USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. I pt 2 > Part 30
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Although our purpose has been to close the present volume with the eighteenth century, yet as Dr. Wilson's labors in South Carolina were terminated early in the nineteenth, we trespass against our general purpose, and insert here a brief history of his life.
The Rev. Robert G. Wilson, D.D., was born in York district, South Caro- lina, December 30th, 1768. His parentage has been given in the biographical notice of his younger brother, under the head of the old Bethel church, on p. 605. When about four years old he became the subject of religious impressions in a singular manner. He was lying alone on a little bed, suffering greatly from an aching tooth, when it occurred to him that God is the hearer of prayer, and that it was his privilege to ask for relief. Kneeling by his bedside, he earnestly besought God to take away his pain, and it ceased at once. The impression made upon his mind by this sudden relief was deep and lasting.
629
ROBERT G. WILSON, D.D.
1790-1800.]
He did not suppose that his conversion took place at that time ; but in this he may have been mistaken. He was, wlien a boy, remarkable for his peaceful temper ; and at that early period he loved the house of God. At length, in his seventeenth year, he heard from the lips of his pastor, the Rev. Francis Cummins, the sermon to which, under God, he attributed his conversion. The text was, " Behold, I stand at the door and knock," &c. He soon after this made a profession of his faith. On the 4th of July, 1784, he commenced the study of Latin, with the view of preparing for the ministry. During a part of his preparatory course he was a fellow-student with Andrew Jack- son, and with others who have since figured largely, both in the political and religious world. In 1789, he entered Dickinson college, then under the presi- dency of Dr. Nisbit. In 1790, he graduated, and returning to Carolina, com- menced the study of theology under the direction of Messrs, Cummins and William C. Davis. On the 16th of April, 1793, (just fifty-eight years before his death), he was licensed to preach the gospel by the presbytery of South Carolina; and on the 22d of May, 1794, he was ordained and installed pastor of the Upper Long Cane church, in Abbeville district. He had, at the same time, the charge of the church at Greenville. While connected with these churches, his labors were much blessed. The great revival, which about that time, in spite of all its errors and extravagances, sent a tide of salvation over the West and South, reached, and beautified, and enlarged, the churches under his care.
The trustees of South Carolina college offered him a professorship in that institution. The salary, with sundry perquisites, amounted to $1800 per annum. The trustees of an academy in Augusta, Georgia, invited him to take charge of their school, promising him $2,000 a year. But breaking asunder these ties, and rejecting these offers of a competent support for a now growing family, he accepted in 1805, a call to become pastor of a little newly organized church in Chillicothe, Ohio, with a salary of $400. He had visited Chillicothe the year before, on his way home from Philadelphia, where he had been attending the General Assembly. While remaining there a few days to recruit himself and his jaded horse, an incident occurred, which in its results, gave him joy and gratitude when worn out with age.
Learning that the Rev. Robert B. Dobbins, with whom he had been ac- quainted in Carolina, had a week-day appointment to preach twelve miles from town, he rode out to see him. On being invited, he preached for Mr. Dobbins, under a tree near the spot now occupied by the Concord meeting- house. Nearly half a century passed away, when, enfeebled with age, and laid aside from all public duties, he came to Salem to close his life ; and there he found three members of the Presbyterian church, who attributed their conversion to the blessing of God upon that sermon. Thus having cast his bread upon the waters, he found it after many days. After removing to Chillicothe, he gave half of his labors for seven years to Union church, five miles from town. On resigning his charge there, he found his reduced salary, before so small, inadequate for the support of himself and family. At the earnest solicitation of his people and others, he accepted, with much re- luctance, the office of Postmaster, with the view of eking out a living. This proved to be profitable. After paying a deputy, who did most of the labor, his office brought him in $600 per annum. At length a change was made in the postal arrangements, which required the mail to be opened on the Sabbath. He at once resigned his office, and wrote to the government a letter of earnest remonstrance. He remained pastor of the Chillicothe church nineteen years, greatly beloved by his people and fellow-citizens, and much blessed in his labors. In 1818, he was honored with the degree of D.D., from the college of New Jersey. In 1824, by the advice of his presbytery, he resigned his charge in Chillicothe, and removed to Athens, to take the presidency of the
630
GREENVILLE CHURCH.
[1790-1800.
Ohio university. Over this college he presided with great dignity and popu- larity until 1839. Induced by increasing infirmities, he then gave up his presidency and returned to Chillicothe. Dr. Wilson was now an old man, bending under the snows of more than seventy winters, but he liad still a heart for his Master's work. He agreed to preach as a stated supply for the Union church. Here he labored seven years. An anecdote will illustrate his characteristic punctuality. The writer found in the pulpit Bible, after the Doctor had left Union, the following memorandum : "On - day of -, a very wet day, rode out from Chillicothe (five miles) to preach here, and found no person present-no, not one." When seventy-eight years old, Dr. Wilson left public life, and after that time he appeared but very seldom in the pulpit. He retained his mental vigor, and his love to the cause of Christ, but his voice and his strength were gone. The last four years and four months of his life he spent at South Salem, in retirement with his children. During all this time he was but four Sabbaths absent from the house of God. When unable to rise from his bed, or from his knees without help, he would still lead the worship of the family. He did this on the day preceding his death, on the fifty-eighth anniversary of his licensure. It was impossible to com- inune with his peaceful, cheerful, hopeful spirit, in his last years, without feeling the conviction that he was ieposing in the land of Beulah. . During his last sickness he gave this as his dying testimony : "My hope of salvation rests on the sixteenth verse of the third chapter of Jolin-' God so loved the world,' &c. I understood the plan of salvation there revealed to us. As a lost sinner I feel my need of it, I acquiesce in it, I rest upon it. I have long been engaged in examining my hope, and can find in it no flaw." A few days before his death, when speaking of the mysteries of providence and grace, he said : " I sometimes think that in a few minutes more I will know all these things in heaven." Thus lived and died Robert G. Wilson. He was a wise man ; a cheerful, happy man ; a useful man ; and all because he was a sinner saved by grace. In person, he was tall, strongly built, and well pro- portioned, of manly carriage and pleasant manners ; and in his preaching, earnest, fearless, and kind. He died at South Salem on the 17th of April, 1851, in the eighty-third year of his age. On the 9th of October 1797, he was married to Elizabeth, daughter of Alexander and Frances Gilleland, of Lin- coln county, North Carolina. She died December 21st, 1813. In 1818, he was again married to Mis. Crafts, who died in 1838.
The following are his publications : Satan's Wiles ; a sermon preached at Chillicothe, 1817. A Sermon preached at the opening of the synod of Ohio, 1828. A sermon on Temperance, preached at Athens, 1829. A sermon in the' Presbyterian Preacher, 1833. An Address to the graduating class of Ohio University, 1836 .- (Presbyterian, 1851. Sprague's Annals, iv., p. 122.)
GREENVILLE CHURCH (formerly Saluda) .- We have seen that the history of Greenville and Upper Long Cane congregations were parallel down to March, 1797, both being under the pas- toral care of Robert Wilson, as they had previously been under the care of Robert Hall. The Greenville congregation did not regard themselves able to pay the half of Mr. Wilson's salary, and Long Cane was not willing to pay more than half. On application to presbytery, the union of the two congregations was dissolved. Mr. Wilson, however, continued to preach at Greenville church once in the month for one year. This period having passed, the church was left dependent on the few
631
HOPEWELL .- LIBERTY.
1790-1800.]
occasional supplies that could be procured, until the Spring. of 1800. About this time it numbered forty communi- cants.
HOPEWELL CHURCH (formerly Lower Long Cane, and Fort Boone). - This church had been united with Rocky River under the care of Robert Mecklin, who died in 1788. These congregations had been taught to appreciate "the word of life" too highly, to endure the want of it with indifference. In the latter part of 1789, they preferred a call to Rev. Francis Cummins, who, laboring perhaps under some grievances in his congregation at Bethel, accepted their call and became their pastor early in 1790. In this relation he continued until 1796, when his connection with Hopewell ceased, but he retained his connection with Rocky River. While Dr. Cum- mins yet remained pastor at Hopewell, the French member- ship reached its climax at this church, and it was deemed im- portant for them to have a representation in the session. An election was held, in which Joseph C. Calhoun, Andrew Weed, E. Pettigru, Mr. Milligan, and Pierre Gibert were chosen, who were ordained to their office by Dr. Cummins. Hope- well remained vacant, and dependent on occasional supplies, through the last years of this decade.
The Huguenots had not long enjoyed a representation in Hopewell, when an opening was made for the exercise of their religious privileges in a more convenient and advantageous position. In 1797, their attention was called to a missionary who travelled through the neighborhood on his way to a sta- tion, probably about Ninety-Six. This was the Rev. John Springer, formerly president of the college at old Cambridge, Abbeville district, but now resident in Georgia. Immediately on his road from Barksdale's ferry was a small log school-house near a fine spring, and within a mile of the site of New Bor- deaux. Here he was induced to stop and preach once a month till his death, which occurred in 1798.
His labors being very acceptable to serious people of all denominations, they agreed to build a house of worship, and call it Liberty, implying that any orderly minister should have admission to preach in it. But the seed sown by the wayside was not left to perish; for the Rev. Moses Waddel, also a member of Hopewell presbytery at that time, followed soon in the footsteps of the faithful missionary, and cheered the hearts of the Huguenots by the efforts of his youthful zeal. Early in the nineteenth century, a suitable frame building was erected at this spot; many of those who had joined Hopewell,
632
ROCKY RIVER .- REV. DR. CUMMINS.
[1790-1800.
transferred their membership to this place, and Pierre Gibert and Pierre Moragne, junior, were elected elders.
ROCKY RIVER .- The history of this church has been mainly given in that of Hopewell, with which it was associated, under Dr. Cummins. The Rev. Mr. McMullen, of the Associate Reformed church, had occasionally preached in it in the latter part of the preceding decade, but the Rev. Francis Cummins (afterwards D.D.), became its pastor early in 1790. . He con- tinued his valuable labors in this congregation until 1803, when his pastoral relation was dissolved, and he removed to the State of Georgia.
This was the last pastoral charge of Dr. Cummins in South Carolina. He was born of Irish parents, near Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, in the spring of 1752. In his nineteenth year, his father removed to Mecklenburg, North Carolina, where he waseducated at Queen's Museum, partly under Dr. Mc Whorter, and graduated about the year 1776. He was engaged for several years in teaching, and indeed pursued it a considera- ble portion of his life. He was, first, preceptor at Clio acad- emy, a respectable seminary in Rowan (now Iredell) county, North Carolina ; then, at Bethel (York); afterwards, at Smyrna church, Wilkes county, Georgia ; at Lexington, Oglethorpe county ; at Bethany church, Greene county ; and at Madison, Morgan county, Georgia. Among his more distinguished pupils were the late William Smith, judge and United States senator from South Carolina, and the late Andrew Jackson, president of the United States.
He was present at the reading of the Mecklenburg declara- tion, in 1775. He was licensed by the presbytery of Orange, December 15th, 1780. During the year 1781, he preached at Hopewell and other places ; in the spring of 1782, accepted a call from Bethel, York, where he was ordained at the close of that year. He was one of the original members of South Car- olina presbytery, when it was set off from Orange, in 1785. He did not remain long in any one place ; about twenty con- gregations having considered him, in some sense, their pastor for a period longer or shorter. He labored one year in North Carolina, twenty-four years in South Carolina, and twenty-five years in Georgia. He had great vigor of constitution, and in 1830 stated to his grandson, that the rising sun never caught him in bed, when not confined by illness, for fifty years.
He was married on the 26th of March, to Saralı, daughter of David and Elizabeth Davis, who had emigrated from Wales, and were at that time members of the Presbyterian church of
633
1790-1800.] ROCKY CREEK .- NINETY-SIX .- SMYRNA.
Steele Creek. She died December 10th, 1790, the mother of eight children-two sons and six daughters. His two sons were graduated, one at Hampden Sidney, and the other at Princeton college. In October, 1791, he married, in Mecklen- burg county, North Carolina, Sarah Thompson, a native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with whom he lived forty years. In January, 1832, he was attacked with influenza, which termi- nated his life on the 22d of February. He was an admirable scholar, and a well-read theologian. He was uncommonly gifted in prayer, was vivid and clear in his conceptions, hav- ing great power of condensation in the use of language.
In stature, he was above the common size, with broad shoulders, expanded frame, large limbs, a high, capacious, in- tellectual forehead, and a deep-toned, guttural voice.
Among his pupils and proteges, at Rocky River, was Rev. Daniel Blain, who was born in this congregation in 1773, and commenced his classical studies with him. Young Blain, at twenty years of age, repaired to Liberty Hall (now Washing- ton college), Virginia, where he graduated, and in which he was a professor, under the presidency of Dr. Baxter. He was a man of great amiableness of disposition, but was called from earth in the meridian of life, on the 19th of March, 1814.
ROCKY CREEK, or ROCK CHURCH, is not mentioned from 1790 to 1796 in the minutes of presbytery, save as a vacant church, unable to support a pastor. On the 31st of October, 1796, R. Wilson, J. B. Davies, and J. Couser, were appointed to supply one Sabbath. In April, 1797, R. Wilson and J. Couser are again appointed. The list of presbyterial ap- pointments is not always recorded, and ministers and licen- tiates may have visited the church by private invitation and agreement. Mr. McLees says it was supplied (occasionally) by presbytery ; and that about 1798 or 1799, it had the labors of the Rev. Robert Wilson, of Upper Long Cane, once a month, after which it was vacant for several years. Dr. Cummins speaks of this church, in 1794, as almost extinct. This was before the presbyterial appointments above men- tioned.
NINETY-SIX, or CAMBRIDGE, petitioned for supplies in April, 1790 and 1791, and they were doubtless appointed, though no record of it was made. Dr. Cummins, alone, is mentioned as preaching as a supply in 1794. There is no further mention of this locality in the minutes of presbytery during this decade.
SMYRNA .- A petition from the inhabitants in the vicinity of
634
BRADAWAY .- REV. JAMES GILLELAND.
[1790 -- 1800.
Whitehall, in Abbeville district, was received by presbytery in October, 1799, the petitioners praying to be known on the minutes by the name of Smyrna, and to receive supplies. The prayer was granted. Robert Wilson had been appointed to preach for them, the year before this request came formally before the presbytery.
The congregation of BRADAWAY, in Pendleton district, had been supplied by Robert Hall, Robert Mecklin, and W. C. Davis, until 1791, when elders were ordained and the con- gregation organized by Rev. Daniel Thatcher. The names of Reese, R. B. Walker, A. Brown, Gilleland, Williamson, and Simpson, occur as supplies in 1792, '93, '94, and '97. The number of professors, though small, was respectable, and they continued to enjoy the attention of presbytery. In April, 1795, a call was forwarded to presbytery from this church for the pastoral services of James Gilleland, which was accepted by him ; and an intermediate session was appointed to be held on the 20th of July, 1796, for his ordination. At this meeting a remonstrance, signed by eleven or twelve persons, was presented against his ordination, on the ground that he had preached against the government and against slavery. To this, Mr. Gil- leland replied that he had not preached against the government, but had preached against slavery, and should still do so. He at length consented to yield to the counsel of presbytery, as to- the voice of God, and if they should so counsel, he would be silent, unless the consent of presbytery should be first ob- tained. The difference between Mr. Gilleland and the re- monstrants was made up, and his ordination proceeded : Dr. Cummins preaching the sermon, and Rev. John Simpson pronouncing the charge. From this time he devoted to them the chief part of his pastoral labors. In 1797, after his ordination, a considerable revival appeared in this church, when upwards of thirty persons were admitted to the com- munion for the first time.
At the meeting of the synod of the Carolinas, held at Morganton, November 3, 1796, Mr. Gilleland memorialized synod, " stating his conscientious difficulties in receiving the advice of the presbytery of South Carolina, which had enjoined upon him to be silent in the pulpit on the subject of the emancipation of the Africans, which injunction Mr. Gilleland declares to be, in his apprehension, contrary to the counsel of God. Whereupon synod, after deliberation upon the matter, do concur with the presbytery in advising Mr. Gilleland to content himself with using his utmost endeavors in private to
635
ROBERTS AND GOOD HOPE.
1790-1800.]
open the way for emancipation, so as to secure our happiness as a people, preserve the peace of the church, and render them capable of enjoying the blessings of liberty. Synod is of the opinion, that to preach publicly against slavery, in present circumstances, and to lay down as the duty of every one, to liberate those who are under their care, is what would lead to disorder, and open the way to confusion.
Mr. Gilleland, finding it difficult to reconcile his mind to a residence where negro slavery prevailed, resigned his pastoral charge in 1804, and removed to the State of Ohio in April following. He was of a social, cheerful disposition. His sermons, though unwritten, were carefully thought over and well arranged, and often highly original. Even those who differed from him gave him the credit of consistency, and had a high appreciation of his character. He was born in Lincoln county, North Carolina, October 28, 1769. His grand- parents emigrated from Ireland. He was fitted for college under W. C. Davis, of South Carolina ; was graduated at Dickinson college in 1792 ; was licensed by the presbytery of South Carolina, September 26th, 1794. On the 3d of April, 1805, he was dismissed to join the presbytery of Washington, Kentucky. He settled at Red Oak, Brown county, Ohio, and died of ossification of the heart, February 1, 1845, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. He was married to Frances Baird about 1793. They had thirteen children, three of whom received a collegiate education, one being a clergyman, and two lawyers. Mrs. Gilleland died August 23d, 1837.
ROBERTS and GOOD HOPE congregations were chiefly com- posed of families formerly resident in North Carolina, or in the northern parts of South Carolina, who migrated hither, after the cession of Pendleton district was obtained from the Indians, shortly after the peace of 1783. As numbers of them had formerly been within the circle of his acquaintance, or under his pastoral care, and they had become further ac- quainted with him by recent intercourse, they first sought the Rev. John Simpson as a stated supply from presbytery, on the 13th of April, 1790, and then at the Fall meeting, September 28, they presented a call for his pastoral services. This call was accepted, and he settled among them. He found here a people frugal, and industrious, and though far removed from markets, yet well supplied with the necessaries of life. Though they had difficulties to encounter, as is always the case in frontier regions, he found a number warmly engaged in reli- gion, and inquiring after that knowledge which is profitable
1
636
HOPEWELL (KEOWEE), AND CARMEL.
[1790-1800
for this world and the next. Zeal for the spiritual welfare of his flock, with a most conciliatory temper and exemplary de- portment on his part, secured him an unusual interest in their affections. It is anticipating what belongs to the early part of the next century, to say that the revival of 1802 made its appearance in these churches in a most extraordinary degree. In no other place within the limits of the presbytery were its effects more astonishing or so permanent. In October, 1807, as we have already related, page 559, Mr. Simpson was attacked with a painful disease, under which he languished, with Christian patience, until the 15th of February following, when he obtained release from all sufferings, and, it is confi- dently hoped, entered into the joy of his Lord. He was in- terred in the graveyard at Roberts church ; a marble stone still marks the spot where he lies, bearing his name, with the date of his birth and death, and for an epitaph, the text from which his funeral sermon was preached, by the Rev. Andrew Brown, viz .: "Mark the perfect man and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace." The widow of his youngest son, now an aged lady, still owns and lives at the venerable homestead with some of her children, and they still compose a part of the church rendered dear to them by the memory of such a good and honored ancestor.
The names GOOD HOPE and ROBERTS appear in the earliest notice of these churches in the records of presbytery, but in the report of the presbytery to the General Assembly, Mr. Simpson is said to have charge of "Big and Little Gen- erostee," the churches being near those streams, and probably being sometimes called by their names.
HOPEWELL (Keowee), remained still associated with CAR- MEL. The two congregations are in what was Pendleton county, a tract of land about forty miles square, ceded by the Cherokees at the treaty, in May, 1777. It was so rapidly settled, that when the census was taken by Congress, about five years after the chief settlements commenced, it contained about nine thousand five hundred souls, and was estimated to have reached: ten thousand in 1793. Hopewell was first organized in 1788 or 1789. In December, 1792, in conse- quence of an invitation from these two churches, the Rev. Thomas Reese, having been dismissed from his former charge at Salem, on Black river, and having considerably lost his health by a long and laborious application to the duties of the gospel ministry, in the low country, removed his family into the bounds of Carmel congregation, and became the pastor of
637
HOPEWELL AND CARMEL.
1790-1800.]
the two churches, preaching to them alternately. Carmel consisted at that time of about sixty families, and Hopewell of about forty.
" Those who make a profession of religion," says Dr. Reese, " are well-in- formed, considering the opportunities they have had. They are attentive to the instruction of their children in the principles of religion, and many of them appear to be truly pious. A considerable number of the people in Car- mel formerly leaned to the seceders; but they seem to become more liberal, and all join, except a few of the most ignorant and bigotted.
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