USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > Claysville > Our church and our village > Part 2
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Claysville Presbyterian Church
of the early General Assemblies. What he did for Washington College may be estimated from the re- mark of Dr. Robert Baird, " It cannot be questioned that he was one of the best educated men in the part of the country in which he lived." James Hervey was feeding and leading the flock of God at the Forks of Wheeling, and fixing that which he maintained through life, viz .: the theological balance of the Pres- bytery. Thomas Hoge, at Buffalo, was supplement- ing his work at Claysville. Jacob Cozad had just been installed pastor of the church at Lower Buffalo.
Now let us call the roll of the pioneers of Claysville Presbyterianism; let us make mention of these spirit- ual argonauts; let us note the actors of an event which, alone of all events in the birth of the village, will sur- vive this wreck of matter and crush of worlds. Fond recollections in more than one instance will bring the dead to life as I repeat the first names on the roll of the membership of this church. The original fifteen are as follows: Barnet Bonar and his wife, Jane Bonar, Joseph Henderson and his wife, Mary Henderson, from the church of Three Ridges, now West Alexan- der; Widow McGuffin, from the church of Upper Buffalo; Thomas Stewart and his wife, Mary Stewart, from the Associate Church of South Buffalo (Rev. David French, pastor); also Catharine Gemmill and Martha Morrow; Martha Gamble, from the Associate Reformed Church (Rev. Mr. Kerr, pastor); Margaret Miller, from the church of Miller's Run; Andrew Bell and his wife, Mary Ann Bell, from the church of which Rev. Thomas L. Birch was pastor; Samuel Gilmore and his wife, Anne Gilmore, from the Forks of Brandy-
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wine church of Chester County, Pennsylvania (Rev. Mr. Grier, pastor).
The first persons admitted to the organized church were William McGuffin and his wife, Mary Jane Mc- Guffin, by examination " as to their Christian experi- ence and doctrinal knowledge," and Nancy Hutchin- son by " certificate " from the Forks of Wheeling Church. Mrs. Hutchinson was the mother of Mrs. George Milligan, of Claysville .* This roll suggests a long story, at which I can only glance. No man could live long in this region and not hear of Barnet Bonar. I have a distinct recollection of stories of an accurate marksmanship which made the squirrels he aimed at say, like David Crockett's coon, which were repre- sented as answering the aim of David's rifle with the word, " You need not shoot, Mr. Crockett; I will come down." During the decade from 1840 to 1850, the name of the deceased Squire Henderson was a house- hold word in this community. His wife lived long as Grannie Henderson to make us feel that God's bene- diction was upon us as our home circles gave her their hearty welcome. The sons and daughters of this noble couple are called to mind; and I think of kind-hearted Bill, the friend of all the children, and the voluntary nurse of every sick person he could find; of the manly Joe, of whose grave no man knoweth unto this day; the respected John, the sterling Thomas, the stirring Sam, the devoted Mary Jane, the beautiful Elizabeth, the
* Two children of Simon Shur were the first infants to re- ceive the rite of baptism. Mr. John Laird, who received the same rite at the hands of the Rev. Mr. Hoge, was present during the delivery of the address.
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REV. J. ADDISON A. CRAIG
Claysville Presbyterian Church
motherly Becky. I do not know that I ever saw Thomas Stewart, but I do know that all Claysville seemed to make a favorite of his son Jim. And I know also that the pastor who sent Mr. Stewart and his wife to the new church at Claysville was enshrined in every heart throughout this region as Davie French, without the least thought of disrespect. The name of Andrew Bell suggests his daughter, Margaret Karr Bell, who was the teacher of the little boys and girls of our time in Claysville, and who passed to her reward when she finished her great work as the Mrs. Presi- dent Miller, of Waynesburgh College. Mr. Bell and wife helped to organize the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Washington, Penn .* He was also a work- man on the building erected by that organization. It is as it were but yesterday that I saw the William McGuffin, who, along with his wife, were the first con- verts in the Claysville Church, and I am once more on our front porch as I witness the long procession that followed his remains to the grave.
As was the wont in Western Pennsylvania, the groves were God's first temples in this community. According to well-established tradition, the first re- ligious meetings in this section of the country were
* The Thomas L. Birch who was pastor of the church from which Mr. Bell came to the new organization, has been the subject of considerable animadversion by those who have dealt with the matters in which Mr. Birch was a leading figure. I do not propose to criticise the unfavorable light in which the historians place Mr. Birch. However, I think it just to say that my personal relation to him has caused me to hear of documents which would seem to prove that there are two sides to that story.
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held at the forks of the Burnsville and Haneytown roads, about two hundred yards southward from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. A person still living recalls the incident of a communion service which he witnessed in that locality. This locality appeals to me as memory brings back the impression of my early childhood when I saw Cal King skating over the mill- pond near by.
Afterward the place of assembly was changed to a sugar grove, just about the site of the present resi- dence of Mrs. Thaddeus C. Noble. It was not long, however, until the services were transferred to the field immediately in the rear of the present schoolhouse. In- deed, this schoolhouse stands on the ground occupied by the first house of worship, which consisted of a log schoolhouse already in existence and a frame building adjoined thereto. The construction was so arranged that by the removal of a partition the two buildings were connected when religious services were held. This building was removed to and is the main portion of a building which now stands on the lot of Mr. John Birch, and which has been a part of his tannery for some forty-five or fifty years.
The sum of the recollections of persons still living seems to establish beyond doubt that this building served the purposes of religious worship until 1830. That year dates the erection of the present brick edi- fice. Mr. Hoge, the first pastor of the congregation, assumed the responsibility of one-third of its cost, which was $2,000. Mr. Josiah Truesdell (the father of Messrs. Joel Truesdell, of West Alexander, and Luther Truesdell (lately deceased), and Mrs. Thaddeus
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Claysville Presbyterian Church
C. Noble, and the grandfather of Josiah Truesdell Noble, so well known through this whole region) had come to this country as a pioneer from Connecticut. He was evidently a man of affairs, and as a successful merchant and public-spirited citizen was in the front rank of the makers of Claysville. A stage-coach acci- dent brought his promising career to a sudden termi- nation. Mr. Truesdell was so much the home talk of the families of the village during my childhood, that I have never forgotten the time that his widow brought the little china teapot into our house from which she gave her husband his last drink. Mr. Truesdell seemed to be the only person willing to undertake the work of building the new church. He most ardently seconded the efforts of Mr. Hoge to provide the con- gregation with a suitable house of worship, and threw the activity of his nature and the benefit of his experi- ence into the supervision of the work. William Knox, Simon Shur, and Andrew Bell were the carpenters. Thomas Gourley made the bricks. Mention has been made of Andrew Bell. Any picture of past Claysville would be incomplete without the limping, busy figure of Billy Knox. Simon Shur is no infrequent name in the records of early Claysville. And what Claysville boy from 1830 to 1860 did not know the Gourleys? They kept the inhabitants of this country from for- getting the time when the hunter roamed through these woods. They evidently agreed with an enthu- siastic sportsman that " the modern foxhound is one of the most wonderful animals in creation." They would make the wild animal their prey and their pet. I am looking down from our porch now at Tom
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Gourley, Jr., as he passes by with thirteen hounds at his heels. And I confess that the impulse of that stir- ring life and the music of that hound-bay give me the old-time thrill to-day.
This brick meeting-house is to-day the monument of the singular fidelity and transparent honesty of Josiah Truesdell, William Knox, Simon Shur, Andrew Bell, and Thomas Gourley, for after a lapse of sixty- five years the walls which they reared are in an almost perfect state of preservation. And as I think of Mr. Gourley as an old man building upon the founda- tion of the apostles and prophets by confession of Christ in this church, I realize that his departure into eternity was a transfer from the walls which he constructed so well below to that city whose founda- tions are what they are because its Builder and Maker is God.
And ever since, the Presbyterian Meeting-House of Claysville has been the principal centre of interest in this community. It gave its name to everything con- nected with it. There were the meeting-house yard, the meeting-house lane, the meeting-house hill. That locust grove, through whose branches we looked at it from the village, inspired me with all the enthusiasm of a Shenstone. Those aisles showed on each Sabbath a procession the like of which I have never witnessed on the earth. Sculpture, both ancient and modern, has exhausted itself on the church pulpit, but to my eye the old Claysville pulpit, with its steps and its railing and Bible rest, covered with red damask, was a thing of real beauty. And as I looked at the old pews with their numbered doors, I felt that they were no common
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CLAYSVILLE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Claysville Presbyterian Church
benches. I admit that the pews might have been more comfortable, but I ever have denounced the vandalism that removed that old pulpit by which our ancestors showed that they were by no means deficient in good taste.
Somebody has written a poem entitled “The Meeting-House on the Hill." I wish I could find it, for its meeting-house filled my mind and heart with our "meeting-house on the hill." Why, dear friends, it is our Westminster Abbey, for, doubtless, you are now peopling it with your dear dead as the Lord's Day found the hearthstone circle in the family pew. And our heaven will link itself to the meeting-house on the hill as the way by which we reached God's temple on high.
The fifty-first chapter of Jeremiah was spoken to the Jews when they were captives in Babylon. A long captivity was in prospect. Seventy years must roll away before God would fulfil His promise to His people. "I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive." " But," says one, " the land of their fathers must not be forgotten." The prophet, foretelling to the Jews their reverses, their defeat and conquest by the king of Babylon, and their long banishment from home, bids them, notwithstand- ing, " Remember the Lord afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind."
This meeting-house on the hill is our Jerusalem. If I could gather together the men and women living
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on this earth whose birth, whose moral training, or whose conversion make this church God's Jerusalem unto them, I would speak to them what I say to you now. When business toils and cares so press with earthly solicitude that they narrow communion with God; when, in the multitude of our thoughts within us, we are so beset and burthened that we long for the old- time Sabbath morning when we clustered around our Sabbath-school teacher; when with father and mother, brother and sister, schoolmate and playmate, we felt that this old house was full of Sabbath fragrance; when the feverish pursuit of worldly good or the alluring entanglements of temptation so crowd out our religion as to make us indifferent to the moral and spiritual training which we have received through the instru- mentality of this church; when the throes of cankering care and the darkness of sorrow, the stings of dis- appointment and the depths of despondency, may make us think that the God of the old church is not our friend; when we would fill the life that now is with more of the life which is to come-whatever your con- dition on the earth, wherever you live on the earth, let the meeting-house on the hill be in your mind.
THE PASTORS
The initial step in the organization of the Claysville Presbyterian Church was taken, as has been intimated, when Joseph Henderson and Barnet Bonar invited the Rev. Thomas Hoge to preach the Gospel in this village. This invitation was soon followed by the
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Claysville Presbyterian Church
organization of this church, seventy-five years ago to-day.
The Rev. Thomas Hoge was a native of Ireland, whose participation in the Irish Rebellion of 1798 caused him to flee to the United States, where he be- came the founder of the branch of the family which bears the name. He landed in Philadelphia, and after a short sojourn in that city went to Carlisle, Penn. During the period which embraced his residence in the latter place and its neighborhood he married Miss Elizabeth City Holmes. During the interval between his arrival in Carlisle and his marriage, he conducted an academy in Northumberland, Penn. Afterward we find him at Greensburgh, Penn. From Greens- burgh he removed to Washington, Penn.
The Presbytery of Ohio received Mr. Hoge as a licentiate from the Presbytery of Tyrone, Ireland, on April 17, 1816, and ordained him to the ministry as an evangelist on January 21, 1817.
As a member of the Presbytery of Ohio Mr. Hoge acted as Stated Supply of the churches of Upper Ten Mile and East Buffalo.
The name of Thomas Hoge appears as one of the members constituting the Presbytery of Washington at its organization, October 19, 1819.
Mr. Hoge discharged the duties of the Claysville pastorate until some time in the year 1826, when, at his own request, the relation was dissolved by the Pres- bytery of Washington. After an interval of two weeks he commenced his labors as Stated Supply, which con- tinued until about the middle of the year 1828. In 1830 the congregation earnestly requested Mr. Hoge
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to return to his former pastorate. He acceded to its request and was again installed. During the interval, Mr. Hoge had been engaged in evangelistic work and had organized a church at Mount Nebo, near Wash- ington, Penn. During the same interval the Clays- ville Church had been supplied by appointments of Presbytery. The people seemed willing to call a Rev. Abner Leonard. Mr. Leonard, however, declined the acceptance of a call.
The second pastorate of Mr. Hoge continued until 1835, when the relation was again dissolved at his own request, and he was dismissed to the Presbytery of Philadelphia. Having served his generation accord- ing to the will of God, he fell asleep in Jesus, 1846.
Mr. Hoge's successor was the Rev. Peter Hassinger, who was born near Newark, Del., November 24, 1801. Entered Princeton Theological Seminary in 1824; or- dained by the Presbytery of Erie, October 1, 1828, and of the twenty-five years of his ministerial life in Pennsylvania, spent the three years extending from 1836 to 1839 as pastor of this church. In 1853 he changed his residence from Pennsylvania to Illinois, and after serving six churches in the latter State, he closed his life as a Presbyterial Missionary, dying at Lebanon, Ill., on January 24, 1890, in the ninetieth year of his age. It was my privilege once to meet Mr. Hassinger at a meeting of the Synod of Illinois, when he impressed me as a sincere, humble man of God, thoroughly devoted to the work of his Master. The reading of the record of the Princeton Catalogue has made me feel that his record, along with that of the patriarch Job, is on high.
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Claysville Presbyterian Church
In my boyhood there were stories afloat concerning peculiarities of Mr. Hassinger. He seems to have been noted for his closeness in financial matters. Most probably this was true. However, the records of the contributions to our Boards and the bequests of his will show that his accumulations were consecrated to God. If a faint recollection serves me aright, I think that Mrs. Hassinger, while her husband was preach- ing at Somerset, Penn., paid a visit to Claysville.
Mr. Hassinger's residence was in the house which was once my own home, and which now stands in the rear of Mr. W. C. Anderson's store. At that time it was in the place now occupied by Mr. Anderson's store.
The thirteen years which followed Mr. Hassinger's pastorate was what may be fitly designated as the era of the Stated Supply. The first minister in this rela- tion to the church was the Rev. John Knox, whose labors were confined to the years 1840-41. I have a perfectly distinct recollection of Mr. Knox in the pulpit-indeed so distinct that I hear to-day the sound of his voice. I remember also that he was pres- ent in the pew behind that occupied by our family one Sabbath during the early ministry of Mr. Mc- Carrell. Mr. Knox was an extreme Abolitionist, and by his fanaticism brought discredit not only on his usefulness and success as a minister, but on the good cause in defence of which the country poured out its treasure and its blood. I have understood that Mr. Knox was no ordinary preacher, and that in the course of everyday life he was a genial companion. His wife was one of the Gordon family, whose home in the
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vicinity of Washington, Penn., is so well known. His death took place some years ago, and it has been the common report in this community that he forsook the faith which once he had preached.
During the years 1841-42 this church was under the care of the Rev. William Wright. Mr. Wright was a native of Scotland, and, as I remember him, was very energetic and earnest in the pulpit. I also recall a religious service on a week-day afternoon which he held at our house when we lived on the site now occupied by the First National Bank building. After one year's service Mr. Wright returned to Scotland .*
The next supply was the venerable and venerated David McConaughey, D.D., LL.D., the able and faith- ful President of Washington College. I remember nothing of the matter of Dr. McConaughey's sermons, but I have a distinct impression to-day of the restless- ness of a boy under their great length. I remember that once during the doctor's ministry a travelling Episcopal minister was holding a series of meetings in the Methodist Episcopal Church. A number of persons of the Presbyterian congregation thought that they would take the privilege of an occasional hear- ing, expecting to attend the usual afternoon service at their own church. After the service at the Methodist
* The fact that the church's records for a period of ten or twelve years cannot be found is said to be due to Mr. Wright, who, according to report, carried them to his native land. Our friend, Mr. Joel Truesdell, remarks that Mr. Wright was a fine preacher, and was so inclined to the customs of the Associate branch of Presbyterianism, with reference to the singing of hymns, that he himself composed a version of the Psalms to be sung by the people.
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Claysville Presbyterian Church
Church was completed, I was one of a number who stood at the junction of the alley and the meeting- house lane, waiting for the close of the morning service at the Presbyterian Church. We waited and waited and waited, until as the hour hand approached the figure two, the congregation commenced to empty itself into the meeting-house yard, The procession down the lane was led by Mr. William Humes, who, in his shirt sleeves, was speeding his way homeward, sawing the air most vigorously with his arms. On being hailed by our company, he said that the doctor, on account of the length of the service in the morning, had promised a shorter meeting in the afternoon. Some one made a remark about the length of the service. I can see Mr. Humes now as, with every feature of his dark face growing darker, he shouted as if forbearance had ceased to be a virtue, " It was outra- geously long."
A boy seven or eight years of age could not under- stand Dr. McConaughey's sermons, but he carries to this day the conviction that when he looked at that old ambassador of Christ he saw a man of God. I will never forget a communion Sabbath which oc- curred during his ministry here. The old man had talked about it for weeks. As he stepped from his carriage that Sabbath morning, I think that I scarcely ever saw a more finely dressed person. Hence I came to the conclusion that he felt it to be a great occasion.
Dr. McConaughey was followed by the Rev. Joseph Gordon, concerning whom I retain no recollection but that of his personal appearance as a scholarly, refined, and spiritual man.
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Mr. Gordon was licensed by the Presbytery of Washington, April 19, 1843. He was dismissed to the Presbytery of Coshocton, April 17, 1845.
The successor of Mr. Gordon was the Rev. John Miller, whose stature was commanding and whose pulpit work was quite impressive. Mr. Miller's wife was a daughter of the Claysville Church, being Miss Rebecca, the daughter of Mr. James Warrell, whose home gave the name to that portion of the National Road known as Warrell's Hill. Mr. Miller was li- censed by the Presbytery of Washington, October 4, 1843, and dismissed to the Presbytery of Allegheny, April 16, 1851.
The next prophet in this valley of vision was Nicholas Murray, whose praise is in all the churches of Washington Presbytery. We all know the romantic story of his introduction to the Christian ministry. As he prophesied from Sabbath to Sabbath, the dry bones of the Claysville Church began to show signs of life. A sermon from the text " Strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die " gave him occa- sion to say that it had been proposed in the Presbytery of Washington to give the church of Claysville over to die. Professor Murray went through these churches like a flaming seraph, helping believers to Heaven and sinners to Jesus when he was not, for God took him.
And now we come to the golden age of the past history of this church-the thirty-five years' pastorate of the Rev. Alexander McCarrell, six years as stated supply and twenty-nine years as pastor. In the As- sembly Minutes of 1844 the roll of licentiates in the Washington Presbytery reads thus: "John Miller,
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Claysville Presbyterian Church
Thomas M. Newell, Joseph Gordon, and Alexander McCarrell."
Mr. McCarrell commenced his labors at Claysville in October, 1846, preaching for half the time, the other half being given to Unity in Greene County, which united with Claysville in his support. It was not long until he ceased to preach at Unity. He continued as stated supply at Claysville until his installation as pastor, December 16, 1852. Death severed the rela- tion, April 18, 1881. No man during his life con- tributed more to the spiritual, moral, material, intel- lectual, and social good of this town and country than Dr. McCarrell. It was the aim of his life to help everybody and every good thing in the community. He kept pace with the spirit of the age. He prepared the boys for college.
Soon after Dr. McCarrell's death I poured out my heart in a tribute to his memory, which was published in the Claysville Sentinel. I do not know that I can do better than repeat that tribute on this occasion.
ALEXANDER MCCARRELL, D.D.
An English family has the following sentence as its motto: "Through hardships to the stars." The voice of Inspiration informs us that "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever."
A life closed on Monday, April 18th, which linked these thoughts together. The history of Alexander
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McCarrell is appropriately summed up in the senti- ment: through the faithful preaching, the sincere tears, the unceasing prayers, the unwaning self-denial, the modest ambition, the uncompromising truthful- ness, the loving devotion of a pastorate of thirty-five years to the stars. It is true that one star differeth from another star in glory, but when the day revealeth every man's work of what sort it is, we cannot help but think that eternity will mark its estimate of Alex- ander McCarrell's ministry in a star of no mean mag- nitude.
The year 1846 dates the commencement of this pas- torate. There are those living who will recall the waste place in Zion in which he summoned God's little, scattered, divided band to rebuild the walls of Jeru- salem-the careless and wicked community in which he lifted the standard of the Cross. The National Road rises before us thronged with the tide of travel as it flowed east and west. We hear the peal of the coach- man's horn and the crack of the wagoner's whip. The community is agitated by the Mexican war. The Gos- pel ministry of the neighborhood, of which there was not a more honored and beloved member than our deceased brother, numbered, among others, the patri- archal Hervey, the fervent Stockton, the precise Al- rich, the dignified McCluskey,* the dialectic Eagleson, the eloquent Murray, the weighty Sloan, the gentle-
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