USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > Pittsburgh > Centennial volume of the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, PA., 1784-1884 > Part 13
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4. Something has been already said of the church's efficiency in advancing educational interests. We have also a literary record, to which a single word is due. It began with the writings of the Rev. Joseph Stockton, so useful to the youth of two generations ago. It was continued in the writings of Hugh Henry Brack- enridge, concerning whom I adopt almost entire, the notice of Mr. Wm. Darlington, in the Memorial Volume of Western Penn- sylvania Presbyterianism, (p. 272.) "He was born in Scotland in 1748, and came to America when a child, with his parents, who settled in York county. Entered Princeton College at the age of eighteen, and after graduating, was for some time a tutor. Studied divinity. In 1777 he was chaplain to a regiment in the Continental Army. Studied law under Judge Chase, of the Supreme Court of the United States. He came to Pittsburgh in
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1781. In 1786 he was elected to the Legislature. In 1792, the first two volumes of his celebrated work, 'Modern Chivalry,' were published at Philadelphia : the third volume was published in Pittsburgh, in 1793. It was printed at the office of the Pittsburgh Gazette, by John Scull, [who, by the way, was a pew holder in the First Church in 1801,] and was the first book printed and published west of the mountains. The fourth and last volume was not published until 1797, at Philadelphia, the Whiskey In- surrection having occurred, concerning which his next book was written, in 1795. He was one of the Judges of the Supreme Court for sixteen years, to the time of his death at Carlisle, in 1816. He was a man of great scholastic and legal attainments, eccentric, witty, and independent."
He was followed by the one who became the historian par excellence of the city he adorned, Neville B. Craig. The follow- ing notice is also by another hand :
NEVILLE B. CRAIG.
Neville B. Craig was the son of Maj. Isaac Craig, and grandson of Gen. John Neville, both of the Revolutionary Army.
He was born in Bouquet's Redoubt, March 29th, 1787. After preparing at the Pittsburgh Academy, he entered Princeton in 1805, but did not complete his course. He was admitted to the bar August 13th, 1810. His law partners were Walter Forward and Henry M. Watts. He married Miss Jane A. Fulton, May 1st, 1811. He was the first City Solicitor, holding the office from 1821 to 1828 or 1829, and Clerk of Select Council from 1821 to 1825.
He owned and edited the Pittsburgh Gazette, from 1829 to 1841, making it a daily, the first in the city. About this time he was elected to the Legislature. Subsequently an investi- gation was made in regard to members supplying themselves illegally with merchandise, at the expense of the State, showed that "every member except Mr. Craig, of Allegheny, had re- ceived a share."
His works are authorities on local history. They are: "The Olden Time," 1846-7 ; "History of Pittsburgh," 1851 ; "Memoir of Maj. Robert Stobo," and "Life and Services of Maj. Isaac
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Craig," 1854; and "Exposure of Misstatements in H. M. Brack- enridge's History of the Whiskey Insurrection," 1859.
He united with the church shortly before his death, which took place March 3, 1863.
Pittsburgh's literature is not voluminous in quantity, but is of a high rank in quality, and the writers who have been mentioned, with many contributors to the daily and weekly press who might be mentioned, (chief among them, the Banner, with its editor, the Rev. James Allison, D. D.) have done much to mold the genera- tions as they came upon the stage, and especially to keep the later ones from forgetting the hardships and exertions and solid attainments and noble characters of the generations which had preceded them.
5. The church's portion in the city's life of charity scarcely needs mention. Early gifts were made to build churches. The Hospital grounds in one of our cities and the site for the Orphanage in the other, were given by members of the First Church, and the Presidency of the Orphanage rested upon the heart of one of our noblest women for thirty-five years. Very early the "Humane Society " was formed, and largely from our church, which did not wait for modern altruism to teach the lesson of love to one's neighbor. Its design was to "alleviate the distress of the poor, to supply the wants of the hungry, to administer comfort to the widow, the orphan and the sick." Sabbath School scholars were early sought out and clothed and helped. In all sorts of charities, whether corporate, or by legacy, or by church contributions, or by City Missions, or individual relief, or by the last and best organized system-the "Society for the Im- provement of the Poor," the First Church has been an aid.
6. We press closer yet to the connections of the church and the city when we recall the efforts of the first to mold the morals of the second. Pittsburgh's reputation a century ago was not envi- able. It had the characteristics of frontier towns and not of the rural population. It has been thought that some of the felons and undesirable citizens annually shipped from England, and there were many of them, congregated about this point. [Veech's Secular History, etc. p. 309.] They are said to have been the class which became violent in the Virginia usurpations and in the Whiskey Insurrection, and otherwise a stain to the good name of
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the Scotch-Irish. Whipping posts, and clipping of ears, and pillories with liberty to pelt the pilloried with stones (one a piece) were thought necessary until 1788. Even around us the vicinity is described as having "an immense amount of ungodliness and profanity-sufficient to have appalled the stoutest heart." [Old Redstone, p. 138.] Mr. Brackenridge, when pleading for a Christian, rather than a Presbyterian Society to be incorporated, did it because he saw the need of a church which would reach the people-"the loss of which would be great, as religion was of the highest use in keeping up order and enforcing the practice of morality"-an object Mr. B. had much at heart. Upon this mission, in the midst of many families constituted without mar- riage, and surrounded by desecrated Sabbaths and abounding profanity, and all the worse amusements, (theatres excepted, ) to which even during war the isolated garrison thought itself obliged to resort, and, above all, flowed in upon and around with and overflowed by whiskey, the infant church began its mission. And at first its work was hindered by its own imperfect standards and practice. But what a work it has accomplished. The good took heart from the first. Domestic purity made its claims heard. The gospel was found to be laden with the blessings of peace and good order. Temperance was furthered in its own time. The Sabbath was respected. There was a steady fire from the pulpit and a growing conformity to high standards in the pews: and city mothers began to do as the country mothers are de- scribed as doing-"trained their children to fear God, to tell the truth, to reverence the Sabbath, to work hard, and to be honest in their dealings." [Old Redstone, p. 109.] There has never been a time in which the city could have spared the First Church as an element in its moral life. And when, after an enviable standard of social purity and upright dealing, and respect for the Sabbath had been gained, the people began to turn away from the stricter views (largely through foreign influences,) the symptoms of moral weakening began to appear and the voices of warning were heard again from this pulpit, it would have been well had they been thought to have been less of croaking and more of prophecy. Unfortunately, now there can be no mistaking it. Despite all the progress of the past, the First Church enters the work of her second century for the morals of Pittsburgh under some circumstances of as great difficulty as any that existed in
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1784. Some amusements are worse. Social impurities are again increased. Sabbath newspapers, and Sabbath gardens, and Sab- bath grog shops have created a current that flows so strongly away from all the means of grace themselves, that you who work here in time to come must be as earnest as they who would save the life of a man rushing by upon a piece of driftwood in one of the spring freshets. But the past contains all the encour- agement the present needs. The God of that past still reigns. The better nature of man can be awakened and sinful nature can be renewed. With no thought of fear, but also with no thought of ease, the dear old church must brace itself to do again what it so powerfully helped once before to do.
7. And now that which is most important of all-the relations of the church to the religious life of the city, may be treated most briefly of all, because it has received so much distinct attention in the exercises as a whole. Here might well be unfolded the relation of our church to the occasional Roman Catholic ministrations and the irregular German worship which preceded it. Sufficient to say that the first real organization was our own, and the first house of worship, and that we generously contributed to the other two when they came to seek a local habitation and a name. Then should come the exacter history than has yet been given of every bud and branch which has shot forth from the old stem, with some estimate of their own growth and aggregate results of all for the denominational strength. Then should follow a careful history of the churches of other denomi- nations which have grown up beside us, with the just analysis of growing districts and populations, and the whole result for the kingdom of God. But all this, sadly enough, must be now re- linquished, as well as any sufficient account of the whole work of distinctively City Missions, which, with its invitations, its visits, its gathered statistics, its discovered families, its faithful workers, and its blessed results, might well form a little chapter in our church's history by itself.
Suffice it now to say, that just in proportion as the influence of the church upon the city has been definitely religious, in that proportion exactly has it proved to be efficient in all that was of good report among men. Then has it taken hold upon men to reform them, when it has grasped their hearts with the gospel to lead them to the Lord Jesus Christ. Then has it done most
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. good when it has lived the most pure and upright life : and then has its life been brightest when its devotion was deepest and its spirituality highest. Least of all could the city have spared the First Church in its religious influence. Let there be an echo here, as I bring this last writing to a close, of the noble utterance of the venerable pastor's last sermon in the old brick church. "If men are ever to be saved from sin here and suffering here- after, it must be by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ,"-of this let the church of Christ never be ashamed. To bear that which is distinctively the source of all true religion, the offer of redeeming grace, to win men thus from darkness to light, and to bring them from the power of Satan unto God, is still the com- mission of the dear old church.
May the Saviour who wept over Jerusalem and then died for it, lead in the second century to such consecration, devotion and success as will couple in still stronger and more grateful recol- lection-The Church and the City.
[Mr. Scovel, when called upon for the City History, explained the cir- cumstances which had defeated the preparation by another of that important paper, promised to prepare, if possible, something of the same nature for the centennial volume (now printed above) and read the fol- lowing Historical Fragments :]
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HISTORICAL FRAGMENTS.
HISTORICAL FRAGMENTS.
Of these fragments, the first was an incidental contribution made by Mr. Wm. Darlington, whose early years were connected with the First Church, and whose notes on its earliest history, as given in the Memorial (Centenary) Volume of Western Presby- terianism, are of such value. Alluding to a certain charge concerning the first pastor's irregular administration of baptism, which was prominent in the trial before Presbytery, Mr. Dar- lington says : "General Gibson's child, referred to therein, I believe was his Indian child-Polly Gibson, well known in Pitts- burgh. Her father had her well taken care of and respectably reared. The late General William Robinson told me that he knew her very well. It is interesting to remember the fact that this child was the only survivor of the infamous massacre of the celebrated Chief Logan's family, in April, 1774, on the Ohio, near Yellow Creek, (below Wellsville.) Gibson's Indian wife was Logan's sister, who was shot through the head by a white savage, at a few feet's distance. The child at her bosom fell, and was the only one rescued in the canoe. This murder was the main cause of the bloody Indian war, known as Dun- more's or Cresap's war. The celebrated speech of Logan, about which there has been so much controversy as to its genuineness, was delivered to this same General John Gibson. He had lived for many years among the Indians, as a trader, was Colonel of a regiment during the Revolution, after its close resided in Pitts- burgh, was an Associate Judge of the Courts of this county, and died at the house of his son-in-law, Geo. Wallace, at Brad- dock's Fields, in 1824. He was unele to the late Chief Justice Gibson." *
To return. As the First Church's first building was erected in the summer of 1786, I have no doubt that the congregation had an express promise from the proprietaries of a gift of the ground whenever an act of incorporation should be passed.
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Without some such promise or agreement, assuredly John Wil- kins, Mr. Barr and the rest would not have entered upon ground from which they would be liable at any time to be ejected with the loss of the building, to say nothing of their liability for trespass. This is quite obvious. Should I, in my researches amongst the Penn papers, in our Historical Library at Philadelphia, find any- thing at all about it, I will communicate it to you.
The Rev. Samuel Barr seems to have been, for that time, a man of considerable pecuniary means, as he purchased a number of town lots from the Penns. In one of the deeds he is styled 'The Reverend Samuel Barr, clerk,' in accordance with the old English custom."
The second fragment read was an account of the "falling ex- perience" as witnessed on one occasion in the First Church, and the only occasion. The recital was given by Mrs. Eichbaum, (identified in her earliest years with the First Church,) to whose clear memory our Sabbath School history is so much indebted, and was substantially as follows:
The first and only ease occurred in 1802. It was at a com- munion season. Pastor Steele was being assisted in the services by the Rev. Mr. Porter. The latter had seen genuine cases of conversion accompanied by such strange phenomena, and was disposed to regard the matter favorably. Symptoms of moaning were heard from a woman by the pastor during prayer by Mr. Porter. The former immediately interrupted the prayer-saying, " Remove the person who is disturbing the congregation." But the latter answered-"Not so ; the Word is her only comfort," etc. The woman presently fell in the aisle. But before there could be much ado made over her, Major Ebenezer Denny and Mr. Johnston carried her out of the door.
The second case occurred in the Court House, where there was preaching by Mr. Porter. The same woman, who seemed not averse to the experience, fell again and was considerately laid on the table-the council-table. At the request of some one, "Polly," the bound servant of Mr. Johnston's family, ( Mr. J. was Mrs. Eichbaum's father,) went forward to sustain the head of the fainting woman in her lap. The meeting was dismissed at last and Polly was left still holding the head of the apparently un- conscious woman. Mrs. Eichbaum, then a little girl, was sent
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from home with another person to bring Polly. Mr. Porter was rhapsodizing over the supposed trance, and thought the woman probably in communion with the Supreme and insensible to pain. Mrs. E. found a pin and being seated beside Polly reached be- hind her and gave a "prod" with it. The woman proved to be not so unconscious as she seemed and Polly was very soon relieved and taken away home. The woman finally turned out a dis- solute character. "Falling" did not obtain in Pittsburgh. [Re- lated to S. F. S., February 24th, 1871.]
A third fragment was this :
Mrs. Mary Cochrane (who died at the advanced age of 90,) told me that in 1801 there was no house on the Allegheny side of the river, except the one which stood on the Robinson estate. She remembered that when the father of General Wm. Robinson came to the city (in the time of the depression of the Continental currency) he had with him $100, received as pay for a whole year's work elsewhere : but it only sufficed to purchase for him "a breakfast and a gill of whiskey." In the stress of those times, she knew that the family of one of those who became wealthiest afterwards went entire to the cornfield. The father took his gun, the mother took her infant in its cradle, and both took their hoes. Mrs. Cochrane was the only one living in the last pastorate known to have attended the final communion in the log church, celebrated while it was encased in the brick building.
A fourth historical fragment consisted of reminiscences of the First Church, in statements made by Mrs. Abishai Way, of Sewickley, taken down and kindly transmitted by her son, John Way, Jr.
Mrs. Abishai Way, nee Anderson, was born in Carlisle, Pa., June 6th, 1794. Her father, William Anderson, and his family, came to Pittsburgh in April, 1797. William Anderson became a trustee of the Presbyterian church. Mrs. Mary Ann Ander- son, his wife, was a member of the church. At their house the trustees often met ; the ministers were frequently entertained ; and from it went many a gift of game, or garden products, for the minister's family. These reminiscences were confirmed by Mrs. Way in April, 1877. She died in peace on October 20th, 1881, in her 88th year.
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Rev. Robert Steele and his wife, with an infant child, came from Ireland-fleeing from the Rebellion of 1800. He either had taken or was supposed to have taken, some part in it against the government, and would have been hanged had he not fled. They encountered a terrible storm in their passage, which lasted for three days. Their sons followed them some time after. Mr. Steele's brother William (called 'Squire Steele, why, I can't say) lived in Pittsburgh at that time, and kept a store on Market street, I think in a square (hewed) log house, below the Diamond. His wife was David Pride's sister.
Rev. Mr. Steele was a Free Mason, and chaplain to a Free Mason lodge, the meetings of which were held in the second story of a house on the corner of the Diamond, where Joseph Fleming's drug store now is. (S. E. corner, in Irvine's Hall, where the Allegheny County Courts were held in or about the year 1795.) [Ok] Mrs. Knox, mother of Robert and Miss Polly Knox, formerly of Fourth street, I have heard speak of the Allegheny County Courts of an earlier date, held in a large house (most probably log) on S. E. corner Market and Front streets. She, then a young girl, with others would go to the second story room, lift , a board off the floor, and look down upon the assembled Court. Note by John Way, Jr.]
Mr. Steele was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. His salary was $450. Some time afterwards it was increased to $600. His family consisted of three sons and two daughters. His sons (most probably the two oldest ; the other children must have been born in this country. J. W. Jr. ) came to this country some time after their father, in company, with a young Irishman, who afterwards married here.
On the arrival of Mr. Steele's sous, an entertainment was made for them at my father's. The young Irishman was invited, and distinguished himself when helped to boiled corn on the ear, a dish altogether new to him, by eating the cob !
My first recollection of Mr. Steele is on the occasion of my mother making a call on the family, taking me with her. Mr. Steele was then a tutor, perhaps principal, of the Western Uni- versity, or Academy, and lived in the University building, corner Cherry alley and Third street; the dwelling house fronting on Cherry alley. On our return, my father asked about the visit.
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My mother replied, "Well, one thing I noticed; they must be very, very poor!" My mother had some chickens caught and sent up to the family the next day. I was sent with the boy to show him the house.
I don't think he remained long at the University. He re- moved thence to a small red frame house on the south side of Second street (Second avenue), below Redoubt alley. There were but two rooms and a kitchen, down stairs, to this house ; and in it Mr. Steele's family lived, and he kept a school for girls. He had but seven or eight scholars. My sister Letitia, Kitty Willock, and Beckey Johnston were among the number. The school room was up stairs. Some time afterwards Mr. Steele bought a lot from Col. O'Hara, on the corner of Seventh street and-(don't remember whether Smithfield or Grant). Here he built the back building of a house and removed to it. My father's workmen and others, mechanics, gave him each a day's work on his house. He was an industrious man himself, and ready to turn his hand to anything that was required, willing to do his best.
Upon one occasion he told my father that he had been hard at work all day-"Yes," said Mrs. Steele, "on something that anybody might worship and not break the commandment." It was a bake oven, which, by reason of his deficient education in that direction, had assumed an unusual and extraordinary shape. Mr. Steele always had a fine garden, which he worked himself.
One very cold winter morning, about four o'clock, a fire broke out in a row of cheap frame houses on Wood street, above Sixth. The weather was intensely cold. Water was carried from the river in buckets, cutting through the ice to get it. Mr. Steele was at the fire, worked hard, got wet, took cold, and in nine days died.
The Free Masons raised $800 for Mrs. Steele. She lived on Seventh street some years, and afterwards moved to Col. O'Hara's " old log house (corner of Penn and Pitt), in the King's Orchard. Mrs. Steele was a highly educated woman. She had Shakespeare ut 'her tongue's end.
One of Mr. Steele's sons, after his death, got a situation as clerk with Mr. Cowan, a nail maker. After some time he was able to earn $800 per annum. Another son went into Nicholas Cunningham's store, on Market street. The third and youngest,
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was quite a boy when his father died. He afterwards went to Louisville.
Mr. Steele was a tall, slender man. He wore black satin breeches, silk stockings, knee buckles and pumps.
On one occasion, Rev. Mr. Reed, principal of a boys' school in Huntington, attended Synod at Pittsburgh. He usually staid at my father's. On this time he went on Saturday to stay over Sabbath with Mr. Steele, and to preach for him. On going to church next morning, Mr. Steele took by mistake, instead of the hymn book, "Scott's Lessons," a popular school book of the day. (We used to call it "Scotch Lessons.") He left it in the pulpit and took a seat below. Opening the book to give out a hymn, Mr. Reed's eye fell upon "John Gilpin." Leaning over the pulpit and looking down at Steele, the minister gravely said, "Is this the kind of Psawms ye sing here ?"
As times grew better with Mr. Steele, his wife was enabled to keep a servant. Catherine O'Hara one day quarreled with her mistress, upon which Mr. Steele reproved her. She retorted by pushing him behind the door, and would have proceeded further, but the maid's mother suddenly appeared upon the scene and rescued the minister, with the exclamation, "You hussy ! wad ye bate the priest ?"
The precentor in the First Church, in Mr. Steele's time, was an old gentleman named Reed, who kept a tavern on the S. W. corner of the Diamond and Diamond alley. It was his custom to "line out the hymns," and lead the singing. He always gave his salary for this service to Mrs. Steele.
I do not know the size of the old log church, nor the number of pews: nor have I any recollection of attending any preaching in it until Mr. Steele came. I well remember services (Episcopal,) being held in the new Court House, which had been built (in the Diamond, west side of Market street,) shortly before we came to Pittsburgh.
I have a general idea of the position of the church, its entrances, and the position of some of the pews. This diagram represents it. It will be observed, the front door faced Virgin alley. A side door faced Wood street. I cannot remember whether or not there was a side door opposite the Wood street entrance, but I think not. The size of the house would not require it.
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