History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 144

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tasks, committing, etc. He was succeeded by a Mr. Wheeler, a Yankee from the East.

. It is worthy of mention here that Governor John W. Geary and his father, Edward Geary, were at one time teachers of prominence in this township. Messrs. James McClelland, Joseph Cook, James Long, and John Barnett were noted members of the school- board. One grand reason why the schools prospered so well was that the people in those days elected their very best men as directors. The territory embracing Derry township had then eleven schools; now the same territory has thirty-five, including Latrobe, Liv- ermore, and New Alexandria boroughs, and Inde- pendent, No. 8. The township has now twenty- eight schools. Among the late prominent directors are W. M. Baird, James Fulton, John Irvin, James Nichols, William .Mewherter, D. K. Shirey, William Brown, S. J. Fishel. Among the leading teachers of a few years ago are F. B. Welty, John Moor, James Mewherter, Miss J. McGuire, Mies J. Barnett, and many others.

PROGRESS AND DEVELOPMENT.

Until a very late period, that is, until the beginning of the period of the modern development of the lum- ber and mining interests of the county since the civil war, the predominant interest of that section was agriculture. The inhabitants of that section, who, for the most part, enjoyed the labor and toil of an economical and thrifty ancestry, were firmly attached to the soil, gleba adstrictis. The excellent good man- agement of the soil, as well as the incentives offered to the farmer himself, added to the habits formed in those born on the land and devoted by occupation to its cultivation, had made farming in a very large portion of this township both profitable and compara- tively light of labor. So the inhabitants, not know- ing, cared little for the mines of wealth which lay in the soil, and which were growing on that portion of the Ridge which was regarded as the poorest, most worthless, and least to be desired portion of the whole country.

The extra demand for the produce of the farm, and the enhanced value of those domestic animals which are raised by the farmer, were first apparent when the old'furnaces and forges were in operation along the Upper Conemaugh, but from the building of the canal the marketable value of all agricultural com- modities increased out of all proportion to what it had before been, and to what it was in other more re- mote parts of the country: The facility for trans- porting and marketing these productions always made the farming interest in Derry by all odds the most desirable. There was an easy outlet, a good market, and the men who dealt in those commodities were proverbially good.

But when the Pennsylvania Railroad was con- structed came that change which has left as marked an impress as was left by the civil war. For the con-

struction of this road no less marks an era in the his- tory of Southwestern 'Pennsylvania than does the great war. The new generation then about actively entering into the business affairs of the world of their day and generation conformed themselves to the new order of things, and new men, far ahead of the most advanced ones here, came in with the road to abide with it, and these by their push, their innovation, and their very presence, established a new order of things. Henceforth the timber and the bark which had been allowed to decay or to perish, or which were wilfully destroyed, became, when worked into lumber, great staples. Suddenly work and occupation were given at wages beyond any ever before offered for the same consideration, to persons who had before that time been dependent on the hardest toil or the more servile labor of the winter for their scanty living. Even the very stones were put into market, and good quarries of sandstone opened along the sides of the Ridge, which now for above twenty years have been used in building the most elegant residences in the cities, and durable superstructures for the viaducts and culverts of the railroad itself, while the blue- stone, of which unworked deposits are yet to be found, which was formerly thought to be valueless (unless for the convenience of the farmer to work out his road-taxes with), has since then yielded profit- ably on the investments when transported and used in paving the thoroughfares of Pittsburgh.

HISTORY OF THE CHURCHES.

In the following history of the churches in Derry township we have given all the record history which we have yet come across. For further information the inquirer is referred to the chapter on the religious history of the county. As the oldest organized, we begin with the Presbyterian Churches.

"SALEM PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH,

one of the primitive five vacancies reported in the Redstone Presbytery, is first mentioned as applying, with Unity, for permission to call a minister of Don- egal Presbytery, Oct. 15, 1786. His character was deemed doubtful in Redstone, and permission was re- fused; but a Mr. Barr was then sent to supply one day. Frequent supplies were sent during four subse- quent years. A tent was used for a time as the place of worship, and a log house, with a stove in it, and called afterwards the session-house, accommodated the congregation on wet and cold days. Before the close of the last century a large house, of three logs in length, seventy by forty, or in the centre forty-six feet, was built. The pulpit, with a sounding-board over it, was large, about eight steps in height, with a clerk's desk six steps high at front of it. It occupied the back recess in the side and faced the front door in the other recess. There was a door in each end, and the communion aisle stretched between them. There were seventy-one seats, and six or eight hundred people could be accommodated in them. At first, for years,

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there were no seats, and then some of them were sawed | unpromising and disturbed charge. Thomas Davis, plank, but more were hewed, with posts at the ends, and a wide rail for a back. As the church for many years contained no stove, in very cold days they re- sorted to the session-house. In 1882 the church was ' ceiled with boards and plastered on the side walls. In 1848 a boy kindling the fires put shavings in the stoves. They fell blazing on the roof, and when the people assembled for prayer-meeting, the time-hon- ored, God-honored house was in uncontrollable flames. Many of the women sat down and wept.

" April 20, 1790, along with Unity, Salem had called Mr. John M'Pherrin, whose ordination and installa- tion, September 20th of that year, has been already recorded in the case of Unity. For thirteen years he labored among his people with great earnestness, so- lemnity, and success, giving them all his time for the last three years. Then difficulties having arisen- which ought to have been settled-which he himself afterwards believed too small to justify a separation, he yielded to them at the time, and obtained a release from Balem, April 20, 1808. Obtaining an immediate settlement over Concord and Muddy Creek, in Butler County, he there spent the remainder of his devoted and laborious life. There, too, Feb. 10, 1828, in the sixty-fifth year of his life, he was called to the peace- ful rest of the ' Father's House.' The larger and bet- ter portion of Salem Church regarded him as a very paragon and prince of preachers. By him, as a model, they-would test each succeeding minister, as they heard him, and with regretful tones would say, in nine cases out of ten, ' He duszen't preach like Mis- ther Mucpharrin !' Occasionally, as the very highest encomium, they would say of some ardent man, ' He pours it down on sintherz like Misther Mucpharrin !' Had the Apostle Paul come down and preached there within forty years of the removal of this beau ideal pastor, he could have gained no higher praise. Rev. Thomas Moore was called as pastor Aug. 4, 1804, and accepted the call, but no record was made of his in- stallation. At the request of the people, he was dis- missed April 9, 1809. April 21, 1813, Rev. Robert Lee was called, and installed on the first Tuesday of August following. Rev. James Galbraith preached, and F. Herron gave the charge. The writer only re- members him as a tall, slender man, whose thundering voice would not allow even a child to sleep in church. He was released from Salem, Oct. 20, 1819. His sub- sequent labors were performed in Central Ohio. A few years ago his life-labors were highly eulogized in an obituary notice written by a ministerial son of Salem Church.

"Serious difficulties had prevailed in Salem, more or less, from the removal of Mr. M'Pherrin. April 19, 1820, they obtained a committee from Presbytery to aid in settling them, which was but partially ef- fected. 'But the Lord was preparing the way for one of his servants,' who was pre-eminently a peace- maker, to enter that most important, and yet most

an Englishman, of strong and peculiar accent, an elder in the Second Presbyterian Church of Pitts- burgh-probably from its formation, sixteen years before, from which he was sent as an elder to the General Assembly of 1815-had been licensed by the Presbytery of Redstone, when over fifty years of age, on Feb. 15, 1822. He was appointed to supply at Salem the second Sabbath afterwards, and at West Union the following one. They retained him as a supply most of the summer, and October 15th called him to be their pastor. November 18th he was or- dained and installed. Rev. Robert Johnston preached, and S. Porter gave the charge. A few years later he was seriously crippled by a broken limb, and per- formed his labors afterwards at a great sacrifice of comfort. . His lot was greatly alleviated, however, by the constant attendance and considerate atten- tions.of his wife, devoted to him and devoted to God.

"In about the nineteenth year of his pastorate, greatly to his gratification, he obtained a. colleague in the whole charge, and from that time, except on communion Sabbaths, alternated with him in the two churches on successive Sabbaths, until the day of his lamented decease, May 28, 1848, in the seventy- seventh year of his age. The old log church had been burned down a short time before; they were, on that day, holding a communion near its site, in the barn of John Robinson. He, as was his wont, had preached the ' Action Sermon' with ardor, addressed the 'first table' with tenderness, communed at the second with emotion. Then, quite exhausted, his face glowing like a coal, he set out for home. But midway to it he fell lifeless from his horse, and ere his body was 'laid out' in his late habitation his emancipated spirit was at rest in the house of ' many mansions.' Well do I wot that when the stunning tidings reached the barn, where his youthful, filial colleague was conducting the afternoon service, he would look up through falling tears for the descend- ing mantle, and devoutly exclaim, 'My Father! my Father ! the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof !' It ought to be added that two or three years previously his most devoted wife had taken leave of life in a manner equally sudden, and as she had desired to be taken.

" Father Davis was a plain, earnest, rather impres- sive preacher. Partly from dialectic peculiarities, and partly because they came from his heart, his words stuck in the memory of his hearers. In social life he was affable, genial, and very frank. He pos- sessed in no limited manner a tact for dealing with persons of every stamp. This might have been in- ferred from his riding down successfully at Salem waves of commotion, by which two preceding pastors had been agitated into foam, and as foam were tossed away, while he held the pastorate for more than a quarter of a century,-his entire ministerial life. Yet he never fondled, flattered, nor temporized. Did an

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artful woman, courting praise for the real excellence of her cookery, worry him with strong deprecating termas respecting it, he would hastily drain his cup, hand it back, and, using her own term, would say, "Madam, I will take another cup of that "stuff!"' Or, if a close-fisted, purse-bound man complained to him about his 'frequent preaching against worldli- wees,' and charged him with giving in this way one- half of the preaching to himself and another man, artlessly as a child he would perform an example in mental arithmetic on the well-known subscriptions of the two. 'Ten and fifteen are twenty-five. Twice twenty-five are fifty. Isn't it a burning shame ? You two get one-half of my preaching, and for it pay but twenty-five dollars. If the rest of the congregation paid only in that proportion I should have but fifty dollars a year !' Looking his reprover full in the face he would say again, 'Isn't it a burning shame?' Then, smiling, he would introduce another topic.

"Mr. George Hill began to preach at Salem and Blairsville May 81, 1840, and after that gave an occa- sional day for ten months while completing his course at the seminary and in renovating enfeebled health at home. From March, 1841, he preached regu- larly. December 4th of that year, at Blairsville, he was ordained and installed as the co-pastor already mentioned. Soon after the decease of Father Davis, October 8d of that year, Mr. Hill gave all his time to Blairsville, having resigued the charge. of Salem. In the mean time, on the old elevated site on the bench of 'Sugar-Loaf Hill,' a new, tasteful, brick edifice had been erected by John Barnett, Esq., one of the faithful elders. Its dimensions are less than the old one, but sufficient to accommodate the congregation, weakened by emigra- tion and other new organizations on three sides of the church.

" After a vacancy of two and a half years Rev. Reuben Lewis was installed as pastor, May 18, 1851. Rev. George Hill preached, S. McFarren charged the pastor, and N. H. Gillett the people. He was re- leased Jan. 10, 1855. His successor, Rev. J. P. Ful- ton, was installed Tuesday, Nov. 2, 1857. Rev. N. H. Gillett preached, A. Torrence charged the pastor, and B. Stevenson the people. He was highly and justly prized as a preacher. After eight and a half years he very unexpectedly withdrew, and obtained a release from the charge June 16, 1866. Rev. James Davis had supplied, statedly, before his settlement, and Rev. James R. Hughes supplied after his departure.

"Rev. W. F. Hamilton began to preach regularly at Salem and Livermore in the spring of 1868, and was installed as pastor September 7th of that year. Rev. J. W. Walker preached, S. H. Shepley charged the pastor, and G. Hill the people. To this church, in more senses than one, he is a treasure, and they know it.

""This congregation has suffered very seriously for some years past from emigration, and has now become much weakened in members and

In strength. But it is hoped that it will yet be sustained and strength- ened by the King of Zion. It is memorable for some precious revivals in its earlier history.'

"So writes its elder, John Barnett, Esq., the man who ought to have written all this church's history.

"The following have been its elders : Robert Tay- lor, death not recorded; Andrew Kincaid, death not recorded ; Peter Wallace, died Feb. 12, 1839; John Barnett, Esq., Sr., died July 5, 1825; Jonathan Doty, went to Methodists. Additions: Abraham Fulton, died May, 1835; William McQuiston, death not re- corded; Samuel Moorhead, ceased to act about 1820 ; William Bell, died in 1829; James Long, died in 1864. Ordained September, 1828: William Barnett, died June, 1862; Robert McConsughy, moved to North- field, Ohio; Thomas Chapman, moved to Illinois. Ordained Oct. 2, 1885 : James Guthrie, died Nov. 12, 1855; James Wallace, dismissed to New Alexandria ; Robert Fulton, died Jan. 28, 1865. Ordained Oct. 19, 1851: Andrew Long; Alexander Craig, died Sept. 9, 1869 ; John Barnett, Esq., Jr. Ordained December, 1862: Robert Sterling and Samuel Ebbert. Installed December, 1862: Joseph Henderson, dismissed to Blairsville. December 16, 1866: James Fulton in- stalled, and Oliver Fulton ordained. Feb. 17, 1867 : John J. Douglass ordained,-the last three dismissed to Latrobe. Ordained Aug. 17, 1870: William Ster- ling, Archibald Dunlap, and Lewis Mechesney.

"This church has had two stated supplies and eight pastors. Its ministerial sons have been Revs. John, Abraham, James, and Benjamin Boyd (four brothers), and William Morehead in the pastorate of Mr. McPherrin ; and in that of Father Davis, his son, James Davis, James W. Knott, and John M. Barnett. Since which time this once prolific mother has ceased bearing. She originally deserved the name of Sa- lem. If at the close of the first pastorate her title to it was somewhat weakened, she has in later days firmly established it."1

BLAIRSVILLE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

Blairsville, under the name of "Forks of Black Lick," had been supplied by Rev. Dr. Herron, April 19, 1820, who at the request of the people gave it such organization as was customary at that time. Rev. Thomas Davis preached at the " Forks of Cone- maugh," March 7, 1822, twenty days after his licens- ure. But the name West Union had been assumed when he was called, October 13th of that year. As Blairsville increased in size and enterprise the pas- tor saw that the location of the church, a mile and a half from it in the country, was a serious blunder. Their house of worship at West Union being of mod- erate size, and for a considerable time incomplete,-a carpenter's bench being used for a pulpit,-he gener- ously purchased the building to reconcile the country people to change the place of worship to the town. Oct. 2, 1832, the Presbytery ratified this procedure

1 Abridged from "History of the Blairsville Presbytery."

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and made Blairsville the name of the church. Here, in 1840, Rev. Hill began to preach occasionally, and in 1841 regularly ; on December 4th of same year he was installed as co-pastor with the Rev. Thomas Da- vis, when Rev. Samuel McFarren preached the ordi- nation sermon; Father Davis presided, proposed the constitutional questions, and made the ordaining prayer; Revs. S. Swan charged the pastor, and W. Hughes the people. On Oct. 8, 1848, Rev. George Hill resigned his charge of Salem and gave his whole time to Blairsville.

In 1850 he originated a much needed female semi- nary, secured the erection of the main building, and gained for the institution considerable éclat. He was succeeded in it by Rev. S. H. Shepley and lady, and they by Rev. J. R. Hughes, who was followed in this seminary in 1867 by Rev. J. Jewett Parks. Rev. Shepley was principal and proprietor of it from the fall of 1852 to June, 1865, and Rev. Hughes for two years. Blairsville Church originated with thirty- three members, of whom the last living member was Henry Barnes. The original elders were Michael Campbell, Daniel Smith, and John Cunningham. To these the first accessions were John McCrea, William T. Smith, Samuel Matthews, and Matthias Lichtenthaler; the second, James Speer, H. A. Thompson, and Matthew George; the third, J. H. Fair, Joseph Moorhead, Jacob Zimmers, and J. M. Turner; and the fourth, Joseph Henderson and Jesse Cunningham. The deaconate began in 1855. The first board were James Buird, David Lintner, J. H. Fair, Samuel Kennedy, W. A. Louhry, Thomas Campbell, and Jacob Zimmers. The accessions up to 1874 were James Alexander, E. G. Stitt, Thomas Hotham, S. M. Bell, Samuel Barr, H. M. Hosack, and William Lintner. This church has sent forth as ministers Rev. Jesse M. Jamieson, D.D., Samuel Pettigrew, W. C. Smith, Nelson H. Smith, William Cunningham, W. Wallace Moorhead, and S. S. Gil- SOD.

THE NEW ALEXANDRIA PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH applied for organization Oct. 4, 1836. It was granted the following April, and effected by Revs. T. Davis and Samuel McFarren, May 4, 1837. It consisted of seventy-one members, mostly from Congruity, and five elders, of whom (June 17th) James Shields and William Taylor were ordained, and along with Robert Rainey, Esq., Joseph Cook and Smith Agnew, in- stalled by the same committee. At this time twenty- six additional members were received, and to the whole ninety-seven members the Lord's Supper was administered on the Sabbath following. Presbytery held its October meeting in New Alexandria, when a call was presented for Rev. David Kirkpatrick, and a remonstrance against it by a respectable minority who did not wish in their public worship to be restricted to the Scotch version of the Psalms. Mr. Kirkpat- rick having intimated that in the circumstances he could not accept the call, it was returned to the con-

gregation. Rev. Adam Torrance, who had been licensed by this Presbytery, and then had labored six years in Ohio, having returned in ill health, being present as a corresponding member at that meeting, in the evening preached by invitation. The church obtained leave to secure him till spring as stated sup- ply, then gave him a unanimous call to be their pas- tor. At his installation, June 13, 1838, Rev. Watson Hughes preached, and T. Davis gave the charge. For thirty years, humbly, earnestly, and successfully, he discharged his pastoral duties, and this was done, too, under the pressure of a kind and degree of suf- fering with which few others have been tried, and with which few can fully sympathize. The head that studied for the benefit of others was often ready to burst with an anguish of suffering.

Towards the close of this period he and his people jointly gave a display of patriotic zeal that claims a passing notice. They for the time consented to forego his faithful services, and he as a sexagenarian en- countered all the discomforts of camp, the trials of march, the perils of the battle-field, and the miasma of the swamps and hospitals to act as chaplain of the Eleventh Regiment of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps. The consent of his people being obtained on Sabbath, he joined his regiment on Monday at Camp Wright. After the battle of Bull Run the officers of the regiment by a unanimous vote invited him to re- main with them. He asked his congregation for leave, which was obtained. After an absence of four- teen and a half months they welcomed his return.

From exposure during his chaplaincy the health of Mr. Torrance failed more seriously in 1866, and con- strained him to resign the charge April 23, 1867. Mr. Thompson R. Ewing having supplied the pulpit three or four times, was unanimously called to be their second pastor. He was ordained and installed April 30, 1868. Rev. W. A. Fleming preached, Dr. McFarren charged the pastor, and A. Torrance the people. The experience gained by Mr. Ewing in a prolonged service for the Christian Commission added greatly to his qualifications for an energetic, efficient, and successful pastorate.

To the first elders have been added John Hosack, Michael M'Ginley, Moorhead Edgar, James Wallace, James M. Shields, William Trimble, Isaac Parr Henry, John Mourer, Benjamin K. Craig, William Wallace, John C. Craig, Dr. J. W. Rugh, and Simpson. This church having had but two pastors, has raised four ministers, viz .: Revs. Moorhead Ed- gar, T. Freeman Wallace, T. Davis Wallace, and Rob Roy M'Gregor M'Nulty. The two Wallaces were sons of one elder and brothers of another. The elder of them married Miss Martha Torrance, daughter of the first pastor, and they have been doing very effi- cient missionary work at Bogota, South America, for twelve years, where they have been aided for six years by Miss Kate McFarren, daughter of the late venerable pastor of Congruity.

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LIVERMORE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

was organized April 22, 1851, by Rev. Adam Tor- rance and G. Morton, with elder S. Marshall. The members at first were twenty-four, with three elders, Samuel Black, John Colleasure, and William Simp- son. Sept. 1, 1851, Rev. George Morton, pastor at Ebeneser, was installed here for one-third of the time, Revs. James C. Carson preaching, N. H. Gillett charging the pastor, and George Hill the people. He was released April 1, 1858. During several suc- ceeding years there were but few supplies, and the sacraments were seldom administered. Then Rev. James Davis statedly supplied for some months. Rev. James E. Caruthers supplied statedly from May, 1858, until April, 1859. On May 20, 1861, Rev. J. B. Dickey was ordained and installed for half-time, when Revs. J. P. Fulton preached, David Kirkpatrick pre- sided, proposed the constitutional questions, and made the ordaining prayer. Adam Torrance charged the pastor, and S. H. Shepley the people. He was re- leased June 17, 1868. In October, 1865, Rev. D. Har- bison was called, and supplied half-time for eighteen months, and then returning the call accepted one from New Salem. Rev. W. F. Hamilton was called for half-time in March, 1868, and at once commenced his labors there and at Salem. He was installed Sep- tember 14th of that year, when Revs. J. W. Walker preached, S. H. Shepley charged the pastor, and George Hill the people. Under the first six years of his pastorate thirty-five members were added on certificate, and fifty-three on examination. The first house of worship was a frame in which the Baptists had a share, and was situated very inconveniently on & hill .: The present is a comfortable brick edifice, favorably located, and was erected about 1862.

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History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 144

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: