USA > Virginia > Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia, Vol. II > Part 34
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scending from the pulpit, ordered the drums at the church-door to beat for recruits. From all the foregoing, we must conclude that though he was doubtless conscientious and respectable, for that day at least, as a minister, yet he still loved his juvenile sports of hunt- ing and fishing too much to excel in the duties of the sacred office, and that he had never ceased to be more of the soldier than the divine.
"Quo semel est imbuta, recens, servabit odorem, Testa diu."
Of the subsequent history of that Swedish Episcopal congregation in Woodstock I have as yet been unable to obtain any accurate information. Some time after the revival of the Episcopal Church in Virginia, an effort was made by General Steenbergen, the Arthurs, Blackfords, and Allens, to establish it in their neighbour- hood, and I paid them several visits; but the effort failed. The same was done more than once by some friends of the Church at Woodstock, headed by Mr. Williams, the old and much-esteemed clerk of the county and staunch member of the Church; but with like success.
I cannot take leave of this county and parish without a brief notice of one remarkable locality in it. In the very centre of Mr. Muhlenburg's parish, and only a few miles from his residence at Woodstock, commence the mountains, almost touching each other at first, and running parallel, so as to form a valley be- tween. After running some distance, they unite in one, which is called the Massamatti Mountain. The valley between' is called Powell's Fort, and contains some thousands of acres. The moun- tains on either side are called the East and West Fort Mountains. The entrance to this valley is through a narrow defile, along which a small but bold stream runs out into the surrounding country, with high, steep mountains on each side, as if some convulsion of nature had opened a passage for the waters. If the whole Valley of Virginia was once a lake, emptying itself at Harper's Ferry, this may be regarded as a lake within a lake, the smaller emptying itself into the larger through this narrow passway, and both of them sending their waters through Harper's Ferry and the Poto- mac into the great Atlantic. Washington and Muhlenburg had doubtless often been within and around this place, and the military eye of each may have been caught by it, as one of the strongest of nature's fortifications. In one of the darkest and gloomiest seasons of the Revolution, when even the soul of a Washington began to fear the stability of his fellow-citizens, they may have communed together
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about this, as the last retreat of their diminished and retreating forces. Certain it is that Washington once referred to it as the place to which he should conduct his wasted remnant, there to call the God of nature to its defence, and bid defiance to the British army; thus hoping to arouse his countrymen to renewed and more vigorous efforts for liberty and independence. I can never look at, (for it is, on a clear day, in sight of my own residence,) pass by, or read of this spot, and recollect that proposal of Washington, without remembering the Edom of Scripture,-the strong city, as it is called; for, if travellers and historians be true, there is a strong resemblance between them, as to their entrance, their valley, and high surrounding mountains. The loose stones almost overhanging this narrow pass, and covering the nearly-perpendicular sides of other parts of the mountains, would have furnished weapons of de- fence to a few brave men sufficient to overwhelm thousands of assailing foes.
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ARTICLE LXXVI.
Parishes in Augusta and Rockingham Counties.
WE come now to that part of the valley which was the first seen by the white man. In the year 1714, Governor Spottswood and his gallant band of Cavaliers, with their attendants, ascended the Blue Ridge, at Rockfish Gap, in Albemarle county, and became the delighted beholders of the rich and beautiful valley below .* Carv- ing the name of his King on one of the highest rocks of the moun- tain, while one of his followers did the same with the Governor's on another, they returned to Williamsburg,-the young gentry being established into an order, and dubbed "Knights of the Horse- Shoe,"-each having a small miniature golden horseshoe presented to him by their enterprising leader. They were followed, after some years, by hardy and daring adventurers, who settled in the valley,- driving back the Indians still farther westward. It was not, how- ever, until the year 1738, that it, together with old Frederick, was separated from Orange,-which was until then the frontier-county, extending to the Pacific Ocean, and one hundred miles into it, ac- cording to a charter given by King James to the London Company for Virginia,-whose dimensions were four hundred miles wide on the Atlantic, and of the same width from sea to sea, with all the islands in both seas within one hundred miles from the shores thereof. Such was old Virginia when Illinois, embracing all beyond the Ohio River, was, in 1778, made one of her counties. Such was old Virginia until, by various acts and charters of the Crown and her own liberality, she was restricted to her present boundaries. Augusta, in the year 1738, became the frontier-county, and was therefore called West Augusta. All that I could say about the parish of Augusta is so much better said in the following extracts, taken from a sermon at the opening of the new church in Staunton, a few weeks since, by the Rev. Mr. Castleman, its present minister, that no apology is needed for using it:
"The county of Augusta was organized in 1738. Its boundaries ex- tended from the line of old Frederick on the north, along the summit of
* Some think that he crossed at a gap lower down the valley,-near the head- waters of the Rappahannock.
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the Blue Ridge Mountain indefinitely to the south and west. Its parish was known as the parish of Augusta, and filled up the circuit of the illimit- ably-extended territory of the county. The first election that was ever held in the county was the election of the vestry. This was in the year 1746, and resulted in the choice of James Patton, John Buchanon, John Madison, Patrick Hays, John Christian, Colonel John Buchanon, Robert Alexander, Thomas Gordon, James Lochart, John Archer, John Matthews, and John Smith. These were among the most prominent and influential men of the county. From the records which remain of their various meet- ings and deliberations for the general good, we cannot doubt that they were men of intelligence, good moral character, and fidelity in the trusts committed to them.
"On the 6th of April, 1747, they assembled, for the first time after their organization, to elect a minister to break to them the bread of life. Having received letters from Governor Gooch commending the Rev. John Hind- man as an able and worthy minister of the Gospel, they unanimously chose him as their spiritual instructor. He entered immediately into the duties of his pastoral office,-the first minister of the Church of England who ever set foot on Augusta soil and preached the glad tidings of Christ among the mountains of this wild home of the Indian. Owing to the sparseness of the population and inability of the people to build a church, Mr. Hind- man was obliged to preach and administer the sacraments in the court- house and in private houses in different parts of the parish during the whole of his ministry here."
In the year 1747, the vestry determined to purchase a glebe near Leper's old plantation, and build a house; also, a church on the plantation of Daniel Harris. Nothing of either now remains. The glebe was sold and the proceeds vested in the academy at Staunton. Mr. Hindman was minister for about three years. Nothing is known of his ministry or of his death.
"On the 6th of August, 1750, the vestry met and empowered its wardens -James Lochart and John Madison-to employ any minister they might think fit to serve them in the Lord. And on the 16th of October, 1752, the following letter was presented to the vestry from Governor Dinwiddie :---
" 'GENTLEMEN :- The Rev. John Jones has been recommended to me by many of good repute and undoubted credit as a worthy and learned divine. As such I recommend him to you, gentlemen, to be your pastor,- not doubting but his conduct will be such as will entitle him to your favour by promoting peace and cultivating morality in the parish. Your re- ceiving him to be your pastor will be very agreeable to
"'Your very humble servant,
" 'ROBERT DINWIDDIE.'
"Just one month after the reading of this letter, Mr. Jones was unani- mously received into the parish and assigned a salary of fifty pounds per annum for his services and twenty pounds per annum for board, until the glebe-buildings were improved and put in order for his occupancy.
" Between 1756 and 1759, John Matthews, Samson Archer, Robert Breckenridge, and Israel Christian, were added to the vestry.
"On the 20th of May, 1760, it was unanimously resolved to erect a
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church-building in the town of Staunton, forty feet by twenty-five. It stood partly on the spot now occupied by the new church, just completed, the foundation of its southern wall being covered by the northern wall of the present building.
" Either the infirmities of age, or enfeebled health, had so worn upon the constitution of Mr. Jones as to render him unequal to the duties of his office. He therefore called a meeting of the vestry and advised the employment of a curate, and offered to relinquish one-half of his salary (which by this time had been increased to two hundred pounds) toward his support. In obedience to his wishes, the vestry procured the services of the Rev. Adam Smith, who entered upon his duties as curate in the spring of 1772. Of Mr. Smith's character and usefulness as a preacher, or in what way his connection with the parish was severed, we have no information. He did not, however, remain longer than one year. On the 9th of November, 1773, the Rev. Alexander Balmaine was unanimously chosen to fill his place. From this time onward, we hear no more of Mr. Jones. Though the history which remains of his labours as a preacher and pastor is exceedingly meagre and unsatisfactory,-confined almost entirely to his meetings with the vestry and to the records which he kept as its clerk,-we cannot but revere his memory as a devout and faithful minister of God. The only substantial and valuable relic of him which remains to us is the old worn and defaced Bible which is constantly used in our pulpit.
"How long, precisely, Mr. Balmaine remained in the parish, we are not informed. The time was drawing near which tried men's souls. The spirit of '76 began to swell and agitate the American breast. Of this spirit Mr. Balmaine seems to have partaken in no small degree. The following proceedings of a meeting of the freeholders of Augusta county, held at Staunton on the 22d of February, 1775, will throw no little light on his character as a patriot :-
" 'After due notice given to the freeholders of Augusta county to meet in Staunton, for the purpose of electing delegates to represent them in Colony Convention, at the town of Richmond, on the 20th day of March, the freeholders of said county thought proper to refer the choice of their delegates to the judgment of the committee, who, thus authorized by the general voice of the people, met at the court-house, on the 22d of February, and unanimously chose Mr. Thomas Lewis and Captain Samuel McDowell to represent them in the ensuing Convention.
" 'Instructions were then ordered to be drawn up by the Rev. Alex- ander Balmaine, Mr. Samson Matthews, Captain Alexander McClanahan, Mr. Michael Bowyer, Mr. William Lewis, and Captain George Matthews, or any three of them, and delivered to the delegates thus chosen, which are as follows :-
" ' To Mr. Thomas Lewis and Captain Samuel McDowell. The com- mittee of Augusta county, pursuant to the trust reposed in them by the freeholders of the same, have chosen you to represent them in Colony Convention, proposed to be held in Richmond on the 2d of March instant. They desire that you may consider the people of Augusta county as im- pressed with just sentiments of loyalty and allegiance to his Majesty King George, whose title to the imperial crown of Great Britain rests on no other foundation than the liberty, and whose glory is inseparable from the hap- piness, of all his subjects. We have also respect for the parent State. which respect is founded on religion, on law, and on the genuine principles
.
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of the Constitution. On these principles do we earnestly desire to see harmony and a good understanding restored between Great Britain and America.
" ' Many of us and our forefathers left our native land and explored this once-savage wilderness to enjoy the free exercise of the rights of conscience and of human nature. These rights we are fully resolved, with our lives and fortunes, inviolably to preserve; nor will we surrender such inestimable blessings, the purchase of toil and danger, to any Ministry, to any Parlia- ment, or any body of men upon earth, by whom we are not represented, and in whose decisions, therefore, we have no voice.
""'We desire you to tender, in the most respectful terms, our grateful acknowledgments to the late worthy delegates of this Colony for their wise, spirited, and patriotic exertions in the General Congress, and to assure them that we will uniformly and religiously adhere to their resolutions providently and graciously formed for their country's good.
" 'Fully convinced that the safety and happiness of America depend, next to the blessing of Almighty God, on the unanimity and wisdom of her country, we doubt not you will on your parts comply with the recommen- dations of the late Continental Congress, by appointing delegates from this Colony to meet in Philadelphia on the 10th of May next, unless American grievances be redressed before that time. And so we are determined to maintain unimpaired that liberty which is the gift of Heaven to the sub- jects of Britain's empire, and will most cordially join our countrymen in such measures as may be deemed wise and necessary to secure and per- petuate the ancient, just, and legal rights of this Colony and all British America.
"'Placing our ultimate trust in the Supreme Disposer of every event, without whose gracious interposition the wisest schemes may fail of success, we desire you to move the Convention that some day, which may appear to them most convenient, be set apart for imploring the blessing of Almighty God on such plans as human wisdom and integrity may think necessary to adopt for preserving America happy, virtuous, and free.'
"In obedience to these instructions, the following letter was addressed :-
"'To the Hon. Peyton Randolph, Esq., President, Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, and Edmund Randolph, Esqrs., Delegates from this Colony to the General Congress.
"'GENTLEMEN :- We have it in command from the freeholders of Au- gusta county, by their committee, held on the 22d February, to present you with the grateful acknowledgments of thanks for the prudent, virtuous, and noble exertions of the faculties with which Heaven has endowed you in the cause of liberty and of every thing that man ought to hold sacred, at the late General Congress,-a conduct so nobly interesting that it must command the applause not only from this but succeeding ages. May that sacred flame that has illuminated your minds and influenced your conduct in projecting and concurring in so many salutary determinations for the preservation of American liberty ever continue to direct your conduct to the latest period of your lives! May the bright example be fairly tran- scribed on the hearts and reduced into practice by every Virginian, by every American ! May our hearts be open to receive, and our arms strong to defend, that liberty and freedom, the gift of Heaven, now being banished from its latest retreat in Europe! Here let it be hospitably entertained in
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every breast, here let it take deep root and flourish in everlasting bloom, that under its benign influence the virtuously free may enjoy secure repose and stand forth the scourge and terror of tyranny and tyrants of every order and denomination, till time shall be no more.
" ' Be pleased, gentlemen, to accept of their grateful sense of your im- portant services and of their ardent prayers for the best interests of this once happy country. And vouchsafe, gentlemen, to accept of the same from your most humble servants,
THOMAS LEWIS, SAMUEL MCDOWELL,
Delegates.'
" 'To Thomas Lewis and Samuel McDowell, Esqrs. :-
""'GENTLEMEN :- Be pleased to transmit to the respectable freeholders of Augusta county our sincere thanks for their affectionate address approving our conduct in the late Continental Congress. It gives us the greatest pleasure to find that our honest endeavours to serve our country on this arduous and important occasion have met their approbation,-a reward fully adequate to our warmest wishes; and the assurances from the brave and spirited people of Augusta that their hearts and hands shall be devoted to the support of the measures adopted, or hereafter to be taken, by the Con- gress for the preservation of American liberty, give us the highest satis- faction, and must afford pleasure to every friend of the just rights of man- kind. We cannot conclude without acknowledgments to you, gentlemen, for the polite manner in which you have communicated to us the senti- ments of your worthy constituents, and are their and your obedient, humble servants,
PEYTON RANDOLPH, PATRICK HENRY, RICHARD HENRY LEE, RICHARD BLAND, GEORGE WASHINGTON BENJAMIN HARRISON, EDMUND PENDLETON.'
"The letter of instruction which called forth this correspondence be- tween the delegates from Augusta and these distinguished statesmen and patriots is drawn up in a style so free and easy that we cannot doubt it was written by one accustomed to the pen of composition. It breathes so much of the spirit of true piety, and of humble dependence on the God of na- tions, that we cannot doubt it was the production of a pious man and a minister of God. This man must have been Mr. Balmaine. In this we are still further sustained by the fact that Mr. Balmaine was the chairman of the committee appointed to draw it up, and that, while the other mem- bers were prominent and influential men in the county, they were yet plain farmers and by no means accustomed to that diplomatic style which cha- racterizes the letter.
" March 20, 1775, just one month after these letters were drawn up, the Convention met in the Old Church in Richmond. There it will be seen, by reference to Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry, pp. 132-136, that all the objects desired to be attained by them were adopted, and there the great speech of Patrick Henry, which scemed to set in motion the great ball of the Revolution, was made.
" From this time Mr. Balmaine laid aside his peaceful vestments as a minister of God, and went into the army as chaplain in defence of his country."
VOL. II .- 21
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The foregoing documents, it is believed, have never been pub- lished in any history or newspaper, and are therefore, as well as on account of their intrinsic merits, here inserted. Nor are they in- consistent with the character of these notices, since a minister and laymen of the Episcopal Church are so prominent in them.
" From the commencement of the Revolution onward, until the year 1781, the doors of the venerable old church in Staunton remained closed. We have no information that its solemn silence was ever broken by the voice of any public speaker. In that year, however, a portion of the British army, under the command of Tarleton, drove the Legislature from ยท its place of meeting in Richmond, first to Charlottesville, and thence to this place. And here they held their counsels in the old church, and here the proposition was made to create a "dictator." Here they remained in session undisturbed for about sixteen days, and adjourned to meet in Rich- mond in October following.
"About the year 1788 the rectorship of the old church was in the hands of a Mr. Chambers. Who he was, or how long he remained in the parish, we are nowhere informed. Tradition says that, after a short residence in this place, he removed to Kentucky.
" Years rolled on, in which a long interval occurred in the rectorship of the parish. At length the few friends who had been left from the deso- lations of the Revolution, and from the withering odium which had fallen on the Church because of its connection with the British Crown, began to lift up their heads and to look round with a cautious and timid eye for some one to minister to them in holy things. At length a good old man, moving in the humbler spheres of life, remarkable for nothing but his con- sistent and inoffensive piety, presented himself as willing to serve them in the capacity of God's minister. He had long been a member of the Methodist Church, and had there imbibed that spirit of feeling and ardent religion which seemed so peculiarly to characterize that body of Christians in those dreary days of our Church. Notwithstanding Mr. King's (for that was his name) roughness of manners, his meagre education, his simplicity of intellect, and his humble profession as a steam-doctor, he was taken in hand by a few friends of the Church, and pushed forward in his laudable efforts. He was sent off, with letters of commendation from Judge Archi- bald Stuart and the Hon. John H. Peyton, to Bishop Madison, who or- dained him Deacon and sent him back to read the services and sermons to the little desolate flock in Staunton. His ministry began in the year 1811 and closed with his death in 1819. That was a long and cheerless day for the Church here. No evidence can be found that she then had a single communicant besides the simple-hearted old Deacon to kneel at her altar. So unpopular was her cause that none but those whose principles were as true and unbending as steel would venture openly to avow themselves her friends. An eye-witness of the scene told me that on the occasion of the first service after Mr. King's return from Williamsburg, the small congre- gation, the feeble and disjointed response, the dampening dreariness of the church, with its old high-back pews, and the long, singsong, drawling tones in which the new deacon attempted to read the service and one of Blair's Sermons, presented a solemn ludicrousness he never before or since witnessed. The congregation, numbering not a dozen, left the church dis- spirited and ashamed, almost resolved never to repeat the experiment. Mr.
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King died here, esteemed by all who knew him for his humble zeal and simple-hearted piety.
" On the Ist of January, 1820, the Rev. Daniel Stephens, D.D., visited the parish, and remained until the following Easter. On Easter Monday, the congregation assembled, and elected Vincent Tapp, Chapman John- son, John H. Peyton, Briscoe G. Baldwin, Dabney Cosby, William Young, Erasmus Stribling, Levi L. Stevenson, Jacob Fackler, Alexander McCaus- land, Armstead M. Mosby, and Nicholas C. Kinney. This vestry imme- diately assembled, and passed resolutions highly commendatory of the preaching and living of Dr. Stephens, unanimously electing him as their rector. These were the props and the pillars of the Church in its darkest and most trying day. Dr. Stephens laboured and preached with a zeal and devotion which secured for him the confidence and love of the great mass of his congregation. Under his ministry, the Church was somewhat revived, and the hearts of its friends cheered. At a Convention held in Staunton in May, 1824, the number of communicants reported was fifteen.
"In 1827, Dr. Stephens removed to the Far West, where he died but a few years since. His ministry was followed in 1831 by the Rev. Ebenezer Boyden. In the early part of Mr. Boyden's ministry, the vene- rable old church was torn down, and a new one erected near its site. The latter was ready for use on the 23d of July, 1831. Mr. Boyden continued in the parish, with high credit and universal acceptability to his congre- gation, until January, 1833, when he resigned for another field in the West.
"Next came the Rev. Wm. G. Jackson, who preached with success and acceptability in the parish for several years. He was succeeded by the Rev. Frederick D. Goodwin, who continued until 1843, and removed to Nelson county, leaving sixty-two communicants."
The present rector entered on his duties in August, 1843. For some years past, the desirableness of a new church had been felt, and various plans proposed and efforts made in its behalf, the minister being very anxious for it.
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