USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > Pittsburgh > Centennial volume of the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, PA., 1784-1884 > Part 18
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22
JOIIN MORGRIDGE SNOWDEN.
The oldest of them in age and the first one of them connected with this church, was the Hon. John Morgridge Snowden. Shortly after the first settlement of Virginia, a large family by the name of Snowden came to that colony. The Snowdens of New York and Pennsylvania are descended from the Snowdens who came from Virginia about the year 1663. William Snowden, who was the great ancestor of John M. Snowden, owned land in what is now Philadelphia, in 1669, thirteen years before the arrival of William Penn. His son, John Snowden, was born there in 1685, and was one of the founders of the First Pres-
201
SOME EMINENT ELDERS OF THE FIRST CHURCH.
byterian Church of that eity. Isaae Snowden, a son of John, was one of the founders of the Second Presbyterian Church of the same city.
John Morgridge Snowden, better known as John M. Snow- den, was born in Philadelphia, in 1776. His father was a sea captain, and entered the service of the Continental Congress at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, was captured by the British, and died in one of the "prison ships." His mother was a woman of wonderful energy, of a high order of intelli- gence, great foree of character, and most ardently devoted to the cause of American Independence. Not only did she assume the support of her three sons and two daughters, dis- daining to receive assistance from her Tory relations on the side of her parents, but she performed a difficult and dangerous part that her country, for which her husband had died, might be free. She was the trusted friend of General Washington, and from her he received, by means of trusted messengers, his knowledge from time to time, of the numbers and operations of the British while they held Philadelphia.
In early life, John M. Snowden was apprentieed to the eele- brated Matthew Carey, to learn the "art and mystery of print- ing." And the influence of Mr. Carey was felt by his apprentice during his entire after-life. Mr. Snowden's first venture on his own account, was in the establishment of a newspaper in connection with his brother-in-law, Mr. MeCorkle, at Chambers- burg, in this State. But in 1798 they removed to Greensburg, Westmoreland county, where they published "The Farmer's Register," the first newspaper in the west after the Pittsburgh Gazette. It acquired a large circulation and wielded great political influence. Here he united with the Presbyterian Church, of which Rev. William Speer, father of the venerable and beloved Dr. James R. Speer, of this city, was then pastor. While in Greensburg, he married Elizabeth Moor, daughter of the Hon. John Moor, the first President Judge of Western Penn- sylvania, and who was one of the leaders in the organization and defense of Pennsylvania at the time of separation from Great Britain. She was in every way fitted to be the wife of such a man. Her death took place December 2, 1860.
In 1811, Mr. Snowden removed to Pittsburgh, purchased the Commonwealth newspaper, from Ephraim Pentland, and changed 14
202
SOME EMINENT ELDERS OF THE FIRST CHURCH.
the name to the Mercury, the office of which was at first on Market street, between Third and Fourth streets, and afterwards on Liberty street, near the head of Wood. He continued to be editor of this paper, which was widely circulated and exerted great power upon the public mind, until 1831. In the meantime he published a number of valuable works, and had a large book store. By means of the press, his sale of books, his social rela- tions, his undoubted integrity, his interest in public affairs and his activity in every good work, he was widely known and recog- nized as one of the leading citizens of the State of Pennsylvania. He was of medium stature, lithe physical structure, quick in per- ception and decided in action.
Coming to Pittsburgh about the time that Dr. Herron took charge of this church, he united with it and afterwards was elected one of its elders (in 1812.) He was strongly attached to his pastor, and his pastor set a high estimate upon his soundness of judgment and devout piety. The early history of this church was written by Mr. Snowden, and is still in existence. When Pittsburgh obtained a City Charter he was elected an Alderman. He was a Director of the Bank of Pittsburgh, Recorder of Deeds under the administration of Gov. Wolf, Mayor of this city in 1825, '26 and '27, and Clerk of the Orphans' Court.
His close habits of study, his long and varied experience, his broad common sense, and his judicial mind, fitted him, in a re- markable degree, for the important duties devolving upon him when he became Associate Judge with the Hon. Benjamin Patton. He was appointed April 16th, 1840, re-commissioned March 31st, 1841, and held the office at the time of his death. While on the bench he received high commendations from the public and fron the Bar. On more than one occasion he differed with the Presi- dent Judge as to the law, and so expressed himself to the jury, as he had a right to do. Several times he exhibited an acquaint- ance with the principles of common law, also of statutory law, which surprised old and learned attorneys. When one of the most intricate and important cases ever tried in this county was pending, the attorneys on both sides agreed, if the President Judge would retire, to go on with the trial before Associate Judge Snowden. The President Judge left the bench, and Judge Snow- den tried the case in a way that elicited the highest admiration and the profoundest respect.
203
SOME EMINENT ELDERS OF THE FIRST CHURCH.
Mr. Snowden stood high in favor with General Jackson. He had recommended a gentleman to President Jackson for an im- portant office. Shortly afterwards a friend of another applicant for the same office appeared before the President and denounced the man recommended by Mr. Snowden, as being utterly unfit for the place. Old Hickory, with eyes flashing fire, roared out : "How dare you say that? Do you think John M. Snowden would recommend a man unfit for the position ? No, never, by the eternal !" Mr. Snowden's man got the office.
On the 2d of April, 1845, Mr. Snowden died suddenly of dis- ease of the heart. Years before he had been told by his physi- cians that his death would be sudden and that it might occur at any time. When the summons came he was ready to obey. The Pittsburgh Post, of April 3d, 1845, said : "There can be no more evidence of the high estimation in which Judge Snowden was held, than the deep and general concern which is manifested at his death by all manner of persons. Every one seemed to feel that his departure had left a void that cannot be filled. To his family and friends, it is useless to say the loss is irreparable."
"Mr. Snowden-a man of strong mind and judgment in all things, worldly and spiritual, was considered a great acquisition to the eldership. I have often heard my father speak of the efficiency of Mr. Snowden and Mr. Denny, in church courts especially." (Mrs. Smith, April, 1883.)
HARMAR DENNY.
In 1745 two brothers, William and Walter Denny, of English parentage, came from Chester county, Pa., and located west of the Susquehanna, in what is now Cumberland county, Pa., near Carlisle. Subsequently William Denny married Agnes Parker, became a prominent citizen, and was the first Coroner appointed west of Carlisle. Their first child, Ebenezer Denny, was born March 11th, 1761. When only fifteen years old he was the trusted bearer of important dispatches to Fort Pitt and other places. For a time he commanded the quarter deck of a vessel bearing letters of marque and reprisal and bound for the West Indies. Subsequently he accepted a commission as ensign of the First Pennsylvania Regiment. He was present at the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, and was detailed to plant the first American flag on the British parapet. Then he served in the Carolinas and at a later period he was Adjutant to General
204
SOME EMINENT ELDERS OF THE FIRST CHURCH.
Harmar and Aid-de-Camp to General St. Clair. He was also one of the original members of the Society of the Cincinnati, founded in 1783. After the close of the Revolutionary War he came to Pittsburgh and was largely and successfully engaged in business. In 1794 he was appointed commander of the expedi- tion to LeBoeuf, ostensibly to protect the Commissioners engaged in laying out the town of Presque Isle, now the city of Erie, but really to prevent the Six Nations from uniting with the Miami Indians against General Wayne. During the war of 1812 he faith- fully met the extraordinary demands upon him to furnish sup- plies for the troops at Erie and elsewhere. He was a Commissioner of Allegheny county; its first Treasurer, in 1803, and again in 1808; and when Pittsburgh became a city, in 1816, he was its first Mayor.
July 1st, 1793, this Major Ebenezer Denny married Nancy Wilkins, daughter of Captain John Wilkins, Sr., and sister of Quartermaster General John Wilkins, Jr., and of the late Hon, Wm. Wilkins, who, in his lifetime, was a Judge, United States Senator, Minister to Russia and Secretary of War. His first child, Harmar Denny, was born in Pittsburgh, May 13th, 1794. He was named for the bosom friend and chivalric officer to whose staff the father had belonged. Harmar Denny pursued his preparatory studies in his native place, and graduated from Dickinson College, at Carlisle, in 1813. He was admitted to the Bar of this county November 13th, 1816, and was afterwards taken into partnership by his legal preceptor, Henry Baldwin, who at length became one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Mr. Harmar Denny soon became a public man widely and favorably known, and through his entire life he seemed to be more devoted to the general welfare of the people than to his personal comfort or private emolument. He faithfully repre- sented his county in the State Legislature when the Pennsylvania Canal was a question of absorbing interest. He was a member of the National Congress for four successive terms, from 1829 to 1837, and throughout his eight years of service in that body he was the advocate of a protective tariff, as was evinced by his able speech of May, 1830, in reply to Mr. McDuffie, of South Carolina, and by his no less able speeches of June, 1832, and of February, 1833. He was a member of the Reform
205
SOME EMINENT ELDERS OF THE FIRST CHURCH.
Convention of 1837 and '38, which met in Harrisburg and Philadelphia, that prepared a new Constitution for this State. In that Convention he was a man of note, as is evident from his speeches and votes. In the Councils of this city and in other offices of trust, he was prominent and influential. He encouraged the construction of the Pennsyl- vania Railroad, and was the honored and efficient President of the Pittsburgh and Steubenville Railroad, upon whose bonds was the likeness of his own countenance. In every way he was the friend of Western Pennsylvania. The farmers derived no small benefits from the improved agricultural implements he introduced and from the blooded stock imported by him. He was fully identified with the cause of liberal education, was a Trustee of the Western University of Pennsylvania and a Director of the West- ern Theological Seminary. His library was large, well selected, and valuable; and in 1848 he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society, organized in Philadelphia in 1743.
About the time Mr. Denny was admitted to the Bar, he made a confession of faith and was received into membership by the First Presbyterian Church of this city, to which Dr. Francis Herron then ministered so successfully. When the Young Men's Western Auxiliary Bible Society was organized in 1817, the year after the American Bible Society had been founded in New York, Mr. Denny was chosen its President, and at the first anniversary, November 3d, 1818, he delivered an address which was greatly admired by those who heard it, and was after- wards published in pamphlet form, a copy of which is now in pos- session of Rev. Joseph A. Murray, D. D., of Carlisle. Immediately after the delivery of this address, the venerable Rev. Joseph Pat- terson went to Mr. Denny's young wife and said : "You may be justly proud of having such a man for your husband." April 12th, 1829, he was ordained a ruling elder in this church, and most faithfully and acceptably did he discharge the duties of this high office, by the example of his own unblemished ehar- acter and his active interest in all that pertained to the welfare of the church. As a member of the Session of this church, and of the higher ecclesiastical courts, he was modest and prudent, and his advice or opinion always carried great weight. When a member of Congress, he, with the Hon. Walter Lowrie and Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen, formed the old Con-
206
SOME EMINENT ELDERS OF THE FIRST CHURCH.
gressional prayer meeting. He had been long and actively con- neeted with the Western Foreign Missionary Society, founded and controlled by the Synod of Pittsburgh. And when, in 1837, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church organized its Board of Foreign Missions, he was made one of its first members. At the Baltimore Convention on the Observance of the Sabbath, November 27th, 1844, there were seventeen hundred delegates. John Quincy Adams presided and Mr. Denny was one of the three Secretaries.
On the 25th of November, 1817, Mr. Denny was married to Elizabeth Febiger O'Hara, daughter of General James and Mary Carson O'Hara. General O'Hara was a man of large enterprise and great foresight. He had been a Commissary and Quarter- master General of the United States Army during the Indian hostilities subsequent to the Revolutionary War; had been ex- tensively engaged in business operations of his own : and had, in partnership with Major Isaac Craig, established the first glass works in Pittsburgh. Mrs. Denny was the elder daughter, and survived every other member of her father's family. She was- a noble woman, an earnest and intelligent Christian, of great energy of character and of large hearted benevolence. After
the death of her husband she lived nearly twenty-six years, dying January 18th, 1878, in the seventy-ninth year of her age.
Mr. Denny was tall, erect and dignified in appearance, but modest, courteous and kind. His character was symmetrical and well established. No one ever questioned his high sense of honor, his integrity, the purity of his life or the sincerity of his religious profession. His home was loved by himself and in it he practised a generous hospitality. Morning and evening he worshiped God with his household. His life was not a long one, but an active and useful one. After a linger- ing and painful illness, which he was enabled to endure with cheerful resignation, supported by the precious hopes of the Christian faith and soothed by the loving attentions of those near and dear to him, he peacefully entered into rest through death, January 29th, 1852, in the fifty-eighth year of his age. The Bar of Allegheny county, at a meeting presided over by the late Hon. Walter Forward, paid a high tribute to his worth and gave expression to the high estimation in which he was held. The corporations to which he had belonged, and the press of the
207
SOME EMINENT ELDERS OF THE FIRST CHURCH.
country, recognized his distinguished character and spoke of the deep sorrow so widely felt because of his departure. "The mem- ory of the just is blessed."
FRANCIS BAILEY.
Francis Gelson Bailey was born at Bally Water, County Down, Ireland, on the 24th of February, 1797. When about eighteen years old he came to this city and engaged in mercantile busi- ness. His pecuniary means were not large, but the habits of industry acquired in the home he had left-where thrift was looked upon as almost necessary to respectability-and his energy of character, soon won him a place in the foremost rank of the business men of this region. His success here soon led his father and mother and the other members of his family, to come hither also and make this city their home.
In connection with his younger brother, Samuel, and his brother-in-law, Alexander Laughlin, he continued in the success- ful prosecution of various business enterprises until 1850, when, having accumulated a generous competeney, he retired in a great measure from active worldly pursuits, not to spend the remainder of his days in idleness, but to devote them more fully to the good of his fellow men and the glory of God. The energy and industry of his business life was carried into the service of the church.
A child of the covenant and trained by a godly father, whom he greatly resembled, Mr. Bailey had connected himself with the church at an early age. In 1819 he became a member of the First Associate Reformed Church of this city, of which the late Rev. Joseph MeElroy, D. D. was then pastor. In 1824 he united with this church because of the kindness with which he had been treated by its pastor, Rev. Dr. Herron, and also because his spiritual life had been greatly quickened, if not really begun, under his ministrations. The intimacy between these two devout men ripened with their advancing years and has linked their names together.
In 1827, with a heart warmed by a great revival with which this church had been visited, Mr. Bailey removed to East Liberty. At that time there was in that place a church building partly erected, on which work had stopped-a growing population and abounding wickedness. His soul was stirred within him
208
SOME EMINENT ELDERS OF THE FIRST CHURCHI.
and he determined to have the house of worship completed and a church organized. To accomplish these things involved no small difficulty and self denial. On presenting the petition requesting an organization to Presbytery, he was met with the chilling statement : "There is nobody in East Liberty to make a church ; there are no Presbyterians there with whom to form an organization." Mr. Bailey, with great modesty, but with characteristic ardor, replied: "There are plenty of people there, and we expect to have them converted, and then they will make a church." The church was organized; Mr. Bailey was elected an elder. The first pastor, Rev. W. B. MeIlvaine, now of Mon- mouth, Illinois, for a time made his home in the family of Mr. Bailey. The Holy Spirit was poured out and many were con- verted. The large and prosperous churches now in what was then East Liberty, show the plentiful harvest yielded by the seed sown then by Mr. Bailey.
In 1841 he returned to the city, and was immediately elected to the eldership in this church, always so dear to him. In 1842 he became a Director of the Western Theological Seminary, and he was President of its Board of Trustees from its organization ; and in the prosperity of that institution he took a deep interest.
The wife of Mr. Bailey was Mary Ann Dalzell, daughter of John Dalzell, of Oneida county, New York, who was the last of an old family of Scotch Covenanters that had established itself in County Down, near Belfast. His sympathies had been with the Irish rebellion of 1798, and becoming an active participant, he was compelled to emigrate hastily to America, leaving all his property behind, and it was confiscated by the government. A brother of Mrs. Bailey, Robert Dalzell, resided in Rochester, New York, and another, James Dalzell, in Columbus, Ohio. She was born in 1802, and died January 18th, 1869. In person she was tall, with a clear complexion, and she was at the same time possessed of a most happy temperament. To her no self denial was wearisome, if it would add to the comfort of her children, or others. She was always ready to encourage her husband in his work of Christian love and to rejoice in his success.
Before concluding this sketch of Mr. Bailey, I may say a few words of his contemporaries in the Session, whose names have not been mentioned. Hugh MeClelland was never so happy as when listening to the gospel or sitting in the prayer meeting in
209
SOME EMINENT ELDERS OF THE FIRST CHURCH.
yonder upper room, leading the singing. So closely did he watch the walls of this building as they went up, that he could almost have counted the stones and the bricks. Bluff, honest and hearty Frederick Lorenz, was a man whose sincerity no one ever doubted. Alexander Laughlin was a successful Sabbath School worker, of most upright life, loved by all and devoted to the welfare of this church. Samuel Ray, gentle in manner, of few words, and wise in counsel, was one whose memory will be long cherished by those who knew him. Joseph MeKnight! who of the older members of this church does not recall him? Warm hearted, impulsive, generous, ever ready to weep with the suffer- ing and to encourage the unfortunate. John D. McCord, though a resident of Philadelphia, is here to-day. What manner of man he was and is, you all know. May it be a long time before any one will be called upon to write his obituary or pronounce his eulogy. Mr. Poindexter was a pattern Christian gentleman.
But Mr. Bailey had a closer companionship with Captain Robert Beer than with any other member of the Session. When one left the city the other went with him. At the summer resorts, wherever one was seen the other was not far off. Together they went up and down these streets and alleys, to the houses of the rich and the dwellings of the poor, to the fashionable parlor and to the bedside of the sick and dying. Of the salvation in Christ they spake to the giddy girl and to the dependent old woman, to the millionaire and to the beggar, to the aged or the little child. So much were they together and so much were they alike in spirit, that Mr. Robert Dalzell, of this church, named them the "Siamese Twins."
But at length Mr. Bailey's work was done. For more than a year and a half he glorified God in the fires, but his faith failed not. The last request which those around him were able to in- terpret, was, "pray." A few hours before his death, a friend, whose other inquiries had been answered by a slight elevation of the hand, asked: "Is Jesus still precious ?" With sudden energy his hand was extended the entire length of his arm, as if he was about to take a solemn oath before God. That was a fitting close to more than half a century of faithful service to the divine Master. Mr. Bailey died at midnight, Thursday, August 4th, 1870, in the 74th year of his age.
210
SUPPLEMENTARY STATEMENT.
SUPPLEMENTARY STATEMENT CONCERNING THE ELDERSHIP.
[After Dr. Allison's paper, Mr. Scovel made a Supplementary Statement with regard to the eldership, which (rewritten and enlarged,) is as follows:]
Some paragraphs at least must be allowed, besides what have already been allotted, and so well employed, on that succession of noble men in the eldership for which the First Church has often felt and expressed its gratitude. Taken as a whole, even within my pastorate, and how much more when taken through the century, the eldership has been remarkable as furnishing instances of all the finest types of Christian character. My heart, and many hearts, would overflow in testimonies to the gentle, the strong, the trustful, the aggressive and bold, the spirit- ual and prayerful men we have known in this relation. Their faith and their constancy are known to observation and tradition as well as by the results which they have wrought. And it is to be gratefully remembered that they have all been of the people. They have been selected with the insight of spirituality rather than for any external or even unusual intellectual qualifications. The fact that new elections generally succeeded revivals, is sig- nificant. So it was after the revival of 1827-8, when Denny, and Plumer, and Wilson were added, and after 1832, when Edwards, and Herron, and Laughlin, and Davis and Hanson were chosen : and so in our later history. During seasons of interest the people were more ready to see the need of more internal work, and had better opportunity to see who were fitted for it. The eldership has not been numerically large. We have had forty-nine elders in a century-while, for example, our sister First Church, in Allegheny, has had fifty-nine elders in forty-six
211
SUPPLEMENTARY STATEMENT.
years. It is an evidence that the church does not meddle with them that are given to change, and is not likely to adopt the rotary system.
From 1819 the Session's office seems to have been increas- ingly honored. Up to that date Dr. Herron had examined ap- plicants for admission to the church unaccompanied by the Session. But a resolution was then passed that "the Session, or a committee thereof," should be present at all such examina- tions, and the very sensible ground is assigned in the records for this action, that it was "desirable for the Session to know the congregation." A hint for to-day and all days. But a still broader one is found in the minutes of January, 1833. At that time the congregation (numbering four hundred and thirty-nine communicants,) was districted, and arrangements made for super- vision by the Session, in the following admirable manner: "At a meeting of the Session in January, 1833-convened for the purpose of carrying into effect the recommendation of ye last Synod-and for promoting the interest of religion in this branch of the church-we have agreed to adopt the following plan for the above purpose, viz : The city to be divided into six districts, and the families in those districts to be visited by such members of the Session as are willing to undertake the duty, and that this duty shall be attended to previously to our next communion, and on every three months afterwards, when ye members of Session shall change their districts, so that each elder may have an op- portunity of visiting all the families belonging to ye congre- gation in each year. The above plan was adopted and carried into effect. This plan was well accepted by the congregation and was pleasant to the elders themselves." The elders present when that record was made, were Snowden, Denny, Laughlin, Wilson, Edwards, Herron, Wright, Hanson.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.