USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Luzerne > History of the Presbytery of Luzerne, state of Pennsylvania > Part 9
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The original population of Plymouth was part and parcel of that which has engaged our attention in writing of Wilkes-Barre and Kingston. There were, however, some peculiarities developed in some of the influential colonists from Connecticut which evidently modified the subsequent history of that part of Wyoming Valley. There is also something due to the location of this settlement. Being at the extreme southern limit of the valley made it less eligible as a central and influential point, in early days leaving its inhabitants liable to be swayed, rather than enabling them to sway those beyond their immediate vicinage. How much its subsequent religious state was determined by the change of views on the part of the Rev. Noah Wadhams we cannot decide. It is said that he was an excellent, learned and pious man, a graduate of Princeton College, and the first of its graduates to enter the valley, though an host came later. Soon after the massacre, he left the Connecticut church and became a Methodist, but it seems that he only preached thereafter as a local minister of that denom- ination. He had come early to the valley, having been appointed minister to one of the colonies sent out by the Susquehanna company. At any rate, we find in Plymouth less of substantial agreement among the settlers than usual among the Connecticut colonists ; a larger number of denominations represented and new isms readily finding admission and adherents. With an increase of the coal trade came an increase of population, and gradually evangelical churches were strengthened, among them the Presbyterian, which from the beginning had its represen- tatives in Plymouth ; these, so far as they were identified with local organizations, had their membership with the
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Wilkes-Barre and Kingston church. When it was divided, and Kingston church organized, it seems that all the adherents of the original church at Plymouth did not fall in with the Kingston organization. Consequently we find, after two pastors took the place of one, that both had· interests, to some extent, in Plymouth, and occasionally maintained services there. This state of things, while helpful to the general cause, perhaps served to delay distinct and separate effort to establish a local organization in Plymouth. In the absence of regular service there doubtless was a scattering and loss of material from which the Presbyterian church might have derived increase and strength, and so proved a more healthful agency in promoting the best sentiment, and in securing the greater prosperity, of that beautiful place. All this, however, has now been corrected.
The Rev. Wm. P. White, D. D., who for a time did excellent service in the Plymouth church, and brought it to a much higher plane of prosperity and usefulness as a church of Christ, prepared an excellent history of the organization in 1876, the centennial of our nation. While the writer is not expected to chronicle Dr. White's work in Plymouth, he takes pleasure in acknowledging his in- debtedness to him for many historical facts relative to that church. His pastoral work at Plymouth was just after the demise of Luzerne Presbytery.
In the history of the Plymouth church, after noting the occasional services of the Rev. Messrs. Hoyt, Gilder- sleeve, Murray, Dorrance and Heberton at Plymouth, he says of the Rev. E. H. Snowden, D. D. : "I come now to speak of one whose labor for Presbyterianism in this place was more abundant than all others. His name is
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intimately associated with the early struggles and conflicts to secure and maintain a church of our faith in Plymouth. Of his self-denial and faithfulness in the cause of the Master there are yet witnesses among us. The first minute relating to Plymouth which I find on the records of Presbytery is dated April 15, 1845. It was recom- mended ' that the Rev. E. H. Snowden be commissioned to supply Hanover and labor in Plymouth, Dallas, and Lehman townships, with aid from the Board of Home Missions.' This circuit or parts of it occupied the at- tention of Mr. Snowden till he was invited to Warrenham in 1849 to 1852. During this absence of Mr. S. from Luzerne county, it appears that Plymouth was allowed to drift again, so far as specific efforts were made to provide for it by the Presbytery." Dr. White finds in the min- utes of the Presbytery, Sept. 19, 1854, the following : " Rev. E. H. Snowden, who was commissioned last May to labor at Hanover and Plymouth, made a statement of the condition and prosperity there, and applied for an in- crease of missionary aid," and he adds, "from this time, Mr. Snowden continued to preach regularly in Plymouth, for a time every two weeks, the alternate Sabbath being given to Northmoreland."
The upper room of the Academy building in Ply- mouth was, until 1855, the common room in which all denominations preached, furnishing cheap accommodation for religious services and making it easy to multiply the variety, but difficult for any one of them to maintain close continuity of services. However, during the year above mentioned, or ~the next year, the Methodists and the Christians built houses of worship, giving ampler room to those who had been sharing with them the accommo-
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dations of the Academy, and opening the way for other varieties. However that may have been, we find that from this time onward Presbyterian services were main- tained and increased. Still the denomination and its minister are not happy. They show an anxious desire to have a church and place of worship all their own, though the Presbyterian element had not been strong enough to secure one of the houses of worship already built. The first aggressive movement is toward a distinct Presbyterian organization. Quoting from Dr. White again, he says, with regard to an organization, notwith- standing the absence of numbers and strength: "Still they were soon encouraged to form an organization. I find the following petition presented to the Presbytery of Luzerne at its session in Tunkhannock, Sept. 17, 1856 : 'We, whose names are hereto subscribed, being members of the Presbyterian church, or congregation, and attached to its doctrines and government, and feeling a strong desire to enjoy its ordinances and means of grace, would respectfully request the Presbytery of Luzerne to organize us into a Presbyterian church and congregation, to be called the First Presbyterian church and congregation of Plymouth. ''' Signed by members of the church : Louisa B. Eno, Margaret Hutchison, Thomas W. Posser, Jane Hutchison, Mary E. Lewis, Ann Hutchison, Ann D. Lewis, William McGuffee, Ann D. Rhys, Ellen McGuffee, William Stout, Hanna Stout, Elizabeth Stout, Charles Hutchinson, Agnes Hutchinson, Robert Hutchinson, Jane Hutchinson, Ellen Wright, Joseph Lind, Jane Lind, James Lind.
Members of the Congregation : Robert Love, Agnes Love, James Hutchinson, George F. Cook, Sarah Ann
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Cook, Charles Bovier, Robert Bowie, Thomas Weir, Margaret Weir, Robert Hutchinson, Isabella McGuffie, Josiah Enos.
The above petition brought the following committee from Presbytery to Plymouth, October 5, 1856, viz : the Rev. E. H. Snowden, Dr. John Dorrance, and Elder Calvin Parsons ; and the above named church members were formally constituted " The First Presbyterian Church of Plymouth." Charles Hutchinson and William Stout were elected elders. Mr. Hutchinson was ordained and installed, but Mr. Stout, not being present, was never in- ducted into the office of ruling elder. The prayer of ordination was offered by Mr. Snowden, and the charge given by Dr. Dorrance. The Rev. Zebulon Butler, from Port Gibson, Miss., had returned to his native valley to visit friends and added to the service, in which he was so deeply interested, some appropriate remarks.
Soon after a Board of Trustees, consisting of J. W. Eno, William Stout, Stewart Craig, Charles Hutchinson and Robert Love, were duly elected.
In these transactions we note movements towards re- claiming ground that had been alienated from those of the Reformed Faith, or had been left without proper cultivation by the descendants of the Puritans. They were, therefore, significant transactions. Although Mr. Snowden never was formally inducted into the pastoral office in Plymouth, he led the movements which re-estab- lished an institution which worked successfully in the line of the earlier religious movements in the primitive days of the colony. Dr. White says of the material or- ganized into the Presbyterian church of Plymouth, " And now here came together, and are organized into a church,
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streams from widely different quarters. There is the descendant of the old Puritan of New England, of the Huguenot of the South, and many sons and daughters of the firm, unbending Covenanters of bonnie Scotland." Though such streams do flow from different directions, they are always found to coalesce, because their faith had reached their hearts from a common source ; and after twenty years, in reviewing the career of the new church, Dr. White says, in speaking of the congregation then active, "I know there are some among us who, looking back twenty years and remembering how they were then situated as a church, rejoice, and praise God for the privileges they now have, and are more ready to help others who are struggling as they were."
After the organization, the congregation continued to occupy the upper room of the Academy, and seem from that time to have maintained their own Sabbath school, the other stronger denominations having estab- lished denominational schools. Mr. Charles Hutchinson was the first superintendent, with Mrs. L. B. Eno, assistant. A weekly prayer meeting was held in private houses. The record of the first sessional meeting bears date May 1, 1856, at which Margaret Weir, Elizabeth Hancock, and William McGuffie, were received into full membership of the church. On the same day, the ordi- nance of baptism was administered to Mrs. Elizabeth Hancock, and Margaret Bowie, infant of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Hutchinson. This was the first administration of sealing ordinances.
The church grew slowly for the first four years, but after that exhibits new energy in the inauguration of measures to secure a sanctuary. A location was secured
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and Presbyterial aid pledged April 19, 1857. Yet there seems to have been hesitation ; for after a year, or March 29, 1860, we find a congregational meeting advising against the proposed repairing of the Academy and in favor of immediate effort to build a church, and two hundred and twenty-five dollars subscribed at the meeting, which had unanimously decided to arise and build. Dr. White, however, says in his history, "Yet I find no further reference to the subject on the records for a num- ber of years. I am told that efforts to secure sub- scriptions to any amount were not successful. The Academy room was then somewhat repaired and made more comfortable and the congregation continued for some years longer to worship where, for nearly half a century, the religious services of the town had been conducted.". A larger element of staunch Scotch Pres- byterianism had come into the town and every Sabbath morning its representatives could be relied upon to be in the place of divine worship. The congregation was not large, but it was regular. When Mr. Snowden was not present, a sermon was read. The Sabbath school met in the afternoon and was quite well attended, not being confined to the children of any one denomination. Many who were thus interested are now in the church. The seed that was sown has brought forth its fruit.
The session was strengthened from time to time. First, Mr. Stewart Craig was elected March 3, 1859; Mr. Andrew Weir, December, 1866, whom the writer knew to be a good and faithful man, and, for a time, a member of the sessions which he moderated.
Mr. Snowden's characteristic perseverance was finally encouraged by seeing the work of church building begun
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in 1866, and ultimately rewarded by seeing it completed two years later. The edifice was a commodious one, for the first. It was erected for about four thousand dollars, five hundred of which was furnished by our helpful Board of Church Erection. The greater part of the balance was given by the Plymouth people themselves. This home and local habitation provided, future useful- ness was assured.
In view of past conditions and the divided labors of the minister, who was never a resident of Plymouth, there had been good work done. During the fifteen years of Mr. Snowden's ministry, a church had been gathered ; there had been added to it 43 on profession, 21 by letter; a good and large Sabbath school main- tained, and a suitable and comely sanctuary erected to the worship of God.
After all these years and varied toils, Mr. Snowden is no longer young. He had never been able to dwell among the people at Plymouth, and that some one else might do so, he gracefully retires from the field, but not from work. For, before that is done, another house is to be raised for the worship of the triune God,-more directly his personal work, and one with which his name is more closely connected, viz : "The Snowden Me- morial Church" of Larksville. The veteran, in this case, is found breaking new ground and providing for gathering an entirely new church. This organization was effected May 27, 1870, therefore occurred about the time the Presbytery of Luzerne ceased to be, and its · history belongs to another Presbytery, but Dr. Snowden continued for a long time to foster the enterprise, or until he was laid aside by the infirmities of age.
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After Mr. Snowden relinquished the Plymouth · church, it was for about a year without regular minis- trations. The Rev. Thomas P. Hunt, as was usual with him in such cases, to a large extent supplied the lack of services from others, and always to the profit and pleasure of those who waited on his ministry.
We have followed up the history of the Plymouth church to the demise of our Presbytery. In the quo- tations made above from Dr. White's fuller history, the reader has no doubt gathered the spirit and purpose of the next minister, under whose pastorate the church enjoyed an era of unwonted prosperity in every depart- ment of church life. It is not, however, our province to write of or trench on the transactions of the new Presby- tery under which the work, inaugurated and fostered by the Luzerne Presbytery, was continued with, perhaps, new impetus, under Dr. White's ministry.
Dr. Snowden was twice married. First, while with his first charge in Florida, to Miss Elizabeth Allison Smith, a daughter of the Collector of the Port in St. Augustine. There were seven children born to them, of whom four were alive at the death of their father, viz : three daughters and a son : Mary Salina, married to John W. Metcalf, of Irish Lane, Luzerne county, Pa. ; James Glassel Snowden, of Castaline, Era county, Ohio ; Mrs. J. de Sha Patton, of Cleveland, Tenn., and Mrs. James Monroe Williamson, of Oakland City. The first Mrs. Snowden died while her children were still young. After some years, Dr. Snowden married Miss Caroline Adams, at Newburg, N. Y., who was a relative of John Quincy Adams. She died January, 1892. A writer in the Wilkes-Barre Record, says of Dr. Snowden's evening of
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life : "After advanced age incapacitated him for the performance of pastoral duties, he attended church reg- ularly until the year of his death." He was evidently an old man ripening for another life, and yet, he said of him : " he survived his years in a condition of excellent preservation." While the recollections of the past were vivid, he does not seem to have lost his interest in things and persons around him. His last days were, it is under- stood, soothed by the tender care of a daughter, "who had remained at home with him and left nothing undone that would add to his comfort and happiness during the years which the infirmities of age rendered necessary."* *Dr. Urquhart.
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THE REV. THOMAS POAGE HUNT.
A LTHOUGH Mr. Hunt's name is not found in the list of ministers who were originally assigned to the Lu- zerne Presbytery ; although he never sustained the relation of pastor, formally, to any of its churches, he was one of the most significant factors in establishing and extending the work and prosperity of the Luzerne Presbytery. His important career, his aggressive and advanced work, which in some directions made him widely known not only in the Presbyterian Church, but to the Christian public generally, all this together with his many official labors in the Presbytery, which extended to so many of its churches, make it necessary that he should have a prominent place in its history, side by side with Webster, Dorrance and others, who saw the Presbytery in the day of its birth. Why his name was not in the list furnished the General Assembly does not appear in the record. He had been connected with the Presbytery of Susquehanna and an active member of the committee that organized the Lackawanna church a few months before the action of the Assembly in 1843. He may have been absent on one of his extensive temperance lecturing tours. He had already acquired the title of "The Apostle of Temper- ance." He, however, came into the original organization by certificate from his Presbytery, and was, from the beginning of its work, till called higher, a pillar of
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strength among his brethren ; always able and ready to do delicate and needed work whenever there was a call for such service. He was in the best sense, a Pastor at Large, sustaining every minister whom he aided and edifying every church which he visited, for he was wise, prompt, discreet, and self-sacrificing. Very many of these services were labors of love, always most cheerfully rendered. His antecedents were not Puritan, were not Scotch or Scotch-Irish, nor Huguenot. The question, therefore, as to whence he came, and how he came, as a Presbyterian, is not without interest, nor without a legitimate place here, especially as, in answering these questions, we learn how Presbyterianism was introduced into the Old Dominion, from whence, having taken root, it spread itself elsewhere. Mr. Hunt not only came to us from Virginia. He was also a lineal descendant of one of the very first settlers. The clergyman of that name who accompanied Captain John Smith to the Jamestown Colony, was of course, an Episcopalian, since Episcopacy was the religion of the early Virginia settlers, established by law for the colony to the exclusion of all others, as was then understood. The following facts as to the introduction of Presbyterianism into the Mother of States, were originally published in the "Evangelical and Literary Magazine", edited by the Rev. John Holt Rice, D. D., Presiding Professor of the Union Theological Seminary in 1819. They were communicated to Dr. Rice by the Rev. James Hunt, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, and the son of one of the prime movers in planting the Presbyterian Church in Virginia. Dr. Rice vouches for the reliability of the Rev. James Hunt. The article from Dr. Rice's Magazine is also quoted by the
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Rev. Parke P. Flournoy, in his history of the Rockville and Bethesda Churches in Montgomery County, Mary- land. These churches were originally one organization, which bore the name of Captain John Church and later Cabin John. The Rev. James Hunt was pastor of that church. Mr. Flournoy's history of these churches, which were off-shoots from Captain John Church, was published in 1880, by the "Messenger Publishing Company, Balti- more, Md." The writer is indebted to this published sermon for the main facts with reference to the beginning of the Hanover Presbytery of which the Rev. Thomas P. Hunt is a production. And as we have traced the origin of some other elements which went to make up the Luzerne Presbytery, we will look back hastily to the Virginia contribution, which seems not less remarkable than the reviews which have already engaged our attention.
The first of Mr. Hunt's line, as has been intimated, came from England, and came an Episcopalian, the first minister in the Jamestown Colony. He came before Plymouth Rock was discovered and was a good, earnest and faithful preacher, whose memory is still cherished. Since the writer began to look up material for the history of Luzerne Presbytery, his attention has been called to newspaper articles mentioning an honor done by his contemporaries to "the good Rector (or Chaplain) Hunt", viz : the placing of a magnificent memorial window in an important church building.
Bancroft, in his history of the Jamestown Colony, says, in speaking of an effort on the part of the colonists to exclude Captain John Smith from the company : "As his only offence consisted in the possession of enviable
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qualities, the attempt at his trial was abandoned, and, by 'the doctrine and exhortation' of the sincere Hunt, the man without whose aid the vices of the colony would have caused its immediate ruin was soon restored to his station."*
The Rev. Thomas P. Hunt left in manuscript an autobiography from which his daughter, Miss Susan C. Hunt, has furnished the author the leading facts. He says, "I was born in Charlotte County, Virginia, Dec. 3, 1794. I am descended from a long line of God-fearing and loving ancestors. So far as can be traced in this country, it commenced with the good Chaplain Hunt, who came to this country with Captain John Smith. He returned to England ; but one of his sons returned to Virginia, bringing with him three sons. One of them remained there with his father, and I am descended from the Virginia settlers.
"My great grandfather, James Hunt, was one of the first three Presbyterians in Virginia."
The ministry of the Episcopal Church in the Virginia Colony, in the days of Mr. Hunt's great grandfather, seems not to have been up to the standard of "the good Chaplain Hunt," and at that time there was no other denomination tolerated. This ancestor of Mr. Hunt, finding the ministrations of the established church without profit to him, absented himself from them. This subject- ed him to a fine, when information of his absence from the parish church was laid by any one before the civil authorities. Such information being filed against him, he and three other gentlemen, who had also become con- vinced that the gospel was not then preached in its
*See Volume I, page 125.
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purity in the parish church, were fined for absence on the same day. These men had acted independently of each other. The absence of all at the same time from the regular services had been made the more noticeable because of their previous regularity and standing in the community. This action against them brought them together, and they naturally conferred with each other and ultimately co-operated in a religious movement. For, while they submitted to the penalty for non-attendance at the parish church, they still absented themselves from the legal services.
Feeling that they should not neglect a proper observance of the Sabbath, and that some form of religious worship should be observed, they arranged to meet in each others houses, and read together the Scriptures and such other religious books as they had among them. One of the families had a copy of Luther's commentary on Galatians. This volume deeply interested and instructed them in the great doctrine of justification by faith alone. There does not seem to have been any effort made to spread dissent, but those who statedly met for such religious readings and inquiry became deeply interested concerning the great salvation, and many others became anxious to attend the readings. It also attracted the attention of the authorities, and the movers in the matter were formally cited to appear before the Governor and Council at Williamsburg. Before setting out for the place of trial and on the way thither, the question as to what they should declare themselves to be in religion greatly exercised them. They had practically turned away from the Parish church, or the church of the Colony. To what had they turned ? They did not seem
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able to say. They had some thought of calling them- selves Lutherans, as they had been so deeply interested and benefitted by Luther's commentary on Galatians. But they had noted some things in Luther's writings with which they did not agree. One of the four men went alone to Williamsburg, and on the way thither he was obliged to ask shelter in an humble home from a heavy rain that was falling, which was accorded him, and while he waited for the storm to pass over, his attention was attracted to an old book on a dusty shelf. He took it down and read. What he read seemed to be his own sentiments. He found them embodied in a systematic form. His state of mind made the book extremely interesting, so that he scarcely noticed the termination of the storm. When, however, he found that he must resume his journey, he asked his entertainer if he would sell the book. The man said he would not, but if he really wanted it, he could have it, as it was of no use to him ; "it was not worth selling."* It was an old Scotch Presbyterian Confession of Faith, and our anxious traveler received it as a gift from heaven. When he joined his companions at Williamsburg, we are told, " they took a private room and there deliberately examined the book and found it contained exactly the system of doctrine which they believed, and though not so well under- standing the Discipline, they did not so cordially approve that, yet they unanimously agreed to adopt it as their Confession of Faith." Thus they were prepared to define their position before the Governor and Council. They presented the old book, found on the way by one of their number, as setting it forth.
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