USA > Pennsylvania > Historical register : notes and queries historical and genealogical, chiefly relating to interior Pennsylvania. Volume II > Part 24
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[Dr. Reiger to Capt. Chambers.]
Doct Reiger wishes to know from Mr. Chambers the mode of Satisfaction he demands of him, the treatment the Doct" has rec" I think is unbecoming the Character of a Gentleman.
J. REIGER.
STEPHEN CHAMBERS, Esq.
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[Dr. Reiger to Capt. Chambers.]
SIR: From the Situation I am placed in from your manner of treatment to me at Mr. Stake's, I am under the necessity of calling you to meet me this afternoon at Seven O'Clock in the Barrack yard.
Lancaster, May 11, 1789.
J. REIGER.
[ Capt. Chambers to Dr. Reiger. ]
SIR : I have just received your note of this day to meet you this Evening at Seven O'clock in the Barrack yard. I pre- sume you have not reflected on my present situation, in being absolutely engaged in Causes that must be tried before the Judges of the Supreme Court in this and other counties. A seuse of Duty to my clients will prevent my meeting you un- till the Circuit Courts are done, and then I pledge myself to meet you on the Terms you propose ; in the mean time matters between us shall rest as they are. I have not yet Communi- cated your message to any friend, nor will not unless you in- form me that you have a friend to go with you. I wish you' answer.
11 May, 1789.
S. C.
[Dr. Reiger to Capt. Chambers.] LANCASTER, 11 May, 1789.
SIR : Your note I have just received. I have I assure you communicated to two of my friends. I expect to see you on the Ground. I am as disagreably situadas yourself by being on the Grand Jury. If Postponement be necessary we are there to Judge.
JACOB REIGER.
STEPHEN CHAMBERS, Esq.
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Old Derry Church.
OLD DERRY CHURCHI.
HISTORICAL ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE OF DERRY MEMORIAL CHURCH, ON OC-
TOBER 2, 1884, BY WILLIAM H. EGLE, M. D.
Ye Friends of Derry:
It is not only to show our love for the old which has brought us together upon this occasion, but also the pious promptings implanted in our natures by our Creed and its teachings-a reverence for the holy meu of ages gone by, and an admiration for their efforts in perpetuating " the Faith once delivered to the Saints." We have come up from our homes to listen to the leading events in our history, and to prove by our presence our appreciation of the hardy pioneers who planted upon the "Barrens of Derry " the seed of the Church. There is something saintly in the records of the lives of the early missionaries in this country-whether it be the self-deny- ing Jesuit or the pious, God-fearing Moravian, who carried the Cross of Jesus to the benighted -- or vet the staunch, unflinch- ing Covenanter, or the disciples of Zwingli or Luther, who, with the faith of the Reformation, left home and kindred, and the enjoyments of the lands of their nativity, to preach Re- demption to the race. Their zeal and religious fervor remind us of the Apostolic age, when a PAUL aroused the world to repentance.
Here the Scotch-Irish settled! Here they found a home- some a resting place in yonder enclosure-God's Acre-some wandered on down through this beautiful valley of the Kit -. tatinny, and there in time ceased from their earthly labors. And who were the Scotch-Irish ? At first a term of reproach -for later on we find the Rev. John Elder complaining against leading Quakers, who spoke of him and his followers as "Scotch-Irish and other ill-natured terms"-but now the synonym of all that is ennobling and manly, of enterprise and intelligence, of education, patriotism, and religious fervor. With German and Swiss-French blood coursing through my veins,
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with the fires of a Huguenot ancestry burning within me, it hay not come miniss if I shall offer iny tribute to the Scotch- Irish and to Presbyterianism.
Who were the Scotch-Irish ? It is well that for a few mo- ments we dwell upon the history of that persevering and un- daunted race-a God-fearing and liberty-loving people-for it is to the character of individuals who first settle any country, or establish their government, which generally determines that of their descendants. What our great Commonwealth is she owes to her original settlers. In this there was a diversity pe- culiar to her alone -- Swedes. English and Welsh Quakers. Germans, Swiss-French, Scotch-Irish, and men from New England. Hence our history has never been properly under- stood, and every writer foreign to our State, from the venera. ble Bancroft down to the latest of American historians, Mc- Masters, has failed to understand our people. To the Scotch- Irish settlers the least justice has been done, and as the character of your ancestors is part of your inheritance, which you are bound by every obligation of duty to reverence and defend, see to it that you have "reasons for the faith within you."
In the early part of the seventeenth century, owing to the confiscation of the lands of the Earls of Tyrone and Tyrcon- nel, who had been falsely accused of plotting against the Gov- ernment of England, it was decided to people their sequestered domain in the Province of Ulster, in Ireland, by Protestants from England and Scotland, and companies were organized for this purpose. The principal emigration, however, was from the latter country. The coast of Scotland is not quite twenty miles from the county of Antrim, Ireland, and across this strait flowed a large population. distinguished for their thrift, industry, and endurance, and bringing with them their Pres- byterianism and rigid adherence to the principles of Knox and Calvin. There they prospered for awhile, but the religious persecutions beginning in 1661, so disgraceful to British annals, and which pale before the horrors of the Spanish In- quisition, soon laid waste the lands of Ulster. From Ireland the tide of persecution rolled to Scotland. In the days of Sir
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Old Derry Church. 283
James Grahame, better known as Claverhouse, it is stated that no less than eighteen thousand Scotch Presbyterians were put to death in various ways in defense of the Solemn League and Cov- enant, and CHRIST's Headship over the Church. In looking over the list of martyr-names, one is forcibly struck with the fact that among them are the very surnames of those Scotch-Irish who settled here on the Barrens of Derry, so naming their principal resting-place in America in memory of the heroic defense of Derry, which even Macaulay calls "that great siege, the most memorable in the annals of the British isle." Two centuries have passed away, and yet the walls of Londonderry, says our fellow-citizen, J. Montgomery Forster, who viewed them during the summer of 1884, remain, and are to the Prot- estants of Ulster what the trophy of Marathon was to the Athenians. " Derry alone saved Ireland to the Protestant faith and to constitutional liberty." You can read the names of these defenders in, vonder graveyard.
At last these Scotch settlers in the north of Ireland, when the avenues to the New World were opening up, began to think of other homes. Ireland was not the domain of their ancestors, it was endeared to them by no traditions, and they sought and obtained in the wilderness of Pennsylvania a better home than they had in the Old World.
Coming thus to America by the thousands, their ministers either accompanied them, or, as in the case of young licentiates, followed shortly after. " There were Scotch-Irish settlements at the forks of the Brandywine and on the Octoraro, in Chester county ; on the Neshaminy, in Bucks county, and in Allen township, Northampton county. That, however, within a ra- dius of twenty-five miles, comprising the townships of Donegal, Paxtang, Derry, and Hanover, in then Lancaster county, now partly in that and partly in our county of Dauphin, was the great settlement from whence the stream flowed southward through the Kittatinny valley to the Potomac, thence through the Virginia valley to the Carolinas and Georgia. At one time, say about the year 1752 or '53, the number of people then within the entire section of country now comprising the town- ships noted, doubled their present population. They were only
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temporary residents. however. They tarried here awhile with their relatives and neighbors from the north of Ireland. to rest after the fatigue of an eight or ten months' voyage to recuper- ate, and then to press on toward the founding of homes in the American forests and valleys beyond. Begin at the Irish set- tlement in Northampton county, and go down the entire length of the country to the Altamaha river in Georgia, and look over the lists of the first settlers, and the same sur-names will speak plainly of not only the same nationality but of allied families.
At what time the little flock of Derry was first gathered to- gether we know not. The records of New Castle Presbytery do not throw much light upon the subject. It is authentically known, however, that there was quite a settlement here in the neighborhood of Spring creek as early as 1720. In 1723, the celebrated Conrad Weiser, floating on rafts down the Susque- hauna with his family and friends, came up the Swatara, but, finding no unoccupied land until its head-waters were reached, pushed beyond the Scotch-Irish pioneers of Derry.
Into these forests of the New World the Scotch-Irish brought their faith with them. Their religion was not forgotten, for it was that beacon-light which lightened their way over the stormy Atlantic and into this wilderness to found a new home. and so they lost no time in rearing their altars. Besides, the Presby- teries of Ireland and Scotland were not slow in becoming mas- ters of the situation. They saw that with the departure of so many that ministers must go out, and these followed in num- bers eager for the Master's work. Gillespie, and Evans, and Cross, and Boyd, were, perchance, the earliest of that devoted band of Presbyterian divines who visited this hallowed locality. These Apostles of the Church labored earnestly and zealously in the vineyard, and congregations were soon formed. Done- gal, Paxtang, and Derry were organized at about one and the same time. Hanover came later in its history.
The first record we have of Derry church is. April, 1724, and hence this date has been accepted as that of the organiza- tion. One hundred and sixty years ago! Not many years in the annals of localities in the countries beyond the sea, but here in Pennsylvania it takes us back to the beginnings of our
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Old Derry Church.
history. Let us picture to our minds the scene here at that day with all its surroundings, and contrast it with what is transpir- ing this bright autumnal day in the year of Grace, 1884. How vast the change! Then, the sky was the only canopy-the song of bird and stream the only sounds to break in upon the voice of the preacher. Now, the hum of business and the shrill noise of the passing locomotive almost drown the ceremonies of this hour. But they reared on that day an altar, the fires of which we have decided shall not be extinguished. Their good deeds remain : and if they do not permeate by their influ- ence this audience who have come up to erect a memorial shrine through the century and a half which have passed, their ex- ample has fired the hearts of their descendants to the South and to the West in many States of the Union.
It is probable the first building erected was a small log house, which, in time, gave place to the more imposing structure that for more than a hundred years was known to us all as the Meet- ing-House of Derry.
In 1726, the Reverend James Anderson, of Donegal, gave Derry one fifth of his time, Paxtang also receiving the same service. He was evidently the first stated minister, unless it may hereafter be discovered that the Reverend David Evans preached regularly to these people, of which we have strong belief.
The people of Derry were at first designated as the congre- gation of Spring Creek, while that of Paxtang as Fishing Creek. Upon the organization of Donegal Presbytery, the terms which we apply to them now were given. At first, there was an effort to conform as strictly as possible to the establish- ment in the old country. The directory for worship, disci- pline, and government there in use had been adopted in Synod, " to be observed as near as circumstances will allow and Chris- tian prudence direct." There were none on the same territory of other denominations to contest with them their ground. The whole land was before thein, and they had only to map out their congregations as the wants of the people required them. Great caution was used in the forming of new congre- gations. No meeting-house was allowed to be built nearer to
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another than ten. or, at least, eight miles, the distance being de- termined by the careful perambulation of persons appointed by Presbytery with compass and chain, and until subscriptions were produced of a sufficient number of people to sustain the new enterprise. Hence, we will see that of the churches of Donegal, Conewago, Paxtang, Derry, and Hanover, none are within less than ten miles of each other. When the town of Harrisburg was founded, the people who resided there desired to organize a congregation ; but, during the life-time of the Reverend Mr. Elder, he protested against it, and succeeded in preventing the erection of a church. The Reverend Mr. Hoge, of Silvers Spring, came occasionally to preach at the county town, and Mr. Elder complained bitterly to Presbytery, stating that "a hogg was rooting in his fields."
The first minister called was William Bertram. He was born in the city of Edinburgh on the 2d of February, 1664; was educated at the university there; studied for the ministry; and licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Bangor, Ireland, who gave him, says the New Castle records, " ample testimo- nials of his ordination, ministerial qualifications, and regular Christian conversation." He came to Pennsylvania in the year 1731, and the following year we find him unanimously received by Donegal Presbytery, which he joined. At the same time, George Renick presented him an invitation to settle over Pax- tang and Derry, which he accepted. He was installed Novem- ber 17, 1732, at Derry meeting-house. The congregations then appointed representatives, "on this side, Thomas Foster, George Renick, William Cunningham, and Thomas Mayes; on the other side, Rowland Chambers, Hugh Black, Robert Campbell, John Willson, William Willson, James Quigley, William Mc- Cord, and John Sloan." The former were of Paxtang, the latter of Derry. These representatives executed to Bertram the right and title to the " Indian town tract " situated in Han- over township on the north side, containing three hundred and fifty acres. It was at the settlement of Mr. Bertram that the congregation took the name it has since borne.
In 1735, Mr. Bertram complained to Presbytery of the "in- tolerable burden " he was under with the two congregations.
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Old Derry Church.
and on the 13th of September, 1736, he was released from the care of Paxtang. He was an earnest minister of the New Tes- tament. He died on the 2d of May, 1746, at the age of sev- enty-two. His wife was Elizabeth Gillespie, sister of the Rev. George Gillespie.
In Mr. Bertram's latter days he was in feeble health, and re- signed his pastorate of Derry in 1742, when the Rev. John Elder, of Paxtang, gave one third of his time to that congre- gation. In 1745, however, Derry chose to be alone, and called the Rev. John Roan, who was ordained their minister. Then came the division in the Presbyterian churches. Almost every congregation was rent asunder. Owing to the loss of the min- utes of the sessions of Paxtang and Derry covering these years of importance in their history, we are all more or less left in the fog, for during the period when the Rev. Roan was the regular minister of Derry until his death. he is spoken of as the " Pastor of Derry, Paxtang, and Mount Joy," while at the same time the Rev. John Elder was pastor of Paxtang and Derry. The facts are, that while the Rev. John Roan was the pastor of the "New Side " congregation of Derry and the di- vision holding the same views from Paxtang, the Rev. Mr. Elder was pastor of the "Old Side " congregation of Paxtang and the division holding similar views from Derry. Hence, both Roan and Elder were ministers of Paxtang and Derry during the same period.
The Reverend John Roan came from Greenshaw, Ireland, where he was born on the 30th of April, 1717. He was brought up as a weaver, but began to study for the ministry early in life, and emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1739. He entered the celebrated "Log College," and taught school on the Neshaminy and in Chester county while pursuing his theological studies. He was licensed by the "New Side" Presbytery of New Castle, June 27, 1744. The following year he was called to Derry, and subsequently became pastor over the "New Side" congregations of Paxtang, Derry, and Conewago, the latter having one fifth of his time. The minutes of Synod placed Roan in Donegal Presbytery. and "points of difficulty con- tinually arose." Towards the latter days of his ministry, Mr.
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Roan missionated frequently on the south branch of the Poto- inac. After serving his people faithfully and well. he departed hence, his mortal life ceasing on the 3d of October, 1775.
Bertram and Roan were the only ministers whose entire time was given to Derry. Both are buried in yonder inclos- ure. Permit me to read the inscriptions on their tombstones. Over the Reverend William Bertram's is this :
Here Lieth the Remains of the REV. WILLIAM BERTRAM first pastor of this Congregation wcho departed this life ye zd May, 1746, aged 72 years.
Over the last pastor of Derry, the Reverend John Roan :
Beneath this Stone Are deposited the Remains of an able. faithful courageous & successful Minister of Jesus Christ the REV'D JOHN ROAN Pastor of Pacton, Derry & Mount Joy Congregations from the year 1745 till Oct. 3, 1775 When he exchanged A militant for a triumphant Life In the 50th year of his age.
Bertram and Roan deserve to be held in grateful remem. brance. They were both valiant soldiers of the cross, never swerving from duty, battling for the faith as delivered to them in that noted era when the people ran after strange teachers. In the days of the Whitfield excitement, the Reverend John Roan was the only one of the Presbyterian ministers, who, in the presence of Whitfield, disputed his religious theories, and the scene at Fagg's Manor, where the courageous minister of Derry combated the schisms of Whitfield, was one of the grandest pictures which emblazons the annals of American Presbyterianism. What he hoped for, he never lived to see, nor any of his congregation. It was a hundred years after his death that the union he prayed for was accomplished.
Following Roan, came again, as the guardian of old Derry,
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Old Derry Church.
that grand old hero, civil and spiritual, Parson Elder; and from 1775 to July, 1792. when he, too, passed to his final rest. was the revered minister of united Paxtang and Derry. And so Bertram, and Roan, and Elder, holy men of God, with the flocks whom they tended, passed from the land of the living.
From the death of Parson Elder to the year 1803, there ap- pear to have been three ministers. In 1793, the Reverend Na- thaniel R. Snowden was called. Two years after he applied for a dissolution from Derry, but Paxtang, true to her first and only love, preferred Derry to Harrisburg, and declared in favor of holding the connection therewith. Thus approved by Pres- bytery, Paxtang and Derry were declared vacant, Mr. Snowden remaining as minister of the new congregation at the county town. For several years thereafter, the pulpit of Derry was occupied by supplies. On the 29th of October, 1798, the Reverend Joshua Williams was installed pastor of these churches, and for four years continued with their rapidly di- minishing flocks. Then came the young and talented Adair, but, before he was installed, death called him away from the earthly to immortal life. " In yonder grave-yard is a stone with this inscription :
In Memory of JAMES ADAIR. Preacher of the Gospel, who departed this life Sept. 20, 1803, aged 32 years.
Until the year 1807, the churches were without a regular minister. In September of the previous year, a call was given the Reverend James Russell Sharon. He was installed pastor of Paxtang and Derry on the 29th of May, 1807, and for a period of thirty-six years he ministered to these congregations. He was a man universally respected for the purity of his faith and the integrity of his moral character. He was a native of Lost Creek Valley in now Juniata county, Pennsylvania, where he was born on the 27th of April, 1775. He graduated at Dickinson College, studied theology, and was licensed by Car- lisle Presbytery. He died at the residence of his daughter, Mrs. McMean, near Newberry, Lycoming county, on the 18th of April, 1843.
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On the 9th of April, 1844. a call was presented to Presby. tery for the Reverend John M. Boggs, but he was not ordained until the 9th of April, 1845. On the 6th of October, 1847. Mr. Boggs' pastorate came to a termination, and it was almost three years before Paxtang and Derry received a permanent supply. This was the Reverend Andrew Dinsmore Mitchell, who, from the 10th of April, 1850, until the 12th of February, 1874, almost twenty-four years, was the pastor of these people. IIe was the last minister who officiated in old Derry church. Andrew Dinsmore Mitchell was a native of York county, Penn- sylvania; born the 2d of February, 1829; graduated at Jeffer son College in 1841 ; and from the Theological Seminary at Princeton in 1844. In 1850. he accepted the call from the con- gregations of Paxtang and Derry : was duly ordained and in- stalled; and, until 1874, acceptedly served the little congrega- tion of Derry and the diminished one of Paxtang. In 1876, he went as chaplain in the United States army, and died while .on duty at Fort Grant, Arizona, on the 26th of March, 1882. As a preacher, he was clear, logical, and forcible, and his mem- ory is yet sweet in the congregation of old Paxtang.
For years the ancient log structure was tenantless. Decay and ruin followed. Pastors and people all passed away ! One by one the former were gathered to their fathers. Of the latter, family after family sought the homes of their kindred and neighbors in distant localities, while others fell asleep in Jesus. In yonder grave-yard they lie-the dust of several genera- tions-the Boyds. Campbells, Chambers, Clarks, Harrises, Hayses, Logans, Martins, McNairs, Mitchells, Moodeys, Mc- Cords, Rodgers. Snoddeys, Thompsons, Wilsons, and Wallaces, the vast majority without a stone to tell who rest beneath.
And we who have come up here to-day to erect the memo- rial of the Derry church of a past century should not be un- mindful of the duty we owe to the pious ancestry who origin- ally founded this church. It is very meet and right that they be held in grateful remembrance. Posterity will bless you for the work you have projected and will accomplish. It will also be a memorial of your faith, of that ageless fabric whose cor- ner-stone is CHRIST.
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Indians of Pennsylvania.
INDIANS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
BY MORTON L. MONTGOMERY.
When the Europeans first discovered the Western Conti- nent, they found it inhabited by human beings. They called them "Indians." because they thought they had arrived at the eastern coast of India-that great country for which they had so anxiously sought a short passage. Though erroneous, the name still clung to the inhabitants of the country. All Europeans had been taught to call them by this name; they recognized them by it, and they could not change it. It is not known that a change of name was even suggested, much less attempted ; and it is possible that these Indians received the right name by accident, though their discoverers found them in a great country far removed from the continent whence it is believed they had their origin.
ORIGIN OF INDIANS.
They found tribes of these "Indians" scattered along the entire castern coast of this country from Maine to Florida. And each tribe had a different name. Their origin was not then known; and it is not known now to a certainty, though four hundred years have elapsed since their discovery here. Who were they? It is supposed that they originally came from the Far West, even from Asia-having wandered thence in some manner, either by land or sea, toward the rising sun to this continent. When they landed in the West, and especially when they reached the eastern coast, is still one of the great mysteries of our interesting history. It may be that they wandered eastwardly from a "given point, just as the Japhetic tribe of men wandered westwardly. If the theory of the Bible is correct, all mankind must have originated from the few survivors of the great flood, who landed on Mt. Ararat, in Asia. After this great event, Japheth and his
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