USA > Pennsylvania > Fayette County > Uniontown > Exercises commemorating the 125th anniversary of the Great Bethel Baptist Church, Uniontown, Pa., November 9th and 10th, 1895 > Part 6
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COHOCTON, STEUBEN COUNTY, N. Y., DEC. 3, 1895.
Dear Brother Sturgis :- Find enclosed 25 cents for which please send to me a copy of the history of the Uniontown Baptist church. I read an account of your celebration in the Examiner with which I was delighted, especially with that part of it in relation to the organization of your first Sunday school, as I was present at its first organization, and took my first class in Sunday school in it. It was a class of seven young ladies, to whom I became very deeply attached. Although they have passed out of my class, they have not passed out of my memory or prayers. I am praying that I may meet them again, over the river, there to clasp hands with them nevermore to be separated from them. At the time I took the class my name was Hopey Frey. I was not a member of the church at the time but have sometimes thought that my thorough inves- tigation of Bible truths in order to teach the lesson intelligently to my ciass has been one of the instrumentalities of bringing me to Christ.
.Although I remember events readily, the names of many of my old friends and co-workers in Uniontown have passed from my mem- ory and cannot be recalled. One of my greatest desires for your history of Great Bethel church is that I may see some of the forgotten names of my old friends recorded and so have them brought back to my memory again. When the clay fetters that are dragging us down to earthly things are severed, and our freed spirits soar aloft to lands of life and light ineffable, our memories will be restored to us. We shall then see as we are seen, know as we are known. Until that happy day arrives, we must be content to walk by faith and not by sight.
I was married in Uniontown and removed to Steuben county, N. Y., where I now reside. Have been engaged in active Sunday school work ever since I left Uniontown. This labor grows increasingly dear to me as the years go by. I still have a class in Sunday school, which is one of the delights of my life. The hour that I spend before my class is one of the most enjoyable hours of the week.
May the blessing of the Lord rest down upon the Uniontown church and all its membership. Yours in bonds of christian love, HOPEY F. LYON.
In the year 1819 at Paris, but of English parents, Maria Florence Hill was born. Some time before 1843 her parents with their family came to America. About that year they lived at or near Mrs. Wynn's, not far from Oliphant Furnace. The family were all Episcopalians ex-
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THE 125th ANNIVERSARY
cept the daughter, Maria, who was a Baptist. The whole family were active in religious work. Miss Maria, being then about 24 years of age, was a teacher in a Sunday school held in a school house near her fath- er's home, her father being Superintendent. One of her scholars for a while was Hannah Haymaker, now our own Mrs. Hannah Lin- coln. Miss Maria held her membership in this church, and when Hannah Haymaker returned from that vicinity to anide here she sent word to some of the workers in our school, just then being formed, that they must make Hannah a teacher, which was done, she continuing for many years in that work. Miss Maria Hill while living there became engaged to the Rev. Mr. Penny, then pastor at Smithfield, but for some reason the marriage never occurred. The Hill family moved away and the next thing that we know of Miss Maria is that she was the wife of George W. Anderson, a professor in the Uni- versity at Lewisburg, now Bucknell, a position which he held from 1849 to 1854, when he resigned and became editorial secretary of the American Baptist Publication Society, and has lived from that date to the present, at or near Philadelphia. It was only on the 14th of October last, that Maria Florence Hill Anderson died at Bryn Mawr, Pa., after a prolonged but not painful illness of three years. She was a woman of the highest cultivation and of a beautiful christian character. She was conversant with French, German, Italian, Swedish, and probably other modern languages. In the year 1849, while she lived at Lewisburg, she wrote a hymn that has found its way into a number of hymn books. It is a Home Mission hymn and often have we sung it in this congregation. It is No. 594 in our Baptist Hymnal, and is as follows :
"Our country's voice is pleading ;
Ye men of God arise ! His providence is leading. The land before you lies ; Day gleams are o'er it brightening, And Promise clothes the soil. Wide fields for harvest whitening, Invite the reaper's toil. Go where the waves are breaking, On California's shore, Christ's precious gospel taking, More rich than golden ore , On Allegheny's mountains, Through all the western vale, Beside Missouri's fountains, Rehearse the wondrous tale.
The love of Christ unfolding, Speed on from east to west, Till all, his cross beholding, In him are fully blest. Great Author of salvation, Haste, haste the glorious day, When we a ransomed nation, Thy scepter shall obey."
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GREAT BETHEL BAPTIST CHURCH.
The records of Great Bethel church contain the names of a very large number of the representative families who are interwoven in the religious, social and political life of the community. The mention of these names recalls to the minds especially of our older members recol- lections of the stirring scenes, of the struggles and the trials of those who labored here in the long ago. We cannot notice them all here, but on the pages of the old minute books are found the names of such fam- ilies as
Sutton, Vanmeter, Hall, Blackford, Carr, Baccus, Morgan, Murphy, McCoy, Anderson, Van Triest, Hardin, Griffith, Phillips, Morris, Nico- las, Barker, McDonald, Hill, Barkley, Cain, Moreland, Davison, Mills, Lewellen, Gard, Bryson, Gerard, Frazier, Ross, Ives, Underwood, Tyler, Eastwood, Freeman, Thomas, Hess, Shrieves, Wells, Pierce, Johns, Beck, Bowell, Reed, Combs, Jones, Ashcraft, Walker, Wood, Drago, Pearsoll, Ashby, Miller, Barnett, Moore, Cambridge, Clark, Osborn, Mclaughlin, Lucas, Brown, Pain, York, Gaddis, Dixon, Edward, King, Springer, Smith, Jolly, Reynolds, Brownfield, Hankins, Little, Galla- her, White, Vanderhoof, Minor, Vance, Hixon, Swain, Johnson, Kin- cade, Gray Stewart, Ogle, Hutchinson, Nixon, Jenkins, Collins, Wynn, Thorp, Gilbert, Hatfield, Benson, Chick, Gibson, Conden, Delaney, Ott. West, Ferren, Cage, Hayden, Butler, Neal, Harbaugh, Ayers, Sidebot- tom, Leach, Watson, Dean, Jones, Hyatt, Williams, Griffin, Wilson, Brown, Sturgis, Strickler, Hustead, Turner, Shaw, Clement, Fisher, Shoaf, Thompson, Smiley, Craig, Altman, Carter, Hadden, Courtney, Baily, Shaffer, Breading, Gray, Alton, Jennings, Rowland, Barton, Lynn, Mackey, Patterson, Clark, French, Craft, Frey, Richards, Frisby, Lindsey, Bosley, Jeffries, Malaby, Parshall, Troutman, Dannels, New- man, Semans, Spears, Sampsell, Friend. Bunting, Ritenour, Hopwood, Shallenberger, Estep, Penny, Hickman, McShane, Hurst, Batton, Beeson, Greene, Leonard, Bowlby, Van Swearingen, Douglas, Cooper, Burchinal, Franks. Ellis, Reisinger, Nabors, Weltner, Collier, Hertzog, Crow, Sembower, Rutter, Hart, Boord, Patton, Evans, Fuller, Schnat- terly, Diffenderffer, McCormick, Daugherty, Black, Crossland, Trader, Bevans, Campbell, Jobes, Kimberly, Fulton, Jeffries, McClelland, Fields, Hutchinson, Cunningham, Hagan, Bryte, Whaley, James, Moore, Holmes, Bryant, Rogers, Austin, Bryner, Harris, Inks, Lincoln, Mc- Cleary, Swann, Woodward, Hook, Coleman, Howard, Wiley, Lenhart, Jaquett, Desellems, Huston, and many others, but lack of time prevents further mention here.
General Ephraim Douglass was appointed the first prothonotary and clerk of Fayette county after its erection into a county in 1783. He con- tinued in these offices 25 years, resigning in 1808. In sending to the general council of the state an account of the election of justices of the peace the next year, 1784, he mentions the fact that Mr. Moses Sutton
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THE 125th ANNIVERSARY
was one of them. This Mr. Sutton was the great grandfather of Mrs. Lincoln, a present member of this church.
Judge Veech says that General Douglas "for many years drove the only landau, or four wheeled carriage in the county." That was 13 years or more after this church was organized.
There was no postoffice in Fayette county until after the whisky in- surrection of 1794, or twenty-four years later than the birth of Great Bethel. In 1786 a mail route was established from Philadelphia and Virginia, via Bedford, to Pittsburg. But this only carried the mail twice a month each way, so that in one instance at least it took a letter four months to pass from the writer at Philadelphia to the recipient at Uniontown. The plan to pay for the bearing of the letters was, that the contractors or carriers took the postage for pay. For many years Pitts- burg was the only postoffice west of the Allegheny mountains. In a Pittsburg Gazette of 1792, which was then delivered to its readers in the west by carriers, was a list of advertised letters, among which were let- ters for men in Fayette county and even in Kentucky. Remember that that was twenty-two years after we were organized.
Among the faithful fathers of this church in stormy times, whom even some of the younger members can remember with loving reverence, was Nathaniel G. Hurst, who, with his devoted wife, Mary, came to Great Bethel by letter from the Smithfield church in 1856. Bro. Hurst was born in England in 1800 and was baptized into the English church in infancy. He came to America in 1819, and in 1852 was baptized on a profession of faith, by Rev. Joshua Rossel, into Mt. Moriah church. Brother Hurst was accustomed to say that his life presented many strange coincidences. He landed in New York March 19, 1819, when he was 19 years old and he died in 1887, aged 87 years, his wife having died ten years before. He was always in his place in the church when his health permitted, and often when it did not permit. He lived a long and faithful life in the service of his Master and his works do follow him. One of our memorial windows speaks to us of his noble example.
As illustrating the dangers that lurked in this sparsely settled re- gion during the early years of Great Bethel's history, Judge Veech re- lates the following incident of Philip Jenkins, who was an active mem- ber of the church and its clerk from 1776 to 1784 :
Bro. Jenkins was tax collector of Springhill township in 1784, and on the night of June 2nd of that year he was robbed in his own house of his duplicate, about 25 pounds in money, a razor and some soap. It was done by three men unknown to him, dressed in hunting shirts, with
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GREAT BETHEL BAPTIST CHURCH.
their faces striped, each armed with a pistol and a club. Two of the robbers spoke Dutch. They abused and beat him badly. Their avowed purpose was to prevent tax gathering. A reward of 50 pounds was offer- ed for their apprehension but they never were caught.
One of the faithful mothers of this church was Sister Matilda Mitch- ell, who was so long with us and has so recently been called home that we scarcely yet can realize that her face will no longer be seen down in that accustomed pew. She united with the church in 1834, and served it with unwavering devotion for 71 years. She was born July 12, 1813, and died July 17, 1895, aged 82 years. In sunshine and shadow, through evil as well as good report, she followed the Great Head of the church with steadfast loyalty to the end, and passed peacefully to her reward.
HECKMAN BINDERY INC.
JAN 96
Bound -To-Pleas® N. MANCHESTER, INDIANA 46962
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