USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. II pt 1 > Part 23
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To this writer, prayer meetings and evening lectures and such religious efforts seemed an abomination, to be classed with camp meetings and other indecorums.
Of a far different spirit, we trust, were the great body of evangelical christians in that city, Their activity in benevo- lent and Christian efforts for their fellow men is shown by the numerous organizations which existed for this end.
The Charleston Bible Society was organized in 1810, (its Constitution was adopted on the 19th of June and its officers chosen on the 10th of July), six years before the organization of the American Bible Society. In 1819 it had distributed five or six thousand copies of the Scriptures. The Ladies Benevolent Society instituted September 15, 1813, for the relief of the sick and poor, relieved some three hundred
*Sketch of the College of Charleston, Am. Quarterly Register, vol. xii , p. 168, and the pamphlet in question, entitled " The Veil With- drawn ; or, Genuine Presbyterianism Vindicated, and the character and intolerance of its enemies exposed in a letter to a respectable planter, by a minister of that church." "Semper ego auditor tantum? Nunquam reponam." Juvenal. Charleston : Re-printed by A. E. Miller, No. 29 Queen street, 1807.
228
RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES AND EFFORTS.
[1810-1820.
cases and expended in seven years $2,000. The Religious Tract Society was formed in 1815. The Congregational and Presbyterian Union Female Association for assisting in the education of pious youth for the gospel ministry was formed in 1815. In three years it had raised and expended over $5,000 and founded a scholarship in Princeton Seminary. The Female Bible Society and the Sabbath School Associa- tion were formed in 1816. In 1819 it had distributed 851 copies of the Bible. The Marine Bible Society was formed in 1818, and in the same year the Female Domestic Mission- ary Society was established to provide and support missions in the City of Charleston. The Rev. Jonas. King, since the well known missionary in Greece, served them faithfully as their missionary in the latter part of 1819, and the early months of 1820. His report read before the Society in May, 1820, was published in pamphlet form the same year. Mr. King was ordained by the Congregational Association of South Carolina, at the request of the Female Domestic Missionary Society, that he might the better serve them in the mission in which he was engaged, at the same time with Mr. Alfred Wright, who was ordained at the request of Dr. Worcester, Secretary of the A. B. C. F. M., that he might be better equipped for the missionary work among the Choc- taws to which he had been appointed. The first successful effort to give seamen in the port of Charleston the preached gospel was made under the auspices of the Female Domestic Missionary Society by Rev. Jonas King. In May, 1819, "The Congregational and Presbyterian Society for pro- moting the interests of religion,' which had existed for some time, changed its name to "the Congregational and Presbyterian Missionary Society of South Carolina," and gave greater simplicity to its plan. They had employed since July, 1818, Rev. Henry White, who was a graduate of Williams College, Mass., and had been a member of a Presbyterian Church in Utica, New York, and was licensed by the Congregational Association of South Caro- lina on the 13th of. May, 1818, as their Missionary. His health being imperfect he seems to have had a kind of roving commission. Beginning in Western New York, he passed into some destitute parts of Pennsylvania, thence through Kentucky into Tennessee, laboring through Davidson, Wil- liamson, Maury and Giles Counties. He then spent some
229
1810-1820.] RELIGIOUS AND BENEVOLENT SOCIETIES.
time in Northern Alabama, spoke of Huntsville as a desirable missionary station. The citizens were wealthy and had it in contemplation to build a large and commodious house of worship ere long. The Society wanted to engage the Rev. Messrs. King and Smith as Missionaries for the destitute parts of South Carolina and to support Rev. Mr. Kingbury as their Missionary among the Choctaws. In September, 1819, they had a Missionary laboring in the upper districts of South Carolina. [Southern Evan. Intelligencer, vol. I, pp. 70, 220.]
A Sunday School Union Society was formed September, 1819, though there were Sabbath schools in the Circular Church in January, 1817, in the Second Church in 1818, in the Archdale Street Church in July, 1819, and an Association had existed in 1816. The Elliot Society, named out of- res- pect to Elliot, the Missionary, who died in May, 1690, was instituted in 1819, for the purpose of sustaining missions among the Indian tribes. The Associate Reading Society was instituted in the Circular Church, in 1819, which met weekly to work for the Choctaw Indians, connected with the school of Rev. Mr. Kingsbury. These are the evidences of Christian action and Christian union in this city which in former years has had a greater number of charitable institu- tions, in proportion to its population, than any other in the Union. There were also many active and benevolent ladies, of whom were Mrs. Martha L. Ramsay, daughter of Henry Laurens, signer of the Declaration of Independence, President of Congress and prisoner in the tower of London, for his country's sake, of Huguenot descent and a nob e Christian, and wife of Dr. Ramsay, the historian, who died June 10, 18II, and left behind her a shining example of the power there is in the life of an intelligent, refined and active woman, like those of the gospels, who were "last at the cross, and first at the sepulchre." [See and read memoir of her by her husband.]
The CHURCH ON JAMES ISLAND was associated, through its pastor, at least, during a part of this decade, with the Congre- gational Association, the Rev. Mr. Price being a member of that body. He was born March 16, 1773, on Crowder's Creek, in the southern part of Lincoln County, N. C., about five miles northwest of Bethel Church, in York District. He was a schoolmate with the Rev. James Adams, so long the pastor of that church, and received his early education in
230
JOHN'S ISLAND AND WADMALAW. [1810-1820.
that congregation. His theological education he obtained under the tuition of Rev. James Hall, of Iredell County, N. C. Mr. Price is represented as being a man of energy, and of practical talent. His wife was a Miss Baxter, of Bermuda. His daughter was married to Mr. F. Jenkins Mikell, of Edisto. He died on the 16th of June, 1816. We are not at present informed who was his immediate successor. The Rev. Aaron W. Leland appears as pastor of this church in the Minutes of the Assembly for 1819.
The PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF JOHN'S ISLAND and WAD- MALAW .- The Rev. William Clarkson continued pastor of this church until September, 1812, when death put an end to his labors. He had the affections of his congregation and was well esteemed by his brethren in the ministry as a man of more than usual ability and worth. He was commonly known as Dr. Clarkson, his title being derived from his degree as Doctor of Medicine. The following is the inscription upon his tombstone :
In memory of the Rev. WM. CLARKSON,
who, during the last six years of his life, sustained the pastoral charge of the united Presbyterian Churches on this Island and on Wadmalaw. And while zealously discharging the important duties of his ministry, was by a short illness summoned from his useful labors to enter into the joy of his Lord on the 9th day of September, 1812, and in the 50th year of his age. He was a native of Philadelphia, and of very respect- able parentage and connections. As a husband, a father, a friend, and in the various relations of life, he exhibited an amiable example of affection, tenderness, and Christian integrity in his public character and service. As a minister of Christ,
" I would express him, simple, grave, sincere, In doctrine uncorrupt : in language plain, And plain in manner
Much impressed
Himself, as conscious of his awful charge, And anxious mainly that the flock he fed Might feel it too : affectionate in look And tender in address, as well became A messenger of grace to guilty men."
For him to live was Christ, to die was gain.
After the death of Dr. Clarkson they are said to have been supplied for a year or two by a Mr. Morse [ Letter of Rev. A. F. Dickson, then, Sept. 6, 1854, pastor of this church.] A letter was received from this Church by the Presbytery of Harmony at its meeting in Charleston, April 14, 1814, "re- questing to be taken under the care of this Presbytery and
231
1810-1820.] WILTON-BETHEL PON PON.
supplicating for supplies. On motion it was resolved that the prayer of the petition be granted." [MS. Minutes, p. 171.] The Church appears after this among the vacant Churches of this Presbytery. On the 26th of April 1816, Mr. John Cruickshanks was received as a Licenciate from the Presby- tery of New Brunswick, and "a call from the united congre- gation of John's Island and Wadmalaw was profered to him, requesting him to become the pastor of said Churches, which call he declared his willingness to accept." "It was ordered that the Rev. Drs. Flinn and Leland, Mr. Forster and Couser be a Presbytery to meet at John's Island Church on the 2nd Wednesday of May next to ordain Mr. Cruickshanks and in- stal him Pastor of said Churches ; that Dr. Leland preach the sermon and that Dr. Flinn preside and give the charge." [Minutes p. 234, 267.] His ministry was a short one. His death was reported to Presbytery, Nov. 5, 1818.
Subsequent to this the Rev. Mr. Abbot supplied the Church during the winter of 1818, 1819, and in the year last named Rev. Mr. Wright preached to his Church for a short time. Richard Cary Morse, who afterwards was one of the origina- tors of the New York Observer and a licentiate, supplied this Church for a season. In 1818 this Church is mentioned in the minutes of the General Assembly as one of the vacant Churches of Harmony Presbytery.
The PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ON EDISTO ISLAND, enjoyed the labours of their esti table and able pastor, the Rev. Donald McLeod, through this decade. Their connection through their pastor was with the old Charleston Presbytery whose last recorded act known to us was the licensure of James S. Murray, son of a wealthy planter of this congregation which occurred on the 15th of April, 1819. [So. Evan. Intell., Vol. I, p. 47 and Raphael Bell's Pamphlet, p. 32.]
WILTON PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. We have no means of ascertaining who ministered to this people till near the end of this period. In 1819 the Rev. L. Floyd preached to the con- gregation on alternate Sabbaths. Either in this year or in the latter part of the year previous, money was raised by sub- scription for the erection of a new house of worship. [MS. of Rev. Dr. Girardeau.]
The PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF BETHEL PON PON was served during this decade by Rev. Loammi Floyd who was settled as its pastor in 1802. Of the numerical strength of the con-
1
232
SALTCATCHER.
[1810-1820
gregation during this period we have not the means of judg- ing. The report of Mr. Floyd to the Congregational Asso- ciation in 1811, was three whites and 40 blacks in communion. In 1813 he reported the addition of 7 whites and 20 blacks. We think that in reference to the white communicants in 1811, there must be some mistake in the record. It proba- bly refers to the additions during that year, and not to the total membership.
SALTCATCHER. There are several memoranda among the papers of Rev. R. M. Adams, pastor of Stony Creek Church. One is an enumeration of arguments to be set before the con- gregation in St. Luke's Parish to induce them to accede to the proposition of Saltcatcher Church that he should labor with them a part of his time. It would unite the two Churches and prevent the intrusion of ignorant or false teachers. It would afford the Gospel to those who had been long desti- tute of it. The pious and devout would have more frequent opportunities of enjoying the Holy Ordinance of the Supper. The Church in St. Luke's would have a claim upon them for the services of their minister, when that should. be destitute and Saltcatcher be supplied. Another paper proposes the arrangements which will be adopted for the supply of the two congregations from the Ist of November to the Ist of June, and also for the intervening five months of Summer, and for the administration of the Lord's Supper. Among them is the purpose expressed of visiting the members of the Church at least once a year as their minister.
They are to see that the church building be finished and the church yard enclosed with a parapet wall and railing on the top as soon as convenient. He enters into minute particulars ; as that a new Bible, Church Register, Confession of Faith, Psalm and Hymn Book, Pulpit cloth and cushion, Sacramen- tal tables, cloths, flagon, baptismal basin, towels, chairs in front of the pulpit, a box with lock and key beneath the pul- pit seat to contain the books of the Church, benches for the vestry room, the appointment of a sexton and precentor, five elders to be elected and ordained, seven copies of Psalms and Hymns to be procured ; thirty dollars to be requested, and a like sum from the Trustees of Prince Williams, to purchase a silk gown. A thoughtful and careful minister indeed ! Whether these were private memoranda for his own guidance or public propositions to his Church, we are not informed.
233
1810-1820.] INDEPENDENT CHURCH, SAVANNAH.
He is said to have been especially attentive to his own per- sonal appearance. His hair was powdered. and he rode to Church in his carriage, hat in hand, lest his hair should be disarranged.
Mr. Adams' ministerial labors were terminated with his death, which occurred, as before stated, on the 29th of Octo- ber, 1811. The next we learn of Saltcatcher is the record from pp. 76 and 77 of the MS. Records of the Presby- tery of Harmony, April 9, 1812. "Mr. Colin McIver, a licentiate of the Presbytery of Orange, produced a dismission from that Presbytery to put himself under the care of the Presbytery of Harmony, and applied to be received. He was received accordingly." A letter from the Representatives of the Saltcatcher Church, which had formerly been under the care of the Presbytery of Charleston, assigning reasons for their withdrawing from the jurisdiction of that Presbytery, and praying to be taken under the .care of the Presbytery of Harmony, was received and read. Whereupon, after consid- eration, resolved that the prayer of the petition be granted. A call was then preferred from the Church of Saltcatcher for the whole of the ministerial labors of Mr. McIver, read, pre- sented to him and accepted. The Presbytery met by appoint- ment at Saltcatcher Church on the 29th of April, 1812, when Mr. McIver passed his trials, and was ordained, Dr. Kollock preaching the sermon, from I. Thess. v: 21, and Dr. Flinn presiding and giving the charge. Twenty-two members were reported as added to the church during the following year, and the whole number of communicants as thirty. Mr. McIver did not remain long in this pastoral charge. He was released from it on the 10th of April, 1813, and was dismissed on the 19th of May, 1814, to the Presbytery of Fayetteville. The Church of Saltcatcher reported thirty members in 1313, twenty-two of whom were added the last year.
THE INDEPENDENT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN SAVANNAH .-- Of this we have written briefly, and of the ministers who pre- ceded Dr. Kollock. One name we neglected to mention, that of Rev. Robert Kerr, of whom we only learn that his memory was cherished with grateful affection by surviving members, but at what period, and how long his labors were enjoyed, we are not informed
In the fall of 1806 the Rev. Henry Kollock, D. D., who was then Professor of Theology in the College of New Jersey,
234
DR. KOLLOCK.
[1810-1820.
and pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Princeton, was called to be the pastor of this important church, and in the autumn of that year he removed to Savannah, and undertook the charge of the congregation with zeal, fidelity, and forcible and eloquent presentation of divine truth, which were attended with great success.
At the first communion after he entered upon his labors, twenty, and at the second eighteen persons made a public profession of their faith. Dr. Kollock was born December 14, 1778, at New Providence, New Jersey, to which his pa- rents had retired from Elizabethtown as refugees in the war of the Revolution. His father was active in that struggle, was a man of intelligence, and for some time the editor of a paper. His son showed a great thirst for knowledge in his youth, and having entered the Junior Class of the College of New Jersey, was graduated in 1794, at the early age of fifteen years and nine months as Bachelor of Arts. In 1797 he was appointed tutor in college, his colleague in the tutorship being John Henry Hobart, afterwards Bishop of New York, between whom and himself there existed an intimate friend- ship, though differing widely on politics and ecclesiastical government, if not in theology. " Although he was both a Democrat and a Calvinist," said Hobart, of Dr. Kollock, " he was the most intelligent, gentlemanly and agreeable com- panion I ever knew." He was licensed to preach the gospel by the Presbytery of New York on the 7th of May, 1800. The first sermon he preached at Princeton after his licensure on " The future blessedness of the righteous," was listened to with the intensest interest. Nor did this interest diminish during the time of his tutorship. In October, 1800, he was called nearly at the same time to a colleague pastorship with Dr. McWhorter, of Newark, and to the church of Elizabeth- town, the place of his early education, and where most of his relatives resided. Here he was ordained on the Ioth of Sep- tember, 1800. His reputation sustained no diminution, but the reverse. The favorite authors of this entire period of his life were Owen, Bates, Charnock, Howe, Baxter, Tillotson, Barrow, Leighton, Bishop Hall and Pictet's larger work in French, for his professional reading. His life at this period was one of even excessive devotion to study. He allotted little time to sleep, preserved the most rigid abstinence and made rapid progress. In December, 1803, he was called
235
DR. KOLLOCK.
1810-1820.]
with urgent solicitations to the pastorate of the Dutch Pres- byterian Church at Albany, and soon after was appointed Professor of Divinity in the College of New Jersey. During his pastorship, in concert with James Richards, Asa Hillyer, Edward Dorr Griffin, Amzi Armstrong, Matthew La Rue Perrine, and Robert Finley, most, if not all of them, men of note, he devoted some portion of his time to missionary labors in the mountainous regions of Morris and Suffolk Counties. Of these preaching tours Mr. Kollock was wont to speak with great satisfaction. The flowing tears coursing down the cheeks of these hardy men from the mines, coal pits and furnaces, gave him more pleasure even than the wrapt attention of the most polished city audience. On their return he and his brethren would sometimes spend the last day of the week in preaching in some one of their congrega- tions. After such a day had reached its close, at Basking Ridge, Mr. Finley's charge, as the congregation was about to be dismissed, Mr. Finley arose with emotion too deep for ut- terance. After laboring in a few broken sentences, his tongue was loosed and he burst forth in such impressive eloquence as Mr. Kollock said he had never before heard. The con- gregation, before apparently passive, was powerfully moved and remained after the benediction, sobbing and overwhelmed. A powerful revival of religion followed which extended to other congregations around. In May, 1803, when a little more than two years in the ministry, he was called to preach the missionary sermon before the General Assembly, usually counted a distinguished honor, and performed the duty with great acceptance. This sermon was published. the only one he gave to the world in a pamphlet form.
The duties of Mr. Kollock in the Divinity Chair at Prince- ton, in which he succeeded a Dickinson, a Burr, an Edwards, a Witherspoon, were to supply the college and the adjoining congregation with preaching, and instruct such of the students as were in preparation for the ministry, in Theology and the Hebrew language. He also lectured to them or examined them on their studies in the several departments of Theologi- cal learning. In the commencement of 1806 he was honored at the age of 28 years, with the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Harvard, and in a few months afterward from Union College.
For two or three years after his settlement in Savannah, at
236
DR. KOLLOCK.
[1810-1820.
the wish of his friends, he spent the Summer months in jour- neying in the Northern States. On one of these excursions he travelled through New England and attracted great atten- tion wherever he preached. This was the case especially in Boston, which he visited on three different excursions. Multi- tudes were attracted by his eloquence, and in 1808 the con- gregation of the Park Street Church, their spacious house of worship being completed, called him unanimously as their pastor. He had this call for sometime under consideration. According to one account, his connection with the Church in Savannah was dissolved with a view to his removal. Accord- ing to another, he was prevailed upon by the trembling anxie- ty, and affectionate entreaties of the people of his charge, aged and young, male and female, to remain with them, and in Sept., 1809, he wrote to the Park Street Church declining their call, and they immediately extended it to that eminent man, Edward Dorr Griffin, his former neighbor in New Jer- sey, then Bartlett Professor of Rhetoric in the Seminary at Andover, who was gradually prevailed on to accept.
At the second stated sessions of the Presbytery of Harmony at St. Paul's Church in Augusta, Sept. 27, 1810, Dr. John Cumming was present as a ruling elder, but there being no quorum present it was agreed that a meeting be called by the Moderator, which was accordingly summoned for January II, 1811, agreeably to a resolution of the General Assembly of 1796. At this meeting Dr. Cumming, a ruling elder from the church in Savannah was present as a member, and Dr. Kol- lock was received as a member of Presbytery, upon a dismis- sion from the Presbytery of New Brunswick to the Presby- tery of Hopewell, bearing date July 13, 1809: The Presby- tery of Harmony had been constituted since that date, and that portion of Hopewell Presbytery which then held Savan- nah within its bounds, was now covered by the geographical limits of Harmony. The Savannah Church was several times represented in this Presbytery by one of its elders, and the 4th regular sessions of the body was held in that Church from the 20th to the 30th of December, 1811. In 1810 Dr. Kol- lock was called to the Presidency of the University of Georgia, but this office he thought it his duty to decline. The winter of 1811 was rendered memorable by the earthquakes by which the city of Savannah was visited, which may have made the minds of the people less certain of the endurance of earthly
237
DR. KOLLOCK.
1810-1820.]
things. Their attention was directed to their eternal state and under the influences of the Spirit, the Word of God as it was preached, was effectual to the conversion of many. Besides preaching with unaccustomed power on the Sabbath, his week-day meetings were numerous, and much of his time was occupied in counselling those who were inquiring the way of salvation. In the same year he published a volume of ser- mons which were much admired and extensively read.
Dr. Kollock became each year more and more firmly en- throned in the affections of his people. It is greatly to be regretted that their should have been anything to mar a life so apparently useful and happy. But the usages of society as to alcholic and intoxicating drinks were a temptation to many of all professions and classes of society. A man could not live in society, whether cultivated or otherwise, without having wines, often the most costly and tempting, or liquors more fiery, and less expensive, set before him as a mark of at- tention and hospitality, which it were rude and uncivil to refuse. Under these circumstances there were men of every profession, grave judges, able lawyers and physicians, mer- chants of influence and wealth, and occasionally reverend divines, who, before they were aware, were seduced by these subtile and unsuspected poisons, to their great injury and to the no small impairing of the respect in which they were held by others. It was regarded as necessary, in the severe seasons of the year, in wearisome journeys, in times of peculiar ex- posure, in malarious climes, on occasions requiring peculiar efforts, and even in social hilarity, to have recourse to such stimulants as these. In 1812, the General Assembly passed very earnest stringent resolutions on the subject of intemper- ence which came before the Presbytery of Harmony at its meeting in Augusta, in November of that year, for its action, at which meeting the subject of these remarks was present. In 1813, rumors were rife that he had yielded to these in- fluences, and the moderator was called upon by several minis- ters and elders, to call by letter a pro re nata meeting to in- vestigate the rumors that were afloat prejudicial to his stand- ing in the Church. Such a meeting was held at Edgefield C. H. on the IIth of August, 1813. At the meeting in 1812, such ru- mors were known to the Presbytery, and were privately com- municated to him with much tenderness and candor, and assur- ances were received from him of future circumspection and con-
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