History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 107

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1216

USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 107

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There are but seven congregations or separate Cum- berland Presbyterian Churches in Washington County. There were two others, one in Washington and one in Monongahela City, which from various causes, prin- cipally from emigration to the West, have become ex- tinct. The church in Washington was organized in the fall of 1831, Peter Wolf, Andrew Bell, Moses Little, and A. M. S. Gordon being made elders. The church in Monongahela City was organized in April, 1834, and Dr. Samuel King and Thomas McVay were the elders. The origin of the Concord congregation in Morris township has been already given. Organ- ized on the 16th of August, 1831, it probably had a larger membership in 1832 than it has ever since at- tained. It has suffered loss at various times from emigration, and still more by the formation of other

congregations at various outposts in its vicinity, Thus, in 1832, a considerable part of its membership went into a separate organization at West Union, in Greene County. A few years later the Windy Gap congregation, near Burnsville, in West Finley town- ship, was organized. This was originally but an out- post of the Concord Church, but has become a large and flourishing congregation. It is a common saying that most of the people at Concord answer to the name of Day, and the majority at Windy Gap to the name of Sprowls. The next outpost of Concord that became a separate congregation was at Nineveh, in Greene County. And recently, at a fourth outpost in East Finley township, the Fairview congregation was organized, which involved the withdrawal of some forty members from Concord. However, there are at this time (1882) about one hundred and fifty mem- bers in the Concord Church.

The Bethel congregation, seven miles south of Washington, near Van Buren, was organized by Rev. John Morgan, May 30, 1832. It was composed in part of Presbyterians from the Upper Ten-Mile congregation. Five of its members, namely, Eph- raim Cooper, Sylvanus Cooper, Thomas Axtell, John Wolfe, and Samuel Day, having been elders in the Presbyterian Church, were re-elected to that office at Bethel, and Samuel Weir, Isaac Condit, and Archi- bald McCracken were added to their number. This is at the present writing the largest and most flour- ishing Cumberland Presbyterian congregation in the county. Early in the year 1833 the Pleasant Hill congregation, on Lower Ten-Mile near Clarktown, was organized, and Joseph Evans, Abner Clark, and Abel Millikin were made elders. The Greenfield congregation was organized by Rev. S. M. Sparks, March 28, 1836, but who were made elders is unknown to the writer. The Millsboro' congregation was received under the care of Presbytery Sept. 6, 1838.

It should be remarked that all the congregations in this county are maintaining the regular means of grace, and that they contribute to the benevolent enterprises of the church, especially to the cause of missions. They all have weekly prayer-meetings and flourishing Sabbath-schools. The exact number of communicants in these seven churches is unknown to the writer, but would probably not fall short of one thousand. Three of the congregations, namely, Concord, Bethel, and Windy Gap, have snug parson- ages. At the present writing, Rev. J. Reed Morris is pastor at Windy Gap, Rev. Azel Freeman, D.D., at Concord, Rev. P. H. Crider at Bethel, Rev. Luther Axtell at Pleasant Hill, Rev. I. N. Cary at Greenfield and Millsboro', and James S. Keener, a licentiate, is ministering to the Fairview congregation.

Finally, the writer hereby acknowledges his great obligation to Rev. Philip Axtell, of East Pittsburgh, who has long had charge of the minutes of Pennsyl- vania Presbytery and Synod, and whose statistics of the churches, published in the "Semi-centennial,"

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

have been relied on for many of the foregoing state- ments.

The Christian Church1 or Disciples of Christ .- The materials of this historical sketch have been gathered chiefly from the "Life of A. Campbell," by Dr. R. Richardson, and " The History of the Disci- ples in the Western Reserve," by A. S. Hayden. The purpose is to give a brief but accurate account of the origin, principles, and progress of a powerful religious movement that took its rise in Washington, Washing- ton Co., Pa., rapidly extended over the greater part of this country, and is now pushing onward into other countries with an accelerating force. This gen- eral outline must necessarily be, for the most, a com- pilation, and the present writer, having acknowledged his indebtedness to the above-named standard works, will use freely the facts and the language in which they are presented without marring this article with quotations.

Thomas Campbell descended from the Campbells of Argyleshire. He was born in County Down, near Newry, Ireland, Feb. 1, 1763. Early in life he began to exhibit a deep religiousness, which was manifest in all his life to all who knew him. His father was a strict member of the Episcopal Church, but the rigid and frigid formalities of that ritualistic establishment did not satisfy the fervid religious feelings of his sympathetic nature. He fled to the gospels, and found more congenial spiritual aliment among the warm-hearted and zealous Seceders, a branch of the Presbyterian Church, a secession from the Kirk of Scotland. He became deeply anxious for his soul's salvation, and passed through mental struggles of in- describable anguish. At length the coveted peace dawned on his soul, and in the raptures of gratitude for so great a deliverance he resolved to consecrate himself to the public service of the blessed Redeemer, to whom his soul now clung with the ardor of a most devoted love. He completed the usual classical studies in the University of Glasgow, and also a course in medicine and lectures in law. He next com- pleted the theological course in Divinity Hall, under Archibald Bruce, D.D., a master of profound abili- ties, and was commissioned, under the rigid and thorough examination of the Scotch Seceder Church, with the full credentials of the Christian ministry.

He cultivated early and ever that deep reverence for the Bible which made him familiar with its meaning and its language, and which, by exalting the word of God into such incomparable pre-emi- nence above all human compositions, laid the founda- tions for the attempt to discard all human creeds as bonds of union, and to unite all the true followers of Christ into the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. His faith was equal to any demands upon it from that infallible, divine authority. Simple, trust- ing reliance on the Lord and child-like obedience to

all His known requirements constituted the whole of his religion practically viewed.

By excessive labor in teaching and pastoral duties his health was impaired, and a sea-voyage was re- solved upon as the necessary means of recovery. Ac- cordingly on the 8th of April, 1807, he sailed for Philadelphia, and arrived there after a prosperous voyage of thirty-five days.

The Anti-Burgher Synod of North America was then assembled in the city. Mr. Campbell presented his testimonials from the Presbytery of Market Hill and the church at Alrovey to the Synod, and was very kindly received. Following the tide of emigration at that time he was, at his request, assigned by the Synod at Philadelphia to the Presbytery of Chartiers, em- bracing Washington County, in Western Pennsylvania. Upon his arrival at Washington, Pa., he found him- self in the midst of old friends and neighbors who knew his worth, and the Seceder congregations were much pleased at having so important an accession to their ministry. He had not, however, been very long engaged in his regular ministrations among the churches before some suspicions began to arise in the minds of some of his ministerial brethren that he was disposed to relax too much the rigidness of their ec- clesiastic rules, and to cherish for other denominations feelings of fraternity and respect in which they could not share. They were therefore induced, after a time, to keep a wary eye upon his movements.

On a sacramental occasion Mr. Campbell felt it his- duty, in the preparatory sermon, to lament the exist- ing divisions in the Presbyterian family, and to sug- gest that all his pious hearers who belonged to other branches of that family in the vicinity, and who felt so disposed and duly prepared, should enjoy the bene- fits of the communion season then providentially afforded them without regard to party differences.

At the next meeting of the Presbytery a young minister, Mr. Wilson, who had accompanied him and was present at the communion, laid the case before the Presbytery in the usual form of "libel," contain- ing various formal and specified charges, the chief of which were that Mr. Campbell had failed to inculcate strict adherence to the church standard and usages, and had even expressed his disapproval of some things in said standard and of the uses made of them.

The Presbytery took up the accusation and formally propounded various questions to Mr. Campbell in order to elicit fully his private views. He was guarded and conciliatory in his replies, but reiterated his con- victions, and insisted that in the course he had pur- sued he had violated no precept of the sacred volume. His pleadings, however, in behalf of Christian liberty and fraternity were in vain, and his appeals to the Bible were disregarded, so that in the end the Pres- bytery found him deserving of censure for not ad- hering to the "Secession Testimony." Against this decision Mr. Campbell protested, and the case was then, in due course, submitted to the Synod at its next

1 By Rev. W. L. Hayden.

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meeting. Anxious to avoid a position unfavorable to his usefulness, and calculated to produce discord and division, and cherishing still the desire to labor har- moniously with those with whom he had been so long associated, he addressed an earnest appeal to the his efforts to form a union upon the Bible alone, he Synod when his case came up for consideration, in which he defined and defended his position.

This appeal contains the first formal enunciation of the germinal principle of his reformatory work. He | says, "I dare not venture to trust my own understand- ing so far as to take upon me to teach anything as a matter of faith or duty but what is already expressly taught and enjoined by divine authority." Again, " I refuse to acknowledge as obligatory upon myself or to impose upon others anything as of divine obli- gation for which I cannot produce a 'Thus saith the Lord.' "

After reading the appeal and hearing the case be- fore the Synod, it was decided to set aside the judg- ment and decision of the Presbytery, on the ground of informalities in the proceedings in the trial of the case, and to release the protester from the censure inflicted by the Presbytery. The charges and all the documents pertaining to the trial were then referred to a committee, which finally reported that "there are sufficient grounds for censure," based on the two first articles of the charge.

From extreme reluctance to separate from cher- ished friends and brethren in the ministry, Mr. Camp- bell submitted to the decision, declaring at the same time that it was only in deference to the judgment of the court, and that he might not give offense to his brethren by manifesting a refractory spirit. But this concession did not conciliate his opponents.

By bitter and persistent persecution he was forced to the conclusion that bigotry, corruption, and tyranny are qualities inherent in all clerical organizations. Hence he finally concluded to separate himself from all connection with a people who seemed to regard their own particular "testimony" as practically a more important rule of action than the Bible. He accordingly presented to the Synod a formal renun- ciation of its authority, announcing that he aban- doned all ministerial connection with it, and would hold himself thenceforth utterly unaffected by its decisions.

His withdrawal from the Seceders occasioned no interruption of his ministerial labors. From the great personal influence he had acquired in various portions of the counties of Washington and Alle- gheny, and the novelty and force of the plea he made for Christian liberality and Christian union upon the basis of the Bible, large numbers continued to attend his ministrations wherever it was in his power to hold meetings. He preached weekly, sometimes in a maple-grove, but generally in the houses of his old Irish neighbors who had settled in Washington County, to all who chose to assemble.

Finding, after a time, that his hearers (many of

whom still held membership in the Seceder or Pres- ; byterian Churches) were in constant attendance, and apparently convinced of the correctness of the prin- ciples which he taught, and desirous of the success of

proposed to the principal persons among them that a special meeting should be held, in order to confer freely upon the existing state of things, and to give, if possible, more definiteness to the movement, in which they had thus far been co-operating without any formal organization or determinate arrangement. This proposition was at once gladly acceded to, and a convenient time was appointed to meet for the pur- poses specified at the house of Abraham Altars, who lived between Mount Pleasant and Washington, and who, though not a member of any church, was an earnest friend of the movement.

At the time appointed there was a very general assembling at the place designated. After earnest prayer, invoking divine guidance, Thomas Campbell set forth the objects of their assembling. He dwelt upon the manifold evils of divisions in religious society, which divisions, he urged, are unnecessary and injurious, since God has provided, in his sacred Word, an infallible standard, which is all-sufficient and alone sufficient as a basis of union and Christian co-operation. He showed that the real occasions of the unhappy controversies and strifes which have so long desolated the religious world are outside of the Bible, and therefore insisted upon a return to the simple teachings of the Scriptures, and upon the entire abandonment of everything in religion for which there cannot be produced a divine warrant. Finally, he announced the great principle or rule upon which they were acting, and would continue to act consistently and perseveringly to the end. "That rule," said he, "is this, that where the Scriptures speak we speak, and where the Scriptures are silent we are silent."

From the moment these significant words were ut- tered and accepted the more intelligent dated the formal and actual commencement of the reforma- tion, which has been carried on with wonderful suc- cess and has produced important changes in religious society over a large portion of the world.

After the adoption of this basal principle there were a few defections of persons belonging to the religious parties and fearing its application to some of their cherished views and practices. Notwith- standing some differences on some points, the mem- bers were cordially united in the great object of pro- moting Christian union and peace in the religious world. At a meeting held on the head-waters of Buffalo, Aug. 17, 1809, it was resolved to form them- selves into an association under the name of "The Christian Association of Washington," and twenty- three of their number were appointed with Mr. Camp- bell to determine the proper means to carry its im- portant ends into effect.

418

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

As it had been found somewhat inconvenient to hold meetings in private houses, it was thought ad- visable by the members to provide some regular place of meeting. Accordingly the neighbors assembled, and in a short time erected a log building on the Thus Providence was working on both sides of the Atlantic,-in the wild woods and superb hills of West- ern Pennsylvania, and in the cultured fields of Scot- land's classic city,-preparing father and son for the Sinclair farm, about three miles from Mount Pleas- ant, upon the road leading from Washington to that place, at the point it was crossed by the road from Middletown to Canonsburg. Here Mr. Campbell , important work in which they were destined to co- continued to meet his hearers regularly, and spent most of the week at the residence of a Mr. Welsh, a respectable farmer and favorable to the association. In this retired place he wrote the famous " Declara- tion and Address," designed to set forth, clearly and definitely, the object of the movement in which he and his associates were engaged. operate. The trials and envious persecutions which the father underwent at the hands of the Seceder clergy on account of his broader sympathies and his exaltation of the Holy Scriptures as the basis of Chris- tian union fully prepared his mind to enter into the liberal and independent views which the son had im- bibed in old Scotland. When the son Alexander arrived with the family at Washington, Pa., about Oct. 22, 1809, he was fitted to enter heartily into the work of reformation already inaugurated by his re- vered father.

At a special meeting of the chief members it was unanimously agreed to and ordered to be printed on Sept. 7, 1809. In this remarkable document, which occupies fifty-four closely-printed pages, the occasion and nature of the association are defined, and a pre- amble and five resolutions are presented that were ac- cepted as its constitution. A standing committee of twenty-one members was appointed to superintend the interests of the society, and its meetings were held semi-annually on the first Thursday of May and November. It did not recognize itself as a church, but simply as a society for the promotion of Chris- tian union and of a pure evangelical reformation by the simple preaching of the gospel and the adminis- tration of its ordinances in exact conformity to the divine standard.

Another principal actor in subsequent events must be introduced at this point.

Alexander Campbell, oldest son of Thomas Camp- bell, was born Sept. 12, 1788, in county of Antrim, Ireland. His ancestors on the paternal side were of Scotch origin, but on the maternal side they descended from the Huguenots in France. He inherited a vig- orous and well-balanced physical and mental consti- tution, and was trained from his earliest years by his learned father to habits of severe application. He completed his course of education in the University of Glasgow. Blessed with an exceedingly intellectual and pious parentage, and reared in one of the strictest schools of Presbyterianism, he early formed and cul- tivated habits of piety and a taste for theological studies which gave shape to his entire life. A pro- found reverence for the word of God was a marked feature of the character alike of the boy and of the man.

reformer, and which may be justly regarded as the first phase of that religious reformation which he after- wards carried out so successfully to its legitimate issues.

While examining the proof-sheets and discussing the questions involved, the younger Campbell was greatly impressed with the importance of the princi- ples laid down in the Declaration and Address, signed by Thomas Campbell and Thomas Acheson. They expressed clearly his own mature convictions, and he was captivated by the clear and decisive presentations of duty and the noble Christian enterprise to which he was invited. At the sacrifice of brilliant worldly prospects and preferments, and distinctly foreseeing the hostility which would be provoked, he resolved to consecrate his life to the advocacy of these principles. They formed a step in advance of any religious refor- mation previously attempted. Only a few seed truths, culled from this "Magna Charta" of ecclesiastical reform, can be given in this sketch.

Commencing with the admitted truth that the gos- pel was designed to reconcile and unite men to God and to each other, the address portrays the sad divis- ions that existed and their baleful effects, and de- clares that Christian union can be accomplished only in one of two ways,-either in and through the truth and upon principle, or by compromise and accommo- dation. It proposes to "come firmly and fairly to original ground and take up things just as the apos- tles left them, that thus disentangled from the accru- ing embarrassments of intervening ages we may stand with evidence upon the same ground on which the church stood at the beginning."

Here is the startling proposition to begin anew, to begin at the beginning, to ascend at once to the pure fountain of truth, and to neglect and disregard the decrees of popes, councils, synods, and assemblies, and all the traditions and corruptions of an apostate church. Here is an effort, not so much for the ref- ormation of the church as was that of Luther and of Calvin, and to some extent even of the Haldanes, but for its complete restoration at once to its pris-

While at Glasgow he was much interested in the reformatory movement of the Haldanes and others then progressing in Scotland, which wrought an entire revolution in his views and feelings in respect to the existing denominations, and disengaged his sympathies entirely from the Seceders and every other form of Presbyterianism. This movement gave the youthful Campbell his first impulse as a religious | tine purity and perfection. By coming at once to

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the primitive model and rejecting all human imita- tions, by submitting implicitly to the divine author- ity as plainly expressed in the Scriptures, and by disregarding all the assumptions and dictations of fallible men, it was proposed to form a union upon a basis to which no valid objection could possibly be offered. So fully and so kindly was every possible objection considered and refuted, that no attempt was ever made by the opposers of the proposed movement to contradict directly a single position which it contained.

After the fullest preparation for the prodigious undertaking thus opened before him in a new and unexpected field of action, Alexander Campbell preached his first sermon from Matt. vii. 24-27, on July 15, 1810, in a grove on the farm of Maj. Tem- pleton, some eight miles from Washington. From this time his public services were in continual requi- sition, and in the course of the first year he preached one hundred and six sermons at the Cross-Roads, at Washington, Buffalo, Middletown, and in Ohio at Steubenville, Cadiz, and St. Clairsville.

As many members of the Christian Association lived near Buffalo Creek, it was about this time re- solved to erect a house of worship there. They se- lected a piece of ground on the farm of William Gil- christ, in the valley of Brush Run, about two miles above its junction with Buffalo Creek, as an eligible site for the building, which was to be framed. Mean- time a temporary stand was erected near the chosen site, and Alexander was requested to preach the first discourse, which he did on Sept. 16, 1810, from the appropriate and prophetic text, Job viii. 7: "Though thy beginning was small, thy latter end should greatly increase.'

About this time the elder Campbell discovered that his overtures met with little response, and the associ- ation was assuming a somewhat different character from that originally contemplated, and was grad- ually taking the position of a distinct religious body. This occasioned great uneasiness. The idea that he should be the means of creating a new party was most abhorrent to him, and he was disposed to adopt any measure consistent with his principles to avoid such a result. Yielding, therefore, to the solicita- tions of some of his friends, though in opposition to the views of his son Alexander, on Oct. 4, 1810, he, as the representative of the Christian Association, applied to the Synod of Pittsburgh, then in session at Washington, to be taken into Christian and min- isterial communion. After hearing Mr. Campbell at length, and his answers to various questions proposed to him, the Synod unanimously resolved not to grant the request, for reasons assigned and "many other important reasons."

The next day Mr. Campbell appeared in Synod and asked an explanation of what those "important rea- sons" are. The Synod returned answer: "It was not for any immorality in practice, but, in addition to the

reasons before assigned, for expressing his belief that there are some opinions taught in our Confession of Faith which are not founded in the Bible, and avoid- ing to designate them ; for declaring that the admin- istration of baptism to infants is not authorized by scriptural precept or example, and is a matter of in- difference, yet administering that ordinance while holding such an opinion; for encouraging or coun- tenancing his son to preach the gospel without any regular authority ; for opposing creeds and confes- sions as injurious to the interests of religion; and also because it is not consistent with the regulations of the Presbyterian Church that Synod should form a connection with any ministers, churches, or associ- ations."

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History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 107

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 1216

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1216