History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 113

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 113

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well as other forms of public enterprise. But they were nobly sustained by intelligent, sturdy, liberal, and pious laymen, who were not slow to appreciate their opportunities in behalf of their own and gen- erations to come.

It would be unprofitable, as it would be unjust to the memories of the pioneer ministers of the gospel, the Rev. Messrs. John McMillan, Thaddeus Dodd, and Joseph Smith, to make invidious comparisons of their educational any more than of their minis- terial work. Like their worthy associate, the Rev. James Power, of Westmoreland County, they were all valued sons of the College of New Jersey, and devoted friends of both scholarship and religion. The elevation of society furnished a general motive, whilst the demand for a competent supply of well- trained ministers of the gospel was a felt necessity ; and neither history nor tradition has transmitted a whisper of jealousy between them. "From the out- set," says Doddridge, in his "Notes," "they prudently resolved to create a ministry in the country, and ac- cordingly established little grammar schools at their own houses or in their immediate neighborhoods." Each of the three above-named gentlemen estab- lished such a school for training in the higher branches of learning. The question of priority has enlisted much zeal among the friends as well as the descendants of these venerable men, but as yet with- out conclusive settlement. Limit of space, as well as propriety itself, must restrain us from entering that field with the hope of a decision in which all will concur. A brief statement of the case must suffice.

It is certain that the Rev. Thaddeus Dodd erected a building on his own farm, and opened in it a clas- sical and mathematical school in 1782, three years after his settlement as pastor of Ten-Mile, and just as many years before his congregation erected a house of worship. That academy continued in oper- ation three years and a half, until the sale of the farm led to its suspension. It numbered among its pupils James Hughes, John Brice, Daniel Lindley, Robert Marshall, John Hanna, and David Smith, the first fruits of a large native ministry gathered in the West- ern Church.

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

referred to. It is likely to remain an open question ; but settle it as we may, his fame will abide as the con- servative, thoughtful, resolute, and far-seeing leader of his brethren in the educational as well as ecclesi- astical work of the church. On the one hand it is urged that, although Dr. McMillan must have given occasional and private instructions in the classics as early as any of his brethren, if not, indeed, before them all, yet that his school as such only in fact covered the common English branches until shortly before the cessation of Mr. Smith's school at Buffalo. But against this view it is forcibly argued, on the ground of popular tradition,-confirmed in probabil- ity, as we shall presently see, by Dr. McMillan's own words,-that his school as an academy must have originated as early as Mr. Dodd's, viz., in 1782, if not one or two years before it. The argument turns somewhat, though not conclusively, upon another

to meet the demand, and in view of Dr. McMillan's other abundant labors; to which, also, is to be added the fact that Mr. McMillan's charge, so prolific of candidates for the ministry afterwards, was at first less so than the congregations of some of his breth- ren. This supposition concedes priority to Dr. Mc- Millan, which is probably the truth, whilst it brings other facts into harmony with it else very difficult of . explanation. In that case the subsequent collection of the classical students at Chartiers was simply, in this respect, a resumption.

The curious reader may find the whole question ably argued, if not satisfactorily settled, in the ap- pendix to Dr. Joseph Smith's "History of Jefferson College," on the one side by the author himself, and on the other by Prof. Robert Patterson, now associate editor of the Presbyterian Banner. But whatever may have been the origin of the "Log Cabin"

MCMILLAN'S LOG CABIN ACADEMY.

question, viz .: whether James Ross, the first known teacher under Dr. McMillan, and afterwards so dis- tinguished both as an advocate and statesman, hav- ing reached a seat in the United States Senate in 1794, gave instruction in the classics or simply taught English branches whilst receiving private instruction in Latin and Greek from Dr. McMillan himself. At least as early as 1786 he can be traced as an attorney in vigorous practice in the courts of Washington County.

After all might there not be a key of solution in the suggestion that Dr. McMillan's school was prob- ably opened as early as 1780, and included Latin and Greek in its design, so far as the demand for them then existed, but that upon the beginning of Mr. Dodd's dis- tinctively classical academy, two years later, such in- struction may have been chiefly surrendered to him for a time in view of the sufficiency of one such school

academy, as compared with those of Messrs. Dodd and Smith, it survived them, and continued to supply the demands of English, classical, and even theological education until 1791, when its students were passed over to the Canonsburg Academy, shortly before erected. The spirit of McMillan in this whole en- terprise, as well as his hearty co-operation with his brethren in the same direction, may be discovered in the modest statement of his letter to the Rev. Dr. James Carnahan, under date of March 26, 1832. "When I had determined," says he, "to come to this country, Dr. Smith [his theological instructor,- the Rev. Robert Smith, D.D., of Pequea] enjoined it upon me to look out for some pious young men and educate them for the ministry, for, said he, though some men of piety and talents may go to a new coun- try at first, yet if they are not careful to raise up others the country will not be well supplied. Accordingly I

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collected a few who gave evidence of piety, and taught them the Latin and Greek languages, some of whom became useful, and others eminent ministers of the Gospel. I had still a few with me when the academy was opened at Canonsburg, and finding I could not teach and do justice to my congregation, I immedi- ately gave it up and sent them there."

erection of an academy. The prompt offer of such a lot in Canonsburg by Col. John Canon, together with the advance of funds for the erection, turned the scale. About this time, or in 1791, a consultation of minis- ters and citizens concerning the establishment of an institution on a larger scale was held, which, under like influence, resulted in favor of Canonsburg.

Such was the state of the case when the wants of Mr. Johnson having resighed at Washington, his election as principal of the new institution was fol- lowed by its speedy opening and the famous first reci- tation "under the shade of some sassafras bushes," by Robert Patterson and William Riddle, the first pair of a long and worthy succession of students. The Rev. Messrs. McMillan, Smith, and Henderson were present, and consecrated the incipient enter- prise in prayer. At the meeting of the Synod of Virginia, in October of the same year, another great impulse was given by the adoption of "a plan for the education of persons for the ministry of the gos- pel," which recommended that two institutions should be taken under the patronage of the Synod. One of these was to be located in Rockbridge County, Va., under the presidency of the Rev. William Graham, and special care of the Presbyteries of Lexington and Hanover, the same which grew into Wash- ington College at Lexington. The other was to be established in Washington County, Pa., under the care of Rev. John McMillan, and to be " cherished" and "superintended" by the Presbytery of Redstone. The Synod also advised that in one or other of these institutions all the candidates for the ministry within its bounds should be instructed. The Presbytery of Redstone, at its meeting in Pigeon Creek, Oct. 18, 1792, unanimously agreed to make Canonsburg “the seat of that institution of learning which they were appointed to superintend," though, upon a reconsider- ation of the subject, in the following spring, the way was left open for a division of the funds, if in the fu- ture the good of the church should require the erec- tion of another institution. Contributions were taken the community rose above the supply of private en- terprise and demanded associated effort. "It reflects the highest honor upon these illustrious men," says Prof. Patterson, the champion of Dr. McMillan's priority as an educator, " that scarce thirty years were suffered to elapse after the first daring adventurers had penetrated a hitherto pathless wilderness-thirty years not of prosperity but of painful vigilance and struggle, of unexampled hardship and heroic endu- rance -- until the poetry and eloquence of Greece and Rome, the truths of modern science and of sacred learning had found three humble halls, three devoted instructors, and a score of assiduous pupils, though the war-whoop of the retreating savage still echoed within the surrounding valleys, and his council fires still blazed upon the hills." The combined move- ment referred to found embodiment in the charter of the Washington Academy by an act of the Legisla- ture of Pennsylvania dated Sept. 24, 1787. The same act devoted, for the uses of the academy, five thousand acres of public land north of the Ohio River, chiefly in what is now Beaver County. That charter was secured mainly through the influence of Dr. McMillan and his two elders, Judges Allison and McDowell, then members of the Legislature. The original list of trustees embraced all of the settled Presbyterian ministers west of the Monongahela, and not less than seven or eight ruling elders and some other leading members of the same denomination, as well as a goodly representation from other churches. It was not until 1789 that the academy went into operation under the Rev. Thaddeus Dodd, who was chosen principal, doubtless because, by common consent, he was the ; by active agents under the influence, first, of the Pres- finest classical and mathematical scholar of these bytery of Redstone, and then, after its organization, in 1793, of the Ohio Presbytery, in whose territory the academy was located. Aid was also rendered under the favor of the Associate Presbyterian Church, led by the Rev. Matthew Henderson and others. These funds were applied in part to reimburse Col. Canon for his outlay in the erection of the academy, and in part for current expenses. eminent fathers. His promise of continuance in this work covered only one year, though he gave an ad- dition of three months, preaching one-third of this period in Washington and the remaining two-thirds in his own charge. He was succeeded by his associate, Mr. David Johnston. But the burning of the court- house, in which the classes were heard, followed, and then a feeling of depression, if not of indifference, in In 1794, or seven years after the incorporation of the Washington Academy, a charter was obtained for the institution at Canonsburg from the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, under the name of "The Academy and Library Company." But at what precise time the " Log Cabin" school was merged into the academy, thus fully established, it is not easy to determine. It is certain at least that, without being under direct ecclesiastical control, the institution had the zeal of the community, almost insuperable. The division of sentiment among friends abroad and division of their influence, and the suspension of operations which ensued, might probably have been avoided had the Hon. John Hoge, a trustee, and one of the proprietors of the town, met the proposal of the Rev. Messrs. John McMillan and Matthew Henderson, the latter of whom was father of the Associate (now United Presbyterian ) Church in the West, for the donation of a lot for the | the ministry and the church in its favor. It was

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

happy, also, in its succession of principals and assistant instructors, such as Samuel Miller, James Mountain, James Carnahan, and John Watson. The last of these became the first president of Jefferson College under the charter of 1802, while Mr. Carnahan reached afterwards the same high place in the College of New Jersey. Nor can such names among its pupils as those of Cephas Dodd, Elisha McCurdy, Thomas E. Hughes, Thomas Marques, Robert Johnston, James Hoge, Joseph Stockton, Samuel Tait, James Satter- field, Obadiah Jennings, William Neill, James Ram- sey, Gilbert McMaster, and others fail to tell their own story of benefit in requital of the offerings of the church. At least one baptism of revival came down upon the institution, in 1797, in answer to the prayers of God's people, when of forty students there was not one who was not believed to be either an avowed Christian or "a subject of sharp awakening." It was not, however, until the year 1800 that the first legis- lative aid came in the form of a grant of one thousand dollars. And this in turn stimulated the renewal of a movement which had failed in 1796, but now found success in the charter of Jan. 15, 1802, which trans- formed the Canonsburg Academy into Jefferson Col- lege, the first and in its day the most useful college west of the Alleghenies. The two surviving fathers of the Redstone Presbytery, John McMillan and James Power, were among its trustees, Messrs. Smith and Dodd having meanwhile gone to their rest. With them, also, were associated Joseph Patterson, Thomas Marques, Samuel Ralston, John McPherrin, James Dunlap, and John Black, honored ministers, together with a list of laymen of corresponding prominence and worth. The officers of the institution were con- stituted by simply elevating the teachers of the acad- emy into members of the faculty.

Returning now to the Washington Academy, which, as we have seen, was suspended in 1791, we find that it was shortly afterwards reopened and carried on with greater or less success until the spring of 1805, under James Dobbins and Benjamin Mills. Then a new era dawned upon it in the election to its management and instruction of the Rev. Matthew Brown, who had just then also been chosen as the first pastor of the Pres- byterian Church of Washington. He was ably as- sisted, the first year, by his young friend, David El- liott, afterwards his distinguished successor both in the college and the church, and the second year by his honored pupil, George Baird. Success crowned the ability and energy of the new principal, and in due time the academy, which had led her sister at Canonsburg by seven years in the first charter, now followed her after the lapse of four years in the second, having received also an act of incorporation as a col- lege dated March 28, 1806. Formal application was made for this charter to the Legislature by the trus- tees, but its success was due chiefly to the personal influence of the energetic principal, aided by the great force of Parker Campbell, Esq., the leading member

of the Washington bar. The trustees of the academy were made the incorporators of the college, and to their number, as in the Jefferson board, additions were made from time to time from the most prominent ministers and citizens of the surrounding country. The proportion of numbers in both cases was always, of course, in favor of that branch of the church which in fact gave the breath of life to both. It is worthy of remark that during the whole subsequent period from the charter, in 1806, until the union of the colleges, with the exception of two and a half years, the presidency of the board was filled by two venerable men, viz., the Rev. John Anderson, D.D., for twenty -four years, ending in 1831, and the Rev. David Elliott, D.D., LL.D., for thirty-three years, ending in 1865. Dr. Samuel Ralston likewise pre- sided over the Jefferson board nearly forty-four years.

The history of Jefferson and Washington Colleges has heretofore been given to the public with consid- erable fullness. In these published memorials, and in the general catalogue issued in 1872, an inquirer may partially trace the succession in each down to their union and their consolidation. Each struggled from first to last with poverty, and passed through various changes of fortune. Yet each, by a divine blessing upon indomitable energy, accomplished a work for the country and the church beyond computation. Rival contestants they were for public favor upon the same field of operation. Their movements were not always without contest and bitterness. Their separate existence was maintained for about threescore years against an unceasing protest of the public mind, which, together with the pressure of their own neces- sities, compelled frequent though unavailing efforts for their consolidation. And yet the history of this or any other country may be challenged for results in educated men as great in proportion to the means ex- pended as their records will show.

John Watson, the first president of Jefferson Col- lege, grew up an orphan in Western Pennsylvania, almost without education, until his habits of reading and study were discovered by the distinguished Judge Addison. This gentleman encouraged him with books and counsel, and doubtless commended him to Dr. McMillan, who in turn elevated him from menial service to a place in the academy at Canonsburg, first as a pupil, and then as assistant teacher, and then se- cured for him the benefit of a fund in Princeton Col- lege, pledging other help besides. But his own en- ergy won triumph over the need of further help, having secured for him the position of teacher of the grammar school, and thus enabling him to graduate with distinction. Recalled to Canonsburg, he be- came principal of the academy, and also, along with his patron and father-in-law, Dr. McMillan, an in- fluential agent in procuring the college charter, and then, under it, by unanimous choice, the first in a long line of eminent presidents. Meanwhile he had entered the ministry, but his lamentable death, Nov.

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EDUCATIONAL HISTORY.

31, 1802, within the very year of the charter and only three months after his inauguration, was a baptism of affliction to the infant institution and the church.

With him was associated Samuel Miller, or " Mas- ter Miller," as he was called from his former service in the academy as Professor of Mathematics and Nat- ural Philosophy. A loving pupil, Dr. Samuel C. Jennings, describes this gentleman as a man of low stature, with a penetrating eye, and in old age a smooth white head; a self-made scholar, kindly in disposition, and rebuking oftener with the pointing of his finger than with sharp words. He is also re- ported as a decided Christian, and an active ruling elder in Dr. McMillan's church, even after his volun- tary retirement from the college in 1830, until his peace- ful death a year later. Dr. McMillan himself, without actual change of the service he was wont to render, was made Professor of Divinity, to give instruction, as before, to candidates for the ministry. And the very year of the charter was signalized by the graduation of the first class,-trained in the academy, but crowned with college honors,-consisting of Reed Bracken, Johnston Eaton, William McMillan, John Rhea, and Israel Pickens, all afterwards ministers of the gospel but the last, who reached the distinc- tion of Governor of Alabama and United States senator. This beginning of the college was small, but it was the beginning of an enterprise which has accomplished mighty things, the end of which is still among the great promises of the future.

The administration of the second president, the Rev. James Dunlap, D.D., extended over a period of eight years, ending in 1811. He was a son of New Jersey College, of the class of 1773, received ordina- tion in 1781 at the hands of the New Castle Presby- tery, and after a pastorate of seven years over the united churches of Laurel Hill and Dunlap's Creek, near Brownsville, Pa., and of fourteen more of the latter church alone, accepted the presidency. His discharge of the trust was not marked with special interest, except in the way of financial struggle on the part of the institution to maintain its existence, and still harder struggle on the part of the president to defray the expenses of his family and pay his tutors on a salary of less than six hundred dollars, with a small addition from the church of Miller's Run, to which he ministered. Even his salary was larger by one-fourth than that of his predecessor. Such then were the country and the times. These causes, along with a spirit perhaps too easily wounded by the frank dealings of the board of trustees, led to the resignation of a man said to have possessed great excellence of character. The average number of his graduates was slightly over five, which was the size of the only class under his predecessor.

During the interval of a year which followed, Dr. McMillan, who had been made vice-president for this purpose, gave to the college his general supervision. At its close the Rev. Andrew Wylie was inducted

into the presidency,-the same Dr. Wylie afterwards so noted in the administration of both the colleges and in their controversies. He had been a pupil of Dr. Matthew Brown in the Washington Academy, but was graduated with the class of 1810 in Jefferson College, the last year of Dr. Dunlap's presidency. His succession to this high place at the age of twenty- two years, and only eighteen months after his recep- tion of a diploma, was a triumph of which any young man might be proud. Perhaps we may find here the swing of the pendulum. It was, at least, a very marked return to the first policy of having a young president after an intervening administration com- menced at the age of sixty years. Nor was the new president, fine scholar and energetic executive as he was, remarkable for success during the five years of his incumbency, as the total of his eighteen graduates will show. But fairness demands that we look away from Canonsburg for at least a part of the explana- tion.

It must be remembered that during the ten years last under review Washington College had come into earnest operation under the Rev. Matthew Brown, its originator and first president, as we have seen. He was a graduate of Dickinson College in 1784. The eight classes which received the Bachelor's degree at his hands in these opening years numbered in all forty-eight, or an average of six. Like those of Jeffer- son,they embraced a fine proportion of names since high in the registry of church and State. Much of the favor of the church, which, as has appeared, had been transferred to Canonsburg, was won back. The foundations of a college were firmly laid, alike in scholarship and government, and a presidential repu- tation was made of which the alumni of both colleges are justly proud. And yet, let it be remembered, until the last year of his term the only regular pro- fessor associated with Dr. Brown was James Reed, who held the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy. Precisely the same was true of Jefferson, which did not add a second professor until 1818, or three years later still, when in like manner the ancient languages were detached from the presidency and formed into a distinct chair. So limited then were these foundations of learning in resources, so self- denying and laborious the agents who executed their work. And yet so bright is the record of the men year by year sent from them into the high places of the land.

The "College War" cannot be passed over in this history, though even yet the time has scarcely come for its impartial treatment. We will do no more than state some of its prominent facts. It came to its crisis in the transfer, by election in 1816, of Dr. Wylie from the presidency of Jefferson to that of Washington. It raged actively for at least two years, and then left animosities behind it which far outlived the busy actors themselves. Happy is the disposition of posterity to forget a strife which alienated good

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

men, divided communities and families, filled the press with crimination, embarrassed the cause of edu- cation, and put the church of God itself under a heavy stress of trouble. Well has it been said that the survival of the colleges themselves, and of re- ligion at the centres of the contest, was a signal proof of the power and grace of God.

True to human nature as it is, the immediate occa- sion of this strife was an earnest and almost success- ful negotiation for the consolidation of the institu- tions at one place. Committees of the boards met at Graham's tavern, midway between the two towns, on the 26th of October, 1815, and approximated but did not reach a satisfactory basis of union. The next day the following proposition was offered in the Jefferson board, viz. : "Resolved, That, provided the Board of Trustees of Washington College will not recede from their sine qua non, viz .: 'that the permanent site of the reunited college should be in the borough of Washington,' but will give five thousand dollars in addition to their present funds, half of the trustees, and the casting vote in the choice of the fac- ulty, this board will agree to give up the site to them, and will unite with them in petitioning the Legislature to effect the object in view." Action, however, was suspended on this resolution in order to hold a con- sultation with the faculty, when President Wylie gave his consent, and stated his belief of Professor Miller's concurrence, founded on consultation with him. But a warm debate left the board a tie upon the resolution, whilst the president, Dr. Ralston, " hesitated" 'for a time, " but afterwards he did vote in the affirmative," though not until the negative side had claimed that the crisis was passed, and the ! secretary had recorded that the president had de- clined voting, under which ruling the motion was of course lost. And thus was postponed for just half a century a consummation often sought and surely devoutly wished by many friends of both colleges before and since. Without expression of opinion, we may see in these facts that it was not as yet the will of Providence that these streams should be joined until their separate benefits should have been more fully secured, and the channel of their union better prepared.

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History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 113

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