History of the city of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and representative citizens 20th century, Part 32

Author: McFarland, Joseph Fulton; Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1474

USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > Washington > History of the city of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and representative citizens 20th century > Part 32

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The Baptists have now 19 churches in Washington County, four churches north of Washington, including two at Canonsburg and one at Finleyville, four in Washington, and eleven south and east of Washington, including the one at Monongahela, with membership nearing two thousand.

CHRISTIAN CHURCH OR DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.

The large and active denomination known as the Chris- tian Church, or Disciples of Christ, were in early years also known as Campbellites, and some of them in Ohio were called Scottites. These latter names were of min- isters closely connected with the origin of the church whose members first called themselves Disciples of Christ, to distinguish themselves from those denominations which were following creeds or rules formed for church gov- ernment. This organization has had a phenomenal growth and claims today over 1,330,000 members, 6,500 ordained ministers and 11,000 houses of worship in the United States alone.

Thomas Campbell came to America in 1807, by a 35 days' trip on board ship. He had been raised under the ritualistic services of the Episcopal Church, but these being too cold and formal for the youth, he abandoned

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the church of his parents, united with and became an authorized minister of the Seceder Church in Scotland. He located at Washington, Pennsylvania, and began preaching as a Seceder to the Scotch-Irish, in Washington County, but soon relaxed in observances of the strict forms and was censured by the Chartiers Presbytery, and afterward by the synod of that denomination; the prin- cipal and perhaps the sole offense being that he invited to the communion table those not members of the Seceder organization. He withdrew from that. body but con- tinued to preach in the county in groves and farm houses, alleging that the troubles and controversies among the professed followers of Jesus Christ were over matters and opinions outside the Bible.

In 1809 he and Gen. Thomas Acheson and others formed themselves into a society, "The Christian Asso- ciation of Washington, Pa." They erected a log build- ing for services at the crossroads about three miles south of the present village of Hickory. Among the hills near this place he wrote a "Declaration and Address," which met the approval of the chief members of this peculiar society and covered 54 closely printed pages. He cut loose from all rules and declared "that as the divine word is equally binding upon us all, so all lie under an equal obligation to be bound by it and it alone, and not by any human interpretation of it, and that therefore no man has a right to judge his brother, except in so far as he manifestly violates the spirit of the law. Our de- sires, therefore, for ourselves and our brethren would be that of rejecting human opinions and the inventions of men, as of any authority, or as having any place in the Church of God, we might forever cease from further contentions about such things, returning to and holding fast by the original standard, taking the divine word alone for our rule, the Holy Spirit for our teacher and guide, to lead us all into all truth, and Christ alone as exhibited in the word, for our salvation that, by so doing, we may be at peace among ourselves, follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see God."

Alexander Campbell, eldest son of Thomas, was about 21 when he arrived from Scotland with his father's family. He at once adopted his father's liberal views and the following summer his father had him exhorting and then preaching. This same year, 1810, a frame building for this society was contemplated in Hopewell Township, a few miles southeast of West Middletown, and two miles above the mouth of Brush Run. The so- ciety or association held meetings at the Cross Roads south of Hickory, and at Brush Run. It would seem the father was pushing the young man, for it is reported that he preached 106 sermons in Washington County and eastern Ohio during his first year. He was only practicing, for he was not yet licensed. Yet his fight

against the sects, books of government and discipline interested the people, for they had enough Irish blood here to enjoy a row, even if it should be among the churches.

Thomas Campbell desired some church connection and applied to the Presbyterian Synod of Pittsburg, which met at Washington October 14, 1810. His request to be taken into Christian and ministerial union was re- fused, as he had no intention of complying with the regu- lations and government of that organization. This laxity of doctrine and restiveness under the governing rules of Presbyterianism was the reason which had prevented the Presbyterians in this County from filling up their churches with foreign-educated preachers heretofore. They were not to let down the bars now for one who was, by them, considered a free ranger and "who op- posed creeds and confessions as injurious to the interests of religion." The society which Campbell was heading held semi-annual meetings in addition to the frequent weekly preaching services. Up to May 4, 1811, it does not appear that any test of membership to this society or association was required; many who attended were members of some denominational church and many were not of any church. At this date the society organized into a church by appointing Thomas Campbell elder. Alexander was also licensed by some person or authority, to preach the Gospel. The next day this church held its first communion and six weeks later the first sermon was- heard in the new Brush Run meeting house, near the place where a temporary stand had been used by the preached for a year. Alexander preached on both occa- sions.

Thomas Campbell had been baptizing infants as well as believers, and was indifferent as to the manner. There was no pool at Cross Roads, but in less than 20 days after the Brush Run meeting-house was occupied, Brush Run waters were stirred by the first immersions made by Father Campbell. The excitement of impending War of 1812, or fear of the water or other cause led many sympathizers to hold back from entering into member- ship with the church and they now had enrolled only about thirty.

On New Year's day of 1812 Thomas Campbell regu- larly set apart his son Alexander by ordaining him as a minister of the Gospel. They called it the ancient gospel and endeavored to have a "Thus saith the Lord" for all their acts. Alexander led his father on to the decision that baptism was only to be administered to believers, because he did not find in the Bible any com- mand establishing infant baptism, although he searched for it seriously on account of his first-born child. This soon led both into the conviction that immersion was the only form of baptism authorized, and that they must be immersed. They obtained the officiating services of

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Elder Mathias Luce of a Baptist church in Washington County and were immersed in the deep pool in Brush Run, June 12, 1812. Seven hours was spent in explana- tions by the subjects of immersion, and in performing the act by the Baptist elder and his assistant, Elder Henry Spears. Soon the majority of the members were immersed.

Among those who dropped away from the association about this time was Gen. Thomas Acheson above men- tioned, a member of the firm of Thomas and David Ache- son, with stores in Washington, Muddy Creek (Car- michaels), West Liberty, Cincinnati, and Natchez. He had come from Scotland in 1786, where he had been an early neighbor of Thomas Campbell. Thomas Acheson, with his brother David, purchased lots on South College Street, opposite the present chapel of the First Presby- terian Church and erected the frame dwelling house for Rev. Campbell when he brought his family to Washing- ton in 1809. Gen. Acheson was an officer in the local militia, but became a major general in the war during his service in 1812-1814.

The loss of Acheson and others was more than made up by the fellowship with the Baptists, brought about by the idea of baptism by immersion only, which is the great distinctive feature of that denomination. Upon their application the Brush Run Church, with Alexander Campbell, were received into the Redstone Association of the Baptist Church in 1813, but not without opposi- tion. This would seem to be only a confederacy with this church, for it could not agree and subscribe to the Philadelphia Confession of Faith of September 25, 1747, which the Redstone Association had formally ac- cepted. The younger Campbell was heard in many of the Baptist pulpits, of which there were a goodly num- ber in the eastern part of Washington County, but few in the western. The people heard him gladly, but the ministers were not to his liking. Their suspicions of his "rejection of any formulated statement as to what the Scriptures taught, and minor differences about the pur- pose or efficacy of baptism," made them watchful.

This rock, baptism, has been the cause of much relig- ious, social and political disorder, leading into war and bloody slaughter. In reading the history of the Baptists, and Aanabaptists 300 years before, or the perilous time of the Reformation, of Minister Zwingli, Melchior Hof- mann, Jan Matthys and others, young Alexander Camp- bell struck the rock. Here is where he found the ideas which doubtless he laid before Sidney Rigdon, afterward of Mormon notoriety, in an all-night consultation a few years later. Their studies taught them of Jan Matthys, who succeeded Hofmann as a factional leader, who claimed to be a prophet "but had little use for the Scriptures; his most casual conceits were understood to be inspired of God. * * * A theocracy was estab-

lished and Matthys sent forth his apostles to convert the world. *

* * Matthys was slain in a small sally in which he invited a small company of his friends, with a promise that one should put a thousand and two should put ten thousand to flight. He was succeeded by Jan Benkels of Leyden, who introduced polygamy and had daily revelations. The enormities which he perpetuated shocked the civilized world." This seed developed aft- erward in the minds of Rigdon and Smith, and history repeated itself by producing the Mormon Church.

The opinions of the Campbell attachment to the Bap- tists of Redstone Association, received disapproval in 1816, when Thomas Campbell presented a letter "from a number of baptized professors residing in Pittsburg, requesting union as a church of this association." Camp- bell was upon motion invited to take a seat in the asso- ciation, but the reply to those Pittsburgers who met regularly in his school room on Liberty Street was, "The request cannot be granted." Thomas Campbell soon left his school and attempted church organization at Pittsburg, and with his family settled at Newport, Kentucky, leaving his son attached to the Baptists in Washington County.

For almost five years Alexander Campbell conducted a school which he called "Buffalo Seminary," located near where the Presbyterian, Rev. Joseph Smith, had done similar work for young men 40 years before. Each tried to train workers for the faith as they saw it. The Baptists' church of Washington assisted Campbell's school by taking up a collection for one under his tuition in 1821. This same year Sidney Rigdon and his brother- in-law, Adamson Bentley, a Baptist preacher, had the long night consultation with Alexander Campbell above referred to, and Campbell and Rev. Walter Scott of Pittsburg, met and were mutually surprised to find their views were alike as to the remedy for the evils and dis- putes arising over the creeds of denominations. It was on Campbell's recommendation that Ridgon received a call to the Baptist church in Pittsburg in 1822.

Rigdon was found guilty of "holding and teaching the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, and many other abom- inable heresies," by a council held in the First Baptist Church of Pittsburg, October 11, 1823, and was excluded from the church and deposed from the ministry. He had heard both the Campbells preach their new doctrines at the Redstone Association meeting the previous year and in his efforts to imitate them went wild with ideas. which afterward crop out in the words and actions of Joseph Smith and his Mormon followers. For the charges filed against him see "Three Important Move- ments,"' page 19.

Two months before Rigdon's exclusion Alexander Camp- bell transferred his membership and that of his congre- gation (Wellsburg, Va., Baptist) from the Redstone

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Association where there was a lack of sympathy, to the Mahoning Baptist Association, of Ohio. The history of the First Baptist Church at Washington (1904) says he was forced out of the Redstone Association by the "hard shell"' faction. He seems to have become a leader in the Mahoning Association, and on August 23, 1827, Sidney Rigdon was invited to a seat in the annual meet- ing of that association, at New Lisbon, Ohio, and preached the sermon the first evening. Rigdon's home was then in Kirtland, Ohio. He had received a call in June, 1826, to a Baptist church at Mentor, Ohio, and preached here and in other congregations, decrying creeds. Two years later these two men, whose budding into man- hood had taken place less than 20 miles apart and within the original limits of Washington County, separated finally, one to carry forward the great and worthy "Church of Christ," the other to produce the powerful and dangerous "Latter Day Saints," or Church of Mormon. Rigdon had nursed the idea of the early church mentioned in Acts, and insisted that all property of church members be held in common. Alexander Camp- bell's reply embittered Rigdon beyond reconciliation. He became jealous of the influence of Campbell and his ally, Scott, and claimed that he had done as much to originate the Campbellite "sect" as Mr. Campbell, although Camp- bell and Scott were getting all the honor of it.

One very significant passage pointing to the author- ship of the Mormon Bible was written ten years later by Rigdon, and it is as follows: "One thing has been done by the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. It has puked the Campbellites effectually. * * * The

Book of Mormon has revealed the secrets of Campbellism and unfolded the end of the system." (The Story of the Mormons, page 62.) The former close fellowship between Campbell and Rigdon is shown by the long let- ter, February 4, 1831, just after Rigdon began his Mormon preaching, in which Thomas Campbell addressed him as "for many years not only a courteous and benevo- lent friend, but a beloved brother and fellow laborer in the Gospel-but alas, how changed, how fallen." Alex- ander Campbell, writing of the Book of Mormon, says: "He (the author) decides all the great controversies, infant baptism, the Trinity, regeneration, repentance, jus- tification, the fall of man, the atonement, transubstantia- tion, fasting, pennance, church government, the call to the ministry, the general resurrection, eternal punish- ment, who may baptize, and even the questions of Free Masonry, republican government and the rights of men."

One year after Rigdon was curbed by Campbell, the Mahoning Association of Eastern Ohio was by vote dis- banded, and this would appear to be the formal and final separation between the followers of Campbell and the

Baptists, although it is stated in "Three Important Movements," page 16, that the Disciples remained in union with the Baptists of western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio until fellowship was withdrawn from them, first by the Redstone Association in 1826, by the Beaver Association in 1828, and in 1832 by the Dover Associa- tion of Virginia. From this time the Disciple Church grew rapidly, aided very much by the college established at Bethany, W. Va., near Washington County, in 1840, by Alexander Campbell, and by Pleasant Hill Female Seminary, developed by Mrs. Jane Mckeever, his sister, and continued by her son, Thomas Campbell Mckeever, located in Independence Township, Washington County, Pa., where it had a life total of 21 years.

At the death of Alexander Campbell in 1866 the Dis- ciple Church had over 300,000 members. In the 1900 census it is given 10,528 churches, 6,339 ministers and 1,149,982 members. The rapid growth may be largely attributed to organized work in enlarging, which began about 1885. "The term Christian or Disciple, once adopted as a protest against sectarianism, has, by force of circumstances, become the name of a very distinct and powerful denomination, and immersion, adopted as a liberalizing practice, became in time a barrier against others who were equally entitled to the name Christian." It is strictly congregational in its polity, and maintains voluntary associations for missionary purposes only.

In Washington County in 1904 there were seventeen congregations and 2,092 members, with church property valued at $94,250. By far the largest congregation and one of the largest of any denomination in the county is the one in Washington. Not may are located north of the county seat. It is related by Miss Sturgeon in her "History of Raccoon Church" (in Robinson Township) that Alexander Campbell attempted to organize a society in accordance with his peculiar belief within the bounds of Raccoon, and had succeeded in gathering quite an audience before Rev. Moses Allen comprehended the situa- tion. At all later meetings Allen was to the front to join in the dispute of that day and to protect his ten- mile-square area from the encroachments of opposing elements. It was well perhaps for his peace of mind that he prevailed on his hearers not to listen to the Campbells. To illustrate their power in argument or persuasiveness this article is closed with the statement that Mrs. Katherine Duane Morgan, grandmother of Mrs. Helena C. Beatty, present librarian and corresponding secretary of our Washington County Historical Society, was so convinced by a sermon of Thomas Campbell that she, a Methodist, insisted when 70 years old that she be conveyed out to Bethany, Va., to be immersed by him.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE BOOK OF MORMON.

"The book, the book, the book." These were the last words of the man whose wildest ambition in life had been gratified, but the golden apple was snatched from his grasp, and he was doomed to spend an ordinary life- time in disappointed seclusion. He had created a new religious society known as the Mormons and was its leading orator or preacher. This man, Sidney Rigdon, was born within the limits of Old Washington County, as originally constituted, and but a few miles from its present line. The book he referred to had been originally written as fiction by Solomon Spaulding, a resident of Washington County, and called by him "Manuscript Found," but it was afterwards revised as is now gen- erally believed, and added to by Rigdon and perhaps others, and called the Mormon Bible of the "Book of Mormon." The fact that Rigdon was born and reared on what had been Washington County soil and was inti- mately associated with Thomas and Alexander Campbell and that Spaulding lived for a period and died in Wash- ington County, makes it necessary to give space to this subject in this history.

This organization, which had its own candidate for President of the United States within fourteen years after its origin, which has for many years been looked upon by many as a great peril to the United States (having a balance of power in the votes of several states of the Union) was founded upon the "Book of Mor- mon" and the visions of one Joseph Smith.

Whether this society organization in the last century be a religious delusion or a bold fraud, it presents prob- lems that have caused great bloodshed and have thwarted the best intentions of our wisest politicians, and its history of conflicting statements would fill large volumes.

From the little old trunk, about the only asset Solomon Spaulding left at Amity at his death in 1816, some manuscript was taken. Of the manuscript all that is at present available is at Oberlin College, Ohio. It has no resemblance to the "Book of Mormon" or to the read- ings of Spaulding from his "Manuscript Found," as heard by his neighbors. All who heard him read, who have expressed themselves, say so. Oberlin's President once wrote that he could detect no resemblance in general

detail between the manuscript in his College and the "Book of Mormon." This gave much satisfaction to the Mormons, who spread his statement throughout Christendom, placing upon it their own construction. This brought a denial from President Fairchild when he wrote as follows:

"With regard to the manuscript of Mr. Spaulding now in the library of Oberlin College, I have never stated, and know of no one who can state, that it is the only manuscript which Spaulding wrote, or that it is certainly the one which has been supposed to be the original of the Book of Mormon. The discovery of this manuscript does not prove that there may not have been another which became the basis of the Book of Mormon. The use which has been made of statements emanating from me as implying the contrary of the above is entirely unwarranted.

" (Signed) JAMES H. FAIRCHILD. "

The following extract is from a letter sent by Abner Jackson from Canton, Ohio, to John Aiken, Esq., of Washington, Pa., in 1880, and now in Washington County Historical Society rooms. He writes :

"It is a fact well established that the book called the 'Book of Mormon' had its origin from a romance that was written by Solomon Spaulding at Conneaut, in Ashtabula County, about the years 1809 to 1812. At a previous date he had been a preacher.

"Spaulding moved to Richfield, N. Y., and started a store near where my father lived, about the beginning of the present century. Later he sold his store and moved to Conneaut, where, at about the beginning of the War of 1812, he commenced and wrote his famous romance called by him 'Manuscript Found.'

"This romance Mr. Spaulding brought with him on a visit to my father's a short time before he moved from Conneaut to Pittsburg. At that time I was confined to the house with a lame knee and so I was in company with them and heard the conversation that passed be- tween them. Spaulding read much of his manuscript to my father, and in conversation with him explained his views of the old fortifications in this country, and told him how he was led to write his romance.

"A note in Morse's Geography suggested it as a

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probability that our Indians were descendants of the lost tribes of Israel. Says Morse: 'They might have wandered through Asia, up to Bering Strait and across the strait to the continent.'

"Besides this there were habits and ceremonies among them that resembled some habits and ceremonies that were existing among the Israelites of that day; then the old fortifications and earth mounds containing so many kinds of relics and human bones and some of them so large, altogether convinced him that they were a larger race and more enlightened and civilized than are found among the Indians who are with us today.

"These facts and reflections prompted him and he determined to write his romance purporting to be a his- tory of the lost tribes of Israel. He begins the story with their departure from Palestine or Judea, takes them up through Asia, points out their hardships, exposures and sufferings, tells how they built their craft for cross- ing over the strait, and then after their landing he gives an account of their divisions and subdivisions under different leaders; but two parties controlled the balance. One of these was called Righteous Worshipers and Serv- ants of God. These organized with prophets, priests and teachers for the education of their children and settled down to cultivate the soil and a life of civilization. The other were idolators. They contended for a life of idle- ness; in short, a wild, wicked, savage life. They soon quarreled and then commenced war and continued to fight on, except in very short intervals. Sometimes one party was successful and sometimes the other until finally a terrible battle was fought, which was conclusive. All the Righteous were slain but one, and he was chief prophet and recorder. He was notified of the defeat in time by divine authority, told when and where and how to conceal the record and he was to see that it should be preserved, concealed and brought to light again at the proper time for the benefit of mankind. So the recorder professed to do and submitted to his fate.

"I do not remember what the fate was. He alone was alive of all his party. I do not remember that anything more was said of him. Spaulding's romance professed to find it where the recorder concealed it, in one of those mounds, one of which was but a few rods from Spauld- ing's residence.

"Spaulding later moved to Pittsburg, where he ex- pected to have his romance printed. The next we heard of them was by report. Spaulding moved to Amity, Washington County, Pa., and in a short time he died and was buried there and his wife and daughter went to her brother's, Sawyer C. Sabine, Onondaga Valley, On- ondaga County, N. Y.

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History of the city of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and representative citizens 20th century, Part 32

Author: McFarland, Joseph Fulton; Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1474

Author: McFarland, Joseph Fulton; Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1474