History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 33

Author: Craft, David, 1832-1908; L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : L. H. Everts
Number of Pages: 812

USA > Pennsylvania > Bradford County > History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 33

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" The roll of the association, during these twenty-three years of vigorous life, registers several hundred of the most respectable and public-spirited citizens of the county. Many of these have passed from among us, and are happily and honorably engaged toiling in almost every part of the continent, and some have gone from earth ; all came with their diverse gifts for the common good, and all are grate- fully remembered. Venerable age has brought to the association the ripe fruits of intelligent observation, and the interesting reminiscences of the early days, and of the winter schools for the girls and boys of the first settlers. From the middle zone of active life, earnest minds of all professions and pursuits have brought to us the sober sum- mer sense of wise designs and far-reaching purpose, to be patiently wrought for the public good, and at every meeting have poured out precious seed-thoughts, germinant either with progress, enlightenment, and happiness for the people, or else curative of prevalent evils, and ever conservative of sound principles. And, like our hilly county, the asso- eiation has ' both the upper and the nether springs,' for its ranks are ever full of youths, who, emulous of success as teachers, always glad to learn aught conducive to their

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

school-craft, or to their upward soaring in self-culture of mind and heart, for science and society. Nor are these young men and maidens more associate recipients ; they come with cheerful contributions, carefully gathered from recent studies, as precious as they are fresh, and all aglow with happy hope and joyous zcal. Their ever-swelling numbers prove that the Teachers' Association has lost in no respect the popularity with which it was welcomed at its organization twenty-three years ago."

Besides the meetings of the association, the other great agency for improving teachers and advancing popular edu- cation is the Teachers' Institute. The sessions of the in- stitute are held annually in various parts of the county, and are intended for drill in the subjects studied in the common schools, and are under the immediate direction of the county superintendent. The sessions ordinarily are held in the early autumn, and continue five days. In ad- dition to the review of studies, new methods of teaching, hints, and suggestions as to school government and dis- cipline, lecturers from abroad are frequently present, so that the institute affords not only opportunity for normal training, but of bringing the teachers into contact with the best educators of the country.

The school, with all of its appliances, is becoming of more and more importance in the minds of our people, and what a few years ago would have been deemed a good education, now would hardly be considered as more than the commencement of it; and it is to be hoped that Bradford will in the future take rank among the foremost of the counties of the commonwealth in securing the blessings of it for her children.

CHAPTER XII.

CHURCHES.

THE progress of religious thought in a community forms one of the most instructive and interesting chapters of its history. In Bradford County, which has ever held high rank for the morality and intelligence of her people, this chapter possesses many items of peculiar interest. It was the plan of the author of this work, that the history of each denomination of Christians should be written by some rep- resentative man in it. Accordingly, he applied to parties to furnish the material. This in some cases has been very full, and in others very meagre; and in some instances the parties have failed, cither on account of leaving the county, or misunderstanding, or other reason, and the notices given of the churches they were to represent have been hastily thrown together from such material as was in hand, while in a few instances there are gaps, because the persons applied to for specific information, which was either in their keeping or immediately at hand, failed to respond, even where there could be no expense attending the correspondence. The author feels it due to himself to preface this chapter with this explanation, lest other motives might be attributed for giving a full history of some denominations, and very in- adequate and defective accounts of others, while one or two

are only mentioned. It is thought none have altogether escaped notice.

REGULAR BAPTISTS .*

The Baptists (without prefix or affix) believe that proper baptism, which with them signifies immersion, precedes the Lord's Supper, and that (while " calling no man Master") the Calvinistic system is nearer the teaching of the Bible than the Arminian. The great trouble in tracing their history on this field is the lack of records, and the fact that the real pioneers arc no more. They had few advantages for learn- ing, and toiled hard for bread; but they loved to serve God and man, with few thoughts of leaving written memorials. Some of their records may have been mislaid or lost, but most of their knowledge is buried with their bones,

My chief sources of information are the printed minutes of Chemung association for 1797, 1802, 1805 to 1841, and 1869 ; the Bradford association minutes ; and some min- utes of other associations with which our churches have been connected. Some church books are accessible ; local his- tories have been compared; Elder Smiley's records have been searched; and some friends supplied such items as they could. Usually, just before an association meets, each church connected with it makes out, from records and from memory, its changes for the year past ; but sometimes the church book is not made to correspond with the letter thus made up and forwarded. Unless errors occur, the associa- tional records (as far as they go) may be the more reliable in case of any discrepancy between church and associational statistics. It should constantly be borne in mind that printed minutes refer to associational, and not to calendar years. The former ended at different times between June and November, so that events recorded in minutes of 1820 may have transpired in 1819. And so of other years. The associational year covering parts of two years as usually computed, it often only approximates exactness, unless days and months are expressly stated.

The task of searching back nearly a hundred years, to gather the widely-scattered annals of forty different organi- zations, is more than one can conceive without the trial. Facts and names may be overlooked, and errors may occur in transcribing or printing, but correctness has been sought, and only leading incidents are given.

EARLY ENGLISH PREACHING IN THIS COUNTY-ROGERS AND GANO.

In the Sullivan Indian expedition of 1779 were two Baptist chaplains, William Rogers, D.D., f and John Gano,}

# Contributed by Mr. O. N. Worden.

f Dr. Rogers, born in Newport, R. I., in 1751, was the first student in what is now Brown university, and graduated in the first class (1769). At the age of twenty-one he was ordained pastor of the First Baptist church in Philadelphia. He served as chaplain from 1776 to 1781, was twenty years professor of English and oratory in the University of Pennsylvania, was a member of the State legislature, and died in 1824, aged seventy-three.

# John Gano, of Huguenot origin, horn in Hopewell, N. J., in 1727, was ordained in 1754. Missionating in the south, he onee preached with credit before Whitefield and a dozen other ministers. In 1762 he settled in New York city. Was chaplain after the British con- quest of that city, until peace eame. In 1787, settled in Kentucky, where he died, 1804, aged seventy-eight. Mr. Bowen, an Episcopal

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

both men of superior gifts and attainments. Dr. Rogers was with the main force, under General Sullivan, which came up the North Branch. We find two sermons were delivered during the two weeks of waiting, on Tioga Point, the arrival of General Clinton, with whom was Mr. Gano. The occasions were such as to cause them to be referred to, while ordinary religious services were not recorded. It will be remembered that on the 13th of August a force was sent to destroy the Indian town up the Chemung, when seven of our men were killed. Their bodies were tenderly brought back to camp, and on Saturday were buried with military honors, after " a small discourse by Parson Rogers,"-Colonel Hubley, from whose journal this is quoted, meaning by " small" only that it was short. On the 23d of April preceding, a small foree, coming to the re- lief of Wyoming, had been surprised east of Wilkes-Barre, and Captain Davis, Lieutenant Jones, Corporal Butler, and three privates fell. Davis and Jones, being Freemasons, were reburied, with the enstomary rites of the order, in July, at Wilkes-Barre. While still waiting at Tioga, the oppor- tunity was afforded for the sermon, and Dr. Rogers, by re- quest, " delivered a discourse, in Masonic form," on the death of those two officers, from Job vii. 7, " Remember that my life is wind." There is no record of sermons excepting these two, under peculiar circumstances, from Dr. Rogers. If there were others (as doubtless there were), Gano most likely contributed at least one. In his brief sketch of himself on this tour, he only states that some young men voluntarily came to him for religious instruction. These were the first English sermons of which we read in this county.

FIRST KNOWN BAPTISTS.

No sooner had the Revolutionary war closed, than the Trenton Decree gave the government of northeastern Penn- sylvania to this State. The right of soil was not specifi- cally decided, but sagacious men foresaw that further contest, at least in the Valley, was not advisable, when other good land could be had without the recurrence of the former strifes. As soon as 1783, valuable settlers began to leave Wyoming,-a few for distant Ohio, but most pushed up the North Branch of the Susquehanna, perhaps a majority settling on the Chemung and its tributaries. Some tarried only for a time in Pennsylvania, but others settled for life on both sides of the great river, or on the Wyalusing, Wysox, Towanda, or Sugar creeks, while a few began to climb the hills, where, at greater toil and in longer time, they found equally good homes. Among those earliest settlers of Bradford were Baptists, of Separate or "New Light" origin, with something of the fire and energy of Whitefield and his evangelical associates. They came pre- pared to war with nature in its wildest state, with savage beasts, and cruel men, if need be. Imagination may paint how they spent their time and what were their thoughts and efforts religiously, but none survive to tell, and records are few and brief.

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH IN THE REGION-CHEMUNG, NOW WELLSBURG, N. Y.

Soon after the strife with the mother country ceased, the step-mother, about 1787, dispossessed the Connecticut set- tlers near Muncy, on the West Branch. Before settling again, most of them made sure of getting on the north side of the State line. Among them were some Baptists, who, at what is now Wellsburg, Sept. 2, 1789, entered into a eovenant to worship together, and to watch over each other in love. Oct. 13, 1791, they were acknowledged by a council as an independent church, called "Chemung." They comprised twenty-one members, most of them from Warwick, Pittston, and the West Branch, and the males had nearly all been soldiers of the Revolution. With some changes of name, but little of location, that church remains to this day, after having given off members to form several other churches, which in turn have contributed to form still others, north and west. Their first pastor, Roswell Goff, was born in Columbia Co., N. Y., served in the Revolution, came from Pittston to Chemung with a license to preach, was ordained when the church was constituted, and was the Baptist patriarch of the Chemung valley until his death, at Big Flats, or Sing Sing, in 1825, aged seventy-two years.

ULSTER-SHESHEQUIN BAPTIST CONFERENCE.

Near 1791, the Baptists between Athens and Towanda began to hold meetings on each side of the river alternately. Their only supply of whom we have knowledge was Moses Park, from Preston, Conn. He was baptized in Warwick, N. Y., in 1788, licensed in eastern Connecticut on his return there, and in 1792 began to preach along the Susquehanna. Elder Smiley, who came to Wyalusing in 1794, and was well acquainted up to Seneca lake, states that Mr. Park was never ordained, nor were his people recognized as a church by sister bodies ; and all concurrent church, associa- tional, and denominational records, in failing to name such a church or minister, confirm his statement. Warwick church had recently taken pains to prevent the ordination, at Chemung, of Dr. Amos Park, who ran a similar career to that of his relative, Moses. The latter married a daughter of Gen. Simon Spalding, a leading Universalist, and in the summer of 1793, from an extreme Calvinist, Mr. Park became a proclaimer of universal salvation. He was an acting magistrate for some time, and died in Athens, 1817, aged fifty-one years. Some of his family went with him, but one son has long been a useful Methodist preacher. Joseph Kinney, Esq., and others, whose respectability gave them influence, went with Mr. Park, and Sheshequin and Athens soon became the Mecca of Universalism. This de- fection, at the time when French infidelity was so preva- lent, was proclaimed far and wide. The failure of this first movement to form a Baptist church in the county was greatly detrimental to the eause for a time, but the Smith brothers,* Judge Gore's wife, and others remained firm,

minister, ranked Mr. Gano as unsurpassed by any minister of his day ; and Henry Clay said, " Of all the preachers I ever heard, Jobn Gano made me feel the most that religion was a divine reality."

# Lockwood Smith, Sr., and Joseph Smith, Sr., from Dutehess Co., N. Y., brothers by hirth and in faith, were hoth soldiers of the Revo- lution, and were early settlers below "Queen Esther's flats," in Upper Ulster. Lockwood died in 1832, aged eighty-nine, and Joseph in 1834, aged eighty-seven. At the house of Joseph Smith was formed the present Smithfield church, in 1810, and also what is now

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

and were promoters of the truth "even down to old age."

Ulster has had a singular religious record. The scatter- ing of that conference led some of her Baptists to join in the New Bedford movement soon afterwards. In 1810, Ulster had a majority in what is now Smithfield church. While Ulster included Sheshequin, it had members with Wysox (Elder West's) church. In 1824, Upper Ulster originated Athens & Ulster (now Waverly) church. After 1840, a conference in Lower Ulster, comprising Deacon Elliott, Waltman, Fuller, and about ten others, threw in their strength with the cause at Towanda. And so Ulster, while helping to form two Baptist churches north, one east, one south, and one west, has never had one wholly her own for any considerable time. The Methodists had a similar experience on the Sheshequin side, but have re- vived at Horn Brook, and the Methodists and Free-Will Baptists each have a church in or near Ghent.

TWO NEIGHBORING CHURCHES.

Southward .- In June, 1794, arose Braintrim church, to which early Baptists in the Wyalusing region were attached. Their pastor was Samuel Sturdevant, Sr., from Connecticut, a Revolutionary soldier, who settled on Black Walnut bottom. He was ordained when more than fifty years of age, and was a faithful preacher, mostly at his own expense, over a large tract of country. He died 1828, aged eighty-seven, leaving a large and honored posterity. One grandson, Davis Dimock Gray, is now the pastor (at Laceyville) of Braintrim church.

Northward .- In February, 1796, arose New Bedford church, afterwards called " Owego," next " Tioga, N. Y.," and now known as Tioga & Barton church. The field was both sides of the North Branch, between Owego and Braintrim. Its founder was David Jayne, a soldier of the Revolution as supposed, from Orange Co., N. Y. In 1801 he took up lands at or near Van Ettenville, N. Y., where, about 1808, he lost his standing in this church by embracing the doctrine of annihilation. It is reported he died about 1832, aged eighty. Baptists on the river, and some on Sugar creek as far west as Troy, joined New Bedford. Wells- burg would have been nearer to some had there been good roads across the hills, but earlier river and creek roads made New Bedford most easy of access.

FIRST BAPTIST ASSOCIATION.

In the fall of 1796, at Wellsburg, was formed the " Che- mung Baptist Association." There was then no similar body north to the Pole, nor west to the Pacific. It com- prised five churches,-Chemung, Sanrootson (Wayne), Romulus, and New Bedford, in New York, and Braintrim in Pennsylvania,-reaching from near the Wyoming valley to the foot of Seneca lake. All the membership aggregated 111 souls. From time to time, about thirty other churches

united with Chemung, but its field was constantly narrowed by the formation-in part from this-of other associations on every side .*

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.

"Towanday" ( Creek), now West Franklin .- There were early settlers from Wyoming, from Warwick, and from Connecticut, up the Towanda creek. They soon had re- ligious meetings, for, on the 10th November, 1797, the Chemung association appointed two " supplies" for " Towan- day," both from Braintrim church,-Samuel Sturdevant to preach December, 1797, and Salmon Agard (who died soon after), January, 1798. In October, 1799, the church of " Towanday" or "Tawanda" (spelled both ways in the minutes), joined the association, with 31 members. The church was raised-according to Smiley-" in the course of the preceding year," probably in 1798, eighty years ago. Unusual religious interest had been awakened there under the preaching of Elders Goff and Jayne, the latter bap- tizing Seeley Crofut (died 1849) and others.

Aaron Knapp, Esq. (died 1874, aged eighty-six), said there was an early church-book, but it had been so eaten by mice that it was destroyed in 1813, and thus perished the earliest memorial of our first church, with perhaps a record of its first members .; The central point of the church seems to have been at Deacon Crofut's, between the villages of West Franklin and Le Roy. This deacon gathered in a log school-house, near S. B. Morse's present home, the first Sabbath-school known in the region. Meetings were also held at David Allen's, and at other points on Towanda creek and its tributaries, in what are now Bradford, Tioga, Lycoming, and Sullivan counties. At one time most of the members lived in what was then Canton township, and the church was sometimes designated " the Church of Christ in Canton." In 1820 the name was changed to "Towanda & Franklin," and again, in 1821, to " Franklin." In 1834, with 17 members last reported, the name disappeared.

In 1837, FRANKLIN & MONROE church joined the Bradford association, with 33 members, 12 newly baptized. They soon separated, each township having a church. " Franklin" re-organized in 1839. It had 10 baptized in 1840, 17 in 1850,-in all, 50,-when it was dropped, in 1860, with 29 members.

WEST FRANKLIN

was admitted in 1863, with 22 members, to whom about 40 have since been added. With occasional suspensions of travel and changes of name and location, this may still be regarded as the representative of the original Towanda (creek ) church.

Waverly church, in 1824, the two churches now having over 600 members. How many other Baptist conferences were welcomed around his hearth-stone, we know not .. .... "Old Mother Gore"- Anna Avery in her youth, widow of Judge Gore-continued to keep his house open, as a "ministers' tavern," in Sheshequin, where Elder West and others at times celebrated the Lord's Supper with a few members. She died in 1829, aged eighty-five.

# It may be remarked that Baptist associations have only advisory powers, cach church conducting its own internal affairs, but the asso- ciation reserving the right to withdraw from any church deemed too erroneous iu doctrine, or corrupt in practice, to be retained in fellow- ship.

t Other early members were Nancy Tucker, wife of Elder Smiley ; Hannah Holcomb, wife of Deacon Crofut ; Haunah Kingsbery, wife of Deacon Holcomb; Eunice, wife of John Knapp; David Allen . and wife, Samuel Knapp, James Crofut, Mr. - Stone, Jeremiah Taylor (died 1827, aged fifty-five), Aaron Cook, Isaac Allen, Jesse Morse, Sarah Smith, Joanna Lattimer,-as gathered from incidental records and tradition.

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

The records of twelve years are not found, but it appears that in seven decades the church received 137 by bap- tism, and 64 in other ways,-over 200 in all. Adding constituent members and fair estimates for the years unre- ported, there have been probably 300 members of this mother church. Dismissions by letter, exclusions for eause, erasures for absence, and deaths have constantly been re- ducing its membership, which was never large at any one time. Several churches may be regarded as offshoots from this. In 1814, 30 were baptized, but we have no other account of any extensive revival in this church.

The recorded early pastors* or supplies were Thomas Smiley (here ordained, 1802), 1801 to 1808, who died in White Deer, 1832, aged seventy-three; Nehemiah H. Ripley, 1814-15 (afterwards disfellowshipped in the west) ; Jonathan Stone, 1818-19 (died in Michigan, 1844, aged fifty-five); and " blind John Sawyer" in 1833 (last known in Sullivan, Pa., 1836). Tradition adds Levi Baldwin, who died in Wyalusing, 1872, aged eighty-six, and Heze- kiah West (died on a visit to Illinois, 1845, aged sixty- seven), at some intervals. Under Bradford association there were Isaac D. Jones, who died in South Dansville, N. Y., in 1857, aged fifty-six ; James R. Burdick (died in Ithaca, N. Y., 1867, aged seventy), J. J. Eberle, A. Fair- child, Isaac B. Lake (died in Le Roy, 1872, aged sixty- one), Elam Bennett (died in Springfield, 1863, aged seventy-one), Charles R. Levering (now of Granville Summit), E. Burroughs (now of Alba), Ebenezer Loomis (died in Alba, 1873, aged seventy-eight), Benjamin Jones (now of Evergreen P. O.), Thomas B. Jayne (now of Clark's Green P. O.), Richard Woodward, M. V. Bronk, and C. H. Crowl (now of Le Roy P. O.),-at least fourteen in the last forty years,-too thin seeding to expect large crops. Perhaps few, if any, were able to devote all their time to the Master's business.

Among the early deacons were Seeley Crofut, Alpheus Holcomb. Since 1838, William Lewis (died in East Smith- field, 1871, aged seventy-seven), A. Taylor, David Fair- child, Samuel Webber (died 1875, aged sixty-seven), Hiram Burroughs (died 1875), and Calvin Varney.

The known clerks were Deacon Crofut, Deacon Holcomb, Luther Hinman, Aaron Knapp. Sinee 1838, Aziel Taylor, H. W. Whittaker, Thomas T. Smiley, William Robarts, J. J. Hammond, David Smiley, C. Varney, and E. H. Crayton.

John Knapp, Sr., was appointed first " chorister," an office not perpetuated, although most churches take some oversight of the singing portion of divine service.

Elder Smiley, David Allen, perhaps John Knapp, and others, were Revolutionary soldiers, as well as pioneers, who endured hardships in laying the foundations of civil and re- ligious freedom.

SECOND CHURCH-SUGAR CREEK.

The Connecticut " Juddsburg, on Sugar creek," is now Burlington. In 1799, Sugar Creek church joined Chemung

association with 47 members. Smiley says, " David Jayne had preached, in his warm way, about fifteen miles up the ereek, and baptized some of the Swain family, and others, who had been Methodists." Deacon Moses Calkins, a pio- neer of 1793, who settled so far west that, for some time, he had no neighbor in that direction, was a member. But Elder Jayne moved farther off, leaving the church with little or no pastoral care; the population was unstable; and the land strife was so bitter and unreasonable that some of the congregation, if not of the church, were suspected to have been among those who abused Elder Smiley, in the summer of 1801, because he advised submission to the Pennsylvania title, and accepted a sub-agency under the intrusion law. The fall ensuing, the church was dropped by the association. Another organization, afterwards effected, was not received. The Methodists had the first church, and have proved per- manent. The Baptists, in 1808, again rallied in the west end of the township, now called Troy. The Free- Will Baptists organized, about 1822, in East Troy, and that is their strongest church in the county.

It may be well here to give an account of the labors of

DOMESTIC MISSIONARIES IN BRADFORD.

Early in 1802 was formed the Massachusetts Baptist Mis- sionary Society " to promote the knowledge of evangelical truth in the new settlements of the United States, or farther if circumstances should render it proper." It commenced, in September, the publication of a magazine, which has added much to the completeness of this record. Peter Philanthropos Roots, A.M., one of its appointees, preaching on the way, gave discourses in Athens on the 1st and 2d of July, 1805, proceeded up the Chemung, and thus spent three months teaching and visiting from house to house. In that year he rode 3804 miles, preached 372 times, baptized 26 per- sons, helped bury the dead, and performed other useful offices. This may suffice-once for all-as a specimen of the " labors abundant" of men of his calling. In the spring of 1807, he itinerated in Susquehanna and Wayne counties, and in almost every township, from Wilkes-Barre, up the river into New York. He was again on the ground in 1819, and perhaps at other times. Once he asked to go upon his own charges. A " knight-errant" in the cause, sometimes accompanied by his wife, he wrought in eighteen States and the Canadas, dying in West Mendon, N. Y., 1828, aged sixty-four years. He was a noble specimen of a true home missionary.

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History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 33

Author: Craft, David, 1832-1908; L.H. Everts & Co Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia : L. H. Everts Number of Pages: 812

Author: Craft, David, 1832-1908; L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : L. H. Everts
Number of Pages: 812