USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > Washington > History of the Presbytery of Washington : including a brief account of the planting of the Presbyterian church in Western Pennsylvania and parts adjacent, with sketches of pioneer ministers and ruling elders ; also sketches of later ministers and ruling elders > Part 11
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THE PRESBYTERY OF WASHINGTON.
1824. Zenas Condit, 3; John Cowan, I; Robert Lyle, I ; Robert McCready, 3; Alex. Mccullough, 1; Robert Ramsey, 4; Thomas Thompson, 6; John Thornburg, 2.
1825. Thomas Cameron, 5; John Harshey, 2; Samuel Meeks, 3; John Orr, 10; George Sutherland, 9; Thomas Stockton, 6; Wm. Wallace, 7; Hugh Wylie, I ; Robert Withrow, 3.
1826. * John Duncan, 9; Peter W. Gale, 1 ; John Miller, 7; Joseph McFerran, 2.
1827. Ephraim Cooper, 3; Wm. Murray, 2; Redick McKee, 4; Joseph Vance, 2; Adam Weir, 5.
182S. Nathan Axtell, 4; Wm. Cochrane, 4; Wm. Clark, I ; John Elliott, 4; Thomas Fergus, 2; Andrew Farrar, 2; James Orr, 3 ; Jacob Slagle, 7; James Wallace, 2.
1829. Wm. Archer, 1; John Dinsmore, 11; Wm. Ewing, 6; Charles Hawkins. 7; Lewis Kerr, 10; Robert McConaughey, 8; Samuel Oldham, 5 ; Robert Officer, 4; John Pollock, 5; Alex. Ramsey, 1 ; Wm. Simpson, 8.
1830. Simeon Brooks, 2; John Edie, I ; Andrew Henderson,
3; Joseph McCready, 3; George Newell, 7; Thomas Orr, 6; Hugh Pugh, 2.
1831. Sylvanus Cooper, I ; Walter Craig, 5; Wm. Cowan, 6; Israel Day, 1; Robert Miller, 2; John Sharp, 6; Daniel Stewart, 4; John Wolf, I; Jacob White, 10.
1832. Thomas Axtell, 1; Robert Colmery, 3; Martin Ely, 6; John Laughlin, 5; James McFarren, 6; Hugh McCon- aughey, 5; John Pittenger, 2; Robert Patterson, 5; James Smith, 2; Nath. W. Smith, 1; John Thompson, 3; Andrew Yates, 2.
1833. Jonas Condit, 3; Stirling C. Cuthbert, 2; Samuel Moore, 10; Wm. McLain, 4; John McDonald, 3; Hugh Max- well, 1 ; Ebenezer Smith, 3.
1834. John Atkinson, 4; John C. Bayliss, 2; Lewis Dille, 3; Alex. D. Gunn, 3; Wm. Hervey, I; Samuel Vance, 2; James Thompson, 4.
1835. Francis Braddock, 12; Wm. Carothers, 2; John Horack, 1 ; Zachariah Jacob, 4; James Kady, 1.
1836. Robert Caldwell, 3; John Cunningham, 1; Boyd
* Two of this name, father and son, both in Cross Roads.
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RULING ELDERS.
Emery, I; Hugh Fergus, 2; Wm. Kerr, 3; Hugh Milligan, 3; David McConaughey, 1; James Moody, 3; Samuel Thompson, 2. 1837. Daniel Agnew, 2; James Campbell, 1; James Dins- more, 2; Wm. Hammond, 1; Elijah Klegg, 2; James Lee, 2; Robert McFarland, 2; Abraham Rickey, I.
1838. Luther Axtell, 2; James Braden, 2; John Bucking- ham, 1; Abraham Barbour, I; Henry Cowan, I; Samuel Gam- ble, 1; Henry Hervey, 1; Wm. Hair, 1; Russel Moore, 2; Robert McComb, I; David Riddle, 2; Thomas Steele, 2; Wm. Smiley, 2; Robert Wylie, I.
1839. John Brice, I; Thomas Dinsmore, I; Thomas McFar- land, 1; Andrew Mitchell, I; James McFarland, I; Joseph Scott, 1; Reuben Sanders, I; Obadiah Van Cleve, I.
III. TRIBUTE TO THE DECEASED MINISTERS WHO HAVE BEEN MEMBERS OF THE PRESBYTERY OF WASHINGTON.
IT is not merely an inference of fitness, but an apostolic injunc- tion, which says "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves : for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief." But in the very context of this solemn charge to the church concerning her living ministry and preceding it, there is another, as sacred, which brings home to her heart the memory of the departed heralds of the same salvation : "Remember them that had the rule over you, which spake unto you the word of God; and considering the issue of their life, imitate their faith " (Hebrews 13: 7. Revised edition). These are but counterparts of the same divine law of remembrance, and te- flecting each other's light, they stand together in mutual strength. The honor of the king is here upon the " ambassadors," who stand "in Christ's stead," beseeching their fellow-men to be "reconciled to God." But blessed in the temple of glory are the sainted dead, whose lips no more utter the message on earth, but whose " works do follow them," and whose words will never die ; their " everlasting remembrance " is assured ; and the generations that will follow them, as they followed Christ, will rise to the rapture of their song.
It is under the power of such a call as this that we hold a place of honor among the memories of this great occasion for the fathers and brethren who, having under God fashioned and conducted the work of the church in our Presbyterial bounds, have gone to their reward, leaving the sowing and reaping of the inheritance to us, their successors. We have listened with delight to the history of the antecedent preparation for the for-
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DECEASED MINISTERS, I.
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mation of the Washington Presbytery in 1819, covering a period one-half as extended as the Presbyterial history itself. With like skill has our excellent stated clerk led us down along the way of ecclesiastical descent, until our organic life as a presby- tery almost touches the line of threescore years and ten. Our educational and missionary history have, in like manner, com- manded our interest. I ask you now to come with me, for a lit- tle season, into communion of memory with the redeemed men, great and good, whom the Lord chose to bring down alike his work and his honor to our day in the ministry of reconcilia- tion.
The presbytery, at its organization, in October, 1819, in- cluded the following ministerial membership, viz .: the Rev. Messrs. Thomas Marquis, pastor at Cross Creek; George M. Scott, at Mill Creek and Flats; John Anderson, at Buffalo ; Elisha McCurdy, at Cross Roads and Three Ridges; Cephas Dodd, at Lower Ten Mile; Joseph Stevenson, at Three Ridges (West Alexander); James Hervey, at Forks of Wheeling and " Wheelingtown ;" Andrew Wylie, president of Washington College; Thomas Hoge, an evangelist, with Jacob Cozad, a li- centiate.
The churches of Upper Ten Mile, West Liberty, Unity, Charlestown and Waynesburg were vacant.
THE REV. THOMAS MARQUIS,
Pastor of the Church of Cross Creek, during the years 1794- 1826, first demands attention. His largest service was rendered in the antecedent period, but he presided at the organization in 1819, and continued an active member for seven years longer. He died in the year following his resignation, September 27, 1827, while on a visit to liis son-in-law, the Rev. Joseph Steven- son, at Bellefontaine, Ohio. He came from his Virginia birth- place to Cross Creek in 1775, shortly after his marriage to Jane Park. Both of them, together with many others, were subjects of the first revival of the West in Vance's Fort, in 1778, con- ducted without a minister, amidst the thickest terrors of Indian warfare.
The fruits of that wonderful work were gathered into church
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communion a little later, by the Rev. James Power, D.D., of Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland County, Pa., who preached the first sermons of that region, held the first sacramental service and baptized the first child, the eldest of the family of Mr. Marquis (and herself afterwards the wife of a Presbyterian min- ister and mother of John M. Stevenson, D.D., now secretary of the American Tract Society). At the organization of the Cross Creek Church, in 1779, Mr. Marquis was made one of its ruling elders, and later, upon the discernment of his gifts by God's people, he was led by a divine impulse, though under the bur- den of a family, at the age of thirty-six years, to seek prepara- tion for the ministry. Some classical instruction under his pas- tor; the Rev. Joseph Smith, a course in the Cannonsburg Acade- my and subsequent theological training at the hands of Dr. John McMillan, and all joined with the most rigid and neces- sary self-denial, constituted his opportunities. But acute intel- lect, strong emotions, pleasing address, thrilling eloquence and a consecrated spirit, combined to make him a powerful pleader for Christ and an honored winner of souls. Though most earnestly sought in other directions, he became a prophet of ex- ceptional honor " in his own country and among his own kin- dred," and such he continued to be throughout an average gen- eration. His first four years of service were shared by the church of Upper Buffalo. Richly crowned with spiritual fruits in his own pastoral work, he was known far and wide as "the silver-tongued orator " of the Western pulpit. Small in stature and features, the lines of thought were on his face, and there was power in his presence.
THE REV. GEORGE M. SCOTT
Was born at Neshaminy, Bucks County, Pa., November 9, 1759, but removed, with his father, shortly before the American Revo- lution, to Northampton County, on the Delaware, nearly oppo- site to Belvidere, New Jersey. After adequate preparation he became a student in the University of Pennsylvania (at Phila- delphia), and was graduated from it in the class of 1793, under the presidency of the distinguished Dr. John Ewing. After graduation he spent three or four years in teaching, the last
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two in the Preparatory Department of Princeton College, and, at the same time, pursued his theological studies under the no less distinguished Rev. Samuel Stanhope Smith, D.D., then president of the college. He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, May 31, 1797, and ordained by the same body in the autumn of 1798, having, on the 17th of the previous May, been married to Anna, daughter of Col. Samuel Rea, of Mount Bethel, Pa. Under order of the Synod of New York and New Jersey, he fulfilled a missionary tour of six months in the frontier settlements of Western New York, shortly after which, in 1799, he visited Western Pennsylvania, and soon accepted calls to the associated churches of Mill Creek, in Beaver County, Pa., and Flats (now Fairview), in Brooke County, Virginia, and some two months later was in- stalled as their pastor.
The former of these churches Mr. Scott served with great fidelity, until 1837, though he resigned the latter in 1826. Af- ter his retirement from pastoral work, at the age of seventy-six years, he still devoted the remnant of his life to such general labor for the Master as his increasing infirmities might permit, and so for ten more years he delighted to press the claims of the gospel upon the attention of sinful men. His last sermon, founded upon Matthew 5 : 6, was marked with special holy ar- dor and power, and was followed with two funeral services dur- ing the ensuing week. But on the next Sabbath, August 15, 1847, under a sudden attack of cholera morbus, he exchanged earth for heaven, in the fullness of gospel peace, at the vener- able age of eighty-eight years.
Mr. Scott's life-work of nearly a half century in the ministry of the Gospel, was deeply marked with the spirit of consecration. He came to his western charge just in time to reap the harvest of a religious awakening, under the labors of the Rev. Thomas E. Hughes, then a licentiate, and, under this impulse, to rise into full sympathy with the matchless revival of 1802, which covered this whole region with a baptism of divine power, and still remains a most sacred record in the hearts of the generations which until now have shared its blessings. Often afterwards, but especially in 1816 and 1822, the seal of Heaven was put upon the labors of
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this faithful servant-in the latter instance, the ingathering of souls, to the number of two hundred, continuing for full five years. Nor was this all. He performed two missionary services of three months each-one among the destitutions of Northern Ohio, then a wilderness, in 1803, and another among the Indians about Detroit and Sandusky. Both these services were rendered under the direction of the Missionary Board of the Synod of Pittsburgh, not long after its formation. In his earlier and more active years, he also conducted a small classical academy, in which a considerable number of young men were prepared for entrance into Washington and Jefferson Colleges, with a view to the ministry. As, in part, the outgrowth of his home work, at least, within its territory, the churches of Bethlehem, Hookstown, New Cumberland and Frankfort, still carry down the stream of blessings from the fountain opened in the wilderness, almost a century ago.
The facts of this sketch have been derived from various pub- lished sources, including especially the Life of Elisha McCurdy, by Dr. Elliott. But I am greatly indebted, also, for much of the material to my valued friend, the Rev. John W. Scott, D.D., a son of this venerable man. This honored son, after a long and eminent, as well as useful, service as both minister of the Gospel and educator, abides in wonderful preservation and not in idle- ness, at the nation's capitol, having entered with unabated spirit into his ninetieth year. The shadows of life's evening gather gently over his head, whilst faith's sunshine beckons him to brighter skies, and to "a city whose builder and maker is God .*
Very prominent for his works' sake, if not indeed accounted a leader of his brethren in intellectual culture, stands the sainted
ELISHA MCCURDY,
the story of whose life, so admirably written by the late Dr.
1 Since the preparation and delivery of this historical address, and before its pub- lication, Dr. John W. Scott has been permitted to see his distinguished son-in-law, General Benjamin Harrison, of the State of Indiana, elected and inaugurated President of the United States. Without expecting any distinctive political advantage therefrom,
ยท the Presbyterian Church may well be pardoned for a just satisfaction in the elevation to the headship of the nation " at such a time as this," of one of her best sons, and most prominent ruling elders.
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David Elliott, renders needless any more than brief mention here. He, too, like Marquis, without early education, passed through the academy at Cannonsburg, and was, also, one of the one hun- dred instructed in theology by Dr. John McMillan, after which he was licensed by the Presbytery of Ohio, June 20, 1799, and the following November ordained and installed as pastor of the churches of Cross Roads and Three Springs. That pastorate, covering a period of thirty-seven years, included the stated min- isterial service of his consecrated life. Resigning then his official responsibilities to younger hands, in advance of the wishes of his people, he spent life's last decade in Allegheny City, and died, July 22, 1845, in heavenly peace, at the venerable age of eighty- six years.
Father McCurdy's name will ever come up in hallowed asso- ciation with the wonderful revivals of religion which swept, as the breath of God, over this and other regions of our land, con- secrating the early years of the present century, and redeeming this whole region from the divided dominion of popery and infidelity. In these he took a prominent and effective part. Nor was he less active in the missionary efforts among the destitute settlements West of the Ohio, and notably among the Indian tribes which, largely under his leadership, engaged the early Western church, and which greatly influenced the whole Presby- terian Church towards the movements shortly afterwards con- summated in the Home and Foreign Boards of Missions. A friend he was, also, of liberal education, and the founder of an academy in his parish, which gave a long list of its worthy sons to the ministry of the Gospel. But highest of all rose the flame of his zeal in the evangelical preaching and the wrestling prayer, the memory of which is still an inspiration to his successors in the Lord's work.
THE. REV. JOHN ANDERSON, D.D.,
pastor of the church of Upper Buffalo during the years 1802- 1833, was one of the most distinguished, though most retiring, of these carly fathers. Born in Guilford, North Carolina, April 10, 1767, he received both his classical and theological training under the eminent Rev. David Caldwell. He was brought to
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THE PRESBYTERY OF WASHINGTON.
Christ through the preaching of the Rev. James McGready, a pupil and spiritual son of the Rev. Joseph Smith at Buffalo, who had meanwhile gone South. Here, perhaps, we have the cord which drew Mr. Anderson to the scene of his life-work. Having been licensed, and shortly afterward ordained, by the Presbytery of Orange, at a date not later than 1793, and having, partly for health's sake, spent several years of itinerant labor in the Caro- linas, Tennessee and Kentucky, he finally reached Pennsylvania, and here settled permanently. He was received into the Presby- tery of Ohio January 19, 1802, and installed pastor of Upper Buffalo Church in the spring following. Dr. Anderson's preach- ing was plain, direct, terse, scriptural, practical, discriminating and pungent, insomuch that " the screw-auger " was the sobriquet by which he was widely known. His pastorate began amidst the glow of the great spiritual baptism of the opening century, and some of its most striking manifestations were in his own church. His ministry, thus sanctified, was both edifying and fruitful, whilst the wisdom that stamped it brought him without his seeking, quiet but powerful leadership in ecclesiastical affairs, as well as in all enterprises in behalf of education, missions, temperance and the like. The prominence of Dr. Anderson may be inferred from his presidency of the Board of Trustees of Washington College from the time of the charter in 1806 until 1833. The degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by this institution in 1821. Theological pupils resorted to him for instruction in unwonted numbers, especially after, by reason of age, Dr. McMillan had been compelled to give up that great work for the church. Among the pupils of Dr. Anderson was his own son, the Rev. William C. Anderson, D.D., one of our most popular preachers in his day. His other son, yet living, John B. Anderson, LL.D., has been a distinguished educator and engineer, as well as elder of the church. The venerable father fell asleep in Jesus February 8th, 1835, having borne his witness of the grace of God until his last breath.
THE REV. JOSEPH STEVENSON
Had been pastor for ten years of the church of Three Ridges (West Alexander) when the Presbytery of Washington was"
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formed. During the first three of those years his charge had also included Forks of Wheeling. He was born near Hagers- town, Maryland, March 25, 1779. His spiritual birth and his preparation for college both came through the instrumentality of the Rev. Thomas E. Hughes, so long and eminently useful both as pastor and as principal of the log-cabin academy, at Greers- burg, now Darlington, Beaver County, Pa. Mr. Stevenson was one of fifteen candidates for the ministry at one time students in that institution, all but four of whom became very efficient preachers. After a course of three years in Jefferson College, he was graduated in the class of 1807. He received his pro- fessional training at the hands of his father-in-law, the Rev. Thomas Marquis, and was licensed October 29, 1808, by the Presbytery of Ohio. June 21, 1809, he was ordained and in- stalled by that body as pastor. Upon his resignation in 1825, he removed to a farm near Bellefontaine, O., where the remainder of his life was spent in the character of "a voluntary and self- sustaining home missionary.". He was released from life's con- flicts by a happy death in February, 1865, sixteen years after he had laid down his devoted wife to her rest in the grave. They are still nobly represented by their son, the Rev. Dr. John M. Stevenson, already referred to.
THE REV. CEPHAS DODD, M.D.,
Was born at Ten Mile, Washington County, Pa., October 12, 1779, and was a son of Thaddeus Dodd, one of the four eminent fathers of Presbyterianism in the West, or the original members of the Presbytery of Redstone at its organization, in 1781. Like so many others of that period, he, too, was a son of the Academy at Cannonsburg, and a theological pupil of Dr. McMillan. His natural life extended to the year 1858, when, on the verge of fourscore years, he ceased from his labors. For sixteen years, commencing in ISO1, he was the successor of his father as pastor of the united churches of Upper and Lower Ten Mile, and of the latter for thirty-four years longer. If less brilliant and scholarly than his honored father, he was wise, constant, evangelical and faithful. During most of this service his meagre salary was sup- plemented by his practice as a physician. In both relations he
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enjoyed the affectionate confidence of his people, and among their descendants his name is held in reverence unto this day.
THE REV. JAMES HERVEY, D.D.,
Is still remembered by a few of us for the wisdom and goodness of his character, as well as for his fatherly gentleness. He was the honored pastor of the Forks of Wheeling Church, from his ordination, in 1814, until the Lord took him as a ripe saint to the upper glory, September 13, 1859, at the venerable age of seventy- seven years.
Dr. Hervey was born in Brooke County, West Virginia, Aug. 13, 1782, being the eldest of three ministerial sons of Henry Hervey, who, as an emigrant from the North of Ireland, landed in Philadelphia in 1770, and five years later established his home -still held by his descendants under a patent signed by Patrick Henry, then Governor of Virginia. The qualities of the enter- prising pioneer and elder of the church of Lower Buffalo from its formation, and of his energetic wife, descended to their son. He was graduated from Jefferson College in 1810, under the admin- istration of Dr. James Dunlap, its second President. He was one of the one hundred theological sons of Dr. John McMillan. At the time of his settlement as pastor of the Forks of Wheeling Church, and for thirteen and a half years thereafter, the congre- gation, still passing under the name " Wheeling," embraced the then small town five miles from the mother church, which has since risen into the important city of Wheeling, the largest and wealthiest in the State of West Virginia, with four Presbyterian Churches. Even then it was an attractive outpost where the young pastor bestowed much labor. It is claimed that he was the first minister of any denomination to hold regular services at that place, and that at the first he found only one male and three female members of any church resident there. When he ceased he left an organization strong enough to employ a pastor for his entire time. Upon retiring from that part of his field he took charge, instead, for several years, of the young church of West Union, at Dallas, West Virginia, which was chiefly a growth from the planting and nurture of his own diligent hand, cheer- fully resigning it to other care when it came to be self-sustaining.
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Thenceforward, until his death, September 13, 1859, he con- tinued to serve as the wise, faithful and efficient pastor of the church which had honored him with confidence and gratitude for almost a half century.
The fine record of Mr. Hervey is abiding. His people, old and young, ever held him in high reverence, alike for his character and his work. His ministerial brethren, also, gave him their affectionate confidence, and were much influenced by his opinions. In recognition of his scholarship Washington College conferred upon him the degree of D.D. in 1847. As a preacher he was at once instructive and evangelical. As a theologian he was clear, acute, sound and well informed. As an ecclesiastiche was judi- cious, conscientious and firm. As a pastor he lived, labored and watched for the edification of the church, and for the salva- tion of souls. For almost an average human generation his flesh has slept among the congregation of the dead, whose steps in life he led heavenward, in blessed hope of the glorious resur- rection when they shall together rise and be satisfied in the like- ness of their Lord.
THE REV. THOMAS HOGE,
A native of Ireland, came to this country as a licentiate of the Presbytery of Tyrone, and for some years resided in Greensburg, Pa., without charge, and engaged in merchandise. He afterward transferred his residence and occupation to Washington, where he resided until 1836, when, shortly before his death, he re- moved to Philadelphia. But while connected with this Presby- tery he did much valuable service, with little earthly reward, in supplying vacant churches, and in forming and fostering new or- ganizations. The warm gratitude of the survivors from among the people he so generously saved, still keeps his memory fresh. The churches of East Buffalo, Claysville and Mt. Nebo, were all debtors for their existence chiefly to his laborious zeal. He was pastor of East Buffalo and Claysville during the years 1821-25, and again of Claysville in 1830-35. He also served the Presby- tery for a considerable time as its select clerk.
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THE PRESBYTERY OF WASHINGTON.
THE REV. ANDREW WYLIE, D.D.,
Was undoubtedly one of the most talented, scholarly and influ- ential of the original members of the Washington Presbytery. As, however, he was primarily an educator, the arrangements of this occasion assign the chief notice of him to Dr. Cunning- ham. In that capacity, though circumstances embarrassed his work with peculiar difficulty, the twelve years of his administra- tion as President of Washington College were marked with able service, and as much success as could have been expected. His decision and energy of character gathered around him ar- dent friends both in and out of the college, though indeed the same traits rallied more or less of opposition in his way. Both the devotion of friends and the antagonism of opponents were intensified by the bitter controversy to which his transfer, in 1816, from the Presidency of Jefferson College, after four years of service, to that of Washington, gave development. But until this day the college cherishes his memory with pride, and takes honor from his name. He resigned in 1828 to become President of the University of Indiana, at Bloomington, where he died November 11, 1851, in the sixty-third year of his age.
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