Lindsay, of Aston Township, and Andrew McMinn, superintended the erection of the new church". That was the statement given by Mr. James McMullin who said he began attending services with his father here in 1795, which statement was recorded under date of August 26, 1852, in the minute book of the Trustees which was destroyed in the Howarth fire in 1906. The writer himself saw and read and noted that statement of Mr. McMullin.
This stone building during the more than one hundred and fifty years of its existence has undergone several modifications and repairs of which we have definite knowledge of three, two of which made it save the walls prac- tically a new building.
In 1798 it was thoroughly repaired, so far as repairs were needed, and the first stove put in the old session house (Could this have been the old original log church ?) by which to warm themselves before entering the church after their long horseback rides; for in those days the congregation came on horseback with saddle and pillion for man and wife, sweetheart, child, and friend. Mrs. Howarth the mother of James W. Howarth, who first begun to attend Divine service here in 1824, often told her son how the church would be crowded and not a vehicle on the ground, even as to-day the church might be full and not a horse on the ground, the auto having so largely displaced the horse. For years the two old mounting blocks stood here in the yard till at last for non-use they were allowed to crumble away. and the old ford over Chester creek at what was then known as Presbyterian Ford, now called Mt. Alverno station, may still be clearly seen along side of the bridge, and the bridle path leading from it un to the church may still be traced on the adjoining farm.
In 1846, at the outset of Dr. Dale's ministry, the building being "con- siderably dilapidated," to use the words of the record, it was again thoroughly overhauled and repaired, and enlarged ten feet at the front end, and improved by internal changes, the modern pulpit replacing the one that stood "ten feet above the heads of the people," reached by a staircase and in which the minister disappeared from view save as he stood up to preach or pray. It is believed also in this renovation that the entrance was changed from the middle of the south side to the west end of the building as it to-day. It was further enlarged by the addition of the stone Sunday school room at the east end of the church, entrance to which was had by the door on the right side of the pulpit. But the old-fashioned high box-pews were retained, and it was in this church that in 1858 the first stoves were placed and there being no chim- neys the smoke nipe was carried through terra-cotta flues through the roof, which arrangement ultimately proved the occasion of the fire that destroyed the building in 1879.
This fire of 1879, which occurred on the afternoon of Saturday, February 1st, entirely consumed the interior, leaving only the bare walls. The fires had been built, and some of the pipes became overheated and set fire to the roof. The high wind blowing at the time made the effort to save the build-
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ing hopeless, and in less than two hours all was in ashes. Immediately steps were taken to rebuild, the effort being to reproduce the old church building in the new so far as neatness, comfort and modern use would admit. The old adamantine walls were found in tact, needing only to be re-studded. For the first time chimneys were nut in and a hot-air furnace for heating the building installed. This required the excavation of a section of the collar,
which was done. The old-fashioned box-pews were not reproduced, but the interior was finished in the modern, substantial and comfortable manner which we now enjoy. In this rebuilding, however, the Sunday school room of 1846 was not rebuilt, but was razed.
The rebuilding cost approximately two thousand dollars which the many friends of Old Middletown within and beyond the congregation eagerly over- subscribed, and so rapidly was the work pushed that on Sunday, July 13, 1879, the church was re-dedicated, the pastor, Rev. Thomas D. Jester, conducting the services, assisted by Revs. Drs. J. W. Dale, P. H. Mowry, and Thomas Mc- Cauley.
The congregation had already determined to build a parsonage and funds for the purpose were in hand when the church fire arrested this project for the time, but no sooner was the church rebuilt and encouraged by the over- subscriptions this project was at once resumed, and under the leadership of the pastor, Mr. Jester, the existing neat and substantial parsonage, the first the church had ever possessed, was built in 1880. In 1890 under the present pastorate it was enlarged by the addition of four rooms to the rear wing. In 1909 a complete hot-and-cold water system with modern bathroom was in- stalled; in 1913 the hot-water heating plant was installed; and in 1917 the electric lighting system was introduced in both church and parsonage. This beautiful electric light installation was the generous gift of the late Mrs. Maria P. Welles, at the parsonage in memory of her father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Pancoast, and at the church in memory of her husband, Mr. Charles Salter Welles. In 1895 the interior of the church was thorough- ly renovated and decorated, and recarpeted, and again in 1919 the interior has been neatly and tastefully renovated.
3. Those who have served the church as Supplies and Pastors. Among the earliest casual supplies in all probability were Rev. George Gillespie and Rev. Daniel Magill and certainly Rev. Thomas Creaghead and Rev. John Tennent. Mr. Tennent succeeded Creaghead as supply at Brandywine and Middletown in 1729, at the same time he received calls from Lower Brandy- wine, and Lower Octorara. At the next meeting of the Presbytery he re- ported that "he had no clearness for accepting either." When the time came to close his supplying at Brandywine and Middletown, in April 1730, he set- tled at Freehold, New Jersey, where he died two years later, fulling a brief but briliant ministry.
Rev. Robert Cathcart appears before the Presbytery of New Castle in October, 1729. He supplied this church in connection with Brandywine dur- ing that fall. In November 1730, Brandywine and Middletown made him a joint call which he accepted, and he became the first pastor of this church. The exact date of his installation is not known. But he continued to serve the congregation for at least ten years, until 1741, when he resigned to take up his labors with the First Church of Wilmington which was organized in 1740.
For the ensuing interval of twenty years nothing is known, the records of the Presbytery for that period being lost. But in 1759 the existing records of the Presbytery of New Castle are resumed, and we know Rev. William
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FORMER PASTOR'S
James W. Dale, D. D. Alvin H. Parker, D. D.
John L. Janeway, D. D., (Supply) Rev. Thomas D. Jester
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McKennen, or McKannan, was supply in 1763, and Rev. James Davidson in 1764. In November of that year, Middletown and Brandywine jointly called him to become their pastor, but holding the call under consideration until the following spring, he declined it. Again, in March, 1767, the two churches issued a call to Rev. Thomas MeCrakin, which call at Synod in Philadelphia, in May of that year, he declined. The two congregations having failed twice in their joint call seem to have terminated in 1768 the union existing between them since 1730, for in that year Lower Brandywine brought into Presbytery a call alone for Rev. Joseph Smith, which he accepted. Middletown un-
doubtedly continued on with supplies until in 1770 Mr. James Anderson, a licentiate under care of Presbytery, having supplied the congregation received their call. He was ordained by the Presbytery at a meeting held at Mid- dletown, June 26, 1771, and installed the same day as nastor. He remained
until his death, September 22, 1793. His body is interred at the southeast corner of the church, where a marble slab marks his grave. The inscription bears witness to his humility and zeal.
"Medest thro' life, an humble path he trod,
And passed his days in service of his God ;.
To guilty men he preached redeeming grace,
Till death's unsparing scythe cut short his race;
Called by his glorious Master to the skies,
He now enjoys, we hope, the immortal prize."
After his death, the records of Presbytery on June 17, 1794, have this entry: "Mr. John Miller, a commissioner from the congregation at Middle- town in Pennsylvania, requests Presbytery to supply that congregation for six months longer, in consideration of which, said congregation agrees to pay the widow of their late. pastor their usual yearly stipend. He also reports that said congregation are preparing to pay the widow for the last six months, agreeably to their engagement". This is a fine touch evidencing the con- siderate treatment with which Middletown has ever regarded her ministers.
Then followed a period of supplies until 1801, among whom were Revs. Messrs. Ralston, Sample, Barr, Robert Smith, Davidson, Sherman, Mitchell, Read, Woods, and Thomas Grier. Mr. Grier was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New Castle, April 3, 1800, and on December 16, 1801, he was ordained and installed pastor at Middletown. He resigned, September 30, 1808. He was succeeded by Nathaniel Randolph Snowden who, while as it appears was never formally installed, acted as pastor till 1817.
On April 2, 1811, in Presbytery, "Mr. Snowden presented a petition sign- ed by six members of Middletown praying to be set apart from New Castle to Philadelphia Presbytery." The petition was refused. But on September 29, 1813, Mr. Snowden was dismissed by the Presbytery of New Castle in ses- sion at New London to the Presbytery of Philadelphia, and on April 16, 1816, Middletown was taken into the care of Philadelphia Presbytery, Synod hav- ing so decreed. Thus it was under Mr. Snowden's ministry and by reason of his influence and effort, Middletown was transferred in 1816 to the Pres- bytery of Philadelphia in whose connection it remained until the organization of the Presbytery of Chester in 1870.
From the resignation of Mr. Snowden in 1817 until the installation of Rev. Mr. Parker in 1833, the church was again served by supplies, among whom successively in order may be mentioned Rev. Nathaniel Todd, Rev. Garry Bishop, Rev. Robert McCachran, and Rev. Mr. Harned. All of these were more than merely occasional supplies, although it is true the list of occasional supplies is quite numerous as may be seen from the Treasurer's
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book of that period. But with May 6, 1832, Rev. Alvin H. Parker began to supply regularly, and was installed pastor in 1833. He faithfully served the church until 1839.
The church again entered on a period of supplies among whom were Rev. John L. Janeway in 1840, Rev. S. P. Helme seems to have fulfilled a brief pastorate in 1841-2, Rev. Thomas Hoge was supply in 1843, Rev. J. Martin Connell in 1844, Rev. William L. McCalla in 1845.
With the coming of Dr. Dale, who was installed May 17, 1846, the church entered on a new period of prosperity. He gathered around him men of influence and consecration, such as John C. Beatty, William T. Crook and John Cochran. His pulpit eloquence attracted an increased congregation. The church building was repaired and enlarged, and a Sunday school room added; the newer portion of the cemetery bought and beautifully plotted and drives laid out according to the plan of 1850. Yet the larger influence of Dr. Dale's ministry, great as it was at Middletown, reached out into the surrounding region, for his parish truly was ten miles square in the heart of Delaware county where his labors in the founding of other churches in such centers as Chester and Media abide increasingly to this day. He, how- ever, continued his watchful pastoral care of old Middletown until he resigned his charge at Media and Middletown on August 3, 1871, when he accepted the call to the Wayne church. But as he continued his residence in Media he never ceased his interest in this church, and when the young pastor, Rev. Thomas Darlington Jester, fresh from the Seminary, was ordained and in- stalled, January 15, 1874, no one more cordially welcomed him than did Dr. Dale.
The church here owes Mr. Jester a debt of undying gratitude. He came to a small and discouraged membership and under his leadership they were instilled with fresh courage and effort. The cemetery had become a wil- derness and they again subdued it to beauty. The wall around the south- ern and eastern fronts was built. And it was under his ministry that the fire of 1879 occurred and the church rebuilt, as also the first parsonage erect- ed. In 1874 the first June Festival was held, netting the handsome sum of ap- proximately five hundred dollars with which the church sheds were built. Ever since this annual June Festival has continued to be a unique and de- lightful occasion in the life of the church. Among the notable workers who gathered around Mr. Jester may be mentioned Mr. and Mrs. James W. How- arth, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Pancoast, Mr. and Mrs. Judge Tyson, Mr. and Mrs. William G. Vanleer, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Trimble Williams, Mr. and Mrs. Aaron M. Hoskins, Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. Welles, Mrs. Thomas Yarnall and Mrs. Samuel Wells, Miss Mary Lousia Williams, Mr. and Mrs. Philin Nelling, Mrs. Jacob Williams and family, as also the Schofield family. These together with their children were then and have continued to pe among the most active workers in the maintenance of the church in its temporal and spiritual suc- cess.
Mr. Jester's pastorate which closed in July 1889 was succeeded by the present pastorate which began with the third Sabbath of November 1889. This pastorate which happily continues to this present time speaks for itself. Much has been done for God's cause during these thirty years the detailed record of which would be most interesting, but the limits of this sketch have already been exceeded. Suffice it to say that the temporal and spiritual pros- perity of the church have been enhanced, the first Missionary Society and Mission Bands, as well as the Christian Endeavor Society, which have been such fruitful blessings, organized, and the Sabbath school actively maintain-
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ed so that at times it has had a front-line record." There have been con- tinued and at times large accessions to the membership, so that despite many deaths and removals the present active membership is 160 as compared with 75 in 1889. Especially the missionary and benevolent activities of the con- gregation have been developed and directed with gratifying results.
A Christian Directory:
CASUZk PRACTICAL DIVINITY
SECOND PART
-Chrilban Oeconomicks: DE, THE FAMILY DIRECTORY
BAXTER'S DIRECTORY The Old Book
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4. In conclusion, some notable features in the history of the church are worthy to be mentioned. This is the oldest Presbyterian church in what is now Delaware county. For an even hundred years she stood solitary and alone the only Presbyterian church for fifteen or twenty miles around. She has now become a mother of churches. In 1820 old Ridley now Leiper Memorial was organized. In 1834 Marple was organized. In 1844 Darby First now Glenolden; in 1853 Chester First, in 1854 Darby Borough, in 1866 Media and Chester second, and in 1880 Glen Riddle. All these with the exception of Darby First and Darby Borough were the direct cutcome of old Middletown, so that to-day were all the members of these churches in the mother church the membership would run into the thousands.
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