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 14
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dination, just two years later, and ever afterwards, while they both lived, was his fatherly co-presbyter.
Dr. McCarrell was highly esteemed by his brethren, as well as by his people. Besides the work of his own church, he was a vigilant member of the various ecclesiastical courts, and, for many years preceding his death, was the efficient Stated Clerk of the Presbytery. But his best success and reputation were achieved as a pastor. His triumphs were spiritual. His good- ness was his greatness. He attempted no philosophical elabo- rations, indulged in no flights of fancy, resorted to no clap-trap, coveted no sensational notoriety, but simply aimed to "preach the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." His mind, led by his heart, ever turned to the central themes which bring the sinner and the Saviour together. He spoke the truth in love, yet commended himself to every man's conscience in the sight of God. He convinced men by " the word of God," whilst he won them by " the meekness and gentleness of Christ." Through him the body of Christ was edificd and souls were con- verted to God. He died lamented, but his record is in many human hearts.
Three sons honorably represent him in the living ministry. and the only other is an active and leading ruling elder.
THE REV. DAVID ROBINSON
Was born at Cross Creek, June 15, 1809. He was graduated from Washington College in 1837, pursued his theological stu- dies partly under Dr. John Stockton, and for one year in the Western Seminary ; was licensed October 6, 1841, by this Pres- bytery, and ordained as pastor of the church of Mill Creek, April 20, 1842. He ministered to that church twelve years, after which his membership was transferred to the Presbytery. of New Lisbon, and for several years he had charge of the church of Long's Run, in its bounds. He died at Hookstown, Pa., March 17, 1861. It was in 1853, during his pastorate at Mill Creek, that a very extensive work of grace pervaded that church, during which he was assisted by Professor Nicholas Murray, of Washington College, when about one hundred per- sons made profession of their faith in Christ, and were added to the church.
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THE REV. JAMES TURNER FREDERICKS
Was continuously the pastor of the Burgettstown church from his ordination by the Presbytery of Washington, in 1858, until his lamented death, July 21, 1886, in his sixtieth year. At the age of twenty-eight years he received his bachelor's degree from Jefferson College, in 1855; after which he took a full course in the Western Theological Seminary, and was licensed by the Presbytery of Richland in 1857.
The pastorate of Mr. Fredericks was one of general and cred- itable success. He was a vigilant, energetic and constant worker. The church was built up into strength, and year by year steady additions were made to its membership in gratifying proportion, whilst a number of special revival seasons brought large numbers of the young into the fold. A large and hand- some house of worship was erected in the latter years of his ministry, which has already added much to the stability and progress of the congregation ; and we may well hope that it will in future years be a hallowed temple of Zion, where saints shall still be built up in the faith and sinners converted to God.
When our brother Fredericks was called from his earthly work, quite a number of his Presbyterial brethren and other ministers came together to bear their witness of the unfailing comforts of the gospel to his bereaved family and his afflicted church, and to look together into his open grave, sorrowful that he was gone from their sight, and devoutly praying that the lessons of his life and death might be made profitable to them- selves. The good seed of the kingdom which he abundantly cast is yet growing, and the full harvest is assured.
For several years preceding his death, Mr. Fredericks was, by the selection of Presbytery, an active and efficient member of the Presbyterian Board of Colportage located at Pittsburgh.
THE REV. NATHANIEL, BARR LYONS
Spent the last nine years of his earthly life, almost to its close. in the membership of this Presbytery, and in pastoral charge of the church of Upper Ten Mile. He was born in Ireland, November 5, 1822 ; graduated from Washington College in 1853,
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and the Western Theological Seminary in 1856, having been licensed the previous year by the Presbytery of Redstone; and ordained, in 1856, by the Presbytery of New Lisbon, as pastor of the churches of Hubbard, Liberty and Brookfield, Ohio, He was married, May 8, 1856, to Miss Mary Jane Sample, of Wash- ington, who survives him. In 1859 he became pastor of the church of Upper Ten Mile, in this Presbytery, and so continued until January, 1868, when he was dismissed to unite with the Presbytery of Ohio (now Pittsburgh), and take charge of the church of West Elizabeth. He had been laboring in this new field for about two months in advance of installation, when he returned to his former charge for a communion season, imme- diately after which he took his bed, never more to leave it alive. The services of his funeral were held in the church in which he had preached for nine years; after which his body was borne to the Washington Cemetery, there to await the resurrection. His ministry was repeatedly blessed with revival, and his spiritual exercises, during the weeks of his last sickness, were marked with peculiar resignation, faith and joy.
THE REV. ROBERT SLEMMONS MORTON
Spent three distinct periods of his ministry of thirty-seven years as a member of this Presbytery. He was pastor of the churches of Mill Creek and Hookstown, 1855-65 ; of East Buffalo, 1869- 70; and again of Hookstown, 1882-85; where he died January 12, 1885, in the sixty-ninth year of his age, He was born Sep- tember 29, 1816, in Lawrence County, Pa .; was graduated from Jefferson College in the Class of 1845, and from the Western Theological Seminary in 1848; was licensed in June, 1847, by the Presbytery of Beaver, and ordained by the same in June, 1848. His ministry, though marked with frequent changes of location, was one of continual labor. He was a good and faith- ful minister of the word, and in each of the ten places where he preached he left precious fruits of his labors. Both as pastor and presbyter, he so acquitted himself as to command the re- spect of his co-laborere in the sacred office, and of the people whom he faithfully served.
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THE REV. WILLIAM BUTLER KEELING
Was pastor of the church of Mount Prospect during the years 1858-63. ' He was born in Pittsburgh May 4, 1828, and was graduated from Jefferson College in the Class of 1855, after which he took the full course of three years in the Allegheny Seminary, receiving license to preach in April, 1857, at the end of his second seminary year, by the Presbytery of Ohio.
He possessed very decided ability and force as a preacher, but his tendency to controversy and stricture alienated a portion of his people from him. During his last year at Mount Prospect he represented the Presbytery in the General Assembly at Peoria, Illinois. His subsequent ministry was spent in several fields of labor in the west. He died at Winona, Illinois, April 29, 1878. During the whole course of his education and public work his superior talents and scholarship were freely acknow- ledged.
THE REV. DAVID R. CAMPBELL, D.D.,
Was a son both of Washington County and of the Washington Presbytery. He was born March 20, 1820, was an alumnus of Jefferson College of the Class of 1842, completed his course of preparation for the ministry at the Allegheny Seminary in 1846, and was shortly afterwards licensed to preach the gospel, and ordained the year following by the Presbytery of St. Clairsville. After three years of pastoral service in Ohio, he was called to the church of Mt. Prospect in 1850, and there labored with force and acceptance for five years among a people who were famil- iar with his childhood and youth. After this, returning to Ohio, he labored for five years as pastor of the churches of Cross Creek and Two Ridges, a like period as pastor at St. Clairsville, and the same number of years as pastor of the Second Church of Steubenville. After this declining health demanded cessation of work. He died at Steubenville February 25, 1873, amidst the sympathy and sorrow of a church which had learned to appreciate his decided pulpit ability, his evangelical spirit, and his uniform faithfulness.
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DECEASED MINISTERS.
THE REV. WILLIAM J- ALEXANDER,
A licentiate of the Presbytery of Erie, after serving the churches of Concord and Deerfield in its bounds for two years, took charge of the church of West Union in 1858, when he became a member of this Presbytery, He was pastor of that church for ten years. For the first part of that term his labors were accept- able as well as profitable ; but during the Civil War which pre- vailed in the land through the years 1861-65, the great questions pertaining to which pressed heavily upon the people of West Virginia, strifes arose, and ultimately the pastoral relation was dissolved on Mr. Alexander's application. He accepted a call, however, at that time (1868) to the church of East Buffalo, where he was met not only with conditions of peace, but by a people longing for spiritual blessings. The baptism of a powerful revival came upon his opening work, and many were added to the Lord. But ere the cloud of mercy had passed away, the overworked pastor was called to cease from his labors on earth and enter into the joy of his Lord.
THE REV. JONATHAN CROSS
Was, for about six years, a member of our Presbytery. He was born in the year 1802, in Beaver County, Pa. At the age of twenty years he became a Christian, and afterwards was made a ruling elder. His burning zeal led him to enter the service of the American Tract Society, in which capacity he labored for many years, chiefly in West Virginia, in the double work of distributing evangelical literature and of winning souls by per- sonal appeal and prayer. It was his great success in this line of service that led him to his entrance into the ministry late in life. In 1866, at the solicitation of that godly man, Samuel Ott, Esq., he came to his only pastoral charge, the Third Church of Wheeling, when that church was at the point of disbanding ; but great success and increase marked his work until 1872, when ill health compelled him to retire. He died at Newark, Ohio, December 18, 1876, aged about seventy-four years. In many places he is remembered as an earnest evangelist.
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THE REV. DANIEL WILLIAMS, M.D.,
Was born at Merthyr-Tydvil, Wales, March 31, 1826, but came, as a young man, to this country. After a course in Western Reserve College, he entered the Western Theological Seminary in 1852, and was graduated from that institution in 1855, and licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New Lisbon in the same year. Very soon after he was ordained and installed by the Pres- bytery of Redstone as pastor of the church of West Newton, Pa., a relation which continued for two years, and was followed in 1857 by a year of like service at Schellsburg, Pa. In 1860, he became the head of a Female Seminary, and having meanwhile studied medicine and received his degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1865, he practiced as a physician for two years. Returning to the ministerial work, he was pastor of the church of Mineral Ridge, Ohio, for four years, ending in 1872. At that time he entered upon his last charge in the Third and Fourth churches of Wheeling, West Virginia, as a home mis- sionary, and successfully conducted it for two years, ending in 1874. He continued to preach as opportunity offered in vacant churches and destitute places, and for a time, during such ser- vice, he resorted to the seminary of his early training at Alle- gheny, Pa., for certain lines of special and advanced study. While thus engaged, he received a very sudden call to the triumphant church, December 2S, 1880, leaving a record of ex- cellent ministerial character, of earnest work, and of many tokens of heavenly blessing. The members of this Presbytery hold him in fraternal remembrance.
Dr. Williams was twice married; first, in 1849, to Miss Jemima Evans, and, in 1859, to Mrs. Caroline L. Williams. The latter survives him, having not only sustained him nobly in his work, but since his death having taken a zealous part in both foreign and home missionary work, along with her sisters in the church, who honor her with their confidence, and feel themselves strengthened by her co-operation.
THE REV. JOSEPH G. LVLE
Was born in Belmont county, Ohio, January 2, 1843. He made his confession of Christ in the Church of Crabapple, August 25,
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1889, under the pastorate of the Rev. Wm. R. Vincent. His collegiate training was received partly in Washington and Jeffer- son College, but finished in Vermilion Institute ; after which he was graduated from the Western Theological Seminary in 1873, having been licensed in 1872 by the Presbytery of St. Clairsville. He was ordained December 1, 1874, by the Presbytery of Pitts- burgh, and settled as pastor of the church of Homestead, and, in 1879, he accepted a call to the Third church at Wheeling, W. Va., where he labored faithfully until his death, April 11, 1884.
Mr. Lyle was a very evangelical and earnest minister of the word, both in and out of the pulpit. His labors at Gardner, Illinois, as a licentiate, and subsequently at Homestead and Wheeling as a pastor, were crowned with the divine blessing. Sound judgment and burning zeal combined in his incessant work, which was also supplemented and sustained by the earnest co-operation of his wife, Mrs. L. J. (Wotring) Lyle, who survives him. Especially was his adaptation to his last charge so largely missionary in its character, manifest in his possession of the con- fidence of its members and its outside well-wishers, as well as in his peculiar power over the operatives in the manufacturing establishments which abound in that part of the city. Many souls were brought to Christ through his instrumentality, and every interest was promoted by his influence. His ministerial work was conducted under the difficulties of chronic disease induced by service in the army during the Civil War of 1861-65. But he was as true as a soldier of the cross as he had been for his country's flag. Great was the lamentation of all classes of per- sons at his decease, and still his bereaved people carry him in their hearts, rejoicing gratefully in the abiding blessings of his labor in the Lord. .
THE REV. SAMUEL H. JEFFERY
Was born near Imperial, Allegheny county, Pa., August 19, 1815. In early life he united by profession of his faith with the church of Montours, of which his parents were members. Soon after- ward he simultaneously taught a graded school at Hookstown, Beaver county, Pa., and pursued classical study, partly alone and partly under the guidance of his future father-in-law, the Rev.
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George M. Scott, one of the original members of the Presbytery of Washington. He was married October 15, 1839, to Miss Jane Scott, who still survives him.
Mr. Jeffery was received by this Presbytery as a candidate for the ministry at the October meeting of 1851; licensed to preach just one year later, and ordained April 18, 1855. He served the churches of Unity and Waynesburg, in Greene county, Pa., from October, 1854, until his much lamented death, November 12, 1859. Of the former he was stated supply during this whole period, and of the latter also until November 5, 1855, when, by installation, he became its first pastor. By his own people and also by other churches to which he occasionally ministered, he was regarded as an able, studious, earnest, consistent, and godly man, as well as an edifying and useful preacher. The lamenta- tions of the community, at his death, were general and deep, and many who had been wont to hear Christ through his voice, "sorrowed most of all" " that they should see his face no more." The session of the Waynesburg church placed on their records the following emphatic testimony, viz .: "His faithfulness as a pastor and friend has endeared him to us to such a degree, that we feel that indeed our loss has been great, and would seem almost irreparable." And further : " He was a true servant of the Lord, who never failed to declare the whole truth, and who ever kept himself out of view, whilst he held up Christ and his cross as the only way of salvation to a perishing world. After the lapse of thirty years, the name of Jeffery is still a precious memory, and the echoes of his spiritual messages still linger in the hearts of surviving hearers.
CONCLUSION.
All of these and other honored and beloved men once here, though dead yet speak. Each of them, in his measure, was instrumental in the Lord's hand, in shaping and executing the work of the gospel along the line of this history. Their ability and fidelity, their maintenance and propagation of the truth, their consistency and zeal, their work and prayers, all have an abiding record in the churches which they served and the people whose characters they had so much to do in forming. Their
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presbyterial consultations, decisions and co-operative influence have made an abiding record. Their names will go down to other generations. We and those who shall come after us, walking in their footsteps may ever learn from their example, and profit by their faithfulness.
" We gather up with pious care What happy saints have left behind ; Their writings in our memory bear, Their sayings on our faithful mind. Their works, which traced them to the skies For patterns to ourselves we take, And dearly love, and highly prize The mantle for the wearer's sake."
II
IV.
RELATION OF THE PRESBYTERY TO EDUCATION,
WITH SKETCHES OF EDUCATORS.
I. PRESBYTERIANISM, by its concise and comprehensive sys- tem of doctrine, by its prevalent type of experience and charac- ter, and by its polity and administration, holds vital relations with liberal and thorough education. No branch of Protest- antism has done more, struggled more, sacrificed more, to give to all men everywhere the inestimable blessing of a sound edu- cation. In 1558, John Knox, writing from Geneva his " Brief Exhortation to England," affirmed that, "for the preservation of religion, it is most expedient that schools be universally erected in all cities and chief towns, the oversight whereof to be committed to the magistrates and learned men of the said cities and towns; that, of the youth godly instructed among them, a seed may be reserved and continued for the profit of Christ's Church in all ages." We hold ourselves as Presbyterians pre- eminently bound to utilize and diffuse useful knowledge, to foster true science, to sympathize with the best culture, and by all just means to widen and exalt the thoughts of men, doing faithfully what we may to lift humanity more and more resolutely up to the largest attainable measure of intellectual as well as spiritual life. The genius of Presbyterianism is such that it instinctively demands the education of the people. It must do this in order to live and propagate itself. It teaches that intelligence is neces- sary for the attainment of the highest Christian life, and that man's intellectual and spiritual nature must be developed in harmony.
Our national historian, Bancroft, writes : " He who will not honor the memory and respect the influence of Calvin, knows
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but little of the origin of American liberty ;" and he further states, " that John Calvin was the father of popular education, and the inventor of the system of free schools ;" and there is no more glorious leaf in the annals of American Presbyterianism than that on which is written the history of her educational institutions.
The late Rev. Dr. Curry, an able leader in the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, has written of the Westminster Confession that it " is the clearest and most comprehensive sys- tem of doctrine ever framed. It is not only a wonderful monu- ment of the intellectual greatness of its framers, but also a com- prehensive embodiment of nearly all the precious truths of the gospel." "We concede," he says, "to the Calvinistic churches the honor of having all along directed the best thinking of the country."
Dr. A. A. Hodge said, in an address which I heard him deliver in the Presbyterian Council in Edinburgh, in 1877, that "it is an historical fact, acknowledged by such impartial witnesses as Sir James Mackintosh, Froude, and Bancroft, that these Presby- terian principles revolutionized Western Europe and her popu- lations, and inaugurated modern history. As to their influence upon civil as well as religious liberty, and upon national educa- tion, it is only necessary to cite the post-reformation history of Geneva, Holland, the history of the Huguenots of France, the Puritans of England, the Presbyterians of Scotland, and the founders of the American Republic, where, for the first two hundred years of its history, almost every college and seminary of learning, and almost every academy and common school, was built and sustained by Calvinists."
How far the Presbyterian Church in this country has been identified with the cause of education, is manifest alike by the action of its chief judicatories, by the story of its practical effort, and by the growth of institutions originating with it, and still standing as monuments of its zeal and consecration. Such eccle- siastical action, taking note of the intellectual as well as the spiritual condition of the poor, especially in more destitute regions, encouraging the establishment of both parochial and common schools, favoring the founding of academies and semi-
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naries for both sexes, furthering the planting and endowment of colleges and universities, and directly assisting in the organiz- ation and control of institutions for the special training of young men for the ministry. Such action may be found everywhere in the annals of American Presbyterianism, not only committing its various branches to the support of education in the broadest sense, but also indicating a zeal, an energy, a devotion to that great task nowhere surpassed.
From the early days when men, who were Calvinists in belief, and largely Presbyterian in their conception of the Church, founded the first colleges of New England, through the subse- quent period when the famous Log College and other like insti- tutions on the Atlantic coast rose into form under Presbyterian oversight, down to our own time when colleges and seminaries are springing up by natural consequence in every State and Territory where the Presbyterian Church has been introduced, that history is one worthy of the name.
2. The way is now prepared to consider the question, What connection has our Presbytery had with education and prominent educators ? The connection has been most intimate, ever since the organization of the Presbytery in 1819. Even years before the organization had taken place, the work of education had vig- orously commenced on this territory, by the early settlers and the first ministers. "From the outset," says Doddridge, in his " Notes," " they prudently resolved to create a ministry in the country, and accordingly established little grammar schools at their own houses, or in their immediate neighborhoods." With a wise forecast, and in a most catholic spirit, the fathers made provision for the future of the Church, in the founding of schools, academies, colleges and seminaries. Literary institutions were born within "the sound of the Indian's war-whoop, and within sight of the smoke of the Indian's wigwam." Thus the founda- tions of our strength and greatness were laid by the pioneer fathers in the wilderness, upon the word of God and a liberal Christian education.
As early as 1782, the Rev. Thaddeus Dodd had a suitable house erected on his own farm, and commenced in it a classical and mathematical school, three years after his settlement as
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EDUCATIONAL HISTORY. 165
pastor of Ten Mile. That academy continued in successful operation for three years and a half, until, for some reason, the farm was sold. The students were transferred to a school opened in the " study" at Buffalo, in 1785, by the Rev. Joseph Smith, That school was successful for a few years, and it was claimed by the author of " Old Redstone," the grandson of Mr. Smith, to be " the first school opened with exclusive reference to the training of young men for the ministry."
Contemporary, in a general sense with these, was another school, established by Rev. John McMillan, whose pastoral charge was partly on the field now included in the Presbytery of Washington, and whose school, though located just outside of this territorial limit, dispensed its advantages equally in every direction.
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