USA > Virginia > The planting of the Presbyterian Church in Northern Virginia : prior to the organization of Winchester Presbytery, December 4, 1794 > Part 11
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however, of a connected narrative, we will repeat here, in condensed form, the historical statements already given in our sketch of the OpecquonChurch.
Just when Presbyterian service began to be held here is not known, but probably as early as the time of the incorporation of the town, as many of the first settlers were people of our religious faith and order. From a date earlier than 1736 the members of Donegal Presbytery made mission- ary journeys into this Valley, and after that "supplications" continued to go up from this region, both to Synod and Presbytery for ministerial sup- plies, and many of the supplies that were sent found it convenient to stop in Winchester and hold service.
Rev. Samuel Gelston was sent in 1736 at the special request of the people of "both parts of Opekin;" and he was the first Presbyterian minister to visit and preach in this region by appointment of Donegal Pres- bytery. He was followed the next year by Rev. James Anderson, who in 1738 or 9 organized the Opecquon church. The church at once called Rev. John Thomson, but Rev. John Craig was sent them instead, who remained part of the year 1739. The next two years the Rev. Samuel Caven supplied the church a large part of the time, during which a Mr. Lynn was called, but was not settled. Then followed in succession Rev. Messrs. McDowell, John Robinson, John Hindman, John Blair, Eliab Byram and William Dean. Then the Synod of New York was formed in consequence of the unhappy schism in the church; and as the people in this region were more in sympathy with the "New Side" they were the supplies sent by the new Synod of New York that principally visited this church until the schism was healed. Besides the visit of Dr. Blair,it en- joyed the frequent, but brief, services of such distinguished men as the Rev. John Roan, Samuel Finley, Samuel Blair and the two Tennents, Gil- bert and William. Meanwhile the Old Side Synod of Philadelphia and the Presbytery of Donegal continued to send their ministers, but as their services were not desired their visits became less frequent.
From the time the Opecquon church was organized, efforts had been made to obtain a pastor, but without success. In 1754 Licentiate John Hoge, the cousin of Rev. Moses Hoge, D. D., was called, and the next year was ordained and installed. He retained his pastoral relation until April, 1772, when he was released. The vacancy thus created continued until 1781, but during that period the church was supplied at intervals by Rev. Messrs. Vance, McKnight, Balch, Slemons, Thompson, Craighead and Linn, appointed by Donegal Presbytery. In October, 1776, a call was given to Rev. Mr. Slemons, but his services were not secured.
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It was this year (1776) that Mr. Fithian visited the churches in this Valley. He stopped in Winchester on his way to Opecquon and gives us a glimpse of the town at that time. He writes :
"Monday, May 22. Winchester, the county town of Frederick. A smart village nearly half a mile in length, and several streets, broad and pretty full. The situation is low and disagreeable. There is on a pleas- ant hill northeast from the town, at a small distance, a large stone Dutch Lutheran church, with a tall steeple. In the town is an English church. North of the town are the ruins of an old fort, wasted and crumbled down by time. The land is good, the country is pleasant, the houses in general large."
A fortnight later he made a longer visit in Winchester, of which he writes :
"Tuesday, June 6, 1776. After dinner with Captain Holmes and Captain Hunter, I rode to Winchester. The Court was sitting. Mars, the great God of Battle, is now honored in every part of this spacious colony, but here every presence is warlike-every sound is martial-drums beat- ing, pipes and bagpipes playing and only sonorous and venic [sic] music. Every man has a hunting shirt, which is the uniform of each company. Almost all have a cockade and bucktail in their hats to represent that they are hardy, resolute and invincible natives of the woods of America. The County Committee sat. Among other resolves they passed this resolute and trying determination: 'That every member of this county between sixteen and sixty years of age, shall appear every month at least, in the field under arms, and it is recommended to all to muster weekly for their improvement.' June 8 x x x x Today, for the first time, I went through the 'new exercise,' gave the word and performed the action. One shipe of this town was backward this morning in his attendance with the company of Independents. A file was sent to bring him. He made resistance, but was compelled at length, and is now in great fear and very humble since he heard many of his towsmen talk of tar and feathers."
The name of Winchester in connection with Presbyterianism first ap- pears in existing records in October, 1779. The Rev. John McKnight is appointed to supply here. Two years later (1781) it had become large enough and important enough to be named with Opecquon and Cedar Creek in the call extended to Rev. John Montgomery of Hanover Presbytery. From this the inference is fair, that, for some time previous to that date, wor- ship was statedly held in the town. But it is certain that from this time until a separate organization was secured, Winchester is always asso-
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ciated with the two above-named churches as a place of prominent import- ance in the combined pastoral charge.
Mr. Montgomery remained the pastor of this charge until 1789. He was a man of attractive character and an instructive preacher, and by reason of his faithful service the cause of Presbyterianism, both in town and county, made satisfactory progress. In the town especially its growth was very considerable. It was during his ministry here that Lexington Presbytery was erected, and the churches around Winchester, and includ- ing Winchester, were turned over to it from Donegal. The Synod of Vir- ginia also, and the General Assembly were organized while Mr. Montgomery was pastor here.
The Rev. Nash Legrand was next called and began his ministry here in 1790. Up to this time, Winchester had been merely an appendage of Opecquon, but its growth in numbers had now given it an importance de- manding more recognition than it had hitherto received. Services were held in town more frequently than formerly and sometimes they were ar- ranged for independently of the parent church. Under the successful min- istry of Mr. Montgomery the congregation had so increased that a more commodious place of gathering became a necessity, and before his ministry closed arrangements were made for the erection of a house of worship that would meet the growing requirements of the town. The old stone church, still standing in good repair, at the eastern end of Piccadilly street, is the house that was then built. Though not entirely completed it was ready for use in 1790, and the Synod of Virginia met in it in the fall of that year.
That old church, though no longer used for Presbyterian worship is a building of unusual historic interest. Besides the distinguished men who, as pastors, have occupied its pulpit-Legrand, Hill and Riddle-nearly all the famous Presbyterian ministers of our country from 1790 to 1834 have preached within its walls. It was honored by a meeting of the Gen- eral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1799-the only place out of Philadelphia (with a single other exception) in which for a period of almost fifty years that venerable court had ever met. The Synod of Virginia has met in it eleven times-more frequently than in any other church whatever. In it, October, 1791, during a session of the Synod, the Rev. Archibald Alexander, D. D., was licensed to preach the Gospel. In it also the Presbytery of Winchester was organized in 1794.
To this statement it may be of interest to add, that in the year 1834 (October 13) the old church, with ten feet of ground at each end and fif- teen feet in the rear, was sold for the use of the Baptist church for 500
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years. In 1858 they sold it to the colored Baptist church, and it is now leased by the School Board of Winchester for the use of the Colored Pub- lic School. During the war between the States it was completely disman- tled and used as a stable for the Federal troops.
The first pastor to occupy the pulpit of the new church was Mr. Le- grand. But the popularity that always attended his ministry in the coun- try portion of his charge was not so fully accorded him in the town. He had not been very long settled in his pastorate before differences and then dissensions began between him and some of his members here. These were due in part, though not altogether, to his extreme views touching re- vivals-a matter much discussed in the church at that time. He was a pronounced revivalist. His preaching was mostly confined to a limited range of topics, and he freely used the "new measures" then commonly employed to promote revivals. Some of his best members in Winchester who had but recently arrived from the old country, where they had been accustomed to a different style of preaching, and where revival measures, as conducted here, if known at all, were disapproved, looked with suspi- cion upon his methods and grew weary of his constant and passionate ap- peals to their feelings. Unfortunately, Mr. Legrand had no tact for deal- ing with those who had taken offence. The alienation which had begun increased until there was an open rupture. He asked Lexington Presby- tery to release him from his pastoral charge, but at the organization of the Presbytery of Winchester he was persuaded to withdraw that request. Gradually he curtailed the number of his appointments, and about the year 1797 or 8 he withdrew his services altogether from Winchester.
As early as 1791, before any breach had occurred, the people in Win- chester, with a view to more frequent service than the pastor of Opecquon and-Cedar Creek was able to give them, had opened negotiations with Cool Spring church (Gerrardstown) to unite in securing a minister who would give his entire time to these two places. Cool Spring had even gone so far as to petition Carlisle to allow that church to be transferred to Lexington that this scheme might be more easily carried out. But for some reason unknown to us, the plan failed of accomplishment. Later the people here, acting independently, but apparently with the approval of Presbytery, extended calls to several ministers, neither of whom could be secured until in 1800 the opposing factions came together and made out a unanimous call for Rev. William Hill, of Charlestown, who promptly ac- cepted, and the same year was settled in the charge which he retained for thirty-four years. The church in Winchester was organized September 7, 1800, though it was counted as one of the churches of Winchester Presby- tery when that Presbytery was organized six years before.
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XX. LEESBURG.
This church comes first into notice under another name, and that a name not at all suggestive of Presbyterianism, viz: "The Parish of Came- ron." The county of Loudoun was laid off in 1757, and Leesburg, the county seat, was established by law one year later. But the "English Church," as the Protestant Episcopal was then generally called, had di- vided the county into "parishes," and the county seat was embraced in the Parish of Cameron ; and it was by that name that it was commonly called. This parish, with that of Shelbourne, in the southwest angle of the county, contained some Presbyterian families who desired to enjoy again their own form of worship. These two parishes, therefore, either by a joint petition or by independent requests that happened to go up to the same meeting, supplicated the Presbytery of Donegal for supplies. That the same supply was appointed for both fields may be taken as evi- dence that a joint petition was sent. The minute recording the action of
these people is, for October, 1780. "Supplications for supplies from the Parish of Shelburn in Virginia, and from the Parish of Cameron in Loudoun County were presented." In answer to their petition, Licentiate Samuel Waugh was appointed to supply them until the next spring. Subsequent to this action we find this minute, the exact date of which is in doubt, viz: "The Parish of Cameron in Loudoun County sends an application rep- resenting their sad destitution and stating that they had made choice of Mr. Waugh, a Licentiate of this Presbytery, to be their minister, and pray- ing the Presbytery's concurrence," etc. Whereupon "Presbytery appointed Mr. Waugh to supply them until its next meeting, and appointed parts of trial for his ordination at that time." Unfortunately, their expectations respecting Mr. Waugh were disappointed. He accepted a call to two churches in Pennsylvania, in the service of which his whole ministry was spent. He was a man of sterling character, a careful student, and accept- able preacher and faithful pastor.
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In the next minute touching this field, the name of Leesburg appears for the first and only time. When the Rev. David Bard was dismissed from the charge of the Kittocktin and Gum Spring churches, June, 1782, he " was ordered by the committee that had released him, to supply Lees- burg until the next meeting of Presbytery." As that town was his native place, it is quite probable that Mr. Bard complied with this order, and that Leesburg had his services until the next October.
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This, so far as we know with certainty, was the beginning of Presby- terian worship in that important town. And yet, if it is admissable to go outside the Records, it seems not unlikely that Rev. Amos Thompson, and his successors at Kittocktin, had held frequent services in Leesburg before Donegal had been asked for supplies. Their readiness to call Mr. Waugh so soon after their first petition was sent, is strong proof that they must already have had some kind of an organization, and that they considered themselves strong enough to sustain a minister. Of its history for the next twenty years very little is known. The tradition is-and perhaps it is a matter of record-that the Leesburg church was organized by the Rev. James Hall, D.D., of North Carolina, in or about 1804, when he was on one of his numerous journeys from near Charlotte, N. C., to the General Assembly at Philadelphia. During thirty years he attended the Assembly as a commissioner sixteen times, though the distance and hardships of travel were so great. He made the journey in his gig, and that vehicle became quite familiar to the people living along his route, which, in Virginia, lay through the counties of Culpeper, Fauquier, and Loudoun. Whenever it was possible to do so, he preached, and frequently at Leesburg. And the tradition is, that on one of these famous journeys he stopped in that town long enough to hold a protracted meeting and organize the Presbyterians into a church.
Leesburg was not assigned to the' Presbytery of Winchester at the time of its organization. None of the congregations in the Northern Neck east of the Blue Ridge were. This was done two or three years later, when the Presbytery began to send supplies to the vacancies over there. Lees- burg does not appear in the minutes as a place to be supplied, or other- wise, for six or seven years, though as afterward appears, it was claimed · by the Presbytery as one of the churches over which its supervision was extended. Rev. John Mines was its first regular pastor.
XXI. GERRARDSTOWN.
The first reference we find to this important church is in the minutes of Donegal for April, 1783, and then it comes to our notice under a name almost unknown to this generation-"Cool Spring." This spring is four or five miles south of Gerrardstown on what is known as the "Runny-
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meade Farm," which has been owned for fifty years or more by Mr. Wilson Coe. It was there that the Gerrardstown church was founded. The date at which Presbyterian worship began there cannot now be ascer- tained, nor do we know by whom this worship was first conducted. It is pretty evident, however, that service must have been held at this place, and with some regularity, a considerable time before the congregation first comes to our notice, for it first comes to us as an established congregation, asking that a certain minister be appointed to supply it, with a view to his being called as the pastor, and that minister one of the most eminent of that day, the Rev. John McKnight, who had just been released from Elk Branch. This request was a joint one from Cool Spring and Bullskin, and indicates that these new people, of whom we have heard nothing before, had no little confidence in their strength and their ability to do their share in sustaining the ordinances of the Gospel.
The next reference to Cool Spring is in April, 1791, when it overtures the Presbytery of Carlisle to consent to its transfer to the Presbytery of Lexington in order that it may join with Winchester (already in Lexington Presbytery) in securing a minister who would give his whole time to those two places as a new and separate pastoral charge. We are not told what answer Carlisle returned to this overture, though the probability is that it was granted. The General Assembly the next year (1792) made the Po- tomac River the dividing line between the Synods of Philadelphia and Vir- ginia, thus throwing all the churches south of the Potomac into the Synod of Virginia, except the church of Alexandria, whose Synodical relations were left unchanged. But while the desire of Cool Spring for a change of its Presbyterial relations was secured, its proposed joint action with Win- chester in the effort to obtain a pastor was not accomplished.
As we have not access to the Records of Lexington, under whose jurisdiction this congregation had passed, we have no further official ref- erence to it until the organization of Winchester Presbytery. Yet there is an interesting fact in its history, for the knowledge of which we are in- debted to Dr. Foote. This church, which from the first had such vigor, and which, as we have seen, manifested such zeal to secure a pastor, seemed at length to have had their hopes crowned with success. They had arranged in 1793 for the settlement of a most promising young minister, Rev. Thomas Poage, a licentiate of Lexington, the youngest son of Mr. John Poage, of Augusta County, and a brother-in-law of Rev. Moses Hoge. He had just been married and was about to remove to Gerrardstown to be- gin his pastoral work, when, on the first of October, 1793, he was suddenly
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stricken down by death. To add to the pathos of his early removal under circumstances so affecting, his aged mother, long an invalid, sank under the shock, and in a few weeks followed her son to the grave. It was six years later before a pastor was actually settled at Gerrardstown. In 1799 the Rev. Joseph Glass, just licensed by Winchester Presbytery, was called, and labored acceptably among these people for many years.
The removal of the church from Cool Spring to the growing village of Gerrardstown occurred about the time of Mr. Poage's lamented death. But while, by reason of the removal, its name was changed, it still was not called Gerrardstown, but "Middletown," and by this name it was en- rolled as one of the original churches of Winchester Presbytery. Just when it was regularly organized as a church cannot be stated with certainty, but it is thought to have been before the removal took place. Its first Ruling Elders were Messrs. William Wilson, Matthew Rippey and Samuel Mc- Kown.
As soon as the removal was decided upon, measures were taken for a suitable House of Worship; and the large brick building, lately replaced by the present handsome church, was begun. It was not completed, how- ever, for many years after; but as soon as the walls were run up, and the roof on, and the doors and windows in, and before the floors were laid, a temporary pulpit was arranged, and they began to use it as a place of wor- ship-the congregation, as one of those early worshippers related the facts to me, sitting on the sills and sleepers with their feet resting on the ground, and, even in the coldest weather, without fire.
XXII. CHARLESTOWN.
Charlestown gets its name from Col. Charles Washington, who owned the land on which it was laid out. He was the brother of Gen. George Washington. The town is older than the county, of which it is the county seat. It was established in 1786, and one year after we meet the name for the first time in Ecclesiastical Records. A supplication for ministerial supplies was sent up from this place to Carlisle Presbytery in 1787. This was probably the first direct effort made by the people in that town to ob- tain regular Presbyterian worship for themselves. Those of our faith and
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order who resided in or near the place -and they had now become quite numerous-had been accustomed to attend worship either at Bullskin or Elk Branch, the two places being about equally distant.
But the movement of this people toward independent and permanent worship did not stop, indeed, it did not begin, with their request for a preacher; they had already made arrangements to secure a place for preach- ing. In the same year in which their petition went up to Presbytery they purchased from Charles Washington, for "£20 current money of Virginia," a piece of land, in the South-western part of Charlestown, on which to build a Presbyterian church. The deed for this property was signed and de- livered February 17, 1787, and was "ordered to be recorded at a court held for Berkeley County the 18th day of April, 1787." The original deed laid in the office of the clerk of that county for almost one hundred years. In 1885 it was discovered among the papers in that office and is now in the keeping of the Board of Trustees of the Charlestown church. The deed was made "to David Kennedy, John White, Peter Burr and Jacob Conchlin (farmers)," "at the suit, and for the use of the Charlestown con- gregation of Presbyterians." On the lot thus purchased a small stone build- ing was erected, which, in the early part of the nineteenth century, was re- placed by a more commodious structure, also built of stone. When the present large and handsome church was built in 1852 the old church was sold to the late Maj. W. J. Hawkes, who had it taken down, stone by stone, and re-erected on another site, in exactly its original form, and was used, until very recently, as a carriage factory.
It was with this proposed equipment for religious work and worship that the little band of Presbyterians in Charlestown made their first appli- cation to Presbytery for recognition. What arrangement was made for their supply, now that they felt themselves important enough to be- come a distinct congregation, we do not know. The minutes are silent as to any response from Presbytery. But that they received supplies with a good deal of regularity, and that they soon had some kind of an organiza- tion among themselves, seem clear from the fact that only four years later (in 1791) Charlestown was an important member of that group of congre- gations which applied for and secured the services of William Hill, a licentiate of Hanover Presbytery, then working under direction of the "Commission of Synod." This group was composed of Bullskin, Charlestown and Hopewell. Altogether the membership was not large, but the field offer- ed many attractions to such an active and enterprising preacher as young Hill. His labors for the "Commission" had made him widely known in
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all parts of the State, and numerous calls from important fields were urged upon his acceptance, and the fact that, from among them all, he selected this one from the Lower Valley, is proof of the estimate he placed upon the prospect for substantial growth which that field presented.
This call introduces in our history one of the most distinguished names to be found on our Presbyterial roll.
William Hill was of English ancestry, the son of Joseph Hill, of Cum- berland County, Va., and was born in that county March 3, 1769. Pre- pared for college by Drury Lacy, he was graduated in 1788 from Hamp- den-Sidney, then under the presidency of John Blair Smith. He made a public profession of religion while a student in college and his mind was at once turned to the ministry, his studies for which were pursued under the direction of President Smith. After his licensure by Hanover Presbytery, July 10, 1790, he entered upon missionary work under the Commission of the Synod of Virginia. During the two years nearly that he continued in this work he visited pretty much all the missionary fields in the State,from the Chesapeake Bay to the crest of the Alleghanies. A part of this time was spent in the counties in the lower end of this Valley, where he made the acquaintance of the people among whom the great work of his long and laborious life was performed. He was settled in Charlestown in 1792, and in October of that year was married to Nancy, daughter of Colonel William Morton, of Charlotte County, Va., with whom he lived in tender- est affection for almost sixty years. Her death, which occurred in May, 1851, preceded his own by only eighteen months.
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