Century history of the city of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and representative citizens, 20th, Vol. I, Part 30

Author: McFarland, Joseph Fulton; Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co. (Chicago) pbl
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 584

USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > Washington > Century history of the city of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and representative citizens, 20th, Vol. I > Part 30

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"With all the pressure in England in favor of Epis- copal establishment for the perpetuation here of English authority it is not remarkable that the Episcopalians in the colonies were undisguisedly anxious for such a church establishment in this country. . . . The mere knowledge of this threatened danger tended strong-

ly to unite the Puritan clement among the denomi. nations and especially to bring together the Presbyterians and Congregationalists in combined efforts for religious freedom.''

Presbyterianism, a more democratie forut of govern. ment, owes its name as much to its form as to its doc. trine. Each congregation seleets its minister from the ordained ministry, and selects its own ehlers or presby- tors or official personages from its own membership. From these bishops and lay members, representatives are selected to constitute presbyteries, synods and gen- eral assemblies, which are the appellate jurisdictions. Tho Congregationalists, who were numerous in the New England states, had no appellate courts and acknowl- edged no authority in church government higher than the congregation, each deciding for itself. Hostility from king and tory drove the Americans to look away from the Established Church of England and to adopt a form of government closely resembling that of the Presbyterian denomination. The influence of Presby. terianism on the Constitutional Convention called to form a constitution for the United States in 1787, when the Presbyterian synod and the convention were in session in Philadelphia only four squares apart, is un- necessary to discuss in this work. It is well set out in Hays on Presbyterianism, page 132, and the similarity in the forms of government adopted is clear. Town- ships correspond to congregations, counties to Presby- teries, States to synods and the United States to the General Assembly.

All Presbyterians were considered " dissenters "' by the British and no matter how other denominations might be divided in political views, no Presbyterian would be a tory. The early colonists were striving to establish in this wilderness a civilization where the Protestant religion would be free from governmental control.

As the free form of worship succeeded in establishing and sustaining churches, whether Presbyterian. Con- gregational, Baptist, Quaker or others, the confidence of the people grew into belief that religion needed noth- ing from the state but protection and peace. All Christian dissenters, pleased with the freedom of wor- ship, grew strong in their determination to be free Americans, and in the solitudes of these back woods attended most faithfully their little log sanctuaries to receive information and inspiration in government as well as religious affairs. These became the centers of social reorganization, and the preacher the leader in education and the counselor of the whole community.

The first meeting of Presbytery held by Presby- terians west of the mountains was held at Pigeon Creek. Washington County, September 19-20. 1781. It had been organized by the Synod of New York and Phila- delphia in May and embraced all the country west of

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY

the Allegheuy Mountains. Although it was ealled Red- stone Presbytery, and Redstone settlement lay east of the Monongahela River, three of the four ministers of which it was composed were residing in Washington County and only one east of the river. That Presbyterianism was strong in Washington County is further indicated by the fact that the first meeting of the Ohio Presby- tery, the next one formed, was held at Upper Buffalo in 1793, and the first aud only meeting held by the Synod of Virginia on land within Pennsylvania was in the village of Washington in 1800. The three minis- ters above referred to as residing in Washington County were John MeMillen, Thadeus Dodd and Joseph Smith, who, as stated in a former chapter arrived about 1778 and 1779 to locate permanently with their families in this county. Rev. Thadeus Dodd and Rev. Joseph Smith had both died before Ohio Presbytery was erected.

Ohio Presbytery when organized in 1793 consisted of the ministers and churches west of the Monongahela River without limit, and extended from that river's mouth northward to Presque Isle, now the city of Erie. Only oue minister of the five included was located uorth or west of the Ohio River. The locations of the Presby- terian churches in the county in 1793 were at what is now known as Pigeou Creek, Independence, Chartiers or Hill Church, one mile south of Canonsburg, Amity, Prosperity, Buffalo Village, Cross Creek, Raecoon at Can- dor, Three Ridges at West Alexander, Mingo Creek, Pike Run, King's Creek, three miles north of Florence and which was afterwards removed to Florence and Horse- shoe near Monongahela. Neither Washington nor Wheel- ing had congregations at this time. Those persons of this denomination residing at the county seat attended Dr. John McMillen's Chartiers (now Hill) Church. The church at Washington was organized in the winter of 1793-4, although there had been preaching services in the court house frequently prior to that. The first his- torical record of constant preaching at this village ap- pears in the application of Presbytery December 20, 1785, for the stated service of Alexander Addison, then a licentiate of the Presbytery of Aberlow, Scotland and afterwards a distinguished judge of Washington County and in these western eourts. The religious idea was strong in the minds of the settlers and the preaching was desired, publie worship held, congregations organ- ized and churches built at several places years before a pastor was obtained. Raccoon Church in Robinson Township built its first church in 1781, but had no pastor until 1789. The Washington Congregation did not ob- tain either a church building or a pastor until 12 years after their organization. Rev. Mathew Brown was in- stalled in 1805, but the worship was before that con- ducted in the Academy or the Court House. This delay in obtaining a pastor may be the fault of the eongre-

gation, but after some facts are stated the reader will be left to decide whether the refusal of Presbytery to permit the people of Washington and vicinity to have the preachers of their own choiee was not the cause which led to the advancement of education at Canonsburg, and the establishment of Jefferson College there to the in- jury of Washington Academy and College.

The four original members of session, Andrew Swear- ingen, brother of Van Swearingen; Robert Stockton, re- siding two miles west of town; Joseph Wherry, residing two miles north of town, and William MeCombs from the direction of Pigeon Creek, obtained James Welsh as "stated supply" for the first year. He and others at intervals later preached in the academy just erected and in the new court house erected to replace the one which was burned in 1791. In the second story of that old court house Rev. Thadeus Dodd had previously eon- ducted for a time the Washington Academy and preached one-third of his Sabbaths, dividing the time with his two Ten-Mile congregations. Alexander Addison had preached as a supply for two years, but the Presbytery being very striet had declined to install him as pastor. Many sup- plies were tried, but no regular pastor could be secured. MeMillen and his associates were suspicious of all im- ported preachers.

Strife and dissatisfaction arose and increased after the Presbytery refused to approve the call for the serv- ices of Rev. Thomas Ledlie Bireh. He had come from Ireland and was a man of "gifts," but in estimation of many, including prominent members of the Presby- tery, of doubtful ministerial character, notwithstanding his papers had been indorsed by the Presbytery of Philadelphia, under the rule. Commissioners from the church presented a petition to the Presbytery October 23, 1800, for the settlement of Mr. Birch as pastor, but his examination on "experimental religion" not proving satisfactory, the request was refused and he was not received as a member of the Presbytery. Pending, how- ever, an appeal from these proceedings to the General Assembly, he was permitted to preach in Washington uutil the decision. Meanwhile, during a subsequent meet- ing of the Presbytery of Cross Creek, in January, 1801, Mr. Birch underwent another examination, but was re- jected as before. The General Assembly dismissed the appeal, upon the ground that "there is a discretionary power necessarily lodged iu every Presbytery, to judge the qualifications of those whom they receive, especially with respect to experimental religion." To the surprise however of the brethren here, the Assembly itself sub- jected Mr. Bireh to examination, and resolved that "they fouud no obstruction against any other Presbytery taking him up and proceeding with him agreeably to the rules and regulations provided in such cases." Thus en- couraged, Mr. Birch complained to the next Assembly

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY

(1802) that "the Presbytery of Ohio still rejected bim, in opposition to the decision and intention of the General Assembly, " but "the complaint was not sustained." Then came a rupture in the congregation, one portion adhering to Mr. Birch, in resistance to ecclesiastical au- thority, whilst the other received and heard the supplies appointed by the Presbytery.

But failing of bis end through chureli courts, the com- painant finally appealed to the civil law in a suit for slander against Dr. MeMillen. That honored man, given unduly to blunt speech, had expressed his opinion of Mr. Birch very freely, and the Presbytery, before whom he was first charged, though sustaining him in everything else, had rebuked and admonished him for one rash ex- pression, viz., that he considered Mr. Birch "a preacher of the devil," to which censure Dr. MeMillen meekly sub- mitted. "But this decision did not draw blood enough, and hence the appeal to Caesar. Iu the Circuit Court of Washington County, held by Judges Yeates and Smith, the jury, despite the able and eloquent defence of Hon. James Ross, found for the plaintiff ; but in the Supreme Court that "judgment was reversed, " on the ground, so clearly set forth by Chief Justice Tilghman, that the words complained of, though otherwise faulty, were not actionable, having been extorted by the plaintiff on a trial in an ecclesiastical conrt, whoso jurisdiction he himself had acknowledged."

Between 1790 and 1805 the disposition of the Wash- ington people had hardened. Rev. Thadeus Dodd said they were indifferent to the interests of literature in general and to the demands of the church in particular. Rev. Jacob Lindly said that they had bnt little piety, science or liberality to build a house or sustain a literary institution, and none to sustain a preacher. Rev. Mathew Brown, called in 1805 to be principal of the Academy and first pastor of the first congregation in Washington, in advising with the Rev. Dr. James I. Brownson at the beginning of bis pastorate of this Presbyterian people in 1849, began with a description of the remarkable in- telligence and social refinement of the community in Washington when he came to it. But, as in most new towns, there was but little of the spirit of piety. "But for a few godly women, " said he, "we would have been as Sodom and Gomorrah." The men were respectful, ready to swell the church attendance, and to pay their dues; but that was their utmost advance heavenward. Through the week money-making with superabundant and vicious recreations in the form of gambling, long bullets, horse-racing and cock fighting, absorbed them.

Dr. Brown, a gradnate of Dickinson College and or- dained by Carlisle Presbytery, came to his western charge wbile yet the power of the great religious awakening of 1802 lingered in the ministers and churches. After some contact with this spirit of earnestness, he is said to have

declared to some of his brethren that he "must go back over the mountains and get more religion before he could with any hope preach alongside with such ministers and to such people."

Hle evidently considered the village people intelligent, but the revival spirit was as yet only in the country churches. The action of Presbytery having dissatisfied Washington people, and the refusal of Jolin Hoge, one of the proprietors of the town, to give a lot for the Academy, caused a change of plan. The ministers who had been so instrumental in procuring a charter for Washington Academy in 1787 turned to John Canon, who gave them a building lot and advanced money to erect an Academy at Canonsburg. They soon obtained action of Redstone Presbytery, of Ohio Presbytery and that higher body, the Synod of Virginia, resolving to aid the Academy at Canonsburg. Those who favored Washington Academy found themselves forestalled in all the churches in tho county when they tried to procure contributions for the building at Washington. Washington Academy and its successor, Washington College, never was able to overcome the advantage at that time given to Canons- burg.

Interest in education was not confined to academies. The Ohio Presbytery in 1794, taking into serious con- sideration the importance of the education of children and the danger of contracting early habits of vice and immorality, thought it their duty and did "recommend to their rural congregations to be particular not to em- ploy masters of immoral condnet or uusonud principles, but to discourage all such; and do their utmost in their differeut neighborhoods to encourage masters of good morals and orthodox principles in matters of religion." There were no schools except as teachers, then called "masters," were employed by neighborhood subscrip- tions. These masters were usually stragglers who "board- ed around" changing each week or fortnightly among the families of their employers.

Moral teaching was kept up by catechizing from honse to house or asking the questions of the "Shorter Cate- chism" by the ministers. Presbytery appointed certain of the uumber to this duty where there were churches with no regular pastor. The pulpit preaching was earnest, spiritual and educational, for these early minis- ters from the cast were nearly all graduates from Prince- ton and nearly all who were trained on this western field were of fairly good classical and theological attain- ments. They were of rigid, strong character, not crude uncultured frontier preachers. Their close examination of licentiates from the old countries, especially on "ex- perimental religion," led to the rejection of most of the aspirants to these western pulpits. Home talent, therefore, cultivated this rich field. In order that dis- orders in preaching might not creep in, the Presbytery

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yearly examined the Academy students of Canonsburg and were assisted by commissioners from the mother Presbytery-Redstone. That Academy was classical and theological. As early as 1810 our Ohio Presbytery took action toward establishing permanent theological schools. Prior to 1800 it was urgiug congregations to contribute money, wheat or linen to raise funds for missionary work, to spread the gospel for the instruction of the heathen and black people. The old Presbytery of Red- stone, of which Washington County was the much most active part, contributed a goodly sum to the support of missionaries as early as 1790, and many coutributions from individual churches in Washington County in early days to this cause and to the Theological Seminary at Princetou, N. J., are given in the history of the Presby- tery of Washington, page 20.

The interest of the common people in the academies or assisting young theological students led them to give what they could-wheat, rye, linen, etc., to which even "John Cordike, a pious negro," contributed. (History of Raccoon Church, Sturgeon, page 14), although he lived in Robinson Township, teu miles distant from the school, to be benefited. In addition to such gifts the women of five churches, Buffalo, Cross Creek, Chartiers, Ten-Mile and Bethel (just across the Allegheny County line), fur- nished several studeuts with clothing during their studies under Rev. Smith at Upper Buffalo about 1785. They made up summer and winter clothing for Brice, Porter, Patterson and James Hughes; coloring linen for summer wear in a dye made of. new mown hay, and sending woolen cloth, by merchants, over the mountains to be fulled and dressed. Reasons why they did not make clothing for James MeGready, who was a student at the same time, are not given. He became a great evangelist notwithstanding this seeming neglect.

The missionary efforts were not confined to the organ- ized white settlers. but annual pilgrimages were made by these permanent pastors across the Ohio river to the Indians. The hardships of these long horseback trips is indicated by the experience of Rev. Joseph Patterson, pastor of Raccoon. The only food used for days in the deep forest was corn, which was pounded between stones, boiled and mixed with bear's grease. When his stomach revolted at this his earnest evening prayer for a change of diet was answered the next morning by an excellent appetite which continued until other food was had.

Scarcely a minister or licentiate then on the rolls of Presbytery, except the very aged, but was appointed to labor from one to four months in the new settlements or among the Indian tribes-Wyandotts, Senecas, Otta- was and others. These Scotch-Irish people were uot only watchful of their preachers and of the "masters" en- gaged by their parishoners to teach the children in the subscription schools, but were zealous in the discipline

of the church members. The Presbytery of which Wash- ington County area was the main part, warned its people against horse-racing, balls, dances, etc., and advised against "the use of ardent spirits in harvest, and at publie meetings especially," as highly improper and prejudicial to body and soul. They were loyal to the government and went so far in 1795 as to declare as a Presbytery, that the "distinguishing privileges"' in the church should be refused to those who, during the west- ern insurrection, "had an active hand in burning prop- erty, robbing the mail and destroying official papers of the officers of government" until they gave satisfactory evidence of repeutance. This action is in accord with the act of "the venerable clergyman," Rev. John Clark, in pleading with the insurgents not to go to Neville's plantation on the morning preceding the riot there. Among the preachers of that day who may have en- couraged uprising against the laws the names of none of the Presbyterians have been seen.

The Western Missionary Magazine issued its first num- ber February, 1903, published at Washington, Pa. It was the organization of Presbyterianism in this and the adjoining counties. The Ohio Presbytery embracing but few churches not in Washington County, Old Redstone and new Erie Presbytery (Pittsburg and northward), had been organized into Pittsburg Synod the year before. At its first meeting it had resolved that the Synod should be called the Western Missionary Society with the object of spreading the gospel throughout the new settlement, the Indian tribes, and if need be among those not able to support the gospel in the interior. A Board of Trust was appointed to manage the work of missions. The original board members were Ministers John McMillen, David Smith, Thomas Marquis and Thomas Hughes, with Elders William Plummer and James Caldwell. In 1806 all those who constituted the board were from Washington County -James Hughes, Thomas Marquis, John Anderson, Elisha MeCurdy and Elders William Rhea, William Lee and John Duncau. Nearly all the members of this committee were from Washington County, and all the meetings of this Board of Trust during its first eight years were held in this county. Even after the place of meeting was changed to Pittsburg, the great apostle of Western Mis- sions, Rev. Elisha MeCurdy, of Cross Roads, (Florence) was still retained as its financial agent and treasurer. This and other facts have been cited as evidence that the great modern missionary movement of the great Presbyterian Church had its origin within the bounds of Washington County.

Of the 12 ministers appointed as first editors of the magazine, the leaders including the three appointed busi- ness managers, John MeMillen, Johu Anderson and Samuel Ralston, were from this county. This region had just passed through that great spiritual revival at the be-

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FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, WASHINGTON

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY

ginniug of the century, during which Washington County had some very special experiences. The facts concerning those wonderful revivals are almost beyond belief now. The preaching in all the old churches and out under the trees was intensely earnest, vast concourses of people gathered and remained for days. The first campmeeting in Christendom was held in Kentucky in July and August, 1799, arising from the spiritual efforts of Rev. James MeGready, a former student of Rev. Joseph Smith, of Upper Buffalo, and Dr. John MeMillau, of Chartiers. The greatest campmeeting ever held in Washington Coun- ty was at this same Upper Buffalo when 10,000 people assembled in "The overwhelming convietion and deep distress of awakeued sinners, the extraordinary play of sympathetic emotion evineing itself so often in that strange phenomenon, the falling exereise," is worthy of study by the historian and the psychologist as the most important and interesting chapter of carly history. In a volume published in 1802, entitled "Surprising Ac- counts of Revivals of Religion in the United States, " etc., may be found a letter which had been addressed in 1799 to a friend in Philadelphia, by a gentleman residing in Washington County, giving a full account up to that day. In the Western Missionary Magazine for 1803 is a fuller and later account, prepared and published by order of the Presbytery of Ohio. From these and other original sources full histories are given in Elliott's "Life of Macurdy" and in Smith's "Old Redstone." More re- cently in the "Centenary Memorial" is a chapter by Rev. A. Williams, D. D., on the "Religious History of the Western Church." And still later is a tractate on "The Great Revival of 1800" written by Rev. W. Speer, D. D., and published by the Presbyterian Board. (History of the Presbytery of Washington, p. 35).

The Synod of Pittsburg met in Washington, October, 1819, and struck from the Ohio Presbytery that portiou lying between the Ohio river ou the west and north and the old State road leading from Georgetown (in Beaver County) to Washington and thence south. Nine minis- ters were included in this field, but only four of them were in charge of congregations within the bounds of this county. Five other congregations, Raccoon, Miller's Run, Chartiers, Mingo and Williamsport, were omitted frour Washington Presbytery at its formation and have always been connected iu a Presbytery with the Pittsburg churches. Washington congregation was also omitted, but has been included by the several slight changes in Presby- terial lines. There were 18 congregations of this de- nomination at that time between the Ohio river and the road from Georgetown to Washington and thence to the south of Waynesburg, but several were withont pastors and several were not fully organized and officered as the church discipline required. (Presbytery of Washington, pp. 21, 42). The line of Washington Presbytery is

now the state line ou the west and south, Beaver County ou the north, and on the east a line extending up Raccoon ('reck and along the east fork to Hickory, thence by the road from Georgetown to Washington, including Sonth Strabane and Somerset. Townships, thence by the National Turnpike to Beallsville, thence by the line of the Presby- tery of Redstone to the southern line of the state.

Fourteen congregatious which were recently in con- nection with the Cumberland Presbyterians, but which lie in this county east of the above mentioned lines, were added in 1907. Two congregations, recently Cumberlands, to wit. Charleroi and Donora, are nnited with the Pitts- burg Presbytery. All these 16 churches were, before the union, included in the Pennsylvania or the Pittsburg Presbyteries of the Cumberland Presbyterian organi- zation.

There are now 47 Presbyterian congregations in Wash- ington County. The membership numbers 10,931, or over one-ninth of the population in the county in the year 1900. Almost one-fifth of the total, or 2,374 are mem- bers of the 16 elmurches recently Cumberlands. The fol- lowing list gives the number of members in each con- gregation as reported to the last General Assembly, and shows that the Cumberland Presbyterians in the county were at the time of the imion more than one- fourth as many as the Presbyterians.

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Century history of the city of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and representative citizens, 20th, Vol. I, Part 30

Author: McFarland, Joseph Fulton; Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co. (Chicago) pbl Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 584

Author: McFarland, Joseph Fulton; Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co. (Chicago) pbl
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 584