USA > Virginia > Culpeper County > Culpeper County > A history of St. Mark's Parish, Culpeper County, Virginia, with notes of old churches and old families, and illustrations of the manners and customs of the olden time > Part 5
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In 1831-32, Isaac Winston and P. Slaughter, Jr., represented St. Stephen's Church. Mr. Woodville, though not present, reported St. Mark's Parish as gradually improving, the congregations as visibly increasing, and there being in many persons a greater anxiety to encourage "pure and undefiled religion." In June, 1832, the Rev. A. H. Lamon took charge of St. Stephen's Church in connection with
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Madison C. H .; and in 1833 he reported an accession of eight communicants to St. Stephen's, and twenty- four at Madison, to the six whom he found there. In reference to the revival at Madison, Bishop Meade said :- " We had services four times a day for three days. It was a joyful season for the church at -Madison. Fifteen months before, I scarcely knew a place which promised less to the labors of a minister of our church. At this visit I confirmed twenty- three warm-hearted disciples of Christ, and saw a new brick edifice rising for their place of worship. God had signally blessed the preaching of his word by ministers of different denominations. He had sent to our communion an humble and faithful man, who, going from house to house, in season and out of season, was the instrument of gathering an inter- esting little band, with whom I spent some of the happiest days of my ministry. I also admitted their minister Mr. Lamon to Priest's orders."
In 1834 Mr. Lamon reports the addition of eight persons to the communion of St. Stephen's, the establishment of a scholarship in the seminary, and measures for the purchase of a parsonage, and the permanent establishment of a minister among them. Bishop Meade, in his report of 1834, said :- " On the 4th September, 1834, I prcached to a large congre- gation, and confirmed eight persons at the Little Fork in Culpeper. The congregation was then, and had been for a long time, under the care of the Rev. Mr. Woodville. At this place be most conscientionsly and patiently met with his people for many years; bere had I often met him in my travels during the last twenty-two years, and here it was that I saw him on the occasion just mentioned for the last time. Pro-
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vidence has removed him from a scene of sincere obedience on earth to one of glorious enjoyment in heaven. He has left an affectionate family to mourn the loss of a kind husband and tender father, and many friends to cherish, with sincere respect, the memory of a conscientious Christian." Such was the tribute of the evangelical Wm. Meade to the child- like John Woodville, and it does as much honor to the author as it does to the subject of his praise. It is too common in these days of cant to disparage these old-time Christians, because their religion was not in our style. Such censures are as irrational as it would be to find fault with an antique statue be- cause it is not arrayed in modern fashionable costume, or to disparage St. James because he did not give the same prominence to the doctrine of justification by faith as did St. Paul, but presented chiefly the moral phase of the Gospel - there being, in truth, no more incongruity between the doctrines and the morals of Christianity than there is between the root of a tree and its fruit.
Mr. Woodville left a son, the Rev. J. Walker Woodville, who for some years followed in the foot- steps of his father. He was a good and guileless man. His other son, James, was a lawyer in Bote- tourt, and Woodville Parish perpetuates the name. Of his wife and daughters, Fanny and Sarah, Bishop Meade said, " I do not expect to meet purer spirits on this side of heaven." These sainted women, I learn from their relative, Senator Stevenson, of Ken- tucky, both died in Columbus, Mississippi. Dr. J. W. Payne, a prominent citizen of Tennessee, a grandson of Rev. John Woodville, and a great-grandson of the Rev. Mr. Stevenson, is probably the owner of the
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family relics and traditionary mementoes of his ancestors of St. Mark's. Mr. Woodville was buried at Fredericksburg, with the service of the church and of his brother Masons, on the 10th of May, 1834. He desired, says Dr. Hugh Hamilton, to be laid near the body of Mr. Littlepage.
Dr. Payne has also furnished me with some very pleasant reminiscences of his grandfather Woodville, and enables me to supply what was wanting in the foregoing sketch of Mr. Woodville. Dr. Payne was born at St. Mark's glebe, and educated and fitted for college by his grandfather. In his boyhood he used to attend him in his visitations, " carrying the communion service in his saddle-bags," after the death of Mr. Woodville's body-servant, " Uncle Jim." He speaks plaintively of the old churches in the Little Fork and Big Fork (Lower Church.) Of the latter he says it was a plain structure of wood. The gallery (called Lady Spotswood's gallery) was in ruins. The only thing of taste about the church was a marble baptismal font, the gift, he thinks, of Mrs. Spotswood, and the monument of Mr. Down- man. He had seen the communion administered by Mr. Woodville to old Mr. Robert Slaughter and old "Uncle Jim," and perhaps sometimes to one other servant belonging to some Episcopal family. On such occasions he sometimes omitted the sermon, but never a word of the service. Of the old brick church in the Little Fork, he says the long, square, high-backed pews, the sounding-board, the pulpit, reading desk and clerk's stand, its transverse aisles, its chancel in the east, the Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments elegantly painted upon the commu- nion table, carried you back to a past generation.
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The congregations here were generally large ; and there were many Episcopal families in the neighbor- hood-Gen. M. Green, the Porters, Picketts, Farishes, Wiggintons, Freemans, Spilmans, Withers, Paynes, &c. But you had to see it filled, when the Bishops came, to conceive what it was in days of old. "I hope," he adds, "it was spared during the war, for I saw at that time in the newspapers that a sermon was found beneath the pulpit, preached near fifty. years ago by Mr. Woodville, ' whose classic elegance,' &c., surprised its captors."
From the same authority we learn that Mr. Wood- ville was born at White Haven, Cumberland County, England, in 1763, came to America in 1787, lived as tutor in the family of Rev. J. Stevenson, who sent him with commendatory credentials, and a letter from the Rev. Mr. Scott, Principal of St. Beno School, and testimonials countersigned by the Bishop of Chester, to Bishop White, who ordained him Deacon on the 18th, and Priest on the 25th of May, 1788, in Christ's Church, Philadelphia. He took charge of the Academy in Fredericksburg in 1791, and of the church in 1792, became Rector of St. Mark's in 1794, and spent the remainder of his life at the glebe. He was a great sufferer in his last years from dropsy of the chest, but never murmured. He spoke of his death with perfect composure, saying that his only reliance for salvation was upon the merits and righteousness of Christ ; often saying in bis last illness, I die happy. His last words were "God bless you all." (See . obituary in Episcopal Recorder, January 25th, 1834.)
On the fly-leaf of his wife's devotional manual are the following lines :
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His mind was of no common order, and under the imme- diate and habitual influence of the strongest religious prin- ciples; such was my dear and ever-lamented husband.
GLEBE, March 8th, 1834. SARAH WOODVILLE.
The following is the inscription on his tombstone : "Underneath, the body of John Woodville, a true believer in the Holy Scriptures, an earnest minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church, a diligent and faithful teacher of youth, a meek, contented sojourner on earth, a pious probationer and humble candidate for heaven. In Anglia natus die Martii undecimo MDCCLXIII ; obiit Virginia undecimo die Januarii MDCCCXXXIV."
His wife, Mrs. S. S. Woodville, died at Buchanan, Va., April 6th, 1848, calm in mind and pure in heart, meekly resigned to the will of heaven, at peace with God, and in charity with all the world.
Thus lived and died the last Rector of St. Mark's Parish. Other churches, with other pastors, had sprung up and flourished within his cure. He bade them all " God speed "; but we note that in his private diary he called them all chapels.
Among the many early pupils of Mr. Woodville were the Hon. Andrew Stevenson and the Rev. George Hatley Norton, Sr. Of the latter, Mrs. Woodville was often heard to say, "He was the best boy ever in the school." He was a Virginian, but lived most of his life, and died in Geneva, New York. He was the father of Dr. Norton, the great church-worker of Louisville, Kentucky, and of Dr. George H. Norton, the able and efficient Rector of St. Paul's Church, Alexandria.
F
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REV. JOHN COLE.
Mr. Cole was born in Wilmington, Delaware. He conceived the idea of studying for the ministry in 1822, and after concluding his course in the Theo- logical Seminary of Virginia, was ordained by Bishop Moore, in Petersburg, on the 18th of May, 1828. He preached his first sermon at the Lower Church, in Surry county, Virginia, on the 23d of May of the same year. He spent the first two years of his ministry in missionary work in Surry and Prince George, endeavoring to revive the fires upon the altars of the old churches, which had nearly gone out. From a diary of his ministry I infer that he was diligent in preaching the Gospel in the pulpit and from house to house, in establishing Sunday schools, and such like good works. He preached his last sermon in this county January 16, 1830, at Cabin Point. Soon afterwards he took charge of Abingdon and Ware Parishes, in the county of Gloucester, where he ministered usefully until 1836, when, with a view of sceking a more bracing climate, he resigned his charge.
The author of this history, being then rector of Christ Church, Georgetown, D. C., was visited by Mr. Cole, and advised him of the vacancy of St. Stephen's Church, Culpeper. I being about to go to Culpeper to solemnize several marriages, introduced Mr. Cole to the people of St. Stephen's, by whom he was invited to fill the vacancy. He accepted the invitation, and took charge of St. Stephen's in con- junction with two churches in Madison county. In 1838 he made his first report on his new field of labor, reporting at St. Stephen's thirty female and
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five male communicants, at Madison Courthouse twelve communicants, and at Trinity twelve. Of the last he says quaintly :- " This church is signifi- cantly called a free church, which, in country par- lance, means free to everybody and everything, for winter and summer, snow and storm, heat and cold." His services, he adds, in these parishes, including Stanardsville, are twelve sermons a month, besides a Bible class, a lecture, and prayer meetings weekly. Rev. J. Walker Woodville, in the same year, reported seventeen communicants of St. Mark's Parish.
In 1840 Mr. Cole resigned the churches in Madison to Rev. Mr. Brown, and took charge of the new congregation of St. James, Culpeper. In 1841 the St. James congregation applied for admission into the Convention. The Convention reported against the application, as not being in conformity with the requisitions of the canon. The report was recom- mitted to an enlarged committee, and Dr. Winston and Dr. Hamilton came before them and testified that "St. Mark's for several years had not been in an organized state, but had gone into decay, and that the canon could not be complied with." Upon this testimony St. James was admitted as a separate congregation. Mr. Cole reported thirty communi- cants at St. Stephen's and eleven at St. James, with a neat and comfortable church ready for consecra- tion. In 1842 St. James was reported as having been consecrated by Bishop Meade, who had also confirmed twelve persons. The communion at St. Stephen's, after rising to fifty-three in 1845, fell to thirty-one in 1847; while at St. James it rose from fifteen in 1843 to twenty-seven in 1848. In 1849 Rev. Walker Woodville reports St. Mark's with
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regular services at Little Fork, Flat Run, and the Germanna woollen factory, which probably were the only Episcopal services at Germanna for one hun- dred years. In 1850 Mr. Cole reports the completion of the "Lime Church " (St. Paul's), at a cost of only about $1000. :
In 1859 Mr. Cole resigned St. James Church, that it might be united with a new church in Fauquier. In 1850 the communicants at St. Stephen's had risen to fifty-three, and those at St. Paul's to twenty- seven. In 1860 R. H. Cunningham, lay delegate, represented St. James, and reported a parsonage as being in progress there. In July of the same year Mr. Mortimer, a student at the seminary, began lay reading at St. James. S. S. Bradford represented St. Stephen's and P. P. Nalle St. Paul's, which latter applied for admission into the Convention as a sepa- rate congregation for the third time, as they allege. Mr. D. Conrad, for the committee, questioned the constitutionality of establishing. separate congrega- tions in one parish, with power to elect lay delegates, as destroying the equilibrium between the clergy and laity in Convention ; but having been assured by Mr. C. and the petitioners that the congregation is desirous of being admitted as a parish, and intended so to make application, the committee recommend that the said separate and petitioning congregation be admitted as a parish, to be called St. Paul's Par- ish, in the county of Culpeper, according to the boundaries set forth in said petition. This report does not seem to have been voted upon, and is not found in the record ; yet in 1861 Mr. Cole reports St. Paul's Church in St. Paul's Parish. In 1862-3 there were no Conventions. In 1864 none of the
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Culpeper churches were represented. In 1865 Mr. Cole reports St. Stephen's and St. Paul's churches in St. Mark's Parish. In 1866 St. Paul's is reported as having been destroyed ; but in 1868, the last year of Mr. Cole's life, he again reports St. Paul's Church in St. Paul's Parish, as having been rebuilt by the generosity of a Virginian by birth (Mr. John T. Farish), but residing in New York. The new St. Paul's was consecrated by Bishop Whittle Nov. 8th, 1868. It is impossible now to unravel this tangled skein of facts. In 1869 there is no report, and in 1870 St. Paul's Church reappears in St. Mark's Parish, and we hear no more of St. Paul's Parish.
But we have anticipated the chronological order of our narrative, and must return to 1861, when Mr. Mortimer reports St. James Church, St. Mark's Parish, with twenty-eight communicants and the contribution of $3000 for a parsonage. Mr. Cole reports in the same year the enlargement of St. Stephen's church-edifice, with a steeple of fine pro- portions, and a fine-toned bell, at a cost of $2500, nearly the whole of which was raised within the congregation.
And now the " war-clouds rolling dun" over- shadowed the land. The peaceful parish became an intrenched camp, and a highway for the marching and counter-marching of grand armies. The churches, so lately resonant with anthems of praise, are torn down or converted into barracks and hospitals and stables, and the roar of artillery and the blast of the bugle supercede the songs of the sanctuary. Mr. Cole in his report of 1865-66, tells the tale with bleed- ing heart and bated breath. He says: "Since my last report of 1861, cruel war has raged. Pen cannot
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write nor words utter the trials of mind and heart, and the privations endured. All the Episcopal churches in this county, and every other place of worship within the lines of the Federal army (except the Baptist and Episcopal churches at the Court- house), were utterly destroyed by it during the winter of 1863-64. The whole country is a wide-spread desolation. The people, peeled and poor, are strug- gling for a living. During the occupation by the Federal army we were not permitted to use our church. We worshipped God, like the primitive Christians, in private houses, and never did the ser- vices of the Church seem sweeter or more comforting. I visited the sick and wounded, and buried the dead of both armies alike - the number of funerals being 490. It is a record for the great day, and not for the Convention. There were twenty churches of different denominations destroyed within a comparatively small area. Among these in this parish were St. Paul's and St. James, and Calvary Church, under the care of Rev. P. Slaughter, at the foot of Slaughter's (Cedar) Mountain. The last named church was built by Mr. Slaughter on his own place when by ill-health he was constrained to retire to the country. This church was consecrated by Bishop Johns in June, 1860, and Mr. S. officiated for the benefit of his neigh- bors and servants, without fee or reward, other than that arising from the consciousness of trying to do some good, under the burden of many infirmities. The only relic of this church is a beautiful stained window, which was spared at the intercession of a young lady, who kept it under her bed till the war was over. That window now lights a chancel in Mr. Slaughter's dwelling, which also contains a desk, the
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only relic of another of his old churches which was burned. The chancel, with its relics, has in it the seeds of an unwritten poem, whose melody is only heard in the heart."
Mr. Slaughter, in his report to the Convention in 1865, says :- " Since the destruction of my church and the desecration of my home by Federal soldiers, I have spent my time in the army and in the hos- pitals, and in editing the 'Army and Navy Messenger,' a religious journal for our soldiers and sailors." The despoiled church at Culpeper has been restored by the aid of friends ; St. Paul's has been rebuilt by the kindness of Mr. Farish ; St. James has risen from the ashes at the bidding of Miss Wheatley and others; but a few stones and a little grove of evergreens of second growth are all that mark the spot where once stood a consecrated fane at the foot of Slaughter's Mountain. The wailing winds play requiems upon the evergreen harps of pine, and the birds singing sweetly among the branches, with responsive echoes, are now the only choir which chants anthems, where once young men and maidens, old men and children, praised the name of the Lord. It is proper to say that Mr. Slaughter has declined contributions for rebuilding this church, in favor of other churches where the field promised a better harvest.
Whether this church shall rise again God only knows. His will be done! If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, much less can a church perish by violence. If it rise not, then let the wailing winds still play its requiem, and the plain- tive dove chant its funeral dirge.
After officiating on Christmas day, 1868, Mr. Cole was stricken by paralysis, and in a few days finished
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his career of forty years' service in the ministry, thirty-two of which were spent in St. Mark's Parish. Dr. Dalrymple, in his address at the Semi-Centenary of the Seminary, calls special attention to our obli- gations to Mr. Cole for his successful labors in adding to our emolument fund, and for his agency in pro- curing the charter for our Theological Seminary. He also records the following interesting incident, which we had heard from Mr. Cole's own lips :- At a convention many years ago, when the clergy and laity were assembled around the chancel at the close of the services on Sunday night, Bishop Moore called on Mr. Cole to raise a hymn. He obeyed by com- mencing :
The voice of free grace Cries, escape to the mountain.
It was caught up by Bishop, priest and people, singing jubilant at that solemn hour of night. Such was the origin of this time-honored custom of the Convention of Virginia.
Rev. Mr. Cole married first, April 10th, 1855, Fanny E., daughter of John Thompson of Culpeper - children, Fanny Meade, John Thompson, Thomas Willoughby and Carter Stanard; and married, second, Mrs. Conway, daughter of Wm. Foushee. His second wife soon followed her husband to the tomb, dying without issue.
After what has been already said, Mr. Cole may be characterized in a few words. In all the relations of life he was a true man, transparent as Dryden's ideal man, whose thoughts were as visible as the figured hours through the crystal of a clock. He was not what is called a popular preacher (a ques-
-- - ----
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THE SUCCESSORS OF MR. COLE.
tionable compliment, since it too often implies the arts of the demagogue), and he had a true English hatred of all shams. He was a faithful and brave soldier of the Cross, not ashamed of the faith of Christ crucified, but manfully fought under his banner unto his life's end. A fitting inscription upon his tomb would be these words : "He feared God - he had no other fear."
THE SUCCESSORS OF THE REV. MR. COLE.
Having now taken leave of the dead past, we stand in the presence of the living. We must be wary of our words, not only because (as Dr. Hawks said of Bishop Moore in his lifetime) we would not " shock the delicacy of living worth "; but because it will be the office of those who come after them and see their end, to mark their place in history. The only exception to this rule we have already noted, he having no more active field-work to do.
The Rev. George W. Peterkin, who had been assisting his father at Richmond, took charge of St. Stephen's Church in June, 1869. In 1870 he re- ported an addition of 26 to the communion of 1868, which he found there at his coming. Sunday School more than doubled; sermons and addresses during the year 140, and 40 public catechisings. The Rev. Chas. Yancey Steptoe, who had been recently ordained, and had recently taken charge of Christ and St. Paul's churches, reported an aceession of 18 to the communion, with 110 Sunday school teachers and scholars. Bishop Johns, in 1869, had consecrated Christ's Church, " which (he said) from its position supplied the place of two churches destroyed during
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the war. For this beautiful building we are indebted to the Christian sympathy of Miss E. A. Wheatley, formerly of Culpeper, now of Brooklyn, New York. She provided the funds and furnished the plan. It stands in full view of the railroad, a pleasing memo- rial of the pious devotion of a lady who loved her people and built them a Christian synagogue."
In 1871 Mr. Peterkin reported a handsome brick building at a cost of $1669.40, raised on the credit of the vestry, and the organization of a church school for girls, under the charge of Mr. K. S. Nelson. Mr. Steptoe reports an addition of 21 to the communion of Christ and St. Paul's churches, and a contribution of $1215.23. In 1872 Mr. Peterkin reports an addi- tion of 44 to the communion of St. Stephen's, a Sunday school of 200, and 3 teachers and 27 scholars in church school. " During the past year (he says) the school has sustained itself, and become a recog- nized power in the parish. An important part of my work (he adds) during two years past, has been the restoration of an old colonial church, about twelve miles from Culpeper, in the Little Fork. $250 have been spent in necessary repairs, of which $100 was from the Bruce Fund. Congregations large, and 8 communicants at the old church." Mr. Steptoe reports the building of a rectory near Brandy Sta- tion for the use of Christ and St. Paul's churches, at a cost of $2150, of which Christ's Church contributes $1005; St. Paul's, $450; Piedmont Convocation, $180; Miss Wheatley, $415, and Mr. Suter, of New York, $100. A steeple, bell, and other improvements have been added to Christ Church by our kind friend Miss Wheatley. In 1873 Mr. Peterkin reports 137 communicants, a Sunday school of 280, of whom
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PRESENT STATUS.
35 are colored children, 3 teachers and 39 scholars in the church school, which, he says, is so established and governed as to enable the church to extend the blessing of Christian education among her people. Mr. Steptoe reports a church at Rapidan Station as nearly finished by our own efforts and the aid of friendly communicants at Christ and St. Paul's churches.
1874. Rev. James G. Minnegerode having succeeded Mr. Peterkin (who had taken charge of Memorial Church, Baltimore,) reports 145 communicants and a Sunday school of 282. Mr. Steptoe, for Christ, St. Paul's, and Emmanuel churches, reports 96 commu- nicants and Sunday schools of 86, contributions $1545.11, the consecration of Emmanuel Church by Bishop Johns on the 10th of December, 1873. " I officiated (he says) at Emmanuel's two Sundays in the month, in the afternoon, until we were so fortunate as to secure the services of the Rev. Dr. Slaughter, as long as his health shall hold out. By the aid of Mr. J. Wilmer, Jr., as Lay Reader, he has been able to officiate on Sunday mornings." Dr. Slaughter himself says he has been much aided by the sympathy and co-operation of Mr. Steptoe and of the Bishop of Louisiana, who spends some of the summer months here, and is always ready to help us with good words and good works.
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