USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > North East > The centennial commemoration of the founding of the First Presbyterian Church, of North East, Pennsylvania > Part 11
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14
202
CENTENNIAL COMMEMORATION
point of view. As one looks back to the old homestead and scenes of childhood, so I look back to the old home church, its Sabbath school, my class as a scholar and as teacher and superintendent. the Young People's meeting, organized before the Christian En- deavor was thought of, and the mid-week prayer meeting, the best prayer meeting I ever attended. I have listened to big preachers from both sides of the Atlantic, but the best sermons I have ever heard have come from the pulpit of our church, whose Centennial we celebrate to-day. I have heard paid city choirs soar and warble and thrill and perform marvelous musical gymnastics, but the best singing I have ever heard was in our church, and the best church socials were right here. Why, it was at one of these sociable church socials that a girl smiled on me and passed me pie and pinned a buttonhole bouquet on the lapel of my coat, and that night before I went to bed, I asked her to be my wife, and the result of that church social was the happi- est marriage and the best helpmate and the finest lot of babies that I ever saw anywhere.
I can just remember Mr. Carrier, but I cannot remember anything he said, but here is a historical incident in his pastor- ate. A man wanted to join the church. He wanted to be im- mersed but he was a great big man and the pastor was such a lit- tle fellow that he feared it would be a physical impossibility; but the Methodist man, a great big good-natured fellow volunteered to do the work, so the brother came into the Presbyterian Church in the Baptist way through the Methodist man.
Newspapers say that the Presbyterian Church is iron-clad in its creed. It is the most liberal church in the world.
I remember Dr. Hudson and how as a small boy I sat one day beside Col. Wells and I thought it was an awful long ser- mon, and when we got into the wagon to drive back home to the farm, Col. Wells said in his emphatic way, "That was a mighty fine sermon. ' I didn't understand the colonel nor did I understand Dr. Hudson. But I do remember one thing he said upon God's sovereignty and man's free moral agency, and a few weeks ago as it was my duty to read a paper before the State Association of Rhode Island, I quoted from Dr. Hudson, and at the close of my reading, one of the leading pastors of New England got up and said it was the finest thing he had ever heard on the subject.
-
سيجيد الته
GEORGE SELKRĘGG, Elder.
205
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
Dr. Oxtoby invited me to his study to see his typewriter. I had never seen a typewriter then and I accepted his invitation. He did not talk religion to me, but that shrewd "fisher of men" baited his hook with a typewriter and soon he had me landed safe in "Our Church," and I wish he were here to-day that I might shake his hand and thank him for what he did for me.
Next came Dr. Hunter and last evening he was telling how Rev. Mr. Hampson was a doctrinal preacher, and let me say, Dr. Hunter was a doctrinal preacher.
I remember when I was a lad and my mother wanted to give me a pill she would smash it and put it in apple sauce and I supposed I was eating only apple sauce, but I got the pill just the same. So as I sat under Dr. Hunter's preaching I thought he was feeding me just delicious apple sauce, but he was put- ting in the doctrinal pill all the time, and when I went before Erie Presbytery to be licensed to preach, they called me up to be examined in theology, and Dr. Hunter fought, bled and died to convince Presbytery that they had no right to examine a man in theology before he began its study; but the Moderator de- cided that no man should be licensed to preach in the Presby- terian Church without passing a satisfactory examination in theology; so I was led like a sheep to the slaughter, but the ap- ple sauce, with its doctrinal pill, saved me and they gave me the license. And when I was called to a Congregational Church in Rhode Island. I didn't expect to be ordained at once, but from the Providence Ministers' Meeting I received a letter stating that if I was ready to undertake the examinations, they were ready to unite in a council to examine me. By the way, there were seven Presbyterians on the Council and I again relied upon "apple sauce" and catechism and it ended in ordination, and I need to thank the good doctor to-day for what he has done for me. Nearly my first introduction to Dr. Hayes, I slept with him at Presbytery and we lay and talked way into the night like two girls, and later I learned to love him for his ster- ling manhood, and my acquaintance and association with my dear brother Williams has been most delightful; and I have fallen in love with my brother MeGiffin at first sight.
I don't like to stop talking upon so interesting a subject, but I will stop with this word -"Our Church" honorable in its
206
CENTENNIAL COMMEMORATION
history, blessed in its ministry, noble in its work for missions and wholesome influence of its people, placing the sterling stamp of Christian Presbyterianism upon the citizenship for many miles along this beautiful lake shore region.
Dr. Ross :- There is one advantage in living in this age, and that is that the electric cars are going to take us out in the region beyond the city and make it only a few minutes ride from Erie to Harborcreek. I think most of us members will be there in twen- ty-five years. Perhaps I can be sub-pastor or assistant or some- thing. And I know you will then be growing strong, and ex- pect to be stronger. I have great pleasure in asking the Rev. Edward P. Cleaveland to respond to the toast of "Our Daugh- ter," Harborcreek Church.
"OUR DAUGHTER," HARBORCREEK CHURCH-Rev. Edward P. Cleaveland.
Mr. Toast-Master: Standing in this presence I cannot say "Ladies and Gentlemen." I feel that I must say, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters. I believe it was one of my father's predecessors who became unpopular with his church and he was brought up before the Presbytery. One of the counts in the indictment against him was that on one occasion he got up in the pulpit and said: "I call your attention to a few unpremeditated real. eks upon the following text." and then he proceeded to read from a well written manuscript what he had to say. I shall proceed to make a few ipremeditated remarks, upon this subject given me. I just informed your master of ceremonies at the other end of the table that I have my manu- script in my pocket
A girl was married in om village the other day, an unusual occurrence, I assure you, and I noticed that during the recep- tion that followed her father looked very sober. lle was not sorry that his daughter was married, for she married most hap- pily, but he was serry that his daughter was going so far away from home to live. Now a church is more fortunately situated than that father. A church's daughters, if she has any, al- ways settle near home, a happy circumstance for the mother and daughters too.
--
7 الده كلية فـ
REV. G. W. CLEAVELAND, ++ years Pastor of the Harborcreek Church.
209
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
Churches are so busy now-a-days doing their Master's work that they do not see very much of each other. And yet, if you will pardon the personal reference, I think that I am a living illustration of the fact that the relations between this mother church and her daughter have been reasonably close. The names of Doolittle, Montgomery, Cochran, and Gregory were. household words in my father's house. And it was my privilege as a boy to know Father Orton, of sainted character and revered memory, and I have also known personally Dr. Carrier, Dr. Hudson, Dr. Oxtoby, and Dr. Hunter. Four Doc- tors of Divinity for one church: take courage, my young brother. (To Mr. MeGiffin, the present pastor.) You see what's coming to you. You are in the apostolic succession.
Some churches are like bees: they swarm. Other churches are like, well, let us say, Great Britain, they colonize. This church has never swarmed. If I mistake not, you never have had so large a membership as to feel crowded. You did the more magnanimous thing. When it became evident that the interests of Christ's Kingdom demanded that that portion of your membership that lived in the edge of Harborcreek town- ship should form a separate organization, you gave your con- sent and authorized the separation. So this daughter of yours was neither conceived in sin nor born in iniquity. She was not a daughter of dissension and strife. She had her auspicious birth in the desire of those godly men and women to make ade- quate provision for the religious needs of the growing popula- tion of the new country .
Mr. Toast-Master, I believe it is quite the thing for a daugh- ter, the first time she visits her mother after her marriage, to make of her a confidant. Though she may not be so indelicate as to confide to her mother all her, domestic joys or trials, she does tell her some things. Pardon me, if I give you one humorous reminiscence of my own regarding the Harborcreek Church. My father exchanged one Sunday with a Welshman, pastor of the church in Green who bore the distinguished name of John Jones. He rode over to our house Saturday morning on horse. back, and Sunday morning he decided that he would ride his horse to church. He had just crossed the brook this side of the Philo Green place, when his horse shied, and he went over
14
210
CENTENNIAL COMMEMORATION
her head into the ditch, and disarranged some of the cuticle on his face. He went into Elder Campbell's and by help of some court-plaster rearranged and readjusted his cuticle. When he came to preach he announced his text, "Ephraim is a cake not turned."
But now, to speak quite seriously, I have something to say to you this afternoon which I wish very much to say. It is indeed something that you already know, but still in my judg- ment it is something that should be said.
Your daughter has lived the modest and obscure but he- roic life of the country church. Severe trials bravely met stimulate heroism. The country church cannot be true to its mission to-day without meeting trials severe enough to stimu- late the heroic spirit in an unusual degree.
The country church is all the time giving of its best life to the churches of the villages and the city. It trains its boys and girls in Christian character and for Christian service, and they have scarcely reached manhood and womanhood before they have vanished. Where are they? They have gone to the city to add to the vigor of a church already strong. The well-to-do farmer makes up his mind that he has worked hard enough and long enough, and he decides to retire. He leaves his farm and goes to the nearest village or city to live, and the struggling and almost discouraged country pastor awakes to the fact that he has lost one of his right hand men. Sometimes we wonder at the magnanimity of John the Baptist that in the face of the growing popularity of Jesus he could say without any trace of bitterness in his soul, "He must increase, but I must decrease." But that is what the country church is doing with reference to the city and the village church all the time.
Another peculiar trial of the country church in America is seen in the change which is coming over the character of our country population. The native American farmer of a high degree of intelligence and culture, who owns the farm upon which he lives, is in some sections of our country almost a fea- ture of the past. Too often the foreigner who has taken his place has little or no sympathy with the church. Contrast the Harborcreek of thirty or forty years ago with that of to-day. Where are the Clarks, the Steels, the Giffords, and the Wag-
em
1
HENRY S. NASH, Elder.
213
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
ners, the Sherwins, the Hampsons, the Hitchcocks, the Elliots, the Flurys, the Ellises, the Besleys, the Videtoes, the Nelsons, the Hursts, the Scotts, the Ebersoles, the Carrs, the Camps, the Miners, the Hardys, the Burgesses, the Lewises, the Jackses, the Hattens, the Terrills, the Stewarts? They have gone and the farms that knew them once shall know them no more. Their places on the farm, so far as I know with only two exceptions, have not been filled by resident American farmers. With the same number of exceptions their places in the church have not been filled at all.
We sometimes imagine that Goldsmith's picture of the vil- lage clergyman belongs to a by-gone age of rustic simplicity. But that picture is in not a few respects a faithful representation of the country pastor of to-day, or at least of the country pastor of the generation that is just passing off the stage. Some of us could tell of faithful men of God, not a few, of any one of whom could be said,
"Remote from town he ran his Godly race, Nor e'er had changed, nor wished to change his place. * * * * *
Fac other aims his heart had learned to prize, More skilled to raise the wretched than ( rise."
When I think of the pastor of the country church, who is too sensitive and too independent in manhood to allow his church, once strong, to go in its weakness upon "The Home Board," when I think of him sharing the financial weakness of his church and you never going in debt, when I think of him as religiously setting aside one-tenth of his scanty income "for the Lord," and when i reflect that from the lips of at least one such pastor I have never heard a syllable of complaint, when I re- member that he magnified his joys, and counted as his only great professional trial the spiritual poverty of the Zion to which he ministered, ! am persuaded that the bravest heroes of the Christian church are not always found on "The Foreign Field," or on our own national frontiers, or at work in the shins of our great cities. Not infrequently the grandest hero of them all
.
214
CENTENNIAL COMMEMORATION
is he who stands by a dying country church, keeping that church on his heart by day and by night, and giving to it his best ser- vice. Such a country pastor who works in obscurity, patiently, uncomplainingly, with a generous spirit of self-denial and yet unconscious of self-denial, counting it his great joy and privi- lege thus to be able to serve his God and his fellowman, such a country pastor is the man whom above all others the whole world round I delight to honor, and yet I feel that I am unworthy to stoop down and unloose the latchet of his shoe.
Dr. Ross :-- I am sure that the last simple and eloquent words of the son of the country pastor are but simple truth.
The first time I had the pleasure of meeting the honored pastor of Harborcreek Church was in the home of one of the members of his church. It was not on a very merry occasion. It was at a funeral. He had come to this service for a person whom he married forty years before. The name of Dr. Cleave- land is revered in Erie as it is revered in North East, and as it is remembered and ever will be remembered in Harborcreek.
Our next toast is "Our Presbytery." The First Presby- tery of Erie. . I suppose the greatest Presbytery in the world. I congratulate the committee on one thing, on the gentleman they have asked to respond to this toast. If that committee had been composed of the members of the Presbytery of Eric, it would have sek sted the same person, I am sure. We are glad that he has worked in this Presbytery for about 50 years, yet a man may do. 50 years work and not be very much at the end of it. But we all in the Presbytery of Erie revere him as a representative of the Presbytery and also as a Christian gentle- man.
It is remarkable indeed, especially in our country that a minister should hoid a charge for twenty-five years, it is still more remarkable that a minister should hold his charge after he has reached three score years and ten, and yet this gentleman bas reached that age, and it was only at his own request and against the desire of his church that he retired from the Pres- bytery.
He is the living St. John of the Presbytery of Erie, the Rev. Wm. Grassie.
E T. MOORHEAD, Elder.
217
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
"OUR PRESBYTERY"-Rev. William Grassie, D. D.
When this church was organized there was no such crea- ture in existence as the Presbytery of Erie. This therefore is a case in which the child was born before the parent, and the only relationship this Presbytery holds to the church in North East is a sort of a step motherly relation.
No, there was no Presbytery of Erie in those days, nor much of anything else on the territory now covered by it, ex- cept interminable forests. There were clearings here and there, but so few and small the huge "forest primeval" shut them in front the sight of man. A man in a balloon on an airship sailing over this region of country would count a few clear spots in- habited by hardy pioneers, in here and there a settlement he would descry a church building where an organized body of believers of Presbyterian faith and order worshipped. One such here, a dozen miles to the south the twin sister of this church, upper Greenfield, afterwards Middlebrook and now Wattsburg, a lineal descendant like this of the original organi- zation.
There was no other organized religious body of any order east or west of them for miles and miles. The next religious organization of any sort was the Presbyterian Church at Mead- ville, 30 miles to the south, the next at Cool Spring in what is now Mercer County, east and west of these for many leagnes churches there were none. There was preaching by missionary men in many settlements, but as yet no church organization : none in Erie, none in Mercer, or Warren, or Franklin, where now are found strongholds of our faith.
A strange fact it is that though a large proportion of the first settlers were from the north the order for the organization of Erie Presbytery was from the south. This is the story as told by Dr. S. J. M. Eaton of blessed memory, in that valuable treatise he has left, "The History of Erie Presbytery." At a meeting of the synod of Virginia held in Winchester, Virginia, October 2d, 1802, at the nuanimons request of the members present from the Presbyteries of Redstone and Ohio, the Synod . did and hereby do erect Rey. Thomas Edgar Hughes, Rev. Win. Wick, Key. Samuel Tait, Rev. Joseph Stockton, and Rey. Robert Lee, together with all congregations north and northwest of the
-
218
CENTENNIAL COMMEMORATION
Ohio and Allegheny rivers unto the place where the Ohio River crosses the western boundary of Pennsylvania, into a separate Presbytery, to be called the Presbytery of Erie, and appointed their first meeting to be held at Mount Pleasant, on the 2d Tues- day of April next.
William Wick was appointed to open the Presbytery with a sermon, and to preside until a new Moderator be chosen. The ministers whose names are given in the enabling act, met in obe- dience to this order on the 13th of April, 1802. Mr. Wick preach- ing from Isa. 9:6 "The government shall be upon his shoulder."
In addition to the five names mentioned by Synod James Satterfield and W'm. Wylie, then laboring within the limits pre- scribed for the new Presbytery, presented letters from the Pres- bytery of Ohio, and were enrolled as members. Wm. Phimber, John Monteith, Wm. Waddell, and Ithriel Dodd were present as Elders. Of the original ministerial members of Erie Presbytery the name of Edgar Hughes stands at the head, he was a Welsh- man. Wick was of Puritan origin. Tait was Scotch. Lee from Donegal, Ireland. Wylie also was of Irish origin. Such was the beginning of Erie Presbytery, the seed corn of a great harvest, the heroic pioneers of a blessed civilization following. The territory covered by the Presbytery included what are now Beaver, Butler, Lawrence, Mercer, Crawford, Erie, Venango, Clarion, and Warren Counties, some churches in Ohio, and all of Chautauqua coune. Of the first 28 ministers on the roll eighteen got their theology at John McMillan's log caliu, hay- . ing received previously at Canonsburgh and other institutions founded and followed by Presbyterian influence some intellec- tual preparation for their work.
Of the great number of names that follow that of Thomas Edgar Hughes on the roll it has been my good fortune to be ac- quainted with something over 220, many of whom have joined the general assembly and church of the first born, as Geo. W. Lyon, Miles Doolittle, David D. Gregory, Samuel G. Orton, all of blessed memory.
The oldest member of Presbytery now living is Rev. James F. Read, D. D., who came into the body in 1841. His connection with it has not been continuous, having been interrupted by an
--
SAMUEL P. WHITEHILL, Trustee.
221
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
absence of several years in connection with the Presbytery of Pittsburg. Father Read is in his gist year and resides in Union City.
The minister whose continuous connection with Presbytery and whose active ministry was the longest was Rev. Geo. W. Cleaveland, whose membership continued over 52 years, eight years in Waterford and 44 in Harborcreek. I think to him also must be accorded the honor of the longest continuous pastorate in Erie Presbytery. The Presbytery has always stood for sound- ness in the faith. It was to the New School part of it that I came 46 years ago, and even that was suspicious of my ortho- doxy, though coming straight from Andover Theological Semi- nary, the first on the continent and soundly orthodox. They were afraid of Oberlinism and perfectionism and so doubted of me.
And the eldership, at least many of them, knew what sound doctrine and good Gospel preaching was. Permit an illustra- tion. When Spurgeon's Sermons first appeared, John Jones, a godly Welsh elder of the church at East Green wished to secure a volume of them. I promised one and took it to him. Some time after I called on him and asked how he liked the work? "Oh my, but he is a great preacher. I wish you could preach like that," that was His response.
Erie Presintery to-day is confined to comparatively narrow limits. Butler, Shenango; Redstone (partly), Kittanning, Clarion, and part of Cleveland Presbytery, and of Buffalo Presbytery on the east have been sliced off from its territory.
Still it is one of the largest Presbyteries in the state of which Dr. Cox said the "General Assembly had a life lease." We num- ber 65 church. . over 11,000 church members, and have power and prestige for good work yet to be done.
-
222
CENTENNIAL COMMEMORATION
"OUR SISTER CHURCHES"-RESPONSES BY OUR TOWN PASTORS.
Dr. Ross :- We shall now hear something about our "Sister Churches." You may not have guessed that I am a Canadian and Canada is different in one thing. It has only one Presbyterian Church. The different Presbyterian bodies all united in 1874, and they have doubled their membership in twenty-five years. But the ministry has not increased enough to man their various churches.
Ten years after the Union the Methodists united and in Canada there is only one Methodist church and they are seriously talking of uniting these two, the Presbyterian and Methodist of Canada, and if they do it will be one of the strongest churches in the world. I hope the day will come when there will only be one Methodist church in this country and one Presbyterian church, and one Congregational church and so on, and that the day may come when there will only be one church, though I am not so anxious in regard to that. I believe profoundly in the unity of the Christian church, and I believe that the unity of the Chris- tian church consists in this, in love and loyalty to the common cause and therefore love and loyalty to each other. We have love and loyalty in Erie, and I understand you have them here, so while we are many as the waves, we are one as the sea. There are several gentlemen that I will call upon. The first is Rev. J. F. Kirk, of the Episcopal Church.
REV. J. F. KIRK, of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen :
When I woke on Wednesday morning, I said to myself, I wonder what they feed the Presbyterians of North East on. To think that those Presbyterians are 100 years old to-day and that they all look so young-and last night the Rev. Mr. Williams explained what the Presbyterians in North East were fed on that kept them so young and made them look so healthy. He said that they fed them on two things, one of which is sure to make them young, and that is the pure Gospel, and the other is good for the digestion.
$
----
223
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
He explained it in two words: Calvinistic Presbyterianism. 1 shall express it in one word-brimstone.
There may be some of you who wonder why I am standing here in a gathering of Presbyterians to speak. In the first place, Mr. Toast Master, ladies and gentlemen, I think that any man by the name of Kirk has a right to come among the Presbyterians. I remember when I was ordained the bishop who ordained me said: "How comes it you spell church Kirk," and I said to him, "I do not spell church Kirk. I am an example of the Kirk having been ordained a minister of the true church." There was an American poet who said these words, and they have been in my mind and in my heart ever since I heard about this Con- tennial Celebration :
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.